THE OPEN VEINS OF RADISHES....

Raven and I have been reading an article about war by one of our favorite people, Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano.

“Sweet rhetorical questions,” Raven decides: “Bush has called Iraq a dark corner of the world, and Galeano asks, ‘Does Bush believe that civilization was born in Texas, and that his compatriots invented writing? Has he never heard of the Library at Nineveh, the Tower of Babel, nor the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Has he never even heard one of the tales of the Thousand and One Nights of Bagdad?’”

Good questions. But not apt for a hater of culture, a prohibiter of poets in the White House.

“A Morse code stutterer: duh, duh, duh, duh....He goes on to ask who elected Bush president of the planet. Well, the answer to that besides being obvious gives us one thing to be thankful for, that there is no Supreme Court of the Planet packed with stooges by his father.”

No wonder Bush refused to allow the US to recognize the World Court.

“He comments further that Bush has not even been able to hear the loving advice of Gunter Grass: ‘The German writer, understanding that Bush had the necessity to show something important to his father, recommended that he consult a psychiatrist insead of bombing Iraq.’”

It would be cheaper. But it lacks the surreal beauty of your attack of the flying toilet seats.

“That’s old news. Pressing on, he asks if Bush has God on his side, ‘How come God has given such contradictory orders to Bush and the Pope?’”

Rave, this is not the first time in history that God has appeared to be duplicitous.

“No, I suppose not. Now we come, speaking of surrealism, to the heart of the matter: ‘They say it’s not for the petroleum; but if Iraq produced radishes instead of petroleum, to whom would it occur to invade that country?’”

Probably the Peace Corps never took hold there—wasn’t that the organization dedicated to manufacturing needs in the Third World under the guise of teaching people to plant frivolous crops? Radishes, indeed, could have saved the Iraquis’ bacon.

“He also mentions the banner one of the protestors was carrying in New York that asked ‘Why is our petroleum under their sands?’”

Just a logistical anomaly, I suppose.

“Then there’s the fact that no Iraquis were involved in 9/11. But of course we know the answer to that already. The CIA has always preferred to hire Saudis for capers like that. But here’s a classic: ‘Dwight D. Eisenhower said, in 1953, that “preventive war” was an invention of Adolf Hitler, adding, “Frankly, I couldn’t take anybody seriously who proposed something like that.’”

Well, there you have it, Rave. We are spinning in the maelstrom—again—created by someone who couldn’t be taken seriously. Someone so challenged on the brain chain that he puts food on his family and says it was difficult. A smearer escaped from the back wards.

“In short, a pursuer of radishes. We are doomed."