He is, hopefully, shaken. But unharmed. Whereas the journalist who threw the shoe was beaten till “he was crying like a woman” (Times). The shoe thing is deeply disrespectful in Arab culture, as is calling him a dog (unclean). I guess I don’t disapprove of what the journo did, well, actually, I think it’s OK. I wish more problems were aired symbolically rather than bombically. I mean, I wish people could see that there are other more creative ways to garner media coverage than dead bodies. And what he said was, well, coherent. “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it. As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” (ibid).

The Times has an article on our charming little war. Sri Lankan Army Is Pushing for End to 25-Year War Against the Tamil Rebels. Headline makes me chagrin. I’m 26 years old. This fucking sucks. I do hope the war will end and the Tigers get defeated, even by these johnnies. However, there are caveats placed like mines throughout the article. For example, they note that we actually have no idea what’s really going on in the North and East. That cause independent reporters and monitors are not allowed. The government also has no plan for a political solution or how to effectively hold the land that we’re occupying. I dunno. I hope the thing ends but I really don’t trust the people in charge. I aspire to something more for this country than ‘no terrorism’. Perhaps something positive.

Friedman has a nice piece on ‘How‘. As in, how did we get so fucked, and why how you do things matters. I’m just riffing off one line, but I’ve always written that ‘how’ matters. As in, how you fight a war, how you run a government, these things matter. Character and integrity matter. To quote: “In a connected world,” Seidman said to me, “countries, governments and companies also have character, and their character — how they do what they do, how they keep promises, how they make decisions, how things really happen inside, how they connect and collaborate, how they engender trust, how they relate to their customers, to the environment and to the communities in which they operate — is now their fate.” Our government has so neglected the ‘how’ that I’m not that impressed with the ‘what’.

Was reading this thing bout Korea which is like, uhhh. “The government’s Communications Commission last year ordered Web portals with more than 300,000 visitors a day to require its users to submit their names and matching Social Security numbers before posting comments.” And this is South Korea btw. In North Korea you have to register to get more than 300 calories per day. I think this is an incredibly toxic and disturbing precedent to set, suicide of a South Korean actress aside. Humans have systematic psychological attribution errors, which it’s weird to see on a national level. And, needless to say, bad.

I read something in Slate once, which generally makes it true. The writer was once charged with securities fraud, but that’s kinda par for the financial industry. He did some math and it seemed to make sense. Henry Blodget’s general argument in the Wall Street Self Defense Manual was that investors would make more money just buying index funds rather than gambling on the stock market. The worst option of all was paying other people to gamble for you (as in stock brokers, investment bankers, etc). You get a decent return on the nikang stock market, you probably lose if you try to beat the system, and you pay someone to lose if you go through a broker. Which is why I always suspected that the financial industry wasn’t wearing pants. And today I read about the history of Wall Street in the New York Times, confirming the lack of pants, making it doubly true.

The fun thing about leadership is that people will follow. If you propose stupid shit, people will actually do it. Invading Iraq to avenge 9/11 (Afghanistan) was pretty stupid, and yet many people supported it (including, er, me). Mihin Air and Mervyn Silva are pretty stupid, but the Sri Lankan people pay for both. Today there do not seem to be any adults in charge. I have always had some faith in the powers that be, but George Bush and Mahinda Rajapakse have given me serious doubts, mainly cause they simply cannot handle money in an adult way, and that has dire consequences for average people.

The billboard of Mahinda shaking I’m-A-Dinner-Jacket’s hands makes me cringe on a multi-national level. They’re both the heads of lovely countries, wholly up their own asses. Any country that (divisively) adjectifies its name has obviously been commandeered by a douchebaggy government with something to hide. Hence the chummery between the rulers of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the relative miseries of our people. The latest missive of suck from Iran is their missile threat, glibly overplaying a hand where America has already dealt them Iraq and more. What’s even funnier is that the missile launch photo was faked, and badly.

It’s easy to disappear into relationships, so much that it restructures your thoughts. It’s a weird mind-meld that has struck me in the past, emerging from it, as a total mind-fuck. Nice in that you can roll over for sex, but not in that you run the risk of disappearing as an individual. People start addressing you as a unit, you start acting out your problems externally, fluctuating per their mood, et cetera. Its a balance methinks, a balance. Give me not enough time alone and I start to go nuts. Give me too much time alone, I start to go nuts. Give me nuts and I throw up. Which brings me to the link. The Times covered this (suddha) Buddhist couple that took a vow not to be more than 15 feet apart. Then this normal couple in Slate tried it. Interesting.

The LTTE is well on their way to pissing off everyone on Earth. After their strategically brilliant ploy of assasinating the Indian PM, Rajiv Gandhi, they’ve followed up in the last few years with a failed attack on the Pakistani envoy, and today by injuring the US and Italian ambassadors – firing mortars at their helicopter. But what I don’t get is the LTTE statement – ”’We are shocked at how the Sri Lankan state childishly exposed very high-level diplomats,” he said. ”Our people were not informed of the diplomatic movement…This is a criminal negligence on the part of the Sri Lankan military,” Ilanthirayan said.’ What whaaaat? It wasn’t our fault, you walked in front of our guns? I can get used to the physical attacks on buses and Colombo, but please stop bombing the shit out of common sense.

I’ve been drinking red wine lately cause it makes me feel healthy, though deep in my heart I know the connection is bumpkis. According to the Times article, you’d have to drink 750 bottles per day to see a real benefit. In effect, drinking red wine has only moderate benefits and still gives you hangovers the next day. In refined pill doses, however, the red wine substance resveratrol seems to have great promise for both extending life and quality of life. Not only are mice on the pills better able to deal with fatty foods liver and heart wise, they also have more energy and muscle. Of course, this wonder drug isn’t be prescribed to humans in those quantities (though the authors of the study do take it). Regardless, it seems quite promising.