If I hear anyone else ask "why aren't the Iraqi people welcoming U.S. troops as liberators?" -- or, more broadly, last September's "why do they hate us?" -- I might point them toward the unbelievable disparity between the $75 billion we're spending on destroying their country and the $1.7 (that's one point seven, not one-seven like seventeen) billion we're planning to spend rebuilding it. Of that $1.7 billion, there's only "$543 million for refugees and humanitarian needs, and up to $200 million to replenish emergency food stocks." Priorities, anyone?

Anyway, the world continues to turn. There are weekend visitors and rainy lunchtime drives and big self-projects in the works, there are new jobs for old friends, writing being written, plans being made. Things change and stay the same at their usual pace. Dar's line "when you live in the world, well, it gets into who you thought you'd be" is stuck on permanent repeat in my head, and A Life Uncommon is usually awesome, but never moreso than today.