One of my dreams...

The University Of Gastronomic Sciences Opens Its Doors
On October 4 2004 the University of Gastronomic Sciences will open its doors to the first class of students. “It is a historic day for the Athenaeum, created by Slow Food and the Regional Authorities of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna,” sustains Vittorio Manganelli , director of the Association of Friends of the University of Gastronomic Sciences, “and for all of those who have participated in the preparation of the campuses and courses over the past months. We would especially like to thank the Members and Friends of our Association.” Beginning Monday, more than 70 students from around the world will arrive at the Pollenzo campus; over 40 are Italian and 27 are foreigners. “The success which we have had in the application process confirms our expectations,” continues Manganelli, “in that we already, in the first year, have a notable presence of foreigners.” The nations represented in the new student body include: the United States, Japan, Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ukraine and Palestine.
...

Electoral College map

Okay, this map is cool. Float your mouse over it.

This Washington Post article details how the U.S. government is trying to rewire our heads to see good news.
The Bush administration, battling negative perceptions of the Iraq war, is sending Iraqi Americans to deliver what the Pentagon calls "good news" about Iraq to U.S. military bases, and has curtailed distribution of reports showing increasing violence in that country.

The unusual public-relations effort by the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development comes as details have emerged showing the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Combined, they indicate that the federal government is working assiduously to improve Americans' opinions about the Iraq conflict -- a key element of Bush's reelection message

The ACLU's lawsuit had to be kept secret by law?

The ACLU had to keep secret its lawsuit in protest of a particular law, because if it didn't keep the lawsuit secret it would be violating said law. Wow. I am living in some weird, weird times.
Reuters: Judge Rules Against Patriot Act Provision:
Marrero, stating that "democracy abhors undue secrecy," found that the law violates constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches. He said it also violated free speech rights by barring those who received FBI demands from disclosing they had to turn over records.

Because of this gag order, the ACLU initially had to file its suit against the Department of Justice under seal to avoid penalties for violation of the surveillance laws.

An interest burgeoning: corporate ethics

This is a buzz in the back of my head right now. But it is what limited me to seek out only two places in Ann Arbor which I was willing to work for long-term. I needed to find places that demonstrated an ability and a conscious drive to marry ethics to a profit margin. Since my interest is food, that meant two places for me, Zingerman's and People's Food Coop. I'm sure that others might exist, but I don't know of them yet, which means that the importance placed on ethics isn't screamed out like I believe those two businesses scream them out.

World Religions: Ethical Resources for the Modern Business Corporation:
C. Don Presario, speaking of the importance of just one religion to corporate stewardship, tells us, "In Buddhist theory, moral corruption or moral growth tends to flow from higher levels of the social hierarchy to the lower levels. It is imperative that we entrust the guidance of the destinies of the world to individuals who have cultivated the [ethical sense] that Buddhism prescribes in its Nobel Path." [P. Don Premasiri, "The Relevance of the Nobel Eightfold Path to Contemporary Society," in Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society, edited by Charles Wei-hsun Fu and Sandra A. Wawrytko (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991)]

Today's modern business corporation is at the top of the social hierarchy. Given the dependence of civilization on these corporations, what their managers do -- good or bad -- will "flow" to the rest of the world. Corporate leaders can, as they become the stewards of the world, avail themselves to the great ethical traditions found within the world's religions and philosophies.

On blogging and its freaks

I appreciated this article (not just because it started with mathematics) about bloggers at the political conventions because of the strong humility that it conveyed and offered for others to take upon themselves. I see all these offers for advertising on one's blog, for earning money by trying to increase the number of hits to your site. It's all an attempt to make people desire something more from their blog (money, fame, power) than what the blog offers freely (a place to put your thoughts in public space for other people to read).

Blogging, Democratic Convention, "Pamphleteers", and Reaction:
When people speak of "bloggers as the new pamphleteers" or some such, that almost always has a patronizing undertone to me. I hear an unvoiced aspect of "Aren't they C-U-T-E!". Like what you would say to a child doing finger-painting. "That's such a gorgeous picture, err, blog-post. Maybe someday you'll be a famous artist, err, pundit". It's like "Model United Nations" or "Class President". It's not meaningful in terms of power, except perhaps as play-act training in how to behave in those roles. And the flip-side of the "Junior Achievement" expectation is the "Juvenile Delinquent" archetype, those rotten kids today who have no standards, not like their elders.
...
The blunt question of readers is always "Why should I read you"? They're asking, what power and influence do you have, what intellectual worth do you possess, what is your place in the social hierarchy? It's not impressive to answer: "Because I am a unique and special snowflake".

NPR : Connie Rice: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates

My two favorites...
NPR : Connie Rice: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates: "(3.) The 'extended discussion' portion of the debate cannot exceed 30 seconds.

'Other than the stupidity of the debate contract, what topic do you know that can be extendedly discussed in 30 seconds?'

(1.) Fortune 100 corporations are the main funders of the CPD-sponsored debates, and the CPD's co-chairs are corporate lobbyists.

The CPD is run by Frank Fahrenkopf, a pharmaceutical industry lobbyist, and Paul Kirk, a top gambling lobbyist,' Rice says. 'And the biggest muliti-national corporations write the checks that fund the CPD -- Phillip Morris, Anheuser-Busch and dozens more. The audience may have to be silent and motionless, but the corporate sponsors can have banners, beer tents, Budweiser girls handing out pamphlets protesting beer taxes -- a corporate-sponsored circus to go along with the Kabuki Debates. Could we get a more fitting description of our democracy?'"

MemoryBlog: Military Draft Document Posted

MemoryBlog: At the beginning of May, the Hearst News Service ran a virtually unnoticed article based on a document from the Selective Service. Released due to a FOIA request, the proposal says that registration and any future draft should include women, as well as people (with 'critical skills') up to age 34.

Unfortunately, Hearst didn't post the document itself, but an enterprising person filed a 'piggyback' FOIA request and received the same document. It is now posted at this page.

Pistols at noon outside Congress' doors

100 years ago, they would have been dueling after this...

SCENE: House International Relations Committee
PROTAGONISTS: Henry Hyde (Illinois Republican) & Gary Ackerman (New York Democrat)
At House Hearing, Quips, Insults and Some Official Business
Mr. Hyde did not mollify Mr. Ackerman a bit. "Nobody questions your patriotism," Mr. Hyde said. "It's your judgment that's under question."

The two lawmakers interrupted each other a few more times, until Mr. Ackerman said, "What's obvious, Mr. Chairman, is that you are a rather vicious partisan."

"Now you're really getting personal," Mr. Hyde observed.

"Well," Mr. Ackerman countered, "I think that willful ignorance is kind of personal also, Mr. Chairman."

"Just remember," Mr. Hyde shot back, "ignorance is salvageable, but stupid is forever."

