Josh convincingly channels Eric Alterman and looks at the Times's conservative bias in its hawkish support of the Iraq war, withdrawn only with the downfall of the recent collapse of the Chalabi-Cheney axis of deception. (Speaking of which, Iyad Alawi, Iraq's new premier-select, in the NYT's words "is the secretary general of the Iraqi National Accord, an exile group that has received funds from the Central Intelligence Agency. His ties with the C.I.A., and his closeness to the United States could become an issue in a country where public opinion has grown almost universally hostile to the Americans." This seems like an understatement. The puppet show's only just begun and already we can see the strings all too well.)



And I'm looking forward to Alyssa's promised posts on Chile, particularly in light of Pinochet's recent loss of his lifetime immunity to persecution - though i agree with Josh that justice isn't served unless all those responsible for the terrorist military coup and the violence, torture, murder, and oppression which followed, as well as the country's neoliberal restructuring under the watchful eyes of the Chicago school, are made responsible for their crimes.



My brother, Lev (formerly self-designated "Levster, Master of Disaster"), expert in all things Odinist and Death Metal, assures me that the Rohirrim are in fact based on the Scythians, some of whom, he claims, "looked nordic," while others, he assures me, had "asian features." I'll revisit my classicist roots, exercise a little praeteritio, and skip berating my brother for his reification of racial phenomics. But the fact is, those dudes playing the Rohirrim aren't Scythians, because no one has called him or herself a Scythian in many, many years. And Jackson's understanding of a Scythian nevertheless seems deeply raicalized to me. Lev also calls me a dork for blogging so much about Tolkien. So i'll shut up.



This will probably be my last blog entry before leaving New Haven at 11:30 tomorrow morning, so if that's the case, i guess i should say farewell to the city i've lived in for the last four years. It's been a pretty intense four years. New Haven's an amazing place, part of me wishes i were staying, and like I told the YDN (no links or pics cause the site is of course down,) in September, i'm coming back to get arrested whenever they want me to, so it won't be the last time i set foot here by any means. I feel lucky and honored to have had the privilege of doing the organizing i did when i was here and working with this amazing movement to fight for a better future for cities, universities, hospitals, and schools. Ok, enough babbling from me - cue the montage!