Sanely free of McCarthyite calling anyone a "traitor" since 2001!
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I'm underemployed (historically particularly as an editor in book and magazine publishing), recurringly housebound with insanely painful now-sporadic (when I have meds) gout, an enlarged heart, and other health problems, particularly including lifelong recurring severe clinical depression. See here for a major crisis. I'm also sometimes available to some degree as a paid writer or researcher. This is a previous update on my situation & this -- and this from December 19th, 2005 update.
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"The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include With ease, and you beside"
-- Emily Dickinson
"We will pursue peace as if there is no terrorism and fight terrorism as if there is no peace."
-- Yitzhak Rabin
"I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport."
-- Barbara Jordan
"Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to
trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule --
and both commonly succeed, and are right."
-- H. L. Mencken
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
-- William Pitt
"The only completely consistent people are the dead."
-- Aldous Huxley
"I have had my solutions for a long time; but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them."
-- Karl F. Gauss
"Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire,
the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind;
and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise
the improvements of social life."
-- Edward Gibbon
"Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his
expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were
respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom."
-- Edward Gibbon
"There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify
the evils, of the present times."
-- Edward Gibbon
"Our youth now loves luxuries. They have bad manners, contempt for authority.
They show disrespect for elders and they
love to chatter instead of exercise.
Children are now tyrants, not the servants, of their households. They
no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize
their teachers."
-- Socrates
"Before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments."
-- Sidney Hook
"Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness."
-- Sidney Hook
"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization.
We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect
disinterestedness in its exercise, nor become complacent about particular degrees of interest
and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimized."
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
"Faced with the choice of all the land without a Jewish state or a Jewish state without all the
land, we chose a Jewish state without all the land."
-- David Ben-Gurion
"...the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him
an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this
or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages
to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also
to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing,
with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess
and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminals who do not withstand such
temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the
opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction;
that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion
and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their
ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty,
because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of
judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square
with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil
government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts
against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if
left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has
nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her
natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is
permitted freely to contradict them.
-- Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson
"We don't live just by ideas. Ideas are part of the mixture of customs and practices,
intuitions and instincts that make human life a conscious activity susceptible to
improvement or debasement. A radical idea may be healthy as a provocation;
a temperate idea may be stultifying. It depends on the circumstances. One of the most
tiresome arguments against ideas is that their "tendency" is to some dire condition --
to totalitarianism, or to moral relativism, or to a war of all against all."
-- Louis Menand
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."
-- Dante Alighieri
"He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers."
-- Henry B. Adams
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the
poor to beg in the streets, steal bread, or sleep under a bridge."
-- Anatole France
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
-- Edmund Burke
"Education does not mean that we have become certified experts in business or mining or botany or journalism or epistemology;
it means that through the absorption of the moral, intellectual, and esthetic inheritance of the race we have come to
understand and control ourselves as well as the external world; that we have chosen the best as our associates both in spirit
and the flesh; that we have learned to add courtesy to culture, wisdom to knowledge, and forgiveness to understanding."
-- Will Durant
"Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is
but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest
winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore?"
-- Herman Melville
"The most important political office is that of the private citizen."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
"If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
-- Louis D. Brandeis
"It is an error to suppose that books have no influence; it is a slow influence, like flowing water carving out a canyon,
but it tells more and more with every year; and no one can pass an hour a day in the society of sages and heroes without
being lifted up a notch or two by the company he has kept."
-- Will Durant
"When you write, you’re trying to transpose what you’re thinking into something that is less like an annoying drone and more like a piece of music."
-- Louis Menand
"Sex is a continuum."
-- Gore Vidal
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, 1802.
"The sum of our religion is peace and unanimity, but these can scarcely stand unless we define as little as possible,
and in many things leave one free to follow his own judgment, because there is great obscurity in many matters, and
man suffers from this almost congenital disease that he will not give in when once a controversy is started, and
after he is heated he regards as absolutely true that which he began to sponsor quite casually...."
-- Desiderius Erasmus
"Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule of what we are to read, and what we must disbelieve?"
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to N. G. Dufief, Philadelphia bookseller, 1814
"We are told that it is only people's objective actions that matter, and their subjective feelings are of no importance. Thus pacifists, by obstructing the war effort,
are 'objectively' aiding the Nazis; and therefore the fact that they may be personally hostile to Fascism is irrelevant. I have been guilty of saying this myself more than once. The same argument is applied to Trotskyism. Trotskyists are often credited, at any rate by Communists, with being active and conscious agents of Hitler; but when you point out the many and obvious reasons why this is unlikely to be true,
the 'objectively' line of talk is brought forward again. To criticize the Soviet Union helps Hitler: therefore 'Trotskyism is Fascism'. And when this has been established, the accusation of conscious treachery is usually repeated.
This is not only dishonest; it also carries a severe penalty with it. If you disregard people's motives, it becomes much harder to foresee their actions."
-- George Orwell, "As I Please," Tribune, 8 December 1944
"Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If 'needy' were a turn-on?"
-- "Aaron Altman," Broadcast News
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
-- Lewis Thomas
"To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?"
-- Cicero
"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."
-- Samuel Johnson, Life Of Johnson
"Very well, what did my critics say in attacking my character? I must read out their affidavit, so to speak, as though they were my legal accusers: Socrates is guilty of criminal meddling, in that he inquires into things below the earth and in the sky, and makes the weaker argument defeat the stronger, and teaches others to follow his example."
-- Socrates, via Plato, The Republic
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself."
-- Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign
"Remember, Robin: evil is a pretty bad thing."
-- Batman
"Being evil is not a full-time job."
-- James Lileks
Gary Farber is now a licensed Double Super-Secret Master Pundit.
He does not always refer to himself in the third person.
Did he mention he was presently single?
The lutefisk is dead. Donate via the donation button on the top left
or I'll shoot this gefilte fish.
No, really, I seriously need the help at present. And I hate asking.
Current Total # of Donations Since Blog Began: 606
Subscribers to date at $5/month: 30 sign-ups; 22 cancellations; Total= 8
Supporter subscribers to date at $25/month: 7 sign-ups; 3 cancellation; Total= 4
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And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
Farber's First Fundamental of Blogging:
If your idea of making an insightful point is to make fun of people's
names, or refer to them by rilly clever labels such as "The Big Me" or "The Shrub,"
chances are high that I'm not reading your blog. The same applies if you refer
to a group of people by disparaging terms such as "the Donks" or "the pals." (Note: I have to say I don't give that much of a damn any more.)
