FEBRUARY IS HAPPINESS MONTH AT BUTTERMILK & MOLASSES Okay, so we won't be as happy as the inane folks at Happiness Magazine, who have been spreading happiness for over 35 years. That alone should make you happy. But we've been alerted to a tragic reality: Buttermilk & Molasses has a fixation with some of the more teeth-gnashing topics happening. For a limited time, we'll seek to balance the forebodings of the catastrophic end of everything with more upbeat fare -- Glamour Shots of Eric Estrada, pen-and-ink drawings of eviscerated stuffed animals, lyrics to Veruca Salt songs and the normal slate of music, film, literary and sad, sad, woeful political tidbits. Cheer up! We're changing our tone!

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES The January floricane stats have been compiled. Your top searches were for dirt woman, newlin archinal, nitrate hymnal, caffeine magazine, emma mccune, chris bopst and the starr foster dance project. How oddly local. You came from 37 countries, including Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the United Araba Emirates and obscure U.S. military bases. And you statistically doubled your activity over December with 2,062 unique site visits in January. This is much cheaper than newsprint.

IN THE NAME OF... I'm not sure I care whether it's sheer opportunism, an effort to distract or compassion that has pushed the administration to fund HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and the Carribean. And I'm not sure it matters. $15 billion is a significant investment (though I won't be remiss to note that a year ago the same administration quashed a bill that would have funded a tenth of that for the same purpose) to combat a disease that stands a realistic chance to create 25 million orphans in Africa by decade's end -- 25 million. It's tragic, it's frightening, and it's very easy to feel sheltered from it all in the West. But there are encouraging signs, as rock activist Bono noted in an appeal to the Bush administration, "Prudent investments through targeted bilateral aid and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are saving and transforming lives based on what works: prevention, treatment and care. See Uganda, Senegal, Zambia. Failure to invest now will leave us with a moral deficit and our children with the consequences of a global security deficit."

THE CHOICE OF BRUTALITY If you don't realize that captured Al Qaeda suspects are routinely tortured by third-party governments on the behest of the United States, you've been sleeping. The Post reports on the arrest, detention and torture of Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a Syrian-born German, who was handed over to Syrian inteligence more than a year ago. Human Rights Watch provides their interpretations and position here.

GENERALLY RESERVED Retired General Wesley Clark, an oft-mentioned possible candidate for the Democratic nomination, is less vocal these days about Iraq, but he did sit down with David Ignatius to talk about his reservations. Clark was in charge of both U.S. and NATO forces during the air campaign in Kosovo, and knows full well both the headaches and the benefits of coalition building -- at any given time in the late 1990s, Clark could be seen in any number of European capitals trying to gain approval for bombing targets from 19 different governments. But Clark thinks that coalition building is the only way to make the Iraq gamble succeed. Ignatius writes, "Clark cites three tests that the administration must meet before going to war. 'First, are you sure you won't destroy the international institutions you say you are supporting, and thereby undermine the war against terror? Second, can you win the war quickly and smoothly, avoiding the collateral damage that would make you lose while winning? And third, in the aftermath, can you prevent the growth of al Qaeda and control the weapons of mass destruction that may be hidden?' If the Bush administration can answer 'yes' to all three, then the Iraq war will succeed, Clark says. But he isn't convinced."

SISYPHUS ROCKS Sure, irony and being all wry and skeptical is bad for the environment and doesn't settle debates and disagreements, but apparently negotiations don't either. Look, we all use what we've got. And Julia's take on the State of the Union is pretty rib-tickling (and don't tell me you don't like a good rib tickling session, because I know you better than that). She line-by-lines it. Bush: And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country, your enemy is ruling your country. Julia: and we promise not to sell him weapons and then leave you flapping in the breeze for him to massacre at his leisure if you listen to us and rise up against him. Even if that's what we did last time.

O'TOOLE'S A SAUCY BUGGER I've adored Peter O'Toole since I first saw him toss that strip of loose linen across his shoulder in his tragically hip starring role in "Lawrence of Arabia." So, obviously my adoration grew when I read the letter he sent to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asking them to hold off on presenting him with a honorary award for his contributions to film. As the BBC reports, O'Toole wrote that as he is "still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honour until I am 80?" He's 70, and set to appear in two upcoming films.

