Perhaps patience with the "Axis of Evil" rhetoric is in order-- rather than "demonization of the enemy," this may be a new metaphor / strange attractor for an emerging security paradigm for dealing with biological weapons.
The necessity for confidence and trust in human affairs is certainly becoming more of a prime directive than anyone would have anticipated. This webpage of Muslim teachings contains remarks which are very much to the point:
"Those who condition themselves to think that an axis of evil surrounds them will only live a painful, gloomy and uncomfortable life. They will, in effect, loose many of their powers and abilities as a result of their exaggerated sensitivity and drown themselves in fatal ignorance of the blessings and good things of the world."
"It is even possible that optimism and trust affect the thinking and conduct of the misguided ones. In summary, they (trust and optimism) provide grounds for the salvation of such people."
An excellent overview of the various books from the "simple living" and "no more clutter - declutter your life!" movement, from the March 2002 "Atlantic Magazine."
Met a 20-something, high-roller corporate marketing director this afternoon, and found myself thinking: this young woman is at the point where she has accumulated the money and status needed to catch herself a "trophy husband," and become a "stay-at-home mom," if she wants to. Perhaps we're getting to the point of reverse dowry, where women compete to gain the wealth and status needed to select the optimum biological fathers / childraising partners.
Suspect this quote will horrify many:
De-cluttering a household is a task that appeals strongly to today's professional-class woman. It's different from actual housework, because it doesn't have to be done every day; in fact, if the systems one implements are truly first-rate, they may stay in place for years. More appealing, the work requires a series of executive-level decisions. Scrubbing the toilet bowl is a bit of nastiness that can be fobbed off on anyone poor and luckless enough to qualify for no better employment; but only the woman of the house can determine which finger paintings ought to be saved for posterity, which expensive possessions ought to be jettisoned in the name of sleekness and efficiency.
A generation ago peaceful cohabitation with a certain amount of clutter was possible, because so many other aspects of home life were ordered and regular. Perhaps only those of us old enough to have grown up in houses in which the old ways were observed ... know what is missing from so many homes today. The current upper-middle-class practice of outsourcing even the most intimate tasks may free up valuable time for an important deposition, but it by no means raises the caliber of one's home life ... What's missing from so many affluent American households is the one thing you can't buy—the presence of someone who cares deeply and principally about that home and the people who live in it; who is willing to spend a significant portion of each day thinking about what those people are going to eat and what clothes they will need for which occasions ..."
40. some defeats are really victories, while some victories are more shameful than
any defeat
41. what sickens the university sickens us all
42. unitary critique yahoo!
43. down with powdered soup!
79. you can't imagine what your missing when your missing your imagination
"Whenever I am bidden to propose "realistic" solutions to problems, I am reminded of a slogan I observed on the walls of the Sorbonne during the student revolt of 1968: "Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible" ... Decoded, the admonition to be "realistic" usually means: "the solutions you propose must not offend the conventional wisdom as defined by current policy elites and existing or potential counter-elites, nor may they threaten the interests of any significant interest group inside or outside the policy community."
Defined thus, it is not difficult to show that the multiple threats posed by nuclear weapons in the contemporary world cannot be addressed by "realistic" solutions ..."
"Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you,
and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?
Have you not learned great lessons from those who reject you,
and brace themselves against you? or who treat you with contempt, or dispute the passage with you?" - Walt Whitman
This article about taking appropriate personal action to change the world is worth revisiting.
"One of the May 1968 graffiti was: Be realistic, demand the impossible. “Constructive alternatives” within the context of the present social order are at best limited, temporary, ambiguous; they tend to be coopted and become part of the problem. We may be forced to deal with certain urgent issues such as war or environmental threats, but if we accept the system’ own terms and confine ourselves to merely reacting to each new mess produced by it, we will never overcome it. Ultimately we can solve survival issues only by refusing to be blackmailed by them, by aggressively going beyond them to challenge the whole anachronistic social organization of life. Movements that limit themselves to cringing defensive protests will not even achieve the pitiful survival goals they set for themselves."
