Accidental Blogger

Armstrong With An "A"

So, it seems that Neil Armstrong did use correct grammar when he uttered one of the most famous phrases in human history.  For decades since Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, we have heard the exuberant message Armstrong sent out to us earthlings worded as: "...One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

For nearly four decades, Armstrong's words have qualified as one giant grammatical misspeak heard around the world. The correct version should have been: "...One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." It was assumed that Armstrong forgot the "a" in his excitement and his historical statement is often quoted with a parenthetical "a".

But Armstrong has insisted that he probably had transmitted the correct grammatical phrase to NASA's Mission Control and that the "a" just got lost in transmission. Recent high tech audio analysis of the  message from the moon vindicates Armstrong's claim that he did indeed utter the all important "a." 

(The photo shows Buzz Aldrin photographed on the moon by Neil Armstrong)

One small step for clarity
Researcher discovers that Neil Armstrong had not only the RIGHT IDEA, but the RIGHT WORDS

"High-tech detective work apparently has found the missing "a" in one of the most famous phrases ever spoken.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's first words from the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, now can be confidently recast, according to the research, as "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."  It is the more dramatic and grammatically correct phrasing that Armstrong, 76, has often said was the version he transmitted to NASA's Mission Control for broadcast to worldwide television.

With the technology of the 1960s, however, his global audience heard his comment without the "a," making it "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

The discrepancy has been widely debated for years by historians, academics and fans of space travel, with the "a" sometimes appearing in parentheses in government documents and Armstrong being listed on unofficial Web sites as being guilty of a momentous flub.

The missing word was found this month in a software analysis of Armstrong's famous phrase by Peter Shann Ford, a Sydney, Australia-based computer programmer. Ford's company, Control Bionics, specializes in helping physically handicapped people use their nerve impulses to communicate through computers. 

"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," Armstrong said in a statement. "I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."

According to Ford, Armstrong spoke, "One small step for a man ... " in a total of 35 milliseconds, 10 times too fast for the "a" to be audible.  The "a" was transmitted, though, and can be verified in an analysis using Canadian sound-editing software called GoldWave, Ford said.

Theories abound

Critics have suggested that Armstrong either botched a missive written for him by a government official ahead of his lunar step or that the poor wording was a sign of his lack of awareness of its significance.

However, Armstrong told biographer Hansen that he composed the phrase during the six hours and 40 minutes between his drama-tinged landing and the time he and Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin emerged from their lander, Eagle, to walk on the moon.   In the 2005 book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, Armstrong told Hansen that others have pointed out that he can often be heard dropping the vowels from his speech in his radio transmissions.

"It doesn't sound like there was time for the word to be there," Armstrong said in the book. "On the other hand, I didn't intentionally make an inane statement, and ... certainly the 'a' was intended, because that's the only way the statement makes any sense.

"So I would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it wasn't said — although it might actually have been."

Trent Lott: "They All Look The Same To Me."

Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, who a few years ago had lamented that we could have avoided "all these problems" if Senator Strom Thurmond, a segregationist candidate, had been elected president of the United States, is now baffled by the Shia- Sunni conflict in Iraq.

" President Bush barely mentioned the war in Iraq when he met with Republican senators behind closed doors in the Capitol Thursday morning and was not asked about the course of the war, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, said.

"No, none of that," Lott told reporters after the session when asked if the Iraq war was discussed. "You're the only ones who obsess on that. We don't and the real people out in the real world don't for the most part."

Lott went on to say he has difficulty understanding the motivations behind the violence in Iraq.

"It's hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what's wrong with these people," he said. "Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me."

Hmm .. interesting. I guess you should only hate and kill those who DON'T look like you. 

An Equal Opportunity Insulter

Whatever you are - white, black, Jewish, Indian, woman or a stamp collector, George Allen has an insult for you.  He also has a weasely explanation for his loose lips. Play the game and see how the George Allen Insult Generator treats you.

(I checked it out twice - there are more than one insult for most categories. They are not all terribly funny but I wonder what the current media focus on his stupidity means for his chances of winning re-election.)

