« August 2001 | Main | October 2001 »
Interviews about death by Studs Turkel.
Color-print this flag sticker for your car.
A poem by Daniel Berrigan.
Awesome peace action in the Dam Square.
WP peace march photos.
Love love love in Union Square.
WTC steel recycled by Mafia?
Why we shouldn't bail out the airlines.
originally posted by xowie
People keep saying that the world has changed completely since September 11th, but when I checked the Constitution it hadn't changed at all. Let's fix the real problems, sure. I've said that all along. But extreme measures, whether at home or abroad, are only going to make the problem worse. (...)From Phil Agre's latest Red Rock Eater Digest .
I've heard all the arguments for unquestioned obedience to authority in wartime, for example that only the military really knows what its doing, but those arguments apply to nearly everything. Besides, the military openly admits that it has no idea what it's doing. In a war without boundaries, a democratic people must be fully engaged with the war, contributing appropriately to the war but also regulating the government's conduct of it. That's what civil liberties are for. In fact, protecting civil liberties is a military imperative in an even more straightforward way. When our government violates civil liberties, it abandons its claim to moral and political legitimacy.
more weekend suggestions: read anything by, about or with the wondrous nawal el saadawi while listening to Radio Afghanistan.
My lost weekend for peace: When I'm not reading Karen Armstrong's thrillingly clear and lovely Modern Library primer on Islam, I'm getting crazy ideas about alternatives to the internal-combustion engine at How Stuff Works. (Yes, I believe these are related activities.)
originally posted by judlew
i c h e n e y p o k a t i w i e n k c a j i h n t n a t s i n a h g f a a f a s l t t u f g p t l k o i h u w s h n e s i w s r l i b t e i n i b a a o c u n a c l t k a x m r m h i g k i a a n s a r o u s g t f g p a r u e d t s a a o o e p r o t e s t l b r n a e m a h e r e u i p p c r t r b r s s r t m f e i g a l f h n u k e n x
originally posted by xowie
B l o w b a c k blog ("when wartime decisions come to haunt the people that made them") features comprehensive links and excellent blogging of the Current Situation.
Yurp 1. the second smallest continent, forming the W extension of Eurasia: the border with Asia runs from the Urals to the Caspian and the Black Sea. The coastline is generally extremely indented and there are several peninsulas and offshore islands. It contains a series of great mountain systems in the south, a large central plain, and a N region of lakes and mountains. Pop.: 492 million (1985 estimate). Area: about 10,400,000 sq km (4 million sq miles); 2. the cradle of Christian civilisation in general and democracy in particular, hence entitled to pass moral judgement on all, in concert with the United States of Merker; 3. non-harbourer of terrorists, osama bin lesbians etc.; 4. leader of 21st century crusade against the uncivilised world. Welcome to the Civilised World here in Yurp.
In The Algebra of Infinite Justice, Arundhati Roy sez that America is at war against people it doesn't know, because they don't appear much on TV.
My Dad left me a message the other day: "Just wanted to check up on you, I was looking at randomWalks and I noticed you hadn't posted in a while." I thought that was exceptionally cute, and it also got me thinking how well gwen, judlew and xowie, three people very tangential to my life have been indirectly representing me to my family and friends. And they've been doing a great job of it, which is really neat.
I was also thinking of the filing comic below, and it's extreme relevance to the human condition. My condition, really, I just wanted to say "the human condition," and this post is all about indulgence. I know it's been beaten to death in the mainstream media, but there is a serious fog in my (our) office (country, world?) and the days of worrying about SpafuckingettiO's and the kitchenette hijinks are definitely over. My period of unemployment has been alright, but I'm always tense and unfortunately not very productive. I thrive on routines, but without a job I'm finding it very difficult to settle into one.
I tried mopping, which always makes me feel "productive" or something, but after three times this week we ran out of Murphy's, and it didn't help anything anyway. Turning to movies, I saw Planet of the Apes with some friends, and we all agreed it was excellent and underrated, but still ultimately unfulfilling. Finally knocked out The Godfather at the nicest theatre in New York. I laughed at Zoolander, but two blackface jokes are absolutely detestable. Of course just one would be - but two? I can't believe Ben Stiller doesn't know any better! Silent randomWalks editor "jude" gave me the DVD of Faces as a gift, and I couldn't get past the first half hour.
Other "spafuckinghettiO's" like activities:
On my way to pick up lunch I caught a few minutes of NPR's news special Peace Rally featuring Bryan Becker (International Action Center), Michael Albert (Z Magazine), Michael Kelly (Atlantic Monthly), David Dellinger (Chicago Seven), and Judith Zuk (Brooklyn Botanical Garden) talking about this weekend's anti-war activities in DC.
Rafe Coburn's Primer on Raising Your International Literacy lists several resources which, taken together, will expand your understanding of the Current Situation as well as other Concurrent Situations, not to mention Situations to come.
"Did I re-examine my principles in the wake of this tragedy? Of course I did. But the outcome of this re-examination was the same as it was during the years of public debate, that strong cryptography does more good for a democratic society than harm, even if it can be used by terrorists."
Yes, "Pretty Good Privacy" creator Phil Zimmerman cried on September 11, but not for the reasons reported in the Washington Post a week later. Declan McCullagh's inestimable Politech site is running Zimmerman's forgiving response to a misleading article.
originally posted by judlew
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi announces clash of civilisations, and European 'superiority of common Christian roots'. Incidentally, the fear of God and importance of keeping my shoes clean was exactly the same crap I was required to listen to at school as part of compulsory religious instruction.
Student records passed to FBI by American universities, which are also undergoing a mass exodus of Arab students.
"I was going to have a sign saying something like 'It would be fine if you stayed at 69,'" McFarlane said.McGwire home run ball going, going down.
originally posted by xowie
I told him that if he is lucky enough to be allowed on to the flight, and if there is no revolt from the crew over his presence, he must stay seated through the entire journey. I have a vision of my friend standing up to stretch his legs, being spotted as a Muslim, and not only having in-flight magazines, wet wipes, and tawdry novels thrown at him but also seeing someone's grandmother being shoved on to the ground and smothered with blankets because of him.Kamila Shamsie tells her Pakistani friend not to stand up on a plane.
When I'm not breaking dr's ankles in basketball, i'm breaking out in laughter over his comic. Some have claimed ignorance of mnftiu despite my repeated postings. It's easily the second funniest thing on the Internet (just behind that Steve Ballmer video) and the compilation book is available once again.
"In a letter to MediaNews, Phillip Day notes that AP reported that White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Wednesday that Americans 'need to watch what they say...' That line was apparently edited out of the White House transcript, says Day."
This report on Fleischer's reponse to Bill Maher's apatriotic gaffe, on Poynter.org - Jim Romenesko's Media News, also includes a reader's analysis of the C-SPAN archives:
"If you listen to the audio of Fleischer's briefing, you can clearly hear Fleischer say 'need to watch what they say, watch what they do...' There's no ambiguity whatsoever about his words. The White House clearly edited the phrase out of the transcript intentionally."
Yeah, yeah, I know what everybody's thinking: Who cares about a talk-show host who makes millions of dollars a year? But if Maher can't say what he wants, how can you, lowly citizen? And what's the White House doing editing transcripts? Also, editorial writers have been fired from papers in Oregon and Texas for writing criticism of George W. Bush. Can you say blacklist, anyone?
originally posted by judlew
World New York has archived its World Trade Center disaster coverage which includes personal stories and valuable links. I hope Grant wins an award for this, though I'm not quite sure who should give him what.
MERIP has a fact sheet on Afghanistan's refugee crisis.
originally posted by xowie
'Under Department of Justice proposals incorporated in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, which will likely be enacted by a supine Congress, an array of new measures will come into force' ... read on at Bad Subjects for substantial details.
I've been reading Saudi Arabia's English Daily Arab News a lot this week. I have no idea how "free" the country's press is, but the stories are at least worth a read to break the neverending stream of CNN and MSNBC.
A story from the most recent edition is an interview with Khalid Al-Mihammadi, who the FBI identified one of the hijackers killed on Flight 77. Mihammadi doesn't seem to think he's dead. The story says seven of the other alleged hijackers are also alive and currently in Saudi Arabia.
originally posted by zagg
Here is an updated schedule of events in Washington, DC this weekend.
Dr. Mann, equipped with his hidden "wearcam," went into chain stores and innocently asked why there were domes on the ceiling. He secretly filmed the employees' evasiveness and their defensive responses — "They're here for your own good" — and then reached into his bag and pulled out a video camera of his own. At that point, he was usually kicked out of the store. "Of all places I go, it's the casinos and department stores and police stations that object most strongly to my apparatus," he said. "And yet those are the places where I feel it's most needed to prevent what would be a one-sided totalitarian regime."Real-Life Cyborg Challenges Reality With Technology, nytimes.com.
Judith Lewis on the latest rumors.
originally posted by xowie
Women I know in New York and Washington debate whether to order Israeli vs. Marine Corps gas masks, and half-hour lightweight gas masks vs. $400 eight-hour gas masks, baby gas masks and pet gas masks, with the same meticulous attention they gave to ordering no-foam-no-fat-no-whip lattes in more innocent days. They share information on which pharmacies still have Cipro, Zithromax and Doxycycline, all antibiotics that can be used for anthrax, the way they once traded tips on designer shoe bargains.Maureen Dowd's starting to freak me out! From Botox to Botulism. cf.: Overview - Med. guide - CDC - Bio FAQ - Nuke - Fallout.
originally posted by xowie
I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you'd get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important. I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?Rebecca reminds us that the Onion is back, and it is in fine form indeed. Laughter is therapy, do something good for yourself and read an article or two.
"[We] cannot allow a small, shrill group to exploit this crisis to destroy the reputation of a fellow citizen. There are too many real enemies out there -- we must not permit opportunists to create false ones."
What did Bill Maher say that was so bad? I mean, really. A petition for free speech.
originally posted by judlew
The DC Independed Media Center welcome team has posted a schedule of S29-related events including workshops and conferences leading up to a weekend of peace rallies and marches taking place in lieu of the IMF/World Bank protests. I'd like to recommend an activity that should be relatively safe, but after Genoa I don't think it would be responsible to take a guess. March organizers were denied a permit as far as I can tell, and, although I would expect the black blocs to behave, it's anybody's guess whether the provocateurs will be out and what police will be prepared to do to protestors ("We're going to go [to the protest] and take care of business: kill, kill, kill," said one cop). I am torn up by the fact that I fear my baby boy would not be safe at a peace march, but there you go.
A panel of four Williams College professors urged restraint in the so-called war on terrorism Monday, with one of them calling upon America to bomb Afghanistan not with explosives but with food and medical supplies.Professor: Drop food, not bombs, Berkshire Eagle. What a great headline. The Tower Records near my work is clearing out their books and last week I picked up a book on the history and practice of Food Not Bombs which includes recipes and explains how to start a local chapter. Thanks to Marty of Wordforge for the quote and link. Along similar lines, Dori Smith wrote: "Someone on a mail list I'm on said today that, from his perspective, the best outcome for this whole tragedy would come from dropping several million Real Goods catalogs on Afghanistan, each with a gift certificate attached. Think about it: it's a whole lot cheaper, a whole lot more targeted, and a whole lot more likely to bring about a positive result."
