(part 1 of... more than 1)
From The Territory Ahead...

Cut-to-the-Chase Pullover: Crafted of an ambitious configuration of dual-colored cotton blend yarns — big ol’ fat ones and skinny little ones — wrapped, looped and twisted into an ultrasoft, buoyantly textured fabric. With comfort- inducing raglan sleeves, notched high crew collar, self-finished cuffs, and twill taped side vents. Imported in the Natural color shown.      color: natural     size: xxlg
After Hours Sweatshirt: The fabric is a thick, brushed- to-limpness cotton blend fleece; the fit is loose, roomy. And it’s styled to work for post-lounge activities as well, like browsing through car mags or sipping coffee: with a mock neck stand-up collar, stone-style buttons and cotton herringbone twill tape on the four-button placket. U.S. made in three colors (left to right): Taupe; Blue- Gray; Latté. This item has been pigment garment dyed - an age-old, natural process which gives it soft-weathered character like a favorite pair of jeans.      colors: Taupe, Blue- Gray, or Latté.    size: xxlg
Principles of Play Jearsey The only thing more fun than playing football (on a hoarfrosted field under an eggshell sky) is to, ah, coach the game in progress. For armchair strategists across America, we offer this more civilized version of the traditional football jersey. It’s made of 100% cotton in a finely textured, asymmetric berber knit, pigment garment overdyed for tonal color and enzyme washed for softness. Details include a football-proper, rounded shoulder yoke; stand-up collar with three- button placket; and a vented, open bottom.      color: tobacco     size: xlg
Southland Bay Sweater: It comes in a soft, easy-draping blend of linen and cotton, with a loose, comfortable fit – simply styled in a beefy knit, with a rib-finished V-neck and reverse jersey panels down the sleeves and center for subtlety and interest.      color: natural     size: xxlg

How's that for getting into the holiday spirit?   Whattaya mean, 'wrong holiday'??

...and yes, I know they all look the same.

(stolen from The Gaurdian)

I'm an American tired of American lies

Woody Harrelson
Thursday October 17, 2002
The Guardian

The man who drives me to and from work is named Woody too. A relief to me, as it minimises the chance of my forgetting his name. I call him Woodman and he calls me Wood. He has become my best friend here, even though he's upset that I have quit drinking beer. He's smart, funny, and there's nothing he hasn't seen in 33 years behind the wheel of his black cab. He drove me for a while before I felt confident he liked me; he doesn't like people easily, especially if they have a rap for busting up black cabs.

Woodman and I agree about a lot of things, but one thing we can never agree about is Iraq. He thinks the only language Saddam understands is brute force. I don't believe we should be bombing cities in our quest for one man. We've killed a million Iraqis since the start of the Gulf war - mostly by blocking humanitarian aid. Let's stop now. Thankfully, most of the Brits I talk to about the war are closer to me than to Woodman. Only your prime minister doesn't seem to have noticed.

I have been here three months doing a play in the West End. I am having the time of my life. I love England, the people, the parks, the theatre. The play is great and the audiences have been a dream. Probably I should just relax, be happy and talk about the weather, but this war is under my skin - it affects my sleep.

I remember playing basketball with an Iraqi in the late 80s while Iran and Iraq were at war. I didn't know at the time that the US and Britain were supplying weapons to both sides. I asked why they were always at war with each other and he said something that stayed with me: "If it were up to the people, there would be peace. It's the governments that create war." And now my government is creating its second war in less than a year. No; war requires two combatants, so I should say "its second bombing campaign".

I went to the White House when Harvey Weinstein was showing Clinton the movie Welcome to Sarejevo, which I was in. I got a few moments alone with Clinton. Saddam throwing out the weapons inspectors was all over the news and I asked what he was going to do. His answer was very revealing. He said: "Everybody is telling me to bomb him. All the military are saying, 'You gotta bomb him.' But if even one innocent person died, I couldn't bear it." And I looked in his eyes and I believed him. Little did I know he was blocking humanitarian aid at the time, allowing the deaths of thousands of innocent people.