Update: Now see who else is feeling insulted by George Allen!

Unmarked In Their Flesh

Before genetic fingerprinting became a common forensic tool, our real "fingerprints" were about as close as we came to establishing a unique identity. In the past hundred years or so since this peculiar individual trait was discovered, fingerprints have played a vital role in criminal investigation and in establishing identity. Up until now, the fingerprints of no two individuals, including identical twins, have matched in billions of manual and computer aided comparisons.

A handful of people in the population though are born without this common identifying marker. The underlying genetic cause for this rare omission has been determined by scientists - a defect in the protein "keratin 14." The lack of fingerprints is not the most serious effect of this condition. Those with the defect, are afflicted with two rare and related ailments known as Naegeli syndrome and dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis (DPR), which in some affected individuals can cause life threatening conditions such as heat stroke.

"Two rare and related diseases leave their sufferers with no fingerprints. Now scientists may have cracked the genetic code behind the inherited ailments.  Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia report that defects in the protein keratin 14 may be responsible for both diseases, known as Naegeli syndrome and dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis (DPR).   

The lack of fingerprints can cause vexing social problems, which are magnified because few people have heard of the condition. Cheryl Maynard of Fairfax, Virginia, is part of the fifth generation of her family to have inherited DPR from her mother's side.

"My father was in the military and he had top-secret clearances," she recalled. "We moved a lot, and everywhere we went they'd say, What do you mean your wife doesn't have fingerprints? What do you mean that you have kids without fingerprints?"

Maynard has personally experienced many fingerprint-related snafus, often related to employment.  She works as a flight attendant and noted that a standard background check by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which took about 2 weeks for most of her peers, took 14 weeks in her case....

For the handful of people without fingerprints the physical impacts are few. Maynard has normal feeling in her fingers, though the lack of fingerprints deprives her of some grip, which makes dealing cards or turning pages more difficult.

But the lack of fingerprints is not the diseases' only, or even most serious, impact. Patients also experience thickening of their palms and soles of their feet. They suffer from anomalies in the development of their teeth, hair, and skin, where pigmentation can appear patchy and uneven.

Most dangerously, they have skin issues that can inhibit their ability to sweat normally.

"That's the only really serious manifestation as far as potential harm," said professor Eli Sprecher of the Technion-Israel Institute. Sprecher is co-author of the study that discusses the conditions in the October issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. "Because they cannot evacuate heat, they can develop heat stroke." ....

Conception More Important Than Delivery

I said he is a mindless brute, didn't I ?  Michael Kingsley says it better.

"It was, I believe, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who first made the excellent, bitter and terribly unfair joke about conservatives who believe in a right to life that begins at conception and ends at birth.

This joke has been adapted for use against various Republican politicians ever since. In the case of President Bush, though, it appears to be literally true. ... "

The rest of the article here.

He Can Always Sell Humvees

(Click to enlarge. Via Amitava Kumar)

The culture of a nation is driven to a large extent by its leadership. If politicians can invoke divisive and offensive religious and cultural code words to buy elections, why can't businessmen do the same to sell merchandise?  Businesses sometimes get into trouble for provocative ad campaigns which take aim at group or individual sensibilities. One would have thought that most sellers are aware by now of what does or does not fly in a diverse and generally decent society.  As cultural sensitivities have sharpened, so has caution about provocative advertising. Some however consider negative publicity as a sales boosting device. Which is why companies such as Calvin Klein, Urban Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch slyly appeal to their hip customer bases - pushing the envelope by being "naughty."

