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Thursday, September 13 2001

I've been asked to "get in [my] own mud bog and post [my] own ideas. [To] take a stand."

Robert, where do these comments come from? We have these conversations where your replies just don't seem to map to anything I've actually said. I saw what happened. I am angry, too. I'm not angry because America was the target. I would be just as angry if the victims were French or Iranian or Chinese. I might be a little more surprised but no less angry. (It may be hard for Americans to really grok how, or why, they are on so many people's shit-list, but that is another long and complicated conversation.) I am angry because some people think flying planes into skyscrapers is a way to make their voice heard or solve a problem or just generally be assholes. Are you asking me if I think it should be left unanswered or go unpunished, or that I'm suggesting we turn the other cheek? No. But, I will say that I can not tolerate what you are, or were then, advocating as a response. To paint an entire people with the same brush and assign them all the same fate? Is that what you are suggesting? I have little confidence that persons as individuals, and especially not as a collective, can simply turn the kind of vengeance and retribition you are describing off and on, like hot and cold running water. Even that it were possible, we should know better than that by now, sadly. It is the point of no return and it betrays everything we struggle to aspire towards every day. And it feeds in to the hands of those who attack you. You become that which you hate. I do not have the answer for this one, Robert. I'm sorry. I might sleep easier if I did. And it is made so, so, so much worse by the fact that there may not be any there there, in the conventional sense, on which to seek justice. Like everyone else, I continue to search for the right thing to do. But in the absence of that answer, I do know what I think the wrong thing to do is.

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Two years ago, I was reading "Jihad vs. McWorld"

and I am loathe to admit I never finished it. The memory came back to me just a moment, or so, before seeing this photograph.

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Am I the only person who can't watch Ari Fleishcer without being convinced he is lying?

I take no comfort in the public actions of the U.S. government, today. I take no comfort in watching Dubya stumble his way through a staged tough-guy phone call with Rudy Guliani who, frankly, has more important things to do right now. I take no comfort in watching as Poppy::Dubya is brought out of the closet to float the idea that The Company needs to be given carte blanche. I take no comfort in watching as Dubya::Mouthpiece cracks jokes with the press corps while saying "national security" will trump any, and every other, concern. I take no comfort in the fact that so many people are acting as though this as a captial-O opportunity to advance policy decisions without discussion or reflection.

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Robert Scoble : "We must change their memes. How do we do that?

I guess with two ways. First, we kill their women and children. Why? Well, these are future hosts of their memes. And, we must get their memes to understand that if we get attacked, we will make their other meme holders pay and pay big. ... They are killing my memes. Until they stop killing my memes, and start talking on the Internet with me, my memes will want to wack them, and wack them hard." Robert, you seem like a nice and, when you're not overly excited, thoughtful guy. But what you are advancing as an evaluation and a response to the attacks in the U.S. is simply insane. Notwithstanding the factual errors in your piece -- I will let others speak to the situations in post-war Germany and Russia after the Wall, not to mention America's role in South and Central America, Asia and Africa during the last half of the 20th century. But, it is well-documented that in post-war Japan the U.S. knowingly allowed members of the Imperial governement to return to power for the simple, pragmatic, reason that they were ardent anti-Communists. -- your might makes right and kill em' all attitude makes me wonder why you don't just throw in the towel. You might as well say "They've won" because you are advancing a way of dealing with, and treating, people that isn't all that different from those whom you decry. The only difference, apparently, is that America is the biggest kid on the block right now, and that somehow makes it okay. Come back from the dark side, Robert. Please.

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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is redact

| source : web1913 | Redact \Re*dact"\ (r?*d?kt"), v. t. [L. redactus, p. p. of redigere; pref. red-, re-, again, back + agere to put in motion, to drive.] To reduce to form, as literary matter; to digest and put in shape (matter for publication); to edit. | source : wn | redact v 1: formulate in a particular style or language; "I wouldn't put it that way"; "She cast her request in very polite language" [syn: {frame}, {cast}, {put}, {couch}] 2: make editorial changes (in a text) [syn: {edit}]

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Wednesday, September 12 2001 ← ∴ → Friday, September 14 2001
 
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