"I know that," Mr. Ackerman said, "and I'm glad that you've memorized that." He went on to say that Mr. Hyde's insults notwithstanding, he had never called the president a liar

Our wanton destruction of culture

I think this letter saddened me more than I've ever been saddened yet about this disgraceful destruction my country has unilaterally done. If I could even begin to apologize for what my nation has wrought... but there is no apology worthy of it. All I can think to do is not to turn my eyes away, not to pretend it's not happening, not to be numb to it, and not to let it defeat me; to give all the dying people and the culture that we are actively destroying (as opposed to the dozens we passively destroy) dignity in my memory at least.

What must our more introspective soldiers go through, who have to see the destruction daily? Can they help but turn numb in the face of it? I know who the Iraqis will be angry at, but as those soldiers come back who didn't sign up to destroy a culture, who will they be angry at?

Informed Comment : 09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004: "[From Dr. Kamil Mahdi, who has lectured in economics at Exeter University in the UK and is an Iraqi expatriate and former political exile.]

Did you realise they are demolishing the old city of Najaf, just like that?! This is an act of unbelievable vandalism and ignorance, and it is in the style of Saddam.
...
The destruction of Najaf which is now under way is drastic and irreversible. Read the statement by Hussain Al-Shami, the Shi'i waqf [Pious Endowments] head. Clearly, the whole thing was a mere idea two weeks ago, and already demolition has begun.

People should at least discuss the rights and wrongs of such decisions. There is no such discussion. Is this the so-called democracy all these people have died and are dying for? If this is carried out without an open and meaningful public consultation that takes place in a rational atmosphere and in total transparency, it will be nothing short of a criminal assault on Iraq's heritage and on its history. All over the civilised world, historic cities are protected, preserved and developed in ways that retain the character and identity of the city and the integrity of its physical and social fabric.
..."

I don't like living in "a sound-bite world"

From Knight-Ridder, Washington Bureau
KR Washington Bureau | 09/23/2004 | Despite accusations, Kerry's position on Iraq has been consistent: "...Kerry voted in October 2002 for the congressional resolution that authorized President Bush to go to war in Iraq. He now says that the invasion was not justified and has made the United States less secure.

These positions are not contradictory, but his attempts to explain the distinction between them are often complicated, and they have given President Bush an opening to caricature Kerry as a flip-flopper. However, beneath the torrent of campaign verbiage, Kerry's position on Iraq for the past two years has been consistent and defensible - just difficult to sell in a sound-bite world.
..."

Luckily, blogs and their various hyperlinks are anything but sound-bites.

Green and Libertarian Parties Debate Thursday, download available

PRESS RELEASE: Presidential Candidates Badnarik and Cobb to debate in MiamiMichael Badnarik and David Cobb, the presidential candidates from the Libertarian and Green parties, will take questions from media, students and the public in an open forum the night of—and just feet from—the first televised “debate” between the two-party candidates.

The debate will take place on Thursday, September 30, at 5 p.m., at the Holiday Inn Ballroom, 1350 S. Dixie Highway, in Coral Gables. Pacifica Radio will interview audience members and debate participants following the two hour debate. From 9 p.m. until 10:30, the candidates and audience will watch a live broadcast of the restricted, two-party debate after which Badnarik and Cobb will offer their rebuttals.

Independent candidate Ralph Nader, who has been invited to participate in the open format debate, has not yet accepted the invitation.

Unlike the scripted and staged exchange between the two-party candidates which will take place directly across Dixie Highway from the Holiday Inn Ballroom, the open format debate will allow for uncensored questions from the public and students and will represent a wide range of viewpoints on the critical issues facing our country.

This site, which I find a little too creepy (read as Libertarian), will be streaming it and offering it for download.

RealPlayer has so many ads, but...

This must be a United Kingdom day for me this morning, the way it's shaping up.

The BBC offers RealPlayer without any of the ads, spyware, etc. Evidently BBC's charter prevents them from allowing outside advertising, so they came to a special agreement with RealNetworks. So RealOne is spyware-free if downloaded from the BBC's installation page.

I also decided to register as if I lived in London (although I used the fake postal code E20, which some UK soap opera uses). Lo and behold, all the trailers and previews are UK related now, which is infinitely cooler than the American related ones. I wouldn't be offered Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy episodes if I told them I lived in Michigan.

Thank you to LibrarianInBlack and Neil Gaiman's journal for the BBC/RealOne info.

Europe to Bush: Go Away; Even British Prefer Kerry for President

Europe to Bush: Go Away; Even British Prefer Kerry for President: "A survey published this month by the Program on International Policy Attitudes in Washington, which conducts polls on global issues, found that Europeans overwhelmingly opposed Bush's re-election. Kerry was the favored candidate even in Britain, the Bush administration's closest ally. There, 47 percent of those interviewed said they would choose Kerry, compared with 16 percent for Bush.

Not surprisingly, anti-Bush feelings were strongest in countries whose governments have based their foreign policies on refusing to join the U.S.- dominated coalition in Iraq. In Germany, 74 percent said they would back Kerry, compared with 10 percent for Bush, while in France only 5 percent said they would vote for Bush, and 63 percent said they supported Kerry.

...
In Spain, Kerry's lead over Bush was only slightly narrower: 47 to 7 percent."

Thanks to On Becoming British for pointing me here.

Bush respects democracy in Iraq as much as he does in America

Behind the Homefront: "SECRET US PLAN TO INFLUENCE IRAQ ELECTIONS REVEALED, DENIED Time magazine reports the existence of a secret government proposal that the CIA offer clandestine aid to select Iraqi candidates in that country's upcoming January elections. In the face of a subsequent negative congressional response, the Bush Administration has denied that any such plans still exist. "

Bush buys Beef Association endorsement, at what cost?

This article from the New York Times (so remember to use this password for NYT)
After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems and restore confidence in the nation's meat industry.

Some rules were adopted this year. But a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay - and to the concern of food safety groups, possibly kill - completion of the most controversial and perhaps most expensive proposal for cattle companies.

That proposal would sharply restrict what could be included in animal feed. Shortly after the administration slowed its consideration of the rule, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association broke its nonpartisan tradition and endorsed President Bush for re-election.

NOTE: Remember if you're going to eat beef, seek out responsible producers such as Niman Ranch. Here's a link, and here's another one, for sites you can go to that help you locate responsible producers of agricultural products in your area.

Visions of Sugar Clouds Dancing In Space

Washington Post article, so this is the Bug Me Not password for Washington Post.

A cotton candy-like cloud of simple sugar drifts in the unspeakably cold center of the Milky Way about 26,000 light years away, offering a remote, yet tantalizing, hint of how the building blocks of life may have reached Earth billions of years ago.

This frigid cloud is composed of molecular glycolaldehyde, a sugar that, when it reacts with other sugars or carbon molecules, can form a more complex sugar called ribose, the starting point for DNA and RNA, which carry the genetic code for all living things.

