From Salon's The Fix:

No, the most interesting Rice tidbit today may be that, at a recent dinner party hosted by N.Y. Times DC bureau chief Philip Taubman and his Times reporter wife, Felicity Barringer, and attended by other Times luminaries, the national security adviser was overheard saying, “As I was telling my husb--” and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, “As I was telling President Bush.” Told of the slip, Rice’s spokesman laughed before offering his "No comment.” (New York magazine) "

O-kay.
Hosting dinner parties with National Security Advisers in attendance . . .don't know how I feel about that. I definitely did not fall into the "journalists should not have friends" camp during our ethics discussions last fall.

A heart breaking letter sent to Talking Points Memo's Joshua Micah Marshall from his friend in Iraq. The four abducted Italian bodyguards, including Fabrizio Quattrocchi, who was executed last week, worked for Marshall's friend. The closing:

So for now I am too grief stricken to assess whether this was worth the adventure that is Fallujah but all I ask is ... how can we assault a city of 300,000 and not have the largest east-west highway secure for logistics and commerce by Military Police?? Allah only knows how many people were killed by ignoring a basic military principle ... secure your lines of communications and supply!

Well, I'm home. You'll be able to read more about where I was all evening in a few weeks. But in the mean time, let me say that I've just discovered whole genres of amazing music. I will indeed miss New York when I leave.

I read the news today, oh boy . . .

I went to Princeton last night, to see my friend Asad sing in the 16th annual physics department recital. Video coming soon. He sang a Beatles Song, a Bob Dylan song, and a Paul Simon song. Afterwards I went to a Karaoke party in a lovely house in the woods, whose charming owner's charming dog (a nice big golden all American mutt named Denali) gave me some much needed pet-time.

Much is happening today, but you will read about it later, like in three or four weeks. In the meantime, I leave you with this observation from Slate's Today's papers:

"Israel has killed three Hamas leaders in the last year; the terrorist group announced that the man replacing Rantisi will remain anonymous."

Odd that that they didn't think to do that before . . .Also, if you get a chance, watch 60 minutes tonight: Mike Wallace interviews Bob Woodward, one of the few reporters to get real facetime with the President.

The real and respected O'Reilly: The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus [Apr. 16, 2004]. (For all you nongeeky Journalist types who are still slackjawed with horror that I'm quoting O'Reilly---Tim O'Reilly is the king of computing books, not the blustering, rude Fox guy.) Courtesy of Robert Stribley.

An article by Douglas Brinkley on those who would seek to discredit John Kerry's war wounds.

Oh. It's spring!

I just went out to get some juice (gotta keep that Vitamin C pumping) and pick my graduation gown. And it suddenly washed over me--this delightful realization that somehow, someway, this crazy huge city has managed to crawl its way to spring. Broadway is lined up and down with flowering trees, and the islands between the north and south lanes are carpetted with daffodils. I saw a student walking down the sidewalk, barefoot. Behind me on the crosswalk, a little boy being tugged home too soon protested petulantly and sensibly, "But Mom! Central park is bigger than our backyard! Way bigger!" The air is warm and still enough that I didn't even need a sweater, and the sidewalks were already lined with carousers. In the alleyspace between my building and the one behind some of the spindly trees are covered in a fine net of new green leaves. For the first time in months my windows are wide and happily open, and I can hear that somewhere on this block an enthusiastic pianist has also opened a window; neighborly, we share both oxygen and music.

Mr. Gaiman has a complete and perfect spring.

Bathsheba Grossman's geometric sculpting--another one for the mathematical artists and artistic mathematicians, and also for the rest of us in betewen.

Some news from Iraq

Way to go, USA, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, reported by the AP for CNN.com:

"Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards.

The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to U.S. officials three weeks ago informing them of the findings. The information was also sent to the U.N. Security Council in a letter from its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, that was circulated Thursday.

The IAEA is waiting for a reply from the United States, which is leading the coalition administering Iraq, officials said.

The United States has virtually cut off information-sharing with the IAEA since invading Iraq in March 2003 on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

No such weapons have been found, and arms control officials now worry the war and its chaotic aftermath may have increased chances that terrorists could get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be unknowingly exposed to radioactive materials."

The second to last sentence I quoted is badly written, since it could imply that United States cut off information sharing with the IAEA "on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction," when in fact it means that the United states invaded on that premise. But it does not explain why we have cut off information sharing, nor what the official DoD response is to this aggregious threat. I'm hoping that this is just the first run article, coming out in response to the UN IAEA press release, and that soon all will be explained. But I'm not too hopeful. The press, the public and Congress need to keep putting extreme pressure on the administration to deal with this problem--it's absolutely vital to our national security.

---

1st: Sgt. Dwayne Farr: Kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing African-American Marine in Fallujah. What a crazy, charming, terrible world we live in.

Hungry Children in the Wealthiest Nation on Earth

A friend showed me this story on CNN.com by Heather Hollingsworth of the Associated Press: Kids taking food home from school:

For poor students who eat most of their meals at school through government-subsidized breakfast and lunch programs, weekends and holidays can mean going hungry.
So the St. Joseph School District, with the help of the local arm of America's Second Harvest, has started sending home backpacks filled with canned fruit, cereal bars and other single-serving foods. Similar programs serving thousands of children have started in more than a dozen other cities in the last few years.

America's Second Harvest and the St. Joseph's food bank in particular say that every dollar donated to them helps provide $10 worth of food to the hungry.

Stolen from Scott Rosenberg

"There is Beauty in everything ...Even in Windows system noises."
(opens up a flash page, requires sound.)

Three Cheers for India.

Or: The only in India department.

Make banana juice, not war.
Juicy rewards as Indian nuclear boffins split bananas instead of atoms

Busy Busy Busy

More so than usual, which is saying a lot. Tuesday afternoon was pretty full, starting with a meeting about the final project of nyc24.org, of which I am the production editor.Then we had a reception for the delightfully informative if understandably sombre Steve Coll, managing editor of the Washington Post and author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. I wanted to pick up a book and get his signature, but considering the fact that my room is overflowing with papers and unread books that I'm going to have to pack up soon anyway, I decided to postpone the inevitable purchase. Peer-pressure from my more thrifty classmates was certainly a factor. Now I rather wish I had gotten the book.
Had to run from the reception to class where we spent the evening with Mike Wallace, the legendary 60 minutes reporter. He told us tales of scooping Jennings and Brokaw on an interview with Khomeini during the Iran hostage crisis, and cornering Barbra Streisand on her relationship with her mother. Afterwards he stayed with us to watch GWB's 3rd presidential press conference, but made no comment on the magic tie. While it's true I don't watch TV anymore, I was a devoted ABCNews fan all the way upto college, and I had never seen that effect before. It was quite mesmerizing--to quote Atrios, "I want one of those magic ties. . ." I thought, as did John Martin and Mike Wallace and most of my classmates, that the press did a good job of applying some pressure this time. I do wish I could have seen the Daily Show send up though.
I've lost my voice and am otherwise slightly under the weather, so, what with everything else, blog entries might be few and far between. Keep yourselves entertained with this charming little flash "game," courtesy of Mr. Osborne.

The Smoking Gun Memo linked below has been discussed before:

Arizona Central

The Memory Hole

(links courtesy of Nick)

Regardless, though, it deserves to be reexamined and rediscussed in light of the release of the August 6 PDB. According to the New York Times article on the White House memo that accompanied the declassification of the PDB:

---

In a written rebuttal twice as long as the document itself, the White House sought Saturday night to drive home a single major point: that the briefing "did not warn of the 9/11 attacks." The idea that Al Qaeda wanted to strike in the United States was already evident, senior officials argued. They also said that while the document cited fresh details to make that case, they were insufficient to prompt any action.

. . .

At a time, in the summer of 2001, when Mr. Bush and his advisers have said that the vast bulk of intelligence information pointed to the danger of a terrorist attack abroad, the Aug. 6 briefing can be read as a clear-cut warning that Osama Bin Laden had his sights set on targets within the United States and had already launched operations within America's borders. Based in part on continuing investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, the brief spelled out fresh reason for concern about Qaeda attacks, very possibly using hijacked airplanes and conceivably in New York or Washington.

