Getting down to the wire...

In an eerie echo of the Condoleezza Rice article I mentioned on Friday, the Blix report confirmed that the 12,000-page report Iraq provided to the U.N. was almost entirely old stuff that stops around 1991. The report also says:

Unlike South Africa, which decided on its own to eliminate its nuclear weapons and welcomed the inspection as a means of creating confidence in its disarmament, Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament which was demanded of it and which it needs to carry out to win the confidence of the world and to live in peace.

The document also noted that the stocks of weapons known to exist when the inspectors left in 1998 have yet to be accounted for.

The usual suspects have already called for another "final opportunity" for Iraq to resolve the crisis peacefully. These guys are stuck in a wicked 'while' loop, methinks.

* * *In other news, the French are showing America the way away from simplisme and knee-jerk jingoism with the passage of a new law that makes it a crime to defile the tricolor or mock the Marseillaise.

Various fringe elements have been trying something along the same lines over here for years, with no success (albeit without trying to make it a crime to mock the Star-Spangled Banner, as that would threaten the livelihood of so many individuals who butcher the poor thing at athletic events, but I digress...).

Good luck with enforcement, mes amis.

* * *Three hours at the store this morning pretty much did me in. I tried to nap, but couldn't. I tried to translate, but only did six pages (~1900 words). I've entered the "easy" part of the document, but it will still take me about 4-6 hours to finish the job.

The good news for the month is that my billings are above my revised monthly "nut," or will be once I invoice the job I'm currently working on.

* * *Galina brought back a copy of the magazine in which Lee's reviews were published. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the mag, but it's a slick production that's got an interesting format, a kind of cross between traditional Western (e.g., the masthead is at the front of the book, as us'ns understand "front") and Japanese (the "front cover" is where it would be in Japan - i.e., our back cover - and pages are numbered starting from the back). Based on a brief look-see, all items in the book appear to occupy one page, so there's no confusion there.

In any event, Lee's pieces look good! (I understand more are in the pipeline.)

I am enormously proud.

Cheers...