Reuters shows Bush is a liar or a fool

A national wire feed shows that Bush is a liar, a fool, or both. Will every paper pick it up and print it on the front page? No.

Key Bush Assertions About Iraq in Dispute

The merry-go-round of White House press briefings

This is the answer to one question, or rather the non-answer to a question that had to be reasked over and over.
What we put up with: Q Is the President at all worried -- is he worried at all about the legitimacy of the election that's going to be held in January in Iraq?

MR. MCCLELLAN: You heard from Prime Minister Allawi yesterday, that Prime Minister Allawi talked about how most of the country could hold elections today. There are still some ongoing security challenges that present some real difficulties for the interim government and for our coalition forces. The Prime Minister talked about his -- he came here yesterday to thank America and talk about his strategy for defeating the terrorists and defeating the Saddam loyalists who are trying to derail that transition and trying to stop the election from happening. That's the most -- as the President pointed out yesterday, the most important part of the five-point plan that we're pursuing. There's been steady progress made, but there are difficulties that remain. But Prime Minister Allawi has said he is fully committed to holding free and fair elections by the end of January.

Q That doesn't completely answer the question. The question is, is the President concerned at all about the legitimacy of the results of a January election?

MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said, everybody is confident that Iraq will hold free and fair elections by the end of January. The Iraqi people, every step of the way, have risen to the challenges and met the timetables that have been set out for them. With a sovereign government, with the national conference --

Q I'm not asking whether they're going to be held or not -- I'm not asking whether they're going to be held or not.

MR. McCLELLAN: That's why I said there are going to be free and fair elections, I answered your question.

Q The question is the result --

MR. McCLELLAN: It will be free and fair elections, yes.

Q Is there any question -- is there any question that the President has about the legitimacy of the result of that election?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, he is confident that they will have free and fair elections by the end of January.

Q Scott, what about Don Rumsfeld? Does the President agree with Rumsfeld's assertion that even if you only had elections in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country it would be better than no elections?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think, one, Secretary Rumsfeld talked about that yesterday and he talked about it and he said it's a hypothetical. Today he talked -- continued to talk about the elections and he said that the new government is determined to defeat the terrorists and to hold elections and that every Iraqi deserves the right to vote. And he said that -- something along the lines of how the United States and the coalition and the Iraqi government intend to make sure that those elections are held on time, and that every Iraqi has the right to vote. So he has reiterated what we've all said, which is that everybody is committed to free and fair elections for the Iraqi people.

Q So you don't agree that elections that were in only three-quarters or four-fifths of the country --

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let's point out what Prime Minister Allawi said yesterday. I believe it was 15 of 18 provinces, he said, could hold elections today. And there continues to be steady progress in places like Najaf, in Kufa, in Samaraa, to bring stability to those areas. And he's working to address those other areas so there can be free and fair elections.

Q But let me try this again, though. Do you agree with Rumsfeld that if it were only in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country it would still be better than no elections at all?

MR. McCLELLAN: He said yesterday he was talking about a hypothetical situation. We're confident that there will be free and fair elections for the Iraqi people. And that goes back to Deb's question --

Q But you're not confident they'll be free, fair and universal?

MR. McCLELLAN: Oh, Secretary Rumsfeld said today that -- talked about how -- the importance of every Iraqi have the right to vote. So --

Q You're saying the right to vote --

Q The question is not --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's a hypothetical, and you know I don't do that.

Q The question is not whether they have the right to vote, Scott, the question is whether they're afraid to go to the polls or not, and if the vote at the end reflects only --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's not the question you asked. The question you asked -- that's not the question you asked. That's why I said that there has been steady progress to address the ongoing security challenges. Najaf now has been addressed. Kufa has been addressed. Samaraa has made -- they've made great progress in Samaraa. Fallujah, and some of the other areas there, in that area, are being addressed, too. Prime Minister Allawi talked about his strategy for addressing the security threats and for reaching out to leaders in those areas to bring about a resolution to the situation. So everybody is talking about the importance of holding free and fair elections, so that all the Iraqis have the right to vote by the end of January.

Q But are all Iraqis going to vote in January?

MR. McCLELLAN: We're confident that there will be free and fair elections. That's what --

Q All Iraqis, everywhere?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's what Secretary Rumsfeld talked about today, as well.

Q No, he's talking about -- it's a difference between a right to vote and the ability to vote. Are you saying --

MR. McCLELLAN: Free and fair elections, meaning -- is referring to that very topic you're bringing up. Everybody said there will be free and fair elections. That's what Prime Minister Allawi talked about yesterday.

Q In the whole of the country, right?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's what Prime Minister Allawi talked about yesterday.

[A few other questions get asked and not answered]
...
Q Let me try this one more time. Is the President confident that the people of Iraqi will view the election in January as a legitimate election?

MR. McCLELLAN: Deb, yes. I said -- I don't know how many times I can answer your question. You've asked it five times. You said, does he think that they -- what was your first time, and I said no, and I said he believes there will be free and fair elections. Yes, he believes there will be -- he's confident that there will be free and fair elections. I answered it, like, five times for you.

Q But is a partial election a legitimate election?

Q That's the question.

MR. McCLELLAN: That's not -- no, it will be --

Q That's my question.

MR. McCLELLAN: But that's not what anybody is talking about. They're talking about free and fair elections for the Iraqi people.

Q But three provinces short of a full deck is still three provinces short of a full deck.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, no, you're getting into hypotheticals now. That's not what Prime Minister Allawi said. He said that, already today, that many provinces could hold elections; most of Iraq could hold elections today. He talked about his strategy for continuing to address the other areas where they need to improve the security situation so that there could be free and fair elections for all the Iraqi people.

Geek Time

Liquid discovered that solidifies when heated: Physicists in France have discovered a liquid that "freezes" when it is heated. Marie Plazanet and colleagues at the Université Joseph Fourier and the Institut Laue-Langevin, both in Grenoble, found that a simple solution composed of two organic compounds becomes a solid when it is heated to temperatures between 45 and 75°C, and becomes a liquid when cooled again. The team says that hydrogen bonds are responsible for this novel behaviour (M Plazanet et al. 2004 J.

51% of Iraqis are optimistic?

The Island of Balta: "The LA Times this morning gave me a detail that I was wondering about all day yesterday - who exactly did that poll that Mr. Bush cited in his press conference which said that Iraqis were more optimistic about their country than the U.S.? Here's the answer."

UPDATE: Have I said yet how much I love Juan Cole?

Who is Allawi, "leader of a free and democratic Iraq"?

I saw this linked to from This Modern World. Take it with a grain of salt because Ken Layne is just some journalist writing in a blog, but it is quite detailed information that is easy to check if you doubt it.

The History of Ayad Allawi

UPDATE: More details...

Mr. Armitage meet Mr. Ashcroft

Right hand, meet left hand.