Farber's Second Fundamental of Blogging:
The more interested you are in scoring a "point" for a political "team," a "side," than in exploring the validity or value of an idea, the less interested I am in what you're saying.
(Note: Partially suspended for the Duration. Later note: forget I ever said this.)
Farber's Third Fundamental of Blogging:
If you see a link on another blog, and use it, credit the blog.
Some places I go:
[weblogs, sites, and columns]
People I've known and still miss include Isaac Asimov, rich brown, Charles Burbee, F. M. "Buzz" Busby, Terry Carr, A. Vincent Clarke, George Alec Effinger,
Bill & Sherry Fesselmeyer, George Flynn, John Milo "Mike" Ford. John Foyster, Jay Haldeman, Chuch Harris, Mike Hinge, Lee Hoffman, Terry Hughes, Damon Knight, Ross Pavlac, Bruce Pelz, Elmer Perdue, Tom Perry,
Larry Propp, Bill Rotsler, Art Saha, Bob Shaw, Martin Smith, Harry Stubbs, Bob Tucker, Harry Warner, Jr., Jack Williamson, Walter A. Willis, Susan Wood, Kate Worley, and Roger Zelazny.
It's just a start.
And She of whom I must write someday.
You Like Me, You Really Like Me
...Darn: I saw that Gary had commented on this thread, and thought: oh. my. god. Perfect storm. Unstoppable cannonball, immovable object.
-- Hilzoy
Guessing that Gary is ignorant of anything that has ever been written down is, in my experience, unwise.
Just saying.
-- Hilzoy
Where would the blogosphere be without the Guardian? Guardian fish-barreling is now a venerable tradition. Yet even within this tradition, I don't believe there has ever been a more extensive and thorough essay than this one, from Gary Farber's fine blog. Gary appears to have examined every single thing that Guardian/Observer columnist Mary Ridell has ever written. He ties it all together, reaches inevitable conclusion. An archive can be a weapon.
-- Dr. Frank
Isn't Gary a cracking blogger, apropos of nothing in particular?
-- Alison Scott
I usually read you and Patrick several times a day, and I always get something from them. You've got great links, intellectually honest commentary, and a sense of humor. What's not to like?
-- Ted Barlow
...writer[s] I find myself checking out repeatedly when I'm in the mood to play follow-the-links. They're not all people I agree with all the time, or even most of the time, but I've found them all to be thoughtful writers, and that's the important thing, or should be.
-- Tom Tomorrow
Amygdala - So much stuff it reminds Unqualified Offerings that UO sometimes thinks of Gary Farber as "the liberal Instapundit." -- Jim Henley
I look at it almost every day. I can't follow all the links, but I read most of your pieces. The blog format really seems to suit you. It also suits me; I am not a news junkie, so having smart people like you ferret out the interesting stuff and leave it where I can find it is wonderful.
-- Lydia Nickerson
Gary is certainly a non-idiotarian 'liberal'...
-- Perry deHaviland
...the thoughtful and highly intelligent Gary Farber... My first reaction was that I definitely need to appease Gary Farber of Amygdala, one of the geniuses of our age.
-- Brad deLong
My friend Gary Farber at Amygdala is the sort of liberal for whom I happily give three cheers. [...] Damned incisive blogging....
-- Midwest Conservative Journal
If I ever start a paper, Clueless writes the foreign affairs column, Layne handles the city beat, Welch has the roving-reporter job, Tom Tomorrow runs the comic section (which carries Treacher, of course). MediaMinded runs the slots - that's the type of editor I want as the last line of defense. InstantMan runs the edit page - and you can forget about your Ivins and Wills and Friedmans and Teepens on the edit page - it's all Blair, VodkaP, C. Johnson, Aspara, Farber, Galt, and a dozen other worthies, with Justin 'I am smoking in such a provocative fashion' Raimondo tossed in for balance and comic relief.
Who wouldn't buy that paper? Who wouldn't want to read it? Who wouldn't climb over their mother to be in it?
-- James Lileks
Gary is a perceptive, intelligent, nice guy. Some of the stuff he comes up with is insightful, witty, and stimulating. And sometimes he manages to make me groan.
-- Charlie Stross
One of my issues with many poli-blogs is the dickhead tone so many bloggers affect to express their sense of righteous indignation. Gary Farber's thoughtful leftie takes on the world stand in sharp contrast with the usual rhetorical bullying. Plus, he likes "Pogo," which clearly attests to his unassaultable good taste.
-- oakhaus.com
Gary Farber is a principled liberal....
-- Bill Quick, The Daily Pundit
I read Amygdala...with regularity, as do all sensible websurfers.
-- Jim Henley, Unqualified Offerings
Okay, he is annoying, but he still posts a lot of good stuff.
-- Avedon Carol, The Sideshow
The only trouble with reading Amygdala is that it makes me feel like such a slacker. That Man Farber's a linking, posting, commenting machine, I tell you!
-- John Robinson, Sore Eyes
Jaysus. I saw him do something like this before, on a thread about Israel. It was pretty brutal. It's like watching one of those old WWF wrestlers grab an opponent's
face and grind away until the guy starts crying. I mean that in a nice & admiring way, you know.
-- Fontana Labs, Unfogged
We read you Gary Farber! We read you all the time! Its just that we are lazy with our blogroll. We are so very very lazy. We are always the last ones to the party but we always have snazzy bow ties.
-- Fafnir, Fafblog!
Gary Farber you are a genius of mad scientist proportions. I will bet there are like huge brains growin in jars all over your house.
-- Fafnir, Fafblog!
Gary Farber is the hardest working man in show blog business. He's like a young Gene Hackman blogging with his hair on fire, or something.
-- Belle Waring, John & Belle Have A Blog
I bow before the shrillitudinousness of Gary Farber, who has been blogging like a fiend.
-- Ted Barlow, Crooked Timber
Gary Farber only has two blogging modes: not at all, and 20 billion interesting posts a day [...] someone on the interweb whose opinions I can trust....
