Diego Garcia

Among the long list of national disgraces one must now include the story of Diego Garcia Island, part of the Chagos Chain in the Indian Ocean. As recently as thirty years ago our government, in collaboration with the British, expelled the natives of this tropical paradise so as to build a major US military base.

A British court recently ruled the action as unethical. The Brits are always slightly ahead of us in renouncing their imperial shenanigans, but what is supposed to happen now? Declare the military base a mistake and give the island back to the natives? I think the whole world would like to see that, and it's about time someone set the precedent for "reverse imperialism" -- reparations, repatriatization, etc. (Sierra Leone was a good start).

rats

On Monday, as part of my job, I was literally out in a field looking for a well. I went up to a storage tank, and saw a pipe leading to something that I thought might be the well, but it was covered with a wooden enclosure. I lifted this box to discover a large, freaked-out rat beholding me, a larger, freaked-out human. There were other rats hiding under the storage tank. It appeared as though the big one had built a nest in the enclosure that covered not the well, but a pump.

what's next, Fripp & Garfunkle?

I heard on NPR that Paul Simon recently worked with Brian Eno... I'm trying to imagine the results. I cannot possibly judge music I have not heard.

burning pier

I'm thinking that the huge warehouse that recently burned down in Greenpoint, Brooklyn may be one I spent some time in because, if it's the one I'm thinking of, it was full of artists lofts back in the late '80's.

Not sure if that means anything to any of you but the news brought back the memory of that strange neighorhood.

six by ten

Seen today in King City: the largest Mexican flag I've ever seen, maybe six by ten feet, flying from a car. I was on my bike, witnessing history in the hot sun, because history was not happening in my apartment.