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It seems to me that this is the best of all possible worlds. The civil war lasted long enough for a rebel leadership to arise – I hope! – and NATO helped and continued to help so the rebels should be inclined to not be pissed at us. For months, newscasters have been saying that it is a stalemate but, of course, it wasn’t a stalemate. Wars, especially Civil Wars, take time. Because of that, people rise to leadership roles, if they are people who really want democracy, maybe they will get it. I hope so and I think they have a better chance than Egypt.

“Quantity has a quality all its own” attributed to Stalin.

Last weekend, I went to the  vintage car races at the Laguna Seca Racetrack with Malcolm Pearson. (Malcolm is the only person I know who is as crazy about cars as I am.) We went on Friday, a practice only day, because it is cheaper and there is a chance to see all the cars run. I had not been to Laguna Seca since 2005 and it was a shock; both good and bad, but mostly good. When we got there – I want to say bright and early in the morning, but it was dark and overcast with fog – at about  8:15, the first shock was that it cost $70 for the day. I remember it as $40 six years ago. The second shock was the number of entries. It was huge.

At the vintage races – officially the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion – a big part of the joy is being able to walk into the pits. And – in theory – linger. But there was no way we could linger, there were just to many cars – delicious cars of all varieties and ages: little, lithe, Formula Jr. open wheel race cars from the late 50’s, early 60’s; big, honk’n V-8 powered Trans-Am cars from the late 60’s, early 70’s;  little, lithe, sports race cars WITH big, honk’n 427 cubic inch Chevy V-8s – to linger. We walked all day and I don’t think we saw everything.

At first, it was close to orgasmic, although I do think we both calmed down by the end of the day. I think that I had seen one or two or three of every car that was there, but not twenty.

About 1970, I went to a Trans-Am race at Sears Point that I still remember. All the American factories were pouring money into their race cars and the series was full of famous names: Roger Penske’s Sunoco Camaro were the fastest cars, but Roger Foyt’s Mustangs were almost as fast. The two of them battled for the lead for the whole race. It was thrilling. It was magical – if you are into that kind of thing –  and now the cars are back. They are not driven by the same drivers, but, still….

These races – really, these race cars – have two draws for me: they evoke memories of past races, past times watching races back when the drivers were gladiators; and, because they are  race cars and, almost by definition, hand made cars,  they are amazing artifacts. They have the touch of the craftsman; the touch of the artist; the touch of what makes us human.

A couple of days ago, a friend told me that Obama is a Trotskyite. I was taken aback. I’ve had several people tell me that Obama is a Leninist and others tell me that he is a Socialist and still others tell me that he is a Marxist, but this was my first Trotskyite. I can’t get over the suspicion that  they – the Obama namers – think Leninist, Socialist, and Marxist are, roughly, interchangeable, but not Trotskyite.

That seems so specific; I really have no idea what they mean. OK, I am almost positive that it was meant as a slur, but I am at a loss at to exactly what slur. It got me to thinking about the differance between Liberals and Conservatives in their attacks. I know Liberals who will call somebody a fascist but I have never heard a Liberal call somebody a Mussolinist or a Hitlerite. Nazi, yes. But that seems to relate to how somebody acts, like He is such a Nazi about exercise and it is not always even a slur.

One of the things I – we? – did at the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby was hand my camera around. So we ended up with pictures by Courtney, Michele, and myself and I am not sure what pictures are whose. Some of the pictures from the last post could easily been Michele’s or Courtney’s and not mine. I do know that the following two pictures are, first, Courtney’s ,and, second, Michele’s.