The muqarnas of the Shah Mosque and Fatima Masumeh Shrine, Iran

[NNadir]

1. It is terrible to destroy cultural icons, something for which Americans...

...have some bad habits.

It goes back some years, all the way to Dresden in 1945. (The Brits of course helped in this, courtesy of the imperialust "Bomber Harris." I have recently learned in my reading that he learned his particular bad habits in the colonial era in mandatory Palestine, where he has a habit of leveling villages indiscrimately to suppress Arab revolts.)

When I used to go to Europe often on business, on the off days, I would sometimes visit Cathedrals in whatever city in which I happened to be.

I'm an atheist but nonetheless I would feel some sense of reverence in these structures, even to the extent that I would light a candle to I could tell my very Catholic step mother I had done so in memory of my father.

I certainly remember that of Strasbourg, which until the late 19th century had what was thought to be the most accurate clock in the world. It was a massive thing, constructed with moving figurines and other miniscuptures. I'm very glad that neither the Germans nor the British nor the Americans blew it up.

Bush's Oedipal.war in Iraq destroyed many antiquities from the Mesopotamian era.

On a personal note, it's nice to see you posting again. We were missing you.