in lieu of radio ...

a somewhat random collection of pages and thoughts started sept 16 2001. now that i'm not on the radio 6 hours every day, blogger allows all of us to harangue...

Saturday, September 29, 2001

A review of "BIG SHOT Passion, Politics and the Struggle for an AIDS Vaccine" written by Patricia Thomas (reviewd by Washington Post) Trials and Errors

A window into the world of militant Islam and the Afghani alumni. By Richard Engel (Janes). Link: Inside Al-Qaeda

Many folks are taking too much time looking at ads, pop-ups and other bandwidth hoggin' shit in their browsers. It drives me up a tree, so i've put together a page with a bunch of information, resources and suggestions to help you speed up your browsing and increase your privacy and security. A permanent link will appear in the navigation bar to the right of this blog. Link:FIAD speed-up! (Still under construction!, but there is stuff there)

More academic conflict-resolution folks weigh in. Link: The Challenge of Terror: A Traveling Essay

Friday, September 28, 2001

Intellectuals Go To War! (Or At Least A Catfight)
Tariq Ali on Christopher Hitchens in Counter Punch. (Which, with it's "proud and reliable muckraking" mission, is more essential than ever) Link:Hitchens At War

Thursday, September 27, 2001

Salon says: "Sometimes being physically close feels like the best defense against death." Another take on "terror sex". Quick poll: Did you get any?... Link: Sex in a time of terror

Wednesday, September 26, 2001

Back to the "War" vs. "Crime" thang. Thoughts from a lawyer/lecturer> Link:
A War or A Crime? Winning or Losing a War of Words

If you don't like Bin Laden as a suspect (or if you can't find him, or if you just wanna drop some munitions), how's about Iraq. Link: Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view (via Janes)

Where did blogs come from and what do they mean. Link: Weblogs: A History and Perspective

Another blog with a whole bunch of connections to other blogs and metablogs> Link: wood s lot

Just by the by... How To Cook soup

testing recalcitrant new template

So this is what we have come to? Crumbs? Grasping at straws? Choose your analogy... Link:Arafat, Peres Agree on New Cease-Fire Effort

We are also at the one-year anniversary of Sharon's infamous "visit" to the Temple Mount Al Aqsa site. Link: CNN.com from Sept 28 2000 ABC news has a useful timeline from Sept 28 2000 to July 30 2001. Someone should have an update somewhere.

The Onion has finally weighed in. Thank goodness! Link: Only slightly stifled guffaws

(edited out malformed code) repeats above

An AP catalog of Anti-American outrages. Link: Dissenting Voices Less Welcome Now

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

PC World brings Passport issues to more masses. Do you trust Microsoft with all your shit? Link: More Ponderings on Passport

A little dry, good title, long, with quite a few big words. Sound like the very definition of an article in The Atlantic. Thanks to S for the Link: Jihad vs McWorld

Those bastards just can't get a break! (you choose who the bastards are...) Link: Israeli Rights Group Slams Israeli Army Violations

"This atrocity exposes the wilful self-delusion of western liberals who want to believe that humanity is essentially good" Trust the English for some good old fashioned despair. Must be raining over there. And check the writers' name! Interesting thoughts nonetheless> Link:
We Got It So Wrong

Do you have IIS servers in your system? (Probably not, but your company might). Gartner says "Run Away!"
Link: Could this be the straw that breaks the Beast's back?

Monday, September 24, 2001

Some of the Civil Rights big guns have gotten together (with computer geeks and law professors) to form a new association. That de Toqueville had it right, we American do love to "associate". Link:
In Defense Of Freedom

The Register has a brief round-up of civil rights actions and trial ballons in the wake of Sept 11. Link: Face recognition software gets a boost

Remarkable, intensely intellectual examination of the settlement / refugee issues in Israel. With very interesting .pdf population map. Dated August 22 2001. From NY Review of Book cover date Sept 20 2001. Link:Settling Scores

Sunday, September 23, 2001

Found It! Had remembered this excellent (and long) Taliban piece from the New Yorker a while ago. Just took a while to find. By William T. Vollmann Issue of 2000-05-15. Across the Divide

Pat Oliphant cartoon from 9/17/01 Link: Watch Out...

