The New Alamo
That's what I was worried Fallujah would turn into, especially in the Muslim world. We seem to have done a good job of avoiding that, as well as the other possibility, Fallujah becoming the Arab Masada. Masada, if you didn't know, was Herod's former palace, which was built into an enormous rock/mesa. The Romans laid siege to it for many months following their capture of Jerusalem in the Jewish Rebellion. The remaining Zealots, as well as the Assassins, were held up there, and when it became clear the Romans would take the city, the population inside committed mass suicide. It became a symbol of holding out at all costs, and strength. The general of the Tenth legion said "We have won. We have won a rock."Maybe we still will get that. That's a very scary possibility.

Thank you State, very very much.

Powell quit today. No one is surprised by this, though I must admit, the selection of Rice to replace him is disappointing to me. She has proven herself to be a largely incompetent NSA and so giving her a promotion does not make much sense, but then, this White House has shown itself capable of a lot of things that do not make sense.

If I am out of step with a country that wants to criminalize abortion and legislate against love, then I 'm glad to be out of step with America.

A paper in Florida put out an article today about how much the city vote in some states overwhelms the rest of the state. It was supposed to be an analysis piece, but unfortunately, it makes things seem as if Democrats in cities overwhelm the wishes of the state, because the city somehow don't count as part of the state.

Arafat is gone. I am torn about this, on the one hand he was the most important figure in the last 50 years of Mideast history, because he was the representative of the Palestinian cause, and ultimately made the world aware of their plight to the point that they had to pay attention. On the other, he was a terrorist who convinced his people that terror was the only way to win their freedom. Its odd when you consider how Arafat and the PLO failed to play well in America, how well the IRA, and Arafat's obvious equivalent Gerry Adams, did. Now, there is an obvious constituency for the IRA to appeal to, but still, both groups were terrorists, but one was viewed favorably, while the other did not. Part of it is that Arafat was so obviously and unabashedly militant, with the fatigues and head scarf, while Adams always appeared in a suit. Funny how things like that change our perception.