I am of two minds. I have not paid adequate attention to the massacre and political crackdown in Uzbekistan, I lost almost all interest in the judiciary nominations/filibuster debate weeks ago, and I have not properly celebrated Arsenal's victory over Manchester United to win the FA Cup, all because of Revenge of the Sith. On the other hand, people die every day, the Potomac Shuffle continues regardless of my attention or inattention, I'm not even sure what the FA Cup is, and this is the last summer of Star Wars. Get fucking excited.

And why is the "international community" (including the U.S.) not outraged about the massacre of political protesters in Andijan, Uzbekistan as it was over the Tiananmen Massacre of political protesters in Beijing, China sixteen years ago? Three reasons: a) not as many people died, b) no one has ever heard of Uzbekistan, and c) most importantly, no Tank Man. You know, the poor brave bastard who stood in front of the People's Liberation Army tanks; to this day no one knows who he was, but rest assured a bullet was put in the back of his head well over a decade ago. Tiananmen Square was, from the point of the CCP leadership, a clusterfuck. All the major player in the Western press were in Beijing to cover Mikhail Gorbachev's visit, and they just stayed for the Tiananmen protests and massacre. The poor people of Andijan didn't attract the attention of the media elites, and so their deaths just don't matter to those same elites. If there are no video images of your life or death, neither ever happened.

Good news for the Uzbek dictatorship, though: the Tiananmen Square Massacre was in 1989; in 2008 Beijing is hosting the Summer Olympics. By that timeline, 2024 is looking good for the Uzbek Games.