I'm watching my copy of 'A Hard Day's Night' as I type. The scene where George is the subject of a creepy focus-group researcher into teen trends just gets sharper and more prescient with each passing year.
It's funny, I once quipped in Nadine that George had grown into a rather cantankerous old man -- that the "quiet Beatle" now wouldn't shut up. He was given to snide interviews in which he slagged current pop phenoms like George Michael and, later, Oasis. (Not that George Michael and Oasis didn't deserve some measure of puncturing at the time.) But despite his weary-of-it-all facade, which only grew crustier as he left the Beatles behind, it's important to recall that George, possibly even more than John, was the least cynical Beatle when it came to his approach to his own life: the transcendentalism was never just a trend or a pose for him; his friend Bob Dylan could take a few pointers from George in his steadfast devotion to one approach to faith and man's place in the universe.
For me, though, George will forever be encapsulated in a song that most casual fans consider a drag, "Within You Without You," which comes smack-dab in the middle of 'Sgt. Pepper' and is often considered the filler track by critics. It's actually the most melodically beautiful and fully realized of the trilogy of Indian-flavored tracks George recorded with the Beatles (the others being "The Inner Light" and "Love You To"), and I think it nicely summarizes his approach to life and his understanding that whatever his fame, human life was meant for greater things. "When you've seen beyond yourself/Then you may find peace of mind/Is waiting there/And the time will come when you see/We're all one, and life flows on within you and without you."
Peace and love,
CMM
| George Harrison |
According to this test, I should be in Gryffindor. The bad news: according to this test, the character I most resemble is Gilderoy Lockhart. (Hermione's in second place.) Link from my fellow blogsnob Fishgirl.
| Quiz |
| Conspiracy Theories |
I'm sure Ashcroft is happy to know that he's not alone.
Subject: Australia considers shrinking civil liberties to fight terror Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 12:27:50 +1100 From: mediarel@lstsvr1.ag.gov.auAustralian Broadcasting Corporation LATELINE Late night news & current affairs
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT LOCATION: abc.net.au
Broadcast: 27/11/01 A-G defends new anti-terrorism lawsThe person responsible for overseeing the drafting of these new anti-terror laws is the Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams. Tony Jones asked Mr Williams what was the purpose of giving ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation] new powers to detain people?
DARYL WILLIAMS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, we're dealing with potentially quite extraordinary situations where there may be a great number of lives at risk, there may be a very serious risk of major property damage. What we need to do is to be able to get maximum information, maximum intelligence, in order to prevent any terrorist acts being committed. Now, if we don't suspect a person of being engaged in planning for a terrorist act, there is no capacity for the police to arrest them. They may be unwilling to participate in questioning. We need to have a power to coerce people to answer questions, or to provide information.
TONY JONES: That power is effectively detention without charge, as it's been interpreted. Is that correct?
DARYL WILLIAMS: We envisage a range of situations. In some cases, we would expect that people would voluntarily assist. If they refuse to assist, they could be detained without arrest and without charge. If they commit an offence in the process of failing to respond appropriately, they may be arrested on that charge. We would need to have access to people who may not be themselves involved in doing anything, but who may have information.
TONY JONES: Now it has been reported that under these proposals a person could be held for 48 hours and interrogated without legal representation. Is that correct?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, that's a situation we envisage. It may not always be like that, but it certainly may be necessary in some cases to keep the person being interrogated incommunicado so that people who may be at that time be planning or doing things are not warned of the fact that the agencies are closing in.
TONY JONES: But in these cases these are people who are not suspected of involvement with any terrorist activity. Why does ASIO need coercive powers for people who aren't suspected of anything?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, they may have information that will be very useful in countering any proposed terrorist act and if they're not willing to provide it voluntarily, then we need a power to require it.
TONY JONES: Your critics have claimed, of course, that this would be open to abuse and it's giving ASIO for the first time the powers to arrest which some critics describe as "re-creating ASIO as a secret police force".
