The Binary Circumstance

Here’s the report. But is he really dead?

Hours after Saddam faced the same fate he was accused of inflicting on countless thousands during a quarter-century of ruthless power, Iraqi state television showed grainy video of what it said was his body, the head uncovered and the neck twisted at a sharp angle.

A man whose testimony helped lead to Saddam’s conviction and execution before sunrise said he was shown the body because “everybody wanted to make sure that he was really executed.”

Given all the lies we’ve been told about the situation in Iraq and the fact that government workers can’t even discuss the scientific age of the Grand Canyon, can we really be sure he’s dead? It would be so easy to fake it.

The Bush administration is promoting the Biblical estimate.

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY — Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

No surprise there.

Sen. Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, is still number one on Amazon.com’s bestseller list.

I’d say Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s got a problem.

Jay Leno said the other night that the name Barack Obama is Kenyan. It means “Hillary’s worst nightmare.”

A government that truly represents these Americans–that truly serves these Americans–will require a different kind of politics. That politics will need to reflect our lives as they are actually lived. It won’t be pre-packaged, ready to pull off the shelf. It will have to be constructed from the best of our traditions and will have to account for the darker aspects of our past. We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds. And we’ll need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break.
–from The Audacity of Hope

Now, what exactly does that mean? If we are a land of warring factions then we do not have common hopes and dreams or bonds that will not break.

He could be a rational’s worst nightmare as well.

The North Carolina bar has charged DA Mike Nifong with ethics violations.

What took them so long?