But I doubt that "Dennis Mitsubishi" a car dealership in Columbus, Ohio had so sophisticated a plan in mind. The first axiom of the ad industry is to present a product in ways that customers are likely to remember - through visuals, music or words that are memorable. "Memorable" does not necessarily mean tasteful or artistic - crude, annoying and silly things too can be memorable. Recently the TV ad for "Head On" (the ad in which a voice shrilly repeats the name), a headache medicine, was voted the most effective AND the most annoying commercial on TV. Sometimes a simplistic approach that focuses on everyday vocabulary and concerns, can connect with the buyer. Since 9/11, the war on Islamic terrorism has captured the American public's imagination. Words such as jihad, burqa and fatwa are now common parlance. It is not just the words but their connotation too is now familiar. In the minds of most people in the US, they are associated with evil terrorists. So when Keith Dennis of Dennis Mitsubishi in Ohio decided to use these buzz words to sell cars, he obviously was counting on easy recognition in the minds of prospective buyers. Radio commercials for the car dealership planned to use expressions such as:

• "launching a jihad on the automotive market."
• Sales representatives "will be wearing burqas all weekend long."
• One of the vehicles on sale "can comfortably seat up to 12 jihadists in the back."
• "Our prices are lower than the evildoers’ every day. Just ask the pope! "
• "Friday is fatwa Friday, with free rubber swords for the kiddies."

Dennis' attempt at selling cars using a novel War on Terrorism strategy was not kindly received by radio stations and Mitsubishi Corporation. The ad campaign has been scrapped. I agree with the decision. But what about the so called national leaders who use words carelessly? I wish we would hear more outcry when George W. Bush exploits the WoT and uses similar vocabulary to sell his faulty political agenda to the American public and the world. Here are some words and expressions that Bush uses or has used in the past to cynically sell us a failed and faulty vision of the world.

Axis of Evil, Evildoers, Crusades, Hunting Down Terrorists

I dont' know if the Head On medicine works on head aches. But I do know that Bush's strategy  of fighting terrorism hasn't worked. He continues to use the same overheated rhetoric and the White House's campaign is now beginning to sound as annoying as the Head On commercial.

Nike Natyam (Nike Theater)

Time for some comic relief.

Nike has introduced Indian classical and Bollywood modern dance movements in a new exercise video. The hybrid routine is hideously funny.  I am not sure if the video is for circulation in the US or meant to be a promotional tool for Nike products in India. Although well meaning, the video may face some unexpected reaction from cultural purists. My niece in New Delhi to whom I had forwarded the video, wrote back saying this:

"It [the video] is pretty hysterical! But wait till the Shiv Sena or the Sangh Parivar [Indian right wing organizations] finds out... They went after Madonna for wearing henna on her hands in one of her videos. I'm guessing that women in training pants and sports bras, doing classical Indian dance won't go down well with the right-wing agenda of preserving Indian culture."

Well if Nike faces right wing wrath in India for their artistic endeavor, that will be another theater. In the meanwhile, enjoy the show. Just don't try the routine in a gym with mirrors on the wall. (video link via Sepia Mutiny)

"Busharraf": Tweedledee & Tweedledum In The Fake War On Terrorism

Fearless truth teller and Bush nemesis, Maureen Dowd hits the nail on its head again regarding Bush-Cheney's mind boggling hypocrisy and disregard for the truth.  She comments on the spurious bill of goods that Pakistani president Parvez Musharraf has sold to the US since 9/11/2001 and the wilful ignorance with which the Bush adminstration has bought it.   
(The NYT column is Time Select. I read it in Houston Chronicle where it appeared in syndication. Here I am mooching off another blogger who has published it on his blog). The article is so accurate in its analysis that I will copy it here in full.

Axis of Sketchy Allies

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: September 23, 2006

Pakistan is at the heart of the Faustian deal the Bush administration has made.


It helps to plug your book at the White House.

After Pervez Musharraf coyly sidestepped a question at a news conference with President Bush about his claim on “60 Minutes” that Richard Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age if it did not cooperate in routing the Taliban in Afghanistan, noting that he had to save such juicy tidbits for his book’s publication next week, he shot up over 1,000 spots on Amazon.com.

General Musharraf told Steve Kroft he found the Stone Age crack “very rude,’’ and Mr. Armitage was on the defensive yesterday, explaining that he had been tough with Pakistan just after 9/11 but had not made any Flintstones threats.

The former deputy to Colin Powell needn’t apologize. That was the last time our foreign policy was on track, when we were pursuing the real enemy. It’s all been downhill from there.

