This weekend I took my Tibetan Mastiff puppy to the Tibetan Mastiff Club of America National Show.The Bodhi placed third in 3-6 month dog. This is one of the national clubs devoted to the Tibetan Mastiff. The other is the American Tibetan Mastiff Association. TMs are a very rare breed. For more information on the history of the breed click here. TMs are among the oldest breeds of dogs with a recognizable appearance going back to more than 2500 years. Ths first written accounts of the breed are from China around 1100 BC. Most breeders today believe the TM served as the foundation source for the modern working breed dogs. In Tibet the animal is used as a guardian and flock guardian.


The show was held in Sacramento, a city I had never visited in California - a long six hour drive across the central valley filled with large scale farms. Farms very different than the small family run operations I had know as a kid in Indiana. Here the business of farming is just that a business. As a opposed to the family run operations which had been a family for 4-5 generations, these farms had the fresh newness of California on them, clean wholesome and at the same time industry and troubling. The farm lands of the Central Valley are like the myth of California itself. Heavily irrigated with water from the Colorado river, these lands would be barren without the water. They provide the illusion of fertility, with a heavy price. The land is barren otherwise. The water disguises and hides the dead land underneath. Life is produced and consumed, lush green life heavily fertilized with industrial pesticides. It provides the dream of California gleaming in the sun, whose cost is born by other people, other towns and other lives.

Watching the reaction of the protesters in the United States has been interesting. The chant "No Blood for Oil" is pretty common. Of course the amazing thing is that under the current UN sanctions against Iraq, oil has been traded for blood. The current regime of sanctions were created after the Gulf war (Resolution 687) which put sanctions into place until Saddam disarms, stops production of all chemical, biological and nuclear programs, AND proves to the world that he has done so. The resolution has been amended several times to allow Iraq to sell oil for humanitarian purposes (ie food & medicine). It's been estimated by the UN that roughly 1/3 of the revenue for humanitarian purposes goes directly to Saddam and his inner circle. The money that should be buying food and medicine for Iraq children instead goes make sure Saddam can continue his reign and weapons program. While many protesters also feel the sanctions are wrong (The US is reponsible for the death of Iraqi babies), this clearly isn't the case. For every moment that Saddam remains in power, all Iraq children suffer. All that was required was that Saddam comply with the resolution. He chose not to and instead took the food directly from the mouths of children in order to perpetuate his regime. He then claimed the sanctions "killed millions." Saddam's theft of 1/3 the revenue for humanitarian purposes had a large part to do with the rise in infant mortality in Iraq after the Gulf war.

Certain researchers believe that Saddam's war with Iran marked the turning point and Iraqi health care has deteriorated since then. For example in the Northern no fly zone infant mortality rates have dropped below pre Gulf war levels. Where the Kurds are distributing the humanitarian aid - it actually seems to get to it's intended reciepients.

I personally think that the president does indeed have sense of moral outrage by the conduct of Saddam et al. "Blood for Oil" may be a cute slogan but it certainly falls short of the mark in describing the current administration's intentions.

Well - An attack of opportunity on Saddam. Probably traveling from bunker to bunker

As we are a few hours away from war I can help but wonder how long the president have the Iraqs' stew? Clearly going immediately to war at the deadline doesn't pack the same impact that say, six hours after the deadline will. We will see. There's a great article over at Salon. You can find it here. in a nut shell the article wonders why the progressive left can compare the president to Hitler but cannot in the same breadth hold Saddam accountable for the his actions. Not all nation states are created equally. Stalinist regimes with secret police are not the same as Western democracies. One of the real problems with United Nations is that it treats all states equally when they are not equal.