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, the way we envisage it working is that any arrest would be done by the relevant police. Any detention would be done by the relevant police. It would only be done under a warrant that would be sought by the Director-General of Security, that is the head of ASIO, with the consent of the Attorney-General and it would be issued or approved by what we've referred to as a prescribed authority. Prescribed authority would be either a federal magistrate or a senior legal member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the magistrate, or the legal member, would be the ones to supervise the interrogation and to ensure the conditions under which the warrant was issued are met.
TONY JONES: So the suggestion is that a prescribed authority, a magistrate say, for example, would be there for the entire 48-hour period of this detention?
DARYL>WILLIAMS: Well, that's a matter to be worked out yet. We're still in the process of developing the legislation and there are quite a few details like that that need to be addressed.
TONY JONES: Can you give us an example, if you like a hypothetical case, of someone against who those powers might be used, those coercive powers?
DARYL WILLIAMS: I would hope that it would only be used in serious cases against those who have highly relevant information about proposed terrorist acts and if someone were an associate or a supporter of Osama bin Laden's network, they would be an appropriate person.
TONY JONES: There's talk here of getting documents or, as I said before, things, although that's unspecified, from these sort of people. Could it also include, for example, professionals like lawyers, or bankers, accountants or journalists, for example?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, we're not envisaging that there will be particular categories of people either included or excluded. We seek to have a general power to deal appropriately with any person -- whoever they may be -- who may have information that would assist in preventing or hindering a proposed terrorist act.
TONY JONES: So, hypothetically, a lawyer or a journalist could be arrested, mandatorily detained for 48 hours and forced to hand over documents?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Anybody who has information that may assist in preventing a large number of lives being lost or very serious property damage being done would be an appropriate person to provide information.
TONY JONES: But you wouldn't be making exceptions for certain professions -- lawyers and journalists are the ones I've chosen -- there are many others, of course.
DARYL WILLIAMS: I can't understand why you've chose lawyers and journalists but I wouldn't envisage there being exceptions in their cases.
TONY JONES: I've chosen them because they might have information in the form of documents or statements from people who do not wish to be named, for example in the case of a journalist.
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, we're talking about life and death situations. I don't think the interests of journalism weigh heavily in the balancing exercise that we're engaging in here.
TONY JONES: Lawyers the same?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Lawyers the same.
| Civil Liberties | War on Terror |
In our ongoing effort to find the New York Times article with the most ridiculous 9/11 tie-in, we could not help but wonder at the editorial decision to run this article on the front of the automobile section last week. Excerpts below.
Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, co-equal on America's most-wanted list with Osama bin Laden, is partial to Chevrolet Suburbans with darkened windows. Mr. bin Laden, like many of the sheiks and princes of Saudi Arabia among whom he grew up, likes Toyota Land Cruisers, as did his military commander, Muhammad Atef, a former Egyptian policeman who is believed to have been killed by American bombing last week.There is a hierarchy of vehicles among the more important lieutenants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Mr. bin Laden's terrorist organization. Not for them anything discreet and durable, to go with the austerity of their faith: nothing but a Land Cruiser will serve. For ordinary fighters, men with long beards and longer barrels on their ubiquitous Kalashnikovs, the vehicle of choice is the Toyota Hilux, a compact pickup truck popular throughout the developing world.
Mullah Omar, a man so elusive that he has not been photographed in years, and has only granted one interview, was spotted in early October in his Suburban, a white vehicle with no outside embellishments. This was according to villagers outside the eastern city of Jalalabad, who reported seeing him stepping out of the vehicle, accompanied by Mr. bin Laden, in an area near an Al Qaeda training camp two days after the American bombing began on Oct. 7.
. . . .
Other extras visible on the tape, made earlier this year, were the smokestack-like air inductors running up the windshield pillars; Toyota distributes these on vehicles that operate mostly in the sand-choked air of desert regions. The Al Qaeda leaders' vehicles appeared to be free of the side-door graphics favored by many of their followers, whose tastes run to trucks in flame red or electric blue with words like "Rodeo" or "Pick Up" lettered on the sides, with fancy wheels and chromed roll bars.