The Pakistan president is a smooth operator, a military dictator cruising around the capital with his elegant wife and enormous security contingent, talking about how much he likes democracy, which he won’t yet allow.

He may have more respect for checks and balances than Dick Cheney, but that’s not saying much.

On the subject of Osama, he’s so slippery you want to lock him in a room with the muscle-bound Mr. Armitage. General ... General, as W. called him in that famous campaign pop quiz, tried to persuade Mr. Bush that the shabby truce he recently made with tribal leaders, agreeing that the Pakistani Army would stay out of the wild border area next to Afghanistan — where Osama and other Al Qaeda and Taliban members are believed to be hiding — was really “against” the militants.

The Pakistan government has, in effect, simply turned over the North Waziristan area to the militants. ABC News quoted Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan Khan of Pakistan as saying that the deal was an implicit amnesty, and that Osama “would not be taken into custody” as long as he was “being like a peaceful citizen.”

American officials are dubious about Mr. Musharraf’s commitment to destroying Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But at the press conference, W., who no doubt thinks he has seen into General ... General’s soul, acted as though he were willing to believe the Pakistani president when he says he is “on the hunt” for Osama and the Taliban at the same time he’s setting up a safe haven for them — and getting huffy at the idea that American forces have the right to go into Pakistan to track Osama.

“Americans who are concerned about a recurrence of 9/11 are worried about the Axis of Evil when the real problem is the Axis of Allies — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Britain,’’ the British historian Niall Ferguson says. “The terrorists are funded in Saudi Arabia, they’re trained in Pakistan, and they organize their plots quite easily in London.’’

Mr. Ferguson, who analyzes evildoers and despots in his new book, “The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West,’’ observes that Mr. Musharraf could not survive if he truly tried to break up the cozy relationship between militants, tribal leaders and some in his Army and intelligence service.

The Paks, as W. and Vice like to call them, are at the heart of the Faustian deal the Bush administration has made. The justification for invading Iraq was that they couldn’t allow a dictator who might be harboring terrorists to stay in power. But their great ally in the war on terror is General Musharraf, a dictator who appears to be harboring terrorists, including the one we want most.

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, who is coming to the White House next week to dine with W. and General ... General, expressed a sly skepticism about his neighbor’s protestations that he is strategizing against militants. As David Sanger reported, the Afghan leader told Times editors and reporters at a meeting Thursday that he had tried to get Pakistan’s help in repelling the resurgent Taliban by giving the Pakistanis “information on training ground, on operation, people, their phone numbers, their G.P.S. locations.’’

“Our friends come back to us and say this information is old,’’ Mr. Karzai continued. “Maybe. But it means they were there.”

Asked where Osama was, he smiled and replied: “If I said he was in Pakistan, President Musharraf would be mad at me. And if I said he was in Afghanistan, it would not be true.”

We may not have Osama, but at least W. helped General ...General with his Amazon ranking. “Buy the book,” the president recommended as the two allies wrapped up.

Memo To Democrats: How To Talk To The Right Wing Slime Machine

To all the spineless Dems who have been tongue tied and clueless on how to engage the Bush administration on Iraq, here is a lesson from the master. See also the transcript of the finger wagging, eyes flashing, vein bulging, in your face interview that Bill Clinton gave to Fox News' Chris Wallace who asked him the following question: (Democrats should pay special attention to what Clinton says towards the end of the interview about Rove and the Republicans' tactics)

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be on "Fox News Sunday," I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I've got to say, I was surprised. Most of them wanted me to ask you this question: Why didn't you do more to put bin Laden and Al Qaeda out of business when you were president?

There's a new book out, I suspect you've already read, called "The Looming Tower." And it talks about how the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, bin Laden said, "I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of U.S. troops." Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole.

CLINTON: OK, let's just go through that. ...

And boy, did he go through that! Although I don't believe that Clinton did "everything" he could to get Bin Laden and neutralize Al Qaeda, he probably did more than the current occupant of the White House has done. I doubt that if 9/11 had happened on Clinton's watch, we would have gone on a capricious wild goose chase after an imaginary enemy and squandered lives and resources in a trumped up war, neglecting the real culprits.

