Hammer Mill Days

I'm kind of busy right now, Marvin. Just tell them that I can't talk. And in any case, I don't want to go on a Caribbean Cruise, even if it IS free. Cheese and crackers. (Hey, that sounds kind of good right about now.) Writing is a hungry business. Just ask Hemingway, the guy with the moveable feast. I'm a little sensitive about interruptions today, so I beg your pardon ... Marvin (my personal robot assistant) keeps coming into my study (a.k.a. the old forge room in the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill) with nonsensical requests. Stuff like, "You've got a phone call from Missouri" or "There's a brush salesman at the door" or "Leave the building - it's on fire". Be honest - would you listen? What am I working on so feverishly? Ah, nothing. Just the script to this year's Ned Trek Christmas Special. Last year we did an "It's A Wonderful Life" parody. The year before I believe it was "A Christmas Carol"...

The Saudis have destroyed a key airport in Yemen, a point of entry for crucial aid shipments, making the grim prospect of a major famine even more likely than before. This happened the same week that the Kingdom apparently chose to hold Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri against his will, by some accounts, and forced his resignation (Hariri now disputes this) in an effort to sow discord in a country that survived a 15-year sectarian civil war. This multi-pronged effort to roll back Shi'a influence in the region is largely the handiwork of Arabia's 32-year-old crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (or "MBS" as the folks in the know call him), a man who is taking the blood-stained legacy of Saudi's extremism up to the next level. Praised by many in the American imperial class as a "modernizer", Prince Salman has leveled neighboring Yemen over the past two years, turning it into one of the world's most deadly war zones. This attack was probably born of th...