Depending on which side is arguing the point in this rancorous election year, the "patterns of suspicious activity" cited in the document will be presented either as yet another sign that the pre-Sept. 11 warnings were always too vague to act on, as the White House has argued, or as new evidence that Mr. Bush and his advisers were too slow to sense the danger at hand.

In making their case, White House officials who spoke to reporters in a conference call and issued a three-page "fact sheet" sought repeatedly to minimize the significance of the document.

"None of the information relating to the `patterns of suspicious activity' was later deemed to be related to the 9/11 attacks," the document issued by the White House said. The idea that Mr. bin Laden and his supporters wanted to carry out attacks in the United States, a senior official said, "was already publicly known," while the fresh concerns outlined in the document — about surveillance of federal buildings in New York, and a telephone warning to an American Embassy in the Persian Gulf — "were being pursued aggressively by the appropriate agencies."

End quote from the NYT.

---

Even if hindsight tells us that the particular men whom Agent Williams was reporting on did not, in fact, having anythign to do with AQ, and even if all FBI/CIA/National Security/White House officials could have been reasonably expected to imagine was hijackings for the sake of hostages and not for the sake of weaponry, a cabinet level meeting on terrorism (advising the Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Education of the situation) and the attempt to secure cockpits would have been better than nothing. It might not have prevented 9/11 but it would have been better than nothing. Saying that there is nothing Bush could have done differently before 9/11 short of bombing Afghanistan (see the pointless posturing over at Easterblog) is essentially equivalent to saying that all of our current domestic anti-terror measures are useless. A very concrete, and relatively uncontroversial if expensive and unpopular, measure would have been to secure cockpits--or at least, start securing cockpits. Try to start securing cockpits. Think about securing cockpits. Something.

Moreover, this particular report of Agent Williams was new FBI intelligence (post 2001 inauguration), and if this is not the new FBI intelligence referred to in the memo, whoever wrote the memo should have checked with FBI officials a couple of levels down to check and see if there were any new developments before giving the President the (obviously now false) impression that there were no new developments. Where I am generously interpreting the PDB as having given said false impression.

The Smoking Gun Website: 2001 FBI Memo Warned Of Bin Laden Aviation Cadre.

I would just like to remind everyone that Al Gore's proposed budget included more than twice the allocation for an increase in military spending as George Bush's, including more spending on wages and benefits for troops.

National Security, Character and Politics


This is a long post. I hope you'll find it useful. I think it's vitally important we all take a deep breath and prepare to think a little lengthily, a little earnestly, about where we're going. It may not be fun or amusing, but I think it's important.

Read Fred Kaplan's Slate Piece Condi Lousy, about National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice's Thursday testimony.


Read more!


Then take a look at the The New Republic, April 12 & 19, page 13: "Both Houses--Everyone failed to fight terrorism," by Martin Peretz
(Click here for a link for digital subscribers, which I am not.) If you can't get a copy, here is one interesting passage:

---

"One of the few high-level officials who comes off well in Clarke's book is Vice President Al Gore. Twice during the Clinton administration, Gore led attempts to enhance the security of air travel. If the salient suggestions of his two efforts--one a commission focused on airline safety and security, the other his reinventing-government initiaitve that sought to reform the relevant bureacracies (including the FAA)--had been put into effect, the United States would have been less vulnerable to Atta and his colleagues. The Gore commissions recommendations--high tech baggage screening for explosives and better training for screeners--are now mandatory. But at the time, they were undercut by airline lobbyists and Republican congressmen. Even more controversial (and potentially valuable) were the commision's recommendations for passenger screening, which, a former Gore aide involved in both studies told me, were killed by Democratic congressmen and the American Civil Liberties Union. Other ideas--for protective devices in cockpits and sky marshals--were shelved by the commission when it became clear they too would be politically impossible. (Even The New Republic doubted their value.) Some of the Gore recommendations were put into effect within a week after September 11, but not all."

---

Here is the now declassified August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing.

Al Gore was an extremely proactive Vice President, engaged more substantially in the work of governing than any previous Vice President in memory, if not longer. It is a fair guess that he would have appointed a National Security Adviser similarly averse to passivity. Gore was also known for drawing connections between obscure pieces of information, and seeing their importance even when it was not obvious to many other politicans--hence his work on the internet. It seems highly likely that if the PDB above had crossed his desk on August 6, he would certainly have remembered the recommendations of his own commission. A workaholic President Gore would probably not have taken a month-long vacation---and would have done his best to use this new intelligence and his status as President as leverage in implementing measures he could not push through as Vice President.

---

---

The same issue of The New Republic has an interesting piece by Franklin Foer (subscriber's link) called Teenage Wasteland, describing the means by which John Kerry managed to offend the moneyed majority at his Episcopalian boarding school, St. Pauls (which he attended because of a childless aunt's charity.):

"Kerry responded strongly to his outsider status, compensating for it by working hard and intensely craving success. . . Unfortunately for Kerry, his boarding school comrades regarded ambitions as a cardinal sin . . .Where most of his colleagues viewed admission to Harvard and Yale as a fait accompli, Kerry stressed over his collegiate future. . . .Achievement wasn't frowned upon. But you were supposed to downplay your accomplishments, to make them look effortless. . .So, instead of winning him respect, Kerry's hard work earned him the derision of his classmates. . . .How then to explain the preppy hatred for Kerry? In part, the answer has to do with the changing times. During the late '50s and early '60s, the blue bloods' grip on power was coming to an end. For a long time, St. Paul's and the other New England boarding schools were the Ivy League's main pipeline. Every year, St. Paul's sent about half its class to Harvard and Yale. By the end of the '60s with the introduction of the SAT and a new democratic spirit in the admissions offices, that era of dominace had ended. As William F. Buckley lamented in a 1968 Atlantic piece, "You will laugh, but it is true that a Mexican-American from El Paso High with identical scores on the achievement tests, and identically ardent recommendations from the head-master, has a better chance of being admitted to Yale than Jonathan Edwards the Sixteenth from St. Paul's School." With his hardworking style, Kerry represented the new meritocratic ethic, where success wouldn't depend on blood and charm but the earnest accumulation of achievements. Of course, Kerry may simply not have been very likeable. But, at least in part, Kerry was hated because he embodied the emerging reality that the old insular world could no longer be so insular.
Strangely, the decline of the New England boarding school's prestige has hardly diminished their capacity for producing politicans . . .During his campaign for Kerry's Senate seat, Weld famously jumped into the Charles River, highlighting his devil-may-care attitude toward politics. . .The media actually wants Kerry to become more patrician, not less; to discover his inner WASP, and to adopt a carefree attitude."

---

From James Perry's review of Douglas Brinkley's book "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War" in the April issue of Washington Monthly:

"In spite of the danger and madness of the mission, Kerry in many ways loved the experience. He was a product of an elite boarding school (St. Paul's) and an elite university (Yale). In his entire life,* he had never mingled with such a collection of working-class Americans. The men who served with him came to admire, respect, and in time, from all indications, love him. They show up with him now on the stump, and their presence animates him. They do represent a band of brothers, and that speaks volumes for his character."

