Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.

Once more we return to continue our peregrinations and conversation.

I'd written a long, dithyrambic, and discursive commentary on change, but circumstances change, and I'm shelving that commentary for a few days.

I hear you now, "O, do stop grizzling on, Brian, what in the name of Mike are you going to write about now?"

Très simple, mes enfants.

Blog authors have decided that to-day would be devoted to helping raise awareness of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. To that end, I have added a link to the American Red Cross. The site is hosted by Yahoo! to help alleviate the delays as people open their wallets and purses to donate money in order to give aid to the people of New Orleans, Biloxi, and other cities and towns that were in the path of Katrina and are now lying shattered. Go here to donate. The minimum donation through this link is ten dollars.

Folks, normally, I wouldn't try to solicit money from you. I get enough phone calls from The Citizens' Alliance for the Eradication of Litterbuggery and divers emails, begging letters, and suchlike for the groups such as the Concerned Public for the Preservation of Goshawks that I presume that you do as well and there are only so many calls for money that one can entertain.

However, this is a different situation. Now you have an opportunity to assuage any feelings of guilt you may have for turning down the homeless person who asked you for spare change or a smoke. You can work off a bit of bad karma (if you believe such things) with a few clicks and a couple of keystrokes. There is also the feeling of having done well by a stranger in need.

What is ten dollars? I know that there are times for many of us when ten dollars is a dear sum, but think on how it can help if enough people donate.

Mister President, you are no FDR.

And so it begins.

President Bush has, during commemorations of VJ Day, likened the war in Iraq to the honorable and desperate Second World War. Furthermore, he was drawn comparisions between himself and President Roosevelt.

While Bush is prone to exaggerating himself and singing paeans to himself and his grand vision, this recent statement makes me seeth with cold fury.

How dare he compare this war to the Second World War?

Then we had the goodwill of the world and comrades in arms against a depraved and utterly ruthless enemy bent on total domination. The fight was a noble one and our soldiers, sailors, and airmen knew exactly what they were doing.

Now, the majority of nations are opposed to this war in Iraq, our allies have distanced themselves from us as we had no justification whatsoever for invading Iraq. Claims of a clear and imminent danger were disproved. Claims of Saddam manufacturing weapons of mass destruction were also proven false. Assertions that the Iraqis were somehow involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11th were never more than lame attempts at justification. All we've done in the attempt to "free" the Iraqi people and install a form of government agreeable to us is cause turmoil, international protests, and dissent. Not to mention destabilizing the entire region and fomenting further discord and terrorism.

Our soldiers now don't know who the enemy is. Is the teen-ager down the street an enemy? Or is the old man sitting out front of a café the enemy? The mujaheddin don't wear uniforms. They aren't the Nazis. They aren't the Fascists of Italy and they aren't the Armies of Japan. Our soldiers and citizens don't know why we're even at war.

I don't think our president does either or else he wouldn't make statements comparing the war in Iraq to the Second World War.

I find this comparison insulting to the memory of my maternal grandparents and uncles and aunts. My grandfather fought in the Pacific with honor while my great-uncles fought elsewhere. Meanwhile, my grandmother and great-aunts endured privations to support the men and worked in various positions to further the war effort. What they did was noble and in defense of our country and our friends like the United Kingdom and France. We had the moral right of the matter.

Shame on you, President Bush.

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Also, yesterday, my great-aunt Coreen passed away.

So I dedicate this to her piæ memoriæ.

Requiescat in pace, Aunty.