Saturday, September 22, 2001

The NY Times finaly gets around to mentioning some of the thoughts paraphrased here. Note that it is in a subsection entitled "Voices of Opposition". Opposition to what? America? War? Our general foreign policy? What? Link: In Europe, Some Say the Attacks Stemmed From American Failings

"Bomb them?" - Maybe, but with what?

Friday, September 21, 2001

A rendering of New York's proposed new sky line gives response to those who attacked the WTC. Thanks to L for the (quite funny) Link:
The new WTC

The bill went to congress Wednesday evening. Administration wants it passed by Sunday!!!??
Link: Really, really, keep your eye on the fourth ammendment ball...

"Someone's gotta balance the blog..."
Well said, that man!
Link: More thoughts

"Western governments are responsible for many wrongs in the Muslim world, but that does not justify fascist fundamentalism" Christopher Hitchens tweaking left and right, as always... Link:
Let's not get too liberal

Thursday, September 20, 2001

Those Quakers, they have something to say about "war" and "crime"...Link: Webmaster takes advantage

Alot of useful, somewhat simplistic, questions about "arabs". Meant as a guide for journalists in the USA. (But it seems pitched at the school project level). Kink: Detroit Fee Press

Wow! This guy sure writes a bunch of letters. Key for NPR listeners.

Not surprisingly, this item was lost...Dateline is: Reuters Tuesday September 11 8:30 AM ET. Link: Kissinger Sued for 1970 Slaying of Chilean General ... And just in case you feel like doing it yourself

McCarthyism can rise again. Link:Hentoff: 'Liberty Is a Fragile Thing'

A comment from England, where they have been fighting this stuff for a while.
Link: The War on Terror Is Not New

Wednesday, September 19, 2001

There are a number of new tragedies the USA may invite in its response to last week's suicide hijackings in New York and Washington, the most ironic of which would be to give Osama bin Laden exactly what he wants.
By Thomas C Greene in Washington Posted: 20/09/2001 at 00:08 GMT Link: USA is playing into bin Laden's hands

One of the stupidest, most badly argued and confusing Microsoft "Tying" apologia ever (check out the reader responses for some real fun!)
Link: ZD Net should know better

If any are interested, here's a simple online petition that urges our leader to keep their heads and not escalate the violence:
(thanks to K for the Link:) Petition

We've been hearing the "war" word alot and i think we should think about that word. If the President declared "war" and the Congress actually does the same then it's official. If it's official then does that mean that Bin Laden (for example) gets to justify shit more easily? Perhaps we might think about calling these attacks crimes against humanity. We have laws to deal with that. There are even tribunals (although the US has blocked the most recent attempts to form an ongoing tribunal) and other international structures to deal with these crimes
Benjamin Ferencz has was part of the Nurenburg Trials and has been dealing with these sorts of crimes for a long time. Link: Ben Ferencz

Funny (in a darkish way)
thanks to L for the Link: Lake America

That Clear Channel List of Banned Songs?
Maybe a hoax, maybe not. Snopes has an angle, as always. Link: Songlist?

This One you CAN post
One of my correspondents was angry that i posted what was apparently a personal note rather than an actual response to the original polemic. A week has gone by and my correspondent has sent This response which is long and impassioned.

Bush Bill Re-writes Spy Laws
Link: Watch your 4th ammendment... or your 5th ... or your 6th...

Excellent BBC article
Very thorough and well explained. Link:Explaining Arab Anger

Has the US commited "atrocities"? (from the ever-reliable and disciplined ConterPunch and their associated zealots)
Link: You bet

Even the sarcastic and iconoclastic tech news site piles on. Not so sarcastic after all...
Link: 'We are at war' - Dubya

First Echelon, now this. You know you're living in strange times when you can agree with Rep. Bob Barr
Text taken from NYTimes.com. Badly formatted, but it saves you the free registration and ads.
Link: US Widens Policy on Detaining Suspects

Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Tuesday September 18 2001

From someone who is "all commented out", but still has a viewpoint... Link: London Reporter

SOME EXPERTS FEAR hackers may break into PCs buried under the rubble of the World Trade Center.
Link: Virus Myths Rant

Radio Self Censorship
In the wake of the attacks, what is sensitive? What is too much? How stupid do centralised radio programmers think their listeners are?
Link: Radio Idiocy

