Beyond depressing

Don't miss today's Salon article about the death of culture in Iraq, once an intellectual hub of the Arab world (link via Juan Cole):

"Before, we were suffering under Saddam, but now there are many Saddams."

In the old days you got killed for opposing the regime. Nowadays you can get blown up simply for selling books -- or even ice, which according to the theological geniuses of the new Baghdad is somehow "un-Islamic". Or just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time (read as: anyplace and anytime). And yet our Dear Leader and his cronies continue to polish this turd as if there's anyone out there left in America who honestly believes that things are getting better in Iraq and not worse.

One of Bush's major enablers among the circle of educated people who should know better has been Christopher Hitchens, so it was particularly gratifying to hear that he got his ass handed to him by Jon Stewart the other night on The Daily Show, one of the last remaining bastions of sanity in our republic gone mad. I can only read the transcript here at work -- I can't wait to get home tonight and watch the video!