MESSAGE BOARDS ARE CREEPY As a preface to the post itself, let me offer up Warren Ellis' (of diepunyhumans.com fame) thoughts on it: "This post means absolutely nothing to you or me. I submit that it nonetheless remains awesome in its stark psychological horror." Yah. Fourteen-year-olds'll do that to you.

POETRY IN MOTION Momentum feels different in the world of poetry publishing, measured in hundreds, not tens of hundreds. Or as the CSMonitor chortles, "Let's hope poets can't do math. The numbers are downright depressing. 'Jack Ass: The Movie' elicited a slew of bad reviews but raked in more than $22 million on its first weekend. By contrast, a critically acclaimed book of poetry might sell 1,500 copies in a year. There's a meter at work in our culture that doesn't scan well." A meter at work, heh. Well, it's not a bad schlock film, but here's some capsule reviews of the slate of National Book Award nominees for poetry. Not a guffaw to be found between their covers, I imagine, but you should save those chuckles for group activities.

REWIRING THE WEB The man who crafted the languages buried behind this website, the jargon and coding that make colors and boxes and fonts and formatting part and parcel of your Internet experience, is turning his gaze to a sequel. He's caling it the Semantic Web.

BUSH'S BIG GOVERNMENT ABC News' The Note chimes in to remind us that we have entered the era of big government. Again. You know those Texans -- LBJ, Geo. Bush -- with their fancy big thinkin'. "Bill Clinton said seven years ago that the era of big government is over, but somehow, under the ministrations of this conservative-minded and big-hearted Republican President, it seems to be back. Say you are an abject supply-sider, and you don't believe that the additional tax cuts would add one red cent to the deficit. How then, still, to explain $400 billion for Medicare, $1.2 billion for (cue Don Pardo) "a new car!," $6 billion for Project Bioshield, $450 million for new mentors, $600 million for drug treatment, and $10 billion for AIDS?" Did we mention tax cuts? Or the 25% increase in defense spending during the 2000-2002 budget cycle?

PARSING THE MORAL HIGH ROAD Thank you, Michael Kinsley, for getting past the lofty rhetoric of Tuesday night with a series of questions that remain unasked by most observers of the State of the Union. Kinsley: "It may seem petty to pick apart the text ... It is not enough for the words to be eloquent or even deeply sincere. If they are just crafted for the moment and haven't been thought through, the pretense of moral seriousness becomes an insult. In his most vivid passage, Bush listed practices of Saddam Hussein such as destroying whole villages with chemical weapons and torturing children in front of their parents. 'If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning,' he said, telling 'the brave and oppressed people of Iraq' that 'the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation.' This is a fine, noble reason to wage war against Iraq. It would have been a fine reason two decades ago, which is when Saddam destroyed those villages and the United States looked the other way because our bone of contention back then was with Iran. It would be a fine reason to topple other governments around the world that torture their own citizens and do other despicable things. Is the Bush administration prepared to enforce the no-torturing-children rule by force everywhere?" It's rather easy to armchair quarterback these things, and Kinsley does better than many, but at the core of many post-speech critiques is the sad truth that the Bush administration made the best case they could for attacking Iraq, and it's the same case they've been making all along (albeit a bit more flowery), and it's not very convincing. And I'm not even part of the passionate opposition on this one -- yes, yes, that's me there on the fence. If there's anything worse than a disingeneous President, it might be a morally snotty, disingeneous one.

NOT YOUR FATHER'S UN There's a tendency to dismiss the United Nations for being ineffectual, out-of-date, a cumbersome bureaucracy in a fast-moving world. None of this washes away the clear fact that the 191-member organization is the only formal body in the world simultaneously dealing with disarming Iraq, nuclear tensions in North Korea, reconstruction in Afghanistan, possible civil war in Venezuela, peace and resettlement issues in the Middle East, famine in Africa, an HIV pandemic in Africa and Asia, the rising tide of terrorism around the world, the trafficking of women through Eastern Europe... it's a long list. As with the UN, it is possible to be of two minds on its Secretary General, Kofi Annan. He's either the best leader the organization's seen in generations (yes) or the greatest impediment to national sovereignty out there (yes). Somewhere in the middle lies the answer.

