SO THE MAN THAT LARRY BIRD once compared to God, after two resurrections, retired tonight. The greatest player to ever play the game of basketball, who averaged 30.2 points a game, who won six championships, who never gave up. The man with “The Shot” against Ehlo in 1989, the free-throw dunk, the 69-point game against the Cavs, the raw intimidation. A 1997 Nike Commercial about MJ sums him up best, though:”I’ve missed 9000 shots, I’ve lost over 300 games, I’ve been trusted with the game-winning shot 26 times and missed. I have failed over and over again, and that is why I have succeeded.”

There’s no one in sports like Mike. No one in culture even - everybody wants to Be Like Mike. He’s Ali without the arrogance, he’s the meta-Babe Ruth in an age of Babe Ruth’s. He comes along only every century. He resurrected basketball and Chicago. He made basketball the next global sport, the sport that is capable of challenging soccer’s global grip. Thanks, Mike.

So Saddam (the ol’ Ace of Spades - collect ‘em all) turns out not to be the biggest web celebrity of the Ex-Regime. Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Information Minister, is now an internet icon. As the Americans walked around Baghdad, he told reporters there were no Americans within 100 miles. As Americans captured the airport in Baghdad, he said that the infidels had walked into a trap and that they deserve nothing more than bullets and shoes to be thrown at them. Some choice al-Sahaf quotes:

• “Our initial assessment is that they will all die.”
• “Britain is not worth an old shoe.”
• “I speak better than this villain Bush!”
• “The Americans are lost in the desert. They cannot read a compass. They are retarded.”
• “Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender.”
• “Yes, the American troops have advanced further. This will only make it easier for us to slaughter them.”
• “They are nowhere…(pause) they are nowhere, really.”

Even ESPN gets into the act with “Saddam’s Info Minister as a Yankees announcer.”

Last Iraq Comment: CNN admitted that they had to bury Iraq stories because the Iraqis over the last 11 years would’ve killed CNN’s local staff if they said anything. Among the buried stories were one of a friend of the staff having her Dad mailed home in a body bag, in pieces. But CNN couldn’t report it. Now, I understand why CNN did what they did, and I can see how it might be justified, but the question remains: How can we trust intl. media reports coming out of tyrannically-run nations? Do we have to take news reports from, say, Cuba, with a grain of salt?

Tom Thumb is one scary-ass 3 minute film. Wicked creepy, like the video in the movie “The Ring”. What’s cooler is that it’s dynamically generated with a computer program, and the computer dynamically designs the sound, voice samples and imagery based on some basic rules set in the program, so the movie is different every time you run the program (the link is to a movie from just one run of the prog). I sent this to Trav, and the thunderstorm in Eugene made the lights flicker while he was watching. Damn, I woulda pissed my pants right there, heh.

Really interesting libertarian short story: I, Pencil by Leonard Read. Really interesting perspective on how the modern world works, and it’s also only a couple pages, so it’s a quick read. Check it out.

So with Iraq, my other pet-peeve, people who are against Genetically-Modified Food (GMO’s), has been in the background. Basically, GMO’s are entirely safe, it’s proven, GMO’s can vastly help the third world from starving to death and help us by giving us tastier food. Don’t believe me? Think that hippie on the corner shouting against GMO’s is actually the one who’s right? Check out the 2001 Human Development Report from that right-wing conspiracy monger, the United Nations, where the UN says that the world needs to get on the ball and get over the irrational fear of GMO’s, because the benefits (including saved lives) are tremendous, and the risks really are nil.

Scientific American on the new skyscrapers going up worldwide. The new tallest building in the World, in Taipei, is almost finished. By 2007, buildings in Shanghai and Hong Kong will have eclipsed even that. I was worried that 9/11 would halt the construction of skyscrapers, my very favorite kind of building, but it looks like some sense of rationality (along with some new security techniques) have brought mankind’s upward quest back to life.

Finally, there’s an internet law on comments (though it applies to conversation also): If no replies to what you say, it’s either because they’re amazed with the intelligence and absolute correctness of what you said, or what you said was so boring/completely wrong that it doesn’t even justify a response. Unless you leave me a comment, I’m going to have to assume the former =).

Prime Cuts

“Somnambulist” by BT
Damn, I got tons of wicked tight new music this week. First up is the first single from the new BT album! The single isn’t out till May 20, and the album is out August, though this track is beginning to hit radio, and I got the mp3 from a guy who had the radio promo CD. Song is dope, pretty pop-like, with wicked vocal edits. Not BT’s best song, but I’ve still listened 20 or so times a day the last two days. Plus, he uses the word “Somnambulating”, which means sleepwalking. Tight. I cannot wait for the new BT CD. I’ve heard 2 of the songs off the CD so far now, and they both are wicked awesome. Yay BT! “Simply bein loved loved loved is more than enough…”“Music” by Darude
As if a new BT song weren’t hot enough, how about the first single from Darude’s 2nd CD, coming out April 26? So it’s not as tight as Sandstorm, but I’d say it’s as good as Feel the Beat, which is to say, damn good. Crazy ass low-synth, a vocoder-voice saying random techno things, plus an industrial-style breakdown in the middle. Sweet. “Letting the Cables Sleep (NOW Edit)” by Bush is Bush’s best song, by far. This edit is on the new Cafe del Mar mix. Wicked chill, Gavin’s lyrics actually make sense, and the singing is really well-spaced out. Very, very highly recommended, whether you like Bush or not. “Orbit” by The Wideband Network is the first single off the upcoming CD by BT-fan turned dope producers Wideband Network. You can grab it at their site. Very much like BT, and very much like what music should sound like in 2003. Hot as all get out. “Sambuca” by The Wideboys is the best uk garage song I’ve heard recently. Craig David-ish, but a little harder. If you’re into So Solid and Artful Dodger, grab this. “Slammer Jammer” by Perfect Phase is some good, rolling trance if you’re in the mood for that. Last, “Scram” by Plump DJ’s is a techno track with an electricity buzz as the synthline. Also hot. Damn, I got a bunch more good music this week, but I think that’s enough. Yay for music!

