Jesus Christ. It doesn't get more real than this. At your own convenience, please do take the time to read this. It's worth it.

U.S. Diplomat's Letter of Resignation
he following is the text of John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. Kiesling is a career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan.


Dear Mr. Secretary:


I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service as a U.S. diplomat was a dream job. I was paid to understand foreign languages and cultures, to seek out diplomats, politicians, scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that U.S. interests and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country and its values was the most powerful weapon in my diplomatic arsenal.


It is inevitable that during twenty years with the State Department I would become more sophisticated and cynical about the narrow and selfish bureaucratic motives that sometimes shaped our policies. Human nature is what it is, and I was rewarded and promoted for understanding human nature. But until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer.


The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.


The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. The September 11 tragedy left us stronger than before, rallying around us a vast international coalition to cooperate for the first time in a systematic way against the threat of terrorism. But rather than take credit for those successes and build on them, this Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?


We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism? After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.


We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has “oderint dum metuant” really become our motto?


I urge you to listen to America’s friends around the world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism, we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and they want a strong international system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership. When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to worry. And now they are afraid. Who will tell them convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon of liberty, security, and justice for the planet?


Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character and ability. You have preserved more international credibility for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration. But your loyalty to the President goes too far. We are straining beyond its limits an international system we built with such toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations, and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively than it ever constrained America’s ability to defend its interests.


I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share.

I have been re-inspired.

"I think perseverance and persistence is the key to everything. If there is something you really want to do, and you work hard enough I think you can definitely get there."
- Kaila Yu, Playboy model

Imagine if you only took naps - around the amount of 2-4 hours each time.

Your life would just be one long day. (Leemur Inc.)

Jazz, apparantly, still remains an esoteric activity excluding the brainiacally challenged:

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Auto response from CA r LOCO 6 9 (9:08:03 PM): if anybody has Miles Davis's Tutu album, PLEASE SEND IT TO ME NOW. i need it. tonight.

naryantek (9:08:03 PM): hahaha i wouldnt be caught dead in a tootoo, u pink fairy

Come if you can. It's Black Friday:

Recitals at Trinity:
Orlay Alonso, pianist - student of Claude Frank
Friday, February 21st at 11am

Ryo Yanigatani, pianist - student of Boris Berman
Friday, February 21st at 2pm

Carlos Avila, pianist - student of Peter Frankl
Friday, February 21st at 5pm

Michelle Shin, pianist - student of Peter Frankl
Friday, February 21st at 8pm

Stan and Alice have an interesting relationship....communicative at the very least.

naryantek: this is frosty requesting emergency evac from main stacks.
naryantek: over.
allyp0o: emergency evac
allyp0o: on its way
allyp0o: ten-four
allyp0o: leavin in approx. 5 min
allyp0o: destination: main stacks
allyp0o: over
naryantek: copy that

I might not have been clear enough with the last entry. If anybody has ANY jazz albums (ANY) - send them to me. Thank you Leslie and Pete for your contributions. NOW SEND MORE!

Flowing Stan-the-man with a rappin' plan is back at work.

naryantek: john coltrane boards a full train

Auto response from CA r LOCO 6 9: recital practice - miles davis and john coltrane reading

naryantek: lights a stoge lookin out his windowpane
naryantek: watch the train as it change lane to maintain the fake fame
naryantek: and runs over other people who calls stan's rhymes lame
naryantek: i shave your head and turn u female, have u lookin like GI jane

If anybody has ANY jazz albums - send them to me. It's on auto-accept. Just send them. I'm not joking.

People were skiing to class today and boarding down College Street. Sucks to be at Berkeley! Buahahhahaha.

Thank you, Nick.

my window of opportunity slammed shut
adversity must have striked and socked me in my gut
i walk a broken path with clothes tattered
because whatever mattered in my life felt shattered


...instead i pulled bricks from the walls my imagination and threw them through the window of opportunity.

charcoalj: yo

Auto response from CA r LOCO 6 9: nerding out at school til late

charcoalj: u r not only gay now.
charcoalj: u r also a nerd
charcoalj: what has yale done to u

Lifted from Allen's profile:

Racing your civic is like the Special Olympics: even if you win, you're still retarded.

On a lesson with J. Lo:
After over a semester of swimming through the conservative hogwash of Yale, I had almost forgotten what it was like to be in the presence of a pianist/teacher par excellence. He, who can teach anything.

Granted, J. Lo isn't really a specialist at any particular period of music, his breadth of knowledge in the standard (and non-standard) pianists repertoire is the most amazing shit I've ever seen in my life. It's my belief that deep down inside, J. Lo is what every student pianist works his entire life trying to be....

