YOU DESERVE A SMILE And so we go into the weekend with three commitments: Bask in the sunshine. Revise that damn poetry. Don't pay any attention to the news. And with a kick in the pants I leave you with a few words from Mimi Smartypants on her battle against irony.

I find the desk of the particular IT guy I have come to get the software from. He is a little greasy and plaid-shirted, with a mini-mullet, but he looks like a likable sort on the whole, and I immediately notice before he even turns around that he has a huge Scorpions poster on his wall.

This could mean one of two things: Either (a) he is a true Scorpions fan, in which case I kind of have to admire the big honest balls of a grown man who would use his workspace to unashamedly declare his fondness for 1980s hair metal; or (b) he is being all groovily smirkingly ironic about the horrific cheesiness of having a big old Scorpions poster, in which case he probably has some story about how he obtained the poster that he is secretly dying to tell.*

*Although I have to say that if that is the case he is playing the irony thing a little bit close to the metaphorical bone by rocking it in the middle of an IT department. Not that IT guys are not capable of slimy hipster irony, but the so-bad-it's-good game is one with a rather thin margin and you run the risk of having people think you really are a huge Scorpions fan. Which again, if you were TRULY cool, you would take it way beyond the I'm-only-kidding slimy ironic hipster limit and let them think that, encourage them to think that, become that guy who is a huge Scorpions fan. Then you would have come full circle and you might qualify for a master's degree in Postmodern Masturbatory Aesthetics. Maybe even a grant!

GETTING IT ON (WITH CLIP ART) David Rees returns this morning with a new batch of "Get Your War On."

Office Worker: All I have to say is, once this is over, the Iraqi people better be the freest fucking people on the face of the earth. They better be freer than me. They better be so fucking free they can fly.

BACK IN BAGHDAD Salam continues to update his web log from Baghdad. There continues to be debate in the blogsphere about whether Salam is a real Iraqi or a CIA plant, but his daily updates provide a real snapshot of life during wartime, regardless of who pays for his Internet connection.

WHAT KIND OF POWER? MoveOn.org continues to be a rather thoughtful voice of protest and dissent, focusing on using vigils, education and declarations to push for change. Their Citizen's Declaration is a reasonable next step for people who are as concerned about the precedents being established by a war with Iraq.

As a US-led invasion of Iraq begins, we, the undersigned citizens of many countries, reaffirm our commitment to addressing international conflicts through the rule of law and the United Nations. By joining together across countries and continents, we have emerged as a new force for peace. As we grieve for the victims of this war, we pledge to redouble our efforts to put an end to the Bush Administration's doctrine of pre-emptive attack and the reckless use of military power.

MY COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG? It's easy to allow war to become a foil for, well, for everything. The protestors taking to the streets bring passions grown from many sources and ignited by recent activities, while their counterparts on the right fan flames of a different hue. But when either side begins to spew vitriolic slogans that raise into question an opponents love of country, loyalty or right to live, it's time to step back and question our motives. Which is what Iowa's Republican Congressman, Jim Leach, has done, notes E.J. Dionne --

"I am absolutely convinced that the most important perspective is that people are obligated to respect opposing views," Leach said in an interview. "This is one of the closest, most difficult decisions we've confronted because this is an unprecedented circumstance. . . . What I suggest to everybody is that Americans are divided and that every thinking American is conflicted."

Leach warned against the simple dismissal of criticisms of American policy, particularly from our friends abroad: "If we are a poor respecter of other people's thoughts, our thoughts are not going to be well received at another time."

Leach's conclusion: "Whether one was doubtful of military action or whether one supports military action, everybody has an interest in making sure military action works."

Leach's quiet and respectful patriotism is a better guide to preserving both liberty and unity than bombast -- or the assumption that critics are automatically enemies of the state.

THE POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY Michael Kinsley takes a step back amidst the surge and furor of the emerging war to look at old precedents and new trends. He begins by noting the gradual disappearance of a constitutionally placed power -- the one that says "The Congress shall have power... to define and punish... offenses against the law of nations; to declare war."

