Arthur Silber has surfaced briefly, to bring word that he is still with us — which is great news — but also that he is still suffering horribly from very serious health issues. As we’ve often noted here before, Arthur’s blog is his sole means of support, and thus his long, illness-induced silences inevitably cut deeply into his traffic, and his contributions — and precisely when support is most urgently needed. It’s a vicious cycle, so if you have any cash to spare to help break it, head on over to Arthur’s place and lay some coinage on him. While

The humanitarian march of civilization goes on, and on, and on, and on ….. A NATO helicopter airstrike on Sunday against what international troops believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing as many as 27 civilians in the worst such case since at least September, Afghan officials said Monday. … The attack was carried out by United States Special Forces helicopters that were patrolling the area hunting for insurgents who had escaped the NATO offensive in the Marja area, about 150 miles away, according to Gen. Abdul Hameed, an Afghan National Army commander in Dehrawood, which is

This is the lesson that the United States government — the government of the historic progressive, Barack Obama — taught the children of America today: “Children, the law is nothing but a rag smeared with blood and shit. “It is only for suckers, rubes and losers. “Claw your way to the top — by any means necessary — and the law can never touch you. “This is the American way.” Yes, as the Washington Post reports, the United States government announced today that there will be no penalties whatsoever for the lawyers who were ordered by their superiors, George Bush

This week, an angry white man of European heritage flew an airplane into a building in protest against American political policies. I urge the Department of Homeland Security to immediately institute stringent new visa requirements for all white people of European heritage who come from countries where there is likely to be anger about American policies. We cannot afford to let people like that into this country — and if they are already here, we must remove them. Of course, most angry white people of European heritage will not go so far as to commit acts of terrorism. And it

In an astounding development, the brand-new director of the International Atomic Energy Agency — who was narrowly elected to the post a few months ago with the strong, one might say insistent, backing of the United States — has just issued his very first report on Iran’s nuclear program. And guess what the new, American-backed director said? Go on, you’ll never guess. Give up? Well, hold on to your hats — the American-backed director, Yukiya Amano, has "broken with the more cautious style of his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei" — you know, the man who was right about Iraq’s lack of

(UPDATED BELOW) A fresh dispatch from the imperial satrapy of Bactria brings word that the Pentagon has ended the eyeblink-brief “suspension” of one of its super-duper missile systems following the “unfortunate” slaughter of 12 civilians, including five children, in the opening hours of the all-out media blitz — sorry, the “largest military operation of the Afghan war” — now being inflicted on the city of Marja. As you’ll recall, after this initial child sacrifice to waft the pleasing smell of innocent blood to great Ares, that he might smile upon the bold Achaeans in their martial endeavor, mighty Agamemnon himself

Another day, another mass slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan. This time the cull of “collateral damage” came not from the world-historical agon at Marja, where Anglo-American sahibs are leading a contingent of colonial troops in a heavily hyped, made-for-media operation that blew a household of civilians, including five children, to smithereens in its opening salvos. No, the new bloodbath occurred many miles away, in Kandahar, after a NATO patrol evidently saw some Afghan civilians going about their own business in their own country. Naturally, this shocking state of affairs was thought to pose a dire threat to the uninvited invaders

The grand attack on Marja was scarcely out of the starting blocks before it claimed its first child sacrifices: five children blown to pieces in a rocket strike on "a compound crowded with Afghan civilians," the New York Times reports. Up to 12 civilians in total were killed in the strike, which occurred, we’re told, when American artillery landed "a few hundred yards away" from another "mud-walled compound" from which U.S. Marines were reportedly taking fire. In keeping with the way of the modern warrior, the computer-guided rockets were launched from a base more than 10 miles away:  "Don’t fire

I. The current Nobel Peace laureate is continuing his noble and inspiring work of war this week in the latest PR blitz in Afghanistan: "Operation Moshtarak," the much-ballyhooed, extravagantly telegraphed "attack" on the city of Marja. Is it even worth discussing this monstrous sham? The perpetrators of the attack know full well that there will be no "battle." Even the American commanders cannot be so sealed in their arrogant ignorance that they do not know their insurgent opponents will do what every guerrilla army does when facing concentrations of conventional military force: disperse into the countryside, and into the urban

  A clutch of new songs are up on the MySpace page. These are the usual imperfect exercises in tonal breath control, laid down quick and raw. We’ll get ’em fleshed out one of these days somewhere down the line. But give a listen, if you take a notion. Below is a video of one of the songs: