14 November 2006

Hello. I have been pretty well caught up in some tutoring of international students and scholars at UCSD, and discussing with Gail some pretty important decisions of a professional nature. However, I am back. I am still reeling over the results of the election. Amazing, according to final results nationwide, Democrats beat Republicans in all House districts by about 4-5 percent, much closer than expected. Yet, opposite everyone's expectations, redistricting did not protect Republicans, and such a close election still resulted in the Dems gaining about 27-30 seats, depending upon the results of recounts and runoffs in about four Congressional districts. One can hope. Just the same, more may be happening than what is on its face. Possible breaks in Democratic unity, possible desertions in Senate and House, and one may be looking at a very different result of who holds what control in January.

But overshadowing that situation is the fact that Iraq is, at least in Baghdad and a few other areas, almost chaotic. Iran is a lot closer to getting the bomb made than anyone (except "doomsday" guys like me) expected. The Iranians and Syrians have managed to get an army of 12-22,000 soldiers in Al Qaeda into Iraq, and the Iranians have apparently started a major power move to take over the operating control over Al Qaeda, an effort I think will be successful. Furthermore, it looks like the Iranians and Syrians are just days from using their surrogate, Hezbollah, to overthrow the democratic government in Lebanon. And the British authorities have identified hundreds more terrorist cells in both their country and in North America. This is the fact of this situation. And yet the slender yet sufficiently significant majority in this country have decided to pick on an ineffective Republican congressional leadership, along with the President, and pretend that it's 9/10/01 once again, and that the party is back on. It is an interesting spiritual coincidence that Britney Spears, the emblem of the carefree 90s, is getting a divorce and is coming back into the entertainment scene again. Nothing against Britney personally, she's actually a nice lady when she's not with such losers as the ex-, and is of course one of the most beautiful women around with her baby fat off, but societies tend to associate certain people with certain trends and attitudes. And we are back in the pre-9/11 world, and that is deadly.

(Oh, by the way, not meaning to trash the girl, Britney Spears does vote for President Bush, and supports the troops and the war. Just another reason to never judge by mere appearances.).

We are going to have to make our feelings known, in ways that will matter. I will be talking about that, on the legal front, in the days to come. Adios.

--Belisarius II--