Saint Patrick Freed the Snakes and Took the Holy Mountain

Greetings, friends,
First of all, I have been very remiss in not including some info about what's going on in Ireland...which was, after all, the first country outside of North America I've been to, and where I took my first helicopter ride! There's some wild fun:
http://www.indymedia.ie/

It was here I learned for the first time, for example, that Bernadette Devlin (one of the first Catholic radicals elected to the Northern Irish Parliament at Stormont Castle during the 1960s; she appears in murals all around Derry) was detained at O'Hare Airport on 21 February, photographed & fingerprinted, and then kicked out of the US as "a serious threat to the security of the United States."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030304/ap_on_re_us/activist_removed_2

Whoa! If you want to protest this act, I have some phone numbers for you at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jsmog/devlin.jpg

I was also remiss in not earlier sending this link (thanks, Josh), which has the best summary I've seen of the various protests taking place on six of the seven continents!
http://www.ccmep.org/2002_articles/Iraq/102702_pictures_of_anti.htm

Make that all seven continents,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0119-02.htm

Anyway, film students will want to drink a toast (or something) to Stan Brakhage, who died a few days back, right after Mr. Rogers and (yeah) another mentor outlived by Ronald Reagan (bastard).

If anyone's interested, I'm thinking of going to see "Alphaville" this Saturday at UCLA, with a new live score by "Scanner" (Robin Rimbaud)...be warned, it's $35 a ticket. Let me know.
http://www.cfpa.ucla.edu/event_calendar/events_detail.cfm?id_event=92043881

Okay, if you've got a broadband connection, you'll enjoy these cartoons:
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/bennyhill.htm
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/art_of_war.htm

And musicians and rock fans will enjoy this story...maybe (thanks, Mike):
http://www.nme.com/news/104435.htm
BLEAT SURRENDER!
Norwegian death metal band MAYHEM were involved in one of the most bizarre rock accidents last night (March 9) when a flying sheep's head fractured a fan's skull.

It's just another sign that all is not well. But if you don't see many articles here about Iraq, take that as my nod of approval; the news has been surprisingly good. Just like that bully in the elementary school playground, even our best English friends are not sure they want to play with us any more. Not that a game metaphor will usefully describe this situation for long:
** Baghdad's residents snap up guns as city gears up for street-to-street battle **
Baghdad residents are snapping up pistols and hunting rifles trenches and sandbagged gun positions are multiplying. Militiamen loyal to Saddam Hussein say theyre ready for a fight to the death.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp?http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap03-06-115756.asp?reg=MIDEAST

And finally, a rather silly article about the slow erosion of the French language:
http://www.economist.com/World/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1606383

Pray for peace, because (miracle of miracles) the greatest army the world has ever seen can't conquer the entire world.