Armitage contradicts Ashcroft: The second-ranking official at the State Department said today, in an apparent contradiction of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, that the elections scheduled for Iraq in January must be "open to all citizens."
"We're going to have an election that is free and open," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said at a House committee hearing, "and that has to be open to all citizens."
...Mr. Armitage's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee's panel on foreign operations, and his comments afterward, seemed to put him at odds, at least for the moment, with Secretary Rumsfeld, who theorized before another Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday that elections might be held in only "three-quarters or four-fifths of the country" because some regions are not yet secure enough.
"So be it," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Nothing's perfect in life."
...
Any widespread impression of confusion in the administration, especially if it persists, could be damaging, since Mr. Bush's Democratic rival, Senator John Kerry, has stepped up his criticism of the administration's entire approach to Iraq.

Rules of the Presidential Debates

Bloggers, record those debates!

I just read through the rules of the presidential debates (don't worry, I'm drinking lots of coffee). Most of it is what one would expect from the two major parties, no real surprises in store for anyone. One paragraph I took special note of however...

5(e) Neither film footage nor video footage nor any audio
excerpts from the debates may be used publicly by
either candidate's campaign through any means,
including but not limited to, radio, television,
internet, or videotapes, whether broadcast or
distributed in any other manner.

So, make certain to get some recorded digital footage of the debates and post links to them so any ridiculous, stupid, or horrifying statements by Bush can be kept for posterity's sake and thrown back in his face as many times as possible online.

Kerry's Seven Point Plan To Combat Terrorism

At Temple University today, Kerry spoke and gave a pretty damn good speech for a major party candidate. This is the seven-point plan which I see mentioned in several news accounts of the speech but never actually laid out. I question why the newspapers choose not to lay the plan out, are they trying to conserve ink and paper? Since I'm not trying to save blogspace, here's the entire seven-point plan. I've bolded the first sentence of each point, but Kerry goes into much detail on each point also.

Follow this link to the whole speech, which includes more than the 7-point plan.

Kerry's Seven-Point Plan:
"I have a comprehensive strategy for victory over terrorism.

First, I will build a stronger, smarter military and intelligence capability to capture or kill our enemies.

As president, I will expand our Army by 40,000 troops so that we have more soldiers to find and fight the enemy. I will double our Army Special Forces capacity. And we will accelerate the development and deployment of new technologies to track down and bring down terrorists.

I will strengthen our intelligence system to detect and stop the terrorists before they can strike. By the morning of September 12th, everyone in America knew that our intelligence wasn't as good as it needed to be. But three years later, believe it or not, we read that the CIA unit charged with finding bin Laden has fewer experienced case officers today than it had before 9/11.

When I am president, that will change. I will act immediately to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations. I will create a National Intelligence Director with all the budget and personnel authority the Commission says is needed to keep us safe. I will double our overseas clandestine service, train the linguists and Arab experts we need, and make sure the operation - hunting down bin Laden and al Qaeda -- has all the resources it needs.

I will make Afghanistan a priority again, because it is still the front line in the war on terror.

As president, I will not subcontract the fight to warlords who are out for nothing but power and personal gain. I will help the government of Afghanistan expand its authority beyond Kabul to the rest of the country. I will lead our allies to share the burden, so that NATO finally provides more troops. I will show the world that America finishes what it begins.

Second, I will move decisively to deny the terrorists the deadly weapons they seek.

Those weapons were not in Iraq. But tons and kilotons of poorly secured chemical and nuclear weapons are spread throughout the former Soviet Union. Twelve years ago, we began a bipartisan program to help these nations secure and destroy those weapons. It is incredible -- and unacceptable -- that in the three years after 9/11, President Bush hasn't stepped up our effort to lock down the loose nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. More such materials were secured in the two years before 9/11 than in the two years after.

When I'm president, denying our most dangerous enemies the world's most dangerous weapons will become the central priority for America.

I will secure all nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union within four years. At President Bush's pace, it will take 13 years.

I will seek a verifiable global ban on the production of materials for nuclear weapons.

Nowhere is the nuclear danger more urgent than in Iran and North Korea. This week, Iran announced its intention to process enough raw uranium to create five nuclear weapons.

I will make it clear to Iran that we will lead an international effort to impose tough sanctions if they do not permanently suspend their uranium enrichment program and provide verifiable assurances that they are not developing nuclear weapons.

Yesterday, there were reports that North Korea are preparing to fire an intermediate-range ballistic missile that may be able to carry a nuclear warhead. I will work with our allies to get the six party talks with North Korea back on track -- and I will talk directly with the North Koreans -- to get a verifiable agreement that will eliminate their nuclear weapons program completely and irreversibly. We have to get serious about diplomacy with North Korea now. Only then will we have the support of our allies for action if diplomacy fails.

Third, as president, I will wage a war on terrorist finances every bit as total as the war we wage on the terrorists themselves. We will trace terrorist funds to their sources and freeze the assets of anyone -- any person, bank, business or foreign official -- who is financing terrorism. I know how to do this. As Senator, I exposed and helped dismantle an international bank that was one of the early financiers of terrorism. We did it by following the money. We can and must do the same to choke off the dollars that are funding al Qaeda and its allies. On this, I will grant no one a "free pass."

As president, I will do what President Bush has not: I will hold the Saudis accountable. Since 9/11, there have been no public prosecutions in Saudi Arabia, and few elsewhere, of terrorist financers. I will work with our allies, with the World Bank and international financial institutions to shut down the financial pipeline that keeps terrorism alive. And I will pursue a plan to make this nation energy independent of Mid East oil. I want an America that relies on our own innovation and ingenuity, not the Saudi Royal Family.

Fourth, as president, I will make homeland security a real priority by offering a real plan, and backing it with real resources.

The first task is to prevent terrorists and their tools of destruction from entering our country.

We know that al Qaeda members and other terrorists could cross into America from Mexico and Canada. We are now told that America's borders have grown even more porous since September 11. And 9/11 Commission staff report that our border inspectors don't even have the "training" and "basic intelligence" information to keep out terrorists.

At our seaports we're physically inspecting only 5 percent of the cargo coming into America. The Bush Administration is spending more in Iraq in four days than they've spent protecting our ports for all of the last three years.

At our airports, there has been some progress, but there is far more to do. According to news accounts, the terrorist aviation list only includes those who are a danger to aviation. This is ridiculous. It should include every suspected terrorist who is a danger to anything, anywhere in our country.

Terrorists used explosives to bring down two planes in Russia. Yet here in America, the system for detecting explosives carried by passengers fails to pass our own government's tests. And here's something that makes no sense at all: your luggage is x- rayed when it's put on the plane, but the cargo on the hold underneath seldom is.

This has to change. In a Kerry-Edwards Administration, we'll give inspectors at our borders access to the terrorist watch lists. At our ports, we will provide a 600 percent increase in support for the most promising cargo inspection programs. In our airports, we'll install the equipment to check passengers for explosives to screen cargo just like we screen baggage. And across the country, we will make sure our police, firefighters, and ambulance drivers have the latest radios, hazmat suits, decontamination facilities, and emergency operation centers they need to respond effectively in a crisis.