---

And now for a dose for the kind of self-important "look-at-me-as-I-buck-conventional-wisdom" cliched commentary we are in for, in waves, courtesy of Anthony Swofford in the April Issue of Details Magazine:

"If George W. Bush Spent one political season in Alabama ditching his National Guard duty, canvassing door-to-door 11 weekends and two weeks that year rather than twiddling his thumbs at a reserve base, who cares? Democrats rightfully cried foul when the Republican hyenas wanted to know the exact location of Bill Clinton's penis on various dates tduring thelate 1990s. So why must the Democrats now attempt to skewer Bush on a similarly benign issue? Bush's National Guard duty is superficial because was stateside Guard duty. He'd already dodged Vietnam thanks to his father's influence. That the affluent of this country do not fight its wars should be news to no one.
A mentor and close friend of mine avoided Vietnam by enrolling in graduate school. I am happy that my friend di not go to Vietnam and die or suffer a horrible injury. He did more important work than running jungle patrols and sitting ambush with a Claymore in his hands. . . .
By all accounts, John Kerry was a brave and selfless soldier on the muddy and deadly rivers of Vietnam. But the important questions about his political fitness will not be answered by the injured Green Beret he pulled from the bullet-thick currents. Nor will George W. Bush's presidential aptitude be buttressed by accounts of his days spent reading aircraft-safety manuals on a base in Alabama. Both men must prove to the electorate that they are capable of leading our country during war and peace . . .
That John Kerry led combat river patrols in Vietnam while George Bush led fight songs during his tenure as a Yale cheerleader maybe interesting--the latter even downright amusing. It's also wholly unimportant."

---

I recall that in the 2000 Democratic convention, Tipper Gore narrated a slideshow biography of her husband's life, and when she got to the war she paused to add, pointedly, "which we opposed," before continuing. A commentator remarked that this single phrase pointed out that the Gores were the kind of people who, even as college students, thought deeply about national politics and issues of national security and developed opinions on them--and that a similar slideshow of George W. Bush's life at the time would be rather vapid.

Let me count the ways in which Details gets it wrong and Washington Monthly gets it right.
1) First of all, any proof that GWB spent his campaigning time canvassing door to door?
2) Secondly, the Guardsmen who today face years in jail for running away from a war that has killed at least 363 of them. If the allegations are true, Bush has never suffered any penalty for running away from benign flying duty.
3) This, as are most, comparisons between Bush's character crimes and Clinton's are incredibly disingenuous and idiotic. Clinton never went about enacting policy that affected other people's sex lives. (Well, he did sign the DOMA, but that more accurately affected people's domestic lives.) Bush has enacted policy that very much affects peoples live's in the military. Therefore his life in the military is a bit more relevant.
4) Yes, many people dodged the draft to go to graduate school, including Clinton. Their time is, indeed, well accounted for if you believe, as John Kerry did, that the war was a colossal mistake and waste. The time of George Bush, however, is not.
5) It is not simply a matter of saying, "Ah well, one man chose to ride out this colossal waste of life in one manner and another man chose to ride it in another." If this were any other job, and we were looking these men's resumes, we would want to know what skills and propensities and types of character they had displayed in these formative years of their lives. Even reserving judgement about the politics of Vietnam and draft-dodging, the fact is very simple. John Kerry showed himself to be competent, intelligent and brave, capable of thinking on his feet, and winning over and leading a band of men who were not totally loaded down with a prepackaged, inherited set of prejudices against him. These are all highly transferable skills. George Bush has almost nothing to show for the analagous years in his life.

Yet I am afraid we are in for more of this superficial analyses and easy dismissal of hard work and intelligence. The Washington Monthly article (and presumably Brinkley's book) is quite astonishing, painting as it does a portrait of a man younger than me thinking and reading deeply in the most adverse conditions, and writing to his parents, about philosophy, war, strategy, and international politics. For some crazy reason we as a nation seem incapable of even guessing that a lifetime of hard work and intellectual engagement might actually be useful in the man who acts as commander-in-chief, and is responsible for integrating information from sources like, say, Presidential Daily Briefings, and deciding how to act on them. Unlike the snooty St. Paul's crowd and its misguided admirers, I, for one, desperately want a man in charge who is not afraid of trying hard and working hard, and who has shown that throughout his life. I, for one, desperately want the man who reads those daily intelligence briefings not to have a devil-may-care attitude towards politics. I want the man in charge to instill in his underlings a sense of fiery earnestness and initiative. I want someone who will lead his staff by example, such that his secretaries and advisers won't need scapegoats to blame for not making recommendations. If we can't convince our fellow Americans that this it is in our dire best interests to find the man who best fits that description, and put him in charge, then I worry very much about what future disasters lie ahead.

I also feel that reason and evidence clearly show that there will be a great difference between a man who has spent his life thinking about issues of national security and working hard on them, and a man who has not. Take a look around this world today, and considering nothing else but skillsets, as if you were simply hiring a businessman or an administrator, ask yourself honestly if there is no difference between Al Gore and George Bush. Keep the answer to that question in mind if someone tries to tell you that there is no difference between John Kerry and George Bush.

---

* Regarding Kerry's "elite" background and the novelty of his exposure to working-class men: Even liberals generally only apply the elite label to liberals---George Bush's background is equally elite (Andover and Yale), and less meritocratic. I haven't read Douglas Brinkley's book, but it seems possible that he did not detail Kerry's pre-college years yet, because I think Perry is wrong in this assertion that Kerry had never before associated with working-class people. From Foer's article:
"While his classmates summer in Europe (or even took private jets to the Continent for long weekends), Kerry spent his breaks working as a Teamster in Somerville, Massachussetts, for the First National Stores, loading food onto trucks."

Some beautiful entries in PhotographyBlog of pictures of Tenerife:


Santa Cruz Docks

Santa Cruz Centre

Mountain Village

Northern Coastline

Northern Coastline, Part II

That fine, fine music

Then one fine mornin' she puts on a New York station
She don't believe what she heard at all
She started dancin' to that fine fine music
You know her life was saved by Rock 'n' Roll
Despite all the computations
You could just dance to a rock 'n ' roll station
And it was alright.--The Velvet Underground, "Rock and Roll"

Just got back from the New York City launch of Concerts for Kerry, music fundraisers for his presidential campaign. I actually went mainly because I've missed every other post-tour NYC concert by Bishop Allen, the Brooklyn-based band I blogged about way back in October. (Seems like a lifetime ago.) I've also been looking for a chance to see the venue, the legendary Knitting Factory, which I've wanted to experience ever since I read about John Zorn's historic histrionics there.

It is a very inviting space, though the stage seemed a little crammed, especially when the orchestral pop band Silent League came on with 8 or 9 players. An unscheduled singer (Rachel?) and her two acousitic guitarists opened, followed by the pounding, ferociously tight rock band The Head Set. These guys had tension bordering on fury, and singer & guitarist Jordan Blaugrund looked, danced, and belted out their songs in perfect, barely-contained rock star character. Despite being smartly dressed in a sports coat, he reminded me of this photograph of Iggy Pop, one of my favorite black and white portraits of all time. I definitely hope to catch their next show at The Luna Lounge on May 7. I picked up their CD, Ask Her Twice, for a cool $5, and while it sounds good, I definitely think they're better live. It might also help to have real speakers--I'll have to wait until I go home to a non-computer-speakers stereo system.

They were followed by Silent League, which had an hard time setting up on the small stage, and then some initial sound problems. At first, what with the delays and their multilayered sound (they had two keyboards, two to three guitars, a trumpet player, an electronic violin, and a saxaphonist who moonlighted with some sort of electric bells), they seemed just a little tame after The Head Set. But singer/keyboardist Justin Russo was able to carry them from breathy piano ballads to enormous harmonic crescendos that surrounded one like a hurricane of music. I have a feeling that unlike The Head Set Bishop Allen, Silent League might be even better recorded than live, and hope I can catch them at the Pussycat Lounge on April 22.

And then came Bishop Allen. A lot has happened since I last saw them at the Mercury Lounge---they've completed the incredibly long Support the Thunder tour, and I've gained much more of a sensibility for small-venue rock shows, as well as spent the intervening months rocking out to their Charm School CD. So I'm not sure what the difference was, but they were simply excellent. This despite Christian Rudder having some sort of tuning problem followed by his strap breaking. If anything, the mishaps added a touch of endearing charm to their blaring charisma.

