In an amongst some random browsing prompted by the Independent Spirit Awards, I browsed a little for one of my favorite film directors, John Waters. I turned up a few links, the funniest of which is this one, an article about John Waters as Baltimore's man of the year. I also found Dreamland News, a fan site and Atomic Books, Water's link to the world of retail where you can buy autographed copies of his books. I really enjoy his movies. I need to get Pecker on DVD, since that is such a cheerful and goodhearted film and I could really use that. reason to stop trying, for chrissake! It is a reason to step up my own game. underlined inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop. We are not suicidal you know, not all of us in any case.

I think that the coming war is not justified (and it is very near now, we hear the war drums loud and clear if you don’t then take those earplugs off!). The excuses for it have been stretched to their limits they will almost snap. A decision has been made sometime ago that "regime change" in Baghdad is needed and excuses for the forceful change have to be made. I do think war could have been avoided, not by running back and forth the last two months, that’s silly. But the whole issue of Iraq should have been dealt with differently since the first day after GW I.

The entities that call themselves "the international community" should have assumed their responsibilities a long time ago, should have thought about what the sanctions they have imposed really meant, should have looked at reports about weapons and human rights abuses a long time before having them thrown in their faces as excuses for war five minutes before midnight.

What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging for days now: how could "support democracy in Iraq" become to mean "bomb the hell out of Iraq"? why did it end up that democracy won’t happen unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! how thoughtful.

The situation in Iraq could have been solved in other ways than what the world will be going thru the next couple of weeks. It can’t have been that impossible. Look at the northern parts of Iraq, that is a model that has worked quite well, why wasn’t anybody interested in doing that in the south. Just like the US/UK UN created a protected area there why couldn’t the model be tried in the south. It would have cut off the regimes arms and legs. And once the people see what they have been deprived off they will not be willing to go back, just ask any Iraqi from the Kurdish areas. Instead the world watched while after the war the Shias were crushed by Saddam’s army in a manner that really didn’t happen before the Gulf War. Does anyone else see the words (Iran/not in the US interest) floating or is it me hallucinating?

This is wildly sensible stuff. Reading his (is it a him? I haven't read enough yet to get a feeling of the person behind the posts) matter of fact description of the details of life in a city under siege reminded of Joe Kubert's incredible but harrowing Fax From Sarajevo. What really disturbs me about the pro-war people who are cheering as they watch shit blow up is that there are people very much like you and me, with similar or identical dreams, goals, aspirations who are bearing the brunt of this. Kids not being able to get food because no one wants to go out for fear of being killed, that's what you are cheering on, friends. It's not a big fucking video game, it is honest citizens who at best have their lives disrupted and at worse ended, every time a bomber unloads.