OOPS. I FORGOT ABOUT THE UNION William Saletan at slate.com reminds us casual listeners what exactly was different about last night's State of the Union address -- it didn't really talk about the state of the union. There are some obvious answers to that question, which is one I pondered driving home from DC in the wee small hours of the night and Saletan addressed at about the same time: "If you went to the refrigerator during the first three minutes of President Bush's State of the Union address, you missed the part where he discussed the state of the union. After a few words about his record on the economy, education, corporate responsibility, and homeland security, Bush spent the rest of the hour outlining plans and promises. It was the kind of speech a president gives when he's been in office two weeks, not two years. Why didn't Bush talk about the state of the union? Because the state of the union is nothing to talk about. The stock market is in the toilet. The economy is going nowhere. Unemployment is up. The deficit is out of control. Remember those State of the Union speeches Bill Clinton gave? The guy couldn't stop quoting happy numbers. That's one problem Bush doesn't have."

SEXY RHETT MILLER If it's possible, he looks hotter than he did 22 months ago. Maybe it's the stripped-down look. Maybe it's love. Whatever the cause, Rhett Miller was worth the five hours of driving and loitering, even if he plowed through a dozen songs in 37 minutes and spent far too much time thanking the fans of headliner Neil Finn (of Crowded House fame). We were wondering what Rhett's backup band would be like, and the answer came quick -- pretty quiet. It was the Old 97s frontman and an acoustic guitar and about 10 percent of a crowd of 600 that came along for this ride. Acoustic music, quite honestly, has a tendency to suck -- musicians are afraid or unable to use their voices as an instrument, particularly an instrument of rock. Rhett was unabashed. His voice carried. It warbled. It alternately whispered, shrieked and evoked the la-la-la days of The Byrds. Between the vocals and the manic acoustic strumming, he proved solo what the Old 97s prove together: good musicians doth good music make. Tunes from his solo release "The Instigator," as well as the last two Old 97s releases, filled the air. And now I am sleepy. [And until I find a review from the 9:30 Club show, here's a solid recap from a November gig in Boston.]

BETWEEN THE LINES If there is a word that captures the first third of Bush's speech last night, "conservative" might just be it. Making a call for programs and initiatives that frame his social and economic agenda, Bush served up a reminder (not that it was really all that needed) that the next several years will be seemingly haphazard and divisive. The haphazardness is planned. The administration realizes that the best way to push through a handful of controversial policies, they need to put a large stack on the table. They won't fight hard for most of them, but the full press will ensure that their opposition splits focus and spends resources fighting a rear-guard action. The Democrats had better choose their battles wisely over the next 18 months. On the domestic side, this is their fight to lose.

IN SUMMATION, IN SOUNDBITES Terry Neal covers the administration for the Post and serves up this morning's easy-to-digest summary of the State of the Union address.

ROCK AGAINST REAGAN, REVISITED In the mid-1990s, punk rockers gathered in Washington for the annual "Rock Against Reagan" protest -- and wasn't there plenty to shake a fist at? James Watt was deconstructing the environment, while his boss spoke sternly about the Evil Empire even as he marshalled forward with a conservative social agenda. It all took place in the shadow of recession, a carry-over from the previous Democratic administration. My, how things haven't changed.

THE HAPPY TRAGEDY OF "THE HOURS" Daniel Kimmel offers up this chatty profile of Michael Cunningham, author of "The Hours."

BOOKING YOURSELF The National Book Critics have tagged a small handful of books as nominees for their annual awards, including two non-snoozers: Elizabeth Gilbert's biography "The Last American Man," which tells the tale of a modern day mountain man and his struggle to maintain his environmental focus in a fast-paced modern world, and Mark Zwonitzer's "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?", the first significant biography of the lifeblood of American music -- the Carter Family.