Kinsley writes, "Has there ever been a war more suited to a formal declaration -- started more deliberately, more publicly, with less urgency and at more leisure -- than the American war on Iraq? Right or wrong, Gulf War II resembles the imperial forays of earlier centuries more than the nuclear standoffs and furtive terrorist hunts of the 20th and 21st. Yet George W. Bush, like all recent presidents, claims for his person the sovereign right to launch such a war. Like his predecessors, he condescends only to accept blank-check resolutions from legislators cowed by the fear of appearing disloyal to troops already dispatched."

Kinsley again -- "Bush is asserting the right of the United States to attack any country that may be a threat to it in five years. And the right of the United States to evaluate that risk and respond in its sole discretion. And the right of the president to make that decision on behalf of the United States in his sole discretion. In short, the president can start a war against anyone at any time, and no one has the right to stop him. And presumably other nations and future presidents have that same right. All formal constraints on war-making are officially defunct.

Well, so what? Isn't this the way the world works anyway? Isn't it naive and ultimately dangerous to deny that might makes right? Actually, no. Might is important, probably most important, but there are good, practical reasons for even might and right together to defer sometimes to procedure, law and the judgment of others. Uncertainty is one. If we knew which babies would turn out to be murderous dictators, we could smother them in their cribs. If we knew which babies would turn out to be wise and judicious leaders, we could crown them dictator. In terms of the power he now claims, without significant challenge, George W. Bush is now the closest thing in a long time to dictator of the world. He claims to see the future as clearly as the past. Let's hope he's right.”

FOUR DOWN The resignation of Rand Beers, the National Security Council's senior director for combating terrorism, is suspected to be in protest of the White House's focus on Iraq. Beers' resignation follows that of the most senior-level State Department official to resign over Iraq to date. Mary Wright, the #2 official in the U.S. embassy in Mongolia, is the third senior State Department official to resign in protest since February.

Writing to Secretary of State Colin Powell, she said, "I strongly believe that going to war now will make the world more dangerous, not safer. In our press for military action now, we have created deep chasms in the international community and in important international organisations."

"Our policies have alienated many of our allies and created ill will in much of the world," said Wright, who also criticised a "lack of policy on North Korea" and expressed disagreement with "lack of effort" in solving the Mideast crisis.

"I have served my country for almost 30 years in some of the most isolated and dangerous parts of the world... However, I do not believe in the policies of the administration and cannot defend or implement them," she wrote.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING The Senate slapped down the Bush administration's plans to drill for oil in the Alaska wildlife refuge yesterday, while the nation's attention was focused on sandstorms in Kuwait. The slap was feeble, but the 52-48 vote was the result of a hard-fought effort by environmentalists to put the brakes on Bush's efforts to nibble away at the environmental gains of the 1990s.

HE STILL HAS STYLE Not miles and miles, perhaps, but Steve Malkmus is beginning to prove he has staying power in his post-Pavement days. His first solo release was good, but not great. The sequel is better.

Despite frequent appearances in the court jester's suit throughout his tenure as the reluctant frontman for Pavement, the indie scene's Phi Beta Kappa slumming outfit of choice for the better part of the '90s, Malkmus acknowledges that the onset of his mid-30s has brought with it a gradual acceptance that times have indeed changed. And, in turn, so has his approach to making music.

"It was an effort to bring a little depth and seriousness to the proceedings without trying to write a war song," says Malkmus drowsily of his latest recorded effort with the Jicks, Pig Lib (Matador). "We did it at Bear Creek [the rural recording studio situated on a 10-acre farm in Woodinville, Wash.], where it's almost never sunny, although it's always beautiful. That kind of rubs off -- it's a moody place. It just wasn't time for a sunny record lyrically -- things aren't easy in the world, and the lyrics reflect that."

