Photos of Afghan liberation

Ha’aretz editorial: On the way to school:

Five children killed is an intolerable price, the fruit of the policy according to

which Israel sets itself very loose limits in its war against Palestinian violence.

But not everything is permitted, not even in the war against terrorism, or against

the mortars that are trained on IDF camps and on the settlements at the

extremity of the Gaza Strip.

One thing that’s not permitted, for example, is to plant explosive devices on a

path used by children on the way to school. That has to be beyond the pale,

utterly forbidden, without ifs or buts, because of the danger posed to civilians by

the bombs. Whereas in the West Bank Israel seems to have set itself a few red

lines, the impression is that in the war to defend the vacuous settlements in the

Gaza Strip it has abandoned all restraint. In Gaza, far from the eyes of the Israeli

media, the game has different rules. The explosive devices Israel has planted

there is proof of that. After the liquidations, the arrests without trial, the shelling

of homes and the wholesale kidnappings, now come the bombs, which don’t

distinguish between children and terrorists.

On the slippery slope that Israel’s moral character is sliding irreparably, this is a

new nadir. A state places explosive charges where children are likely to pass

and then claims that only the other side practices terrorism? We have to admit

that an act of this kind can be considered an act of terrorism, because it strikes

at the innocent and doesn’t discriminate between the victims, even if the

intention was not to kill children and even if the goal was the war on terrorism.

What’s American About American Poetry? Campbell McGrath:

“Personally, I consider myself an American poet, because I’ve been shaped and molded by the culture in ways both known and hidden to me. Thematically, I write primarily about American culture, history, and landscape; but even when I’m writing about parenthood or palm trees I understand my vision to be colored by my sociocultural identity. My poetry may be an extreme case, but I often wonder what value it holds for a reader unversed in Americana, a reader unfamiliar with 7-11s and cable TV.”

“For a while — a short while — it seemed possible that the twin towers attack and the subsequent war might have jolted the affluent West out of its claustrophobic, neurotic materialist mindset. The massive shock could have liberated us from self-absorbed timidity and jolted us into remembering older values… (However,) the new era is, alas, still some way off.” The essayist is disturbed that “the malingerers, the players of the system, the special-pleaders who renege on clear working contracts, the claimers and blamers who want money for what a sane world would classify as bad luck” are still coming out of the woodwork, seemingly unconstrained by higher aspirations to which the terrorist attacks should have inspired our society. The Times of London

Hudson Institute commentator says we have little to fear from ‘next-phase’ guerrilla Taliban. “Taliban leaders say that abandoning the cities and taking the fight to the mountains was always part of their plan. Sure it was. Throwing away weapons was also part of the plan, right? What better way to deceive us?

Still, it’s important to ask what threat the Taliban may pose as guerrillas. The answer appears to be: Not much.” National Review

The State of the War: ‘Whatever happens in Afghanistan, the United States must not lose sight of its top goal: preventing further attacks within America’s borders.’ StratFor

Virtual Rape: The conviction of a 51-year-old New Jersey man of aggravated sexual assault onb a 10-year-old child with whom his only contact was over the phone may change the way we conceive of rape, Wendy Kaminer writes. NY Times Magazine

Questions for Ian McKellen on Why There Are No Childish Roles

Q: What’s the difference between preparing for a fantasy role like Gandalf and preparing for a serious and adult role, like Edgar in Strindberg’s ”Dance of Death,” which you’re currently playing on Broadway?

Well, Gandalf is five or seven thousand years old. He has been sent down by the higher powers to help Middle Earth. How on earth do you act those inhuman qualities? What you go with is the intense humanity of the character, the old man tramping around the countryside and complaining about his aching bones. It’s like if you were playing Jesus Christ — never of course would I recommend this to an actor, because everybody who plays Jesus Christ ends their career with that performance — but what you do when you play the Son of God is you forget the God part and get on with being the son.

NY Times Magazine

Lou Reed, the Tell-Tale Rocker: Reed and Robert Wilson collaborate on a music-theatre remix of the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

“He’s so contemporary,” Mr. Reed added. “It would sad be if he’s consigned to some cartoon level, like the Roger Corman movies. And the language is so beautiful. I spent so many hours with the dictionary, because some of these words were already arcane when he used them. He was a show- off in that way. My God, what a vocabulary. So I spent time finding out what these things meant, and then making it a litte bit, not necessarily contemporary, but what it actually meant. But the word he picked always had a beautiful sound.” NY Times

Columbine-style high school massacre plot foiled in Massachusetts Washington Post

We’ll Pay for All This Later, Okay? Fortune columnist Rob Norton on the consequences of deficit spending to pay for the enhanced homeland security and the war on terrorism. The problems are compounded, of course, as a result of the brain-dead Bush tax cut. It appears we’re headed for a return to deficit spending of indefinite duration. In the short run: goodbye, prescription drug aid for the elderly. In the long run: goodbye, social security? Washington Post

Perfect stocking-stuffer? Caps, shirts, mugs, mousepads — all branded with the powerful but subtly understated barcoded-head logo. If any FmH-lover would like me to drop a hint to a non-FmH-reading giftgiver about your desire to display the ‘colors’, just send me their address. As far as I can tell, only one FmH fan other than me has bought anything from the FmH store. By the way, I sell these at cost and make no profit, just getting the word out…

Ghost Sites: ‘This exhibit – The Museum of E-Failure – is an attempt to actively preserve the home pages of sites that will probably disappear in the next few months. Our goal is not to laugh at these failed enterprises, but to preserve documentary images – as many as possible – before all traces of their existence are deleted from history’s view. It is my hope that these screenshots may serve as a reminder of the glory, folly, and historically unique design sensibilities of the Web’s Great Gilded Age (1995-2001). May no historical revisionists ever claim that this wacky period didn’t happen – these screenshots prove that it did!’

FBI is watching case of missing biologist: “Federal agents are closely monitoring the disappearance case of Harvard biology professor Don C. Wiley because of his research interests in a number of potentially deadly viruses, including Ebola, the FBI said yesterday in Memphis.

Wiley’s whereabouts remained a mystery yesterday, a week after his car was found on a bridge over the Mississippi River. His family continued to insist that the noted biologist, whose papers explored the workings of some of the deadliest viruses in the world, would not have killed himself.” Boston Globe

From The Boondocks:

Harry Potter Is A Fraud. Muggles publication Forbes casts a jaundiced eye on how the film broke box office records: “The movie opened in 3,672 theaters and on 8,200 screens–about one out of every four screens in America; most Potter theaters played the movie on more than one screen. By contrast, 1999’s Star Wars: Episode 1–The Phantom Menace played on about 5,000 screens in its opening weekend, when it took in $65 million.

Prices have been rising steadily, too. In 1997, when the old three-day record was set, the average movie theater ticket price was $4.59, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. By 2000, the price had risen 17% to $5.39.”

Ghost Sites: ‘This exhibit – The Museum of E-Failure – is an attempt to actively preserve the home pages of sites that will probably disappear in the next few months. Our goal is not to laugh at these failed enterprises, but to preserve documentary images – as many as possible – before all traces of their existence are deleted from history’s view. It is my hope that these screenshots may serve as a reminder of the glory, folly, and historically unique design sensibilities of the Web’s Great Gilded Age (1995-2001). May no historical revisionists ever claim that this wacky period didn’t happen – these screenshots prove that it did!’