micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links

Iran shows it can responsibly test missiles

Iran is catching some flak for testing some missiles today Iran. That crazy liberal terrorist appeaser Barack Obama responded by saying, "Iran is a great threat. We have to make sure we are working with our allies to apply tightened pressure on Iran" (quoted in Daily Mail, July 9).

And, according to the BBC (July 9), "A senior US state department official said the launch was 'provocative'."

This is nothing short of lunacy. It would have been provocative for Iran to have tested the missile in Jerusalem or Nevada. I mean, what are they supposed to do? Test their weapons off the coast of the coast of Greece?

If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran wanted to be taken over the U.S. -and why wouldn't he? given the success of the surge in Iraq and all-, I am certain the talking heads would all start talking about how this is just another devious ploy to get the U.S. military into the county so they can be surrounded and then attacked. Victor Davis Hanson would call it a "reverse Trojan horse" and then Sean Hannity would pretend to know what that meant.

To put it another way, Iran's best hope for avoiding a war with the U.S. of A. is good luck.

George Carlin

George Carlin died 10 days ago, as I am sure everyone reading this already knows. Save for my father and myself, no single person is responsible for making me laugh more than Carlin.

I was first introduced to Carlin’s work via the 1992 special Jammin' in New York. I loved his use of words and I admired Carlin for saying that golf is a stupid sport that deprives the homeless of shelter. Somebody had to say it."

Most of all, I took great delight and solace in the fact that Carlin’s criticism of Gulf War was neither guarded nor full of platitudes about supporting the troops. The comedian took it for granted that the war was wrong and his job was to humorously explain how we got into such a fucked up position. Carlin explain lots of such things during his career –check out his take on the absurdity of planning a suicide from 2005’s Life is Worth Losing, for one of my favorites- and he usually did so brilliantly.

A few years ago, a friend of mine commented that I was good at swearing. I did not overuse the term "fuck,” she said, and when I did employ it, I did so to emphasize my point. If true, I owe all my skills to George Carlin.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay to the deceased is that I do not believe his death caused me to reference Carlin’s work in my head, and sometimes aloud, anymore than I had done in the previous 10 days. A several times a day event is a several times a day event.