Virtual Memories

Now that they know, of course, we’ll have to mobilize the cabal.

It’s hard to believe Gary Kasparov is mixed up in this. I would’ve thought this was Bobby Fischer’s terrain . . .

Why did someone look up

jana novotna oops photos

on Google this morning, leading him (I’m guessing it’s a him) to this site?

The 9/11 commission is in full witch-hunt mode, blaming Clinton for not (illegally) assassinating Bin Laden and blaming Bush for not preemptively invading Afghanistan.

The commission members and their staff seem to have forgotten the administration-crippling effects of Clinton’s philandering. Thanks to his inability to keep his cock in his pants, years of his administration were paralyzed, and his every action was second-guessed to an unimaginable degree.

Remember when, just before the House voted to impeach, he launched a cruise missile strike? That, we were told at the time, was an instance of Wag the Dog syndrome. Now the debate seems to avoid any mention of the effects of blowjobgate on the presidency. (By the way, that attack involved a launch of 200 cruise missiles on Iraq, which had recently kicked out UN weapons inspectors who were trying to ascertain the status of Hussein’s WMD. The shooting war with Iraq was going on long before Bush came into office.) Why, check out this report on the hearings, which discusses Clinton’s actions and inactions from 1998 on, and do a word search for “impeachment”, “Monica”, or “blowjob in the oval office”, and you’ll come up blank. The entire episode has been elided because, I suppose, it’s too sordid. Sorta like Lacuna, Inc.

After the bombing of the Cole and the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (and the truck bombing of the WTC in 1993), the consensus seemed to be that Bin Laden’s targets were military or overseas. Bush, it’s now implied, should’ve foreseen a massively destructive attack on American soil, and preemptively invaded Afghanistan to uproot Al Qaeda and the Taliban. A few months after the most contested election since 1876. With the backing of no foreign power. With a secretary of defense who was hated by the military establishment and was being touted as “first to get fired” in the weeks before 9/11.

Both administrations made tons of mistakes, but think back to 9/10/2001, and remember who you were then, and let me know if you honestly thought that anything like the next day was possible. It was so far outside the world we knew that I don’t blame anyone for not predicting it and acting on it. Even the Israelis didn’t have to deal with attacks like that day.

Just venting, sorry. This sort of revisionist history really irks me. I mean, it’s just like when I read a Mitch Lawrence column on the NBA and can see that he’s got his facts wrong. It shouldn’t be my job to catch this stuff!

Update: Gregg Easterbrook writes about this so much better than I do!

Saw The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night.

If you ever tried to forget her/him, you oughtta see it. If you ever wanted to call her/him, months after it’s all over, you oughtta see it. If you ever let failed love for someone make you put your life in a holding pattern, you oughtta see it.

[I wrote some pretty lengthy personal stuff after that paragraph, but I decided that this place just isn't the forum for that. I've tried to be pretty open about my personal life on this blog, but there are a lot of things that I haven't mentioned, out of privacy considerations and for other reasons (the fact that I have a new girlfriend is one of them). You can write me about reactions to love and its ending, or hit the comments link to start a conversation about it.]

Update: Go ape! Yet again! (Thanks to Arts & Letters for the link)