They definitely rock harder and have a really confident stage presence now---lead singer Justin Rice pranced in leaps and bounds in between guitarist Christian Rudder and bassist C.O. while behind Jack Delimitraux danced large, seated at the drums. I don't know how Rice managed not to get tangled up in the wires, and I can't think of anything to compare his dancing style to, but I'd love to see him cut completely loose in a club one day. I was standing pretty near the stage, in front of C.O., and I was absolutely struck by her carriage. She danced with her shoulders in a way that was very appealing to me as a Bharat Natyam dancer, and managed to look both casual and glamorous in a purple polo, a wide cream-colored belt, jeans and Catwoman boots. While she probably actually moved the least of the four, something about her outfit and stamping out the rhythm really made me want to dance.

And I did, along with most of the rest of the audience I could see---something that even The Headset's intense pounding couldn't elicit. It might have also been the caused by the sheer joy and mutual affection that radiated from all four musicians, and especially from Rudder. He broke out into the widest, most earnest grin with each of Rice's crescendos or the lines he shares with C.O. as if he was singing an old favorite for the first time in years. Calling him and C.O. back-up vocalists seems insulting, really. C.O., especially---every now and then she dropped a breathy little line into a song like icing onto a cake.

Even when they were singing about ghosts and black aches and break ups, their skill and enthusiasm painted grins on most everyone's faces. Something I love about Bishop Allen is their songwriting -- lyrics you can sing along with that are anything but cliche -- and I think I wasn't the only one who was singing along. (Well, I was mouthing along, since I wouldn't unnecessarily inflict my singing on innocent bystanders even while drowning in an amped up band.) Their sound check was a really amusing mini-song where Rice sang "check check check" which I hope they record sometime. They played about three or four more songs, one of which sounded like a partial homage to the wonderful Velvet Underground song Rock and Roll. I can't wait for them to record another CD, but in the mean time, I hope to catch them at The Tank on May 8. Afterwards, Rudder said some of their new T-shirts should be available on their website in about a week.

Henry Kissinger and Foreign Policy

So I saw Henry Kissinger last night. I can't blog anything specific about it because it was off the record. But it wasn't very exciting anyway. The discussion afterwards with David Westin, President of ABC News, was much more interesting and dynamic. I don't know why some public speaker type events are so juicy and others are so dry. I can't imagine that Kissinger, whatever his other faults are, lacks in the ability to conduct a dynamic meeting.

I need to learn more about foreign policy, national security, and economics though. I'm reading Daniel Ellsberg's Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and, obviously, Christopher Hitchens' The Trial of Henry Kissinger. My reading list in this field is pretty long though. I wish there were book groups about these kinds of books the way there are book groups for novels.

I had dinner the night before last with an old friend from Athenian, and we were reminiscing on the kind of reading that our American history teachers Phil Garone and Carl Fredricksen gave us as sophomores in high school---Leon Litwack was our base text (the same book that they use at Berkeley for American history), and we were routinely assigned chunks of books like Eugene Genovese's Roll Jordan Roll or Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It never occured to us that we wouldn't be able to do the reading because it was above our heads--we were expected to do it, so we did. Honestly, I haven't had that level of multi-pronged engagement with nitty gritty issues of modern policy, history, and economics since high school. This was partly my fault for taking mainly Classics in college (for American cultures I took religious studies, and for International studies I took an course in 19th century diplomacy), but also because the big lecture followed by intensive office hours model that worked so well for me in physics doesn't really do much for me in these kinds of fields. I need the seminar style, the thorough and careful discussion of one book at a time. Actually, I know I could have found those kinds of courses at Berkeley if I had looked hard enough, without having to go through the gatekeeper classes, but there just wasn't time in four years what with physics, Classics, and biology. I've said it before, and I'll say it again---a Berkeley education really should take 5 years.

Right now I'm so amazed at what I'm reading I feel like I could easily enjoy another year of upper division or masters level course work in international relations and public policy, but who knows, the feeling might pass.

"Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it." ---William Penn

From the Trial of Henry Kissinger, by Christopher Hitchens: Chapter 4, "Bangladesh: One Genocide, One Coup, and One Assasination."

----------------------
"By 1971, the word 'genocide' was all too easily understood. It surfaced in a cable of protest from the United States consulate in what was then East Pakistan--the Bengali 'wing' of the Muslim state of Pakistan, known to its restive nationalist inhabitants by the name of Bangladesh. The cable was written on 6 April 1971 and its senior signatory, the Consul General in Dacca, was named Archer Blood. But it might have become known as the Blood Telegram in any case. Also sent directly to Washington, it differed from Morgenthau's document [informing the USA in 1915 of the 'race murder' of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey] in one respect. It was not so much reporting on genocide as denouncing the complicity of the United States government in genocide. Its main section read thus:

Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pak[istan] dominated government and to lessen any deservedly negative international public relations impact against them. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy, ironically at a time when the USSR sent President Yahya Khan defending democracy, condemning the arrest of a leader of a democratically-elected majority party, incidentally pro-West, and calling for an end to repressive measures and bloodshed . . . .But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state. Private Americans have expressed disgust. We, as professional civil servants, express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected.

This was signed by twenty members of the United States diplomatic team in Bangladesh and, on its arrival at the State Department, by a further nine senior officers in the South Asia division. It was the most public and the most strongly worded demarche from State Department servants to the State Department that has ever been recorded.
. . .
On 25 March, the Pakistani army struck at the Bengali capital of Dacca. Having arrested and kidnapped Rahman, and taken him to West Pakistan, it set about massacring his supporters. The foreign press had been preemptively expelled from the city, but much of the direct evidence of what then happened was provided via radio transmitter operated by the United States consulate. Archer Blood himself supplied an account of one episode directly to the State Department and to Henry Kissinger's National Security Council. Having readied the ambush, Pakistani regular soldiers set fire to the women's dormitory at the university , and then mowed the occupants down with machine guns as they sought to escape. (The guns, along with all the other weaponry, had been furnished under United States military assistance programs.)
. . .
Within a short time, Ambassador Kenneth Keating, the ranking United States diplomat in New Delhi, had added his voice to those of the dissenters. It was a time, he told Washington, when a principled stand against the authors of this aggression and atrocity would also make the best pragmatic sense. Keating, a former senator from New York, used a very suggestive phrase in his cable of 29 March 1971, callling on the administration to Promptly, publicly, and prominently deplore this brutality' It was ' most important these actions be taken now,' he warned, 'prior to inevitable and imminent emergence of horrible truths.'
Nixon and Kissinger acted quickly. That is to say, Archer Blood was immediately recalled from his post, and Ambassador Keating was described by the President to Kissinger, with some contempt, as having been 'taken over by the Indians' In late April 1971 at the very height of the mass murder, Kissinger sent a message to General Yahya Khan, 'thanking him for his delicacy and tact.' "

----------------------------------
(end of quote from Hitchens' book.)

“Our word idiot comes from the Greek name for a man who took no share in public matters.”

Pulitzer Prizes: Anticlimactic Moment of the Year Award

I thought the absolute lack of event that was handing in my master's project could not be topped, but watching the announcement (or lack thereof) of America's premier journalism awards has succeeded by leaps and bounds. Professor Gissler didn't even read the awards out, he just told the room of reporters that they would be handed packets. The packerts are just regular blue folders with a printed sticker stuck on top; not even embossed with a Columbia seal. The official website should be updated momentarily.

In the meantime I can tell you that the New York Times won in public service for the work of Barstow and Bergman in examining "death and injury among American workers," the LA Times won in breaking news for covering the Southern California wildfires, Toledo's The Blade won for covering Vietnam War atrocities by the Tiger Force, the Wall Street Journal won in explanatory journalism for its coverage of aneurysms and in beat reporting for stories on preferential college admissions, the LA Times won in national reporting for coverage of Wal-Mart, the Washington Post won in International reporting for covering the "voices and emotions of Iraquis as their country was invaded, their leader topped and their way of life upended." There was no award made for feature writing, and Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald wond for commentary. I'll have to check out the Pulitzer prize winning novel, "The Known World, " by Edward P. Jones---never heard of it.

