it's funny how the coughing itself can tire you out, even as you're just getting over it, making it seem like you got kicked back to the start of it. woke up feeling like somebody spent eight hours jumping on my chest....

it was the perfect storm to ignite my asthma/bronchitis. it's a result of living in a second-hand smoke environment when i was a kid, and comes up whenever i get a flu in the winter. it happened before i started smoking, smoking hasn't made it worse and quitting won't make it better (although i haven't been smoking a lot lately). the flu comes and goes in 24-72 hours, but the bronchitis it triggers can last for up to six weeks after it's gone.

i'm a pretty strong advocate of the idea that people between 17 and 60 should *not* be getting yearly flu vaccines - we're better off fighting it ourselves. unless we get a nasty strain...

...but i think i'm finally accepting that the bronchitis has put me in the "special" category, and i may finally crack next year.

i honestly think i just sort of got used to it.

this kind of thing has been going on forever and shouldn't surprise anybody.

i just want to point out that there's no contradiction in criticizing the administration for it's tactics on human rights grounds and working up reports to justify further intervention elsewhere. liberal interventionism is a weird animal. but it doesn't see anything wrong with arguing we should blow up libya to get rid of ghaddafi and arguing that we should use democratic processes to modify our own behaviour, too [although it would never argue libya should use legal means to reform itself, or that ghadaffi should blow up washington]. and it can be legit, too.

so, you shouldn't get caught in this trap that suggests that criticism of the american record on human rights somehow means the group isn't working to justify intervention. it's just wrong.

it indeed doesn't make sense to turn an ally into an enemy...

...unless you think you can convert an enemy into a slave.

i don't know if the russian narrative is purposefully ignoring this or missing it altogether. i've been pointing out for years that the russian policy positions are just hopelessly naive. consider bmd, for example. they want to join the system? that's their response? when you hear this, what else is there to do but take a sip of vodka, put your head in your hands and laugh/cry? i know they've started building their own recently, but i don't think there's been a shift in policy..

so, i'm going to claim that it's established that the russians are consistently naive. which makes the question as to whether they really get this or not valid.

the americans don't want a merger. that's what would happen if they started integrating, and it leaves open the threat of russian pre-eminence in the alliance. there's a few countries that might find themselves in agreement with russia more often. it's giving the russians an opportunity to establish hegemony right underneath the hegemon's nose. that's not how hegemon's behave.

nor do they want to be in this perpetual conflict point with russia, or even to integrate russia into the empire in a passive way.

what the americans want - and you have to contemplate this carefully - is to defederalize the russian state into small republics, then integrate each of them into their system independently. if they're going to be able to do this at any point in the near future, that window is closing.

so, no it doesn't make sense to convert a possible ally into an enemy. but it does make sense to seek to dismantle and permanently obliterate an enemy altogether.

whatever else you want to draw from this video, it's rather clear that the vast majority of syrians prefer the modern, secular stability of assad's russian-backed government over the threat of a return to saudi-style extremism (i say return to, but i think it might be millennia since such totalitarianism, there). that ought to be respected, and tactics for regime change ought to be modified.

and the saudis ought to be told to fuck off.

in the long run, there's no future in the region besides the conquest of saudi arabia by secular forces and the deposition of the regime there. this is where we need real regime change. and it's only a matter of time before an administration is elected that has the clarity of thought to realize it.

whether the saudis are toppled by an american-led push or by a mass uprising (perhaps one that is iranian or russian backed), it is certain that they will be toppled. smart american policy would seek to topple them on america's terms, rather than help them carry out their disastrous policies and then wait for the consequences.

careful - most shrews have a venomous bite. it won't kill you, but it will sure hurt...

that was another 15. one of the nice things about not having any responsibility is that when you get a 48 or 72 hour flu you can just sleep it off. everybody *should* have this right. but, most people don't.

i think i'm awake now...