Coming soon to a brain wave near you! Planet of Beckett's debut album "Yeshua is Coming!" this seminal work will blow the doors off your conventional camper trailer so be prepared for some rip-roaring intellectual shinanigins and uncle tomfoolery. "We havn't done anything like this before" says the band's leader singer, Krash Halmoot, "not since our last album." Get it while you can! order now and you will get a free board game with every ten purchases!

How can yah?

Yes!, I said, "How can Yah?" say you're 'Anti-Torture'? Have yah read you're own blog lately have yah? Besides what the fuck? Who the hell isn't anti-torture beejeezus! except George Dub be yah for sure and say maybe the Pope... pause for laughs or maybe a dominatrix or two.

Talk about a complete disregard for ethics...

This speaks for itself. Ugh!

Come on Harris!

In an interesting show of loyalty, the Bush gang seem to be distancing themselves from their good buddy Katherine Harris. Check this out. For those who don't remember, Katherine Harris used to be responsible for elections in Florida during the 2000 election debacle. Wouldn't it be great if she decided to swipe back at her masters and show us what really happened during the registration purging and vote counting. Come one, Katherine, you can do it. It's the right thing to do.

Beckett O' Beckett

Oh how? my head aches from the irony! Beckett sells cds on Ickyswick, ouch!
Said myself I think. Oh shut up! Beckett would have loved the internet blog , the anonymous mouth speaking from the great existential world wide abyss painfully artistic for any poor intellectual sap to suckle from their internal intimate techno bubble.

Colbert rips on W and the MSM

This is one of the most amazing things I have watched in a long time. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report lays into President Bush and the White House correspondents right to their face. He has been getting slammed in the media including comments that state he "wasn't funny." They weren't laughing because what he was saying not only is true but a serious indictment of the current state of journalism. Way to go, Stephen Colbert!

Update: After I wrote the above line I found this on Kung-Fu Monkey. Exactly!

New blog to check out

Check out Krash Sight. It should prove to be a strange trip into a strange mind.

Beckett...

I attempted reading some Beckett recently. I found a copy of Three Novels which consists of Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. I slogged through Molloy and started into Malone Dies. At this stage, not only was it completely destroying my brain, but I felt like it was a lot like the novel I had just finished. I gave up frustrated at the anti-novel approach. I get that he was trying to subvert the normal structures of character, plot, and the basic narrative, but after a while it felt very pointless and a waste of time. It takes a lot for me to stop reading a novel. I feel the same about finishing books as I do about cleaning my plate at dinner.
Anyway, having a coffee and pastry in Cafe du Soleil (at Fillmore and Waller for those who know SF) this morning, I was reading through The Onion and came across this article which made me laugh out loud. I'm sure the guy sitting next to me thought I was nuts.

COBRA II

I am reading COBRA II which goes into great detail about the lead up to the Iraq war.

It seems to slant to the right but appears to be driven from a fact-based point of view. I find it interesting after only about 80 pages how spot-on many of the senior officers were during the planning phase. They were starting to see problems with the numbers of troops needed to keep the peace after the initial defeat of the Iraqi forces, problems with building up the country afterward, etc. All issues that have turned out to be problematic. It is an interesting phenomenon in organizations that choose to toss out years of developed experience and wisdom for an untested philosophy. How sad that so many lives had to be lost at the expense of not listening to our own military leaders.

An intersting quote on the slant of the book:

The British, who had a more punctilious attitude toward international law, declined to participate in the Southern Focus operation on the grounds that the United Nations resolutions that were used to justify the patrols of the no-fly zones did not authorize bombing to smooth the way for an invasion.

The tone implies that their inclination toward the rule of law is somehow quaint.

What's in a name?

My dad used to call me Icky. It's a play on my first name.

My wife is from Ireland and is often fond of saying, "You're getting on my wick." It's another way of saying "You're really starting to bug the crap out of me."

I also liked the tie-in with bailiwick.

First entry

Having read many blogs over the past several months, I decided to throw my hat into the ever growing ring.

Most of what I will post here will be about politics and current events but I will also write about books I am reading (or plan to), my wife and kids (I have three), life here in San Francisco, film, games (I am co-inventing a board game with my brother), or whatever else takes my fancy.

At this stage, I am not quite sure what I expect, but at the very least, it will be good to have the chance to vent and share ideas with others. Hopefully I will have some interesting conversations as a result.

Cheers, Icky