Something, real or dream, went bump in the night and now I can't sleep again. Appropriately I found a nicely informative and yet still complex review of Hellboy by Slate's David Edelstein:

"Good superhero movies--from the first Batman (1989) to X-Men (2000)--are like superhero comics, in that they come from a distinct emotional place: that feeling of adolescent outsiderness that drives kids to live through . . .superhero comics. They inspire so many geeks (and geeks-at-heart) because they're about turning one's freakishness into an asset, making it a source of power and connection."

I definitely want to see this movie--along with about ten others. I just hope they last on the big screen past graduation, when I'll have some time.

An interesting Salon.com article about friendly fire, by David Morris. I don't understand how $180 Million wasn't enough to create and deploy an anti-fratricide system. In this age of encryption and GPS technology, it seems like outfitting every soldier with an encrypted GPS communicator that only the Air Force can read would be a fairly cheap and simple way of revealing their positions to our bombers and only our bombers. You could hook it up to their heart beat so that it would be useless if they were killed. People buy GPS watches for their kids. How much could this possibly cost per soldier?

FromToday's Papers, by Michael Brus--on the increase in job growth this month:

The WP and LAT both note, far down, that the number of part-time workers increased from 4.4 million to 4.7 million. An economist quoted elsewhere in those articles, Sung Won Sohn of Wells Fargo, notices in his online report what none of the papers do: Those part-time gains account for most of the 308,000 jobs.

Gee, you'd think that would be important information to point out. The second sentence does seem obvious from the first sentence, but economic numbers are confusing enough to most people without opaque reporting.

This Thorax Cake from They're Coming To Get You, Barbara, a horror movie reviewing website by two Barbaras, manages to be both incredibly gross looking and delicious sounding at the same time. And I say this as an adamant vegetarian. I guess watching so many horror movie makes one's stomach ironclad.

ThisAP Investigative story by Allen Breed and Martha Mendoza, about how property developers are getting breaks on property taxes intended for farmers is absolutely amazing.

And we're live:NYC24: Scavenging---with particular reference to fashion.

AuroraWebcam.com - a page about the Aurora borealis - a.k.a.The Northern Lights looks really cool.

Birds are strange, and so are women . . .

Once again, I find myself wondering if it's entirely too early to be at the Journalism School, or entirely too late. The birds are chipper at chorale practice, tweeting away on window ledges behind me.

Very Big Blog by Jen Segrest stuck me as well designed.

Scott just reminded me about The Sneeze, an infrequent and goofy blog. Its humor is not for everyone, but if you have a strong stomach and a high tolerance for profanity, it can be very funny. Don't read Steve Don't Eat it! when you're about to eat, but it will give you a nice appreciation for fresh fruits and vegetables later. This other entry is one of my favorites.

Hmm, before I forget, I want to mention quickly what I think would be a brilliant set of moves for an elected (and inaugurated) John Kerry. Because the Clinton-Gore team was so young, we have an unprecendented number of high level statesmen sort of just sitting around, working for corporate boards and foundations. We could still use them in public office. If John Kerry is self-confident enough to run his own White House even with these talented people underfoot, he could draft them back. That includes some of the people he ran against. Unlike most, I say leave John Edwards alone--the Democrats need him in the Senate. But how about Howard Dean or Bill Bradley for Secretary of Health and Human Services? Dick Gephardt for Secretary of Labor? Bill Clinton for Secretary of State? I'm not saying this should definitely happen, I'm just saying--let's think out of the box.

[insert images of Saheli scheming here] How to get my resume to Al Gore, new owner of digital cable channel Newsworld International . . .

The Medacity Index from the The Washington Monthly looks at some key fibs from our last four presidents. While I don't give much importance to actual digits gleaned from such small number statistics, the list itself is an interesting walk down memory lane, with such notable stunts as President George Bush Sr.'s Drugs from Lafayette Park and this great quote from Ronald Reagan:
"A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."

Someone sent me this story about how the outgoing Spanish Defence Minister, Federico Trillo, and the incoming one, Jose Luis Fernandez, have together decided to increase the number of troops they have in Afghanistan while decreasing the number in Iraq. They linked it with the sentence, "Spain decides to fight terrorism where the terrorists are." What a concept.

Superman and Seinfeld!!!

This is da bomb. The shiznit. The right stuff. Fabuloso. Really awesome. Very, very cool. I wish I didn't have an American Express card just so I could apply for one just to let them know how much I love this website. I'll calm down soon. I'm a sucker for anything Superman.

And we have another addition to the list of morons this morning. This is the man who has nothing better to do than spoil what little unspoiled environment we still have, by painting an iceberg red.

""We all have a need to decorate Mother Nature because it belongs to all us," Danish artist Marco Evaristti said Thursday. "This is my iceberg; it belongs to me.""

Grumble, grumble --- I liked the old look better!

So I guess the search engine wars have begun in earnest. Google's redesign is just part of a whole package of changes that was released today, and Microsoft has announced it's getting into the blog game.

Idiots. That's all I have to say about National People's Action storming Karl Rove's front yard.

Hey! Google looks. . .different!?! The tabs are gone! Ruchira!

Virus Smackdown!

Wow. Check out this New Scientist article by Phillip Cohen: Being coinfected with a Hepatitis-c like virus called GBV-C may actually help people infected with HIV fight off AIDs, according to a recent study from The New England Journal of Medicine authored by Jack Stapleton of the University of Iowa and colleagues.

"Those results suggest GBV-C infection is as powerful a protective agent against HIV as some genetic factors that have been linked to slow progression of AIDS. Exactly how GBV-C can accomplish this is not clear.

Stapleton says some tantalising hints will be revealed by experiments his team has conducted in which the two viruses compete for infection in a test tube. They hope to publish that data in the next few months. "

Great blog-essay on Richard Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 commission by Scott Rosenberg:

"The stonewalling of responsibility has made it impossible for the nation to figure out what went wrong and make the changes we need to insure it never happens again."

Note to my readers about loading problems

If, when you load, "It sort of stops after about two screens worth. As though that were the end of the page," you can try hitting refresh again. I'm not sure what is causing this. Please let me know if this doesn't work. Thanks!

Talking Points Memo finds another gem of unintentional Republican humor.

Found in Translation

I came across the following links recently, and I wanted to talk about them because translation and translators are near and dear to my heart. Well, one translator in particular, but I'd be happy to make friends with more.

Words Without Borders: MARCH 2004 is an online magazine that "undertakes to promote international communication through translation of the world's best writing--selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals--and publishing and promoting these works (or excerpts) on the web. [They] also serve as an advocacy organization for literature in translation, producing events that feature the work of foreign writers and connecting these writers to universities and to print and broadcast media."

Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan and blogger about events in the Middle East, has recently started a projected called The Global Americana Institute, the main goal of which will be to translate the classics of American literature into Arabic. This reminded me of Salon article that came out last year, more of an essay, really about how books inspire violence. It tangentially mentioned the apparently unsubstantiated theory that OBL was inspired by Asimov's Foundation series, since Al Qaeda means The Foundation in Arabic. While that seems highly unlikely, it is interesting to speculate what a cross pollination of literature might mean to bastions of the two languages.

Blogalization is an index of blogs which are in more than one language--the idea being that the blogger finds information in one language and posts it in another. At the Gawker talk SPJ had earlier this year, Jeff Jarvis of Conde Nast told me that after English, the biggest blogging language is Persian. The opening session of the Chinese parliament apparently prompted the government to shut down Blogbus.com and its 15,000 blogs, the biggest provider in the People's Republic. Multilingual blogging is a big deal.

