That illusory connection... again . The Idiot Called George Bush claims that "We need to think about Saddam Hussein using al-Qaida to do his dirty work, to not leave fingerprints behind." Huh? In the meantime at the Post , reality rears it's head:
Chas Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, said that the idea that a secular leader such as Hussein would link up with "religious diehards" who despise his government is "a very strange notion indeed."
But Freeman said the administration's assertions might become a self-fulfilling prophecy if the United States does launch an attack. In that case, he said, Hussein might "make an alliance with the devil" and promote terrorist attacks if he had nothing to lose.
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Reading a lot of dooce to keep my mind off the upcoming war. You should read dooce every day.
Reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness which is hard for me to keep straight because I haven't read SF in a long time and I keep forgetting that the story takes place several thousand years in an alternate future, and that's supposed to make sense in some way. Otherwise it's brilliant: a planet of humans who are not born with innate gender identities, but instead take one on when they rut once a month. The characters are funny, and the LeGuin is not shy about examining the religious implications of a society ignorant of the Manichean allegory. But I'm never satisfied with fiction, either it's too real (William Trevor) or it ain't real enough. I'm much more comfortable with non-fiction these days. Except I've had a hankering for reading J.M. Coetzee after reading a review of the latest volume of his autobiography (which I would link to, ...
You should read Kinsley in the Post from Friday :
"Ambiguity has its place in dealings among nations, and so does a bit of studied irrationality. Sending mixed signals and leaving the enemy uncertain what you might do next are valid tactics. But the cloud of confusion that surrounds Bush's Iraq policy is not tactical. It's the real thing. And the dissembling is aimed at the American citizenry, not at Saddam Hussein."
I took some 8-year-old girls to the zoo today. Pretty tired now. Best moment was when, on the way, they discussed how other kids make fun of your name, no matter how normal your name might seem. (One girl has last name "Katz," and a boy does a "meow" bit to her; stuff like that.) Having discussed this awful fact of childhood, they agreed: "let's think of all the kids we know, and try to figure out ways to make fun of their names." It was one of those moments, like something out of Milgram .
I have to finish my class in the next week. I find myself still puzzling out lots of questions that I think I should have figured out a long time ago . Not included in that set of questions is the fact that many times I can compile code on my gcc compiler that my Microsoft compiler won't compile. It doesn't make much sense to me how a very, very wealthy corporation can sell buggy compilers. But then again, I work for (what seems to me) a fairly large com...
This, from "Foes of online music swapping sing out in Sacramento" :
The group 3rd Storee , billed by record industry representatives as the next big boy band, said its latest CD, "Get With Me," was released Tuesday, but at a Sept. 28 concert, one fan admitted she had already downloaded the album.
"When she told me that, instantly my heart just dropped," said 3rd Storee member Dante Clark, known as D'Smoove.
"I was just hurt," Clark told the committee. "They don't see how much work, how many sacrifices, how much dedication goes into making an album. You feel like you've been robbed of something you worked so hard to gain."
First of all: D'Smoove ? Does D actually get female interest when he whips out that name? What kind of woman goes, "hey, he's cute... and that name!"
Second: 3rd Storee's appearance in Sacramento (not a photo op) was keepin it real. You know what I'm saying, the...
Here's what Bush said this morning to reporters :
President Bush said today that he thought it was "highly doubtful" that Saddam Hussein would meet demands to disarm, but that he was expecting a quick United Nations resolution on the issue. He also expressed annoyance with Congressional Democrats, who have asked for time to consider any use of force by the United States against Iraq.
"I can't imagine an elected United States-elected member of the United States Senate or House of Representatives saying, `I think I'm going to wait for the United Nations to make a decision,' " he told reporters. "If I were running for office, I'm not sure how I would explain to the American people and said, you know, `Vote for me, and oh, by the way, on a matter of national security, I think I'm going to wait for somebody else to act.' "
I'm thinking this was their plan all along! I knew those guys had thought it all out:
1. make ...
Bought the new Aimee Mann today, and yes it's very good. Actually, I had extra $ when I returned that book I bought on 9/10 and bought a different, hopefully better, book . This is my exciting life.
I think Emily Dickinson had all the answers. Today I saw her quoted on andrewsullivan.com ( not linking to him; he's a moron) and metafilter , all in one day? I think most of us, either lefty or right-wing, see that a horrible, teeth-gritting period lay before us, and the sense that many more innocent people will die, it can't be escaped. What frustrates me about the call to war is that conservatives are unwilling to note that their attention to U.N. resolutions seems selective if not completely self-serving. Recall, if you will, U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 . Those resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the Arab territories that it occupied in 1967. You don't hear much about them these days.
"Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne�...
Are we really going to go in? I have this frightening image of 9/11/02 news reports, images floating across the screen that recall the last war in Iraq. Flashbacks: Wolf Blitzer, sorties, SCUD missles , gag orders on the media, lies, protests.
Has anyone actually thought about what happens after Richard Perle's missles fall? James Webb has.
I have a deadline this week. Sometimes deadlines make me depressed. In this case, I am leading a training on Thursday. Most of the actual thought has already been done, so now it's a matter of details (handouts, computer setup, choosing the best sample exercises, reserving the room, etc). I have a problem with perfectionist feelings, so that when things inevitably fall short of my ideal, the sense that I am growing old and useless is overwhelming. It fosters an urge to procrastinate, too, which might explain why I'm typing in a Blogger window rather than working on the training.
I Am Trying To Kiss A Wilco Guy (scroll down; thanks to Elise for the link) describes my demographic a little too well. "Now, Wilco guys are different. Don't get carried away: don't think Cary Grant, or Chris Noth. Think bookishly handsome, well-educated semi-wimps. Wilco guys tend to be sensitive, literate, bespectacled, somewhat wan Don DeLillo readers with a bit of a grainy edge. ...
OK: Iraq. A non-starter ? Is it just a hoax?
Maybe it's this: Just something to get people thinking that the administration is �doing something� about terrorism.
Terrorism is hard to fight (ask Great Britain, India and Israel), and that's the raison d�etre (sp?) of terrorism, that it�s impossible to wage war on an enemy whose guerrilla capabilities are matched by its willingness to kill civilians in urban population centers. Which means conventional war is hopeless in the face of that kind of terror, unless you are willing to go all the way, as the Israelis are doing now. They just do what they like, fuck consequences. (And, in a cynical way, who�s to say Israel is mistaken in its strategy? Will the US, or anyone else, do *anything* to stop Israel, discourage them, even (gasp) impose sanctions on them for human rights violations? The President seems much more concerned over the baseball strike than the blood being spilled in Gaza) But the "do what we want, fuck cons...
Everyone's doing it. The "movement" (can you really call a pop culture event a movement?) has come and gone. I recall reading on someone's weblog that blogs had peaked... and that was January! Yes, it's all over now, baby blue.
But so what? I guess the whole thing goes the way of fads. In the 70's somebody published The Nothing Book , a hardback book with a slip-on cover, whose pages were blank. This was years before bookstores had racks of journals and blank books. It was a cool, light gift, very "yeah, get creative, man." But what the gift-recipient actually did with them is anyone's guess; I would imagine that most of the first Nothing Books were used until the experiment lost its edge, and the last 150 blank pages... remained blank. Don't get me wrong, blogs are different: the listmaker's fondness for collation is joined with the smartass' penchant for one-liners, and everyone gets his chance to crack wise, even if the aud...
I was reading Kate's dad's copy of has The Bush Dyslexicon . On the surface, it sounded like one of those "wacky quotes" books, but the author, Mark Crispin Miller , makes a chilling case. "Bush," Miller said in an interview, "shows... a certain genius for evasion of a particular kind -- i.e., representing his most noxious stands as strokes of tolerance and kindness. That move is more insidious than mere evasiveness, and also requires a greater craftiness." He points out that beyond how often Bush lies, that Bush seems to understand something that lefties don't: that a teaspoon of pretense toward honesty and "plain talkin" is worth an oil tanker of perceived intelligence. Americans like him because Americans see themselves as "life-smart" but hate & shudder at the "brainy." Bush = Nixon.
Recent movies:
:: Marathon Man , with Dustin Hoffman. I liked it. A little predictable, but the message, that to resist money and cynicsm is itself a gruelling "marathon," moved me. At the end, I found myself hoping that Dustin Hoffman would steal some of the diamonds himself, not my finest impulse, I admit. I heard Elvis Mitchell the other day, comparing Sam Mendes ( Road to Perdition ) to John Schlesinger , calling each a "Mercedes marxist" for what Mitchell sees as a patronizing attitude towards Americans. I wonder if that's true. Marathon 's class instinct is made clear when Laurence Olivier walks through the diamond district, eyeing precious stones, hoping to unload his stolen shit on some of the survivors he robbed. That section was pretty compelling.
Haven't written in a million years. What have I been doing?
:: Working on my C++ homework. I need to be done by the end of November and I'm only half way done. So I'm behind
:: Spending time with the kid
:: Working a lot. Doing more scripting, and writing, writing, writing
:: Renting a million movies. I should write about them because, oh, I don't know, why does one write anything?
:: Watching in horror as Ann Coulter becomes the most celebrated author of our era. Well, not everyone likes her .