All manner of despots invoke the sovereignty argument like it’s something sacred. It’s not. It’s actually bad. To look at what sovereignty is, look at the incoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate. Not them, but their ancestors. William’s ancestors – until World War II – married not for love or even proximity but in incestuous sovereignty. The House of Windsor was then the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a German house. What unified Europe was not the self-rule but selfish rule by a set of elite families that transcended nationality.

The UN is like a latter day Vatican. Supposedly moral and impartial, but actual a political player with a standing army. They are inherently political. This is not a bad thing, it just means that they have to take sides. For a while they’ve been known for doing nothing (Darfur, Rwanda). Only more recently have they become known for doing ‘something’ (Libya, Cote de Ivoire). Why have they acted there, and why not in a case like Sri Lanka? International politics isn’t pure right and wrong. When you make a choice you inevitably have to take sides. In Libya and Cote de Ivoire they had a visible and legitimate side to take. In Sri Lanka they didn’t.

As the UN Report is blowing up my comments with unusually civilized discourse (for this crowd), I uh, I’m going to start a new sentence now. So, I was reading something else. Via Sullivan I read this guy Budiansky musing on what makes a war just. He says that all war basically sucks, but that “Two of these questions stand out above all: Is it likely to succeed? And is it likely to do more good than harm?” Though most local partisans don’t frame it that way, this is a valid way to look at the Sri Lankan war.

There’s a lot of discussion on the UN Report on Sri Lanka. Short version: there may be blood. Most of the discussion, however, is academic. Malinda talks about the realistic effect of the panel and its jurisdiction. Lahiru talks about the legal pointlessness (though he does later get around to the point). That point being, the government did bad stuff and people died. And we should probably at least think about it. Instead everyone’s talking about bureaucratic niceties.

I usually start by saying that I’m not a fan of cricket, but that’s not true anymore. I am a fan of cricket. Not a knowledgeable one or an avid one, but I really enjoy the game. I honestly think that Twenty20 Cricket is the first truly new sport of the century and incredibly awesome for anyone to watch. Cricket is the only game I know which can scale from 5 days down to three hours and be enjoyable in different ways. I’m also proud that Sri Lanka is respected and awesome at this sport, which is why I’m also really sad to see it getting politicized.

I’ve been watching Mahinda rising in the TIME influential peeps poll with some wonder. Not that at him, but at the people that support him. A lot of Mahinda supporters are asking other people to vote for the man without seeming to understand the description that TIME gives him. They’re basically calling him a dictator who has corrupted Sri Lankan institutions more than any other democratic leader. And people are forwarding that around as a plus.

I read the UN Panel’s leaked report on Sri Lanka. It’s a bit of an un-report in that it tells you nothing that a scan of TamilNet or even Groundviews wouldn’t tell you, but it’s good that it’s written down. TamilNet is an LTTE organ, btw, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. There were civilian casualties, the government killed its way to victory, IDPs were treated badly and media was repressed. The Sri Lankan LLRC commission is also bullshit. This stuff is all true and I guess that it’s good that it’s out there.

I don’t mind the police in Colombo lately. Since they’re not stretched thin by the war and VIP security they’re able to do some actual policing. They just don’t seem to police themselves. On the way back from work I saw, separately, a cop jeep just stopped in the middle of the road, a cop truck taking an illegal turn against the light and another cop crawling along and obstructing traffic. They’ve started to bust regular drivers for similar infractions, but it’s kinda hard to take them seriously when they break the law themselves.

The girl likes to wear short shorts. I like to wear boxers or sarong so I guess I understand. If, however, we go to the grocery store or something, this causes a general paroxysm. I don’t mean me in my underwear, but her in overwear. It’s like people haven’t seen legs before. Worse, she tried to go out to feed the cow down the lane and got cat calls from neighborhood boys. In our own neighborhood. It’s like, WTF. Legs. They’re for walking.

Sri Lanka has free public health care but a lot of people don’t use it. I have dealt with public health care only briefly. My girlfriend once went and spent about 6 hours over two days just to see a doctor for the kid. I think it’s the time issue that makes people avoid it, I dunno. Luckily I’ve avoided the hospital except for a brief bout with dengue/viral fever, and that under company health care. Recently, however, I checked the girlfriend’s kid into Lanka Hospitals for observation and it was really expensive. I wonder how the system sustains.