Hammer Mill Days

I think that planter goes over here. No, no... not there. Just behind the divider, where no one can see it. That's right - perfect. Now... where to place the emerald city? Yes, friends... this is Hammermill Days, the blog chronicling Big Green's bizarre existence. You haven't stumbled onto some daycare center message board. I'm just doing a little compassionate backfill for one of our number who does not respond well to his responsibilities. I'm speaking of our mad science advisor, Mitch Macaphee, who cannot take it upon himself to devote a few stray hours to the upbringing of his invention, Marvin (my personal robot assistant). Oh, the trials of surrogate fatherhood ! Now I'm left with filling in for an absentee mad scientist. This is awful - I've forgotten all the rituals, the nostrums, the pat-on-the-head kind of shit. And, well... Marvin is so damn needy. Something in his programming, I think. He craves approval almost as much as he needs 3-in-1 oil. In...

President Obama has announced that the "buck" stops with him when things go wrong within the elaborate intelligence apparatus that supports airport security and anti-terrorism in general. But what about with respect to another type of terrorism - the kind we perpetrate on others? Is he willing to accept that "buck" as well? His predecessor certainly wasn't. Like under Bush II, civilians have been the target of our military in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, and, indirectly, elsewhere. According to the U.N., more than 2,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan during the first ten months of 2009, about 450 of which are attributable to the U.S. and our allies. That number is probably low, since in every conflict the line is deliberately blurred between combatants and non-combatants, but even if we accept it at face value, 450 deaths represents a lot of suffering, disaffection, and anger. I'm not sure how it is any different to kill hundreds of peasants wit...