What is the “Course” that we are supposed to be staying on?

As Holden and Andante have noted it means training an Iraqi army that is ambushing our troops.

We have learned this because Nadia McCaffrey, the mother of one of the two California National Guardsmen killed in one incident didn’t accept the Pentagon version of her son’s death, and Senator Barbara Boxer help bring pressure on the military to investigate the incident.

It means that seven Marines and a Navy corpsman are under indictment for the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi.

It means Abu Ghraib and Haditha. It means that after billions of dollars and three years Iraqis have fewer utilities than under Saddam Hussein.

This course has cost Iraqi women their civil rights, strengthened the power of fundamentalist Muslims, turned up the flame on sectarian differences.

This course has cost 2500+ members of the US military their lives, tens of thousands have been wounded, with even higher numbers among Iraqis.

It should fairly obvious that the presence of the US in Iraq is not improving the life of the people. We can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, because the tunnel was destroyed during the “Shock and Awe” campaign.

Apparently it was necessary for Congressional salaries to increase by approximately $30K since 1997, but Republicans don’t see a need to raise the minimum wage.

I want one of those who keep claiming that raising the minimum wage costs jobs to point to some facts to back that claim. It has never happened any other time the minimum wage was increased. We are raising the minimum wage in Florida and our employment is stable.

It is another convenient lie, like cutting taxes increases revenues. It doesn’t happen, but the claim keeps being made.

Mustang Bobby noted that today is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe.

Many Wiccans celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who build the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.

The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.

The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Musorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.

Via Andante from some time ago, I ran across Archæoastronomy which tracks all of the important solar events.