The article takes issue with the Taliban's use of such trucks when they are "at odds with the rulers' theological commitment to a no-tech world." I haven't read anything in the Times that suggests that the Taliban's use of modern weapons, for instance, is similarly incongruous.
| New York Times | Taliban | Cars | Afghanistan |
Hannah writes:
This is a moving account of a volunteer working in a shelter at Ground Zero. Many things to be thankful for in this holiday season -- especially knowing at all of my loved ones are safe right now. Stay that way.
xo Hannah
| Ground Zero | 9/11 | New York City |
The guy who asks for change in front of our bodega wears fatigues. I didn't notice until a few days ago, when he started talking to me after I asked him how he was doing. "I'm all messed up," he said, shaking his head, and tells me his story.
One of the firefighters from Squad One used to tell him that he looked familiar. They never figured out why. This firefighter was one of the twelve who died in the World Trade Center, of a company of thirty. Just that morning, some of the firefighter's remaining bretheren stopped by the bodega with an old photograph they found in the firefighter's locker. The picture was of the firefighter's father in Vietnam, along with a group of other soldiers -- including the homeless guy himself. "Of all of them in that picture, I'm the only one left alive." He had served with the firefighter's father, but neither of them made the connection until it was too late.
"The things I could have told him about his dad," he kept repeating. "The things I could have told him."
| FDNY | Squad One | Park Slope | Homeless | Vietnam |
| Web Tools |
The True Story of One Bird's Will to Live.
| Chickens |
There really is a weight-loss pill called Anorex™.
| Brands |
As part of the New York Times' continuing effort to have each and every article relate to 9/11 somehow, this article from the fashion section focuses on how the Ladies Who Lunch just don't have it in their heart to shop any more. Thanks to Debbie for pointing this one out. Excerpts follow:
| Fashion | New York Times |
Chris G. sends some news from Minneapolis:
About a mile from my house in South Minneapolis is the multi-colored high rise apartment building featured in the opening credits of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Minnesotans are fond of pointing it out to visitors to town, along with other MTM landmarks. What they don't tell you, however, is that it was designed to be low-income housing. Rather than the spacious, luxurious apartment Mary lived in alone, these apartments are small, and house large families of immigrants. Nowadays, they are home to hundreds of Somalian families who have come here to work several jobs in order to support themselves and families back home.
The families in Somalia live mainly in small villages and depend on receiving the money from American relatives in order to survive. Because there is only one Western Union office in the whole country - located in a city - it is difficult for families to receive the money. So the American Somalians create small businesses that will wire the money to Somalia, and deliver it to the villages. And the American government has now decided that some of this hard earned money is being skimmed out of the pot in Somalia and transferred to Al Queda networks. I have no idea whether this is true, but I can tell you that we're not talking about people with a lot of money here. These people can only afford to live packed together in high rises. Can their minimum wage paychecks really be enough to warrant our worry?
The FBI came to our food cooperative by mistake. They saw the one Somalian employee and figured they had the right place. A friend who was working there at the time said after the FBI realized their mistake, they used the co-op's bathroom for their breaks as they proceeded to raid and shut down the small business sharing the same building. Five businesses in all were shut down that day, leaving the Somalian community no way to get their money to their families in time for Ramadan. All money in the process of being transferred was frozen, and now appears to be lost. Welcome to the melting pot.
The next day, our Senator from the left, Wellstone, announced he was going to save the Minnesota Twins by going after the evil baseball empire. What about the rights of his citizens? He helped sign into law the bill that was largely unread, allowing the FBI to go after pretty much whomever they want. Meanwhile, our govenor, ex-pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura is freaking out over his personal security. It seems he believes he is the most visible governor in the country, and thus, at the greatest risk of danger. He proposes adding eight to ten more body guards, tightening security around his press conferences (no more of those pesky reporters allowed in here!) and a multi-million dollar rennovation to the governor's mansion. [NB: As our nation's Governor Most Likely To Open a Can of Whoop-Ass, I would think he has less to worry about.] What about the safety of his citizens? Minneapoliis a hub city for Northwest Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the country.