-- Belle Waring, John & Belle Have A Blog
Gary Farber! Jeez, the guy is practically a blogging legend, and I'm always surprised at the breadth of what he writes about.
-- PZ Meyers, Pharyngula
Gary Farber takes me to task, in a way befitting the gentleman he is.
-- Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
Cameras to Record Ground Zero Rising, a Frame at a Time
Since late May, three 35-millimeter movie cameras have been trained on ground zero from atop nearby buildings, each programmed to take a picture of the vast site every five minutes, night and day. By Sept. 11, they will be joined by three other cameras rigged to do the same.
They will all keep taking pictures — 288 a day — for at least the next seven years.
GAS? WHAT GAS?: This will be talked about. It's worth remembering that the US was covertly providing intelligence and bomb damage assessment to Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war, and that we perfectly well knew at the time that he was using various forms of poison gas, from nerve gas to mustard gas. It's also good, of course, to consider that:
"The use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern," he said. What Mr. Reagan's aides were concerned about, he said, was that Iran not break through to the Fao Peninsula and spread the Islamic revolution to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
And that, cold and terrible as it may be, is also not just part of how geopolitics work, but also has a moral component as well. How many more people might have suffered or died had Iran overrun Iraq, and possibly more of the Gulf states? We can't know, of course, and will never know which would have been the greater evil. What we can know is that it isn't clear that helping Iraq at that time was surely the greater evil.
8/17/2002 11:29:00 PM |permanent link| | Main Page |
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WHO'S WHO: The Grey Lady covers whether Satanists are actually Godless, and discovers polyamory. It's August!
American Atheists, the New Jersey-based organizers of the march, has invited "all groups and individuals who sincerely declare themselves to be 'Godless Americans' " to be listed as endorsers of the march, a protest against a long list of actions and attitudes considered prejudicial to nonbelievers.
Two of the many groups that responded, the Order of Perdition and the United Satanic Convenire, describe themselves as satanist; and satanists, in the view of the Council for Secular Humanism, are insufficiently godless.
"Satanism is a religion, with supernatural beliefs and a belief in the occult," said Tom Flynn, the editor of Free Inquiry, published by the council. "They should not qualify as endorsers of an event for Godless Americans."
The United Satanic Convenire responded with a long comment on its Web site. An unidentified leader of the group described himself, or herself, as "a disbeliever in the existence of a metaphysical being called 'God.' " Some satanists have a deistic view of Satan, it was explained, but apparently not this one. The Convenire promised it would not arrive in Washington waving "pentagrams and other occult paraphernalia."
[...]
The problem, he said, "was partly a public relations thing" — Christian preachers frequently denounced nonbelievers as satanic. But there was more to it, he continued: Satanism dallies with supernatural beliefs that most atheists simply do not entertain.
Groups that use invocations like "Hail Lucifer!" — as the Order of Perdition does — are definitely "not our style," Mr. Buckner said. "That would be just as mistaken as saying "Hail Mary, full of grace."
Further down on the same page is the story of the Unitarian Universalist Association wrestling with whether to accept the Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness (U.U.P.A.) as an affiliate.
"The board would have a lot of questions about how their agenda fits with the values and principles of the organization," said Janet Hayes, the Unitarian Universalists' public information officer. She called the group "cutting-edge in the sense that its time has not yet come — but I wouldn't want to say it won't."
Then there's this new form of proselytizing:
Mr. Owens was discussing "Shoes of the Fisherman," simple sandals with raised letters on their bottoms. As the wearer walks along the beach, the right sandal leaves an imprint saying "Jesus" The left sandal's imprint says "loves you."
The sandals, the company's Web site said, "are made in Thailand in a clean, Christian-owned factory that employs adult Christian workers who are paid a living wage."
WHERE IS MY BUG FAN?: I'd hitherto missed this fascinating analysis of the legal writings of Zacarias Moussaoui. It's bizarre stuff; Gary-Bob says check it out.
After declaring that "The Fascist Bureau of Inquisition with the Special Services of Furor Brinkema" are preparing him for the "GAZ CHAMBER," he traces over the initial letters of Special Services, so they appear in boldface. Thereafter Brinkema is SS Brinkema. He also precedes her name in some pleadings with DJ, for Death Judge.
His references to her allude, at times, to discomfort about her gender and power (evident from his "mental" evaluation of her as suffering from gender inferiority). He says, "She is a master of deception deceiving everybody with her Grandnany Look." He calls her the "She Clinton," and says she is "Without a doubt Pro Choice . . . The Choice for the killing of Zacarias Moussaoui."
VATICAN STUDYING U.S. SEX ABUSE is the headline that you just want to fill in the subhead for it as "Seeks To Learn How Other Countries May Increase Sex Abuse."
Interesting line:
Some at the Vatican are said to be worried that innocent priests could be removed by overly zealous bishops.
EMBASSY ELAN: Amusing story on how embassies in Washington are trying to outdo each other in building bigger and fancier buildings, and how the diplomatic scene has changed since the Eighties.
"This is the most powerful country in the history of the world, and we need a showpiece for Sweden," said the ambassador, Jan Eliasson.
Then, to underline the seriousness of the venture, the ambassador pointed to a successful Nordic rival, "Like the Finnish Embassy."
[...]
"Before, embassies held exclusive, glamorous events," said Ina Ginsberg, a journalist and Washington grande dame. "That's almost all gone. Now it's practical, down to earth and open to all because of their involvement in civic charities. Local charities couldn't exist without embassies now."
I wonder who the Duchy of Grand Fenwick works with.
Amygdala wishes to apologize to its readers, and announces that it, too, is reporting $49 million dollars in revenue errors. This is due to a miscounting of how many times you people have clicked on the PayPal "donate" button.
Revision: Amygdala wishes to apologize once again to its readers, and announces an updated re-accounting. It is now reporting a $49 billion jillion gazillion dollar error in revenue accounting. As a result, all readers are required to make up this unforseen deficit by clicking ten billion jillion gazillion times on "donate." Our only other alternative will be to accept our merger as InstaAmygdalaTalkingPointsKausSullivanSideshowOfferingsBoingPunditLite. Stay tuned for our upcoming quarterly report, and our IPO!