Judging from the output of these sessions, however, you'd be hard-pressed to prove that Malkmus is going gently into his creative good night. Pig Lib is a record-collector's record, the kind of rambling work that reveals a swath of influences broad enough to fill an ocean, as well as the sound of four musicians getting off on the sheer joy of creative communication and making something fresh from the dialogue. Reflective lyrical passages aside, it's the most psychedelic, expansive-sounding thing Malkmus has been part of since Pavement's offhanded 1995 classic, Wowee Zowee.

PEACE OUT, BACK IN The Richmond Peace Coalition website has links to coalition member sites, as well as information on the billboards you might have seen around town and this weekend's RECLAIM conference workshops and activities.

THE MEDIUM, THE MESSAGE Centcom has kindly offered up online images of the leaflets dropped across Iraq by U.S. planes this week, available in English and Arabic. Someone at the Department of Defense just went crazy with Photoshop last weekend.

READY, SET, SLUT Margaret Berry continues her foray into women's fashion with the fifth part of her series for The Morning News, "Releasing Your Inner Slut." The tips she lays out on how to get yourself in the mood go beyond teasing your hair like Raquel Welch and focus on confidence, attitude and comfortable shoes. And they don't just apply to women, though most men need to look beyond khaki's and baseball caps to really grasp the concept.

SIGUR ROS MEETS FLORIA SIGISMONDI In celebration of missing Sigur Ros' show at Club 930 last night, take a moment to view Floria Sigismondi's stunning, beautiful video for the Icelandic band's equally beautiful (and untitled) song.

DOWNTOWN BAGHDAD Raed is an Iraqi architect living in Baghdad, who has been maintaining a web log. Today, he reports on life between air raids.

RACHEL CORRIE, DEGREES OF SEPARATION Human connections make news real, as I was reminded when I heard about the death of Rachel Corrie. Rachel was crushed by an Israeli Defense Force bulldozer in Gaza this past weekend, and she is the cousin of an old friend. All that I know about Rachel Corrie comes from words written by reporters and her friends, and that she is one of several thousand -- Israeli, Palestinian and foreign -- who have died as violence in Israel and Palestine continues unabated. And virtually unreported.

"Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

SHE'S LOSING IT How much longer can Mimi Smartypants spiral around inside of her own brain? Months, I'm betting. It's the cat's sanity that concerns me.

Friday I managed the hermitty thing just fine. LT worked on coding some web page all night, so we ordered in Thai and had beer. Even though I only had TWO LOUSY BEERS I think one of them was a Date Rape Ale, or maybe the sinus medicine I had taken earlier did not mesh well with it. Because soon I became very woozy and rubber-legged and eventually gave up trying to follow the plot of the movie I was half-heartedly watching, opting instead to lie on the floor listening to music and periodically yelling at the ceiling to not get any funny ideas. Don't get smart with me, Ceiling! I'm warning you! The Cat seemed concerned about my lying on the floor and kept coming over and poking me in the chest with her paw, like she was trying to take my pulse, which I guess is reassuring in case I ever really do keel over or OD.

ASK SADDAM Five questions you never knew you wanted answered by Saddam Hussein.

4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened?

Funny you should ask. Tariq Aziz is horrible on the phone. You might as well talk to a sphinx. "Yes." "No." "Uh-huh." We've been working together to try to get him to open up, maybe share a little more of himself with people he talks to. He's a pretty funny guy once you get to know him. We had "phone communication" in the Areas For Improvement section on his Professional Development Plan for 2001. I sent him to the Carnegie course and everything, but it didn't help. At his review, I had to give him a "Did Not Meet Expectations" on that line. I made his nephew into soap.

Outside of the palace, one example sticks out. It was back in "the day," you know, mid-Eighties, and I called up Ollie North to see if he wanted to party with me. I was like "Hey, I'll come to D.C., we'll listen to some Frankie Goes To Hollywood, then hit the town like swingers," and he's all "Yeah, yeah, I'll call you, whatever." For two weeks I don't hear jack from him, then a truckload of Stingers shows up out of nowhere.