George Bush got away with smear, innuendos and cheap shots against John Kerry- heck, he has got away with murder! Still he continues to get a free pass from the US Congress where opposition to his whims and fancies is nearly non-existent.  The nearest that anyone had come to challenging Bush was Hugo Chavez with his juvenile taunts. Until this Sunday. Clinton showed his legendary temper which we have heard about but rarely seen. Clinton may be egoistic enough that he reserves his outrage only to salvage his own reputation. But this bravura performance of rage and fact filled outburst should serve as a template for the cowardly Dems to emulate.

The usually glib White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow (job) could say only this when asked to comment on the interview in which Clinton unflinchingly accused the Bush administration of gross failures and incompetence in the war against terrorism.

[Snow]: "Well, he retorts, you decide.  It's my view that -- well, not my view. President Clinton clearly had strong feelings, but I'm going to let -- we're just not going to engage."

We have decided, Mr. Snow.  Monica may have been Bill Clinton's problem but Osama is the albatross around George Bush's neck alone. No amount of spinning, blame spreading and buck passing is going to change that incontrovertible fact now -- or for the history books.

Who Taught Him Punctuation?

Our Commander in Chief doesn't get it - or he is an exceptionally adept liar. The invasion / occupation of Iraq has become a nightmare for Iraqi citizens (nearly 5000 dead between June and August of this year) and for the confused and dispirited US troops who no longer believe that Iraq is a legitimate and necessary front on the war on global terrorism. As Joe reported in his recent post, the outlook on the war on terrorism has been made grimmer due to the illegal and mishandled war in Iraq.

"The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document."

But rather than take the assessment of experts seriously and recalibrate its misguided and dishonest policy, the Bush administration and its right wing henchmen are doing what they do best. They are hitting back by discrediting the Intelligence report and claiming that terrorism's spread has nothing to do with the Iraq war. (link: Sujatha)

"The White House on Sunday sharply disagreed with a new U.S. intelligence assessment that the war in Iraq is encouraging global terrorism, as Bush administration officials stressed that anti-American fervor in the Muslim world began long before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Peter Watkins, a White House spokesman, declined to talk specifically about the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a classified analysis that represents a consensus perspective of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. ....  In it, the agencies concluded that the war has only worsened the U.S. effort to defeat global terrorism. They said that the war is spreading radicalism from Iraq throughout the Middle East and that the longer it continues, the more likely it is that it will provide fresh training grounds for future terrorist plots.

But the White House view, according to Watkins, is that much of the radical fundamentalists' deep anger at the United States and Israel goes back generations and cannot be linked to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"Their hatred for freedom and liberty did not develop overnight,'' Watkins said. "Those seeds were planted decades ago.''

A predictable reaction from the same bunch whose dishonest claim it was that Saddam had WMD, including the nuclear kind and a direct hand in 9/11. That this dangerously arrogant  administration would lie tirelessly to cover up its incompetence and indecency is not news. But what effect this obstinate denial of truth will have on our national security planning ought to make us very afraid.  See the cavalier attitude George Bush displays towards the murderous choice he made.

"In the CNN interview (recorded earlier this week and aired today), Wolf Blitzer asked about the continuing setbacks in Iraq. Bush, with a slight smile, replied, "Yes, you see -- you see it on TV, and that’s the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there’s also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people -- 12 milion people voted last December. ... I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there’s a strong will for democracy. ... The unity government is functioning."

A comma? Just a comma? Was he joking?  How will Bush's presidency figure in history? As a giant exclamation mark, probably. Future generations will surely wonder how far out of their minds Americans were to have elected such a mindless brute for president - twice!  And it is not just Iraqis and Americans who have been the victims of his sadistic adventure.

Hurricane, Hüzün & Holy City - Book Reviews (Part II)

This is the second of the three part book review I began a little less than a month ago. This time the H word in the alliterative title is Hüzün.