IS E-MAIL FREE SPEECH, OR "TRESPASS-TO-CHATTELS"?: Guess which Intel and the US Chamber of Commerce say, and which the Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU, AFL-CIO, and other free speech suspects argue. The California Supreme Court will decide, and my bet is that they'll say you're not trespassing when you send an unwanted e-mail.
Which I slightly reluctantly favor. Perhaps even more critical is that the decision would almost certainly apply equally to sending an HTTP request to look at, or link to, a URL. I'm tempted to favor making it illegal for someone to send me unwanted e-mail, but I'm willing to deal with it technologically and socially instead. Bringing such application of trespass-to-chattels tort law to other online digital packets, though, could conceivably destroy the Internet. (Of course, this could save the world from the evils of the US hegemonic Internet.)
We were driving around the suburban-industrial wasteland south of San Francisco, on our way to a corporate presentation, while Schneier looked for something to eat not purveyed by a chain restaurant. This was important to Schneier, who in addition to being America's best-known ex-cryptographer is a food writer for an alternative newspaper in Minneapolis, where he lives. Initially he had been sure that in the crazy ethnic salad of Silicon Valley it would be impossible not to find someplace of culinary interest—a Libyan burger stop, a Hmong bagelry, a Szechuan taco stand. But as the rented car swept toward the vast, amoeboid office complex that was our destination, his faith slowly crumbled. Bowing to reality, he parked in front of a nondescript sandwich shop, disappointment evident on his face.
Gee, I've had dinner and lunch with Bruce (and Karen Cooper) a bunch of times, and he was always happy, but those meals were mostly in NYC, so we didn't lack for choice.
Spiffy article on (of course) internet security, and its application to post-9/11 security in general, one of Bruce's famous areas of expertise. But most Atlantic articles are great; it's one of the best magazines out there.
Jordan, US units continue routine exercise programme
AMMAN (JT) — Jordanian and US troops start their annual joint military exercises in the southern part of the Kingdom today. US troops disembarked from two vessels at the Port of Aqaba Tuesday morning to take part in the routine exercises.
Minister of State for Political Affairs and Minister of Information Mohammad Adwan was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra as saying that a unit of the Jordan Armed Forces is undertaking joint exercises with an American unit as part of an annual training programme implemented with the armies of several friendly countries.
Adwan said the exercises will be carried out over a two-week span, after which the US troops will leave the country.
Yes, but where they they be leaving for? The Baltimore Sunnoticed Millenium Challenge. Number to note:
As of May, Boeing was producing each month 1,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, one of the prized U.S. precision weapons. Boeing expects to increase the number to 2,000 a month by the end of the year.
The US Navy is contracting two commercial ships to move military hardware, including Bradley fighting vehicles and helicopters, to Jordan and an undisclosed Red Sea port, US officials said on Tuesday.
[...]
But a spokesman for the US Central Command said the shipments were part of a broader transfer of military equipment out of Europe.
'We consider this just a routine shipment,' said Commander Frank Merriman.
The first ship had moved Bradley fighting vehicles, armoured recovery vehicles, Humvees and other equipment from Europe to the Central Command's area of operations, which extends from Egypt to Afghanistan.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the equipment was for an exercise in Jordan and for weapons stockpiles in the region.
US troops began arriving this week in Jordan for an annual exercise called Infinite Moonlight which, in the past, has involved mock helicopter and mechanised assaults.
Jordanian officials said all 4,000 US troops taking part would leave the country after the exercise but it was not clear whether their equipment would stay behind.
Downing Street was also forced to damp down speculation that the deployment of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to the Mediterranean next month was connected to possible operations in the Gulf.
A spokeswoman said it was "absolute rubbish" and that the ship was taking part in a long-planned Nato exercise, due to last 20 days, in October.
The Intel Corporation said today that its next personal computer chip would pack in twice as many transistors as the company's best-selling Pentium 4, use less power and have some of the tiniest parts ever made in high-volume chip manufacturing.
[...]
The circuit size was cut to 90 nanometers; 50-nanometer gates to conduct electricity are the thinnest ever built, Intel said. A human hair is about 2,000 times as wide.
[...]
In its new process, the company increased the number of transistors, to 120 billion from 60 billion, on the wafers from which processors are made, Mark Bohr, a senior Intel manufacturing-process engineer, said in a conference call.
Intel, based in Santa Clara, is building the chip with thinner insulation, which is 1.2 nanometers, or less than five atoms thick. The material has been changed to speed up communication inside the chip and decrease energy use, Mr. Bohr said.
Bell Labs decided to unveil the invention on June 30, 1948. With the help of engineer John Pierce, who wrote science fiction in his spare time, Bell Labs settled on the name "transistor" -- combining the ideas of "trans-resistance" with the names of other devices like thermistors.
The Justice Department has rebuffed House Judiciary Committee efforts to check up on its use of new antiterrorism powers in the latest confrontation between the Bush administration and Congress over information sought by the legislative branch.
Instead of answering committee questions, the Justice Department said in a letter that it would send replies to the House Intelligence Committee, which has not sought the information and does not plan to oversee the workings of the U.S.A. Patriot Act.
The analysis indicates that language, on the evolutionary time scale, is a very recent development, having evolved only in the last 100,000 years or so.
The finding supports a novel theory advanced by Dr. Richard Klein, an archaeologist at Stanford University, who argues that the emergence of behaviorally modern humans about 50,000 years ago was set off by a major genetic change, most probably the acquisition of language.
The new study, by Dr. Svante Paabo and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is based on last year's discovery of the first human gene involved specifically in language.
The gene came to light through studies of a large London family, well known to linguists, 14 of whose 29 members are incapable of articulate speech but are otherwise mostly normal. A team of molecular biologists led by Dr. Anthony P. Monaco of the University of Oxford last year identified the gene that was causing the family's problems. Known as FOXP2, the gene is known to switch on other genes during the development of the brain, but its presumed role in setting up the neural circuitry of language is not understood.
[...]
In a report being published online today by the journal Nature, Dr. Paabo says the FOXP2 gene has remained largely unaltered during the evolution of mammals, but suddenly changed in humans after the hominid line had split off from the chimpanzee line of descent.