STONE, WIRE, METAL AND EARTH The Morning News presents a stunning slideshow -- "A Previous Life" by Marshall Sokoloff. Sokoloff took the photos in Toronto last year, and they are simply lovely. (Follow this link, then click on "Launch 'A Previous Life'" to see the slideshow.)

Light and tone are important. The series has a lovely feel, like the end of the day, but it’s the cropping within the camera that appeals to me. His balancing and editing of shapes within the frame’s rectangle can be seen as an exercise. Each picture in the series answers the same set of structural questions in a slightly different manner. Collectively, the series seems more musical than anything else, like variations on a simple, precise melody.

PUTTING A FACE ON WAR "Since February 2003, people have postered snapshots from Baghdad on street corners, in offices, and at schools around the world. Quiet and casual, the snapshots show a part of Baghdad we rarely see: the part with people in it." Welcome to the Baghdad Snapshot Action project.

SARAH HEPOLA'S GRAND TOUR From Vegas to Iowa, Sarah roamed the land. And she went to the Corn Palace and gives us too many puns.

Every five miles on a bleak South Dakota highway came a sign: ‘Be A-Maize-d!’ Or this one: ‘Ears to You!’ This went on for perhaps an hour, each billboard bolstering my anticipation from a casual curiosity to a five-alarm need. ‘The World’s Only Corn Palace Awaits!’ I drove faster, harder, more reckless: Ear I Come. Corn to be Wild.

The World’s Only Corn Palace (and can you believe there’s only one?) is in Mitchell, South Dakota. A mosaic of black and yellow corn cobs cover its facade – ‘What Amazing Ear-chitecture!’ – a tribute to agriculture and American kitsch. Inside, vendors crowd a stadium floor, selling corn-cob-shaped candles and windchimes, dolls made of husks, popcorn balls ,and corn lollipops. Curiously lacking: actual corn.

I left empty-handed. Well, shucks.

IF WE ONLY TOOK TIME DURING WAR TO MAKE RHYME We need more irony. We definately need more irony.

Stung by criticisms about recent press releases about the date of the forth coming attack on Iraq, IDF Intelligence announced today that from now on, all information will be released in early Modern French, in the form of quatrains similar to that used by the famous prophet Nostradamus. It is believed that providing information using anagrams, symbolism, and mythological allusions will alleviate fears expressed by the USA over blabber mouthed official spokespersons giving vital information away.

The outlook for the Northern front for example is:

Tout apres d'Haifa de Tiberius & Mirande
Grand feu du ciel en trois nuicts tombera:
Cause aduiendra bien stupende & mirande,
Bien peu apres la terre tremblera.

LOCAL. YOKEL. Meet James Parrish, who co-founded the Richmond Moving Image Co-op and started Flicker, Richmond's showcase for 8mm films.

TOM DELAY AND THE HORSE HE RODE IN ON "There is a proper time and place for vigorous debate, but now is the time for America to speak with one voice," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Give me a break. What are the odds that Mexico would launch a pre-emptive attack on Texas just to shut him up?

TORN David Ignatius finds himself -- like many people -- of two minds when it comes to Iraq, especially now that it appears almost certain that war has been decided. He puts some questions to Abdulatif Hamad, whose Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development released a scathing report last year on the lack of freedom and economic progress in the Arab World, and pointed a finger directly at the governments of the region. Hamad says an Iraqi child in a village deserves drinking water just as much as a man living next to one of Saddam Hussein's palaces -- Iraq's military adventures of the past two decades have consumed more than $500 billion that could have been used to develop the nation.

A war for drinkable water I can understand. A war to replace a regime that throws children from helicopters to force their parents to confess, this I can also understand. I still have trouble with President Bush's rationale about preventing the use of weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. inspectors seem to be doing a reasonable job of that, and I suspect the risk that I'll need my gas mask will be greater after the war starts.

We're all prisoners of our own experience when it comes to questions of war and peace. I cannot escape the impressions I formed of Hussein in 1980, when I first visited Iraq and sensed what it was like to live under a regime that governed by physical intimidation of its people. In the years since then, I have interviewed dozens of Iraqi dissidents and heard their stories of imprisonment and torture.