Today, I taught theater to a class of first graders, largely Somalian. At one point, a little boy came up to me, grinning, and said, "You look just like one of the bad guys on TV!" My first thought was Bush? Cheney? Do all white guys look alike to him? Then he said, "Did you fly the airplane into the building?" I was stunned to reaize that to him, I look like a terrorist. [NB: Chris has a beard.] I heard an expert on the radio defending the Japanese internment camps of World War II, and calling for a similar strategy today. What would I look like to him?
We can take some comfort in our recent election, though. In the largest political upset in Minnesota, our incumbent mayor was usurped by a former newspaper editor running independant, and three city council positions were filled by Green Party candidates, making Minneapolis one of the Greenest cities in the country. [NB: Let's just hope they don't have to fly anywhere.]
| Minneapolis | Civil Liberties | War on Terror |
Paul writes:
This is a hilarious take on the media's coverage of "the war on terrorism. " I think it's a bit unfair toward NPR, which has had great reporting in my opinion, but CNN and the BBC deserve all the abuse one can heap on them.
"Good evening, and welcome to 'All is Lost,' the nightly public affairs program of National Public Radio and the BBC. Tonight, we discuss what has been called America’s war against terror. I am your host, Perfectly Modulated Voice of Reason.
With me, in our Washington studio, are: Fabled Newsman Who Was There When Saigon Fell ... Scientifically Trained Impartial Scholar ... and Bureau Chief of Second-Rate Regional Monopoly Newspaper Who Is Desperate to be Hired by The New York Times. From London, we are joined by our European affairs analyst, Loathes America and Prays for its Swift Destruction."
Read the whole thing here. Especially their European analyst. Those Brits are so funny.
| NPR |
From the Washington Post; excerpts below:
Pa. Officials' Homes Raided in Anthrax Case No One Is Arrested, FBI's Searches Turn Up Little of Significance in ChesterFBI raids on the homes of three Chester, Pa., city officials of Pakistani descent appear to have turned up little of significance, law enforcement officials said yesterday.
The raids were conducted Monday by about 30 FBI SWAT team members, some in protective biohazard suits, who jumped from black sport utility vehicles and rushed the homes with battering rams. They set up decontamination tents for hazardous materials, but sources said they did not find any equipment used to grow or process anthrax bacteria.
Chester Health Commissioner Irshad Shaikh, 39, said he answered the FBI's questions but has "no idea" what the agents were looking for when they searched the three-story home he shares with his brother, Masood Shaikh, who works in the city's lead abatement program. "They came and asked some questions and I cooperated fully," Shaikh said in a telephone interview.
The third Chester official, city accountant Asif Kazi, 39, lives in a brick row house a few blocks from the Shaikh brothers. He said the FBI asked him about anthrax and other biological agents and swabbed areas of his home.
Kazi added that the agents told him he had been seen dumping a cloudy liquid on the ground behind his home and handing a silver canister to someone. The liquid, Kazi told the Associated Press, was soapy water from a clogged sink, and the canister was a food dish.
Kazi's wife, Palwasha Jalawam, 38, told the AP she was cooking breakfast when armed agents broke down the door and held her at gunpoint. Among other items, she said, agents seized her prescription for Cipro, an antibiotic she takes to treat endometriosis. Cipro is also used for treating anthrax infections.
Shaikh, who graduated from medical school in Pakistan and is a part-time instructor at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, did not criticize the agents. "I think the FBI was doing its job very professionally," he said, adding, "They can come in the house any time they want."
. . . .
Despite the praise from city officials, Gloria Campbell, who lives with her husband and five young children next door to Kazi, is concerned for her family's safety. She said the Kazi family, who moved in last ummer, are "very nice people" and "mannerly." But after watching federal agents aim a battering ram at their house yesterday, Campbell said she was "up all night afraid, because I don't know what to think now."
