I started to realize on the bus ride over that they had all been on this tour together many times and that I was the new guy. The only new guy. As I put my stuff in my room I heard Kenny Thomas say “Oh man I need coffee so bad. Do you have any coffee in your room?” He was literally moaning in pain. I looked in my room and there was a small jar of instant coffee there with a bit left at the bottom. My room had a tiny kitchenette as we all did. I really wanted that coffee. But I took it across to Kenny’s room. I knocked on his door and he opened it . I held up the jar. he grabbed it. “Aw, thanks, man. Thank you so much.” I am the greatest person alive. That’s the point of that story.

Most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country. They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior.

Since 2000, 14 Security Council resolutions have been vetoed by one or more of the five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Of those, 10 were U.S. vetoes, nine of them related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The last U.S. vetoes were two in 2006, both related to Israel.

When you go to a restaurant on the weekends and it’s busy they start a waiting list. They start calling out names, they say “Dufresne, party of two. Dufresne, party of two.” And if no one answers they’ll say their name again. “Dufresne, party of two, Dufresne, party of two.” But then if no one answers they’ll just go right on to the next name. “Bush, party of three.” Yeah, what happened to the Dufresnes? No one seems to give a shit. Who can eat at a time like this? People are missing! You fuckers are selfish. The Dufresnes are in someone’s trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths. And they’re hungry. That’s a double whammy. Bush, search party of three, you can eat when you find the Dufresnes.