Anthropology professor David Edwards, speaking during a public forum at Chapin Hall, said airlifts similar to those provided to West Berlin by the United States and Britain in 1948 and 1949 could prove a public relations coup and an unexpected blow to terrorist Osama bin Ladin, in a country wracked by starvation, civil war and oppression.
"Bin Laden expects us to strike with military force. It's what he's prepared for. In dealing with terrorism, you have to do the unexpected," said Edwards, an expert on Afghanistan who was joined on the panel by political science professors Marc Lynch, Gary Jacobsohn and James McAllister.
I feel so much pain and anger about the destruction of the twin towers, and then I can't even talk about it in class. I'm too angry about the way everyone's talking about Arabs. I can't share my pain with them. This club has never been so important to me before. It's the only safe place for me where I can mourn what has happened to our city, and not be hurt by those around me at the same time.Peek inside the Arab Club at Hunter College half of whose members (mainly those with darker skin or who wear veils) have stopped showing up at school due to harrassment.
[President Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew] Brzezinski stated that ‘We actually did provide some support to the Mujahedeen before the invasion.’ ‘We did not push the Russians into invading, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.’ He also bragged: ‘That secret operation was an excellent idea. The effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap.’ In other words, the US appears to have been attempting to foster and manipulate unrest amongst various Afghan factions to destabilise the already unpopular Communist regime and bring the country under US sphere of influence.
originally posted by zagg
Anti-Starbucks downloads.
originally posted by xowie
Downtown Brooklyn after the crash.
originally posted by xowie
The words written outside fire stations by the weary firefighters mourning their colleagues are not of gung-ho revenge but reflective sadness; outside the station on 51st Street, 10 of whose crew had died, the words beside the photos of the dead men were "We'll leave the light on", not a call for "bombs away".Guardian coverage of US anti-war movement.
Starbucks apologizes for forcing NYC rescue workers to pay for water. (snopes.com)
originally posted by xowie
Civil libertarians—and there aren't many—have to be careful not to believe that the huge popular support for the Bush war effort will make significant resistance nearly impossible. But opposition to a coup d'état against the Bill of Rights is our only alternative to yielding to the beginnings of a police state for an indefinite period.Net Hentoff in a remarkable edition of the Voice. Also: Slowing Ashcroft and A User’s Guide to Antiwar Activism.
originally posted by xowie
Here are the two main groups organizing antiwar actions in New York.
originally posted by zagg
Guardian Unlimited: Now what? - Chewy Q&A goodness. Scroll down for "Who is making money from the terror crisis?"
The Book Forager is a neat interactive tool that I can't seem to explain right now so just check it out.
ArianaE, an Afghan web portal, has a listing of Afghan restaurants in the US. I'd really like to visit one in the near future. Do you suppose they have many vegetarian options?
The pictured map, uncovered in the files of the Council on Foreign Relations, tells a part of the Afghanistan story that has attracted virtually no attention. Note the proposed pipeline routes and that once the Persian port of Gwendar is reached, the American oil industry is home free.Progressive Review: Give Me a Pipeline or Give Me Death.
slashdot: hackers would be subject to life imprisonment under Ashcroft's anti-terrorism legislation.
originally posted by xowie
"Justice requires patience, and infinite justice requires infinite patience..." George Monbiot on the need for collateral repair. Another case of mistaken identity cards. Robert Fisk: 'We are being asked to support a war whose aims appear to be as misleading as they are secretive', on the war against America's enemies. 'The extraordinary size and diversity of the Islamic world should caution against lazy notions of a united, aggressive Islam acting in concert against "the Judeo-Christian West". Islam is no more cohesive than Christendom: neither is it a single, rational, antagonistic force.'
xowie sez: 10 reasons to oppose the proposed national I.D. card.
originally posted by xowie
I'd forgotten to keep an eye on think peace, the collaborative weblog started in response to the New War. Also want to watch:
I've realized that almost no one wants the war the government and media have been trying to sell us on for a week. My own father, a supremely patriotic man and an avowed conservative who joined the Navy back in the early 60s, does not want this war. Every veteran I've talked to does not want this war. No one wants terrorists to be able to kill more people, but no one believes this garbage that our only two options are doing nothing and going to war.David Grenier: A new hope.
Al-Hewar Center has a huge page of links to statements and condolences from Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations and personalities.
originally posted by xowie
The Herald (Glasgow) - September 22, 2001US has plan to recall Afghan king;UN would oversee replacement regime
BYLINE: Chris Holme
The US plans to remove the Taliban regime by force and replace it with a broad -based government under the auspices of the United Nations, according to a secret diplomatic cable from the Washington embassy of a key Nato ally.
It describes how the US government is seeking views of countries that have pledged support for President Bush over "post-Taliban Afghanistan after the liberation of the country".
The cable, from an unnamed European politician in Washington, reveals that the US is bent on force to overthrow the Taliban because of the support it has given terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
In seeking to enlist the widest backing, America suggests a role for the UN in an interim government headed by Zahir Khan, the Afghan monarch deposed in 1973. After his departure, the country was plunged into bitter civil war that persists to this day. King Zahir, 87, who lives in Rome, is thought to be the best rallying point for the Northern Alliance anti-Taliban forces in the north of the country.
''The king plans to call on all the Afghan tribes to rise up against the Taliban," the diplomatic cable reported.
In a message broadcast to Afghanistan, he said: "Historically our nation has acted in accordance to the guidance and tenets of Islam, embraced moderation and tolerance, opposed terrorism. I appeal to the Afghan people and to their sense of honour and patriotism to rescue ourselves from this dangerous situation."
Hameed Gul, the former Pakistani army intelligence chief who advised Afghan rebels on how to fight Soviet troops, said installing such a government was now the most likely scenario, but any attack by the United States would be "sheer madness".
He said US forces could seize Kabul in three days but could never hold the Afghan capital or keep a new government in power. Alternative strategies, such as cruise missile strikes on bin Laden's headquarters or a commando raid to seize him, were even more likely to fail.
"Their problem begins thereafter, because whichever government they install, the entire Afghan nation will rally against it. I don't think that this is a winnable war," he said Lieutenant General Gul said the Taliban would declare a jihad, or holy war, and call in Muslim youths "from Morocco to Mindanao" to fight. He said the history of British and Russian invasions all showed the folly of fighting a determined and skilled Afghan population defending their own country.
Britain has been involved in three Afghan wars. In the first, a UK-Indian force took Kabul in 1839 and installed a puppet ruler. Three years later, they began the most catastrophic retreat in British military history.
An army of 17,000 set out for Jalalabad. They were cut to pieces. Only one man, Dr Brydon, an army surgeon, survived.
In contrast, the second war, which started in 1878, involved one of the most heroic feats of British military endurance. Led by Lord Roberts of Kandahar, the Gordon Highlanders and the 72nd (later the Seaforths) marched with other units a total of 311 miles from Kabul to Kandahar in 23 days across 8000ft passes, through dust storms, searing heat by day, and freezing cold at night. They had learned from their enemy to travel light, carrying only rifles, ammunition, and water.
On arrival, they defeated Afghan rebels who had declared a jihad against the British and earlier had routed a British and Indian force at Maiwand, killing all but 11.
The north-west frontier and Khyber pass, which guarded the route north, continued to exert a fearful influence in the later stages of the Raj, culminating in the third Afghan war of 1919 which established Afghanistan as a separate state.
The sheer vastness of the country and the range of secular and religious factions also militate against any coherent governance outside the two principal cities. Deep-rooted tribal rivalries were only suspended under threat of attack by foreigners.
Over the last three decades, war has ravaged Afghanistan. In the 1960s, it did seek and gain outside support.
One place the Americans will know well is Kandahar international airport. It was built in the 1970s with American financial and technical assistance under the US development programme.
Taken by the Soviets, then the Taliban, it may soon see American uniforms. This time not the Peace Corps, but the Marines.
Somehow, that plan doesn't seem to gibe with Bush's rhetoric about our "way of life" and our "democracy" and "freedom."
The story appeared in the Scottish Herald on Saturday, but nowhere else as far as I can tell. I couldn't find it in through paper's search engine.
originally posted by zagg
Have you heard the good news?
It did not have to be this way. Even after the provocation of such a brutal and inhuman attack, the United States could have chosen the path of sanity. Bush could have said that 56 years of a national security state has done nothing to assure our security and has only endangered us.America's Unlimited War, available at Islamicity and nowarcollective.
keeping it in the family, keeping it gangster. investors in arbusto ltd (arbusto is spanish for bush. also late 1970s texan energy company), included george dubya and james bath, the latter being the TX representative of the late salim bin laden, brother/half-brother (?) of, well, guess ... there are a good few versions of this story, as well as sources. from free republic, from oil to baseball to governor, and from the progressive review, behind the bushes.
HRW statement on Afghan refugees.
originally posted by xowie
Read 1/10th of this: End of Liberty? Chilling Maureen Dowd. Scroll down for Susan Sontag. Cory D. on that pimp Larry Ellison. Still more Robert Fisk. Jonathan Gold. On the defense of civil liberties. Jim Washburn. Disgraceful pundits. Derrick Z. Jackson.
originally posted by xowie
'The Afghans are a formidable enemy. I should know. We in the West pointed them in the right direction and with a little bit of training, they went a long way' ... (The hijackers) were not victims of Western oppression with nothing to lose, but beneficiaries of the West, with stable and professional lives.
We await conclusive evidence that Osama bin Laden was the architect of the appalling attacks in New York and Washington. President Bush has described Mr bin Laden as the "prime suspect", but he also promised to make public the evidence. Surely it would make greater sense to do this before any military action is undertaken. Where is the evidence, Mr Bush?The right to lead us to war.
Both President Bush and Mr Blair have described their campaign as a "war on terrorism". As they have chosen to define it in that way they are obliged to spell out their war aims. What are they?
The real fear now is chemical.A "US government adviser" leaking (sp?) to The Sunday Times in an article on the beginning of our New War.
Can you find Afghanistan on a map?
Christopher Hitchens's latest. (thanks, J.)
originally posted by xowie
The recent tragedy demolished this city's native sense of invincibility, but to threaten the diversity that is its other signature with sudden requirements of flag and faith only adds another casualty to the list. Working to the bone, surviving in the toughest of times, finding friendship in a swarm of 8 million—these are the feats that make a New Yorker. Time was, being a New Yorker was more than American enough.
Chisun Lee of The Village Voice.
originally posted by beXn
originally posted by xowie
This week's urban legends.
originally posted by xowie
War, being a dramatic departure from the stream of events that went before it, is an especially fertile occasion for the pursuit of private agendas. World War I, for example, institutionalized the public relations industry. Most of the founding figures of public relations first came to prominence by participating in the propaganda campaign that persuaded Americans, against great odds, to join the war on the side of France despite isolationist sentiments and the large number of German immigrants in the country. As they built the government's propaganda machinery, they also built the professional networks and personal reputations that guaranteed their success, and the success of public relations as a concept, in the post-war world.Some Notes on War in a World Without Boundaries from Phil Agre, the source of more unadulterated sense than I've seen in a long time. This man is brilliant; subscribe to his Red Rock Eaters mailing list for more.
What new social structures will be institutionalized in the course of the war that is now getting under way? The answer, I think, can be found in plain sight, in the military doctrine that the Bush people have been articulating. ... One of the great dangers of the coming war is that it will institutionalize this kind of warfare, applying it not simply to dangerous individuals in foreign countries but to the civilian populace of the United States.
to those interested: after three visits i feel confident in stating that the best vegan pizza in the world is available here:
between 29th and 30th avenues on alberta street in portland, oregon.
originally posted by oldwabbles
here's another revolution that gets my endorsement.
bim bim bim bim......
originally posted by oldwabbles
This is an extremely convenient belief for Western intellectuals. It absolves them of responsibility for the actions that actually do lie behind the choice of the WTC....