A joke. Courtesy of Ryo.

A man once decided to get a tattoo of his girlfriends name (Wendy) on his penis. The only problem was, when limp, you could only see the W and the Y. One day on a vacation in Jamaica, he was using a public urinal and he peeked over to the man next to him who, to his surprise, also had a W and a Y on his penis. He told the man, "wow, this is amazing. You tattooed 'Wendy' onto your penis just like I did." The man looked over and said, "No, actually this says 'Welcome to Jamaica and have a nice day."

OMG I NEED A VACATION. NOW.

Louange a l'Immortalite de Jesus from The Quartet for the End of Time is the most gorgeous thing I have ever heard.

Courtesy of Geoff:

two men and a woman are shipwrecked on a deserted island. for weeks they tried to devise ways off the island but to no avail. after a few months, human desire took over, and the three succumbed to what was natural...one day, the woman suddenly had an attack of conscience. she thought to herself, "this is wrong, i can't be sleeping with two men at once, it's immoral, i'm a horrible person..." unable to lift herself up from the pit of shame and depression, she took a plunge off a cliff and killed herself. the men were horrified, but they went on with life, and gradually, they again succumbed to what was natural...one day, one of the men said to the other, "this is wrong, this is just not right." "i agree," said the other, "we should bury her."

If anybody has Argerich and Kremer doing the Mendelssohn Double - send it to me now. I will forever be indebted to you.

An excerpt from Pete's blog regarding the Rhode Scholar at UC Berkeley. To all you IVY league fools - you have never, nor will ever understand just exactly what it means to receive a 4.0 at UC Berkeley (schools like Yale and Harvard are on a virtual A to B- range. If you completely fuck up, you MIGHT get a B-.). It is possibly the single hardest thing to do at any institution. Period.

"Berkeley Student gets the Rhodes scholarship---and all it takes is to graduate in less than four years with a triple major in electrical engineering, computer science and business management, a 4.0 GPA (with none of that Ivy League or Stanford inflated GPA stuff) plus extracurriculars like forming a non-profit organization to close the technology gap for poor local youth, starting an engineering journal and not to mention an online business. If they had told me that's all it takes I woulda done it already."

Case in point: If you get a 4.0 at Berkeley for even just one semester, they're so impressed with you they mail you a $100 dollar check. No joke. It's that hard.

An inspiring quote for the aspiring musician. Integrity pays off...certainly did in Lutoslawski's case. (Courtesy of Tyler)

"Artistic creative activity can be motivated by different aims. The most commonplace of these is the desire to attract the attention of others, to be popular, to earn money and so on. In my case, the main motive is the desire to give the most faithful expression of a constantly changing and developing world that exists within me. The question can be raised: am I only interested in what goes on in me and nothing else? Isn't this standpoint too introverted? My answer is: no. I am not working to get many 'fans' for myself; I do not want to convince, I want to find. I would like to find people who in the depths of their souls feel the same way as I do."

-Wiltold Lutoslawski

The craziness has resumed. At long last.

CA r LOCO 6 9: man i was up til 3:30am last night talking with my friend ilya about abstract neo-classicism in early 20th century ballet
peterlsb: DORK
peterlsb: i was up last nite with ploom trying to find naked pics of jennifer garner from alias, that's what you should be doing
CA r LOCO 6 9: bitch i ain't the one who read about mexican political economy for fun
CA r LOCO 6 9: following it up with an idiots guide to global conflict
peterlsb: fuck you, it had pictures of naked mexican chicks

Actually heard on KMEL sometime last year:

"It's 10 o' clock and it's time for your late night love dedications with your big daddy, Victor Zaragoza. Ok first one.....whoa. Alright, remember ladies, I read them as they come - they ain't in no particular order.

This is to Paul from Selena. 'I love you so much Paul. I know you're going off to jail tomorrow for awhile, but I wanna let you know that we'll always be together and I'll always wait for you. I love you.'

The next one is to Paul from Vanessa. 'My baby, Paul. I love you so much - you're so good to me. I know you're going to jail tomorrow and everything, but I will always love you and be there for you. Your baby girl.'

A'ight, well if it's the same Paul, I'd give it up to you, mah man, but it don't really matter cuz you're going to jaAAaaaiiiiiiiillllllllllll"

From the enlightening profile of Guson Kang:

You are a pregnant woman. You've had 8 kids, 3 born deaf, 2 born blind, and 1 mentally retarded. You also have syphillus. Should you get an abortion?
If you answered yes, you just killed Beethoven. You SUCK!