September 2007 archive

Before the opening, before the great flood, I’m wondering about the religious and/or spiritual or faith traditions to which people here would care to claim allegiance. It’s not always straightforward.

For this I will attempt a poll, something I have never done. So it will probably go all wrong. Much like I believe our religions have. Please answer conforming to what you think now; there is plenty of room to elaborate and excoriate in comments. Be as serious or as flippant as you want to be, this time around.

But I’m warning you: the fire next time.

Yes, I know this was a mistake. But I’d like a little snapshot of the group, before it grows up, changes, and moves away. I am nothing if not sentimental.

“Dude, your building is on fire.”

So said my roommate as he tried to rile me out of bed, that Tuesday morning. I rolled over and yelled, “Fuck off, I’ll go in when I go in.”

See, I had been laid off from my design firm in a hostile takeover on Friday, September 7, and on 9-11 we were suppose to be cleaning out our desks. Feeling no urgency to make the day easier for the assholes that just bought us out for our clients, I was sleeping in.

“No seriously, my dad just called, your building was hit by a plane.”

This got me out of bed in a shot, a chance to see an aeronautical disaster does not come along every day, and as a historian I wanted to see just one.

This is adapted (slightly) from something submitted for a local one-year anniversary observance on September 11, 2002.  It’s a small offering, but perhaps worth looking back for a moment or two?  It was also my first diary at Daily Kos, two years back, garnering a grand total of 2 recs & 3 comments.

I had a student job from 1983-5, on the 96th floor of the World Trade Center, Tower Two.  The outfit moved long ago, so no one I’d worked with was still there.  This is the view from the office  —  you can see the Brooklyn Bridge in front.  You could sit back and watch the air traffic at JFK airport.  The world was a carpet at your feet.

I have not been shy about the need to demythologize General Petraeus as the “honest broker” who will provide an independent assessment of the Surge. I wrote:

[T]his is not meant to doubt General Petraeus' integrity or competence. It is meant to treat him for what he is – not an infallible disinterested observer, but a soldier who believes he can accomplish an impossible mission and will view events in a manner that most favors that belief. This is to be expected from ALL human beings

What I must condemn is the use of the phrase “General Betrayus” by Move On in its ad today in the New York Times. This inexcusable use of the detestable Republican tactic of labelling those who disagree with you as “traitors,” something I have long objected to and I must, in good conscience, strongly condemn Move On's use of this deplorable tactic. Moreover, not only was this morally contemptible, it was political idiocy as the coverage of the ad clearly demonstrated. There is a way to take on the Petraeus myth. Glenn Greenwald demonstrated how to do it. And he is featured here showing how again:

Open Left has a petition you should sign.

I found an online chess editor that lets you arrange the board and download a jpg of the position.  Too cool! 

Apronus chess editor.

This might be useful for open threads or general chess discussion posts.  When I’m really, really in practice, I’m maybe a 1500.  Still, I like to read about chess events, opening schemes, endgame theory, chess history, and blah blah blah.

Four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. Simple, huh?

1. In case you’re ignoring the so-called ‘news’ today, the Washington Post reports it’s all sunshine and roses in Iraq. “Army Gen. David H. Petraeus claimed major progress for the so-called ‘surge,’ the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last spring… He said he also believes that ‘it is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time,’ although this will be ‘neither quick nor easy.'” So what are our objectives, aside from the oil, that is? The Independent gives a snapshot of life in occupied Iraq in — Under siege: what the surge really means in Baghdad. “For many Iraqis, the Americans have turned their land into a prison. The barriers, which have turned Baghdad into a series of ghettos, are meant to keep the bombers out, but they also keep residents penned in”. Baghdad is “a city divided by high concrete walls, barbed wire and checkpoints; armoured columns moving through deserted evening streets lit by the glow of searchlights and emptied by official curfew and fear.”

2. More madness in our society’s death pact with the fossil fuel industry. The Independent reports, Shell could take nuclear option to mine oil from Canadian tar sands. “Shell is considering using nuclear power to operate its controversial tar sands programme in Canada. ¶ Tar sands extraction – mining oil from a mixture of sand or clay, water and very heavy crude oil – uses a huge amount of energy and water. Environmentalists say it results in more than three times as many emissions of carbon dioxide compared to conventional oil production. ¶ Now Canadian firms AECL and Energy Alberta have proposed building a nuclear reactor near the site of Shell’s vast Athabasca tar sands development.” But according to the Globe and Mail, the oil sands are already facing a capacity squeeze. “A lack of pipeline capacity to take Canadian crude to refineries in the United States between now and 2009 will increase competition for producers to get their output to market.” Which could “lower prices” and “consequently, producers could delay some oil sands projects to try to ensure they don’t have to discount their future output to guarantee it gets to market”.

3. I had never heard of jatropha before this story, Mali’s Farmers Discover a Weed’s Potential Power in The New York Times. “A plant called jatropha is being hailed by scientists and policy makers as a potentially ideal source of biofuel, a plant that can grow in marginal soil or beside food crops, that does not require a lot of fertilizer and yields many times as much biofuel per acre planted as corn and many other potential biofuels… ¶ Poor farmers living on a wide band of land on both sides of the equator are planting it on millions of acres, hoping to turn their rockiest, most unproductive fields into a biofuel boom.”. Jatropha is drought and pest resistant and produces seeds with up to 40 percent oil content. The plant sounds almost too good to be true. Why does it remind me of kudzu?

4. How about some good news about whales for a change? The Guardian reports that Iceland renounces commercial whaling. “Iceland’s fisheries minister said the country will issue no new quotas for commercial whaling after the final batch expired last week. Einar K Guofinnsson said there was no demand for whale meat and therefore no need to issue fresh quotas. ‘There is no reason to continue commercial whaling if there is no demand for the product,’ he said. ¶ ‘The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability, there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales.’ ¶ Iceland has been unable to obtain permission to export whale products to Japan, depriving the industry of its primary – though dwindling – market.”

One more story below the fold…

I’ll let the report speak for itself. From USA Today:

On the eve of critical testimony to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus, most Americans are skeptical of what he will say and support setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq regardless of the military situation there.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday and Saturday finds that a White House push to spotlight progress in Iraq, including President Bush’s surprise stop in Anbar province last week, hasn’t fundamentally changed attitudes toward the war.

The propaganda isn’t working, and the American people aren’t being fooled.

A record 60% say the United States should set a timetable to withdraw forces “and stick to that timetable regardless of what is going on in Iraq.”

Regardless of what is going on. No excuses. No Friedman Units. No bullshit progress reports. Set a timetable and get out.

Of course, the Iraqi people might see it differently, right? Because all hell will break loose if we leave. Because all hell hasn’t yet broken loose. Right?

Let’s see…