When a Federal Building was blown up in Oklahoma City, there were immediate cries to bomb the Middle East. These terminated when it was discovered that the perpetrator was from the US ultra-right militia movement. The reaction was not to destroy Montana and Idaho....
two crucial excerpts from the newest noam chomsky interview at zmag.org:The globalization scapegoat and using oklahoma city responses as a model for understanding.
originally posted by oldwabbles
Who knows what will happen now? Not me, buster. That's why I live out here in the mountains with a flag on my porch and loud Wagner music blaring out of my speakers. I feel lucky, and I have plenty of ammunition. That is God's will, they say, and that is also why I shoot into the darkness at anything that moves.Hunter Thompson thinks WW3 has already begun.
originally posted by xowie
The drive towards America's holy war claimed two casualties as two protesters were killed in Pakistan. Coupled with the mounting attacks against Arabs and Muslims in the U.S., (542 incidents and counting according to CAIR) this effort is off to a terrifying start in terms of the destruction of innocent people's lives.
originally posted by zagg
Strategies for Reframing Media Debate About the Bombings and Hate Crimes.
Three Arab-Americans from Utah have been kicked off a flight from Minneapolis because the other passengers refused to fly with them.Arab-Americans kicked off NWA flight, startribune.com.
"After a few minutes," he recalled later, "the pilot came up to me. . . . He told me that he's not safe with me flying to Dallas."Arab Americans Enduring Hard Stares of Other Fliers, latimes.com
"What do you have against me?" the incredulous passenger asked.
"He just said, 'I'm not going to take you. Myself and my crew are not safe flying with you. They don't feel safe.' "
It's a fabulous season for apples -- "four times the quantity of last year" according to one grower -- and one of the greatest memories I have is of spending a cool, sticky, exhaustingly fun day at a pick-your-own orchard up in the Blue Ridge mountains with family and friends one autumn years ago. In all the, well, everything, I almost missed this Washington Post guide to pick-your-own orchards near DC. Considering my son's newfound appreciation for the fruit (apples and pears are the only solids he'll countenance) I really hope we can make it to one before all the apples fall.
I've heard lots of talk about the forbidding mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. Trying to get a look for myself, I've come across this Time photo essay on famine and photojournalist A. Raffaele Ciriello's photos of Afghanistan. Thanks to Cursor for both links.
Still available: 72virgins.com.
In 1998 alone, literally half the top 10 highest-grossing films involved one form of apocalypse or another: Armageddon, Saving Private Ryan, Deep Impact, Godzilla and the most wildly popular disaster movie of all time, Titanic. James Cameron’s epic is so well-known that a favorite haircut for young men in Kabul is something called the "Titanic." Barbers reportedly get jailed for cutting boys’ hair like Leonardo DiCaprio’s, but their teenage customers love it.Not a Movie by Manohla Dargis.
originally posted by xowie
Jonathan is looking for volunteers to help take Life During Wartime to the next level.
and the game itself when viewed objectively is the best world series game ever played.Greatest rW post ever? (Although I'd pick Game 6, 1986, of course.)
"This is your receipt for your husband...and this is my receipt for your receipt."Why does Terry Gilliam's Brazil remind me of John Ashcroft? (see this also.)
originally posted by xowie
Pakistan's nukes.
originally posted by xowie
Judith Lewis interviews Mir Tamim Ansary. Also in the Weekly: To Be Muslim and American in L.A. by Celeste Fremon.
originally posted by xowie
Looking again at last Tuesday's darkness, peering deeper into Krishna's mouth, we see not just ourselves but the entire world staring back. It would be comforting to believe the international outpouring of sympathy in the wake of the attacks was simply that, but it was also a global craning of necks. What will happen? The world looks out its windows and wonders how, if, when, and where the full weight of the structure will fall.Killing the Buddha: Seeing Ourselves.
During the Gulf War of 1991, I gave a talk to a high school assembly in Massachusetts, a private school where the students came from affluent families and were said to be "95 percent in favor of the war." I spoke my mind, and to my surprise got a great round of applause. But in a classroom afterward, a girl who had been staring at me with hostility throughout the discussion, suddenly spoke up, her voice registering her anger: "Why do you live in this country?"From the introduction to You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn. This and many more fine articles can be found on ZNet's Emergency Terrorism and War page.
I tried to explain, that my love was for the country, for the people, not for whatever government happened to be in power. To believe in democracy was to believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence--that government is an artificial creation, established by the people to defend the equal right of everyone to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I interpreted "everyone" to include men, women, children all over the world, who have a right to life, not to be taken away by their own government or by ours. When a government betrays those democratic principles, it is being unpatriotic. Love of democracy would then require opposing your government.
No wonder so much of the world looks at America with contempt and at Americans as spoiled children. First, we train terrorists the world over, including bin Laden, because we had to "get the commies" at all costs, even if it meant supporting dictators, fundamentalists, and murderers. Then we support corrupt and brutal regimes that trample the rights of their citizens. Then we fund and support an illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and contribute to the deaths of a million or more in Iraq from bombing and sanctions. Then, we exhibit our arrogance by withdrawing from international treaties and forums when the going gets tough or issues get raised that we don’t want to discuss.
My mom thinks I should leave the U.S. for saying the very same things that Tim Wise said above. See
Enemies, Both Foreign and Domestic: The Limits of Revenge and Rhetoric.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has compiled a partial list of the rash of hate crimes and murders committed in the past week.
originally posted by beXn
Patterns of inquiry revealed by the network:
You can create any number of scenarios to prove that nonviolence won't work, but meanwhile we rarely question that the violence is clearly failing. In other words, most in the media become very skeptical when they hear about pacifism. They equate it with just letting people walk all over you, which it clearly is not. When you study Gandhi, King, Merton Day, Muste and all the others, you find that it's direct resistance to authority, a direct resistance to Caesar. But it's a very difficult subject to comprehend. Everybody is always, "What if someone breaks into your house with a gun and wants to shoot your family? What do you do then?" So you can create scenarios where clearly it probably won't work, but meanwhile there are 40,000 a people a month who are dying in wars around the world. The U.S. is selling weapons to 142 nations; we're the world's biggest arms dealer. We spend $800 million a day on Pentagon programs, bankrupting our economy, and rarely is this ethic questioned. So I question it.From an interview with peace activist and educator Colman "please forgive us" McCarthy.
think peace is a collaborative weblog to which everyone is welcome to post.
If bin Laden did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him: the need for dissent.
There are many Islams.
Suppose bin Laden is the mastermind of the recent horror. Imagine he had gone before the Afghan population a week earlier and told them of the U.S. government's responsibility for so much tragedy and mayhem around the world, particularly to Arab populations as in Iraq and Palestine. Imagine that he further told them that Americans have different values and that they cheered when bombs were rained on people in Libya and Iraq. Suppose bin Laden had proposed the bombing of U.S. civilians to force their government to change its ways. In that hypothetical event, what would we want the Afghan people to have replied?Apparently the ZNet server was hit hard by the recent Microsoft-enabled "Nimda" worm so I'm mirroring the September 11 Q and A right here. As I've come to expect from Michael Albert and ZMag, it's insightful and quite comprehensive. U: ZNet is back.
We would want them to have told bin Laden that he was demented and possessed. We would want them to have pointed out that the fact that the U.S. government has levied massive violence against Iraq's civilians and others does not warrant attacks on U.S. civilians, and the fact of different values doesn't warrant attacks of any sort at all.
So isn't this what we ought to also want the U.S. public to say to George Bush?
Bush's language is banal and shoddy. One can only hope he aims his missiles more accurately. I'll give him credit that on September 11 he really meant to say: "those fuckers that did this" and changed it, mid-word, to "folks", out of deference to the women folk.George Dubya's Crazy Talk.
President Bush said to be prepared for a long engagement, so this could potentially continue and grow, and these songs could be removed from the public ear for a long time. This list has eliminated songs about flying and falling, but when something else happens, do we remove all the songs about trains and whatever else?More from the NYT on those blacklisted radio tunes. Also, Stockhausen's flub.
We need to step back. We're grieving. We need to step back and think about this so that it doesn't spiral out of control. We have to make sure we don't make any mistakes.Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) cast the only dissenting vote when Congress authorized Bush to use military force.
The Justice Department has drafted legislation allowing the U.S. attorney general to lock up foreigners deemed to be terrorist suspects and order them deported without presenting any evidence....
"This proposed legislation is basically making a doormat of the Constitution," said Mike Maggio, an immigration lawyer. "It would permit the INS to serve as prosecutor, judge and jury with no judicial review."
originally posted by zagg
originally posted by xowie
For students of patterns of deep sleep, it may be instructive to study the rapid eye movements of the media and the way they project the image of Afghanistan upon the retina of the suggestible dreamer … A pax Americana would offer Afghans the chance of reconnecting with all the things that have been lost in the last decade of fruitless, brutal fighting in the pursuit of narrow religious or ethnic goals. These include, among others: bylaws, postage stamps, time tables, meat inspectors, traffic lights, vehicle parts, kite flying, Sikhs, gynaecologists, squeaky shoes, bedside lamps, software, soap operas, as well as the prospect of some form of incorporation into the comity of nations, and all the funding that will release.Michael Griffin, The unwelcome guest.
It's Understanding Islam Week over at Dan Hartung's Lake Effect, and I have faith that Dan will do an outstanding job of gathering and explicating links. Thanks to Follow Me Here for the pointer.
The family also provided documentation showing Jarrah attended a different technical school than two other hijacking suspects, disputing German authorities, who said Jarrah and the others attended the same school in Hamburg.
originally posted by zagg
Q:What is the meaning of the suffix ‘-stan,’ found at the end of the names of so many countries?Google's cache of a National Geographic page.
A:The names of seven countries, all of them Asian, have either the ‘-stan’ or ‘-istan’ suffix. They are: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The use of these suffixes, both of which mean ‘country’ in Persian, illustrates the broad historic influence of Persian culture. These suffixes are similar to the English ‘Land,’ as in ‘Finland,’ ‘Greenland,’ ‘Iceland,’ ‘Ireland,’ ‘Poland,’ and of course, ‘Disneyland.’
This decency and sense of fairness is America's greatest strength, but it has also been a weakness. Americans want to think of themselves as a benign nation that stands for the downtrodden against the strong, and for right against wrong. This has sometimes made it much harder to make people see the distortions that their government's policies have produced over decades in the Middle East and other parts of the world; that the America that they believe in and strive for --the America of decency and freedom -- is not the same America experienced by millions of people whose lives are ruined by US-backed dictators and despots, who see their loved ones incinerated by "smart bombs" and wasted by sanctions. People are sometimes unwilling to see an image in the mirror that they do not like. The America that wrote to reassure me and other Arab Americans that I am safe at home here is not the same America that with unconditional support sentences my cousins to a life of brutality and violence under endless Israeli occupation. But it is the America that can and must act to stop it.Ali Abunimah, Thoughts from New York.
Two stories of racial hatred. We can stand against hatred Sept. 29.
