"Iraq: Still a Matter of Opinion" by Joshua Holland at AlterNet.

"Why America is different" is Ronald Wright's review of Fintan O'Toole's White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America, at the Times Literary Supplement's website.

And now, to bring the highbrow tone down a bit, here's the Family Values Generator, courtesy of anxietyculture.com (which hosts a plethora--a word I never hesitate to use whenever I get the chance--of such "interactive" amusements).

Poem of the Day (yeah right) Dept.:

For no particular reason except that it is poignant and beautiful . . . "Words" by William Butler Yeats, archived at PoetryConnection.net.

"Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures -- such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- as another benevolent action."

"No Thanks to Thanksgiving" by Robert Jensen at AlterNet.

These days whenever somebody asks me what I'm doing for Thanksgiving, after polite explanations that I am not a turkey person (and I absolutely despise cranberry sauce), I usually wind it up by saying something along the lines of "If the Indians had known what was going to happen, they'd have sent the Pilgrims packing." Or words to that effect.

(For more background on early New England's bloody history and how the holiday was made official see "Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre; Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide?" by Laura Elliff, archived at the Bloomington-Normal Independent Media Center's website.)

"A complex brew of poverty and racial strife has inspired writers as diverse as William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor . . . . But those same social pathologies have burdened the South with a stubbornly enduring legacy of illiteracy."

"Great Literature Amid Illiteracy" by Emily Wagster Pettus at Newsday.com.

"Is the thought of a noncapitalist utopia even possible after Stalinism, after decades of anticommunist polemic on the part of brilliant and morally engaged intellectuals? Or are we all convinced, in a politically paralyzing way, that Margaret Thatcher had it right when she crowed that 'there is no alternative' to free-market capitalism?"

"Back to utopia: Can the antidote to today's neoliberal triumphalism be found in the pages of far-out science fiction?" by Joshua Glenn, from The Boston Globe via boston.com.

"Fairies stop developers' bulldozers in their tracks" by Will Pavia and Chris Windle, at the U.K.'s Times Online.

"In our heart of hearts we have not come so far from our paleolithic ancestors. So long as we still live in fear so people like Altes will exist to feed off it and find it sweet. He and his kin have always prospered in those shadows just as they will continue to prosper, down through the ages, leeches growing fat on the world's pain."

"White Darkness," about Haiti and voodoo, is a fascinating, shocking and even moving narrative culled by British filmmaker Richard Stanley from his travel journals, at Fortean Times' website,.

Wouldn't Put It Past Them Dept.:

"'An attack on al-Jazeera would also have been an attack on Qatar . . . . So the possibility has to be considered that Mr Bush was in fact making some kind of joke and that this was not a serious proposition.'"

Ha ha. Very funny.

"Bush al-Jazeera 'plot' dismissed," reported at BBC News.

This being the first time I've had a chance to read the whole thing, it occurs to me that the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights is really, in terms of word-count, a surprisingly short document.

"When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

"I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?"

Which is a sampling from the annonymously-penned "Why Can't I Own a Canadian?," archived at the Humanists of Utah's website. (Holy-rollers Batman! There are humanists in Utah? Quick--somebody organize a rescue mission!)

"U.S. indicts terror suspect Jose Padilla" by Tom Brune at Newsday's website.

". . . anyone who saw Mathieu Kassovitz's film, 'La Haine,' or 'Hate,' a decade ago had no reason to be surprised by this fall's violence. At the time, Kassovitz's portrayal of a seething immigrant Paris suburb, even his choice of the word 'hate' for his title, seemed shocking, even exaggerated. Today, the movie could almost pass as a documentary."

Alan Riding, in "Entr'acte: If only French leaders listened to pop culture," at the International Herald Tribune's website.

And then there's text messaging . . .

"IfURlyWnt2HrBoutIt,Da1stFingUlProbWnt2NoIsWherIWsBorn &WotMyLousyChldhdWsLyk&HwMyRentsWerOcupyd&AlB4TheyHdMe &AlThtDaveCopafieldKindaCrp,BtIDnFeelLykGoin IntaItIfUWannaNoDaTruf" isn't quite so easily read as the garbled but surprisingly readable spelling of the message linked-to in the last post. This--the opening of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye--needs decoding and phonetic deciphering.

"The Apocalypse Has Arrived: Classic Lit n Txt Msg" by Kimbery Maul at The Book Standard.

Curiouser and Curiouser Dept.:

The actual act of reading words in itself can be fascinating. The music of words and language being important and vital, this is a startling demonstration that the way your brain initially comprehends written words is peculiarly visual and not phonetic.

Big Brother Is Watching You Dept.:

"Tokyo teacher embattled over war history" by Robert Marquand at The Christian Science Monitor's website.

I've been thinking about the nature of web "pages" and websites and what not lately, and the internet-library analogy . . . and it strikes me that websites--particularly the more graphic design-intense sites like Fine Words Butter No Parsnips, which is a very interesting personal (sort of family-operated anyway) website with a lot of artsy and professional talent on display . . . it strikes me that such sites are oddly like (real) pop-up childrens books, using javascript and Flash and so on in the same way as the printed books use folded paper and cardboard; I'm sure there's some common impulse, some logical relationship, at work here, and some graphic design theorist out there could enlighten me no doubt.

But anyhow, according to the site, "The proverb 'fine words butter no parsnips' is just another way of saying 'talk is cheap.'" Interesting stuff.

"Dylan poetry sells for $78,000 at Christie's auction of rock memorabilia" by Frank Eltman of A.P., at Newsday. (But nobody wanted the Jim Morrison lyrics . . . .)

"Saudi Arabia: Teachers Silenced on Blasphemy Charges" at Human Rights Watch's website.

"For those of us whose major 'investments' are our homes, our cars, and our children, watching the 'economy' would be amusing if it were not so serious. It's rather like watching a kitten in its first adventure at tree-climbing. At first it is fun but, as it goes higher, it becomes more desperate. The cat never looks down but keeps its eyes on the next branch and the next after that. As the branches become smaller and more frail until there are only twigs to support the climb, it becomes more desperate and an onlooker can only watch it go up and up, wondering if one should call the fire department for a rescue or if the poor thing will simply fall before help can arrive. The goal is simply 'the top', though we know there will be disappointment because, once 'the top' is gained, there is nothing more there and it will be a long way down."

"The Economy Gap" by Mary Pitt at New Zealand's Scoop.