Troop Maneuvers

I've been neglecting to chronicle the Laughing Horse Books Sleeping Bag Fundraiser Marathon, which has been going on these last two nights, part three this evening. The music has been high quality, with different PA systems on the two nights. Tonight is the Bose Tower again. I transported it per plan.

These musicians are not playing for money, are sometimes donating generously. Musicians seek a place to share their art with an appreciative audience. Some get nervous when the turn out is low. Grace told a story of Johnny Cash coming to the Rose Garden (or was it the Memorial Coliseum) when the promoter hadn't done the job. He played to just thirty people, a true professional.

Of course it's all a matter of scale. Laughing Horse won't hold a lot more than thirty people and that's about how many we had last night. Yes it was cold. As the old guy in the room, I wore some layers.

The youth debating culture is haunting the halls again, at PSU today. Yakking about economic sanctions. Are they an extension of the just war theory? That begs the question of whether they're an act of war.

USAers tend to relate to some post WW1 period, as imposers of sanctions, forgetting their Revolutionary past, when more on the receiving end. This colors positions, probably even the judging. Were USAers on the receiving end of sanctions today, this might not be a big news story. Who would want them to know?

I agree with those bloggers applying a kind of POW status to voters who never wished for these wars and now feel unable to escape their tyranny. Waking up in jail every day is what it's like in Baghdad and Kabul, including for many sons and daughters who would rather be back in their home states.