And Then There Truly Was No One

*

Saying yes to everything
Turning down nothing
You forget about the joy true love brings
You get to itching for the devil's next love thing

The time has come
To look yourself in the face
When everything around you moves fast
And dissolves into air

What do you care?
You've forgotten the face
And look at the time!
Isn't it time?
Jesus, isn't it high time?

You're afraid of life
You're human, all too human

I can understand that
Honey I couldn't live like that

Everytime you plead to God
You twist yourself a little more inside
You're saying yes to everything
And everything you touch turns to time
Everything you touch turns to time

And the years they roll on by
And the years they roll on by
In the end don't add up to much
In the end don't add up to much

Now the time has come
To look yourself in the face
When everything around you moves fast
And dissolves into air
What do you care
You've forgotten the time.

Saying yes to everything
Turning down nothing

You're saying yes to everything
And everything you touch turns to time
You're a king and everything you touch
Turns to time
Everything you touch turns to time

And it's time please gentlemen time
And it's time that you came home
And it's time that you came home

Time on your hands
Time to kill
Time on your hands
Time to kill
Everything you touch just turns to time
Everything you touch just turns to time

The Triffids

Oh how did he come to be here, shivering like a dog? He could hear ever drip of water, every rustle, every furtive coming and going. The scene was more decadent than anything the Roman baths had ever had to offer. Chaos had reigned earlier in the night, when he had downed bourbon after bourbon on top of the hallucinogens, and every little cripple who went scurrying into the corners, every flash of the disco ball, every boomph of the sound system and every crush of the expanding crowd, it had all come to mean something. Dancing on the moon. Dancing on the surface of a roaring planet. Moon walking across the thin surface. The shallow crust barely holding his weight, barely protecting him from the wild fires beneath. Everything was transparent. He passed in and out of consciousness, in and out of life. He had no compassion, not even for himself. He had not slept in six nights.

That everything should come down to this one terrifying moment; a moment inauspicious except for the horror. He felt uncomfortable in only a towel, and had no understanding of what had led him here. He was beginning to sober up and it was a most unpleasant feeling. He knew then how deeply scattered he had become. He knew there would be no solution, there would never be love, or a lover, and his own sanity was now in serious question. He may have begun as an intrepid explorer, but now he was nothing but a squishy mess, his own consciousness splintered deeply in confusion. Oh how he hated everything, his own life, his own past. He thought he could hear the friend he had come with, gasping, coming, off somewhere in the deep, damp labyrinth. It only made him feel sadder.

Outside he could hear the night inching by, the buildings which surrounded them entering deeper into their own silences, the beeping of a garbage truck far off. Oh how he would hate to see this place in the daylight, the damp walls, the mist, the fungus beginning to grow. Everything was slimy. He knew there were greater to come. He wrapped himself in the towel and decided to hide in a cubicle, avoiding the touch of others. Soon the attendants were bustling around, suggesting they were about to close. He could hear a final gasp, the reek of amyl nitrate. And then the ultimate horror of horrors, the lights came on. The last remnants of the night were bundled up together and cast out into the night. They stood outside the club on the alien street, and he recognised his friend in the small huddle, apparently satisfied.

Nothing had happened the way it was meant to. They smiled shame faced at each other and began walking up the street together. He thought he could detect a shift in the darkness of the sky, the beginning of the dawn. A car drove by and they watched it as if it was some strange animal. They had sought the ultimate release and were still alive. As a shocking oblivion seeker, always stepping off cliffs, he had thought to finally find something, there on the opposite side of sanity, there in the long nights, sex with strangers, the ultimate orgy. But the trouble was his consciousness always re-emerged, no matter how determinedly he tried to drown it. Destroy it. Always the thoughts came back, the terrible fears, the sweeping, dislocating despair. Oh how he could have been something, someone, a human, loved, happy to see the day.

They hit the bottom of Oxford Street, trying to find a bar which was open, anything to fend off the pending hangover. It was so scummy. He was so dislocated. His friend kissed him and peeled off into the night. He had knocked back an offer to go back, to find yet more squirming oblivion in the arms of others. Instead he found a bar and downed yet more bourbons; trying once more to fill his veins with the warm river of hope. It was not to be. He was now beyond human help. When that bar too closed in turn he found himself sitting on a small cascade of stone steps, leading down to a little square reminiscent of the European towns he had known so long ago. The dawn was well up and running by now; and the sky streaked with the colours of the sunrise. He was entering his seventh day without sleep. He could feel the aching creases of everything, the surface of pain, the substance of disbelief, could feel now the thousands of people beginning to wake up, shower, have their breakfast.

And he sighed inside in he deepest despair; and smiled his crooked smile. Perhaps it was time to go home now, get some sleep, become a normal person once again. He shook his head and shivered. There was no way back.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8585680

As of Tuesday, June 30, 2009, at least 4,322 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,456 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is one more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,408 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department's weekly tally.

The latest deaths reported by the military:

Four soldiers died in combat Monday.

The latest identifications reported by the military:

Army Sgt. Timothy A. David, 28, Gladwin, Mich.; died Sunday in Sadr City after an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/03/2615537.htm?section=business

The Federal Opposition says a plan to guarantee a training place for all retrenched workers will be useless for many unemployed.

The program, called the 'Compact with Retrenched Workers', was agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) yesterday.

It will offer all newly unemployed people the chance to improve their qualifications through subsidised vocational training.

The Federal Government expects more than 120,000 newly-unemployed people will take up government-subsidised vocational education and training places.

But Opposition employment participation spokesman Andrew Southcott says the program is likely to see people get qualifications that do not help them.

"We saw this with working nation in the 1990s and people just got stuck on the training treadmill," he said.

"They did training without any hope of a job at the end of it.

"And this seems to be the Rudd Government's response to everything, is to provide more training. We think there are a lot of other things that should be done."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/us-military-soldier-afghanistan-taliban

US forces were today frantically hunting for one of its soldiers believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the first to be taken since America first began operations in the country in 2001.

The soldier, whose unit is based in eastern Paktika province, was not involved in the ongoing operation in the south of the country. He was found to be missing during a roster check on Tuesday morning and is believed to be held by a Taliban faction linked to a string of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Captain Elizabeth Mathias, said today: "We understand him to be have been captured by militant forces. We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return."

She added: "We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's wellbeing."

But the Afghan police general Nabi Mullakheil disclosed the location of the kidnap as Mullakheil area in Paktika, where there is a US base.

The Pentagon has requested the help of Pakistan forces to seal the border. Pakistan officials have also asked villagers along the border to provide information if the soldier's captors pass through their area or asks for help.
It is highly unusual for the US military to disclose that one of its soldiers has been kidnapped, especially when operations are still underway to try to get him back.