Month: August 2006

  • Statelessness strikes again.

    2 Lodi residents refused entry back into U.S. They’ll be allowed re-entry if they’ll submit to FBI interrogation in Pakistan, without a lawyer. Obviously, they could have been arrested on this side of their trip and then interrogated here, but this way they can be tortured.

  • A picture. An epitaph.

    Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. W.H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”

  • Proof

    Saw the movie version of Proof the other night. It’s a nicely written mystery, masquerading as a family drama. I especially liked these lines: “If I go back to the beginning. I could start it over again. Here. I could go line by line. Try and find a shorter way. I could try to make…

  • Lamont’s win and campaign finance

    Still getting the bugs squared away here, and I lost a long post on Lamont’s win in Connecticut. The short version: 1. Beware a Republican win against a split “Democratic” ticket. 2. Lamont spent less money than Lieberman, so money doesn’t always unseat incumbents. 3. Speech beat Lieberman, not finances. We should re-separate the two.…

  • Artifacts of culture? Or artifacts of barbarism?

    The Diamond Age has arrived, but no one will admit it. Experts chafe at the mass-production of diamonds. The leading gem analysts refuse to rate them. Duh. “If we could succeed, at a small expenditure of labour, in converting carbon into diamonds, their value might fall below that of bricks.” Capital, Karl Marx You should…