Istanbul : Turkish author Orhan Pamuk's excellent book, Istanbul is a double layered memoir. In one the author composes a loving tribute to the city of his birth - the historic Istanbul. The second is a critical look at his own life as an artist, a life long Istanbullu and a man.

The autobiographical portion of Pamuk's book has the feel of a biography - as if written by someone who has observed his own life as an outsider. We get a taste of this detached narrative in the  opening page  of the book where Pamuk writes:

"From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my world than I could see: Somewhere in the streets of Istanbul, in a house resembling ours, there lived another Orhan so much like me that he could pass for my twin, even my double. I can't remember where I got this idea or how it came to me. It must have emerged from a web of rumors, misunderstandings, illusions, and fears. But in one of my earliest memories, it is clear how I've come to feel about my ghostly other... "   

That feeling of otherliness about himself could have been the result of the disconcerting early childhood experiences of occasional displacements from his home and anxiety about the strained relationship between his parents, both of whom Pamuk loved. It was also bolstered by something that happenend when as a five year old, Pamuk went to live with some relatives during one of his parents' many separations. The relatives had a picture of an unknown boy in their home - a photo that came with a frame they had purchased during a holiday in Europe. Someone jokingly told the young Pamuk that it was he in the photo. The young stranger resembled Pamuk just enough that he came to half believe the teasing. He began to wonder about his parallel self not quite knowing if he would some day meet him on an unknown street corner or in a familiar room.   

Orhan Pamuk is a celebrated Turkish author of many famous works and one notorious political controversy.  He was born in an aristocratic family of Istanbul whose glory days were already fading when Pamuk was a child. He shared his home with several relatives - parents, uncles, aunts and a formidable grandmother who all lived in different apartments of a building owned by the family and where to this day, Pamuk continues to live as an adult. The Pamuk family was wealthy, westernized and lived in privileged isolation. The relationship between his beautiful mother and handsome and suave father was difficult - Pamuk hints at his father's infidelities and his mother's anger and sorrow. (The book is dedicated to his father) We learn of the author's childhood, adolescence, education, religion (or lack there of) and his first serious romance. We trace the trajectory of the author's career from the initial foray into painting, architecture and eventually settling down to the life of a writer. The memoir is knitted together through a series of events dredged from memory without much commentary - good, bad or ugly. We learn the story of Pamuk's life through his laconic telling and are left to make our own judgements. The author cautions us time and again - "these are the words of a fifty-year-old writer who is trying to shape the chaotic thoughts of a long-ago adolescent." But those chaotic and somewhat opaque thoughts pertain to the human relationships of the memoir. The other part, which is much more emphatic in its truthful recollection supported by numerous scholarly works of recorded history, black and white photographs and the author's own observations, deals with Pamuk's lifelong attachment and fascination with his beloved city of Istanbul.

The first thing that strikes the reader in Pamuk's writing about Istanbul is that it is a tragic city - seeped in history and melancholy. And it is not just ordinary melancholy he assures us, but an all pervading collective melancholy, a "black passion" that grips all Istanbullus  - rich, poor, old and young. There is a special word in Turkish for this communal, constant, low level grief - its name is hüzün. Hüzün is defined by the Sufis of old as the sorrow caused by the separation of the human soul from God. It is a desirable emotion to possess - a pleasurable pain. It is the acknowledgement of what is precious that we may be missing in our existence and striving to find it. The lament or the hüzün that the author and his fellow citizens feel for Istanbul is caused by the realization of what the city once was at the epoch of its power, what it could have become -- but did not. During his endless walks in the city, with an ever present cigarette between his fingers, Pamuk takes us through its roads and alleys and across the glittering waters of the Bosphorous.  From the prosperous westernized quarters of post WWI Istanbul of Kemal Pasha, to the derelict mosques, churches and synagogues of the Ottoman and Byzantine eras, we go up, down and across the intersecting geographic and historic grids of the city. Like Pamuk, Istanbul too seems to have a double - a forward looking, happy but gauche modern city perpetually under the shadow of the hüzün of an elegant and ancient city of unfulfilled promises.   

