Kith & Kin
The ranks of my kin swelled by one on Friday, with the birth of Lucianna (code name pending)—"Lucy"—, my niece & Where's Teddy?'s little sister. Mother & baby came through with flying colors & came home to Xanadu on Sunday. She's been described as "looking like [Where's Teddy?];" I won't comment 'til Lucy has reached the cuter stage that occurs once the wee bairn transitions from being a newborn to being an infant. Lucy! Lucy! Lucy! I can't wait to meet my niece, to begin her indoctrination: Remember, wee Lucy, Uncle Mike is your favorite. Uncle Mike loves you very much.



"And now for something completely different."

The Explorers' Club
№ CCLXXVI - Kuru & the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.









The Savage Wars of Peace
Three cheers for the African Union's forces in Somalia, fighting the good fight against local al-Qaeda franchise al-Shabaab: Somali-link. Hip hip! Hooray! Hip hip! Hooray! Hip hip! Hooray! Somalia is a lovely example with which to refute the isolationist line that failed states in far-off corners of the world represent no threat to U.S. national security. Absent a viable Somali state & the international will to do anything to rectify this sorry state of affairs, lawlessness reigns. Absent any law, criminal gangs hold sway; international trade is compromised through piracy. (Piracy! As if the seventeenth century lived again.) Absent a cohesive state, terrorist groups like the erstwhile Islamic Courts Union & al-Shabaab fill the vacuum. al-Shabaab has already launched terrorist attacks against civilians as far afield from Somalia as Uganda, & has been closely linked to al-Qaeda's franchise in Yemen, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (A.Q.A.P.). A.Q.A.P. is infamous for its innovative attacks on the U.S. proper, such as the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 above Detroit on Christmas Day in '09 & the attempted bombing of cargo planes in September '10. Far from being a response to U.S. troops deployments to Somalia or Yemen, the activities of al-Shabaab & A.Q.A.P. are acts of savage aggression against an international order built on liberal democracy, the rule of law, & respect for human rights, everything which al-Qaeda has sworn to sunder.

Pretending that the international order from which we have benefited so richly does not require the security guarantee that America alone can provide flies in the face of what bitter experience has shown. The world left Afghanistan to its own devices in the 1990s, & as a result the Taliban provided the sanctuary from which al-Qaeda plotted & executed 9/11. What would happen now were the world to turn a blind eye to Somalia, allowing al-Shabaab to consolidate its grip on power? Do not be fooled by the fact that the forces on the ground doing the fighting in Somalia are from the African Union, not the United States; the bulk of the troops operating against al-Shabaab are from Ethiopia & Uganda, two stalwart U.S. allies in the post-9/11 wars. Withdrawing from the world, "bringing all our boys home," is not a feasible—let alone a wise—national security strategy for the United States. Isolationism made us less safe, not more safe, in the decades before the Second World War. Isolation today would make us less safe, not more safe, despite the comforting fantasies spun by some on the Left &, more disturbingly, by all too many on the Right

The Queue
About a third of the way into City of Gold I'm far more reminded of the Bernard Samson novels than Deighton's lesser, non-Samson novels. Blasted shame to have so long deferred this read.

Also, the other week my dad asked me a question about the Athenian Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian War (that's normal, right?) &, to my chagrin, I could not answer his query in anything other than generalities. Consequently, I've decided to take the plunge & finally read A War Like No Other. Hanson's Culture and Carnage was both accessible & coherently argued; so, I have high hopes for the same author's account of the war 'twixt Sparta† & Athens*, the war for the ancient Greek soul.

After that excursion into Hellenic non-fiction, I intend to return to Barsoom (Burroughs's swashbuckling Mars) with The Gods of Mars, after which I'll either continue directly with the next volume, The Warlord of Mars, or alternate between Barsoom & a non-Burroughs selection.

Recently
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus (Vol. 5) & Red Rackham's Treasure (Vol. 12)
Eric Powell, The Goon: Heaps of Ruination (Vol. 3) & Virtue and the Grim Consequences Thereof (Vol. 4)

Currently
Len Deighton, City of Gold

Presently
Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
Rudyard Kipling, The Man who would be King and Other Stories
Victor Davis Hanson, A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Gods of Mars

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Ivy, "Lucy Doesn't Love You" from Long Distance (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Been on my mind since Saturday.

"Nothing's every going to make her happy,
She doesn't mind 'cause she's used to it that way."

Sonntag, 4 März
The Aquabats!, "Just Can't Lose!" from Hi-Five Soup! (Captain Thumbs-up)

Commentary: Chosen in Lucy-delayed celebration of the long-awaited premiere of The Aquabats! Super Show!. It's finally here! Yippee! Contrast the never-say-die optimism of "Just Can't Lose!" with the behind-every-silver-lining-there-is-a-dark-cloud pessimism of "You Can't Win" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones; the beauty of The Aquabats'! indefatigable striving to see the upside of everything is that they possessed it even when they were a ska band.

"'Cause no matter what I do I just can't lose,
And even if I do I'll jump your bike right above your roof,
(Yeah!)
'Cause if I crash real bad,
Your sister will think I'm rad,
No matter, no matter what I do, I just can't lose!"

Samstag, 3 März
William Shatner, "Spleen/Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" from The Transformed Man (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: By the time Lucy was born on Freitag, I'd already selected the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. I wondered what sort of song was appropriate as a greeting to life, & turned to the births of Where's Teddy? & The Squeak for guidance. On both occasions, I'd picked songs with the babe's given name in the title, "Where's Teddy?" for him & "Believe Me Natalie" (should be "Believe Me, Natalie") for her. Searching my musical library, I came upon two songs with Lucy in the title: Saturday's R.B.D.S.O.T.D. by William Shatner & "Lucy Doesn't Love You" by Ivy. Neither seemed fitting to the occasion, but what song would, aside from Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely?," a choice that seemed terribly unfair to Where's Teddy? & any subsequent boys, since they could not be so celebrated. Lucy is too young, far too young, to have evinced much in the way of a distinct personality; so, how could I pick a song that was specific to her, expect by her name? Of the two, I like "Lucy Doesn't Love You" better, especially since the overwrought, unintentionally hilarious The Transformed Man is no match for Shatner's later masterwork, Has Been, but I could think of no finer way to welcome Lucy into the clan, a tribe of nerds (science fiction fans, political junkies, & myriad additional nerdy pursuits), than with the dulcet tones of Captain James T. Kirk himself. Welcome to the world, Lucy!

*Athens = virtuous, yet vicious
†Sparta = vicious, yet virtuous