I am a father, and no amount of propaganda can convince me that half a million dead children is acceptable "collateral damage". The fact is that Saddam Hussein was our boy. The CIA helped him to power, as they did the Shah of Iran and Noriega and Marcos and the Taliban and countless other brutal tyrants. The fact is that George Bush Sr continued to supply nerve gas and technology to Saddam even after he used it on Iran and then the Kurds in Iraq. While the Amnesty International report listing countless Saddam atrocities, including gassing and torturing Kurds, was sitting on his desk, Bush Sr pushed through a $2bn "agricultural" loan and Thatcher gave hundreds of millions in export credit to Saddam. The elder Bush then had the audacity to quote the Amnesty reports to garner support for his oil war.

A decade later, Shrub follows the same line: "We have no quarrel with the Iraqi people." I'm sure half a million Iraqi parents are scratching their heads over that. I'm an American tired of lies. And with our government, it's mostly lies.

The history taught in our schools is scandalous. We grew up believing that Columbus actually discovered America. We still celebrate Columbus Day. Columbus was after one thing only - gold. As the natives were showering him with gifts and kindness, he wrote in his diary, "They do not bear arms ... They have no iron ... With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." Columbus is the perfect symbol of US foreign policy to this day.

This is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole the White House (you call them "hawks", but I would never disparage such a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's grief and turned it into a perpetual war on any non-white country they choose to describe as terrorist.

To the men in Washington, the world is just a giant Monopoly board. Oddly enough, Americans generally know how the government works. The politicians do everything they can for the people - the people who put them in power. The giant industries that are polluting our planet as well as violating human rights worldwide are the ones nearest and dearest to the hearts of American politicians.

But in wartime people lose their senses. There are flags and yellow ribbons and posters and every media outlet is beating the war drum and even sensible people can hear nothing else. In the US, God forbid you should suggest the war is unjust or that dropping cluster bombs from 30,000ft on a city is a cowardly act. When TV satirist Bill Maher made some dissenting remarks about the bombing of Afghanistan, Disney pulled the plug on him. In a country that lauds its freedom of speech, a word of dissent can cost you your job.

I read in a paper here about a woman who held out the part of her taxes that would go to the war effort. Something like 17%. I like that idea, though in the US it would have to be more like 50%. If you consider money as a form of energy, then we see half our taxes and half the US government's energy focused on war and weapons of mass destruction. Over the past 30 years, this amounts to more than ten trillion dollars. Imagine that money going to preserving rainforest or contributing to a sustainable economy (as opposed to the dinosaur tit we are currently in the process of sucking dry). I give in to Woodman, and we stop for a few beers. He asks me what I'd do in Bush's shoes. Easy: I'd honour Kyoto. Join the world court. I'd stop subsidising earth rapers like Monsanto, Dupont and Exxon. I'd shut down the nuclear power plants. So I already have $200bn saved from corporate welfare. I'd save another $100bn by stopping the war on non-corporate drugs. And I'd cut the defence budget in half so they'd have to get by on a measly $200bn a year. I've already saved half a trillion bucks by saying no to polluters and warmongers.

Then I'd give $300bn back to the taxpayers. I'd take the rest and pay the people teaching our children what they deserve. I'd put $100bn into alternative fuels and renewable energy. I'd revive the Chemurgy movement, which made the farmer the root of the economy, and make paper and fuel from wheat straw, rice straw and hemp. Not only would I attend, I'd sponsor the next Earth Summit. And, of course, I'd give myself a fat raise.

Woodman drops me at home and I ask if he likes my ideas. He offers a reluctant "yes". As he pulls away he yells out, "But I'd never vote for a man who can't handle a few pints at the end of the day!"

· Woody Harrelson appears in On an Average Day at the Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1 until November 3. Box office: 020-7369 1731.

Since I actually use this as my home page, and tend to access it about 10 times per day, waiting for all those pictures to load was getting on my nerves. I also thought it might be nice for you, Dear Reader, to be able to access the images without having to wade through my political rantings.

So I presnt you with the Flat-Earther-Safe   House Site - All the pics, non of the politics. Perfect for showing pastors and Marine Corps buddies, without getting bogged down in discussions of whether George W. Bush is just a brilliant leader or an angel sent by Jesus to protect us from Muslims and drug addicts.

xxxooo
-Josh

(copied from MediaMonitors )

While I am writing this, Yasser Arafat is still alive. But his life is hanging on a thread.

When we visited him the last time in his bombed-out Mukata’ah compound in Ramallah, I warned him that Sharon is determined to kill him.

