I was nosing around the web looking for confirmation of that old "fact" that primitive cultures can count up to three, and after that everything is just "many". (Why? Never you mind.) Is it true? Mostly.

It's nice to see that CNN has a new website devoted solely to reporting on Iraq. If it has the CNN name on it, it's got to be accurate, right? (Well, it's still less rabid than FOX News.)

A chronology of the Jaime Hernandez Love & Rockets characters and stories.

Skateboards? Totally over. Rollerblades? Yawn. Scooters? Get a clue, grandpa.

Today's youth are taking it to the extreme -- wheelbarrow style.

You can keep your Howard Dean, your Joe Lieberman, your John Kerry -- none of them have that certain something.

Not like Randy Crow.

Think social awareness and leftist political activism is just hippy-dippy bullshit? Wrong, man -- it's totally punk.

I only wish it were a joke.

"There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear, but a good guess is that we're now seeing the next stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy." Paul Krugman, in the NYT.

Saddam Hussein's horoscope for today (he was born 4/28/37, which makes him a Taurus), from astrology.com:

You find yourself on the way to your next great adventure. Don't forget to make a comfort stop during your great quest. You may be getting out of touch with the people whose efforts have made this journey possible. Dropping a letter or postcard in the mailbox doesn't take up a lot of your time, and it means a lot to the recipient. Tonight, keep in mind that different cultures have different rules. Collect your wits and remember your manners in public.

The Iraqi dictator might want to get out his aromatherapy candles and healing crystals, too, because his biorhythms are not in a happy place right now.

Everybody is aware of the existence of peppermint Altoids. And I daresay that many know of the cinnamon, spearmint and wintergreen varieties. But ginger?

We're through the looking glass here, people...

Say what you will about Michael Moore's Oscar acceptance speech^*, you have to admit that a plurality of the Academy voted for him knowing full well that's the way he'd use his 45 seconds. (I wouldn't be surprised if a sizeable percentage of his votes came from people for precisely that reason.)

^* Still, I think it was a mistake for him to rant, in this circumstance. "Hollywood" is already under attack as it is from the intolerant jingo sharks. Moore just poured more blood into the water.

As we continue onward in this new war of the President's, with men and women killing, and being taken prisoner, and sometimes being wounded or dying, I am struck with one very important thought: thank God it is still illegal for homosexuals to serve in the US military.

Oh, shit -- what if some of the embedded reporters are gay?

I went down to the park today. Nobody was firing any missiles into buildings there. Nobody kept saying SHOCKANAWE over and over. No protesters giving the peace movement a bad name with their BU$H=HITLER signs.

Just the sun. And the grass. And the blue, blue sky.

I think I'll go again tomorrow.

""Well, actually," says the spokesman, "just today the central American presidents will make a declaration about the war." In it, will Panama come out in support of US and British action against Iraq. "How?" Any how. "We aren't sending anyone to the Gulf." Is Panama offering the coalition of the willing moral support? A short pause. "Not really," says the spokesman, thinking it over. "No. Not really."

Just what are the nations in the "Coalition of the Willing" doing to support the war? The Guardian asks around.

Two vomit-centric links have appeared lately, protesting a culture that induces bulimia, and the war, respectively.

Sorry about that. Have a mint.

Hooray for the Public Domain, part XXIII.

(insert obligatory "there's a new Get Your War On update" link here.)

Well, I'm off to Trader Joe's to pick up a case of really cheap wine, and some bottles of Vodka of the Gods. Why? The Gulf War (Two) Drinking Game, natch. Oh, yeah -- better reserve my new liver now.

Stop the war or the clown gets it!

"Salam Pax" is the author of the Where is Raed? weblog, which claims to be the blog of an Iraqi in Baghdad. Mindful of the New Yorker cartoon, "On the internet nobody knows you're a dog," and the infamous Kaycee Nicole hoax, some are skeptical that Salam Pax is who he says he is.

Is he? Actually, he probably is.