It was the best of times it was the worst of times. It was the end of times.

My man Mark sends this about the origin of the word Armageddon. While it has come to signify "the end of times" or the arrival of catastrophic events. Har-Mageddon originally meant "the mountain of Megiddo" - Megiddo being a site in Israel close to the border with Lebanon.

My man Chris asks whether Terry Gilliam is stuffed? And how did he get hold of £12 million to make a film with corpses, heroin, a talking squirrel, and a bedroom scene between a retarded man and a little girl?

The great man's answer to the question of human survival: Er, I don't know — Hawking's conundrum draws 25,000 responses. BoingBoing: Blogger Josh Wolf was jailed for capturing "vandalism to a police car" in film footage.

Chris also points out Captain Beefheart's house is for sale.

Who is the man behind Hezbollah? And what does he want? His name is Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, and he views himself as the jihadist leader who can finally unite Shia and Sunni. The New Republic provides a profile (subscription required).

From me, just the usual stuff. It's ironic that Iraq was going to be the place where the legacy of Vietnam was finally forgotten and the catalyst for the restoration of US executive power. Instead Iraq looks like the rock that will sink that neocon dream. Rather than troop reductions there have been increases. The military solution may actually be damaging hopes of democracy in the region. And the paleocons want their conservative heritage back.

Hillary and others have called for Rumsfeld's resignation. It is long overdue. More and more he seems disconnected from reality. The administration says Americans should "stay the course" - but what course is that? I said Rummy should go over two years ago and also argued this isn't about who is strongest on terror, it's about who can execute a policy effectively. Rumsfeld cannot. He is hopeless.

Anyway, here Rusty Brown on Lebanon and fellow Public Addresser Tze Ming Mok, in the Sunday Star-Times, cutting up Don, who sounds more and more like Winston Peters each day. And this, via Sir Humprey's, another score for bloggers over the mainstream media - this time a clearly faked picture.

Arm a geddon outa here.