THE SPIDER-MAN LAWSUIT was rightfully quickly dismissed. A small victory for freedom of artistic expression via digital alteration, it was a remarkably stupid lawsuit. One tangential favorite bit:
Judge Owen, who also writes operas, composed a lyrical ruling. "Once upon a time," it began, "at a gathering of many thousands in New York's Times Square for the `World Unity Festival,' the crowd was murderously attacked by the jet-powered Green Goblin, who was, however, eventually put to flight by the timely arrival of Spider-Man."
He also dismissed a claim by the plaintiffs that the filmmakers had committed trespass by "bouncing a laser beam off the building to create a digital photograph."
CAN WE SAY "DRY RUN"?: I knew we could. U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)'s Millennium Challenge 2002 wraps tomorrow. Note particularly the list of players at the bottom.
I'd love to see an evaluation briefing on this game like this one. Here's a key piece of analysis:
What we learned in the operational games is that you can break that paradigm, and if you can see the enemy in fine-grained aggregations, down to individual weapons systems in some instances, and see him array himself in this sliming pattern, and watch him move. And what that does is it changes the Blue's reaction to it. If the Blue commander can break through the sort of cultural barriers and break his force into pieces that are equally that small size. So instead of maneuver being, say, a movement to contact, or a frontal attack, or an envelopment, it became a pattern, if you will. A series of hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of discrete bits that are broken and juxtaposed next to the Red, in a position of advantage, each one of them, and arrayed across it like a blanket, and dropped over the enemy very quickly. You know, shades of Panama again. Dropped over the enemy very quickly, so that the enemy commander finds himself not so much destroyed, but he finds his command and control, he finds his Red force disassembled, disintegrated, unable to coordinate his bits and pieces, and each bit and piece finds a Blue piece in a position of relative advantage. So he's left with two unacceptable alternatives -- he can sort of abstain and lose, or he can attack in a position of disadvantage and lose there, too. And the Red commander ... particularly as we moved further along in this endeavor, told me that it was a sense of paralysis, not so much as a sense of defeat. He was unable to move and maneuver.
Why is this important now?
There's a downside to it, because as soon as the Red commander saw that this was happening, he went straight to the cities, particularly in the ... European scenario. And when he went to the cities, then the two-hour takedown went to a two-day takedown; in one case, a one-week takedown. Because the equations became much more complex, and your ability to apply precision maneuver, or precision fires then was denigrated to some degree, which made us go back and think about how we're going to do combat in cities in 2025. Another interesting point. If you stay too long, or if you repeat yourself ... the enemy learns to get knowledge from points where there is no knowledge. He maneuvers against the white spaces. Shades of Somalia.
And that's what Saddam is apparently planning to do. Which doesn't mean it will work, but it's probably the closest thing to an effective battle plan he can make, other than, as well, Samson options. What's the counter?
I don't know how many of you are history buffs or not, but we went from a sort of an Aachen-Chechnya-Stalingrad approach into something more akin to the siege of Paris (siege of Paris, 1870) ... where the object was to form, to use technology, again use technology ... to form a sort of loose cordon, if you will. A high tech cordon. Again, if you can see with exquisite clarity you can see and intercept almost anything with this loose cordon. And it goes to a postulation we made, Tom, before we started, is that urbanization will continue by 2025 and cities in many of these countries will be barely be able to hang on day to day in good days, much less in war time. So the thought is you use the inherent instability of the urban structure as a means for it to defeat itself. Form a loose cordon. Takes time, but remember if the enemy retrenches into a city, he cedes maneuver, and therefore time then moves to your side. So we formed a loose cordon, and we only struck those points within the city that would cause the physical collapse of the city, or the collapse of the leadership.
SECOND FUNDEMENTAL VIOLATION: I thought "I've not looked at Max's site in a while, so I'll do that."
First words I read were " Professor InstaCracker says...."
So, there's another person I'd hope would be thoughtful, but is into abuse and name-calling. *Bleep*. Next blog.
My hope is that everyone will stop reading name-calling three-year-olds, but I'm a dreamer.
Let me be clear: if you're a blogger who talks like this, I'm going to cease to link to you. And if I'm missing such cases, as I will, I urge readers to point them out to me, please.
Oh, and if you disagree, be sure to tell me what a right/left winger I am. And read as I laugh. Come back when you're interested in text, thought, and honest discussion of ideas, and not being a child. Alternatively, that's when I'll be back to such a site.
I've been wracking my brains, organs, and glands, trying to think of a way to cut down on my blogroll, and I suddenly realized that this is a knife that slices deeply, even though it cuts out friends, colleagues, and lovers. I'm sorry about that, but it's an objective knife.
BARBARA EHRENREICH'S RUDDER IS BRAD DELONG, as seen here. Ehrenreich has done great work, in my opinion, and, like all us humans, has and does sometimes go astray. Bradford rightfully praises the admirable parts of Ehrenreich's book, which deserve due attention, and puts his finger on the part where she seems to suddenly go Republican in deciding that Government Can Do No Good.
I know I have readers who believe that, but they're wrong, and even the idea that Government Is Least Able To Help is something I strongly argue against. Which is, wackily, as every sensible person knows, not the same as arguing that Government Is Always The Solution, or Government Is The First Answer.
Can we say "happy medium"? Does that make me a "moderate" or a "liberal"?
THE EURO/GERMAN RESPONSE. I linked to thisearlier, but only finally read it closely and carefully today. Where there are certainly sporadic thoughts and ideas in it I, and any reasonable person, would entirely agree with, I regret to say that there are more points and perspectives that I consider -- the technical term is "dumbass" -- than I'd care to spend the hours necessary to discuss and argue with. I'll let it lie for now with this simple quote, and declare that with this single disagreement, finding common ground may, alas, be a more rare and exotic experience than anyone, I expect, would wish for.
The war of the "alliance against terror" in Afghanistan is no "just war" - an ill-starred historical concept that we do not accept -
If we can't agree that war is terrible, but that sometimes it is the least terrible alternative, that taking up arms in self-defense, or to liberate suffering people into greater freedom and circumstances, is ever just, than we truly have a Great Divide.
The irony, of course, is to find this view argued by German intellectuals, whom, if we had followed their advice, would have us, and Europe, therefore still living under the Nazi regime, and they'd likely all be dead. But that would be, apparently, the proper moral course. Because there are no just wars.
