Plastered In Waiting

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!


Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Sheakespeare, Macbeth.


This is a digital picture by Sci Fi artist Alexander Preus I found loping around the net; found a blog on sci fi art. Wish I could work out how to work the links thing on this; there's some great stuff out there. Blogger have just introduced video uploads. Haven't got any interesting videos but I'm going to try it anyway. Just tried. Doesn't seem to work on the video downloads off my phone - Sony Ericcsson. Which is a pity. We could all become instant film crews. No moment safe. No moment sacrosant.

For some reason this picture made me want to read the first paragraph of Someting Wicked This Way Comes from a long time ago; when magic infested every move. There's lots of summaries of the plot on the net, but I can't find the first paragraph.

"Wikipedia note that Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 novel by Ray Bradbury about two thirteen-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, who have a harrowing experience with a nightmarish carnival that comes to their Midwestern town one October. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark" who bears a tattoo for each person who, lured by the offer to live out their secret fantasies, has become bound in service to the carnival.

"One of the events in Ray Bradbury's childhood that inspired him to become a writer was an encounter with a carnival magician named Mr. Electrico who commanded him to "Live forever!" The twelve-year-old Bradbury, intrigued at the concept of eternal life, revisited Mr. Electrico, who spurred his passion for life by heralding him as the reincarnation of the friend he lost in World War I. After that memorable day, Bradbury began writing nonstop.[1]"

Similar things can only be got in intense meditation; propelled by a spiritual dynamic.

I keep thinking I have no choice but to finish this project Chaos At the Cross Roads; which could be subtitlted The Failure of Democracy. We shall see. Some things become inevitable in life. Otherwise you go crazy. Time will tell. First things first. Get through the day.


THE BIGGER STORY:

SMH:

IF YOU believe the Premier's Department version of history, an outburst Morris Iemma had at a media conference last year - calling the then chief executive of Sydney's Cross City Tunnel a "f---wit" - never happened.

After it was revealed in the Herald yesterday that staff at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet were editing Wikipedia articles to remove details that might be damaging to the Government, it has emerged that staff in Mr Iemma's department have been doing the same...

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet was found to have made 126 edits on subjects ranging from the children overboard affair to the Treasurer, Peter Costello, whose entry was modified to remove a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk".

ABC:

US President George W Bush has signaled his unwillingness to consider early US troop reductions in Iraq, saying new offensive operations there were just in their "early stages."

The statement, made in his weekly radio address, followed a fervent plea by John Warner, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who publicly asked the president to initiate by September 15 at least a symbolic drawdown of US military forces from Iraq.

Senator Warner, a former secretary of the Navy and a widely respected authority on military affairs, suggested last week the President bring home up to 5,000 US troops as "the first step in a withdrawal of armed forces" in order to "send a sharp and clear message" to the Iraqi Government that the US commitment was not open-ended.

Mr Bush has not formally responded to the appeal. But in his address, he expressed satisfaction with offensive operations launched in the wake of a nearly 30,000-troop surge he announced at the beginning of the year - and said they were just beginning.

"We are still in the early stages of our new operations," the President said. "But the success of the past couple of months have shown that conditions on the ground can change - and they are changing."

He argued that every month since January, US forces have killed or captured on average more than 1,500 Al Qaeda fighters and other insurgents in Iraq.

Mr Bush went on to say that young Iraqi men are signing up for the army, police are patrolling the streets and neighborhood watch groups are being formed in Iraqi cities.

Mr Bush says Iraqis are now volunteering important information about insurgents and other extremists hiding in their midst more frequently, which has led to a "marked reduction" in sectarian murders.

"We cannot expect the new strategy we are carrying out to bring success overnight," the President concluded.

"But by standing with the Iraqi people as they build their democracy, we will deliver a devastating blow to Al Qaeda, we will help provide new hope for millions of people throughout the Middle East, we will gain a friend and ally in the war on terror, and we will make the American people safer."