With no linguistic training or real sense of evidence, I have to say I believe in an extremely weak form of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis--i.e., that it is definitely easier to think certain thoughts in some languages than in others. I do not, however, think that translation is impossible--only that it is difficult. All the more reason to support it and celebrate it. As humans, of course, we are divided into many groups. The pain and suffering caused by our divisions is readily apparent. The solution is not to retreat into our different groups, nor is it to attempt to homogenize them into a bland sort of unity. Translators and translations, and learning different languages, allow us to jump borders and dip into many pools, to crosslink our groups in a net of understanding and connection that can, potentially, defy sectarianism without sacrificing pluralism or flavor. Cross pollination is a grand thing--to cite a quote a friend sent me a couple days ago:

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935)

Pandasthumb.org featured a book review today from the president of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, and organization I had never heard of. Generally, I shy away from such things, since I like to think of religion and science operating on mainly orthogonal planes. Intelligent Design is a perfect example of what can go wrong when people start mixing the two at an institutional level. But since IRAS seems to be coming out swinging against that, and since it's an affiliate society of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I'm considerably less suspicious and considerably more intrigued.

Go, stranger, and tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedience to their laws.

I just came across this organization,Spirit of America, which collects money and supplies to help American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in their informal, self-initiated projects to make friends with the local people, and help rebuild the communities that they are occupying on our behalf.

It goes without saying that I'm not in a position to investigate or report on the realities of these projects, nor am I able to report on the efficacy of this organization. Hopefully a little later I'll have time to google a bit more, and see what I can learn about this. If you know anything, please comment! But in the mean time I wanted to put it out here, because if it is what it appears to be, it's a very good thing. And assuming it is what it appears to be, I'd like to comment a bit on why it's a very good thing.

I was against the American invasion of Iraq, though not against the military push in Afghanistan. My main problem with the current occupation, given the irrevocable realities of the past year, is not that it exists, but that it is still being lead by an administration whose philosophy and modus operandi have not changed. My guess is that this philosophy, inasmuch as I understand it, is innately harmful to efficiency, national and international security, and our future foreign relations. See the post below about the Department of Homeland Security. Indeed, my biggest reason for being against the war in Iraq was the lamentable position we had left Afghanistan in.

If we are going to go into a country and take down their leadership, then I think we have a moral obligation and more importantly a fundamental national interest in making sure that we do the best possible job to make that country as stable and and as prosperous as possible. We have a moral interest and a fundamental national interest in doing as much as possible to sincerely make real friends with the people we have bombed and occupied. We cannot just turn back the clock on a political mistake we disagreed with; we must actually fix it. To cut and run now, as many anti-war activists are suggesting we do, is not just irresponsible to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is irresponsible to our own future.

I'm not a pacifist, and I have the utmost respect and admiration for my fellow citizens who have decided, in some sense, to submit their individual liberty to the will of the republic, for the good of the republic. These are the people who make it possible to defend the republic, and who make it possible for writers like me to even formulate moral or national security obligations like the one above. As soldiers, they are beholden to the policies and representatives and executives and judges voted in by the rest of us. (Yes, they get to vote, but there are far fewer of them than there are of us civilians.) Our founding-fathers went through great pains to make it difficult for the military to dominate the country, thank goodness, but the flip side of that is that its rank and file are dependant on the rest of us to look after them. Like the Spartan soldiers who died at Thermopylae, their lives lie in obedience to our collective political will.

Stribley had a post a few weeks ago about conscientious objectors:
"In order to be a conscientious objector, you apparently have to declare that you're against fighting in all wars. So what happens if you go to war in Iraq, for example, and decide, 'You know what, this isn't right. I could defend my homeland against foreign invaders. But I just don't think this pre-emptive stuff is right anymore. Plus I'm seeing a lot of innocents killed here. Nope, just can't do it anymore.'
Guess what? You can't claim to be a conscientious objector. Guess the idea is your country wouldn't go to war without good reason. So you're either for serving in all or none."

I understand why this is so, though I sympathize greatly with any soldier who is suddenly convinced he is killing and "dying for a mistake." A basic necessity in having a military is having one that is obedient. In my comments I quoted from the Charge of the Light Brigade:

"Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred."
--Tennyson

That is why the act of dissent and of intelligently questioning a war is one of the most patriotic things that a civilian can do. If we will not make sure that the wars our fellow citizens (my friends and schoolchums! the loved ones of my loved ones!) are going to be asked to die in, and to kill in are just and well-run, then who will? (Let us not forget what it means to ask someone to kill for us.) The soldiers, generally, cannot. Questioning a war's intent or execution is not the same as questioning the ability or dedication of the troops, or being unsupportive of the fact that they have to follow orders in the vast majority of cases. I can support the troops without supporting the strategic philosophy they are being used to implement, and one of the best ways to do this is to support their individual efforts abroad.

Unfortunately too many commentators only pay lipservice to that idea, and their tone and rhetoric make it clear to the average citizen trying to piece toegether a position that they really don't support the troops all that much. We aren't logical creatures, and when we're trying to decide what we think, we often end up trying to decide whom we agree with instead, or whom we like. It is vital to make it clear that patriotic dissent and supporting the troops go hand-in-hand, and what more agreeable arena to do it in than this? If we really want to change the way America is perceived abroad, it's not enough to criticize those currently and officially in charge of doing that. We also have to work at it ourselves.

Just discovered an interesting blog called the american street. Today's entry is priceless--a heads up about Businessweek and Harper's articles which describes the Department of Homeland Security's priorities pretty well. Turns out CEO's have a secure, directl line to Tom Ridge and DHS, but not first responders, doctor, governors, or public utitilities.

I've decided I like the word polyblog to describe blogs that regularly get contributions from more than one (preferably more than two) people.

The Panda's Thumb is a new multi-contributor blog about evolution. While the comments are already laced with a bit of the vitriol I would like to see purged from this kind of discussion, this is definitely a blog to keep an eye on. The multi-scholar or multi-scientist blog (see Crooked Timber) strikes me as a great way to move Academe out into wider society.

The Blogger formerly known as Calpundit points out that Tom Delay might have to step down temporarily as Majority Leader if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury of campaign finance violations. I didn't even know a grand jury was considering charges. The mind reels at the possibilities, and mentally reaches for music and heels and a fancy dress . . .

Ah, the shining sea.

This story aboutBob Edwards being ousted from the position of hosting NPR's Morning Edition made me sad. It's been a while since I listened to Morning Edition, but even if the show does need some refreshing I don't see why they couldn't wait until November's 25th anniversary celebrations. I like NPR partially because it's tasteful and civil, and this doesn't seem very tasteful.

What a lead. Once again, from Slate. The best line is the third. Hugo Mialon sounds like a very interesting scholar, and between the sex, the money, and the constitutional law, Landsburg makes me wonder if I should go for more degrees after all.

GO BEARS! LBNL's Particle Data Group makes Dave Barry's Blog. I think they just wanted to have an entry for the How Berkeley Can You Be? Parade.

And now, apparently, you can go back and comment on my entire blog if you want. I'm sure that's exactly what you want to do. Oy.

Oh, how I wish I could get out of the City and into the countryside. Not until April 2036 will we be able to see all five planets visible to the naked eye.

As a test, I'm going to try turning on comments, thanks to Haloscan. Don't be alarmed if they disappear as suddenly as they appeared. Comment away!

UPDATE: I screwed up the way I originally did comments, but I'm leaving the extra one here since someone actually used it.

|

You are a human shadow. If a loved one needs you,
you are always right at his or her heels! Your
deep social connection with human beings
produces your qualities of genuine caring and
charisma. However, at times you are naive to
the true nature of your loved ones. Remember
that humans' gift of free will does not always
lead them in wise directions. But your essence
of love and friendship represent the other
precious gifts of humanity. Overall you are a
strikingly valuable and innocent being who has
a lot to give.


What Kind of Shadow Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Update: I got rid of the picture of the Anime Chick because it was an external link which I think was slowing down the loading.)

In the so funny it makes me want to cry department:

An article from The Onion: Raving Lunatic Obviously Took Some Advanced Physics.

It's funny, except it's not, because it's probably true, somewhere.
A lot of homeless people are mentally ill, and lot of them are probably perfectly smart and once had bright and promising careers. "There, but for the grace of God, go I" is the sincere sentiment rarely expressed in these kinds of situations--the humility and compassion necessary for that sentiment is usually subsumed in horror and fear. In reaction to that horror and fear we make jokes.