I’d have no interest in this website whatsoever were it not for three things:
1. When there’s a subculture out there ranking the best jihadi decapitation video, you’d best pay attention.
2. When a message board devoted to guidance for Islamic youth doesn’t delete the posts about stabbing Jews, you’d best pay attention.
3. This thread. As far as I can tell, the debate seems to be whether it’s a brother’s job to kill his sexually active sister, or the religious authority’s job.
the cool months between December and February, so troops can wear full- body chemical protection suits.
I'm opening the Amygdala Iraq Invasion Pool. Pick your week, and send me your entry! Winner gets, um, not to be killed by an Iraqi biological weapon? Tough luck on the rest of us, to be sure.
Dept. of Unfortunate Names from this story: the CO of Britain's 45 Commando is Lt. Col. Tim Chicken.
ANN COULTER. No link here, but I'm listening to AC on C-Span's Booknotes, as I write, and she keeps coming back, in between galactic-cluster-sized declarations about "liberals," to how resistant the Liberal Media (owned by such Big Liberals as Rupert Murdoch) was to publishing her diatribe. Her proof? It took her two months from when her manuscript was sent out until it was bought.
People with the faintest familiarity with trade book publishing are now rolling on the floor, frantically gasping for breath in between gales of laughter.
Then she complains about the size of her advance, and having to pay some of it back. I impatiently await the announcement that the Coulter and Michael Moore are going on tour together, putting forward identical evidence of How They And Their Side Are Suppressed By The Establishment. (Think Tim Leary and G. Gordon Liddy.)
Come see the repression inherent in the system!
More wonderment: Ann denounces liberals as "snobs" and "elitists," of course. Shortly thereafter, she explains that no one in the entertainment business, and no liberals, would be watching "Booknotes" because "we're using words with more than two syllables." Then that "if liberals actually read about politics, they'd be conservatives."
A Gaza Hamas representative has taken part in drafting an all-Palestinian political platform that defines their national goal as establishing a state inside the 1967 borders, and implying it rejects attacks inside Israel.
IDF sources said they regard progress on the document as "positive" because, said one source, "the direction they are going for is positive. If it brings a little quiet, there will be something to talk about with the Palestinians."
The 12-member organizations in the Supreme Intifada Monitoring Committee - an umbrella group of all Palestinian political organizations - met yesterday to sign the draft platform.
[...]
In the last three weeks the Supreme Committe's deliberations accelerated since the joint Hamas-Fatah statement about a cease-fire inside Israel collapsed when Israel assassinated the Hamas military commander. The document has three parts:
l An outline of Palestinian national goals - ending the occupation, political independence within the 1967 borders, and a just solution to the refugee problem
l Details of the means to achieve the goals - political struggle, legitimate popular struggle, and popular resistance to the occupation
l A plan to democratize Palestinian institutions.
The document's aim is to prevent any one of the organizations from choosing its own tactics and strategy for the struggle. The methods of struggle are defined as ones "that serve the national Palestinian cause and do not sabotage it" - which is considered a reference to suicide bombings and attacks inside Israel.
And let's not forget that anyone who doesn't support the Palestinian Authority and Arafat is an anti-Palestinian Sharon supporter. Oh, wait:
In another development, a Fatah representative in the Palestinian Legislative Council, Kadura Fares, has proposed dismantling the Palestinian Authority, on the grounds that the current leadership (which mostly came from Tunis) is more interested in self-preservation than in ways to solve the political, social, and economic crisis.
According to Hanan Ashrawi, those in favor of "dismantling the authority" believe Israel "allows itself to violate all the Oslo agreements, imposes a harsh military occupation on the population, and then refuses to take any responsibility with the argument that there's an 'authority' to do so. At the same time Israel demands the 'authority' to meet all its Oslo security commitments, when the agreement and the declaration of principles on which it is based have been turned into a dead letter."
Therefore she, Fares and others say the PA itself should be dismantled. Fares says the PLO should resume its leadership role.
FLY ME TO THE MOON, just not from the US, if you're an Israeli diplomat.
A Delta Air Lines subsidiary refused to fly Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior from Cincinnati because the pilot thought Melchior posed a security risk, an Israeli radio station reported yesterday.
Melchior, who was being escorted by State Department officials for Friday's flight, told the radio station that he waited on a plane for more than an hour before the pilot evacuated it, saying there was a security risk.
When Melchior disembarked, he said he was told he could not get back on the plane.
[...]
This is the third time an Israeli official has been pulled from a flight because of a pilot's sense of a security risk, the radio reported. The others reportedly were Alon Pinkas, the Israeli consul general in New York, and a bodyguard of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
A handful of women are challenging a Florida law that requires mothers who don't know who fathered their children to detail their sexual past in newspaper notices before they can put the children up for adoption.
A Palm Beach County judge has already ruled that rape victims are exempt from the law. But six women plan to appeal in hopes of having the law abolished.
Under the law, mothers who have exhausted other searches must place a notice in their local paper describing or identifying men who may have fathered their child. They also have to disclose when and where the baby was likely conceived.
The measure is intended to prevent the biological father from coming forward later and disputing an adoption. But critics said Wednesday that it is a humiliating invasion of privacy.
HOW WE CAN CO-EXIST is the reply I mentioned to the quite thoughtful What We Are Fighting For. I've been reading the Saudi statement, and here's how persuasive they can be:
Moreover, Islam teaches that the Christians are closer to the Muslims than any other people. [...] The Qur'ân speaks about the Christians as being the most morally virtuous in their dealings of all religious societies outside of Islam: "You will find that the strongest among men in enmity to the believers are the Jews and pagans, and you will find that the nearest of them in love to the believers are those who say: 'We are Christians'." [5:82]
Yup, that's quite a basis for co-existence, all right. That's sufficient, but here's further explication on the state of things:
Yet, when one faction prefers to create a conflict with the Muslims or to ignore their rights, then Islam responds by resistance and self defense, which are among the objectives of jihad. The West must realize that by blocking the specific options and moderate aspirations of the Muslim world and by creating conflicts, they will bring about perspectives in the Muslim world that will be hard to overcome in the future and will create problems for generations to come all over the world.
That faction is, of course, the You-Know-Whos. But let's explain further:
It is unreasonable to assume that those who attacked the United States on September 11 did not feel in some way justified for what they did because of the decisions made by the United States in numerous places throughout the world. We by no means hold the view that they were justified in striking civilian targets, but it is necessary to recognize that some sort of causative relationship exists between American policy and what happened.
