The World

So, things are still in transition what with the 134 miles of moving, the new job, and not having internet the past few days. It's my intention at least not to completely give up posting here though.

Not having internet though means that I'm less informed than I've been in years, and with the major political turmoil going on in Northern Africa, which I know very little about (Tunis sheep are awesome and have fat tails....that is what I know about Northern Africa), I'm not going to touch having an actual opinion about anything with a ten foot pole. That, and it kind of seems like a time to respectfully watch, and realize that from our smug position of peaceful government turnovers and mostly academic debates about security vs. liberty it's just not our drama to share. The dynamics are fascinating though. Since it happened pre-move, I feel like I had at least a novice level grasp on the situation in Egypt. I don't have much background in non-democratic politics, but I'm much more interested in them now than I was. Libya seems to be a completely different kind of animal though. I assume that Libya has about the same proportion of rational, self interested people as any other country...so what is the rationale behind keeping a leader who does not seem to be within even a standard deviation or two of sanity?

Ironically, since we've moved, and I haven't had internet or access to the public library, I've been reading whatever is at hand...which has included the following:

Only six people in the Galaxy knew that the job of the Galactic President was not to wield power but to attract attention away from it.  

Zaphod Beeblebrox was amazingly good at his job. 

 - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Non-democratic politics are pretty fascinating. The world is a very big place. Douglas Adams was ten kinds of badass.