Monthly Archives: July 2003

The Monkey on My Back

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I disconnected yesterday. No, I wasn’t in the mountains hiking I was at home, the power was on, the network connection was working (the kids were online). I did not boot up my system at all.

By early afternoon the withdrawal systems were palpable: what happened at Henley; what happened in the Prologue; was anybody reading Modulator (but why, there was no fresh content), was there new email, what were you talking about in the blogosphere? For hours every time I paused from other activities I’d feel the grasping tendrils of the net pulling at me.

I did, though, finish the new Harry Potter, mow the lawn, do some rearranging in my office and by dinner time I did not feel the reach of the net near as strongly. Later in the evening we watched a 1969 cinamatic essay on freedom in the United States: Easy Rider. At the end it was not clear that much has changed.

No withdrawal pangs this morning: a leisure read of today’s papers (lots of bloggable stuff, but for another time), household chores, this post, workout, and later maybe we’ll go see the new Matrix before it exits the theaters.

Still at War

This entry was posted in Iraq on by

This, from today’s NY Times, speaks for itself:

AGHDAD, Iraq, Friday, July 4 � Two months after President Bush declared the end of major combat, the commander of allied forces in Iraq acknowledged on Thursday that “we’re still at war,” and the United States announced a reward of up to $25 million for the capture of Saddam Hussein or confirmation of his death.
The statement from the commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez of the Army, came on a day in which 20 American soldiers were wounded and one was killed in five separate attacks.
One American soldier was killed and 10 were wounded in two attacks in central Iraq on Thursday night, the American military said today.

Is This Your America?

This entry was posted in US Politics on by

The other day I recommended this Dinesh D’Souza article.

Today, Leah over at Eschaton takes a dimmer view:

Worried that clueless Americans are getting all the wrong clues from the forces of negativity, both left AND right, (he’s nothing if not fair and balanced) Dinesh has prepared sort of a “Patriotism For Dummies”…

And the article is getting thoroughly fact checked in the comment thread.

I still think it is worth reading and thinking about.

  • Are the “10 great things” really great things?
  • Do they match your vision of where you want to live?
  • Do they fit in with ”…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…?
  • For those that you think are great things what actions will be necessary to achieve or enhance them?
  • Does the current US administration behave in a way that supports these “10 great things?”

Leah also points to this site which has a lot of succinct commentary on their answer to this last question.

Supreme Candidates and Lists

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From the category “If daddy did it then I’m going to fix it now” we have on a current list of possibles for a supreme Court Appointment: Judge Edith Hollan Jones, 54, 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals:

…. President George H.W. Bush went with David Souter when the two were Supreme Court finalists in 1989. Short of a filibuster-proof GOP Senate, Jones would prompt a battle because of opinions freeing Texas schools from affirmative action, criticizing abortion and sex harassment laws, and rejecting a new trial for a death-row inmate whose lawyer slept through much of the trial.

Thanks to Alex at A List a Day who says:

C’mon everyone loves a good list, don’t they? This is the place to find links and commentaries on lists of all sizes and merit.

Via Soundbitten.