Doug's Darkworld

Another week, another tiny blip of time in the greater scheme of things. And another “Through Thick and Thin” post on Doug’s Darkworld. Yes, a tiny blip on a tiny blip, nothing like admiring the universe to feel insignificant. In any event, two bits of blog news. The first a repeat, there is now a Doug’s Darkworld twitter. And no, that means nothing as far as this blog goes, the blog is staying right where it is. (Apparently some people aren’t familiar with twitter, who knew?) More importantly, henceforth there is going to be a bit more order to my posts. Monday I will post a history post, usually about  a battle or war, but not always. Wednesday I will post a science post, or a weird science post as the spirit moves me. And Fridays, such as today, I will ramble about various things, mostly current events. There will also be random posts about other subjects on other days when I have the time. And of course when events transpire such as the Georgia War or Israel’s latest military action in Gaza, I will make a flurry of posts. My muse will let me do nothing less.

Which comes to the question, why aren’t I making a flurry of posts on the situation in Iran? I mean, the mainstream media is still playing this up as this huge important event. After reading a few articles on the subject, pretty much the same reasons as I didn’t say anything last week. This is factional infighting in domestic Iranian politics, not some incipient popular revolt. The rioting however fits the USA’s narrative of how the Iranian government is somehow not legitimate, so it’s getting played to the hilt. What the media rarely reports is that Mousavi, widely touted as some sort of liberal reformer, is nothing  of the kind. He was highly placed in the Iranian government of the eighties, where he played a role in such things as the creation of Hezbollah and the attack on the Marine barracks in Lebanon. He is also reputed to be deeply corrupt, in fact that’s one of the reasons Ahmadinejad is favoured by the clerics.

In any event I don’t think this Iran situation will amount to much, I certainly hope it doesn’t  at least. More instability in the region the world doesn’t need, however much it serves the interests of the global oil industry and the militarist faction running Israel. It’s a shame Rachel Corrie’s death didn’t get as much coverage as that of Neda Agha-Soltan. One must remember that the USA government doesn’t really want democracy in the region. True democracies would immediately nationalize their oil industries or at the very least insist that the contracts be renegotiated. The USA can’t have that. America’s wars in Asia are the new world trying to recolonize the old world, it’s bizarre really. A interesting comparison can be made between the current USA regime and the Spanish Empire at its height. Fodder for a history blog I suppose.

And speaking of America’s Asian wars, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue apace. An American “drone strike” (it sounds so harmless doesn’t it?) killed another pile of civilians in Pakistan. The Pakistani government is starting to request that we like, stop, since they’re doing more harm than good. You’d think that we would learn from the Israeli example, they’ve been assassinating people from the air for decades, has it bought them peace and security? A death squad is a death squad whether it is thugs with guns or some guy with a joystick in Kansas, counter-productive evil incarnate no matter what it’s called.

OK, so I meandered a bit there. I’m going to cover a lot of ground on Fridays. In any event, speaking of deaths, both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died yesterday.  I’m not really big on celebrities and entertainment figures, it’s always been my Achilles’ heel in Trivial Pursuit. I never quite understood the fascination with either of them,  still, it’s kind of an odd feeling when big fixtures of one’s youth pass away. Kind of puts things in perspective, like today’s picture above. Click on it for the full size version, that’s Markarian’s Chain of Galaxies. At least seven of them are indeed travelling together through the cosmos. You are looking at trillions of stars, a number so large it’s almost inconceivable. And while their may be beings something like us out there looking back, there isn’t another Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett … or you, gentle reader. The laws of statistics dictate that beyond all doubt.

We may be minuscule, but we’re unique. See, a Doug’s Darkworld post with a happy ending. (OK, I lost a bet.) Have a great weekend everyone.

(The above image is claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. It is not being used for profit and it’s use here in no way interferes with the copyright holder’s commercial use of the image. It’s from the APOD site, credit and copyright: Piotrek Sadowski. And yes, I did catch that North Korea threatened to blow up the USA this past week. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, I recommend my readrs do the same.)