Posts

Moshe Bar has an interesting article on recent controversies on the Linux kernel mailing list. Laura Miller’s take on the Jonathan Franzen/Oprah Winfrey tiff is worth reading. Salman Rushdie’s latest New York Times op-ed dispatch, Yes, This Is About Islam, criticizes certain pathologies that seem to be sweeping the Muslim world. He also draws a very useful distinction between “Muslims” and “Islamists.” I’ll be using the term “Islamist” instead of “Islamic extremists” from now on. ...

All the newswires are reporting that Microsoft and the Justice Department are close to a settlement. I don’t expect much good to come of this. I actually had some interest in reading Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections , that is, until I found out what a pretentious asshole he is. When his book was selected for Oprah’s book club he threw a hissy fit about the Oprah’s book club logo being slapped on the front and basically bemoaned the fact that his book would be exposed to people who weren’t smart enough to appreciate it. There are thousands of authors out there who would be ecstatic at the thought that millions of people would suddenly be interested in their book instead of thousands, but not this jerk. Franzen is the sort of snob who gives authors a bad name. ...

Robert Reich’s latest column in the American Prospect attempts to outline a pragmatic approach to fighting terrorism (reader-submitted link). Here’s a juicy quote, taking both the left and right to task for their hardline positions: Here’s where America’s political and intellectual left and right seem incapable of reasoned debate. Much of the left is still bemoaning America’s Cold War support of anticommunist dictators–the shah, Mobutu, Somoza, Greek colonels, Korean generals, Pinochet, Marcos, Armas, the mujahideen–and our nation’s gruesome record advising them, training their death squads, schooling and equipping their torture specialists, and helping them squirrel away their vast wealth. Given this history, the post-September 11 effulgence of American flags, patriotic hymns, and “freedom and democracy” bromides offered by American politicians strikes many on the left as dangerously ahistoric if not downright hypocritical. ...

Lots of stuff happened while I was gone. For one thing, I had about 500 unread emails in my inbox, and I’m still catching up. In other news: Microsoft launched Windows XP. Microsoft redesigned MSN, and as part of the redesign, intentionally locked out browsers other than Internet Explorer. I had about 5 billion email messages in my inbox from discussions of this on various mailing lists, but I can’t get worked up about it. Is anybody smart enough to use a browser other than IE dumb enough to use MSN? The completist in me wants to make sure to point out that Phil Agre released another set of attack-related links in my absence. The USA Act was signed into law. John Dean has written an excellent rundown of the problems with the law for MSNBC. Over at Slate, Robert Wright has written an excellent article on the issue of whether or not Islam can reconcile itself with modernity. Here’s one of the key points in the article: ...

I’m going out of town for a few days, so things will likely be quiet around here until I get back next Monday.

In Ireland, the IRA has put some quantity of arms beyond use in compliance with an agreement reached in August in order to preserve the ongoing peace process there. In any conflict, a meaningful unilateral action is the best first step toward reaching a positive resolution. In the meantime, Israel launched another armored assault on a West Bank town last night. Even as the Taliban condemn the United States for killing civilians with our bombs, they are hiding amongst civilians themselves. It’s interesting that the Taliban accuse us of intentionally targetting civilians, but at the same time hide amongst them for protection. If the US intentionally targetted civilians, or even selected targets without regard for civilians in the area, what good would it do to put troops and supplies in residential areas? ...

Despite the fact that the US vehemently denies dropping a bomb on a hospital in Afghanistan, the Frontier Post (a Peshawar, Pakistan newspaper) is reporting the claim as straight news. The article doesn’t even include the fact that the US denied bombing the hospital, it just reports the Taliban claims that we did so. I imagine that coverage is similar throughout the Muslim world. The Pakistani newspaper is also reporting claims that two American helicopters were shot down within Afghanistan, and that Al Jazeera showed footage of what was allegedly wreckage of the helicopters. On the other hand, I can’t find any coverage in that paper of the Taliban’s rocket attack on civilians in the Northern Alliance held town of Charikar, which is reported as an aside in this BBC story. The fact is that even as the Taliban condemns the United States for killing Afghan civilians and accuses us of purposefully doing so, they are, in fact, intentionally attacking Afghan civilians themselves. ...

I’ve been following the ongoing story of a $100,000 transfer made to Mohammed Atta. The Times of India originally reported that the transfer was made on behalf of the recently retired head of the Pakistani intelligence service, Mahmud Ahmad. Last week, a reader sent links to two articles (CNN and BBC), which point to a man named Sheik Syed making the transfer, but do not make the further connection to the general that’s made by the Times article. ...

Bob Woodward has an article in today’s Washington Post about the President’s new strategy to combat terrorism. The CIA has been given authorization to work with the military on a seventies style dirty war against terrorists, or who the CIA considers to be terrorists, anyway. Dick Cheney also says the war may not end in our lifetimes. So does that mean we can look forward to an ongoing program of extrajudicial executions and secret operations that will outrage us 30 years down the road when they’re finally declassified? I hope not. ...

Here’s a particularly large set of attack-related links from Phil Agre. Also, the ground war has begun.