As you may have heard, former Bush campaign aide Karen Hughes has been named as President Dubya's foreign envoy in charge of making us look good as we violate international law and cluster-bomb civilian areas.

Born into a US Army family in Paris, Hughes grew up in the United States, Canada and Panama.

"I learned to respect people of different countries and different cultures, and I learned firsthand that America's policies can be interpreted differently in different places," she said Monday.

How true that is! For instance, when people in Panama watch 3000 of their neighbors get slaughtered by foreign troops, they interpret the actions of US policymakers differently than people in the US watching heroic soldiers capture the evil dictator on teevee. (The Panamanians even refuse to call it "Operation Just Cause" like we tell them to.)

Hopefully Karen can do some PR magic and get those stupid foreigners to appreciate our benevolent bombing campaigns. (TPCQ: "I have seven pudding cups!")

Immutable Law of Human Nature #137: Music

A while back, Diane alerted me to NeoCon Luv by the Iron Sheik, et al. I thought it was cool, but not nearly as magnificent as she did. Lately, though, I've been listening to it more and more, and today I had a revelation: No one ever enjoys a song you play them as much as you do at the time. The more I think about this, the more true it feels.

I remember one time Jesse came into the Eric/Christie/Garrett/Max house and played us "Chemical Calesthenics" by Blackalicious -- as glorious as this song is, there were a dozen reasons why we didn't turn on to it at that moment. I know I've had similar results myself -- even with songs that my friends have gone on to appreciate.

So I dunno -- I guess the best way really is just to give the person the song and let them digest it as their own pace.

Other

Thanks to Garrett for (long ago) linking us to Who's on First? (The video store remix). I think he got it from Sam.

And thanks to MoFi for linking us to It Puts the Lotion on Its Skin: The music video.

TimeWaster™

Balance is a little long, but very good. Also from MoFi.

Today I'm listening to: LaidBack!