Hammer Mill Days

Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't. What can I tell you? You've got to roll with the ... hey.... put the gun down. Put it DOWN! Oh, hi. No worries, my friends, no worries. Marvin (my personal robot assistant) may have a trigger finger, but it's not supple enough to squeeze off anything like an accurate shot. Sometimes he gets worked up enough to wave that old revolver our militant former neighbor Gung-Ho left lying around the mill so many years back. (He dropped it in mid-stride during some imagined emergency, if I recall correctly. It was his side-arm, and he was firing his principal weapon randomly at the time. Those were the days ! ) I know, I know... I shouldn't lecture my mechanical companion, but sometimes it's hard to resist. The fucker gets so disappointed sometimes, you'd think he was, well... human, or something capable of even greater whiny-ness. I guess attendance at his opening night performance of the Wizard of Oz (in three acts) was...

What can one say about the misery, the sheer horror, of what is happening in Haiti right now? It is as if the planet itself has seen fit to kick them in the teeth when they were down. I don't want to write even five more words before encouraging anyone who reads this blog to donate to relief efforts in any way you see fit. (My personal recommendation would be to support Partners in Health , but choose whichever means you prefer.) Aside from the devastation and massive human suffering, the most impressive element of this catastrophe is the hypocrisy demonstrated by people in the United States who have been primarily responsible for the immiseration of Haitians over the past few decades. President Obama is correct when he describes how Haiti is "tied" to the United States historically, but he might more accurately have used the term "chained" - a sickening litany of occupation, subjugation, and sabotage that stretches back to the dawn of that nation's independ...