Mood:
on fireTopic: "Rice on Hot Tin Roof(2)"
There are nights when Frodo has dreamed about the languor of magnolia and its' aromatic presence on a hot summer evening. Sometimes the wild mimosa enjoins its' presence, and coupled with a sprig of mint that touches the nose as the head is tilted back, the beads of sweat and the buzzing tiger mosquitos are overlooked by memory. That is unless one is actually experiencing all of that, rather than dreaming about it. At that point one might actually begin to wonder what the gardens of the Shire would be like dressed in a gown of snow.
Frodo is a Southern Hobbit. The smells and tastes of the Shire affect Frodo as did those of Mississippi for William Faulkner and Willie Morris, Alabama for Harper Lee and Truman Capote, and the Georgia of Ferrol Sams and Flannery O'Connor. Condi Rice is of the neighborhood too, and seemingly driven in her ambition by the same experiences. Her mercurial rise to the highest position ever attained by a black female in any Presidential administration is a source of pride to all who have experienced the same smells and the same tastes.
Southern writers have been sexual deviants, alcoholics, social misfits, and journalists. Perhaps descriptions of life on a riverbank, or sex on sheets wetted against the heat, require an attention to detail that comes from experience. Similarly, for one involved in sensitive negotiations between warring factions, it may be that the naivete bred by success after success in life sets one up for colossal failure. The detail required is absent when one has not experienced the vagaries of treacherous relationships with friends or enemies.
Today, Condi Rice was filmed playing "kissy face" with the Israeli Defense Minister, a full eight hours after the Israelis had bombed the City of Qana in Lebanon. Rice was not aware when she went to the meeting, nor was she informed by her Israeli hosts, that many innocents had been killed, including dozens of children. The Arab world is outraged, all of the "allies" of the United States have issued condemnations of the Israeli action, and the United Nations is standing on the high ground looking down on the United States. The Prime Minister of Lebanon has refused, for now, to meet with Rice.
Frodo likens what happened to the Secretary of State to a case of rectal rape. The Israelis realized that the bombing was a mistake, but they could not risk losing the apparent blessing of the Bush Administration. Recognizing the history of Rice, and her "husb," in being unprepared, they held their scheduled meeting with Rice as if nothing had happened. While she stood there, shaking hands and smiling, with the Israeli Defense Minister, CNN and Faux News were with all the rest of the media who were broadcasting the bodies wrapped in plastic.
Now that she knows that she has been taken advantage of, she is thinking about coming home. Maybe she ought to take the bus. She could open a window and maybe she'd start smelling the coffee. Until then, she's just one more loose lug nut on a vehicle careening out of control, heading toward a very deep ditch.
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:44 PM EDT