My belief in the justice of this war is visceral. Reason has pounded away at it, but it's still there -- despite all the diplomatic blunders the Bush administration has made over the past months and the damage its arrogance has done to American interests. I know America helped create Saddam Hussein; that's part of why I think we have a moral obligation now to help the Iraqis oust him...

...Iraq has been a symbol of the sickness of Arab politics, and the Arab world seems to understand that this war will bring change. Yesterday's edition of the Kuwait daily Arab Times carried an editorial titled "Hurry . . . bury him." Of course the Kuwaitis support war, you might say. But inside the paper was a story from Cairo quoting the liberal Egyptian intellectual Saad Eddin Ibrahim: "Wars, bad as they are, they break empires, they break dictators, they leave the ground clear for new systems to be created."

THE STRANGE TRAGEDY OF NORTH KOREA If you don't have Cinemax, read Peter Carlson's account of the documentary "Welcome to North Korea," which airs tonight. It paints a picture that is simultaneously so wacky and so tragic that you wonder if you've stepped into an episode of "Logan's Run" or "The Prisoner." Or both.

Early in the documentary "Welcome to North Korea," which airs on Cinemax tonight at 7:30, Dutch journalist Peter Tetteroo aims his camera out the window of his hotel room in Pyongyang to film a policewoman directing traffic. She's in constant motion, gesturing to vehicles coming from one direction, then pivoting crisply and signaling to vehicles coming from another direction.

It all looks perfectly normal, except for one thing: There's no traffic. North Korea doesn't have very many cars, and none of them happens to be driving by. The policewoman's choreography is all a surreal charade.

WE NOW RETURN TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM TV critic Tom Shales made two good observations in this morning's column, which waded through Bush's speech and the network reaction to it. He found Bush's delivery, while nowhere near as catonic as his last appearance, verging on deadening.

Partisans who adore Bush will say he was dramatic and effective, and those who are not supporters will likely say he seemed stiff, rigid and even a little spooky.

More inexcusably somehow, NBC abandoned the war so it could join its sick and sadistic hit "Fear Factor" in progress -- picking it up in time to air a gruesome sequence in which men and women walked in bare feet over broken glass as part of a repugnant ordeal that had a $50,000 jackpot at the end.

MON DIEU! SUCH EMOTIONALISM! Ten reasons to love France, courtesy of our friends over at the Idle Words web log.

THE POETRY OF AND FOR AND AGAINST WAR Robert Pinksy re-introduces us to Yeats and Winters and Owen as he explores the rhyme and reason of poetry and protest, as well as its long history. He ends his exploration with a look at Robert Lowell, and his poem "Waking Early Sunday Morning."

I will close on a different note with some lines that are relatively explicit, even editorial, about American power and our role in the world. Though written decades ago, these lines take up the current issue of American "policing" around the world. When poets declined Mrs. Bush's invitation last month, many observers referred back to Robert Lowell's refusal to attend a reception at Lyndon Johnson's White House, in protest of America's role in the war in Vietnam. Robert Lowell remains, many years after his death, one of those figures who attracts public attention, who seems to focus energy partly through some mysterious personal quality or fate. But Lowell was also an extraordinary poet, and, beyond personality, he commands attention because he was able to write about public matters with moral vision, though never moralistically. He could write clearly about uncertainty and grandly about anxiety. He could even write definitively about political ambiguity.

GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE Looks like the combination of rot gut and pot have finally driven Charlie Daniels into a corner. He recently issued an open letter to "the Hollywood Bunch," in which he opines rather loudly:

Ok let's just say for a moment you bunch of pampered, overpaid, unrealistic children had your way and the U.S.A. didn’t go into Iraq.

Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all our nuclear weapons and stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of what we've done for world peace.

I suppose that in your fantasy world this would create a utopian world where everybody would live in peace... Why you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic, spoiled mugwumps. Get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning. Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of the U.S.A. didn't have the nerve or the guts to fight him?

