This and That

Somewhat behind on the reading and writing this week: will try to catch up this weekend and make some posts.

Read Senator Joe Lieberman's op-ed piece this morning in the Wall Street Journal Online on the proxy war Iran and its stooges are waging against us. What's wrong with the Democrats ? They have practically run Senator Lieberman out of their party, when they ought to be running him for President. Instead we get the present crop of has-beens and third-raters with really spiffy hairdos.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharaf's aircraft was fired on this morning as it took off from a Pakistani military base near Rawalpindi. According to the AP story, the security forces raided a nearby house, and found anti-aircraft weapons and a light machine gun. This doesn't sound like wackos who visited the Pakistani equivalent of Academy or WalMart for "home defense" or "hunting" weapons to misuse later, or bought themselves "saturday night specials" -- and this probably troubles the President's security apparatus no end. Among other things, Rawalpindi is a big garrison town, and is the headquarters of the Pakistani Army. Wackos can be handled, but anything that remotely smells like military discontent is perhaps another matter. Meanwhile, the President of Pakistan, himself a Pakistani Army general, is not safe on a Pakistani military base.

In the small-hours of the morning, President Musharaf no doubt thinks of what befell one of his predecessors, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. An occupational hazard that, but one that must be accepted by those who would ride the white horse in triumph through Persepolis and be king. All that the President-General can do, in the night watches, is hope that the guard at his bedroom door is loyal, and keep the pistol in his bedside table loaded.

We are on borrowed time for a disaster in Pakistan, and we cannot count on continued stability there. I wonder what our lackwit congressional leadership will do when Pakistan blows up ? Whatever happens, it will, of course, be Bush's fault, or Cheney's.

My first cousin deploys to Iraq on Sunday. He was in Afghanistan in 2005, so he's getting quite a tour of the world. God be with him and his unit.

This morning, I'm listening to good old Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major (Op. 63). As I think I have said before, Movement No. 4 of that symphony, (Moderato e maestoso), is probably my favorite piece of music.