Some sort. It's necessary to recognize that. Of course. And who is at the root?
If the Americans view what happened on September 11 as a turning point for them in how they define their relationship with the Muslims generally, not merely with the group of people that actually carried it out, then can we be blamed when we see that the presence of the Jewish state of Israel on Palestinian land and the control they hold over it through the support of the major powers was and still is a decisive factor in defining and shaping our relationship with the West, as well as with its values and institutions?
The usual. (Let's set aside that only bigots have changed "how they define their relationship with the Muslims generally." I ain't changed my relationship or opinions about Islam in the slightest, and have no more brief against Islam than against Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, or whatever. It's people who kill in the name of such beliefs, and seek to enforce their views in totalitarian theocratic world government that I have a wee problem with. If Buddhafascists, or extremist Jews start flying planes into buildings, I'm all for defending against them, and fighting them, too.)
Another knowledgeable insight:
In spite of this, every individual in the Muslim World perceives that China and Japan have not caused the Muslim World any clear problem, nor have they done anything detrimental to its concerns, countries, and societies. The average Muslim perceives Easterners to be more just, balanced, and more clement than the West.
Yes, indeed, China is highly supportive of the right of its citizens to practice Islam. Uh-huh. Great grasp of reality there. But back on the main Saudi hobbyhorse:
The United States, in spite of its efforts in establishing the United Nations with its Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other similar institutions, is among the most antagonistic nations to the objectives of these institutions and to the values of justice and truth. This is clearly visible in America's stance on the Palestinian issue and its unwavering support for the Zionist occupation of Palestinian land and its justification of all the Zionist practices that run contrary to the resolutions passed by the United Nations.
Zionism, the idea of a Jewish nation, is, after all, racism, unlike, say, Palestinian nationalism, or Saudi Arabian nationalism. Everyone knows that. More logic:
We see secularism as inapplicable to Muslim society, because it denies the members of that society the right to apply the general laws that shape their lives and it violates their will on the pretext of protecting minorities. It does not stand to reason that protecting the rights of the minority should be accomplished by violating the rights of the majority.
The rights of the majority to suppress minorities, that is. Ya folla? Thus, the rights of the minority to, say, practice Christianity or Judaism in Saudi Arabia are protected by protecting the rights of the majority to forbid the rights of the minorities.
I had no idea Kafka was actually Arabian, but it's a richer culture than many imagine.
I won't bother pointing out the rest of the endlessly self-serving illogical, outright threatening, bullshit, in this "How We Can Co-Exist," but I will say that reading it is again educational. This is the "liberal," "moderate" Saudi response. It threatens more terrorism, in numerous ways, if they are not agreed with.
Oppressing others necessarily means that a choice in favor of conflict has been made. It is the catalyst that inflames the strength of resistance, which crates conditions where causing injury to others takes little instigation. The West has to realize that destruction is the least technologically dependant product in the world. It can be produced in countless ways.
[...]
Therefore, it is both unreasonable and unjust to irrationally push the issue of Islamic radicalism and then take a course of action that will further instigate it without dealing with all forms of radicalism in the world, both religious and otherwise.
[...]
We are on the realization that many of the extremist Islamic groups - as they are called
We thought of calling them "Fred," but that was already taken by Ringo's haircut.
- not want to be that way when they started, but were forced into that category by political or military forces or their media machinery that blocked their access to channels of peaceful expression. Such powers were able to do away with any possible opportunity for moderation and to strike at the rights of people. This is the major cause for the extremism of Islamic movements and groups. We are also on the realization that this same situation is right now occurring under the guise of the Western program known as the War on Terror.
And on and on. They haul out every excuse in the book, from "we didn't do it," to "you do it too," to "you made us do it," to "if you don't stop, we'll do it again, and it'll be your fault!" to "the dog ate our homework." And most of all: Israel, Israel, Israel, evil Zionism, Jews, Jews, Jews.
At least they have the PR sense to not go into how we're pigs and monkeys.
Just mass murderers. It's very educational to read the moderate Saudi position on "How We Can Co-Exist." Especially with us pagans and Jews, "strongest among men in enmity to the believers." But there are solutions to those problems. Final solutions, even.
The danger Mr Hussein poses cannot be overstated. He is no tinpot despot, singled out for arbitrary American punishment. Nor is Iraq a banana republic. With the possible exception of North Korea, but perhaps not even then, Mr Hussein is the world's most monstrous dictator, who by the promiscuous use of violence has seized unfettered control of a technologically advanced country with vast oil reserves. He has murdered all his political opponents, sometimes squeezing the trigger in person. He has subdued his Kurdish minority by razing their villages and spraying them with poison gas. In 1979 he invaded Iran, thus setting off an eight-year war that squandered more than 1m lives. In 1990 he invaded and annexed Kuwait, pronouncing it his “19th province”. When an American-led coalition started to push him out, and though knowing Israel to be a nuclear power, he fired ballistic missiles into Tel Aviv, in the hope of provoking a general Arab-Israeli conflagration. Next time you hear someone ask why, in a world full of bad men, it is Mr Hussein who is being picked on, please bear all of the above in mind. He may very well be the worst.
And yet it is not simply in his record of aggression, cruelty and recklessness that the peril to the wider world resides. If that were all the story, the danger might be easily contained. The unique danger in Iraq is that this country's advanced technology and potential oil wealth could very soon give this aggressive, cruel and reckless man an atomic bomb.
[...]
None of this is to argue that a war to remove Mr Hussein should be undertaken lightly.
The casualties this time—especially the civilian casualties—could be much larger than they were before.
It is little wonder, given this, that people of goodwill are groping for a safer alternative. But wishful thinking in the face of mortal danger is bad policy. Perhaps the best hope is that, as the noose tightens, Mr Hussein will save himself by letting the inspectors return. If they did so on a credible go-anywhere, check-anything basis, such an opportunity would be worth grabbing, at least to see if it worked.
Failing this, however, the outlook is grim. Some argue that a better alternative to war is to keep Mr Hussein in his box, persevering with the strategy of containment. But after 11 years, it is time to acknowledge that the box is full of holes and that containment has failed. [...] The honest choices now are to give up and give in, or to remove Mr Hussein before he gets his bomb. Painful as it is, our vote is for war.
