Red meat and the war in Iraq

Double whammie tonight.

First of all, I've decided to give up red meat until Easter. It's part of my effort to really reconnect with my spiritual side, which hasn't really been speaking to me as of late.
It also has to do with the fact that a recent doctor's visit revealed I've put on a few more pounds than I like.
Now, for some of you, maybe giving up red meat for an extended period of time is no big deal. For me, it's huge. It's enormous. It's colossal. Remember when David Blaine stood on that lampost in Central Park for like two days? This is bigger than that. If humans are made up of 70 percent water, than my remaining 30 percent is divided between 5 percent vital organs and bones, and 25 percent ground beef and steak. I love my red meat. I am an unabashed carnivore. Always have been and always will be. You'll get my quarterpounder with cheese when you pry it from my cold, dead, high-cholesterol hand.
But I've always felt a desire to not have anything have a hold on me. I don't like being in anything's power. I quit smoking cold turkey this summer after about 8 years of pack-a-day smoking because I didn't like the fact that it controlled my actions. Probably the dominant side of me that always wants to be in charge. So, red meat falls into that category. So I am casting it aside. It will test my will power, and rae, my poor slave, will probably suffer as much as I will, from having a cranky Master. But fasting and sacrifice always worked in the old days when people wanted to reconnect with God, so here's hoping that being prime rib deficient will help put me back on the Jesus short list (I know it takes more than that, but not going to go into all my other efforts today).

Now, I've been watching the news coming out of Iraq with some dread. Everybody's tossing the words "Civil War" around. Originally, I supported the war. I believed Bush (one of my "what the fuck was I thinking moments") when he came up and started talking about WMDs and yellow cakes of uranium and all that. But it wasn't long until I started rethinking my position. At the time I was a reporter on the Hill and I heard things and got a lot of different viewpoints. It didn't take long for me to change my view completely. I think it was a big freakin' mistake and about two years ago I predicted that Iraq's most likely path is civil war.
You see, Iraq isn't a country that was founded by its own people, first of all. It's a false creation of the United Kingdom. The Kurds, Sunnis and shiites never said "Hey, let's all live together and make a great country called Iraq!" In fact, they'd rather have nothing to do with one another.
They were forced together so that European powers could more easily manage oil extraction for their benefit. Much like what happened in Africa in regards to diamonds and gold. All that infighting in Africa is because different groups of people were forced to be one nation or another with people they historically never got along with. Usually for some very good reasons. We're seeing Africa go through its growing pains because it's shaking off imperialism. Basically, it's like a spring that's been held compressed for 300 years or more. When you let go, either rapidly or slowly, it's going to revert to its original shape, one of least resistance for its components. For us humans, that means civil war, strife, the break-up of nations and realignment of power.
This is, I feel, what will happen in Iraq. The Sunnis don't want to live with the Shiites, and everyone knows the Kurds want their own nation. The Shiites, in many cases, would rather be Iranians. And, honestly, who are we to say they can't?
The unfortunate part is that these realignments rarely happen without a lot of bloodshed, and quite often the people who end up in power are the ones we really, really would rather not have there.
I think, in the end, the only really good allies we're going to get out of this is the kurds. And that's if we don't screw them over by siding with Turkey when they want to form their own nation (which will eventually happen...we're just putting off the inevitable on that one). The Iranians will back the shiites, and if we interfere the Iraqi Shiites will scream that we're favoring the sunnis. The sunnis contain a lot of the old baathists and would very likely propel Saddam or someone close to him back to power if they could. So, in a civil war that means we either, in essence, help the Iranians or help Saddam's old crew. Or we could leave them all to kill each other or try to stop both of them, meaning that both sides will be ticked off at us, believing we favored one for the other.
The sunnis are already going to cry foul if real fighting breaks out. Most of those guys we trained and gave new equipment to in order to restart the Iraqi military are shiites. So we've given them the training and gear to help them kill lots and lots of sunnis. Something the sunnis will never let us forget.
The only good part about all this is that neither side is likely to tie itself close to al queada. At least I hope not.
And, when the smoke clears, everyone is going to blame us.

