The Disconnect

Bush Praises Pakistan Just Hours After U.S. Strike

By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: July 29, 2008

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday praised Pakistan’s commitment to fighting extremists along its deteriorating border with Afghanistan, only hours after an American missile strike destroyed what American and Pakistani officials described as a militant outpost in the region, killing at least six fighters.

Mr. Bush, meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, at the White House, sought to minimize growing concerns that Pakistan’s willingness to fight extremists was waning, allowing the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup inside Pakistan and plan new attacks there and beyond.

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Breaking News Alert

The New York Times

Thursday, July 31, 2008

-- 10:05 PM ET-----

Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul

U.S. Officials SayAmerican intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials. The conclusion was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.

Read More:http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Once upon a time, we used terms like "lies," or "prevarications," "spin," or even the tired, lame, terribly unimaginative "that's on a need-to-know basis."

Now we talk about "disconnects," as if the matters at hand resembled interrupted chatty-cathy telephone conversations between gin-and-tonic socialites scheduling a tennis match at the club. I am sure there must be a definition of disconnect as a political term -- I just haven't found it.

I also concede that my interest in the appropriation of words, the voiding of their semantic baggage, and their subsequent redeployment as a slick, smart-ass word-weapon -- well, my interest is covered by the slick and smarmy label of cultural linguistics when it should more rightly be named a sexual fetish.

Nothing turns me on more than a good etymology that cedes before the awesome power of cultural evolutionary forces. I ain't no prescriptivist, bay-bee.

Mais, je divague: I have lost the train of my thought. Choo choo...

There is something almost Maurice-Blanchot-y about the loud evocative silence in the space of the disconnect... No, that's a lie. No, wait, that is truth itself. It's just an embarrassment to admit any sort of excitement over something so shameful.

((((An irrepressable aside! I was browsing on Amazon.com, thinking of buying a copy of L'Arret de Mort [Death Sentence], half-heartedly, half-awake going through some of the reader reviews, when I was brought up short by this one, authored by one Benjamin Sokal:

Death Sentence is awesome. There are many themes in this book, and if you pay any attention, that keeps the book interesting. It is alternatingly bleak, hilarious, and sometimes bleakly hilarious. The funniest line might be, "What do I care about that honor, or even that friend, or even his unhappiness? My own is immense, and next to it other people mean nothing." Or perhaps the line that the narrator throws in about sleeping in open graves may strike your fancy. If you do not find these bleakly funny, perhaps you are not morbid enough to read this book. Several questions which may keep you up at night are, "Who is the narrator? What is Blanchot saying about French, or other, Cultures? What is the significance of casts? Why does everyone live in hotel rooms? How does Blanchot deal with the concept of death?

Why does everyone live in hotel rooms? Lordy, I about fell out of my wheelchair, laughing. Now *that* is a good -- no! a great -- question!

Intrigued by young Benjamin Sokal and his intrepid intellect, I looked up his other reviews on Amazon, and was quickly brought up short by this:

This movie is AWESOME! The action sizzles, the comedy will have you rolling, and Dennis Rodman stars! But what I like about it most are the philosophical underpinnings. This movie is the perfect metaphor for the postmodern hyperrealist fugue theory proposed by John L. Umblaut in the 1930's. The theory is a brand of religious existentialism except with Kantian overtones. Look it up on the internet if you want more information. This movie is great. Entertaining, funny, thought provoking. Two thumbs up...Way up!

Which was a review of Simon-Sez, which was given the following synopsis by Mark Deming in the All Movie Guide:

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman stars in this action-and-espionage thriller as Simon, an Interpol agent called into action when the daughter of a close friend is abducted. In order to track down the kidnappers, Simon seeks the assistance of a pair of monks (John Pinette and Ricky Harris) who are experts in computer sleuthing. Simon Sez was Rodman's first solo starring vehicle, following his dramatic debut alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Team.

Slowly. Step. Away. From. The. Review. Avoid. Staring. Into. Benjamin's. Eyes.))))

We linguistic sorts are a sad, sad lot.

Mais je divague: I have lost the train of my thought. Choo choo.