Here in the UK I pray for everyone of you there. I have always loved New York so much. Its energy has always felt to me to be as much about love and ozone-positive fresh air as money and commercial dynamism. Whatever was intended in these acts of terrorism, they have created only more energy and more love. - Pete Townshend
originally posted by xowie
Alternet: alternatives to war; the racism of war fever.
NYT: a nation of checkpoints; the big terrible.
Salon: life will never be the same; rally 'round the flag.
WP: fears for liberties; a beating and regrets.
originally posted by xowie
You've seen the attacks, now buy the T-shirt. 82% Americans, according to one poll, displayed the stars and stripes after hearing of the disaster, far more than those who said they cried.
Even if the Americans penetrated Afghanistan, their shells would only plough over the ruins. The Russians tried to destroy the Taliban's predecessors with 10 years of bombing, destroying whole villages, with their people, farm animals, fields, trees and mud huts. And still they could not get rid of the mujahedin, still they could not - to use Mr Bush's inappropriately folksy phrase - "smoke them out of their holes''.Robert Fisk on the costs of invasion.
"If the Americans go to war, I pity those boys," Yuri Shamanov, a former Soviet colonel, said last week. "I pity their mothers and sisters and brothers. It will be 10 times worse than Vietnam. Vietnam will be a picnic by comparison. Here they will get it in the teeth."The war that has never been won.
Brooklyn born John Franco, relief pitcher for the Mets, has worn an orange New York Sanitation Workers shirt under his jersey since his Father, lifelong New York Sanitation worker, died last year. He cried tonight after Armando Benitez, from the Dominican Republic and Tsuyoshi Shinjo, from Japan, made the key plays and helped him and the Mets to their first win of baseball's second season. With the risk of being heavy handed, let me point out that even on the baseball diamond, America is built by her immigrants and workers. By the way, it was John Franco's birthday.
I've been embarassed by many of my emotions recently, especially so much of the frustration and anger that is running around up in my head with no outlet. Last night MTV played "Losing My Religion," "Everybody Hurts," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and some other songs that bridge the beginning and ending of some of my most nostalgic years. They also showed e-mails from viewers against a blue background with tasteful silence (resisting the awful diet drum and bass that infects far too many muzac outlets and news shows nowadays), and showed MTV News clips that gave voice to young people (of all races) who overwhelming expressed concern with our nation's militarization and racist attacks on Arab-Americans. Those feelings of nostalgia gave me a cheap comfort. But how could I consider being glued to MTV at all profound? In my defense, my friend Jamie (visit his website) once said that during the Gulf War MTV News was the only outlet to cover war protesters, including when they peacefully shut down the Golden Gate Bridge. There is something to that.
These pictures were taken from my room and roof Tuesday, at the Brooklyn Promenade Wednesday night, and at Union Square Thursday afternoon.
[discuss]:
On Saturday I made the word FInAGLER in Scrabble.
I did not see the speech at the Islamic Center, but support what I think Bush said. Someone please tell me what the hell this means though: Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens. My eyes hurt from reading that.
originally posted by xowie
The U.S. has already demanded that Pakistan terminate the food and other supplies that are keeping at least some of the starving and suffering people of Afghanistan alive. If that demand is implemented, unknown numbers of people who have not the remotest connection to terrorism will die, possibly millions. Let me repeat: the U.S. has demanded that Pakistan kill possibly millions of people who are themselves victims of the Taliban. This has nothing to do even with revenge. It is at a far lower moral level even than that.Noam Chomsky interviewed by Radio B92. Incredibly interesting.
originally posted by xowie
Criticism of this most devastating of all intelligence failures has been muted; there seems a widespread assumption that the Arabs who have been rounded up since Tuesday must all be guilty. And there is unity in vengefulness, too. According to a New York Times-CBS poll yesterday, only 6% now oppose military action and a substantial majority would support war "even if many thousands of innocent civilians are killed". That support is especially strong among those too young to remember the second world war, Korea or Vietnam.No room for dissent as spirit of flagwaving sweeps the nation.
originally posted by xowie
"The terrorist attacks will cause the widespread use of Carnivore and at the very least an acknowledgment of the Echelon system... The tragedy may soften our commitment to privacy as a public and allow for these technologies, once they are in place, to stay in place afterward. I can't think of anything that would better expedite the abuse of this technology than what has just happened." - Coralee Whitcomb, CPSR.ZDNet, Attacks silence privacy concerns.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Please view some pictures I took over the last week. No captions yet, except for the titles ("ghost" "45 blocks away and flags", etc ).
We owe it to our dream of America to offer comfort and support to the Muslims within our midst. They are not terrorists. Their religion is not a religion of terror. The hijackers are no more typical Muslims than Timothy McVeigh is a typical Christian.John Carroll, Support Americans of all faiths
originally posted by xowie
As Palestinians who suffer daily from acts of Israeli aggression against our innocent people, we cannot find the words to express how shocked we were to see the horrific scenes on TV. We condemn such acts and we do not accept such horrific acts in the 3rd millennium where peace, prosperity, and freedom should cover the whole world. We reiterate our deepest condemnation of this horrible act on these innocent humans. No matter how can we express our sorrow, we can't find enough words to say how sorry we are.City of Beit Sahour, Palestine.
originally posted by xowie
From an ongoing series of Washington Post dispatches:
The U.S. government set up a hotline to respond to increasing complaints of verbal and physical assaults against Muslims, Arab-Americans and other minorities. The hotline number is 800-552-6843.
Lynda Barry, with you.
originally posted by xowie
People from every corner of the world have come to our nation to enjoy the freedoms we hold so dear and to escape the hatred and persecution that exists in their homelands. Let us not stoop down to the level of our attackers and also be guilty of senseless acts of hatred against the innocent. We must rise above our circumstances and show the world our resolve and what it really means to be an American.Message to Ithaca, Hon. Alan Cohen.
originally posted by xowie
I have been thinking about the words retaliation and punishment and act of war. I have been thinking about violence, what it feels like to be nothing to someone else. What it feels like to be a consequence of someone else's disassociated rage, disconnected fury. I have been thinking about the cycle of hurt for hurt, nation against nation, tit for tat. I have been thinking about how deeply something else is required. I have been thinking about the courage it requires to think about something other than violence as a response to violence. I am thinking about the complexity of this and the loneliness of this and the helplessness and the sorrow that would be felt in the space where violence once was and the grief. I have been thinking that for those of us who are living on the planet right here, right now, we must live in this dangerous space, allowing the helplessness, the grief, the sorrow to create new wisdom that can and will and must free us from this terrible prison of violence.Eve Ensler.
originally posted by xowie
Tips for planning an anti-war action, from a group calling for student protests Thursday at noon.
originally posted by xowie
The plight of the Palestinians is the single most important issue to most Arabs. Professor Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland conducted a poll in which citizens of five nations -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates -- were asked how important the Palestinian issue was to them personally. In four nations, 60 percent said it was the most important. In Egypt, reviled throughout the Arab world as the state that made peace with Israel, 79 percent said it was.Gary Kamiya, The bloody Jordan river now flows through America. Also at Salon: American pacifists call for restraint.
originally posted by xowie
On a so-called Christian station, I heard a preacher tell his listeners that Islam was a cult that worshipped the moon and preached total destruction of Jews and Christians. Callers seemed baffled about which religion the terrorists might have adhered to—-"Islam or Muslim?"—-or asked which Middle Easterners they'd seen on TV celebrating the bombing: "Is it the Israelis who don't like us, or the Palestinians?"Driving back to L.A. with the radio on.
originally posted by xowie
Our leaders have described the recent atrocity with the customary cliche: mindless cowardice. "Mindless" may be a suitable word for the vandalising of a telephone box. It is not helpful for understanding what hit New York on September 11. Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from.Richard Dawkins, Religion's misguided missiles.
originally posted by xowie
The Blowback Chronicles: Prime suspect is, among other things, CIA- and MI6-trained. Europe fears Crusade.
Many confused stories of men of 'Middle Eastern' appearance drinking cocktails in Miami one evening, next morning boarding plane in Boston. I wonder how they did that.
I wish the flag didn't scare me. I wish that every time I saw the flag I could be secure in the assumption that the person who hung it values freedom of religion and the presumption of innocence as much as I do. I wish seeing this flag everywhere didn't make me profoundly uncomfortable whenever I leave the house. I feel like it must show, like you can see in my eyes that I don't want war the way we are being told with pictures and polls that we want war.i am about to go buy a flag to put in front of my parent's house so that you don't think that my family is anti american. we are very american, we love being here in america, we love everything american, it's people, it's land, it's culture (s), it's freedom, it's wide variety of choices for professions, everything about it. we loved it before we came here, and learned to love it more after coming here. but i am getting the flag merely to keep people wanting to hurt my family, from questioning how american they are, because they look different. having the flag does not make me love america more, it just means that i have a flag in front of my house. -- MetaFilter post
"Does anybody think that we can send the USS New Jersey to lob Volkswagon-sized shells into Lebanese villages -- Reagan, 1983 -- or loose 'smart bombs' on civilians seeking shelter in a Baghdad bunker -- Bush, 1991 -- or fire cruise missiles on a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory -- Clinton, 1999 -- and not receive, someday, our share in kind?" History did not begin on September 11.David Corn, Going to Extremes.
originally posted by xowie
The Voice is back. The "wailing wall" at the V.A. Hospital, plus flyers of missing people.
originally posted by xowie
"Responding to Terrorism": A Compendium of Articles from the Alternative Media collected by Utne Reader Online.
Nineteen years ago today, the greatest act of terrorism — using Israel's own definition of that much misused word — in modern Middle Eastern history began. Does anyone remember the anniversary in the West? How many readers of this article will remember it?Not me. Answer: the massacres at Sabra and Shatila camps began September 16, 1982; 1,800 Palestinians were murdered. Who lit candles for them?
Powerful commentary by Robert Fisk.
originally posted by xowie
"We should be careful when we use those analogies. If I ever used war analogies, I apologize. Football is not war." - Ray Brown.SFGate: Language of sports forever changed. By the way, here's just one incredibly stupid analogy in sports reporting.
originally posted by xowie
Take a peek at photojournalist Raku Loren's What's Really Going On.