This is all common sense; but none of it is a priority for the Bush Administration. Here's what's on their agenda. Costly new nuclear weapons we don't need that risk fueling a new arms race. And committing to a missile defense system that could eventually cost $100 billion doesn't yet work and won't stop likely threats to our security.

Near here, in the Philadelphia region, there are eight chemical plants where a terrorist attack could endanger a million people. But this President allowed the chemical industry to derail commonsense measures for chemical plant security. As president, I will protect them.

At a time when police officers are more critical than ever to our homeland security, this President gutted the program to put 100,000 new police on our streets. I will restore that funding and make sure the money reaches our first responders.

This President has failed to provide even a nickel in his budget to safeguard our railroads and subways -- leaving millions of people every day more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. We will invest more than $2 billion in new funding to protect our transit systems, so that what happened in Madrid doesn't happen here.

Fifth, as we go after the terrorists and secure our homeland, I will focus on the long-term frontline of this war. To defeat the terrorists' aims, we must deny them recruits and safe havens.

For al Qaeda, this war is a struggle for the heart and soul of the Muslim world. We will win this war only if the terrorists lose that struggle. We will win when ordinary people from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan to Indonesia know they have more to live for than to die for. We will win when they once again see America as the champion, not the enemy, of their legitimate yearning to live in just and peaceful societies. We will win when we stop isolating ourselves and start isolating our enemies. The world knows the difference between empty promises and genuine commitment.

So we will win when we show that America uses its economic power for the common good, doing our share to defeat the abject poverty, hunger, and disease that destroy lives and create failed states in every part of the world. The world's poorest countries, suffering under crushing debt burdens, need particular attention. As president, I will lead the international community to cancel the debt of the most vulnerable nations in return for them living up to goals of social and economic progress.

We will win when we work with our allies, to enable children in poor countries to get a quality basic education. More than 50 percent of the population in the Arab and Muslim world is under the age of 25. The future is a race between schools that spark learning and schools that teach hate. We have to preempt the haters. We have to win the war of ideas. New generations must believe there is more to life than salvation through martyrdom.

Sixth, we will promote the development of free and democratic societies throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Millions of people there share our values of human rights, and our hopes for a better life for the next generation. They are facing their own struggle at home against the forces of fanaticism and militancy. They are our natural allies. Their lost trust in our intentions must be restored. We must reach out to them and yes we must always promote democracy. I will be clear with repressive governments in the region that we expect to see them change - not just for our sake but for their own survival.

As president, I will lead a massive national effort to improve our outreach to the Muslim world. We will train a new generation of American scholars, diplomats, and military officers, who know this region just as we built our knowledge of the Soviet Empire during the Cold War. I will convene a summit with our European partners and leaders from the Muslim world to strengthen mutual understanding, economic growth and the fight against terror.

Let it be clear that the issue here is advancing democracy in Arab nations, not yielding to pressure to undermine Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. Our alliance with Israel -- the survival and security of Israel - are non-negotiable. The only solution is a Jewish state of Israel living side by side in security and peace with a democratic Palestinian state.

Finally, we will be stronger if we do not go it alone. As president, I will rebuild and lead strong alliances. This is not only critical to our military operations; it is essential to every other measure we must take, from tracking down terrorists, where we need the intelligence cooperation of other nations, to homeland security, where we need their help to stop terrorists and their weapons before they ever reach our shores."

Comment on American cuisine's 20-year change

Posted by fellow Ann Arborite, Micha Hershman, on Relish!: His [Patrick O'Connell, proprietor of the Inn At Little Washington on the Diane Rehm show] comments on the rapid evolution of cooking in America over the last twenty years were also thought provoking. Patrick said: "So much so that we couldn't believe. People in America were still eating their velveeta cheese cold. Fancy French restaurants were still serving canned vegetables. Nobody knew what balsamic vinegar was. The list of ingredients that we now take for granted was unhead of. It was very, very primitive and the acceleration has been astonishing how quickly it's changed while many other aspects of our culture have not been advancing as rapidly as cuisine in America."

Bush's stupid statements go unquestioned

How is it that quotes like this, on a major news feed, go completely unquestioned? There should be a paragraph following this statement in every newspaper and every television broadcast that explains how false it is. On two levels: one, just because we are there doesn't somehow fence a terrorist in so plotting and planning non-Iraq attacks is curtailed; two, Iraq had NOTHING to do with the September 11 attack in the U.S.

CNN.com: Rumsfeld says three-quarters of an election is better than nothing:"
He [Bush] also said that "if we stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq, they would be free to plot and plan attacks elsewhere, in America and other free nations. To retreat now would betray our mission, our word and our friends."

Political cartoon truly describing this election

MSNBC - Political Humor
Thanks to Talking Points Memo for pointing me here.

Questions that made me chuckle about Allawi's talk to Congress

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: "Is Prime Minister Allawi actually part of the Bush campaign? Or is he registered as a 527?"

John Ashcroft: 0 for 5000

David Cole, The Nation:"On Sept. 2 a federal judge in Detroit threw out the only jury conviction the Justice Department has obtained on a terrorism charge since 9/11. In October 2001, shortly after the men were initially arrested, Attorney General John Ashcroft heralded the case in a national press conference as evidence of the success of his anti-terror campaign.... Ashcroft held no news conference in September when the case was dismissed, nor did he offer any apologies to the defendants who had spent nearly three years in jail. That wouldn't be good for his boss' campaign, which rests on the "war on terrorism." Here, as in Iraq, Bush's war is not going as well as he pretends.
...
Until that reversal, the Detroit case had marked the only terrorist conviction obtained from the Justice Department's detention of more than 5,000 foreign nationals in anti-terrorism sweeps since 9/11. So Ashcroft's record is 0 for 5,000. When the attorney general was locking these men up in the immediate wake of the attacks, he held almost daily press conferences to announce how many "suspected terrorists" had been detained. No press conference has been forthcoming to announce that exactly none of them have turned out to be actual terrorists.
...
What is most troubling is that none of these developments – the revelation of prosecutorial abuse in the interest of obtaining a "win" in the war on terrorism; the continuing failure to hold accountable those most responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib; and the exclusion of a moderate Muslim as too dangerous for Americans to hear – is an isolated mistake...."

Synergistic nature of the blog world

One of the aspects of blogging and this world of blog space that exists, like a library with margins you're all allowed to write in, is how thoughts about religion and politics and sex and such (those things which some hold to be private or guarded opinions) can be placed into the space and possibly generate a session of soliloquies all surrounding a certain subject. Nicole might talk of her spiritual thoughts and receive comment on them, but then it can spawn others talking about theirs because of reading hers. They aren't really interacting with each other since everyone is just writing in the margins of blogspace, but it becomes like a large bathroom wall with a lot of interconnected graffiti. I'm more inclined to talk about my spirituality because she is, she's more inclined to post photographs because I am, and we have conversations that we could never have face-to-face because of our self-proclaimed moralistic and self-righteous natures, eliminating some of the enneagramatic defenses we cling to voice-to-voice, email-to-email.

