Musings and observations
caught at the peak of formation,
packed, sealed, and blogged.
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February 27, 2003
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Won't you be my neighbor?
Would you spare just a moment, please? Observe a moment of silence in memory of Fred Rogers. Think about what he said and stood for. As for myself, I want to keep him in mind as I take care of my children. He is one of the best role models and proponents of peace I know. Add your memories of Mister Rogers Neighborhood to the comments.
6:32 PM
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February 23, 2003
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Wake-up call falls on deaf ears?
US Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) spoke to Congress ten days ago (on February 12), saying in part:
This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some other nation's -- hit list.
Clearly, North Korea is one of those countries thinking that they are next on our hit list. Please read the
whole speech. It's very well reasoned. When you are finished, get your leaders, congressional and otherwise to read it, too. May we yet see peace.
8:02 AM
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February 19, 2003
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My fellow Americans,
Is it just me, or is the government gaining more-and-more power to do and act without any response from the people of the United States of America. I very much identify with the thoughts and feelings of this woman and her husband living nearby in Arlington, MA.
I'm losing respect for my own country -- but I don't want to leave. I want to be part of the change, but I'm no revolutionary. Besides, revolutions are divisive. I want the USA to be truly united. How about a Renaissance of democracy? I like the sound of that. What would it be like?
4:41 PM
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Hi ho, hi ho...
The webcomic Sinfest has an interesting series running on our probable descent to war. Start here and read on. (Click on "next comic" to see the, uh, next comic.)
I also have to thank Aaron Mcgruder of The Boondocks for finally clarifying Bush's logic in threatening a unilateral thrashing of Saddam Hussein. Naturally, Martin Luther King would support war.
8:08 AM
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February 14, 2003
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If I could only get around to it...
I've always had a problem with procrastination and I've never found success with traditional approaches to overcoming the problem. Now I think I have discovered why: traditional approaches contribute to the feelings of guilt and inadequacy which reinforce the urge to procrastinate. I have just found some light-hearted and even humorous approches that look to have much more potential to help. The best and most thorough is published by the California Polytechnic State University but the funniest is Structured Procrastination by John Perry. Don't discount Perry's essay. I believe his method to have a lot more potential for success than more "serious" pieces of advice. (By the way, John Perry is a professor of philosophy at Stanford University and was just invited into the American Acadamy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. Apparently he's managed to get something done...)
3:38 PM
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February 12, 2003
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Student Loans are for Suckers
College tuition is free or nominal in most industrialized, and many Third World, countries. The United States' insistence that students assume huge debts to pay for their college education is unusual enough that the Chinese government included it in its 2001 report of American human rights violations.
Read this sobering article and think about what we can do to change the US higher education system... Is it even possible to turn things around at this point? What do you think?
8:51 AM
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February 11, 2003
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1984 - the sequel
Sequels are invariably far worse than the originals. This holds true with Patriot Act II. Its proposals for the repeal of civil liberties are frightening and could serve to send us back to the McCarthy era. I'll try to get more thoughts together on this during the week, but here's some homework for ya' in the meantime:
- The Patriot II page at The Center for Public Integrity,
- An article on Patriot II at Slashdot, with a lot of interesting comments (sorted from strongest to weakest), and
- Some recent activity involving the original Patriot Act by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Don't read this stuff too close to bedtime. You'll wake up in the morning thinking you had a nightmare -- and then realize that it's all real. The good news is that it's not law yet but it will be if you and I don't do anything to stop it. Waddaya say?
(Update: 2/13/03) There may be hope that Congress is waking up. I would assume that they could be spied apon by the Pentagon like any other citizen so they should be cautious -- if only to protect themselves and their reputations...
:-p
11:13 PM
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February 06, 2003
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This is diplomacy?
I came away from reading North Korea threatens US with first strike, truly baffled as to what is being negotiated between North Korea and the US. This has been one of the most bizzare diplomatic exchanges I can recall -- perhaps because the White House has another fish to fry right now. But a first strike against the US? The last country that tried that bit off a little more than it could chew.
3:22 PM
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February 05, 2003
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Yeah but...
When I was a senior in high school, the space shuttle Challenger exploded into a ball of fire shortly after liftoff. I learned many things that day, not the least of which was observing how network television manipulted the raw footage which I saw that morning, into a more "effective" (albeit misleading) clip for the evening news. One thought which struck me then, and which I was reminded of this past Saturday when the Columbia disintegrated, was, "yes but there were so few people aboard."
I know that sounds horrible, and I mean no disrespect to the crew, their families, their friends, and their colleagues at NASA for whom the holes left by the loss of these people can never be filled. However, for the rest of the country and for the world to be obessed over these seven lives strikes me as absurd. In my opinion, it is only the spectacular nature of their death that draws our morbid fascination.
These seven people took an enormous, calculated risk to go up into space to accomplish equally enormous and wonderful goals which were unattainable on Earth. I believe these risks are very well taken and that NASA has and will continue to minimize the risks. However, space travel cannot be expected to be safe. How about ground travel? We do expect ground travel to be safe. Most of us get into our cars and pull out onto the road without the least thought weighing the risk of death versus picking up milk at the corner store. However, consider this statistic:
There were 17,448 alcohol-related fatalities in 2001 — 41 percent of the total traffic fatalities for the year.
National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, Traffic Fact Sheet 2001
Now what do you think about pulling out onto the road. Is it worth it to go out to dinner on Friday night? Perhaps you would rather eat in, safe in your home. Seven lives lost in one Saturday morning are certainly to be mourned, but what about 17,448 lives lost in one year? Where is the public mourning for those lives? Or do they need to die all at once, in a spectacle caught on video.
(There is another take on this sentiment over at the British site, The Guardian.)
4:07 PM
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Please don't make me angry, you wont like me when I'm angry...
It's a slow process, but I'm getting more-and-more mad about Bush Jr. and his cronies. I'm starting to believe he is truly dangerous, and I'm even more concerned about his domestic meddlings than his international ones. To label him as an anti-American may be a hyperbole, but I do believe that he is slowly stripping this country of its greatness. Thus I've added some new sites to my readling list:
3:01 PM
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February 04, 2003
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Here's a great quote from a recent post to Rocketbox Comics:
"Cartooning is a 'fairly' sort of proposition.
You have to be fairly intelligent - if you were really intelligent, you would be doing something else.
You have to draw fairly well - if you drew really well, you'd be a painter.
You have to write fairly well - if you wrote really well, you'd be writing books.
It's great for a 'fairly' person like me."
- 1967, Charles Schultz, creator of "Peanuts"
2:58 PM
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