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JJ Jackson, one of the initial five VJs on MTV, died yesterday. Condolences to his family and friends.

The first concert I ever went to was Asia, back in 1983. My mom’s friend John was the band’s financial manager. After the show, we got to go backstage to meet the band and guest emcee that night, MTV VJ Alan Hunter (the blond one)! Trust me: the VJs used to be celebrities. Of course, this was back in the time when MTV showed music videos.

The next concert I went to was Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, with Til Tuesday opening up. I don’t go to shows much anymore, and certainly not “concerts.” Most of the music I listen to nowadays comes from acts that are either dead, defunct, drawn or probably not too good live (unless the audience is dosed on X).

Looks like I was wrong in We Stand Together. The Spanish electorate has spoken, and it’s voted in the socialist party, which plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Evidently, the Al Qaeda connection to the Madrid bombings has left the public with little taste for foreign involvement. This, of course, is part of what Al Qaeda seems to want, and what they expected of the U.S. following 9.11. I think the leadership was operating under the Black Hawk Down model, where America would withdraw from conflict as soon as it saw its soldiers in bodybags.

I’m still trying to parse the logic of the left-wing voters in Spain, though. After all, the big outcry against the war in Iraq is that Bush and Blair lied to the world about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. So, let’s assume that the attacks in Madrid were conducted by Al Qaeda.

If the attack was conducted in response to Spain’s involvement in the war, then it would seem that there is a connection between those two groups, and that the left’s complaints are incorrect. The war, then, was justified to smash a national base for terrorists.

And if Al Qaeda doesn’t have any interest in “avenging” Spanish involvement in Iraq, then the left’s vote against the conservative government makes no sense. Which is to say, the vote for the socialist party smells like appeasement to me. And it makes less sense particularly for Spain, considering Bin Laden’s comments about wanting to restore the Caliphate (which would, y’know, involve taking over Spain).

I have a lot more that I’d like to write/discuss about this subject, but I have a lot of work to do at the day job (conference all week in New York), so I’m going to have to cut this short.

Went to the Spanish Consulate in New York yesterday to bring flowers as a memorial for the victims of the Madrid bombings. Credit to Instapundit for suggesting the idea on his site. Picture of the memorial below. There wasn’t much there, as you can see; the Spanish embassy in Washington received many more signs of support. If you’d like to show your solidarity with the people of Spain, here’s how.

I’m not a terrorism expert, but the initial reports give me the impression that the attack was an al-Qaeda operation, rather than the ETA. After all, “conventional” terrorists tend to claim responsibility and use their attacks to bring attention to a particular cause or grievance. Thus far, we’ve heard nothing about the motivation for the attack, which is why I think that it’s another offensive in the war.

Andrew Sullivan links to an editorial from Le Monde discussing the sea change brought about by the Madrid bombings.

South Korea’s parliament, or an outtake from The Matrix Reloaded?

To the family of Spalding Gray.

The Brooding Persian writes:

O.K. I read your piece on The Passion a few times and was left needing more. You always pull back the moment I expect otherwise — sort of like the stiffness you described experiencing in the gathering of the practicing religious friends who wanted to make a (what was it, honest? real?) Jew out of you; or when you promised to let us know why you carried a suitcase around and never did.

I read and talk to people mostly out of curiosity about their take on matters I have my takes on. We read different things and move in different circles and that makes it all the more interesting. If I want to read theology, I read theology — there all gazillion different interpretations and I struggle with them as I presume others do as well. But why is it that this particular fellow I talk to feels the need to insist on this particular flavor of interpretation? What makes him tick? What does it do for him? What does his choice tell me about this particular individual who happens to have peeked my curiosity.

Take your eloquently passionate friend who argues that there are millions who believe they want to go to heaven to fuck 72 virgins. If in a bar, I might play along and have a few laughs. But do I really believe that millions make a million decisions a day really always thinking ultimately of fucking 72 virgins? I don’t care who she is, what religion she believes in, whether she is an actress, a construction worker, a writer or a stripper. I am after the impulses — that bundle of visceral reactions that make her choose to believe in this particular version of causation when observing religious disposition of a segment of humanity.

So then, the question for me; why is it you feel so pissed about this movie?

The planet is/has always been filled with ‘sects’ I take an interest in them, for sometimes sects are the most interesting things around and often the most dangerous. No cogent argument here for ignoring them.

Same goes for Mad Max on Theology. Do any of us really want to be always trapped within a particular role in our lives? Can’t we expect to break out and redefine ourselves?Transform ourselves and others? To move on and have others move on with us? Leave theology to theologians? I want the fucking theologians to stop having monopoly over theological issue . . . perhaps we all end up better/happier/safer for the move.

So give me that impulse. I think we all have it. I had a nightmare last night and woke up sweating. You know what it was? Me in a hood — the type pulled — all too often — over the head of the Afghans and the Iraqis. See, I might give you a thousands and one different accounts of why Bush really is pissing me off. But deep down it comes down to the hood. That is my honest, visceral take on the American campaign in the Middle East. I sit in my apartment each night expecting/waiting for the knock . . . but no nightmares. I have been shot in the face . . . attacked by a sword . . . plane accident, to no real effect. But I just can’t shake the goddamn hood even if it has nothing to do with me. What is it you can’t shake about this movie? Or am I simply just fucked up? (Hint: rhetorical-you don’t have to answer)

It can’t be!