Everybody acquainted with Sharon knows that he never lets go. When he does not achieve his aim the first time, he tries again, and again, and again, and again. Never, ever, does he give up.

Already in besieged Beirut, at the height of the Lebanon war, Sharon was trying to put his hands on him. Dozens of agents, mostly Phalanges members, were combing the western quarters in order to catch him. He evaded them, as he has evaded dozens of assassination attempts before and after, by Abu-Nidal (who was at least partly a Mossad hireling) and others.

Now Sharon believes that he can achieve his aim. He needs only Bush’s approval. Not necessarily a formal confirmation. A subtle hint will suffice. Half a word. A wink.

It will be easy to implement the decision. An incident can be put in motion: soldiers enter the office in order to capture "wanted" people, somebody opens fire, Arafat will be shot "by accident". Arafat may draw his pistol, soldiers will "have no alternative" but to return fire. A shell may hit the office "by mistake", Arafat will be buried under the rubble. After all, in war accidents happen. A lot of accidents.

Sharon never wanted to "deport" Arafat to Gaza or any other place in this world. He wants to deport him to the next world. Now this is possible.

Therefore, it is necessary to speak out bluntly and unequivocally:

Morally, the murder of Arafat, the historical leader and elected president of the Palestinian people, is reprehensible. Like the murder of Rabin.

Legally, the murder of Arafat is a war crime.

Politically, it will be said about the murder of Arafat what a French statesman said about another political murder: "It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake!"

Arafat is the man who decided, 28 years ago, to start on the road to a settlement with Israel, in order to realize this way the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. At the time, that was an incredibly bold decision, and he took it long before Rabin and Peres even dreamed about Oslo. I know, because I was an eye-witness to the beginnings of the process.

Since then, Arafat has not changed by one iota the decision he took then: to seek conciliation with Israel within the framework of peace that will include an independent Palestinian state, return to the pre-1967 border with mutually agreed adjustments, Jerusalem capital of both states, withdrawal of the settlers, suitable security arrangements, a mutually agreed solution of the refugee problem.

On this basis, peace is possible even now. Immediately. But Sharon rejects is with both his fists. He wants a Greater Israel, the extension of the settlements, and, eventually, the elimination of the Palestinian presence west of the Jordan.

The assertion of Ehud Barak that Arafat has rejected his own peace plan is a blatant lie, that has caused a historical disaster. Barak’s "generous offers" were far from the sensible solution.

Now, as before, Arafat is the only person capable of signing a peace agreement and convince his people to accept and implement it. No other Palestinian leader capable of doing so is to be seen on the horizon. Leadership of the Palestinian people will not pass into the hands of the "moderates", who will look like collaborators and accomplices to the murder, but into the hands of the extremists, fanatics thirsting for revenge.

The murder of Arafat is the murder of all chances for peace.

That is a crime against the Israeli people. It will condemn us to making war for decades, perhaps for generations to come, perhaps forever. The moral, social and economic decline that we are experiencing now everywhere in Israel will drag Israel down to new depths and to the emigration of many.

The dead Arafat will become a legend of heroism to his people and a new Che Guevara to the world. His mistakes will be forgotten. For future generations of Palestinians, he will become a role model. Hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims, from Morocco to Indonesia, will compare their own leaders to the dead Arafat, and the comparison will be fatal.

In the eyes of these hundreds of millions, Israel and Jews will become a synonym of betrayal, killing and lying. The poisonous plant of anti-Semitism will bloom as never before. Already we are tasting a small sample of this

If this disaster happens, all the government will share the blame. Not one minister will be acquitted. Neither Ben-Eliezer, nor Peres, nor any of their colleagues. Nor the army officers who cooperated and even pushed the political leadership. Nor the members of the Knesset, whether belonging to the coalition or the opposition, who kept quite during the recent months. Nor the correspondents and commentators, who turned themselves into government and army spokesmen. Nor the professors and intellectuals, who saw and were silent. All of them will bear the responsibility.

This is the last minute to get up and shout: NO!

Related Links (s):

• Israel's Grand Design: Leaders Crave Area from Egypt to Iraq - by John Mitchell Henshaw
• The Reality of Barak's "Generous" Offers - by Gush Shalom
• Bury My Heart at Wounded... Jenin - by Frank M. Afflitto
• Camp David Peace Proposal of July, 2000: Frequently Asked Questions - by Palestinian Negotiating Team