Peace first (hey, peace always first, as far as I'm concerned). Tomorrow has been designated a peace posting day, and my attempt at being a Blogger for Peace will include a review of the first issue of Marvel's just-out 411. You can currently view some of the pages online here. The scoop on this is as follows, "On April 11, 2003, grief turns to hope and resolve when Marvel and its international creative community pay tribute to world's least-heralded heroes - peacemakers. Called simply 411, this special anthology project will tell uplifting stories of people choosing to fight aggression with information and non-violent resistance. This beautifully illustrated, positive publishing initiative will be filled with true and fictional stories about everyday heroes who are trying to bring peace to their part of the world, featuring the work of contributing artists and writers from Cleveland to Croatia … from Hollywood to Hong Kong. 411 will also feature diverse contributors from outside the comics industry, including Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America), anti-nuclear activist & Nobel Peace Prize nominee Helen Caldicott (The New Nuclear Danger), and political cartoonist David Rees (Get Your War On). A special introduction will be provided by Dr. Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence." From what I hear Kushner and Dr. Caldicott had to drop out due to other commitments or somesuch, but I haven't had a chance to peruse the book yet (it says "On April 11" but Wednesday is the day new comics appear so it's actually in stores now) so tune in tomorrow.
Meanwhile, yesterday and today. Well, our current version of whack-a-mole continues, with some intriguing twists. The Washington Post wonders where the Iraqi military leadership is. The UK Guardian quotes British intelligence forces as saying that Hussein and his cabal were probably not in the bombed-out building that US forces hit on Monday. And US/UK encounter surprisingly little opposition in their march through Baghdad, describing the atmosphere as "eerily quiet." Too quiet, as they say in the movies. What's actually going on? Who knows whom to believe? But this provided me with a little food for thought. (Link via Jay at the Agonist.) Granted, it's from an Irani paper, but I don't think that's a reason to instantly discredit it.
As far as the image seen 'round the world goes, my thoughts pretty much run along the lines of this article. It was just plain bad form, okay? The American flag certainly symbolizes a lot of wonderful things, particularly to the Marines involved, but to many others it was quite the literal "in your face" and a sign of "typical" American arrogance, which we need like a
In other news, I could have sworn I saw this in an issue of Queen and Country. Truth beats fiction once again.
Lastly, following up on my baseball posts, this item. This is exactly the kind of idiocy to which I referred when I expressed my disgust at the times when the game is "wrapped up in patriotism and jingoism of the worst sort." But perhaps it's to be expected given our current leader is an ex-owner of a baseball team. And if you can stand another sports-politics analogy, August Pollak makes some good points vis a vis his reaction to the "support the troops" meme.
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