So Much Trouble In The World...

I have been writing, but not posting, mostly because current world events are too depressing and chaotic to blog intelligently about, so I've been focusing on writing fiction instead. Oh, and I've been feverishly surfing the web in a desperate attempt to find out What Is Really Happening, since most American news outlets are too busy covering the Suri Cruise conspiracy to tell us the US Terrorism Threat color-code system is so overloaded it has begun emmitting florescent radioactive orange and hyperpurple polka dots because, yes: Everyone in the entire world now hates us. Here's quick round-up of what I've been reading:

- Over at SF Gate, C.W. Nevius asks doltishly, "Is it okay to be mad at Israel and not hate the Jews?" [Insert headsmack and rolling of eyes.] What I want to know, C.W., is whether it's okay for me to slap you upside the head repeatedly for asking really, really stupid questions.

- Read here about how the Neoconservatives' plan to coherce Israel into starting a proxy war with Iran & Syria is going swimmingly, thanks to secret NSA intelligence and Bush's carefully-coordinated destruction of peace agreements that nearly ended the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back in 1998.

- But the good news is that the U.S. is unlikely to actually be able to participate in the coming World War III, because, whoops, two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready, due to equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct.

- And even Bush's dad thinks we should be curbing, not egging on, the violence in Lebanon and the Gaza strip (though he's probably just worried that his powerful Syrian and Saudi friends are going to stop contributing to his oil profits if we keep defending their arch-enemy, Israel.)

- Also: my secret crush (oops, I think I just spilled the beans) Anthony Bourdain, (aka The Man Who Will Eat Anything) writes a riveting account for Salon.com of his experience arriving in the Lebanese capital two weeks ago to film an episode of his TV show about Beirut's hip and delicious culinary scene, only to find himself hiding out in a hotel watching the beautiful city being destroyed while President "Russia's big and so is China" Bush chomps on a buttered roll. A must-read.

- And finally, as you are probably now blubbering hysterically over your keyboard and begging God "WHY WHY WHY??" ... this ought to cheer you up. It seems that a recent NPR survey shows a nation that rejects "moral values" pandering -- and is very angry at Bush. Is America finally waking up?