Hammer Mill Days

No, Mitch... I've never been to Rome. Yes, I've seen pictures of the Coliseum, but I'm not sure where you're going with this. It's a nice thing in its place, but... Oh, hi. Just having a word with Big Green's mad science advisor, Mitch Macaphee, professor of interstellar astro-geology ....and explosives, apparently. (He's got tenure at the school of hard knocks.) It's endearing to see a proud father try to help his son. In saying so, I don't mean to suggest that what Mitch is engaged in right now in any way resembles that wholesome impulse. No, no... that would require some modicum of sanity. I'm afraid Mitch is both attempting to help his creation, Marvin (my personal robot assistant), and blow his ass to kingdom come. Unintentionally, perhaps, but nevertheless... this is what he is attempting. Let me 'splain you. (Damn... I'm starting to talk like Tom Coburn at a confirmation hearing!) Marvin got himself a little gig as a bomb-sniffing...

As you have surely heard, the unprecedented anti-government protests in Egypt have continued over the past week, growing in strength despite some very cynical attempts to disrupt them through violence and intimidation. Together with the revolution in Tunisia and demonstrations in Jordan, Yemen, and Syria, this is probably the most remarkable development in the Arab world since decolonization. From reports on the ground - perhaps most valuably those submitted by Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Democracy Now! - this is an astoundingly well-organized and well-disciplined uprising, very much a bottom-up movement with no obvious uber-leaders. Quite the opposite of the kind of chaos Mubarak keeps referring to as the alternative to his continued rule. Of course, the United States - despite our late-to-the-party expressions of sympathy for the Egyptian people - is squarely on the wrong side of this divide, as is practically every government in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, and I...