- (via Bureau of Public Secrets / a wayward line)
Of course, you could take the "engaged" line of thinking too far:
Are you an ex-leftie, pushed over the edge into savage right-wing thinking by the current unpleasantness? Yeah, me too... War Now!
This letter from SF State is distressing, but can people who call for "war now" be all that surprised when others take them up on it?
"Afghanistan has a higher rate of maternal mortality - 1,700 mothers die per 100,000 births - than any other country in the world except war-torn Sierra Leone. And Afghan women take that risk frequently: The average woman has seven children.
In most Afghan families, men make the decisions, so a woman who needs medical care needs to wait for her husband to decide. Most hospitals won't operate on a woman - no matter how grave her condition - without the signature of her husband or her father.
"In many parts of this country, the woman's body doesn't belong to her. It belongs to her husband or her father," says Loretta Hieber Girardet, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "The whole concept that a woman would have a right to decide she needs to go to the hospital is very alien."
"And then you have this idea of emergent networks. The best way to describe that is networks that get more organized with use, that naturally structure themselves into orderly categories the more people use them. Which is sort of the opposite of networks that just get more chaotic."
"Passengers on packed trains could unwittingly be exposed to electromagnetic fields far higher than those recommended under international guidelines. The problem? Hordes of commuters all using their mobile phones at the same time."
Wood s lot - Excellent links on left side Plep Liberal Arts Mafia Le blogeur eeksypeeksy - links on right side AKMA
Sniffing out literate, non-commercial material on the web is sufficiently challenging that I'm beginning to think that there may not be all that much of it generated outside academia or journalism. Somehow I doubt that the "Liberal Blogosphere" contest will turn up huge treasure troves of unknown material ... though I hope I'll be proven wrong.
"We're taking nominations/recommendations for the best liberal blogs (and blog-equivalents) out there ... Feel free to nominate yourself."
"Under the second Mayor Daley, [Chicago] integrated the members of the creative class into the city's culture and politics by treating them essentially as just another "ethnic group" that needed sufficient space to express its identity.
"Cities and regions that attract lots of creative talent are also those with greater diversity and higher levels of quality of place. That's because location choices of the creative class are based to a large degree on their lifestyle interests, and these go well beyond the standard "quality-of-life" amenities that most experts think are important.
"The creative class people I study use the word "diversity" a lot ... They want to hear different kinds of music and try different kinds of food. They want to meet and socialize with people unlike themselves, trade views and spar over issues.
"They favor active, participatory recreation over passive, institutionalized forms. They prefer indigenous street-level culture-- a teeming blend of cafes, sidewalk musicians, and small galleries and bistros ... They crave stimulation, not escape ... Seldom has one of my subjects expressed a desire to get away from it all. They want to get into it all, and do it with eyes wide open.
"Why do some places become destinations for the creative while others don't? ... I think it's important for a place to have low entry barriers for people-- that is, to be a place where newcomers are accepted quickly into all sorts of social and economic arrangements. All else being equal, they are likely to attract greater numbers of talented and creative people-- the sort of people who power innovation and growth. Places that thrive in today's world tend to be plug-and-play communities where anyone can fit in quickly. These are places where people can find opportunity, build support structures, be themselves, and not get stuck in any one identity. The plug-and-play community is one that somebody can move into and put together a life-- or at least a facsimile of a life-- in a week."
"The best weapon against those who would attack freedom and liberty is not the sword but instead the attaché case."
"One tool that has proven exceptionally effective in lowering social unrest in underdeveloped countries is that of micro loans ... Getting to the source of the problem and helping individuals get on their feet and become self sufficient."
As one might expect, "Foreign Policy" sets its priorities 180 degrees the other direction.
"Business Versus Terror
America’s best weapons in the war on terrorism will not be found in some musty Pentagon basement or arms manufacturer’s warehouse. Rather, they will be found in the briefcases of corporate CEOs and venture capitalists and the cubicles of high-tech start-ups. These nimble private-sector players can deploy innovative technologies and unlimited financing to fortify U.S. cities, battle cyberthreats, track the movements of terrorists, and disarm biological weapons—if only Washington has sense enough to let them."
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