Debka, an Israeli news intelligence site, has unconfirmed reports that the "war" has already begun. Go read, but remember to use a pinch of salt.

Kevin Sites, CNN correspondent and ex-producer at NBC, has started an independent journalist's view of the war in Iraq. It's fascinating -- hopefully he will be able to continue the blog in the face of journalistic blackouts and disinformation. His writing is superb.

He's updating it both via Net connections and via Blogger's "audioblog" feature, using his sat phone. Now this is good use of technology!

Go read his blog -- get your information from someone who's there. The war is starting, guaranteed.

According to Debka, we're about to go to war, starting Monday morning.

"Israeli hospitals told to complete sealing process of wards and facilities by Monday morning. Sunday noon, Israel’s First-Aid rescue service Magen David Adom moved command and communications centers to bomb-proof shelters."

To me that says a lot. I wonder if I lit my hair on fire and ran down the street screaming about Jesus, if any of my neighbors would even notice. (see post on 3/14)

Patrick Nielsen Hayden again writes some of the best lines I've read in a blog this week:

"At the moment, really, the most rational possible reaction to the Bush administration's national-security policy is to light one's hair on fire and run down the street screaming about Jesus."

Go read the entire entry now.

Icon War. Thank you, Malibuites, for this one.

The New York Times has a must-read column today: meet George W. Queeg.

"Aboard the U.S.S. Caine, it was the business with the strawberries that finally convinced the doubters that something was amiss with the captain. Is foreign policy George W. Bush's quart of strawberries?"

For years I've told the story a journalist experienced on the campaign trail with Bush Jr. (Apologies for the lack of a URL here -- I have it on the tip of my mind, and will add it as soon as I have located it. I know this story was repeated among some fellow journalists, and is archived in a mailing list on my hard drive.) While in TX, she missed the chance to interview Bush for a particular article she had to submit that day. Since he was familiar with her, and wanted to make sure to get in his two cents for her paper, he invited her to ride with him back to the governor's mansion and talk to him while they road. She had an affable interview with him; described him as charismatic, if slightly disjointed when confronted with any foreign policy questions, but overall a typically outgoing politician with a polish on the outside. Then they arrived at the mansion. Suddenly Bush leaned forward, rapped on the sliding window for the driver, and ordered that the driver pull up a few more inches to the front-door walkway. The limo pulled up three inches or so. Then Bush demanded it go back an inch. Then forward an inch. This went on for some time, with Bush becoming ever more insistent but never losing his cool -- she described it as eerily compulsive. Finally satisfied that the limo was precisely positioned where he wanted it for the front walkway, he exited the vehicle and strode away without a word of goodbye.

Obsessive-compulsives have similar behavior. I'm just pointing it out, really. No comment from my corner of the universe, but I increasingly feel like saying, "I told you so." I said he'd act like this -- and look at it now.

Speaking of which, anyone notice that he's also acting like he wants to be the first president since Truman to use the Big Bomb? He'll show everyone, for sure, then, that he's really in charge -- to be taken seriously. Not that he has anything to prove, no no. Not to his family. Or his dad. Who, it has been reported, often treated his Jr., at least in public, as if he were the family member voted to be most likely to vomit in public.

Whoops, dad already did that. My bad.

But back to the matter at hand. Since I heard about the campaign trail story, and since watching the "election" process that "voted" in our (P)resident, I've told everyone close to hand that this is a guy who wants to "make history." Tying the compulsive behavior with the obsession to prove himself as the biggest boy on the block, and with the desire to prove himself to be the "elect" of his particular brand of Christian God, leads to a couple of scary scenarios. And the easiest one I can think of (Occam's razor, here) is for Bush to want to be the first president to get to use the Briefcase, and punch in his codes, and blow up Bagdad. He'll be really big and strong and in charge then, by golly!

I hope someone can tell me later than I was wrong with this prediction.

I wasn't when I predicted he would win the election, even if he didn't win the votes legitimately.

I hope I'm stone-cold wrong this time.

404 for current international affairs.

Man arrested for wearing "Give Peace a Chance" t-shirt. Here are reports on the incident, filed with the court, by the arresting officers and the mall security officers involved. Hard to tell whether the mall security guys were upset by the t-shirts and wanted them removed, or whether the lawyer wearing the t-shirt was indeed in an argument with someone in the food court. I suspect the latter, but then I'm cynical. Either way, it's a disturbing incident.

UPDATE: Apparently charges have been dropped in this case, after a large protest was held in the mall. Wow, what a surprise.

From Scott Lefton, a man of many and varied tastes: The Eldritch Quintuplets.

Are Lovecraft's stories too long to read? Are the words too strange and difficult?

The Eldritch Quintuplets provides the solution--the complete fictional works of HP Lovecraft, rewritten as limericks:

There was a Mad Arab who said
That Cthulhu, though dreaming, is dead,
But some future night
When the stars become right,
He'll abandon his watery bed.

If anyone wants to buy me an early birthday gift, the special edition containing a limerick written especially for the receiver would make my day.

Via the IP mailing list: Your tax dollars at work -- the CIA "Terrorist Busters" logo.

The mind boggles.

(Mirror: here's the image.)

Knitting update:

- socks almost done, made from Opal “Southwestern” yarn. I’ve made two full ankle socks and I suspect I'll have a good half a skein left over.
- yarn acquired for Classic Elite’s now-defunct “tapestry of colors and textures” cardigan, using Montera (llama and wool), Poet (wool and nylon), and Bravo (rayon, mohair, silk, wool, and nylon). All I can say is: yummy.
- scarf almost finished, made of Artful Yarns “Portrait” (mohair, viscose, polyester) in dark maroon and black, knit in a basic lace pattern from the label (co 30 sts, Row 1 (K2, yo, k1, k3tog, k1, yo) 4 times, k2. Row 2 knit across. Repeat until you use up the skein.)

From Antipixel: A quote converter (to create “real” quotes easily in HTML) is available from SmartyPants. Works with Movable Type and BBEdit. There is hope for type geeks to have easy conversion of quotation marks. Thank you, Mister Smartypants.