Monday

Good morning ! In theory, that is, despite a ginormous Starbucks and other caffeine, the "good" part of that greeting is still a matter of debate.

Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Leipzig (1813), the decisive battle of the Napoleonic wars: Napoléon I's worst defeat. Waterloo was simply applying the period to an issue already decided -- for Bonapartists, Leipzig was the real nightmare. Although the battle is generally reckoned to have begun on 16 October (it ended on the 19th), the preliminaries actually began on the 14th. Maybe I will post more on this battle, the largest in Europe up to that time, on the 19th.

Saddam has evidently written a letter to rebels in Iraq, telling them that "liberation" is at hand and admonishing them to be "merciful" with their enemies. Saddam must think that the forthcoming US electoral victory of the "cut and run" party means that the US will decamp, allowing the rebels to show mercy by shooting, rather than hanging, government supporters. The cut and runners will likely be disappointed for a time, but in any case, Saddam will not be around to see "liberation." Wonder if they'll shoot him, or hang him ?

There's a border fence going up. No, not on the US/Mexico border, but on the frontier between China and North Korea. Looks like the Chinese think that Cousin Kim's starving worker's paradise is down the tubes soon, and they'd really rather not have Manchuria flooded with Koreans. Makes good sense to me. Too bad we don't copy them on the Rio Grande.

Speaking of Mexico, AP is reporting that the Left Wing Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) is likely to loose the gubernatorial election in the State of Tabasco, to the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) -- the former proprietors of one-party Mexico. Now that's interesting. How can this be ? Tabasco is the would-be Jefe of Jefes Andres Lopez Obrador's home state and the base of his power. I wonder how much help the PRI got from President-Elect Calderon's National Action Party (PAN), if any ? I think the peppery Don Andres is correct when he says that the PRD's enemies will "laugh at us" if they lose in Tabasco.

H.M. Queen Elizabeth and H.R.H. Prince Philip are visiting Vilnius, Lithuania, today, staying through Tuesday, then proceeding to Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday; finally, on Friday, winding up in Tallinn, Estonia. Meanwhile, H.H. Pope Benedict XVI is going to Turkey next month. I wish he wouldn't: that seems so very dangerous.

It's definitely Monday. Wish my coffee would kick in.