And some residents are angry that the FBI would not give more information about the investigation. "I think we deserve answers," said Elizabeth Williams, who lives across the street from the Shaikh house. "It's an unjustice to us when the FBI says they don't have to tell us what's out here."
[NB: Apparently, staring off into space is enough to get you kicked off a flight these days.]
| War on Terror | 9/11 | Profiling | Race & Ethnicity | Anthrax |
MO: The current situation in Afghanistan is related to a bigger cause - that is the destruction of America.
BBC: What do you mean by the destruction of America? Do you have a concrete plan to implement this?
MO: The plan is going ahead and, God willing, it is being implemented. But it is a huge task, which is beyond the will and comprehension of human beings.
If God's help is with us, this will happen within a short period of time; keep in mind this prediction.
| Afghanistan | War on Terror |
No, it's not the set-up for a joke. Those smart folks over at RAND have a new book out: Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. It's about how terrorists, activists, criminals and others are increasingly using networked forms of organizations:
The term netwar refers to an emerging mode of conflict (and crime) at societal levels, short of traditional military warfare, in which the protagonists use network forms of organization and related doctrines, strategies, and technologies attuned to the information age. These protagonists are likely to consist of dispersed organizations, small groups, and individuals who communicate, coordinate, and conduct their campaigns in an internetted manner, often without a precise central command. Thus, netwar differs from modes of conflict and crime in which the protagonists prefer to develop formal, stand-alone, hierarchical organizations, doctrines, and strategies as in past efforts, for example, to build centralized movements along Leninist lines. Thus, for example, netwar is about the Zapatistas more than the Fidelistas, Hamas more than the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the American Christian Patriot movement more than the Ku Klux Klan, and the Asian Triads more than the Cosa Nostra.
The whole thing is available on-line. They've added a afterword on Al-Qaeda and 9/11, using their theoretical framework to examine our current conflict. Has anyone out there studied cellular automata, complex systems theory, "charodic" organizations, etc.? Do they have anything to tell us about the war, about how terrorists organize themselves?
Thanks again to Mike Watkins for the link.
| Vorks | Al Qaeda | Netwar | Cellular Automata | Chaordic Organization | Crime | Chaos Theory | P2P |
So now our government has the right to put suspects in jail, without charge, seemingly idefinitely, and not release any information on their status or even their names. We can revoke attorney-client privilege. We can try suspects in secret military tribunals. What's next? Government agents in Ford Falcons? You don't have to be paranoid, libertarian, or a pacifist to be concerned about this. Nat Hentoff has a good article in the Voice about how this legislation was pushed through without legislative review. But some in Congress are questioning the need for military tribunals. And William Safire opines that Bush has taken "dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens."
| Civil Liberties |
What Evil Lurks in the Hearts (and Hard Drives) of Men?
Kudos to our friend and neighbor Lynn Harris for her piece in today's Times about our friend and neighbor Chris Kalb's mp3-powered roadtrip to PulpCon. We know she'll write about Ben next, right?
| New York Times | Pulp Fiction | MP3 | Radio Drama | Chris Kalb | Friends |
Fire truck dream should become reality today
In 1867, after the Civil War, the FDNY raised money to buy a new fire truck for Columbia, SC (which had largely been burnt down). Columbia promised that "should misfortune ever befall the Empire City" they would return the favor. Now the kids of White Knoll Middle School have raised $447K to buy a new truck for Ladder 101 in Red Hook. Ain't that grand?
[Thanks to MeFi for the story.]
| FDNY | New York City | South Carolina |
The robot cat and dog are so...so...so last week. For the latest in Japanese robot technology see the recently unveiled (no Kabul women puns please) humanoid robot from Honda. He walks down stairs alone,or in pairs, he uses tools and bows in a traditional Japanese manner. See it all in RealVideo or QuickTime here.