I wonder how related blogging and writing graffiti are psychologically.

Laws We Aren't Allowed To See

This administration is now making actual laws that we aren't allowed to see. Oh, we can be charged under them or have them effect affect us, but we can't actually read the law.Behind the Homefront: "JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WON'T ACKNOWLEDGE WHETHER THERE'S ACTUALLY A LAW REGARDING PASSENGER IDENTIFICATION. The Justice Department won't acknowledge whether federal rules demanding airline passengers show identification before flying even exist, according to court documents filed with a federal appeals court Monday. The Bush administration told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that air-travel security initiatives are a matter of national security and therefore should not be available for public inspection. "

ContraCostaTimes: James Harrison, Gilmore's attorney, said the case was about "the ability to travel freely within the United States without having to show your identification at every turn."
He added that laws "are being applied, yet when the citizen asks to see the law that is being applied, he's met with, 'Sorry that's classified.'"

The New York Times > National > Chicago Moving to 'Smart' Surveillance Cameras

Quotes in this story that I love/fear...

Mayor Daly: "Cameras are the equivalent of hundreds of sets of eyes, They're the next best thing to having police officers stationed at every potential trouble spot."

Executive Director of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications: "The value we gain in public safety far outweighs any perception by the community that this is Big Brother who's watching."

Mayor Daley: "We're not inside your home or your business. The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the alleys."

The New York Times > National > Chicago Moving to 'Smart' Surveillance Cameras: "Sophisticated new computer programs will immediately alert the police whenever anyone viewed by any of the cameras placed at buildings and other structures considered terrorist targets wanders aimlessly in circles, lingers outside a public building, pulls a car onto the shoulder of a highway, or leaves a package and walks away from it. Images of those people will be highlighted in color at the city's central monitoring station, allowing dispatchers to send police officers to the scene immediately."

My curiosity is exactly how these cameras would have helped stop two planes from flying into the World Trade Center. Or stop a walking suicide bomber for that matter. Or a pickup truck filled with explosives. We seem to just want to make changes in order to act like we're doing something instead of examine the underlying reasons for why we are being attacked. And as David Cross said: "I don't think Osama bin Laden sent those planes in to attack us because he hated our freedom. I think he did it because of our support for Israel and our ties with the Saudi family and all our military bases in Saudi Arabia. Y'know why I think that? Because that's what he fucking said!"

Google Grants

I wonder if the co-op could use this somehow...
Google Grants: "The Google Grants program supports organizations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

Designed for 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program. It harnesses the power of our flagship advertising product, Google AdWords, to non-profits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education. "

Liberty Meadows

Liberty Meadows is back? Nicole, why didn't you tell me?

America/Iraq Comparison - Informed Comment : Juan Cole

Informed Comment : 09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004: "President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including ...
What if municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the new "president" quietly installed in the statehouses as "governors?" What if several of these governors (especially of Montana and Wyoming) were assassinated soon after taking office or resigned when their children were taken hostage by guerrillas?

What if the leader of the European Union maintained that the citizens of the United States are, under these conditions, refuting pessimism and that freedom and democracy are just around the corner?"

Talking Points Memo

I liked this paragraph from Talking Points Memo, a steady source of my links to news:
The young and very serious John Kerry once asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" A less anguished George W. Bush has decided that a soldier or two a day is a reasonable price to pay to avoid admitting a mistake.

Female blogger list

For all my liberal minded female friends with blogs, I suggest adding your name to What She Said!, a roll of all the liberal female bloggers Morgaine can find. Thanks to Amanda from one of my favorite blogs, Mouse Words, for pointing me there.

Sci-fi in real life

Okay, okay... this is admittedly really scary and creepy and posits a horrid intrusion into people's privacy, but I still think it's a pretty damn cool idea. Thanks to fellow Ann Arborite at mousemusings for pointing me there.

Urban warfare taken to the next level.

[UPDATE: I'm told that it's not real, just an art hoax. That makes it even better, because I can be wowed by the cool idea and not scared by the reality of it. The artist's webpage]

hidden
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self portrait 2 - for Gabrielle
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self portrait 1 - for Gabrielle
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heavy reds
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sitting rock 2
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I like this shot a lot, but I'm torn over whether I like the overexposure on the left.
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sitting rock 1
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Sky Captain, Part III

This article from the Washington Post, Technology section is the best way of explaining why I'm excited about this movie. Whether it's a stinker or not, it represents a milestone in cinema that we were on the brink of but hadn't been fully realized until now.

BugMeNot.com

Don't want to register at the 50th website (say, www.podunk_little_newspaper.com) that's asked you to provide personal information? Go to this website, put in the URL and they'll check their database. If they don't have a registration on file, fill a fake one out for them and submit it to help their database grow.
BugMeNot.com: "Bypass Compulsory Web Registration"

Lies, lies, and damnable lies, about a war we shouldn't be in.

Press Reports on U.S. Casualties: About 17,000 Short, UPI Says: "Nearly 17,000 service members medically evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly cited by newspapers, according to military data reviewed by United Press International. Most don't fit the definition of casualties, according to the Pentagon, but a veterans' advocate said they should all be counted.

The Pentagon has reported 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded from Iraq.
...
The Pentagon's public casualty reports, available at www.defenselink.mil, list only service members who died or were wounded in action. The Pentagon's own definition of a war casualty provided to UPI in December describes a casualty as, 'Any person who is lost to the organization by having been declared dead, duty status/whereabouts unknown, missing, ill, or injured.'
...
A veterans' advocate said the Pentagon should make a full reporting of the casualties, including non-combat ailments and injuries. 'They are still casualties of war,' said Mike Schlee, director of the National Security and Foreign Relations Division at the American Legion. 'I think we have to have an honest disclosure of what the short- and long-term casualties of any conflict are.'"

Disgraceful anti-abortion, anti-choice progress

MLive.com: NewsFlash - Anti-abortion activists broaden efforts: "A little-noticed provision cleared the House of Representatives last week that would prohibit local, state or federal authorities from requiring any institution or health care professional to provide abortions, pay for them, or make abortion-related referrals, even in cases of rape or medical emergency.

In Mississippi, a bill became law in July that admirers and critics consider the nation's most sweeping 'conscience clause.' It allows all types of health care workers and facilities to refuse performing virtually any service they object to on moral or religious grounds.

And in states across the country, anti-abortion organizations and a group called Pharmacists for Life are encouraging pharmacists to refuse to distribute emergency contraceptives, which they consider a potential form of abortion."

I really like this quote.