Statement of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
originally posted by xowie
Our government has a bad record in its ‘wars’ against such ill-defined enemies as poverty or drugs. Terrorism in the modern world is effected across many borders and its remediation requires analogous forms of cooperation. ‘War’ may sanction actions that increase our insecurity and vulnerability. War does not easily coexist with justice despite the best efforts to elaborate just war theory. War seeks the destruction of the other rather than efforts to find the best ways in which to coexist with those who are different.John Buell, Apocalypse Now?
originally posted by xowie
Devastating hi-res photos by Sara K. Schwittek, Brooklyn, N.Y.
originally posted by xowie
Argentina: 2 missing Australia: 9 confirmed dead, 85 missing Bangladesh: 50 confirmed, more missing Belgium: 60 missing Brazil: 5 missing Canada: 2 confirmed, 100 missing (est) Chile: 1 missing China: 4 confirmed, 30 missing Colombia: 6 confirmed, 116 missing Denmark: 5 missing Dominican Republic: 3 missing Egypt: 1 confirmed, 3 missing El Salvador: 1 confirmed, 18 missing Finland: 7 missing France: 81 missing Germany: 4 confirmed, 700 missing India: 250 missing Indonesia: 1 confirmed, 1 missing Ireland: 4 confirmed Israel: 1 confirmed, 150 missing Italy: 8 missing Japan: 2 confirmed, 100 missing Lebanon: 1 confirmed, 2 missing Malaysia: 7 missing Mexico: 150-500 missing (est) Norway: 1 missing Pakistan: 3 confirmed, more missing Paraguay: 2 missing Peru: 5 missing Philippines: 7 missing Portugal: 3 confirmed, 20 missing Puerto Rico: 1 missing South Africa: 1 confirmed, 2 missing South Korea: 1 confirmed, 27 missing Spain: 9 missing Sweden: 1 missing Switzerland: 4 confirmed, 10 missing Taiwan: 9 missing United Kingdom: 100 confirmed, 200 missing (est) Zimbabwe: 6 missingc/o Life During Wartime.
originally posted by xowie
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Scobleizer.What would happen if instead of bombs, we instead bombed them with food and those 45 words?
originally posted by xowie
Noelle: Will this bring peace?KPFA interview with Rear. Adm. (Ret.) Euguene Carroll, USN. (For a detailed overview of the likely U.S. military response, see this article by Stephen J. Baker, another retired USN admiral.)Admiral Carroll: We can inflict grave damage, but it will not bring peace, it will not end terrorism, it may even exacerbate it. We will lose the sympathy shown around the world. We should make Americans safe from terrorism by reducing the motives. Terrorism arises out of abject poverty and hopelessness. If I can't protect my children, if I see my family dying around me, I become a terrorist out of a feeling of sheer helplessness. Without any hope for the future, they give their lives.
originally posted by xowie
If we are to make progress as a civilization—or, more critically, survive as a species—we face the stark choice of either building a new global culture of compassion or continuing to ignore or support our current system's cultivation of inequality, militarism and the degradation of human life where economic and social decisions are guided only by market values. Without fundamental change, the forces who see violence as the only method to address legitimate grievances, symbolized in the carnage of lower Manhattan and along the Potomoc, will inevitably grow and become more destructive in this noxious environment.Respond to Terror with a Revolution of the Heart by Scott Harris, Producer, Between the Lines.
originally posted by xowie
[Friday's Congressional resolution is not] based on a quest for justice. It is an open-ended invitation to attack anyone U.S. leaders decide to target. And those leaders -- Dick Cheney and Colin Powell among them -- are some of the same people who during the Gulf War unleashed attacks not only on military targets but on civilians and the entire civilian infrastructure of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people during and after the war. This resolution, and the statements from the Bush administration about an ongoing global war, suggest that what is coming will be even more frightening.Robert Jensen, Why I Will Not Rally Around the President.
originally posted by xowie
One target of operation "Infinite Reach" was bin Laden's paramilitary camp in Afghanistan. "The U.S. picked the highly accurate cruise missile for the strikes against the Afghan camp," reported CNN's military correspondent Jamie McIntrye, "because of their ability to fly with pinpoint accuracy." One of the missiles was so inaccurate it hit the wrong country, Pakistan, several hundred miles off-course.Remembering the Last U.S. Retaliation Against Terror, by Jeff Cohen.
originally posted by xowie
War Against the Planet by Vijay Prashad, Fearing strikes, Afghans flee Kabul by Amir Shah, Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban by Robert Scheer.
originally posted by xowie
Any explanation of Middle Eastern violence that relies upon the notion that Islam is an inherently violent or inherently anti-Western religion is false and misleading. First, Islam is one of the world's largest and most diverse religions and like Christianity or Judaism there are thousands of views within Islam about the religion and also about violence and the West. Secondly, there are major differences even among explicitly Muslim militants and activists regarding these issues - some insist upon non-violent struggle and others regard violence as a legitimate tool. There is no way one can generalize about Islam or any religion for that matter.Steve Niva, Addressing the Sources of Middle Eastern Violence Against the United States.
originally posted by xowie
globaldj: The REM song Everybody Hurts is on MTV. I've been thinking about that video for days.
globaldj: Did I tell you about my dream two months ago where there was a disaster and they ended the Baseball Season, except for a 1 game world series between the Mets and the Yankees?
globaldj: I told someone, but I forgot who.
other_person: sounds vaguely familiar, but i'm not sure.
In response to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, Clear Channel, the world’s largest radio network, has sent out a list of some 150 "lyrically questionable" songs by everyone from the Animals to the Zombies to its radio stations, recommending that the songs not be aired.Among the banned songs: Peace Train, Imagine, and Blowin' in the Wind. Get the picture? Meanwhile, RATM had to shut down its messageboard after repeated complaints by the Secret Service. (thanks, Judy)
originally posted by xowie
Suicide bombers are supposed to be 17-year-old zealots with nothing to live for but the hope of a martyr's welcome by 72 virgins in paradise. These men, the FBI reveals, lived middle-class lives, had degrees and jobs and wives and kids and a willingness to leave them all to kill us. Among the casualties last week was our sweet certainty that anyone lucky enough to be able to live in America, share its vices and freedoms and gifts, surely would not want to destroy it.Time, Mourning in America.
originally posted by xowie
Felt by all the world.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by dm8k
The simplistic stereotyping that goes on - equating Arabs and Muslims - must stop. Two-thirds of Arab Americans are, actually, Christian. And up to three-fourths of the U.S. Muslim population is not Arab.Rethinking Islam's place in American society.
Now what does this word Islam mean? Oh, wow, it comes from the word salaam, which means peace. Suddenly, it was dawning. Hey! Didn't I once write a song called Peace Train? It was fast becoming clear that I was now being confronted with something much greater than I had originally anticipated: possibly - the Truth!Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), My rise from icon to slave.
Truly, our hearts bleed for the attacks that have targeted the World Trade Center (WTC) as well as other institutions in the United States despite our strong opposition to the American-biased policy towards Israel on the military, political and economic fronts. Islam, the religion of tolerance, holds the human soul in high esteem, and considers an attack against innocent human beings a grave sin. This is backed by the Qur’anic verse which reads: "Whosoever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if be had killed all mankind, and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had: saved the life of all mankind." (Al-Ma’dah:32)Ask the Scholar (Islam Online).
originally posted by xowie
Altered city. Brief interview with Angus Kress Gillespie. How little kids are handling it. Raw thoughts. No more illusions. We need the rule of law, not the rule of war. Perseverance amid 450,000 tons of debris. Now more than ever. Fallout.
originally posted by xowie
What is most depressing, however, is how little time is spent trying to understand America's role in the world, and its direct involvement in the complex reality beyond the two coasts that have for so long kept the rest of the world extremely distant and virtually out of the average American's mind.Edward Said, Islam and the West are inadequate banners
The next thing I remember is that a dark cloud of glass and debris about 50 stories high came tumbling towards us. I turned around and ran as fast as possible. I didn't realize until yesterday that the reason I'm still feeling so sore was that I fell down trying to get away. I was on my back, facing this massive cloud that was approaching, it must have been 600 feet off, everything was already dark. I normally wear a pendant around my neck, inscribed with an Arabic prayer for safety; similar to the cross. A hesidic Jewish man came up to me and held the pendant in his hand, and looked at it. He read the Arabic out loud for a second. What he said next, I will never forget. With a deep Brooklyn accent he said "Brother, if you don't mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us, grab my hand, lets get the hell out of here?" He helped me stand up, and we ran for what seemed like forever without looking back. He was the last person I would ever have thought, who would help me. If it weren't for him, I probably would have been engulfed in shattered glass and debris.
wtc-filter is a good weblog covering the war. If they had a link to randomWalks, I would make it my home page. If they were to add one more weblog, though, it should be World New York.
Dear reader, two Sundays in the future: you know vastly more than I do about what I mean when I say war. Do you envy me, living in this before, this last shred of relative innocence? I hope not. I hope I ought to envy you, the wild sweet peace you enjoy, the simultaneous epiphany of universal human amity and accord, the melting of all world guns into memorial sculpture which took place on, say, Sept. 16, the miracle that occurred in place of the carnage I’m dreading today. Oh, I hope I ought to envy you; I hope I’m a moron.9 failures of the imagination by B'klyn novelist Jonathan Lethem.
originally posted by xowie
When we cry out for violence, we are indeed asking our leaders to do to other civilians and rescue workers precisely what has happened to us here. Let us use great caution and prudence in our solutions to this horror. We owe that to our counterparts the world over -- people who by no means deserve to suffer the way we are now. I think most people, having seen what I just have, would be hesitant to call for an expansion of this horror.The greatest argument against war.
originally posted by xowie
I woke with the images, the cry for retribution: brutality begetting brutality, blood in my eye. I need to believe that this is somehow un-American. Their whole point is to make us a nation at war. We should resist, resist becoming like those who did this.How can art help us now?- James Taylor, Singer, songwriter
originally posted by xowie
For in all your inflicted horror, I will love with greater depth today. Be assured that today, I am the new mother and father of each child you rendered an orphan. I am the one who will fill in the gaps your violence had left. I will lift rubble. I will bury the dead. I will comfort the sorrowing. I will righteously rage at your injustice. I will rebuild what you tear down. I will heal what you damage. I will give back what you take.Words of peace from every faith (JIMWICh).
I will not let you make me hate.
originally posted by xowie
Poynter.org's gallery of front pages.
originally posted by xowie
Not angry - haven't felt that once, strangely, and I am a reasonably irascible old man. Just surges of disbelief at the kinds of things said on tv and radio; the damnable dance of politicians and the professional pundit puke while shattered hearts lie bleeding true blood. Warm and wet. The stirring promise of endless battlefields to satisfy lust for metaphoric blood. Just experiencing, along with a legion of others, the advancing exhaustion of some subtle psychical strata due to encompassing more than the emotional machinery is yet (if ever) evolved to accomodate without something palpable and accessible to touch. Lots of pictures but no picture. Lack of effect leading to lack of affect. Absurdity of trying to comfort a grieving loved one by email. Not that there's anything to say, only the will to feel alongside of. O world of lost children believing in disbelief instead of doubting doubt. History returns to the starting point armed with ever less poignant weapons. Image of a Fireman on the 31st floor of a crumbling tower when the heavens suddenly open and forever rushes in like a leviathan come to reclaim her young.Journal of Robert Hunter.
originally posted by xowie
SiameseQuadraped: I've been focusing on thought and compassion and the meaning of love all week, and the incidents in NY/DC/PA came at at a time when we were talking about Holden Caufield in The Catcher in the Rye, and the book, Brave New World. Anyway, next week we are reading "All Quiet on the Western Front," and I came across this quote, marked as "great" by a student of mine in her journal. "It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men." And this one: "Our bodies are a thin skin stretched painfully over repressed madness."
Here is a poem by Randall Jarrell:
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
originally posted by xowie
Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world. But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences.Seumas Milne, They can't see why they are hated.
originally posted by xowie
We do not believe that war is the answer to these crimes against humanity. The U.S. must not avenge these murders with attacks upon other innocents who may share the same nationality, faith, or ethnic group as the alleged perpetrators. Exchanging "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" in this manner will only leave the survivors blind and hungry. The people who committed these acts are struck with hatred. They saw the people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the aircraft as faceless enemies. They denied the humanity of their victims. The U.S. must not commit the same sin with its own acts of terror and war against another people, most of whom are innocent.Friends Committee letter to President Bush.
originally posted by xowie
What can you do? Here are some things to consider:Buddhist Peace Fellowship.1) Being peace yourself. Take the time to stop, breathe, and notice your feelings and reactions to all that has happened and is happening. In the face of the immensity of this tragedy, face your own sense of helplessness and powerlessness. And at the same time, consider how your every word, action, and interaction with another right now carries the potential for peace or war. Be gentle with yourself and others; our compassionate presence for each other will be required more than ever.
