According to a Nobel Prize winner in Economics: $3 trillion.  And counting.

And, he adds, this is probably on the low side.

Webmaster of this site and all-around good Canadian guy Colin is also pretty darn fine musician, and one of the pleasures of having his friendship the last few years has been the occasional mp3 of his latest noodlings from the home studio, often coming not long after the arrival of some new technical doohickey that reflanges the hemostat or hypertunes the gonkulator.  In any case, the tunes are always a good listen.

Colin has recently joined forces with fellow singer-songwriter Charlie Burton to form an actual band thingy, self-deprecatingly called Two Old Goats ("their bleat can’t be beat!").  He mailed me a CD shortly before I left for Ecuador in December, and I wound up listening to it while writing or hanging out in airports at least a half-dozen times.  (It’s precisely the sort of music you’d expect goodhearted Canadians to write to bring happiness to other goodhearted Canadians.  You’ll probably clear the irony out of your system just by listening.)

Now it turns out that the Goats tune "Waiting For the Light" has reached the Top 50 on CBC Radio 3.  My congrats to both Colin and Charlie, and I’m sure there’s more where that came from.

Meanwhile, thanks to the CBC, you can hear some Goat music yourself here.  Although one warning: if you get the phrase "island standard time" caught in your head, it may not come out until Easter.

And you can buy the CD here.  (Just look for the big button that says "Get our CD — Buy Now.")

Enjoy.

I’ve written about this film before, but I’ll say this again: when director Alex Cox made his 1987 film Walker, it was a courageous and darkly funny commentary on US policy in Nicaragua.

More than 20 years later, it’s now a courageous and darkly funny commentary on US policy in Iraq.

The only question: in 20 years, which country about which it will be a darkly funny commentary concerning US policy therein?

(OK, you try writing that sentence more elegantly. I can’t get it quite right.)

Anywho, Walker. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll invade a smaller country to enchance your own power while fully convincing yourself you’re only doing it for the good of the locals.

Click here or on the pic for Amazon.

Pudu working it for the camera at Fernando’s Hideaway in Chile:

Pudu not shy.

PS — What I call "Fernando’s Hideaway" here is actually Fauna Andina, a private reserve that cares for vulnerable and endangered local species in rural Chile. The guy who runs the place, Fernando, may know more about pudus than anyone alive, and one of his favorite hobbies is caring for his tiny flock. (Some were previously mistakenly taken in as pets, which doesn’t work; some have been found injured; and others are the offspring of Fernando’s prior pudus.)

I’m gonna try to set up a PayPal thing where people who appreciate the pudu can chip in a buck or two to help Fernando keep his pudus healthy and happy. Thanks!

At least… (drum roll)… 935.

Let’s take a second and really grasp that number. They didn’t do it once. They didn’t do it twice. Bush and his people said false things that started a war at least

So now, after almost half a trillion dollars down the hole…

and somewhere between at least 80,000 and quite possibly up to 1,220,580 violent deaths later…

… with no end remotely in sight, and still Bush gunning for a new war, despite his own administration’s comprehensive National Intelligence Estimate…

… I find I must confess that after several minutes of thinking, I have no bloody clue how to end this post on an optimistic, inspiring, or remotely useful note. But there it is.