"Anger is a gift. You can use it to punish the past or to fix the future."

Sky Captain, Part II

Chicago movie theaters, movie reviews, movie photos, movie news: "Even the film was put through the ringer--literally. (Conran ran the color film through a diffusion filter, tinted the diffused images black and white and then added color back in.)"

I know this could be really bad. I still want to see it though. I think of this movie as a step in the evolution of comic books onto the movie screen. Today, the comic books that I grew up on are finally able to completely be translated onto the movie screen. Because of this newfound ability, directors and cinematographers and computer design wizards are in the middle of experimenting with their various visions of comic books in cinema. With my adolescent love of comic books and their overwhelming role in my youth, I couldn't be more excited to see it all taking place. I'm such a geek.

Back to wire hangers, anyone?

This is a first person account in Ms. magazine of one patient's search for a dilation and extraction procedure to remove her dead baby from her uterus in the anti-female political climate Bush has encouraged. Dilation and extraction is the actual term for what some incorrectly, ignorantly, and/or out-and-out deceivingly call "partial-birth abortions." Thanks to Psychotria Nervosa for pointing me to it.

Time travel

I love it when people go back in time and find articles that were written about the future and see how accurate they were. Well, I love it unless it's just utterly depressing like this is. Dan Chak took what was a satirical, funny Onion article back it when it appeared in The Onion on January 18, 2001, and provided links to show how most of what it said has come true. The article's title is BUSH: "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace & Prosperity Is Now Over"

Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow

How much should I fight against rather than embrace my geekness and nerddom? I like Buck Rogers, Buckaroo Bonzai, and pulp fiction (note lowercase) and I'm looking forward to this film, especially once I found out that the director's next project is "The Princess of Mars," one of the novels in the Edgar Rice Burrough's science-fiction series.

Despicable defense

Someone's sounding a little defensive.Rumsfeld Says Terror Outweighs Jail Abuse (washingtonpost.com): "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, responding to allegations that he fostered a climate that led to the prisoner-abuse scandal, said yesterday that the military's mistreatment of detainees was not as bad as what terrorists have done.

'Does it rank up there with chopping someone's head off on television?' he asked. 'It doesn't.'"

Anniversary

Three years ago, I was worrried abut how my friends would get home, whether they were injured, or whether they were dead, because they were in Manhattan (and I couldn't be sure where) when the towers fell. It was a day spent next to the phone, hoping to herd my family back to Staten Island, hoping they could connect with each other to provide support. It was a proud day to live in New York, because it was true that it was a chance to see and hear about people being at their best even in the worst of circumstances.

One event that will stay with me (and I can't believe this day can still bring back tears but I guess it can) is the rogue bus driver of a New York city bus who picked up Gabrielle and Nicole and many others on board and calmed everyone down, telling them that he'd get everyone back to Staten Island somehow. And he did, through what must have been the most hellacious traffic and chaos imaginable. To that anonymous bus driver I extend my thanks for bringing my family back to me.

I still remember most a reaction from one of my friends at the time who was crying over the death and destruction and said something like, "of course they attacked it, it was like the US's middle finger flipping off the world. And we're just going to go to war." What bothers me most about the portrayal of peace activists, or even people who aren't completely anti-war, just anti-this war, is that grief isn't attributed to them just as much as it is the war supporters.

To all of my friends who went through that day with me, I love you.

To all of the New Yorkers who lost someone that day, I hope that you can find peace.

To Rudy Guiliani, thank you sincerely for the one moment of your mayoral life you weren't a royal fascist pig.

To George W. Bush, fuck you, you incompetent asshole.

To everyone who died trying to save people's lives that day, I'm so sorry that this war is the memorial that we Americans have left for you. You deserved a lot better.

Footnoting the transcripts

A reporter asked a question to the press secretary this morning, and the White House added "explanatory" footnotes to the transcript...Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: September 05, 2004 - September 11, 2004 Archives: "Now it's not enough that we have a transcript in which the press asks questions and McClellan answers them or rebuts their implications. We get editorial notes explaining what the reporter really meant or disputing the question after the fact so that no one can follow up and call them on a demonstrable distortion."

Letter from Republican National Committee

What's turning into one of my favorite new blogs, Mouse Words, just published a letter from Ed Gillespie, the RNC Chairman, I believe. Her cat actually received the letter, because her cat is on the Republican mailing lists. Anyway, this is the letter being sent, and I'm just doing my part to spread whatever rumors can be spread.

The campaign is bringing in a bevy of former Clinton henchmen, including CNN commentators James Carville and Paul Begala. In August alone, Begala called President Bush a "gutless wonder," said he has a "lack of intelligence," and called Vice President Cheney a "dirt bag." Carville said the President is "ignorant big time" and said "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are a couple of nobodies."
Of course, the President was called a "cheap thug," a "killer" and a "liar" at a Kerry-Edwards campaign event in New York, Mrs. Kerry has called the President's policies "unpatriotic" and "immoral" and DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe falsely accused the President of being AWOL.
Democratic strategist Susan Estrich outlined the strategy last Wednesday in a column warning Republicans to "watch out." "I'm not promising pretty," she wrote before going on to call President Bush and Vice President Cheney alcoholics, then ask "is any alcoholic ever really cured?" ("I can see the ad now.") She deems the President's service as a National Guard fighter pilot "draft dodging," and says, "a forthcoming book by Kitty Kelly raises questions about whether the President has practiced what he preaches on the issue of abortion." (Interestingly, the New York Daily News reported back in February that the Kerry campaign intended to spread such a rumor in pro-life chat rooms late in the campaign.)
So the former Dukakis campaign manager has an advance copy of Democrat donor Kitty Kelly's book, which promises to throw unsubstantiated gossip at President Bush in the same way she falsely maligned the late President Reagan as a date rapist who paid for a girlfriend's abortion and wrongly castigated Nancy Reagan as an adulterer who had an affair with Frank Sinatra. A recent story says Kelly's book alleges President Bush used cocaine at Camp David while his father was President, which is as credible as her story that then Governor and Nancy Reagan smoked marijuana with Jack Benny and George and Gracie Burns.

Is it art?

My wonderful wife and I talked a while about this comment from a guest and my response and she convinced me that the first paragraph of my comment was mainly a buffer to save myself from calling my picture art and to save myself from criticism. If I think art is that which engages the viewer, and I think the pictures that I put on the website engage me, then I obviously think they are art, which begs the question, why does that picture engage me.

I had planned to take that picture for about three weeks, but didn't have the opportunity to set it up until that moment. After having taken it, it took me three more days of poring through my images and cropping here and there to settle on something I was finally satisfied with. Why? I wanted to capture that moment because I thought that the explosion of birds off of the ground captured a balance between chaotic and controlled motion and I wanted to freeze that moment. I chose that particular shot because when I look at it, it makes me think of birds flying in the sky against the horizon, but I've replaced the sky with concrete and the clouds with shadows on the concrete. I did this because I see city birds like this as having turned the city into their version of expansive hills and skies, and I feel that most when they explode off of the ground. So I captured it. And it still falls under the theme that I find myself exploring most, finding beauty in unexpected places, trying to communicate that unexpected grandeur of what seems unspectacular when surrounded by everything else yet transforms when all the distractions are thrown away and the frame is set.