I'd really like to try the eel IC mixed with crab IC and, yum, wasabi ice cream. Really. And who hasn't wondered about Nagoya Noodle IC?
I'm less sure about the miso ice cream, and the fried chicken wing ice cream. Gotta try the cactus IC, though, so long as it's spineless. If we try all these, we're not, though.
THE CYNTHIA MCKINNEY/DENISE MAJETTE DEBATE was covered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Photodude also comments. Here's another report. The Indepundit has also been on the McKinney story.
Fun Fact I Did Not Know:
McKinney’s campaign coordinator, Wendell Muhammad, moonlights as a spokesman for Louis Farrakhan.
And here is McKinney speaking up for poor maligned Robert Mugabe, and his entirely just and wise policies.
In other Georgia news, I can't say I'll miss Lester Maddox much. We're supposed to remember this:
Maddox is typically described as "colorful" -- in the way that elected officials who ride a bicycle backward are colorful. [...] As governor, he appointed more blacks to state boards and commissions than all prior governors combined. He instituted prison reform after listening to four black inmates who escaped from a South Georgia prison farm to attend one of his "Little People's Day" receptions at the Governor's Mansion.
And forget this:
In 1964, he chased off civil rights activists trying to integrate his Pickrick Restaurant on Hemphill Avenue near Georgia Tech, waving a pistol as white patrons brandished pick handles. In the 1970s, he sold pick handles at an Underground Atlanta shop.
Maddox, a Democrat, ran for governor in 1966 as an unapologetic segregationist. He finished a slight second in the popular vote, but the choice fell to the General Assembly because no candidate had a majority, and the legislators picked Maddox.
I have trouble forgetting, or being understanding of people who were so very very wrong so very very emphatically and harmfully.
I do, as a rule, try to be a forgiving person. But some things seem just too large.
I'VE BEEN PRETTY PRO-WAR-ON-IRAQ. I still lean heavily in that direction. But I'm not close-minded. Here's part of a fair case arguing against war. At the very worst, to support war on Iraq, these are arguments that need to be refuted or at least responded to.
Questions have to be answered clearly:
1. How dangerous are Saddam Hussein's potential weapons of mass destruction? 2. Is military attack the best and most prudent means of ending that danger? 3. Is the threat of use of such weapons made more or less dangerous by attack? 4. Laying aside the WOMD aspect, is it justifiable to "effect regime change" in Iraq, preferably to a friendly and reasonably just democracy, simply on cold grounds of drastically changing the geopolitics of the region, leading to, in theory, an outbreak of friendly democracies in the Arab world, liberating the Arab peoples from theocratic or autocratic oppressive regimes, and making settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict simpler? 5. Can that actually be likely accomplished, not just wished and hoped for?
My own tentative answers, today?
1. I don't know, and always want more data. But they're extremely worrisome. (Here's another report out of Whitehall.) 2. I don't know. I'd hope so, but it, from my level of knowledge, seems very uncertain, and 3 makes for further worry. Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing where we can't really know until either a) attack is tried and succeeds or fails, or b) we get to look back at then-available historic records thirty or forty years in the future. 4. Maybe. But 5 is a big hunk of theory, a reverse Domino Theory, that demands a whole chain of events. It may be possible. If it is, it certainly would be a wonderful thing. But events tend towards unpredictabilty, and the Law Of Unintended Consequences is a constant enemy we have few precision weapons against.
I lean towards support of a war, but like almost everyone else, I want clear explications, and Congressional debate, and hearings, to get the best possible answers we can, in public, to these questions. Oh, and I want a Congressional Declaration of War. Call me old-fashioned.
Only then could I fully support it, not just lean. I certainly can't just put blind trust in Our Leaders. That hasn't always worked out so well, y'know?
And it bodes ill for this Administration that they lean so heavily on the Trust Us, and Trust Us To Keep Secrets argument in all areas of government.
HI-TECH POLITICING makes for precision targeted hits. The modern Farley file is an increasingly detailed database. And the web and cel phones and e-mail and PDAs and Blackberries and all the other communications devices coming are delivery tools to get to you.
VULNERABILITIES OF BUSH AND THE GOP are usefully analyzed in this WashPopiece.
The memo's emphasis on Bush's record on such domestic issues as education, corporate accountability and prescription drugs underscored the new reality that Bush and his aides confront: It's no longer enough just to be a wartime president.
Although Bush still has strong overall approval ratings, there are growing signs of concern about his handling of the economy. The president no longer enjoys the aura of invincibility that surrounded him only a few months ago -- and both Republican and Democratic politicians know it and are acting accordingly.
It's his election to lose, just as much as it's the Democrats' election to lose at this point out. It's all in play.
Meanwhile, it appears that Charlton Heston won't have to wait until they pry his guns from his cold dead hands. Seems like the humane thing to do is let him keep his guns, and just make damn sure there's no ammo in his house.
POSSIBLE ORGAN-LEGGING IS LOOKED INTO BY EUGENE VOLOKH HERE. After reading a fair amount in recent times, I'm not remotely able to make a definitive prouncement, but it's a hell of a lot further as a cultural norm than an urban legend, it seems, unsurprisingly. It's all very unsurprising. It's all, indeed, about different cultural mores.
What value a body party? What value to you? What other values to consider? It's a cross-cultural thing.
With respect, Larry Niven barely had a clue. But I'm not calling him up for an opinion. Now.
Israeli athletes know they are potential targets for terrorism wherever they travel in the world.
They are raised to endure their fear, and this camaraderie was a comfort to several athletes who slept at the site of one of the most horrific attacks against their country.
Thirty years after 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympic Games in Munich, Israel's entire contingent at the European track and field championships are staying at the same housing complex where their countrymen were taken hostage in 1972.
The Israelis say it was an important symbolic gesture for them to be here.
"You feel shivers when you close your eyes and think about the terrible things that happened,'' said distance runner Nili Abramski. "But we had to come and show that even the most terrible things won't stop us.''
And all that there.
[...]
"We wanted to show that we are even stronger -- that we never give up,'' she said. "We know we are targets everywhere we go, but you can't live in fear.''
A doll caused a security alert at an American airport because its two-inch plastic gun was considered a dangerous weapon. 