Does a city have a soul of its own?  An organic identity that is separate from the lives of its inhabitants? I too was born and raised in an ancient city whose streets bear the scars and triumphs of numerous people of numerous races, religions and nationalities. Delhi's history like Istanbul's, too is a palimpsest of many, many centuries of war and peace, prosperity and devastation, rise and fall of indigenous and invading powers. Ancient monuments, songs, poetry and history books chronicle that history. Delhi has seen horrendous bloodshed, invasions, political intrigues followed by repeated and vigorous renewals. It has served as the capital of successive emperors and conquerors including most recently, the Mughals, the British and now independent India. Except for the disappearance of the broad, shaded, leafy boulevards of the Delhi of my youth, I never experience a feeling of melancholy when I visit Old and New Delhi. The new shiny buildings, congested roads, grand and crumbling mansions, fading old colonial gardens or its still proud and imposing medieval and colonial fortresses, all blend into a vibrant whole which always gladdens my heart. Could that be due to my own usually sunny outlook or is Delhi really a bustling, optimistic city?  I have never been to Istanbul and would love to some day. I am not entirely sure if the dark pall of hüzün indeed envelopes Istanbul or if it is the author's own personal melancholy he transposes on the city's character.  But that melancholy too may be somewhat in doubt.  The last chapter of "Istanbul" is entitled "To Be Unhappy Is to Hate Oneself and One's City". Pamuk repeatedly tells us how much he "loves" Istanbul, a city he has never left.  Although Pamuk doesn't tell us if he hates himself, being fifty percent on the right side of a loving equation is not all bad.  So, we can conclude that he too could not be totally unhappy.

New estimate: WOT countereffective (Joe)

Lend anything enough weight and credibility and it becomes important, right?  And in this case, we're talking about a lot:

National Intelligence Estimates are the most authoritative documents that the intelligence community produces on a specific national security issue, and are approved by John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence. Their conclusions are based on analysis of raw intelligence collected by all of the spy agencies.

What does the estimate say, you ask?  Well you remember how leading up to the invasion of Iraq intelligent people noted that not only would said invasion be unjust, but that if we wanted to deal with terrorism maybe we should stop and try to understand the driving forces behind terrorism rather than simply assaulting the Middle East?  Those people were dismissed as, I believe, cowardly bleeding-heart soft-on-"terror" liberals.  Well as it turns out, George Bush got to fire his guns, and I'm sure that's worth something to the people who actually have to deal with the unbelievably aggressive psychopath, but in for the rest of us, things have been made much, much worse:

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,” it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

More than a dozen United States government officials and outside experts were interviewed for this article, and all spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence document. The officials included employees of several government agencies, and both supporters and critics of the Bush administration. All of those interviewed had either seen the final version of the document or participated in the creation of earlier drafts. These officials discussed some of the document’s general conclusions but not details, which remain highly classified.

Officials with knowledge of the intelligence estimate said it avoided specific judgments about the likelihood that terrorists would once again strike on United States soil. The relationship between the Iraq war and terrorism, and the question of whether the United States is safer, have been subjects of persistent debate since the war began in 2003.

Not that this should be surprising, mind you.  But it's important because of who's saying it -- it should almost, almost, force wingnuts to stop and listen.

Quack Quack (Sujatha)

Now a news report suggesting that Osama bin Bogeyman may have expired peacefully in his bed from a virulent bout of typhoid.

Curiosity had me googling to check out the original French article which detailed the leak of classified French document which claimed that Saudi authorities 'would have ' acquired information regarding Bin Laden's demise  ( See Google translation of above article.) To get all pedantic about the article, it struck me as strange that the original article used the words 'auraient acquis' , translated as 'would have acquired' as opposed to 'ont acquis' which would translate to 'have acquired'. In other words, the Saudis might have acquired information regarding OBL's death.

Does this mean the whole report is just a canard, or is it an early leak of Rove's promised October surprise?  If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it must, well.... be a canard!