A side note: I am going to sound (hell, be) pretentious when I talk about art, and I have to get over worrying about that. Art is one of the few places in life where one is expected to be pretentious. Especially if one looks at the actual definition of the word. Pretentious: "making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction." The undeserved portion of that is what perhaps separates good art from bad art, but all art claims to be important or distinctive, and in explaining why it is one is being pretentious. For those who can't stand the pretention, just look at the pictures.

birds in flight
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New ethic

I seem to be developing a photography ethic, rules which I use right now to determine what I take pictures of. One of those is that it has to be a found object that I haven't manipulated at all. I'm sure that rule might be bent as my techniques improve and my "eye" grows. I've seen sticks on the ground that I wanted to take a picture of and decided that I couldn't because they were in the wrong light--I didn't move them into better light because I felt like that would be against my rules. Once I even kicked it, hoping that it might find better light, but it landed wrong.

Today I was taking pictures of a piece of a house and could see two or three people stop and try to puzzle out what was worth taking a picture of. In that experience is the kernel of what I'm searching for in my photographs, I think. I saw an Ansel Adams photograph of a part of a picket fence today which I also identified with. It was taken with the lens a few inches below the top horizontal post, and encompassed the jagged tops of about six of the pickets, and treated very much with the majesty of stark mountains. He could have taken the picture anywhere. But he found in that fence the magnificent splendour of a mountain range and captured it. Anyone who walked by him would have been asking themselves, "Why's he taking a picture of that fence?" Because there is awe-inspiring grandeur everywhere, we just have to pause and frame it right.

commerce
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wide pole2
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wide pole
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Mouse Words: Deciding on what makes something human

There's a lot of great read between these two parts of this article. She goes on this riff after reading two male bloggers (one pro-life, one pro-choice) debating about abortion, and focuses on the issue of male power in defining the moment of life to be conception. She does all this in a non-academic, very easily read, non-hating way. I loved it! Thanks to LMB for pointing me to her.
Mouse Words: Deciding on what makes something human: "I'm not trying to revive the debate over whether or not men can be feminists, but I think that on the subject of pregnancy and what makes something a human, the issue of male power and how men see themselves in relation to women and women's unique ability to give birth is a critical and unspoken issue.
...
All this rhetoric diminishes women's bodies, lives, and experiences. A baby is not just sperm egg nine month wait. Women tend to experience the conception as just a beginning of a long process and a lot of work. There isn't a cell in a baby body that didn't come from a woman's feeding it through her own body, and there's not a baby born that wasn't the result of some woman's hard work. To call a fertilized cell a human being is just one more way that women's work has been dismissed throughout history. "

pieces2
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pieces
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glass furnace
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swinging
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mud prayer
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every day4
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every day2
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every day
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orientation self-lesson
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Identify the voice.

This flash poem takes about a minute and half or so to watch. It really is worth seeing. It's a beautiful conglomeration. I think some of Nicole's thoughts could be set to something like this; she could probably even design it if she had the desire.

Nathan: Projects: Sustainability Labeling System

Wow. Great idea. Good design.
Overall labeling system for the combined sustainability of a product

just strange
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flashed tree
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another tree
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tree
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Purge.

Purge. That's what I want to do right now, and I don't know exactly how so I'll just write. Ever since I arrived in Ann Arbor and walked through the door of a particular company, which I'll just call Company X, I was amazed by what I saw. There was a feeling of respect which Company X exuded that was so rich that it dripped off of the shelves, respect for their product, respect for their employees, respect for their community, respect for a higher meaning than just making money. The effect that Company X had upon me cannot really be exaggerated. It made me rethink so many parts of who I was and what I wanted. It permeated my career desires, it made me rethink and refine some of my moral foundations, it's very existence brought happiness to me--and I wanted to be a part of it. Two weeks ago, my persistence paid off and I was interviewed for a job there. Ten days ago, I had such a buoyant experience as I worked side by side with the employees there for six hours (their version of a job interview)--and they even paid me for it, while I would have paid them to be able to go behind their counter. Then came the wait, knowing that today, Wednesday, I would find out whether I could work there. Every day was longer than the day before it, until yesterday and this morning which seemed to take a year to pass by. Then the call: "Everyone liked working with you, but we've decided to go with someone more qualified."

Pain. It was like being told "You're a really nice guy, but I'm just not interested" by the girl in the third row who I had a crush on for so long but was afraid to ask out, but finally screwed up the courage. My arms felt raw, my throat hurt, my eyes burned, my stomach sank from the rocks inside. To save face and salvage every hope that I could muster I said, "yes," I would like to be referred to other managers in other departments if they could use me. Just use me.

Then I hang up and need consoled and console back as my wife and I share the pain. For that is what being married offers, someone who truly shares my pain and joy, moment by moment, but especially right then. She felt it as hard as I did, because it hurts to see someone you love reach and stumble. If I had walked out on stage and forgot my lines and been laughed at or booed off, she would feel it too. I don't think she's seen me yet want something so hard--and then not get it. I hurt, and she hurt too, and the minutes kept passing, and the hours will pass, and the days will pass, and we have to breathe.

Breathe. Straighten the spine. Exhale hard. Look around. The table's still there, salt still lays spilled on the tablecloth, her eyes are still so beautiful (just a little more moist), and bills still have to be paid. So now my El Dorado is gone, not that it can't reappear, but for now it's gone, and I still have bills to pay.

El Dorado was so far away, but it still clouded my sight--I could see nothing else. Now that it's gone I can separate my dreams from what reality is offering. I can still dream, but I also have to find a job. It's time to get to work...

Christopher Buckley's must-read

This is a short essay from Christopher Buckley, William F. Buckley Jr.'s son, a loyal Republican."The Roquefort Cheese Wars" by Christopher Buckley: "Why does the question 'What if he wins?' sound, in this context, so ominous, as if it were the title of a big-screen disaster movie? Portent of tsunami and a frozen-over Manhattan?

W2 is not a terribly encouraging prospect. I say this as a loyal but dispirited Republican who will probably hold his nose on election day and pull the Republican lever. Every time I contemplate voting for Kerry--and I have--I consider the consequences, chiefly among them an even more insufferable Michael Moore, thumping his kettle drum chest and claiming credit for having changed the course of history. This is too dreary to contemplate.

But to answer the question, let me paraphrase Betty Davis: Fasten your seat belts, kids, we're in for a bumpy second term."

car - I'm going back and forth on whether I like the telephone lines sweeping across the top of the photograph (not that there's much I can do about that right now).
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