WE GOT THE BEAT BBC Radio 3 is in the thick of its 2003 Awards for World Music. Peruse the short list of nominees and cast your vote for the Audience Award after you read their bios and listen to their music tracks. At the least, meander over and learn some new names in the world of music, because, you know, not all good pop music comes from Scandinavia.

A THREE-WAY ON SLATE Christopher Caldwell, Christopher Buckley and Walter Shapiro get it on this week in a three-way email exchange about the State of the Union, the state of the economy and the state of war against Iraq. Lightly written missives on serious subjects, each submission does actually raise those nebulous questions that are still tickling the backs of most Americans' throats at the moment. And some of those questions are coupled with answers.

THE IRAQI POSSIBILITIES Newsweek's Freed Zakaria looks at what some of the positive results of a successful invasion of Iraq might lead. One of the more interesting aspects of the events and decisions surrounding Iraq is that the outcomes are utterly unpredictable -- this could be the most disastrous move the U.S. could make, or it could result in a stunning transformation. Odds are for it to fall in the middle. That said, and Zakaria's possibilities aside, one of the hardest things for people to get their heads around of late is that hedging your bets -- a very safe, traditional approach favored by most administrations -- isn't the only approach. And while I'm as far from a Bush apologist or supporter as you're likely to find, what I do believe is that bold decisions -- even stupid, bold decisions, or bold decisions that blow up in your face -- are more likely to dramatically change the dynamic than sitting on your hands. The point being: If the U.S. goes into Iraq, look for a dramatic reshaping of global affairs, for better or for worse.

THE STATE OF THE UNION Here's the rub for all the Washington-centric journalists out there who truly and passionately believe that tonight's State of the Union address really, really matters -- it only sort of matters. Last year, Americans actively turned their televisions on, still shell-shocked by the September 11 attacks and perplexed by the quick success in Afghanistan and wondering where the President would lead us next; last year's State of the Union mattered because the average American was still desperately seeking reassurance. This year, the average American is trapped in a bit of a void, something akin to resignation. The economy is broken and no one really has a plan to fix it. There will be a war in Iraq and no one really has a plan to prevent it. There probably are terrorist cells out there waiting to attack and no one really has a plan to find them. You get the picture. The difference -- and it's huge, striking -- between 2002 and 2003 is that this year there are few people who expect the President to say anything different, to say anything that changes the course of current events. The State of the Union will bolster core Bush supporters, strengthen the resolve of a growing posse of anti-administration voters, and leave the middle 40% shrugging. And it will give the media some new hooks to hang their same old stories on as the weeks go by.

COUNTING BACKWARDS Buffalo's The Beast news-ma-thing went to the protests and all they got were pissed off at the journalists and crowd counts. Actually, Matt Taibbi pens a well-perspected (there's a new word for you) story on what happens when lazy journalists meet large crowds. This one might make you gnash your teeth.

NO DEFERENCE IN DAVOS David Ignatius scans the rooms at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and wonders how the Bush administration can get back on track in terms of pulling world opinion into the "attack Iraq" camp. The problem, as he suggests but doesn't quite clinch, is that the Bush administration's natural inclinations -- driven by a handful of strong personalities, including the President -- fly in the face of what is appropriate strategy or policy. Ignatius talks about "soft power" -- an indication that Joseph Nye is rubbing a lot of elbows in Davos -- and how America's social, cultural and political influences are stronger and less expensive than the military one the Bush team likes to place on the table. My read is that many administration players understand this as a concept. The problem is that it flies in the face of their collective experiences, mainly gathered at times in business and government where consensus was not particularly useful, and could even be dangerous. Which is why small measures of progress during the last two years of this administration will be painful gains, at best.

