Don Corleone v. Don Trump coming Nov. 2012, don't miss it.

I "love" how these CIA guys are always basing their strategies on some ultra-bizarre "insight" they've gained from... I don't know where. Oh Bedouins lose face if someone destroys their house (wha? this is a nomadic culture, right?) or Oh Castro he'll smoke this exploding cigar.... or hey let's torture this 14-yr-old boy for "vital" intelligence...

My favorite movie is The Godfather...probably for different reasons though. The movie that's most referred to on the internet? I can't say for sure, but my guess is it ain't The Wizard of Oz.

That's nothing compared to the damage to Qaddafi's prestige NATO just inflicted by bombing a disabled children's school.

Violence begets more violence.

We have a choice between tweedle dee and tweedle dum - a Democratic party of, by and for wealth and a Republican party of, by and for the wealth.

The Wealth don't care whom we select - they get their man.

A NATO spokesman has assured me that they only hit military targets. I believe the school of which Mr. Caruso alludes to translates in English to Berzerker Warrior Training. The Arab is a mastermind in the ways of espionage and disguise.

Nah, "Qaddafi is using Down's kids and orphans as human shields." There. That narrative fits better for a crazy, evil dictator.

This is how NATO needs to justify that it still exists after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have thought for some time now that governments really are just the biggest gang on the block and this just reinforces that perception.

I have about 5 best movies of all time and about 5 favorite movies. The Godfather appears on both lists.

I guess killing folks is just what we do and if you think you are not part of that "we", then somebody in the White House probably wants you dead.

And to Rob Payne, whose blog Halcyon Days is excellent, please read War Making and State Making as Organized Crime by the great social historian Charles Tilly. It is available on the web with a search of the title.

Din't impeach Deadeye or his pet goat, Codpiece and Congress cheered when Baghdad was lit up like Baghdad. To expect the next WH resident to refuse that kind of power is magical thinking. Let's face facts, WE NEVER rose above gunfighter law and lynch mob mentality.

Drip,

Thanks, you are way too kind. I'll check out your suggested reading.

My favorite movie is Groundhog Day (Atrapada en el tiempo).

My guess re the most often mentioned movie on the web: Star Wars.

Groundhog Day is on my long list of" this is my absolutely only favorite, I'm not kidding either, movie". But, sadly, it is not on my even longer list of "this is surely the greatest movie ever made" at all. Star Wars is on neither.

Drip,

I read the essay you mentioned and it sure makes sense to me, thanks much, a great read. Government as a protection racket, it's really true.

The terrible brilliance of Groundhog Day is that it was hard not to envy him. Does that come from knowing the ending? Discuss.

Somebody said
BIN LADEN'S DEAD.

9/11 First Responder goes off message on CNN

On CNN tonight, just before Midnight ET, Wolf Blitzer was interviewing a 9/11 First Responder Kenneth Specht about reactions to reports of Bin Laben's death.

Specht: "We're in a quagmire, for lack of a better term, in Afghanistan. I hope to God that tonight is one large step to maybe wrapping up operations in Afghanistan..."

Blitzer: "Ok, I'm going to interrupt, because I think I've lost contact with you. But I want you to stand by Kenny, if you can... stand by for a moment."

Wolf never went back to Kenny...

Sam: On the question of where these guys get their shit from, read Orientalism by Edward Said.

Stalin loved "Snow White". This kind of so-and-so likes whatever movie bullshit is really old.

Snow White is good, but of that era and genre, I prefer Pinocchio. Bambi's loss of his mother had a traumatic effect on my spouse, missus charley, who saw it when she was very young, and so we never watch that one.

@mistah charley --

"Bambi" invariably comes out on the top of any list of movies most likely to scare small children -- because it is utterly terrifying to little kids to even imagine what happen's to Bambi's parents.

So, speaking of Godfather, I guess Obambi's (sorry, couldn't resist) appearance at the WH Correspondents' dinner on Saturday night was the equivalent of Michael's appearance at the christening while the main players of the rest of the families were being executed by the rest of the Corleone family.

PRIEST: Do you renounce Satan?
MICHAEL: I do renounce him.
PRIEST: And all his works?
MICHAEL: I do renounce them.