[NB: Is it just me, or do they look like Transformers?]
| Robots |
Sony's Aibo may be the standard for artificial pets, but it still looks like a souped-up version of Doctor Who's K-9. (OK, I'm a geek.) I mean, would you really want to pet plastic? What you really want is something cuddly. As further proof that cats are superior to dogs, these folks in Japan have created a furry robotic cat:
As of yet, the robot cats have not yet released their plans to take over the world.
And, in further is-it-real-or-isn't-it news, you might want to check out your ability to tell one from the other by taking the Fake or Foto? quiz. I got six out of ten right. Darn those crafty CG wizards!
| Cats |
Taliban Withdrawal Was Strategy, Not Rout
Well, maybe it was a "strategic rout," or perhaps a good strategic move to make in face of a likely defeat: head for the hills. The folks at Stratfor again on why the Taliban's retreat makes strategic sense (for them, that is.) At least it gives us some idea of what comes next.
That's for fighting the Taliban. But what about fighting terrorism? If bin Laden's goal is to foment Islamic revolution throughout the world, I think these recent developments aren't good for him. It's one thing to say Afghanistan is being attacked because its goverment is fundamentalist. It's another to claim that the Taliban is the true goverment of Afghanistan, while they are fighting a guerilla war and while the people are shaving their beards in triumph. (Note to Gillette: get some razors included in those care packages. I can see the commercials now.)
So what do we think? Are the Taliban's days numbered? Will forging and supporting a government in Kabul turn out to be more difficult than rousting the Taliban from the capital? I think that it may be difficult to forge a goverment that is (1) accepted by the Average Afghani, and (2) isn't seen as anti-Islam in the wider Islamic world, and (3) is palatable to Pakistan. The fact that the Northern Alliance entered Kabul despite promises to keep out, and their alleged killing of POWs (whether or not it's true, people will believe it), and we're already having trouble with (2) and (3). Stay tuned.
| Al Qaeda | Afghanistan | Pakistan | War on Terror |
war-spawned newspeak or corporate nicespeak?
| Nicespeak | Orwell | Language |
The Telegraph reports that OBL has admitted that he's behind 9/11. Not too different from what he's said before -- that the terrorism was justified -- except for the switch to "we" instead of "them." Uh-oh, pronoun trouble.
In the video, bin Laden says: "The Twin Towers were legitimate targets, they were supporting US economic power. These events were great by all measurement. What was destroyed were not only the towers, but the towers of morale in that country."The hijackers were "blessed by Allah to destroy America's economic and military landmarks". He freely admits to being behind the attacks: "If avenging the killing of our people is terrorism then history should be a witness that we are terrorists. Yes, we kill their innocents and this is legal religiously and logically."
Bin Laden goes on to justify his entire terror campaign. "There are two types of terror, good and bad. What we are practising is good terror. We will not stop killing them and whoever supports them."
He directly threatens the lives of President Bush and Mr Blair. "Bush and Blair don't understand anything but the power of force. Every time they kill us, we kill them, so the balance of terror can be achieved." He also calls on all Muslims to join him. "It is the duty of every Muslim to fight. Killing Jews is top priority."
| 9/11 |
Patrick sent this in:
As far as I can tell the first comparison between our present war and The Simpsons. I am surprised it took this long:
I can appreciate why the press is impatient — how could they not be, when they're covering this war in real-time? And I know the press needs to be skeptical. But what drives me nuts is how they seem to think the day-to-day setbacks are much more important than they are.
One of my favorite scenes in The Simpsons (as longtime readers know) is when Homer is selected to join a space-shuttle mission. News anchor Kent Brockman is scheduled to interview the shuttle crew while Homer and the rest of the crew are in orbit. But just before they "switch live" to the craft, there's a mishap on board. Homer, unaccustomed to weightlessness, has smashed an ant farm they brought with them. When Kent Brockman cuts to the live feed from the shuttle, the garden-variety ants float by the TV-camera lens — momentarily appearing gigantic. Then, they lose the picture.
Brockman, like so many TV newsmen, responds instantly with his gut impressions: "Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over — 'conquered', if you will — by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earthmen or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to... toil in their underground sugar caves."