About the hair...

Upon seeing my picture someone asked why it was that only, or usually only, black men can get away with shaving their heads.
It made me wonder a couple things. 1.) Where does the concept come from that we are just "cooler" with our heads shaved, and 2.) what's the big worry about losing your hair anyway?

First of all, I really don't think black men have cornered the market of being bald. I've known plenty of white guys that looked just fine bald. There are a couple issues, however, with how you go about going bald. It's not just a matter of shaving your head to the skin and that's that. No way.
Going bald on purpose is a strategic style initiative undertaken by the brave, confident and dilligent.
First of all, I think one of the reasons for the whole "black guys look better" thing is skin color...not just the fact that we're black, but because quite often white men's scalp skin is a slightly different shade than the rest of their face. This can be easily cured by going bald right at the start of summer and letting your head get used to it. Otherwise the color difference is like a big arrow aiming down at your shiny chrome dome and you look like you're on your way to your next chemo treatment.
Another reason is that we have naturally dark hair, which also ties into the strategy that goes behind going bald. If you're gonna go bald, grow a beard or mustache. It balances out the uniformity of this bald, featureless head with a face sitting in the middle of it. The darker the hair, the more it detracts from any negatives for being bald. And the facial hair, particularly dense facial hair, lets everyone know you could grow a whole mess o' hair if you wanted to. You choose not to. No facial hair leads to people looking at you and going "oh, what happened to your hair?"
And, as I said, the darker the hair the better. A blonde guy with a mustache and a bald head doesn't usually pass the bald test (that being whether, occasionally, a hot woman comes along and wants to feel your head...if this ever happens to you then you know going bald was the right move). Hair that's too pale, or too thin, disappears against your face. And if it's thin and scraggly it enforces the impression that your baldness is due to a lack of rogaine instead of personal initiative.
So, make sure your head's all one color, and that you have some nice, dark facial growth, and most white guys can go bald with pride....that is unless you have a peanut-shaped head...in which case you're just screwed and that's that.
Now, why do we care?
Well, the answer with why men care about virtually anything always comes back to one thing: Women.
For some reason we believe that women don't find balding men very attractive. Now that may be true if you have a receding hairline or a big bald spot in the middle of your head. But if you go all the way bald and follow the above tips you look a bit edgy and dangerous...or at least brave and willing to do your own thing.
Women, universally, have accepted bald black men as a societal staple. There are some women who will even preface their description of a handsome black man as requiring that he be bald as part of the enticement.
We've had Isaac Hayes working for us since the 70s, and that's a powerful force, despite his Scientology ties. Who have white guys had in their corner for bald style? Telly Savalis. Sometimes he was cool, other times he looked like Dr. Evil with a lollypop. So you've got some catching up to do.
In the end though, it's about virility. Most of what we find attractive, even when we don't know it, is directly tied to how good a breeder that other person seems to be.
Healthy hair indicates a healthy body which could mean healthy genes.
Ironically, on a cultural level, big bald guys also give a symbol of virility, but more in the "raid your village, take the women and ravage them" sort of way. However, if you're somewhere in between, with just a bald, fading spot, then you look more like Friar Tuck, which screams celibacy....

Who Am I?

Who am I? In essence, that is what this blog is all about. Sometimes I think I know, but sometimes I'm sure I don't. Lots of other people think they know. They are pretty much uniformly wrong.
Labels? I've got lots of those. I'm an african-american, 30-something, gorean-styled dominant lifestyle Master, left-leaning moderate, gamer geek writer. Wrap your brain around that all at once. You might know me as El Magico, Dark Lord, DLDC, Rivin, A2knight or, if we go wayyy back, Lord Bane.
But does that really tell somebody, including yourself, who you are? I don't think so.
I'm not even sure this will.
This blog will be my net-borne stream of consciousness, my electronic catharsis. Sometimes it will be political, other times it will be geek stuff, at others it will be social. There are times when any one can read it, but I warn you it isn't likely to be kid-friendly. This will be me uncensored, as probably nobody, including myself, has really seen before.
I hope you find the trip interesting.