Suggested Crypto Ban gets opposition
Do the US.gov really wanna try to put he genie back in the bottle?
Link: Aussie Crypto Response

An Analysis of How the Events of September 11, 2001 May Change Federal Law

David Carney examines potential consequences in the areas of heightened federal law enforcement authority (and the concomitant reduction in privacy), encryption rights, racial profiling, combating cyber terrorism,
antitrust enforcement, communications, broadband Internet access, and domestic energy production. (thanks to L for the) Link: Fed Law Analysis

A fabulous new NY writer you may know has a pointed, funny, historical perspective for his response to the original polemic and the first round ...
Link: Nostra Culpa

Congressional Report on Terrorism (check out the date)
thanks to K for the Link: CRS Report

Monday, September 17, 2001

Monday Sept 17 2001


Some more responses and also some links suggested by those reading the blog. Please keep them coming. E-Mail me


The number of American flags flying from cars and post boxes is increasing. There has been a daily candlelight vigil on the village green in Woodstock. But there do seem to be a few, very few, voices urging measured thought. The reliable people at Berkley are having a National Day Of Action


Those Berkley folks included a defense of the Bill of Rights in their Resolutions. Our friends in the far right and militia groups will also be concerned for (parts?) of the Great Bill. This links is to a text document with three selected views fromt he right (forwarded from a militia enthusiast) . Link: Right Wing


It's a shame that at least one of my correspondents has had difficulty getting longer screeds to me because his ISP keeps cutting him off!. He did get these poetic thoughts to me though.

Sunday, September 16, 2001

Just starting the blog with some very basic links i've collected. also the original polemic "treasured folks" from wednesday night sept 12 2001 and some of the responses to it
Please note that some of the pages are stored on the Parnassus site and so their internal links will not work.
The site is ad supported and will try to place a cookie, i believe you can reject it without fear.



The Original Polemic, and responses to it

Link: The Original Polemic from Wed. night Sept 12 2001


Link:First Responses to Polemic


Link:One of the second round of responses


Link:Some cut sites about terrorism, (cut and paste URLs)


Bill of Rights aspects?



Senate OKs FBI Net Spying
By Declan McCullagh, 12:55 p.m. Sep. 14, 2001 PDT
On Thursday evening, two days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the Senate approved the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001," which enhances police wiretap powers and permits monitoring in more situations. Link: More Carnivore?


Lawmakers See Need to Loosen Rules on C.I.A.
By JAMES RISEN, NYT, Sept 15
The Congressional leaders who oversee the nation's intelligence system have concluded that America's spy agencies should be allowed to combat terrorism with more aggressive tactics, including the hiring of unsavory foreign agents. Link: CIA gets a boost


Commentary From Abroad


Americans cannot ignore what their government does abroad

Seumas Milne,Thursday September 13, 2001,The Guardian (UK)
They can't see why they are hated


Don't inflate the size of the enemy to fit the crime
As in the Cuban missile crisis, the president still has choices.
Martin Woollacott, Friday September 14, 2001, The Guardian (UK)
Link: Presidential Choices


Too close for comfort
Standing shoulder to shoulder with the American people should not mean subjection to US policy
Nick Cohen, Sunday September 16, 2001, The Observer (UK)
Some Brits are worried that Tony will get too close to the American Shrub Link: UK Too Close for comfort


Our poor, our weak, our hungry

American people are beginning to understand their connection to the whole world. Their leaders must understand it too.
Ahdaf Soueif, Saturday September 15, 2001, The Guardian (UK)
Link: US People now connected to world


SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15 2001, MATTHEW PARRIS - The Times (UK)
September 11 is a consequence of trying to impose world order, not a wake-up call to redouble the attempt. September 11 is a demonstration of what you can never achieve with armies, spies, coalitions, conferences and international muscle, not an argument for buying more.
Link: The Bigger They Come...


Only love and then oblivion. Love was all they had to set against their murderers
Ian McEwan, Saturday September 15, 2001, The Guardian
Remarkable, eloquent and sensitive view from McEwan Link:Only Love


Scripting News Mail Page (sept 12 to 14)
This site is usually about computers and open communication. A good page of missives from all over Link:Scripting News Mail Page


Apparently legit, well posited. Interesting discussion of US troops. Link: Letter from a worried Afghani

edited earlier, badly formatted post