I'm not remotely complaining about The Onion piece; on the contrary I think this kind of dark back-handed humor is what they do best--it will, hopefully, make someone, somwhere think about the reality of the mentally ill when they're done laughing.

Nifty: GasBuddy Organization Inc - Find cheap gas prices in your city.

Selective Service preparing for a hypothetical special draft of young men with computer science and foreign language skills.

This article from SFGate (well, from Hearst papers), courtesy of Nick, seems like it merits further attention from somebody. I certainly know a lot of young men who fall into this category.
No wonder they're considering a draft. They kicked out perfectly skilled and willing people just because they're gay.

This article about flexitarians, "vegetarians" who actually eat meat and meat eaters who mostly eat vegetarian, was heartening in that it pointed to a decrease in meat consumption. People eating less meat and being open to vegetarian protein sources is always going to make me happy. But I'm not too thrilled about people calling themselves vegetarians when they're willing to cheat. I prefer the way most of my friends deal with it--if they're not willing to give up the meat, they don't call themselves vegetarians, and just decrease their meat-intake without all the labeling. Why does this matter? Because for a vegetarian like me, who basically cannot make exceptions, the idea that vegetarians can pick and choose the times they eat vegetarian is not helpful. I have a hard enough time convincing people of my need to be vegetarian without flexitarians muddying up the waters. But it probably won't be much of an issue. I also don't like the idea of, say, Vegetarian Times eventually including meaty recipes. I go to magazines like that so I don't have to read recipes with meat in them. But overall I'm glad people are eating less meat, period.

Just got my copy of this week's Newsweek, featuring the article American Masala about how we desis are making our mark in the United States. The hardcopy version has more pictures and a list of "people you should know about," one of whom is Columbia's own Sree. Viva! Oh, I mean, uh, Jai!

Wow. G.I. seeks conscientious objector status. Man grappling with his conscience. I wish I could interview that guy.

A beautiful photograph of spring in Kashmir, courtesy of Nick.

The Pain of Homecomeing

Well, it's good to be home for a bit. But it's getting increasingly difficult to land without getting all bleary eyed and weepy from the excruciating ear pain, particularly when I'm already a bit tired. So while Cirrus Earplanes are better than nothing, please let me know if you know of any other solution.

Student Press Freedom & Discretion

Thisstory about a Long Island University student paper that published the bad grades of the resigning Student body president raises a number of interesting issues. Back home in Berkeley, I think the editors of the Daily Cal would laugh at the notion of having a faculty advisor--or the notion that the University had any relationship other than landlord to its offices in Eshelman Hall. The Daily Cal declared independence from the University in 1971, after the University attempted to fire three senior editors for daring to write an editorial supportive of student plans to reclaim people's park. While it may have had a motley record since then, I think the ideal of full fiscal independence from the university you're covering is pretty good.

But don't students enjoy the full protection of the first amendment? I must say I'm not quite sure, and am suspicious of my first gut reaction--"of course!"--in case it reflects my own super liberal education. At my college preparatory high school, when I restarted the "newspaper" (it ended up being more of a literary zine) I remember that the faculty advisor, the impassioned Carl Fredricksen, put essay after essay on the necessity on student free speech in my box, with FIRST AMENDMENT! scrawled across the top in his strident handwriting. Considering some of the things I ended up publishing (shudder), I can emphatically say that censored I was not.

According to the Student Press Law Center's FAQ on high school press:

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, gave public high school officials greater authority to censor some school-sponsored student publications if they chose to do so. But the ruling doesn't apply to publications that have been opened as "public forums for student expression." It also requires school officials to demonstrate some reasonable educational justification before they can censor anything. In addition, some states (currently Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas and Massachusetts) have passed laws that give students much stronger free expression protection than Hazelwood. Other states are considering such laws.

From their FAQ on college press:

Q: But if school officials or student governments fund a student publication, radio or television station, can't they censor it like any other publisher or owner could?
A: Not at a public school. The courts have ruled that if a school creates a student news or information medium and allows students to serve as editors, the First Amendment drastically limits the school's ability to censor. Among the censoring actions the courts have prohibited are confiscating copies of publications, requiring prior review, removing objectional material, limiting circulation, suspending editors and withdrawing or reducing financial support.

That's a little less clear. If a public university is the publisher, I'm guessing they cannot prevent one issue from going out, but they can decide they don't like the editor and they no longer want him "working for them." The problem with this case is that it's pretty icky--should they decide such a thing? On one hand, it can be seen as censorship. On the other hand, were they just a real publisher, and not a university, I might agree with them. Needlessly publishing a student's bad grades seems to be in the poorest of taste. Just because there's no law against doesn't mean you should.

And for that matter, I wish CNN hadn't reprinted the offending quote. I certainly hope my college grades never make it into print.

Terrorist Attack in Spain Kills at least 186 people, wounds more than 1000.

The International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies may need your help again. Right now the Spanish Red Cross says it does not require international assistance; keep an eye on it, however.

Woohoo! Made it into Dave Barry's Blog--Thanks to Dave Barry! And to Scott, for pointing that out to me. Oh, and to Felix Salmon for blogging the little knife at Memefirst. Hehheh.

Longer than 1 hour or not, Mr. President?

From Talking Points Memo, Yesterday morning's White House press gaggle: the press start showing their teeth. Check out the tenacity of Helen.

Stock Options & Executive Accountability.

TOMPAINE is common sense indeed..
On how to prevent executive stock options from encouraging executives to pump up the stock at any cost: "The real answer: Prevent executives from selling shares in their companies for at least five years from the time they acquire them. This way, they have an incentive to take a longer-term view. And that means, they're more likely to act for the benefit of their shareholders. "

Chechnya.

Read this from Slate:

""Our neighbors came out to see what was happening. They cocked their heavy machine gun and said: 'Stop or we'll shoot!' " Soltukhanova recalls. The men then checked the family's passports and documents. They then bundled Davletukaev into one of the jeeps; that was the last time his family saw him alive.

Davletukaev's murder fits a definite pattern. As in many cases, the armed men had no insignia on their uniforms; the unit markings on their vehicles were obscured.

According to Shakhman Akbulatov, a representative of the Russian human rights organization Memorial in Nazran, it's difficult to know who is doing the abducting in Chechnya. In many cases, he tells me, federal units are involved; more recently, though, the disappearances are attributed to "Kadyrovtsy"—militias loyal to Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed president of Chechnya."

Check out Steven Chen's In Spite of Everything, another Columbia J-schooler Blog.

George Bush, Bill Clinton, the Lincoln Bedroom, and the Old Boys Club.

Got this link to It's a Crock from Calpundit, discussing GWB's invites to the Lincoln Bedroom. I think they both leave out the most interesting bit of the story (from AP, via Yahoo!), which is the White House Defense. First the summary of the Clinton-era practice:

"Some guests spent a night in the Lincoln Bedroom, historic quarters that gained new fame in the Clinton administration amid allegations that Democrats rewarded major donors like Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand with accommodations there."

GWB in 2000:

"In a debate with Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) in October 2000, Bush said: "I believe they've moved that sign, `The buck stops here,' from the Oval Office desk to `The buck stops here' on the Lincoln Bedroom. And that's not good for the country." "

What GWB's White House is doing now:
"Bush's overnight guest roster is virtually free of celebrities — pro golfer Ben Crenshaw is the biggest name — but not of campaign supporters.


At least nine of Bush's biggest fund-raisers appear on the latest list of White House overnight guests, covering June 2002 through December 2003, and-or on the Camp David list, which covers last year.
...
"Some of these guests are old classmates, some of them have been friends of theirs for many, many years," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said. "They enjoy the opportunity to spend time with them." "

In other words, George Bush is allowed to keep the friends who grew up with him in the lap of luxury, treat them to a night in the White House, and take money from them without consideration of their patently relevant business interests---but a self-made man like Bill Clinton is not allowed make friends with other self-made people like Steven Spielberg, even though Steven Spielberg has cultural as well as monetary appeal. Ask yourself--if you managed to get to the point where you were an elected President, are there any directors that you might like to have over for a dinner and a movie in the White House first run screening room?