More on why the press et al. should give war a chance:
http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg110901.shtml
| War | The Simpsons |
A hilarious account from a BBC correspondent of a Northern Alliance martial-arts demonstration:
An urn was held over one person's head and after a good few flailing and failing kicks it finally broke, sending a flapping mass of feathers crashing to the ground. It was a pigeon, with the Northern Alliance flag attached to its leg. It was meant to soar into the sky, full of symbolism. But the clearly dazed bird had no intention of leaving terra firma. Someone tried to give the pigeon encouragement by throwing it way up into the air. It came back to earth with a deathly thud and was hastily removed.
USO, eat your heart out.
| Birds | Northern Alliance |
Props to Metafilter.
| War on Terror |
Felix forwarded the article below to me. Personally, I don't think this is evidence of any CIA connection to or foreknowledge of 9/11.
First, put and call options are placed all the time. The fact that Deutsche Bank or Merrill could profit by getting comission on someone's bet that the stock of UAL and American would go down, hardly constitutes any causal relationship. They didn't initiate these trades. Whoever did hasn't picked up their check for obvious reasons. Of course in hindsight, it seems that someone or ones with advance knowledge tried to profit off of the attacks. But does that mean that these banks, or the CIA, knew? Even if they were monitoring the market, an unusally high volume of puts could signal insider trading -- but why would anyone make the leap to terrorist activities against those firms? If we used the stock market as a method for determining the terrorists' moves, most of the firms in the world would be identified as "targets" at some point.
Secondly, I find it difficult to believe that the heads of Deutsche Bank and Merrill would choose to profit from 9/11. Both firms are located in and next to the WTC. The amount of economic damage they sustained from the attack has far exceeded whatever they could hope to gain from put options on the two airlines. My friend who works for Deutsche has had her office destroyed, and the firm is still dealing with the ensuing chaos.
If you go here you'll find a larger (laundry) list of connections that Ruppert has put together. I don't think his theory holds water. Yes, the CIA got caught napping. Yes, we've been in bed with the Taliban before, and other unsavory types. Yes, diplomats met (isn't that what they're supposed to do?). I still don't think it adds up to conspiracy.
Just my $0.02.
-- Mike
| 9/11 | Conspiracy Theories | CIA |
And add your three cents. Thanks to Greg for accentuating the positive.
| Optimism |
Here's a not-bad article about Buffy the Musical, from Salon:
An extraordinary episode of "Buffy" takes the American movie musical to
places it's never been before.
[NB: As a Buffy fan myself (OK, I admit it), I thought that the musical was great. Debbie and I were worried that it could be a Jump the Shark episode. But the lyrics were clever, the episode played with musical conventions well, and the whole thing moved the story arc along considerably. Is there a future for Buffy and Spike? Stay tuned.]
| Musicals |
Chris G writes:
Mike - here's something for ishbadiddle. It's pretty chilling, I just received this e-mail describing some of the hidden language and implications of the anti-terrorist bill that was signed into law by Bush. The e-mail calls for action to try and ammend or stop the bill. Unfortunately, it is now too late.
On a related note, my friend Erik did some hunting and found that right wing pundits are now equating Noam Chomsky's writings with those of Bin Ladin (!). So, by my logic-- I was required to read Chomsky for a college course - thus making me a trained terrorist. Not only can they come after me and my assets, but since I am the director of a non-profit, they can seize all assets of the non-profit, as well as those of anyone who has ever donated money!!! Sound paranoid? It's just a slippery slope.
Suddenly, I am becoming very, very interested in Pre-Nazi Germany. Is there anyone out there who has studied the rise of Nazism who could shed some light for the rest of us -- specifically, at what points could the citizens of Germany have acted to stop the holocaust, and what could they have done? I surely don't intend to stand by and watch. Here is the e-mail I received:
Continue reading "Redefining Terrorism" » | Civil Liberties | PATRIOT Act | War on Terror |