Septic Security Firms

12/27/07

“I am a citizen of the world.”
Diogenes the Cynic, 4th century B. C.

Dear Readers:

Did you know that St Brigid could turn her bathwater into beer? Speaking of St Brigitte, her latest blog entry (see link for gonzodiner on this blog) has important Walrus information. Please check it out. I received news that last Friday’s PET scan showed no cancer. My happiness is ineffable, beyond words.

According to the Washington Post, Blackwater Worldwide and other security firms “are operating with little regulation or oversight.” The fact that our government disregarded numerous warnings about this brings to mind Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”(1899). More specifically, it reminds me of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”(1979), particularly that scene where the officers are having lunch together and lamenting the reality that Colonel Kurtz, one of America’s best and brightest, is operating completely beyond the pale, commanding an army of mercenaries and Montagnard tribesman that recognize no rule of law. Fact is, the U. S. military, being undermanned going in, required additional boots on the ground, and we’re not talking about Army boots here. According to Michael J. Arrighi, someone who has beeen involved with private security firms in Iraq since 2004, companies like Blackwater sprang up “like mushrooms after a rainstorm.”

“Gasoline could cost an average of 3.75 a gallon nationwide in the next four months, pushing the price in California up and over the $4 dollar mark, energy analysts predicted Wednesday,” (source Ronald White L. A. Times). By George, that settles it, my next car is a hybrid Hummer.

Speaking of movies, this excerpt from the Ann Arbor News reminded me of George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead”(1978): “police are investigating a fight in the center court of Briarwood Mall that closed the mall an hour early on Christmas Eve. According to the police, a group of men attacked another group of men with a hammer and chairs.” These consumer en-raged automatons must have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas.

(From The Associated Press) “It was a stinky holiday for Robert Schoff. The 77-year-old man spent part of Christmas Eve stuck upside down in the opening of his septic tank, with his head inside and his feet kicking in the air above….it was an hour before his wife, Toni, walked by a window and saw his feet in the air.”