2) Cultivate an environment of peace and tolerance in your community -- stand up for and speak out for groups that are receiving the brunt of ignorance and hatred. Consider contacting Muslim organizations and mosques in your community and express your concern for their well-being and safety. Ask if there is anything you or your sangha can do in support of them, i.e. organizing a sitting meditation vigil in front of a mosque to express solidarity and offer protection.
3) Political Action: How the U.S. government responds to this situation will have ramifactions for generations to come. Military action right now has the potential to escalate the situation and increase violence across the world, and will not deter terrorists but rather solidify hatred for the U.S. Contact President Bush and your legislators and express your wish to see this national crisis handled in a sane way.
4) Gather Together: Organize gatherings to offer people a chance to share grief, sadness, fear, anger, and other feelings and thoughts about what has happened, and to discuss nonviolent and skillful actions that can be taken together.
originally posted by xowie
Experts have opined that the US has to hit "someone" within 10 days, that cruise missiles targeted somewhere in the Middle East are the only appropriate action. The deputy secretary of state, Paul Wolfowitz, said that "the whole civilised world has been shocked... and even portions of the uncivilised world have started to wonder whether they're on the wrong side". How's that for the official American view of the planet?Ahdaf Soueif, Our poor, our weak, our hungry.
originally posted by xowie
There is a partial truth in the notion of the "clash of civilizations" attested here -witness the surprise of the average American: "How is it possible that these people have such a disregard for their own lives?" Is not the obverse of this surprise the rather sad fact that we, in the First World countries, find it more and more difficult even to imagine a public or universal Cause for which one would be ready to sacrifice one's life? When, after the bombings, even the Taliban foreign minister said that he can "feel the pain" of the American children, did he not thereby confirm the hegemonic ideological role of this Bill Clinton's trademark phrase?Slavoj Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real!
"Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City," Bush said, "who love their flag just as much as the three of us do, and we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve." It's a message that 17-year-old Roula Abu Hassan says her teacher at school missed today. She says her health teacher told her class at a high school in Brooklyn that "Palestinian children all want to become terrorists." Both Roula and her mother Saud Abu Hassan, who moved to the United States from the Palestinian territories, are visibly upset by the statement and want the teacher to apologize.Arab-American community 'keeping its head down' - CNN Generally speaking, when a teacher is accused of harrassing a student, aren't we told the name of the adult and not the minor?
The Detroit Free Press is presenting 100 Questions and Answers about Arab Americans, which I would fail were it a test.
The man who occupies the White House cried today. Good. Keep crying, Mr. Bush. The more you cry, the less you will go to that dark side in all humans where anger rages to a point where we want to blindly kill.Michael Moore 9.14
Tell the mayor, a guy most of us have not liked, that he is doing an incredible job, keeping the spirits of everyone up as high as they can be at this moment. Being there for a city I believe he loves, his own cancer still with him, he goes beyond the call of duty.
But do not declare war and massacre more innocents.
originally posted by xowie
Hey terrorist motherfuckuhs! This Bud's NOT for you.
originally posted by xowie
Pilot Charles "Chic" Burlingame, Oak Hill, VA
b. Orange County, CA, 1949
a "huge Angels fan"
Navy fighter pilot, 350 carrier landings
Contestant, Greed, Tic-Tac-Dough
Captain, American Airlines Flight 77
died the day before his birthday
"Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
from his friends in Hollywood
originally posted by xowie
If you read nothing else today, read Mir Tamim Ansary on Afghanistan. I will probably throw the whole thing up here when I get a chance, but don't wait for me. Go now.
I might have linked more photos sooner had I still a DSL connection. All of these links are from World New York:
"I had originally started this photo collection as a tribute to the view out of my bedroom window that I grew up with. Never did I think..."
BBC: Islamic world deplores US losses.
originally posted by xowie
We are at war, they said. And I thought: they have learned nothing, absolutely nothing, from the history of the twentieth century, from a hundred years of retaliation, vengeance, war, a hundred years of terrorism and counter-terrorism, of violence met with violence in an unending cycle of stupidity.Howard Zinn, Violence Doesn't Work.
originally posted by xowie
Ask Bush to show restraint.
originally posted by xowie
Falwell: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'.Rev. Falwell's hate and cowardice.
originally posted by xowie
I have dropped my quarters in slots my daughter will never see, in buildings she will never enter, on observation decks that do not exist any longer, except in my mind. And I have listened as the timer counted down the time left before the viewfinder would fade to black. And I can imagine looking thru the viewfinder, and wondering why that plane looks so damned close. I can imagine looking uptown as the plane came closer, and closer, and seeing Harlem, and thinking, damn: I shoulda gone to Sylvia’s Soul Food. ‘Cause Harlem, far from being the bad part of town, was one of the safest places in New York yesterday. Even terrorists know which victims count the most in America. America, if you want safety, you’d best get your ass to the ‘hood. Get your boogie shoes to 123rd street. Move immediately into the Robert Taylor Homes, or Cabrini Green, or the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. Do not pass go, let alone Wall Street. For there you are like sitting ducks.To My Baby Girl, On the Day After by Tim Wise.
originally posted by xowie
The idea that one could ever be prepared for such inhuman terror is absurd. However, viewed through the U.S. television networks, Tuesday's attack seemed to come less from another country than another planet. The events were reported not so much by journalists as by the new breed of brand-name celebrity anchors who have made countless cameos in TimeWarner movies about apocalyptic terrorist attacks on the United States -- now, incongruously reporting on the real thing. And for a bizarre split second on Tuesday night, CNN's graphic "America Under Attack" disappeared and in its place flashed another one that said "Fighting Fat" -- an eerie ghost graphic that yesterday passed as news. The United States is a country that believed itself not just at peace but war-proof, a self-perception that would come as quite a surprise to most Iraqis, Palestinians and Colombians. Like an amnesiac, the U.S. has woken up in the middle of a war, only to find out it has been going on for years.Awesome Naomi Klein.
originally posted by xowie
If we are provoked into war, it will involve none of the massive military campaigns of World War II. It will more resemble a cold war of antagonism always on the edge of hot war, with similar costs: titanic sums of money spent on security, civil liberties curbed, anxiety and paranoia displacing hope and trust, the life of the mind constricted and contorted, and vast opportunities for human betterment lost.Resisting the blind rush to war by Eugene Leach.
originally posted by xowie
from across the ocean, amnesty online library USA archives plus report on afghanistan
real time, 3 minutes silence in europe and to war, or not to war:
The definition of a "crime against humanity" is wide enough to cover atrocities by a terrorist group organised on the scale of that led by Osama bin Laden. But many countries, including Britain, still insist that it applies only to the acts of states and not of terrorists, however well organised and politically motivated. This is a sentimental hangover from the days when one person's terrorist was another's freedom-fighter and can no longer be justified: all belligerent groups, whether or not attached to a state, should be subject to the laws of war.
liz: I urge each and every one of you to TURN OFF your television and your radio for JUST ONE DAY. Try it. A media moratorium. A cleansing of your system, if you will. A fast from "the facts." I did it today and I feel so much better, so much more full of love and peace and understanding and hope for myself and all of humanity. Our brains, like our bodies, can only handle so much stress and trauma. After the 10 millionth replay of the plane hitting the tower, I knew I was being manipulated in a most unpleasant way. A migraine ensued that has only now, after several hours of yoga and media fasting, gone away. Right now is the time to sleep, take your B vitamins, meditate, and move your body. Love thy neighbor. MASTURBATE. Do that loving-kindness thing for yourself and try to remember that you're alive, which means there are still opportunities for you to do some good.
originally posted by xowie
if you (or any other editor too busy to edit html) want to say something, post it to this list & i'll format it and put it up on rW.
zagg: There's been millions of thoughts, images, emotions, etc. that have run through my mind in the past few days. But the thing that really added a new layer of perspective of all this was that first night, sitting on a roof on 110th Street in Manhattan with a few friends. An F-16 flew over head and it was the only plane in the sky. I said that I had never seen one before. My friend who was born and raised in Lebanon said that it was the first time he had seen an F-16 and not had to worry about what it was going to blow up.
originally posted by xowie
Of course, I'm smoking a pipe dream here, offering a strategy straight from LaLaLand. America will "retaliate," Americans will feel pretty darn good about it, and the president's approval ratings will shoot up higher than 110 stories. It all goes without saying, just like the reasons for terrorism go without saying -- meaning literally that the reasons can never be seriously discussed. The agony thousands of American families are going through this morning will be repeated -- first in an Arab nation, and then, soon, in America again. What goes around comes around. Again and again and again.Our friend Helen's now famous 9-11 essay. (left column)
originally posted by xowie
PBS's Frontline has an extensive site up to accompany its program "Hunting bin Laden," which some stations have been re-airing.
A hole in the world by Jonathan Schell
originally posted by xowie
As one who professes to pray to Jesus every morning in the oval office, I hope our President will heed the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount who said, "..it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" ..."but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."An Eye for An Eye? by Tom Turnipseed.
originally posted by xowie
We who favor peace must create our own national dialogue before we can hope to influence the larger one.Alternet: Waging peace in a terrorist age & not everyone wants bloodshed.
originally posted by xowie
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
originally posted by xowie
Tuesday was International Peace day.
originally posted by xowie
Did Nostradamus predict the tragedy? This might clarify the rumors.
originally posted by faith
This log is dedicated to presenting those graphics created to explain the terrorist act against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
We are calling on the political and military leadership of the United States and its allies to seek justice rather than revenge, and in doing so, break the horrible cycle of violence and suffering. During these difficult times, we call for tolerance and for people in the U.S. and around the world to stand firm against the persecution of innocent Arab and Muslim peoples. We vow to redouble our collective efforts towards social, racial, economic, and environmental justice, civil liberties for all, and nonviolent conflict resolution. Our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and their families. We join people around the world in praying for peace.Ruckus press release.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Dan Kennedy: The End of Decadence.
originally posted by xowie
The enthusiasm of many who planned to participate in the protests has suddenly evaporated. The willingness of the American public to even listen to the protesters' message has surely diminished. Impassioned arguments about the depredations of global capitalism sound, for the moment at least, moot.The DC anti-globalization movement is recovering too.
One Metropolitan Police Department detective put it even more bluntly. "Most of us are veterans," he said. "We're going to go [to the protest] and take care of business: kill, kill, kill."
originally posted by xowie
A co-worker said when he went in to wake up his 4-year-old daughter yesterday morning, she asked, "Did any more castles fall down?"Raise a flag, kick a ball - You never know what will help.
originally posted by xowie
Understanding Osama bin Laden - AlterNet:
The State Department has theorized that if the people of a rogue nation experience enough suffering, they will overthrow their rulers, or compel them to adopt more sensible behavior. The terrorist actions in New York and Washington are a clear and ironic implementation of this strategy against the United States. (...)
Above all, Americans need to remember that the rest of the world has an absolute right to self-determination that is as defensible as our own. A despicable act of terror such as that committed in New York and Washington is a measure of the revulsion that others feel at U.S. actions that seemingly limit those rights. If we perpetuate a cycle of hate and revenge, this conflict will escalate into a war that our great-grandchildren will be fighting.
