Rob is absolutely correct: anyone who lays down arms and refuses to kill on command is a hero. I don't give a rat's arse which "side" they're on.

Rob's also right in that you won't hear much about this in the "mainstream" media, and whatever you do hear will be propaganda -- which is why I'm pointing to his entry.

I know, I know -- politics is bad for me, not least because if I blog this there are quite literally a thousand other stories I should blog. But I'm not going to fall into that trap; I just wanted to say "Rob's right", because this particular story resonated with me. We now return to our usual semi-silence.

Welcome back from the brink. Here's your coffee; we've got work to do.

(See my political blogroll for all the details; they're doing a sterling job, nicely laced with schadenfreudenous glee.)

Today is Stavros' birthday. All sentient beings should celebrate.

Jeanne of Body and Soul turns, um, 21-ish today. If you don't read her regularly, do yourself a favour and start. She's smart and funny and a committed progressive with a keen eye for the really important issues. If you're at all like me, you want to be politically well-informed but you simply don't have the time to do the requisite reading. The answer is filters/trusted agents/whatever they are being called now, and Jeanne is one of mine. I rely on a small number of bloggers for my world and national political news, and seldom even glance at mainstream media outlets any more; Jeanne is a must-read for this purpose. I'd pick out posts to whet your appetite, but really, they're all good. Go read.

Happy birthday, Jeanne!

Welcome to the world, Elijah Boyd. Live long, and prosper.

I've got a dozen posts in the pipeline, none of which will probably ever be finished because I just don't have the heart for it. Das Welt tut mir weh.
So here, in case you too are feeling overwhelmed: go see what real humanity looks like:

Sixty-one years ago, Joanna Zalucka hid a young Jewish girl in her bedroom for eight months, keeping the child from the Nazis in their native Poland during the Holocaust.

The girl survived, rejoined her parents and moved to Brooklyn in 1953. On Friday, Ruth Gruener, now 72, was reunited with her Polish friend at Kennedy International Airport.

Via Julia; modern picture from ABCNews, childhood pictures of Ruth (right) and Joanna from The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.

Live long and prosper, Amelia Jane S.

Finally, some news worth a break in my hiatus. Live long and prosper, Fiona Haughey. Congratulations and best wishes to Kay and Matt.

Mbaye Diagne and what he did deserve to be better known. I don't even know how to pronounce that name, but the man who bore it was a hero. The web never forgets, so link to the post if you have a blog, that history might do him honour.

(Still hiatusing; link via Bitch PhD whom I should not be reading at work.)

Happy (belated; I suck; but you knew that) birthday to Brad, whom I regard with great affection and respect even though I never write and whom I consider a friend even though we have yet to meet in person.

I believe he's, um, 25. Again.

In Australia, throughout the Commonwealth and in a few places in Europe, the eleventh day of the eleventh month is called Remembrance Day and is marked by, among other things, a two-minute silence at the eleventh hour. Here in my new home we call it Veteran's Day, so I'll do that, but there is no silence at 11 am. The two minutes of solemn remembrance has meant a great deal to me since I was a child, and I do not think it will hurt anything if I continue the custom. Today I put aside my troubles and remember the many dead of both World Wars -- indeed, of all wars -- for their sacrifice.

Lest we forget.

For The Fallen
(21st September, 1914)

WITH proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon

I missed most of your first four decades,
which is probably just as well --
I was kind of an asshole
and you had your own brand of hell;

but all of that stuff about "sunshine through clouds"
and "so happy I'm almost in tears"
is as true as it's gauche -- so you're stuck with me now,
and here's to the next forty years!

Happy birthday, spousal unit.

Congratulations to L. and L. on the pitter-patter of little hackerfeets.

Welcome to the world, Fiona Jane.

Naze turns 40 today. I rarely read personal journal blogs any more, but days of naze was one of the first I ever picked up (I remember when he didn't even have his own domain) and it's lasted all this while because I just plain like him. Read a few of the stories in his archives and see if you don't, too.

So happy birthday, Chris, and many happy returns!

naze turning forty
gopher a thing of the past --
how'd I get so old?

never did sign up
for his email notices --
naze by RSS

(Did I mention that he likes to get haiku for his birthday? Go ahead, send him one. You don't have to be Basho.)