Hammer Mill Days

Electrodes to power. Turbines to speed. Vector diagrams to light board. Finger fins to the driver behind. Quarter to three in the afternoon. What am I saying? Doesn't matter, really. We're getting close to the departure date on Big Green's [INSERT NAME HERE] Interstellar Tour 2011 , our hotly-anticipated romp through the musical hinterlands of outer space, with planned stops in the Jovian system (Jupiter for you space travel novices), Betelgeuse, Kaztropharius 137b , Sirius, and the planet Zenon in the Small Magellanic Cloud, home base of our sometime-guitarist, sFshzenKlyrn . Yes, I know - last time we stopped there we took a few lumps, but they've since healed up, and hey - never let it be said that we let experience stand in the way of a good lapse in judgment. Still got it, baby. Anyhow, we're just running through our confusing array of pre-launch checklists. Can't be too careful these days, particularly when your vehicle has such a spotted past as the one ...

Perhaps you know this about me, but I've never been one to associate support for official Israeli government policy with support for Israelis. There is plenty of dissent in Israel around the conflict with the Palestinians, so I don't know why anyone on this side of the ocean should feel reluctant to criticize actions that merit criticism. There is such demagoguery on this issue in the U.S., though, that very few people speak their minds, particularly those in the political class. However, to the extent that words and actions matter, I would have to say that Barack Obama has been at least as big a booster of the right-wing Israeli government as his predecessor, and in concrete terms - military aid, security coordination, etc. - arguable and even bigger one. That's why the hue and cry over Obama's Israel policy, initially aimed at procuring a Republican victory in Anthony Weiner's old Brooklyn district, seems so unmoored from reality. Where did they get this idea that...