What happened to the loveable fat man I used to worship in my youth? ...I don't know if it's because you appeared one time too many on the Pat Robertson show, and he was finally able to convert you to the dark side. Or maybe you just got old and your juices done all dried up. I'm against a war in Iraq. There ain't no proof that Saddam was behind the 9/11 stuff. My recommendation would be to leave him alone, and just write him a note that tells him that we're watching his ass and that if he fucks up, even just a little bit, then we're gonna start dropping Wal-Marts and Blockbuster Videos on him and that Lee Greenwood will be at every Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting Ceremony singing that damned song of his.

I'm not a panty waist liberal. But I'm not a right wing whacko either. I'm just a middle of the road, old half crippled, fat guy doing his best to feed his family, love his kids and keep the lights turned on. As for your statement of "You're either with us, or you're against us", well all I can say to that is fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooooooooooou Charlie. Here in America, I got just as much a right to say I think war with Iraq is wrong. Hell, it ain't even a right, It's a responsibility.

TOO MUCH Pete Hamill's new novel, like just about everything I've read or seen lately, is too much -- in this case, about 100 pages too much. "Forever" is oddly at its best in its opening chapters, which take place in Ireland in the early 1700s, and only begins to spiral out of control when Hamill invites magical realism into his historical novel. The bulk of the book centers around Manhattan, which has been Hamill's stomping ground for four decades. And then he has to throw in September 11.

ALAS, POOR CRISPIN I was really hopeful. Truly, I was. And as the credits opened, I thought to myself, "Ah, Tim Burton meets 'Army of Darkness.'" And then "Willard" fell apart. Or, as my partner in movie-going puts it in his weekly reviews:

A disturbed young man (Crispin Glover) befriends a mouse and trains his pack to attack. This preposterous story could have been cool if it had been truly twisted or over the top. As it happens, only Glover overacts (big surprise), but everything else is dull and uninventive. The look achieves some level of style.

SCRATCHING FOR SANITY The Beastie Boys were in the studio recently, and decided to lay down some pro-peace tracks. The outcome is the downloadable single, "In A World Gone Mad."

We felt it was important to comment on where the US appears to be heading now. A war in Iraq will not resolve our problems. It can only result in the deaths of many innocent civilians and US troops. If we are truly striving for safety, we need to build friendships, not try to bully the rest of the world." - Adam Yauch

On "In a World Gone Mad," they're in adorable elder-statesman mode, trying so hard not to step on anybody's toes that they end up achieving little beyond a kaffeeklatsch complaint voiced in reasonable tones over an affable beat. The first problem is the chorus, growled by Adam Yauch in the middle of a reverb hangover that muffles the sound. You want to be shouting along, but instead you wind up just struggling to make out the words: "In a world gone mad it's hard to think right/ So much violence hate and spite/ Murder going on all day and night/ Due time we fight the nonviolent fight." ...The Beastie Boys have always been funny, or at least clever, but the rest of the lyrics don't rise above the level of a decent Conan O'Brien monologue.

ON THE TRAIL OF ISLAM Tom Friedman is everywhere these days, which is fine since he has been a consistent observer of the Middle East since his days in Beirut as a reporter in the 1980s. The closest thing to a pop columnist" you'll find, Friedman just wrapped a cable documentary for the Discovery Channel set to air next week. "Searching for the Roots of 9/11" delves into some of the social and religious fuel that has fed frustration in the Muslim world. When he's on the road speaking to average people, Friedman tends to get closer to the heart of matters than when he's observing the globe from a more professorial position. Hopefully, this project heads in the former direction.

LET THERE BE LIGHT Instead of heading out to one of the 3,000 candlelight vigils organized by MoveOn.org and the Win Without War coalition, I went to a small vigil at Richmond's Ekoji Buddhist Sangha. About a dozen people sat in quiet meditation, which allowed me to be in my own thoughtful space without being overly conscious of the polemics that seem to be so strong and strident in the anti-war space.