Tuesday, September 25, 2001 Link
"In its refined forms, including gasoline and jet fuel, oil runs much of modern life. The sharp drop in its price reflects concerns by energy traders that manufacturing and transportation will be depressed in coming months, even as oil production remains roughly constant." (Alex Berenson and Jonathan Fuerbringer. "Energy Prices Tumble, but Stocks Soar Worldwide." NY Times. September 25, 2001)
Okay, maybe I'm crazy, but I believe that anyone who might find this article in the business pages of the Times � whether paper or pixel � would already understand the role of oil in the world, right? Did we get suddenly stupid or is it simply too early in the morning for me to be reading the paper?
It goes on: "Falling energy prices may actually aid economic growth worldwide by lowering costs for businesses and consumers, who use heating oil, natural gas and gasoline to heat their homes and fuel their cars." [Emphasis added]
Who knew?
This article does not appear in a special children's section. It can be found here (in the business pages for big people) until it's archived.
It's too early in the morning for this much cynicism from me. I'm heading back to bed for more sleep, and when I awake, I expect to find that the article has been corrected and my cynicism softened.
I'll probably regret posting this, but here goes.
5:00 AM CDT (GMT -5)
"The people I identify most with are those who are utterly confused, people who don't pretend to know what the hell we should do, and saying so makes me feel uninformed and inarticulate and overly emotional, and I hate it."
� from American Graffiti
7:30 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Friday, September 21, 2001 Link
"I�m tired tonight. I�m tired of people who can watch 5,000 people from 62 nations burned alive and crushed to death, and think: well, you know you had this coming." � from James Lileks, September 21.
7:30 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Sunday, September 16, 2001 Link
From Rien's September 14th entry at the Reality Asylum, I gleaned this link to an entry at Snopes.com: The Urban Legends Reference Page which debunks the Nostradamus prophecy currently circulating via e-mail about the events of September 11th.
7:20 AM CDT (GMT -5)
H.J.Res. 64 (To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States) passed Friday, 420-1, Barbara Lee, from California's 9th District (Oakland) dissenting � a lone vote for restraint in bestowing too-broad Presidential war powers (story in the September 16th Oakland Tribune).
Undoubtedly, Lee will be censured by some for political grandstanding, but before granting a license, a thoughtful person might wish to know more specifics about what the President and his advisors envision when the President uses the phrase "bring them to justice." While the majority vote demonstrates the decisiveness necessary to deal with this horror, Lee's lone 'nay' vote (which was cast, I imagine, after the eventual outcome of the vote was apparent) reminds us of the need for cool heads.
7:50 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Saturday, September 15, 2001 Link
From a September 13th column ("The Difficulty of Imagining Evil: Unthinkable, Unstoppable") by Slate senior writer William Saletan:
Our ability to prevent crimes is constrained not only by technical limits--money, intelligence assets, airport security administration--but also by conceptual limits. We can't prepare for what we don't anticipate. Furthermore, the range of scenarios we anticipate isn't limited merely by what we think others can do. It's also limited by what we think they will do. [All emphasis added]
7:30 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Thursday, September 13, 2001 Link
The on-line edition of the English-language Forward, the American Jewish weekly newspaper, leads with its editorial on page one. From the editorial ("A Dangerous Place") in the September 14th edition comes this comment on the events of September 11th that we've yet to name:
It is a dangerous place, this global village. We knew that before, but we did not understand it. Americans have spoken the words "dangerous place" with regularity over the years, yet we spoke too lightly. Often we spoke with a dismissive sneer, as though the world were some other place across the sea. The words will no longer come so lightly. From now on, when we speak about the world, we are speaking of ourselves.
And this one:
Up to now America has fought terror using the dainty tools [emphasis added] of law enforcement � arrest warrants, extradition hearings, jury trials. That route has failed.
In addition to their own substantial and throughtful writing, the editors of the Forward provide an extensive list of links to other news sources.
6:00 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Saturday, September 8, 2001 Link
Reading has replaced surfing (and writing) these past few days, but last night I accidentally revisited a site that I had visted months ago and had intended to investigate further. As so often happens when resources are so plentiful, I forgot about the site because I didn't bookmark it. Not this time. ibiblio: the public's library is a collaborative project of the Center for the Public Domain and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. It includes a link to The Walker Percy Project.
10:00 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Wednesday, September 5, 2001 Link
Browsing through a lit anthology that I'm teaching from this semester, I came across a poet, Shelly Wagner, whom I hadn't read before. The anthology held only one poem from her lone book The Andrew Poems, but this poem, "The Boxes," impressed me greatly.
An on-line search turned up two useful links about Wagner, one from a 1999 literary festival at her alma mater, Old Dominion, and another from the university press that published The Andrew Poems. The latter link includes the poem "Treasure." Although this poem isn't as powerful as "The Boxes," it is, nonetheless, a very moving poem.
READER BEWARE: The Andrew poems are Kindertotenlieder, songs on the death of children.
8:15 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Tuesday, September 4, 2001 Link
If Ayn Rand had written science fiction, she might have written Starship Troopers for Robert Heinlein. Starship Troopers is as much a political tract as it is a sci-fi adventure. B.F. Skinner's Walden Two comes to mind as another example of a polemic wrapped in plots, both thick and thin. All three writers used the stacked deck to argue for replacing a perceived tyranny with a tryanny of their own design.
Nonetheless, I chuckled my way through Heinlein's novel this weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly, as I did Atlas Shrugged and Walden Two way back when.
I am unlikely to come across it elsewhere and I wish to preserve this excerpt from a letter (September 4, 1775) by John Paul Jones (the original one-minute manager) that Heinlein quotes:
It is by no means enough that an officer should be capable....He should be as well a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor....No meritorious act of a subordinate should escape his attention, even if the reward be only one word of approval. Conversely, he should not be blind to a single fault in any subordinate.
True as may be the political principles for which we are now contending...the ships themselves must be ruled under a system of absolute despotism.
I trust that I have now made clear to you the tremendous responsibilities....We must do the best we can with what we have.
9:00 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Monday, September 3, 2001 Link
The access to information this WWW thing provides continues to delight me. The UN's web site provides a link to the document currently in dispute by Israel at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. The draft declaration can be downloaded in six different languages as either a Word or a PDF document.
11:20 AM CDT (GMT -5)
Sunday, September 23, 2001 Link
For a delightful guided tour through the 60s and 70s, try Avocado Memories, Wesley Clark's pictorial account of his childhood in Burbank, California.
If I have linked to Fair before, this U.S. media watch group deserves a second mention.
2:00 PM CDT (GMT -5)