“When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
and hear their death knell ringing;
When friends rejoice both far and near,
How can I keep from singing?”
-19th century Amish folk songTHE RALLYING CRY OF this war, Iraq’s own El Grito, came on April 1st - an Iraqi man in Najaf told a NY Times (it was in the 2 April NYT, but you have to pay to read their archives) reporter that what this war would bring was “Democracy! Whiskey! (crowd roars) And Sexy!”

The call of protesters and the anti-war contingent has been answered. There is peace in Iraq. For the first time in a quarter century. Make no mistake, Iraq was not at peace before the US invaded. Any doubt I had about the rightness of this war has been erased.

This war will go down in history as one of the most successful in the history of the world. Less than 150 allied deaths. The most inflated estimates say about 1000 Iraqi civilian casualties; most unbiased sources say less than half that. Children and political prisoners have been freed from jails. The thoughts of a nation have been freed to the air. In 3 weeks, a nation was defeated on its own turf by a relatively small portion of the US military and our friends’ armies. Saddam’s acid baths, his extravagent gold palaces, his hospitals used as army bases, his torture chambers: all are now shown to the world.

In the long term, the gains could be even greater. If Iraq becomes a democracy (and I will be the one protesting if we neglect our responsibility in the nation) and becomes prosperous, the Arab World will push its leaders into modernity. Kuwait, remember, who who liberated from Saddam in 1991, has nothing but love for America. They’re democratizing more than any other nation in the region.

In the long term, the US’ overwhelming success, with very limited civilian casualties, in Kuwait, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, will not go unnoticed. Dictators pursuing belligerence, nations pursuing weapons that threaten the world, are now on notice that diplomacy, though the best tool, is not the only tool. This does not mean further wars - this means the world’s first truly successful anti-war measure.

And what has the US learned? We have learned who are true friends are, internationally. We’ve learned that the UN is a tool, and a great one, but it is not God. We’ve learned that the claims of the most hysterical war opponents are not true - Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan was a quagmire, neither caused civilian tragedies (though in every war, from now on, the goal needs to be even less of these), neither caused an uprising of the Arab Street, neither caused war to spill over, neither caused increased terrorism in the US or worldwide. Neither was a loss, for Iraqis, Afghanis or Americans.

The US will also remember the limits of warmaking as a power. We remember that diplomacy is always the first option. We remember that war has costs, that in some circumstances, such as DR Congo and N. Korea, war is incapable of solving the problems, and that the benefits must be many times greater to legitimate our use of force. We remember the hope we helped give to people in post-war Japan, in post-SSR Russia, in post-Gulf War Kuwait. We remember, utmost, the human lives on both sides harmed by war, and continue to work on weapons that lower that critical number.

But, most of all, we remember the celebrations. The jubilation in the streets. The statues of pain destoryed, the terrorizers on the run, the lives reborn, the smiles, the joy.

Not all of us will remember this. Today, in the Register-Guard, Eugene peace activist Ingrid Wendt “was bothered by the ‘tone of jubilation’ reflected in much of the TV coverage she saw. ‘I’m afraid it will obscure the harsher realities of the cost of winning this war, of all the suffering and death we’ve caused, of how we’ve alienated so many countries and people around the world.’”

Fine, Ingrid. You said it best yourself: This war is not in your name. Iraq’s celebrations, the end of a genocidal dictatorship, the freedom of tens of millions, all are not in your fucking name. It’s in the name of the military, of the Iraqis who helped us, of our allies, of those who supported what is right even when it was unpopular.

Alas, not all news is positive: Might I direct your attention to the civil war in the DR Congo? There’s not much the govt. can do militarily, as this is a Civil War without any center or regime to get rid of. Nonetheless, it’s estimated that well over a million have died from the war and related famine/disease, so if you can spare a little bit of money, that link about to a Refugee group would be well spent in stopping that tragedy.

Peace.

Prime Cuts

“The Mexican 2002″ by Thalia ft/ Marc Anthony
Cool spanish-language dance/pop song from Thalia. Not as good as “Tu y Yo”, but still pretty tight - sweet guitar riffs.“All Around the World” by the Cooler Kids
Ok, so they took 80’s pop and threw in modern production and lots of rave references. Sweet.