In retrospect, yesterday's non post might have been for the best. Ah, retrospection. Throughout a rambling and lengthy piece, I kept noting that NOVA was running a 2 hour program on physics--and I subsequently allowed my inner quantum self to take over...

Still catching up from yesterday. As I expected, the two servers that needed to be ready "by yesterday" will now sit for a week or two before the folks who will be using them figure out what they want to do with them...hurry up so you can wait.

Started this morning with Timshel, who has posts about health care (shocking story regarding the number of women in Lafayette, Louisiana who are uninsured), public smoking ordinances, a good post on a potential Blanco strategy (I hope someone from Blanco's campaign decides to take a look), and so on...

But I also want to note three articles, all from Counterpunch, that should be required reading for ANYONE interested in present US policy in Iraq. The articles are here, here, and here. Sure, the Chuckman article is about Vietnam, but it is completely appropriate to the conditions in Iraq at present, while Robert Fisk's pieces ably make the comparison and contrasting points. If I wasn't awake before looking at them, I am now.

Quick note about Fisk: one of my tangents from last night that is lost was in defense of Fisk, and the crude attempts to smear him by those who've coined the term "fisking." Fisk wrote a not-entirely-hostile account of a situation where he was nearly killed by a mob in Afghanistan. The mob saw a Westerner, and decided to vent a little rage. Fisk narrowly escaped with his life, thank god, but didn't immediately call Afghans ignorant savages while calling for increased bombing. This appears to make him some sort of wimp in the eyes of idiots like Instapundit (IMHO, Instapundit isn't worth a steaming pile of pig shit).

Fisk is one of the few sane Western voices reporting on Middle East issues. He has lived in Beirut for over 20 years (as a Westerner, this itself has been remarkable, although I hear Beirut today is a LOT better than in the 80's. Alas, though, I don't think I'll ever be able to visit this amazing city). I regularly check a website devoted to his articles, and I encourage anyone interested to do the same.

But, work calls, so I'll post now--tonight, I will try to recreate yesterday's missing post from the "backup" I kept in my head...