The broadest goal today of progressives is one that transcends any ideology: we, all of us, as individuals, must become aware and participating citizens of the world, not just the U.S. We have to pay attention beyond our flimsy borders, and we must demand that the U.S. treat others as we would have them treat us. Because no matter who was behind the attacks, it's certain that they felt they were treating us as we have treated others.
And in countless cases, that is correct. The same emotions of shock, terror, grief, rage, and powerlessness that many of us felt yesterday have been felt before by the ordinary people in Belgrade, Dili, Mogadishu, Baghdad, Panama City, Beirut, and many other places where the craters take the form of American footprints. They know the world is a small place. So must we all.
Resources for helping children deal with the 9-11 attacks:
Commentary: A Few Words from Ali Abunimah
originally posted by xowie
``I'm proud to be American and I hate Arabs and I always have,'' said 19-year-old Colin Zaremba who marched with the group from Oak Lawn.This is just what we need at this time.
originally posted by dm8k
I guess "more soon" is the world's all time understatement.
Some of my earliest memories are of seeing the New York Skyline from New Jersey on the way in to visit my family. At Oberlin, the three main buildings of our campus were designed by the same architect and with the same style as the The WTC. The Twin Towers were the first things I saw in the morning and the last things I saw before I went to sleep.
When the WTC towers were built there was extensive controversy over their safety in emergencies. The NYC Fire Department protested, as did a host of other agencies and professional associations. The buildings were constructed in bulk and height far in excess of what municipal constuction and zoning codes allowed. However, the Port Authority, a quasi-governmental agency with exceptional powers inherited from the regime of Robert Moses, was specifically exempt from compliance with municipal codes. The real estate, construction and finance industries were powerful supporters of the project.
Aside, I add that in 30 some years of examining buildings in New York, I have found none, zero, which are fully compliant with municipal building codes. It is a terrible, little reported scandal of the city in which it is considered to be bad business to fully comply with codes.
Tuesday did not offer a flattering exhibition of America's leaders. President Bush gave a timid and stilted initial reaction in Sarasota, Fla., then disappeared for an hour before resurfacing in at a base in Barksdale, La., where he gave another flaccid address with every appearance of being on tranquilizers.Alex. Cockburn and Harold Myerson.
No American president since FDR after Pearl Harbor had faced quite the kind of rhetorical challenge that W. confronted on Tuesday night; and if it seems a tad unfair to hold W. to the Roosevelt standard, well, nobody made this guy run for president, or forced him to steal the position when he couldn’t win it at the ballot box.
originally posted by xowie
At TomPaine.com: Op-Ed Pages Trot out the White Hawks.
It may seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run. I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence.The Dalai Lama's letter to the President of the United States of America.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
At 8:59 a.m., before he had heard the news, David Jacobs, a Brooklyn resident and software architect, posted to the Web log randomWalks a New York Times interview with Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber who recently published a memoir, Fugitive Days. While the Twin Towers were being designed and built in 1972, Ayers was planting bombs in the Pentagon and the Capitol. ‘I don’t regret setting bombs,’ he told reporter Dinitia Smith in the interview, which ran, presciently, Tuesday morning. ‘I feel we didn’t do enough.’ Only a few minutes later, Jacobs did what the Times couldn’t: He explained the strange synchronicity. ‘It’s a complete coincidence that I posted about the weathermen moments before the WTC & Pentagon fires,’ he wrote on the site. ‘More soon.’Change in the Weather by our friend Judith Lewis. There's a lot more 9-11 in today's LAW.
originally posted by xowie
More weblog coverage: booknotes and kottke.org.
Check out this unique and powerful satellite image "processed with the SWIR band which is particularly sensitive to fire spots. Thanks to this SWIR band two red spots are clearly visible through the plume of smoke at the south end of Manhattan island."
The 9-11 coverage by two hundred weblogs, including randomWalks, has been archived for posterity.
Noam Chomsky: On the Bombings.
originally posted by xowie
When I began crying I thought, ``Bury the dead. Bury the dead and tell each one of their mundane American stories, all with the same ending, and make everyone read all 10,000 or 30,000 or whatever, and see if that makes people thirst for more blood, when it's all told out, when they've heard the stories of all the dead, and when they understand that America will go and put the ending on tens of thousands of other stories, in Afghanistan or wherever we decide, then ask if they want that to happen, or if they want to figure out some way around it.''Paul Ford on Ftrain.com.
They pay rent-a-cops $5.75 an hour to make sure the bad guys don’t get on my plane. That is what my life is worth - less than the cost of an oil change. Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on American Eagle (the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around $15,000 a year in annual pay. That’s right - $15,000 for the person who has your life in his hands. Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over $13,000 a year. There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids so he went down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps - and he was eligible! Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is.Latest from Michael Moore.
originally posted by xowie
Deep 9-11 searches free from LexisNexis.
originally posted by xowie
Remy, a student of P.S. 139 in Brooklyn, said that he had been in school all day, and could tell something was wrong early in the morning, because teachers kept leaving the class to talk in the hall. He recalls, "My teacher said, 'I don't have permission to tell you what happened.'"Salon: Brooklyn kids tell the story they were told.
originally posted by xowie
Ray Downey: an essay from Gov. Keating.
originally posted by xowie
A caller asked Howard if he thinks the World Trade Center buildings will be rebuilt. Crazy Cabbie said they should be put right back up to show the world we haven't been defeated. He also said that his radio partner Cane said that when those buildings went down it was like chopping off the country's testicles. We need our manhood back so they should be put back up right away.There's no accounting for taste. He's managed to comfort a lot of people.
originally posted by xowie
Neale of wrongwaygoback.com is constructing a detailed timeline of 9-11 World Trade Center attack.
Why the towers collapsed features a helpful graphic.
"We are Arab-Americans, yes, but today we feel American. This happened on our soil here. The people who lost their lives are our people, too."More Arab-American reactions: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, L.A., New Jersey, Philly, Seattle, Vegas.
originally posted by xowie
"I said to the guy next to me, "It's going to crash in. It's going to crash in.' Then it crashed in,'' Lee said.Surreal terror in New York.
originally posted by xowie
Over in Brooklyn, which is even more ethnically diverse than New York, the most unusual thing is the light. That and all the people. In Boreum Hill, about three miles southeast of the massive column of smoke, dust, and ash, you can still see scraps of paper hovering in the sky. The debris refracts the sun, touching everything on the street with a spooky, gray-gold patina. All along Atlantic Avenue, thousands of people walk home from work or school in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Some wear dust masks. Dozens gather on the street corners to gaze up at the sky.Salon interviews NYC Arab-Americans. Also: Flying with phantoms.
originally posted by xowie
Jonathan of killyourtv.com has started a special blog on the attack called life during wartime.
Political cartoonists respond to the attack.
If you're having trouble with the news sites:
Google Current Events. Many online news services are not available because of extremely high demand. Here are links to news sites, including cached copies as they appeared earlier today.
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matt. 3:34dj/adam that strip is heartbreaking. And I can't stop thinking of the people on those planes. I'm going off to smoke pot until I pass out. And tomorrow will be a new fucking day.
originally posted by xowie
The Objectives And Aims Of Jihaad:From The Islamic Page.
- Raising the Word of Allaah, the Most High
- Helping the Oppressed
- Repelling Aggression and Protecting Islam
originally posted by xowie
Oliver North (gak!) just pointed out on Fox News that the U.S. once went to war with the Barbary Pirates.
In other words, 9-11 could result in a declaration of war.
originally posted by xowie
9-11 links at ResearchBuzz.
originally posted by xowie
Poynter.org: Covering the Attack - story ideas, ethical guidelines, media analysis.
The corporate media often referred to Pearl Harbor as they covered the attacks. This analogy appears to come from the unexpected nature of the attacks as well as their overwhelming force.Early Analysis of Media Coverage - Indymedia
While there are some parallels between the two attacks, there is also a difference that has disturbing implications for everyone in the United States. The attack on Pearl Harbor was made by another nation. This attack was most likely the work of a small group of people. The United States was able to attack Japan afterward because nations are easy to find. Small groups of people are somewhat more difficult to find. Thus, national defense agencies and industries will undoubtedly see a substantial increase in their operating funds while Americans will see a corresponding decrease in civil liberties.
Lest anyone make this a partisan issues, Clinton laid the ground work for tomorrow's attack on civil liberties with such actions as greatly increasing the FBI's wire-tapping abilities. With CNN interviewing people like Tom Clancy (no joke), there will be no shortage of people calling for Americans to trade in some more freedom in return for a promise of more security. Benjamin Franklin correctly said that the people who would make that trade would neither get nor deserve freedom or security.
WTC/Pentagon attacks meta-coverage:
Everyone from Pat Robertson to assorted elected officials are blaming not only Islamic terrorists, but "Islam" as a shorthand for it--all with, as yet, no evidence of who might have been behind the attacks.Laura Flanders and Geov Parrish at Working for Change.
Tom Brokaw on NBC can't get enough of State Department officials. For hours this morning, NBC "reported" that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine had "claimed responsibility" for the attack on the World Financial Center. Brokaw's source, it turns out, was an anonymous caller to Abu Dhabi television.
originally posted by xowie
Good reminder from an activist mailing list:
Be vigilant against the anti Muslim hysteria that could hit. We already ran into a guy who was spray painting 'Fuck Islam'. After a few stern words, and a talk about the Muslims who surely were in the World Trade Center when the planes hit, he helped us spray paint over his racist tag. White people in particular have a real responsibility here to protect our middle eastern brothers and sisters from the mindless, racist, reasonless attacks and finger pointing that are sure to follow this attack.
Check in here if you're alive in New York or any other affected city (DC).
dead @ 32 is hosting lots of photos and video of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Huge smoke cloud visible on NYC radar. (MeFi)
originally posted by xowie
What good is spilling blood?
It will not grow a thing
"TASTE ETERNITY"
the sword sings Blues for ALLAH
In'sh'ALLAH
They lie where they fall
There's nothing more to say
- Robt. Hunter
look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once
the wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together
look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox
you too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me
- Rumi
'An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.'
- Mahatma Gandhi (via Noise Between Stations)
originally posted by xowie
If you're in Manhattan, think about something seriously for me -- there was already a major blood shortage, and there will be an immense need for blood. Most hospitals have set up ways for you to walk in and donate blood today; please, if you're OK, and your family is OK, and you are just glued to your television, think about ungluing yourself, walking to your nearest hospital, and donating blood.Jason at Q Daily News is a doctor living and working in New York.
I cannot stress how important this is right now.
CIA fact sheet and Muslim student database on Osama bin Laden.
originally posted by xowie
globaldj (8:51:44 AM): hi :) global (8:51:51 AM): hi How ar eyou ? globaldj (8:52:00 AM): Good, and how are you? globaln (8:52:15 AM): Good but I am sick though globaldj (8:52:41 AM): Oh no! I'm sorry. global (8:57:33 AM): There is the plane crash into World Trade Center and I saw it live here in my apartment. globaldj (8:58:36 AM): Today ?? global (8:58:47 AM): just now, two minutes ago. globaldj (8:58:47 AM): Oh My god ! I can see it too! globaldj (9:00:11 AM): when was it?? global (9:00:25 AM): now, it become five minutes ago. global (9:00:42 AM): It's on fire right now. if you watch TV it's on every channel. globaldj (9:02:36 AM): Yeah, I can also see it from my apartment.