GWB: Man of the people.

Update from CNN, courtesy of Nick: CNN runs the same story, but their graf makes the difference clearer:

"But administration officials told CNN there is a difference: the Bushes' guests were all close friends or family members, and not just major donors and members of the Hollywood elite."

I wonder who used the phrase "Hollywood elite"---the White House or the writer. Yeah, those Texas oilmen are so much more salt-of-the-earth than artists and musicians.

Woke up. Closed a couple of windows. A mention of this on Making Light caught my eye. Read or Die (2001) (V). I want this. I think I will start making a wish list, if nothing else, for my own memory's sake. And besides, Graduation is not so far away. . .of course, I'm a sucker for the combination of MacGuffin & Beethoven.

Why I Want To Work For Slate

Rishi practically hollers across the country--the Pickup is here! Fred Kaplan neatly dissects George Bush's speech claiming that John Kerry wanted to gut intelligence spending. Asking for a refund on an unspent 1% of the total intelligence budget is not gutting.

Wow, this is quite an amazing journal from Slate: A week in the lif of an assistant professor of biomedical ethics who happens to have cystic fibrosis and just received a double lung transplant. I was under the impression that cystic fibrosis patients rarely made it to adulthood, and I never knew that double lung transplants were possible.

Chasing the Pickup, Part I: Kerry, Bush, Intelligence & the nuances of appropriation votes


Rishi points out a possible "Pickup" on the Appropriations Bill below. Another Slate Article, from a week-and-a-half ago.

If the following refers to the same Intelligence Spending bill Bush was talking about:

"Another bit of dishonesty is RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie's claim, at a news conference today, that in 1995, Kerry voted to cut $1.5 billion from the intelligence budget. John Pike, who runs the invaluable globalsecurity.org Web site, told me what that cut was about: The Air Force's National Reconnaissance Office had appropriated that much money to operate a spy satellite that, as things turned out, it never launched. So the Senate passed an amendment rescinding the money—not to cancel a program, but to get a refund on a program that the NRO had canceled. Kerry voted for the amendment, as did a majority of his colleagues."

Then the Pickup has been taken care of, and Bush didn't describe it very well. But giving Bush the benefit of the doubt, let us assume that there exists a spending bill cutting 40 programs (not just 1 satellite--though the above quote gives us a good idea of the scale of numbers we're talking about) that Kerry submitted to the clerk or whatever the procedure was, which was either abandoned by him as so many bills are or which in fact was met with the derision and scorn Bush wants us to contemplate. If such a bill exists, I would like to know more about it.

Pickup, Please: On Kerry, Bush, Intelligence Spending & Appropriations Bills.

Here's the AP report detailing the first major slug of the real campaign that I know of: Bush blasts Kerry over 1995 intelligence proposal

"Bush, during a fund-raiser in Dallas, called attention to a 1995 bill that Kerry sponsored to trim intelligence spending by $1.5 billion over five years.

. . .

Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton said the senator's bill was about opposing "business as usual in our intelligence community" and that he has supported $200 billion in intelligence funding over the past seven years -- a 50 percent increase since 1996. "


Okay, a straight AP story. He said, she said. I want the pick up, and I hope I get it soon. Let me know if you spot it.

What 40 programs were being cut in this massive spending cut bill? Why did no one else cosponsor it? Was it because they really didn't agree or because he immediately abandoned it for a similar bill that was more viable? Were similar bills introduced by anyone else in 1995? Between 1995 & 2001? How were the $200B in increased intelligence funds Clanton alludes to allocated? How does Kerry's votes on those funds compares to other Senators, on either side of the aisle?
These are questions I would like to know the answers to. If I had time I'd dig for them myself--they should all be a matter of public record.

An interesting anecdote about GWB fundraising buried at the end of the article:

"In between the money events, Bush was to stop by the popular Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to meet with cowboy champions and peruse the cattle on display. Despite the political benefits of Bush's attendance -- it offered a more colorful photo opportunity than the two fund-raisers and allowed him to appeal to the sport's mostly white male fans -- the White House considered it an official event. That means taxpayers will foot the bill for at least part of the trip. "

A country I didn't know existed before today. Learn something new, every day.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: The Whole Earth is One Family

In the spirit of giving to others in the celebratory mood of this festive weekend, I wanted to highlight a few good causes that I've come across in the last few weeks.


Feed the Hungry

Scott sent me the following quote from Gandhi recently: "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."

If you're in college, check out the Collegiate Click Drive, started by my friend Benjamin Brandzel.

You can support Oxfam directly. "To achieve the maximum impact on poverty, Oxfams link up their work on development programs, humanitarian response, lobbying for policy changes at national and global level."

You can support the UN's World Food Programme directly. "In 2002, WFP fed 72 million people in 82 countries, including most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people. "

If you're so inclined, check out Food Not Bombs and Food For Life, which both provide vegetarian meals worldwide. The latter has done some particularly impressive work in South Africa and Russia, and its goal is "to not allow anyone within a ten mile radius of the temple to go hungry."

This may not be the world's best cutting board, but I thought it looked kind of neat.

Shelter the Cold

On February 24, 2004 a devastating earthquake hit Morocco, killing over 500 people and making thousands homeless. Dave writes from Morocco, "It's been amazing watching the outpouring of help from Moroccans." On Dec. 26, 2003 an earthquake hit Bam, Iran, killing 41,000 people; injuring approximately 30,000 and leaving upto 75,000 homeless. You can help the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies help others survive freezing nights. You can also read about how great donkeys are.

Habitat for Humanity builds houses for the homeless. The National Coalition for the Homeless maintains a directory of local service organization.

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees helps displaced people fleeing from war, genocide, and civil unrest. Current crises include attacks and bombings in Sudan, civil unrest in Haiti, and the constant turmoil of Afghanistan.

If you even pick just one of these links and give a few dollars, you'll be making a big difference---remember that when it comes to food and shelter, especially in the developing world, a little money goes a long way. But even if you can't spare any change right now, keep them in mind for the next time you're flush with cash or need to celebrate something--and pass them on to your friends and family who might have better resources. Your time is also valuable, and maybe by clicking around some of these links you will be inspired to come up with ways to share a little of it with the world. It is my humble opinion that one should try to help because it's the right thing to do, and not let oneself get all worked up about how it still won't save the world. Yes, that's right, it won't. All of these problems will continue. But if one does good out of a sense of innate duty, for the cause of goodness itself, rather than doing good solely as the cause of some anticipated (and potentially obstructed) effect, one both avoids the cynicism that results from disappointment and, in a sense, at least helps goodness itself to be in the world.

Well, it's worth a blog at least. Happy 518.

Holi, NYC24.org, Alexandra Huddleston's New Site, Best Wishes on a Purnima

Yes, I've been gone for a while. I have an awful lot of work to do. Just a few quick notes.

Happy Holi! If you're in the Bay Area, I'm about to make a rare and unusual plug for a Stanford event. Please consider buying tickets for one of Asha's 2004 Holi Celebrations. All proceeds go to supporting a great cause--literacy in India--and it should be a lot of fun. May you have a colorful and festival weekend, and a beautiful spring.

Check out www.nyc24.org, the new home of Columbia Journalism's web magazine, NYC24, staffed by yours truly among others. In particular, please check out this week's new Food issue, and a story on Comfort Food by yours truly and Jennifer Esty.

Alexandra Huddleston, one of my class's most talented and prolific photojournlists, has launched her new site. She has some great pictures there.

Vrinda Normand, a friend of mine, wrote this article for San Jose's Weekly Metro paper about the marriages in San Francisco.

I feel the need to point out a TalkingPointsMemo post and an Electrolite post.

A note to those in the know, with best wishes for all: It's the full moon of the month of Phalgun. Here's to the well-being of the world. Happy 518.