Tatoo
What you see below is a tattoo that I probably administered myself last night. It is a statement, potent, that is: "Big Art Man: Death Be Not Proud," as you can unclearly not see below:

I included my keys in the photograph as a validator that the well-muscled, poorly-tattouxed arm in the photo does indeed belong to me (Phil). If you don't believe me that the keys pictured open the doors of MY life, then you can ask me which lock any of them corresponds to and I could tell you. The bench in the pictures is made from real wood. There is only one pictures.

Having verified the tatooh's uniqueness to my body, I can now set out to explain why it amuses me so:
1) I am not an art man, per se, and even if I was I am not especially big (though well-muscled is another category entirely. So too is suave)
2) This is my second not-real tattoo*
2a) The tattoo is not real
3) The text is so small as to be illegible, yet proclaims me as BIG art man.
4) I am not dead, most likely
5) The black ink smeared all over the place almost instantly, indicating a death of the legibility of the tattoo. Yet, contrary to the second clause of the message, the tattoo stands proud.
6) Today is my first day at school with the tattoo. I am covering it with a long-sleeved shirt. So nobody will get a chance to see the already illegible message, which totally invalidates everything

I, PHiL am not a fan of permanent body art. The message has to change, or you're not thinking.

* I sort of almost got a tattoo in Toronto. I will not say what it was, but you can ask.

Salesmanship
This is actually an addendum to the previous post, but is essential enough to merit its own confines. Chinese President Hu Jintao was just in America for 4 days. That his elbows were rubbed much more with business leaders than with the President should surprise nobody. China's relationship - right now - with the US consists strictly of economic opportunism exploiting a dependence: Drug addicts are not able to negotiate with dealers. In this construct, President Bush isn't even an addict - he'd have to be cast in the role of a parent of an addict trying to persuade the drug-dealer to forgo his/her life of easy luxury in favor of a more "noble" means of vocation.... just so he (Bush/parent) could be let off the hook raising his child in such a way as to enable the addiction to occur.

You might not agree with that extended metaphor.

But you should agree with its ultimate resultant: we (Americans) have nothing in the way of leverage with China. Which isn't necessarily disastrous at the negotiating table (not that it helps). Especially if you can make the other party perceive you as having something to offer, be it now or in times future. In either case, something needs to be CREATED. Whether it is an illusion or an awareness of potential, for one to persuade they have to be able to fashion it. Bush is simply not able enough to do so (exception: an institution even more dim-witted than he: the American public and/or senate).

I, PHiL

Things looked at during the writing of this post:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedean_solid
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12418382/

Gas Prices
This is my first post. Anche funziona come una pira funeraria. You see, I hav'd an Italian blog for quite some time. The few souls who stumbled upon it writhing amidst the Myriad of properly phrased Italian opinions must have felt as though they had chanced a glance at a grammatical sacrifice. Possessing the knowledge, I'd've added rythmic beating of drums and fires that burn(ed) animatedly as gifs. It might well have worked. Because:

What one is currently viewing often supplants what they just viewed. The finiteness of the human brain makes exposure to new stimuli a necessarily destructive event. The mitigating factor is one's attention span, which assigns added significance to recent data that might otherwise be nondescript and as such tossed upon the heap of useless input (h.u.i. - heard, understood, ignored). Due to a gradual but longstanding attenuation of the average American's attention span, all kinds of illness can occur without consequences being properly assigned. The latest example, is this.

If you don't have enough time to read this, here is the crux of the matter. If succeed in having the time but fail in having the attention span, then piss off, you're causing tremendous problems with how our government functions.

"The American people have got to understand what happens elsewhere in the world affects the price of gasoline you pay here."

First of all "have got to" is just plain disgraceful. If Bush is speaking this way intentionally as a manner of making himself for intelligible (hah) to the average American, then it is a lame attempt at pandering. Go into Harlem and speak your Bushbonics... it would be the same damn thing only less insidious. On the other hand, if it is an honest mistake, then I'm sick of honesty* ... give me some grammatical competence. (I am eligible to mount my steep steed here (after Italian blog fiasco) because my Italian blog was not responsible for delivering messages from the leader of the country to its citizens). Now then, the recent rise gas prices is a direct consequence of the recent rise in oil prices, which themselves are direct consequences of concerns about IRAN's unwillingness to keep enabling the militaries (among MANY other things) of countries that might seek to invade them by selling oil. And just why might Iran have any sort of reason to be concerned about being invaded? Yah, somebody needs to tell the President that what happens elsewhere in the world is conversely affected by what happens in America. For better or whatnot.

2 things, quickly:
1) No I DO NOT think Iran should have nuclear weapons, under any circumstances. Pardon my wording if it suggests otherwise.
2) You can only play a good hand once, and a lot of the times it takes a while to get dealt one. We wasted our good hand on Iraq.
2a) 9/11 does not represent "a good hand" in this scenario

In summary: Americans have become increasingly concerned about how much things cost. Capitalism, yes, but all things in moderation. At least here. Or, more aptly, if you want to pay the cheapest price for something, you DAM WELL better know what other COSTS are attached to that price. If (my fellow) Americans, who only seem to pay attention when something costs more, do not associate the vacuous cavity in their walletts with its equivalent inside their president's head, then we are worse off than I thought.

I, PHiL

* This is one of an exiguous number of situations in which I will ever be sick of honesty