" LET'S ALL TIGHTEN THOSE CHIN STRAPS BOYS AND GIRLS "

"So I'm looking at the site tracker map, and I find someone as far away as Beijing has looked at this page, and I'm Wow. Then, I install Techorati and find out my ranking is 1,076,236...... and perspective raises it's ugly head again. Then I installed Haloscan, and Mad Mustard says I'm braver than he is....There's that sinking feeling again. That sinking feeling. Have you got a bad case of it too ? Cause that's what I'm thinking we all got. Unless I'm that guy in Beijing. If I'm him, I'm out shopping for a new car, and adding a page in my country's 5,000 year history. But I digress. Last night, Juan Cole posts some more of that relentlessly bad news from Iraq. But this one is different, it's another one of those " Turning Point " items we've seen from Mess-o-potamia. It's up there with the bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque, or the attacks on the U.N. headquarters & the Jordanian embassy in 03'. You see the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has thrown in the towel. That's right boys and girls, he's retired from politics. Why ? Because nobody is paying any attention to him any more. And with that act, one of the last brakes on the run-a-way-train that is Iraq is gone. The train will be picking up speed now, we ain't see nothin' yet. We're already doin' 70 down the back side of the El Cajon Pass to that 45 m.p.h. curve at the bottom in " San Berdo ". No way to jump now, and no way to crawl over the potash cars to the caboose. So, tighten those chin straps boys and girls.....this is going to be one hell of a train wreck.