Let’s start this 6-pack with some wise quotations and a warning, shall we? “Our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to.” – William Blum. And: “You can’t believe a word the American media says. If they say anything correct, it’s just an accident.” – Paul Craig Roberts. (I’d like to point out that this applies to all media, anywhere in the world. Just for the sake of accuracy.) And the warning: see pic, text in box. I can get Biblical, too, if need be, don’t you know!

Update 23/02/15 The sequel to the Saga of the Three hearts. Part II: The Upgrade. It’s not easy living with three souls, I swear to Bumba. Sometimes I wish I was a pebble.

Update 26/02/15 And so things go in the desert and strange meetings take place whilst in the distance the Shoggoths dance the Tango of Brotherly Love. And I’m grateful for small mercies.

Update 01/03/15 Another death anniversary coming up soon, in April. Iain Banks. Scottsman, ranter, writer and general irritant to the bienpensants. Author of some of the very best Sci-Fi ever and namer of my only object of devotion: the good ship Ethics Gradient, to whom I, the miscreant with no religion, god, master or mistress, prays every night to come and take me away to live in a darling Hub as near Andromeda as possible. Amen.

Update 05/03/15 Let’s end with yet another personal attack, shall we. But why settle for an ad hominen one when you can prod an entire group (if with a hive mentality, admittedly)? So, here’s to that tribe of zombies that is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, may they all burn in some quickly improvised hell. PS. This is the first one of a series.