It's a complete coincidence that I posted about the weathermen moments before the WTC & Pentagon fires. More soon
Mr. Ayers, who in 1970 was said to have summed up the Weatherman philosophy as: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at," is today distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And he says he doesn't actually remember suggesting that rich people be killed or that people kill their parents, but "it's been quoted so many times I'm beginning to think I did," he said. "It was a joke about the distribution of wealth."The way the wind blows... Checking in with the Weathermen.
Sec. 101: Prohibition of Certain Devices.As an attorney, I have to say this is one of the most grotesque and frightening articles I have ever read. If it is not a hoax. If enacted, the SSSCA would be grounds for civil war. (Thanks Boing Boing.)
(a) In General -- It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies that adhere to the security system standards adopted under section 104.
originally posted by xowie
Buddy Holly's 65th birthday. Rave on!
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
My unseen opponent began with some highly irregular, if not totally absurd, opening moves - shifting all his pawns forward by one square. These were moves that no Grandmaster would ever play. From this deliberately unpromising position emerged moves of extraordinary power. In the first game I was totally crushed.Chess legend 'plays the web' - BBC News. Grandmaster and speed chess expert Nigel Short suspects his anonymous Internet opponent is none other than Bobby Fischer.
I am Seymour Skinner. Who are you?
Of course if you're Einstein, you want everything that you want your way and then you want to be left alone. So you want love, and you want affection, you want a good meal, but then you don't want any interference outside of that, so you don't want any obligations interfering with your life, with your work. Which is a difficult stance to maintain in an adult relationship; it doesn't work. Everything has to be a give and take. Einstein always felt Paradise was just around the corner, but as soon as he got there, it started looking a little shabby and something better appeared.Dennis Overbye talks about Einstein in love. thanks, wordforge.
SF Gate: Sketches of the Game of Ultimate.
originally posted by xowie
"John and George had already had a dose, but then called me and asked if I wanted to come over, and I thought 'yeah, cool, why not -- it's the Beatles after all','' he recalled, describing how they had gone on to get high.Peter Fonda Recalls Acid Trip with the Beatles.
originally posted by xowie
Fortunately the world didn't split in two as one of the children surveyed before the event believed would happen, nor did the Earth leave the Sun's orbit as feared by another.UK Children Cause Earthquake in Giant Jump.
The Adult Industry Medical (AIM) HealthCare Foundation was started by porn legend Sharon Mitchell to provide HIV testing and health care for performers in the adult entertainment industry. They are providing a vital service to exploited workers and are terribly under-funded. If you watch porn, you should support this organization.
originally posted by xowie
The Washington Post delivers a comics primer and previews this weekend's EXPO 2001 in Bethesda, Md.
George Washington University, located in the DC neighborhood expected to see some state violence at the end of this month, is closing its dorms for five days surrounding the IMF/World Bank meetings. An interesting aspect of the shutdown which somehow didn't make it into the Washington Post article is that the DC police will be using GWU as a base of operations.
The U.S. runs but can't hide.
originally posted by xowie
Who's got the beats in hip-hop these days? Where is the song that gets you snapping your neck before you even realize the stereo's on, and then keeps you nodding after it ends, like the next day?
When I first did the Lawrence story, the biggest problem was for the very small papers in the United States. The editors may have agreed with it, but they couldn't run it. One editor told me someone broke windows at his paper, and another said his kids got beaten up at school and someone spray-painted his dog.Lynn Johnston on introducing a gay character into her comic strip, For Better or For Worse, in 1993. What a country! Lawrence returned today. Let's hope it's to a warmer welcome.
The Jiffy Lube sex art hurt no one and bothered only bigots. Its censorship bodes ill for the future of Black Rock City, which is rapidly deteriorating into an RV park/fun fair with really lousy weather. My favorite sign on the entrance road read, ‘If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.’ Maybe it’s time for someone to move over.Judith Lewis says the right thing about this year's Burning Man.
originally posted by xowie
i missed the 9/3/2001 post by adam about the game werewolves. It is a rather wicked game. Because it requires that everyone be deceitful, you look at your friend who is "incapable of falsehood" in a completely different light after the game is over. also, I consider seven players to be too few. go nine or better.
originally posted by oldwabbles
The ultra-dope nologo folks are sponsoring an essay contest "in response to the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO's) own competition announced earlier this year. The counter contest is intended to challenge the over-protection of intellectual property which is doing much damage to education, health care, the environment, and economic security for millions around the world."
That kind of stuff, familiar to us all, kept piling up in my mind and got me started trying to figure out how white supremacy had come about in the u.s. working class. So for years after this I read labor history and asked older trade union radicals questions whenever I could.Finally, an anarchist veteran of the autoworkers' historic 1937 Flint Sit-Down strike told me that the strike had been Jim Crow, that one of the unpublicized demands had been to keep Black workers down as only janitors....or out of the plants altogether. This blew my mind. That's when it hit me that the wonderful working class history that the movement had taught us was a lie.From an interview with J. Sakai, author of Settlers. Wow.
It was hard research work, but no conceptual leap at all to see that in general in u.s. history the colonized peoples have been the proletariat, while the white working class has been a labor aristocracy. This has been camouflaged in capitalist history by retroactively assigning white racial membership to various european immigrant peoples who weren't "white" at the time. For instance, when leading u.s. capitalists started the "Interracial Council" to promote patriotic nationalist integration during World War I, the "races" they wanted to bring together were the Irish race, the Welsh race, the Polish race, the Lithuanian race, the Hungarian race, the Sicilian race, the Rumanian race, and other Europeans that we now think of as only nationalities within the white race. Shows you how race is another capitalist manufactured product.
Racism as we experience it today didn't exist before capitalism, which is why many revolutionaries see rooting out the one as requiring rooting out the other. To Europeans before modern capitalism the most important "races" were what we would call nations. Indeed, until well into the 20th century it was widely assumed by Europeans that even different European nationalities were biologically different, and had different mental abilities and propensities. Slavs were thought to be biologically different from Nordics, and Jews were thought to be an exotic race all by themselves.
There's a certain trend of fashionable white thought that claims that race is nothing more than a trick, an imaginary construct that folks are fooled into believing in. So we even find some middle-class white men claiming that they've "given up being white" (i can hear my grandmother saying, "More white foolishness!" with a dismissing headshake). Needless to say, they haven't given up anything.
Race as a form of class is very tangible, solid, material, as real as a tank division running over you ... tank divisions, after all, are also socially constructed! About another form of this same white racist game -- white New Age women deciding to play at "becoming Indian" -- Women of All Red Nations activist Andy Smith used to wearily suggest that if they really really wanted to "become Indian" they should live on the rez -- the u.s. colony -- without running water or jobs, without heat in the winter or education for their children, with real poverty, alcoholism, and violent oppression.
Secret neo-Nazi dances have been held for two years at the Shack, a rock club near Disneyland.
originally posted by xowie
There is a belief among some black comics that audiences find it funny when they launch extended insults against white people (see also Chris Rock's embarrassing outburst in the forthcoming "Jay and Silent Bob"). My feeling is that audiences of any race find such scenes awkward and unwelcome; I've never heard laughter during them, but have sensed an uncomfortable alertness in the theater. Accusing complete strangers of being racist is aggressive, hostile, and not funny, something Tucker demonstrates to a painful degree in this movie--where the filmmakers apparently lacked the nerve to request him to dial down.Presumably Roger Ebert thinks black comics should stick to insulting black people. Perhaps he would agree with After the Rain's suggestion that if Tucker learns to "behave better," he could be a "really cool black guy, like Will Smith." Personally, I would expect Roger Ebert to behave a little better than criticising actors for the script they're given, not to mention "accusing complete strangers of being racist."
New book by Douglas Coupland, new show by ("Freaks and Geeks" creator) Judd Apatow. thanks, alt-log.
Extra! Extra!
Mother Teresa underwent exorcism
Film at 11.
originally posted by dm8k
The critic Louis Menand wrote in The New York Review of Books in March 1995: "Kael was the most brilliantly ad hoc critic of her time, and she made it possible to care about movies without feeling pompous or giddy by showing that what comes first in everyone's experience of a movie isn't the form or the idea but the sensation, and that this is just as true for moviegoers who have been taught to intellectualize their responses to art as it is for everyone else."
died yesterday.
Though not remarkable in any way, this PBS NewsHour "Fighting Racism" site should be listed in the open directory's Race and Racism category, as should this NPR World Conference Against Racism special report. It's too bad I can't figure out what happened to my editorship.
Race Relations: The American Possibilities.
(thanks Sundog).
Blood meal, bone meal and fish emulsion are just what they say they are: the remains of blood, bones and fish. The first two products come from cattle slaughterhouses, where bones and blood are dried, crushed and packaged for gardeners. Fish emulsion and other fish-based products are made from carcasses left over at fish-processing plants, though sometimes fish are caught specifically to be used as fertilizer.Is Your Garden Vegetarian? / Alternatives to Blood Meal, Bone Meal and Fish Emulsion.
Why this fascination with cylinder heads and brake pads? Why is an ordinary guy like me (no klutz with a box wrench but no mechanic) glued to the Vanagon Mailing List from one day to the next like it's a discount-bin Grisham novel at the beach? It must be the same reason I'm compelled to look over the mechanic's shoulder at the garage. It's my car, darn it, and I don't want to miss anything.VW Vanagon enthusiasts have an online haven.
Police ordered the removal of gay artwork from Burning Man.
originally posted by xowie
The Original Unofficial Joint Smoking Rules will surely be amusing to thumb through at the bookstore.
"Here are recent commissions and experimental paintings by John Pound, done in the style of his Garbage Pail Kids artwork."
Excerpts from the Kurt Cobain bio.
originally posted by xowie
One big story out of Durban is last week's general strike.
originally posted by xowie
"Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Uvaldo? Uvaldo? Uvaldo? Uvaldo?" shouts one man. He is using a phone card but might as well be trying to shout all the way to his home country.Pay phones of the Ballston Metro.
originally posted by xowie
Two from Westchester Weekly: The Zen of Being Poor and an interview with John Stauber.
originally posted by xowie
The last delivery by Mr. McFeely -- Rogers's middle name is McFeely -- was a videotape of artists at work, which Mister Rogers showed as part of the day's art theme. Then McFeely shook Rogers's hand, the first handshake between the two characters in 33 years. It was the only clue that this was the end of something, Newell explained yesterday.Last day in the neighborhood.
originally posted by xowie
The documents indicate that the Pentagon sees the film business as an important part of public relations. "Military depictions have become more of a 'commercial' for us," said one memo quoted in an investigation by David Robb in the current issue of the media magazine Brill's Content... The film companies are often shown in the documents to be more than anxious to help. "We firmly believe that with the support of the US military, Armageddon will be the biggest film of 1998, while illustrating the expertise, leadership and heroism of the US military," wrote Disney executive Philip Nemy to the Pentagon.Filmmakers re-write scripts to please the military. (c/o Unknown News)
originally posted by xowie
Maggie Krzywicka on reading Gravity's Rainbow: Thomas Pynchon is a deeply disturbed man. Good luck.
Did you know Apple sells at a discount for homeschools? Cool.
Consumers will be able to electronically send TV shows to others with ReplayTV boxes, sources say, though the company plans to use software that limits the number of times a program can be played or sent.ReplayTV to re-enter DVR box business - CNET.com. For two thousand dollars, a box that stores three hundred twenty hours of TV -- and runs Napster!