JOE NYE, POWER GUY Reporting from the Davos Chat Fest, slate.com catches up with Joseph Nye, author of "The Paradox of American Power," who chats about the difference between soft and hard power. Nye doesn't much like the Bush administration. "One source of soft power, he notes, is the way you make your policies and the extent to which you include others. Unilateralism tends to drive countries away, instead of attracting them. That's the point Nye makes in his book... The paradox, Nye argues, is that to have power, America must share it." Share power, that's a crazy idea, isn't it? But it's not far from the truth, and it's a shame that after 24 months in the White House, the Bush administration either doesn't get it or doesn't care.

ADD IT UP How does Bush remain so popular? More importantly, is he as popular as people think? Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, answers both questions in the American Prospect. Carl Rove is answer number one. "Rove's methodology largely explains why Bush's popularity remains strong despite the unremittingly awful economy (mounting job losses, weak profits and a three-year stock-market slide) and despite the shambles of the administration's foreign policy (Osama bin Laden still at large, al-Qaeda as dangerous as ever, North Korea more menacing than ever, Israelis and Palestinians as far away from the bargaining table as ever, anti-Americanism rising across the globe and a pending war in Iraq lacking clear justification)." Answer number two is, no. "A midterm USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll had Bush's job approval rating falling to 58 percent, dropping below 60 percent for the first time since the September 11 attacks. Under these circumstances, any other president would be in danger of losing his job. But Rove has convinced the press, and therefore the American public, that this presidency is nearly invincible. He has done it with an ingenious blend of chicanery and obfuscation, aided by the Democrats' utter incapability of devising a coherent message in response. " I think he's on a limb saying that 58% is a mandate for Presidential regime change, but Reich is on target about the amazing obfuscation abilities of this administration.

UN TRIO NEW YORKAIS Andrew Womack says it's close, but no cigar to call Calla's new release "Televise" a cross between Nick Cave and My Bloody Valentine, but that should be close enough for you. Andrew also says, "Wow. Brilliant. Incredible. There aren’t enough accolades to lay at the altar of this album. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the feelings it emits, that it creates. There isn’t enough time left on earth to listen to this album enough times." And Talitres Records says, "CALLA est un trio New-Yorkais: Aurelio Valle (chant, guitare), Wayne b. Magruder (batterie, percussions, programmation), Sean Donovan (clavier, basse, programmation). Originaires du Texas, ils évoluèrent, chacun, aux seins de différentes formations avant de rejoindre Brooklyn et créer Calla en 1997."

SUNDAYS, BLOODY SUNDAYS My Blue House wonders at life outside of France. I think I had the same feeling, and I was only there for three weeks, not three years.

GARAFALO, C'EST MOI Janeane Garofalo is on the anti-warpath, and the American media is one of her targets. Howard Kurtz has a good piece on her this morning -- "But Garofalo isn't kidding when it comes to her disdain for the media: 'These same corporate entities have an interest in war, have an interest in profiting from war. They represent corporate America. Corporate America dictates the news we are getting.' Does she really believe that anchors and correspondents are just following company orders? Too many, she says, 'are willing to be a mouthpiece for the establishment and for White House propaganda.' While Garofalo believes Saddam Hussein is a menace -- but that U.N. weapons inspectors should be given more time -- she also tosses around the word 'imperialism' and declares that 'this is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area. There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. You never even get that idea floated in the mainstream media. If you bring it up, they hate the messenger. You've ruined everyone's good time.' "

VIDEO DIDN'T KILL THE OPERA STAR There is very little that compares to celebrating a friend's success -- even if that success is really that of the friend and about 50 other dedicated artists and craftspeople. Seeing the premiere of Bob Massey's "The Nitrate Hymnal" this past weekend was a celebration of the impossible, a culmination of months of effort, and a transition for Bob from the post-punk world of experimental band rock into the experimental world of multimedia music performance. Two half-page features in The Washington Post -- both glowing -- were a guarantee that all three performances at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial (with its own freaking scary talking and moving George Washington automaton figure!) would sell-out, and the blended crowd of young hipsters and graying seniors were all a-go-go for the experience. The linked Post review tells more about the musical artistry and stagecraft that I continue to allude to. After Bob and his team collapse in exhaustion, they'll begin plans for a U.S. and European tour of this modern operatic exploration.