~ why would the u.n. be surprised that the northern alliance rushed into kabul at the first chance they saw? they’ve only been lusting after that city for five years. the northern alliance no doubt has its own political plan, which amazingly may not be to adhere to the plans of a western nation who would feel safer by manipulating them in a proxy war after not acknowledging them for the past few years. anyway, everyone there seems happy enough with their arrival; there is plenty of music playing and few burqas being lifted. it seems that the only people who might complain would be the arabs, pakistanis, and chechens, who are bound to be exterminated if they do not shave their beards and get their turbans buried quickly enough.

~”ahmed shah said as he felt his newly shaven face, i hated the beard. it was always itchy.’

wtf does this guy mean by that?!

“Greeted by cheering residents, opposition fighters captured Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, in defiance of international pressure to stay out…”

“Israel said its forces would remain in two Palestinian-ruled West Bank areas despite a demand by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for a pullout.”

at least the civilians in one city are cheering…

~ would it not be simpler, happier medium to ‘federalize’ airport security personnel than to continue with the disinterested wage slaves who must be backed up by 6,000 national guardspersons? add to that: the 25% more guards that bush has decided to make available.

~ if there arose a case in which a, say, bomb brought down a plane in rockaway, queens, we wonder if the u.s. government would claim findings that the crash was actually due to ‘mechanical failures’, lest the public be reminded that not much security has been added to commercial aviation since september 11, 2001. naturally, the angry red planet does not want to fall victim to irrational fears of terrorism, nor do we wish to encourage such fears in others. however, we are timelessly more paranoid about lies from the u.s. government than we are worried about trying to adhere to the appropriate response to the news – that response being rationalized by the conflict between the immediate connections with the past against the it with the admonitions of those who let you know that if you suspect terrorism, then the terrorists have already won. anyway, it is probably just a routine take-off crash. colin powell said so. then, why were all the airports closed this morning?

~ happy veteran’s day. the parade in manhattan apparently heads north from 24th street, so there was no reason to be hanging out in washington square park for an hour this morning, unless you wanted to repeatedly insist to the guy with the blue parka and spicy sunflower seeds that you ‘didn’t need anything’.

~ happy birthday to kurt vonnegut, the 4th most popular writer at diaryland [w]!

~ we know that it is hip for americans of all political persuasions to reduce their vocabulary to the tiniest sound bites when discussing current topics: wto, g8, 6+1, r2k, or fcb. not only does it sadden us to see all the opportunities offered by our language limited to virtual icons; thin descriptions are bound to lead only to thin investigations. while we would not be the ones to argue that these short terms do not meet the requirements of making much better logos for websites and magazine covers, seeing the attacks made at new york’s world trade center – ‘wtc’, kids – attacks reduced to 9-11 or 911 still makes those of us at the angry red planet sick. wtf.

~ quote from reuters [w]: ‘hundreds of firefighters broke through police barricades….’

bass.

~ annoying phrases: ‘bleeding edge’, ‘teach-in’, and hearing terrorist attacks referred to as ‘911’ and/or ‘nine-eleven’.

~ one tie to the west coast has been cut by the angry red planet upon the discovery of a trader joe’s accessible from manhattan via the lirr. stockpiles of ‘vitality’ and ‘rice-um’ were acquired.

~ from the angry red planet inbox:

“Following is a list of names that sci-arc students have submitted as nominations
for Director……..

Steven Holl = [explicit]

Sheila Kennedy = bad work
Robert + Mary Ann = are they serious???,,, two insane directors?
Coy Howard = run the school yourself you whiiiiners
TERRY SURJAN = i thought he hated sciarc?
Daniel Liebeskind = word! but i doubt it
Samuel Mockbee = well we didnt pikk him last time,, lets give it a shot
Shigeru Ban = who?
Evan Douglas = who?
JEFF KIPNIS = word
Karoline Schmitt-Bauer = are they kidding?
Anderson brothers = rednex
Will Alsop = who?
Chris Genik = dear god no!!!
Herzog and De Meuron = yeah right
Wolf Prix = drunk
Richard Rogers = hahaha
Rem Koolhaas = give me a break
Stan Allen � have already declined interest
Liz Diller � have already declined interest

this sounds like a list that a freshman would cook up because they
think their program is bad ass enough to warrant some bigshot director

i’m glad i was there when kulper was director

-jt

~ johnny cash has entered the hospital with bronchitis. the angry red planet wishes a quick and full recovery for the man in black!

~ the northern alliance is claiming that 40 commanders and 1,200 fighters have defected from the taliban. just last week, these ‘defectors’ were defending a regime that has systematically destroyed human rights and sponsors a network of terrorists. have they suddenly had an epiphany, awakening to the error of their ways? or are they just running to the side that currently is not being pounded by the united states air force and navy?

if the northern alliance can cozy up to the fanatics who defended that breed of scum so quickly, how can they be expected to be cool when it is time to construct a new system of ordering society?

if the northern alliance wants to topple the taliban, more power to them; that makes more sense to me than having the u.s. or russia meddling – since i doubt either of these powers seem like they would work strongly for the ‘establishment’ of anarcho-syndicalism [w]. but if they are going to turn out to be as big of a group of assholes to the afghan people, as rawa [w] seems to indicate, i would rather they didn’t do it with the help of u.s. funding, troops, and training. i know that the u.s. needs to team up with some local forces in order to facilitate operations and to ensure the safety of u.s. soldiers, but it would be a whole lot cooler if the northern alliance is not just intent on making a deal of trading osama and some of his cronies in exchange for u.s. support of their own military regime.

~ remember: fight war, not wars…