Update:
The plot thickens. Could it be that this report might have squashed the possibility of parading a gold framed and perfectly matted blow up of OBL's face ( like what was done for Zarqawi's capture- just my inner conspiracy theorist piping up, irrepressible.) "OBL wasn't killed in a precision bomb strike by the US military, he just gave up the ghost due to natural causes." But wait, the death hasn't been confirmed yet, so I shouldn't quack about this.

Torturous Religious Roots

Jack Balkin has the funniest post on the George Allen - Jewish brouhaha.  It involves another George.

"Senator George Allen isn't the only politician to be surprised about his religious heritage.

Yesterday former First Lady Barbara Bush revealed to her son George that she had been raised as a Muslim. The President immediately went to Congress and demanded the right to waterboard himself."

"$999 Million is Chump Change"

For the first time since its inception, Forbes 400 - the list of the 400 wealthiest individuals in America, includes only billionaires. So, the super rich are getting richer. I wonder who the poor little rich person is who only has $999 million. Now we'll never know his/her name.

"It's not news that Bill Gates is the richest person in America, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of the nation's 400 richest people, released yesterday. He has been for 13 years. Barring a second Stone Age in which computers are good only for hurling at other cavemen, Gates will always be rich.

The news is: On this list, $999 million is chump change.

For the first time, all 400 Gotbucks on the Forbes tally are billionaires, from Gates (worth $53 billion) down to the bottom, Los Angeles semiconductor magnate Sehat Sutardja ($1 billion).

It's not just the accumulated wealth that draws attention to the list; it's the eye-popping numbers that show the speed with which wealth is gained -- and lost -- at the dawn of this millennium. For instance, according to Forbes:

· Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (No. 3, $20.5 billion) has made $1 million per hour over the past two years.

· Google Inc. founders Sergey Brin (No. 12, $14.1 billion) and Larry Page (No. 13, $14 billion) have each made $13 million per day over the past two years.

Forbes has been publishing the much-ballyhooed list -- which relies on research and estimates and rounds net worth to the nearest $100 million -- since 1982. The inaugural list contained only 13 billionaires. Even after the technology crash at the beginning of the century, a three-year war and a jumpy economy, the wealth accumulation among the richest Americans continues unabated and has risen to historic proportions, even if measured by an arbitrarily arrived-at number (400, the number of swells who could fit into the Victorian New York ballroom of Caroline Astor).

"It is a really big deal that it's all billionaires," said Forbes associate editor Matthew Miller, who edited the list and led the team that spent a year compiling it. "It shows economic growth and, as this magazine is a fan of capitalism, it shows progress." ....

The enormous sums spur the natural question: Is it good, bad or neither that wealth is accumulating so fast that numbers begin to lose their meaning? (Requisite illustration: A stack of 1 billion $1 bills would reach a height of 80 miles.)

The full article here.

The new "If you don't like it here then GIT OUT!" (Joe)

Subtitled: There's a reason liberals hate Democrats.

More on the US/Chavez drama at the UN: Democrats warn Chavez: Don't bash Bush.  Charles Rangle, a Democrat from New York, had a few choice words for the Venezuelan President:

You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president.

You know, good humanist, caring, intelligent things to say such as:

If there's any criticism of President Bush, it should be restricted to Americans, whether they voted for him or not.

and:

I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president: Don't come to the United States and think, because we have problems with our president, that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our chief of state.

Nancy Pelosi chimes in:

Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had speaking at the United Nations.  In doing so, in the manner which he characterized the president, he demeaned himself and demeaned Venezuela.

And so the so-called Democrats follow Hillary's lead and wrap themselves in the flag.  When in doubt, go patriotic.  Heck, go jingo!  Say things about "foreigners" and defend "our" Leader from all these mean things the foreigner is saying about him!  How dare someone who is not us, i.e., one of them, how dare he question the legitimacy of Bush's elections, how dare he call the President an imperialist, a wannabe John Wayne cowboy who doesn't understand politics, a threat to the world, and a thug! 

I mean, it's not like all those things are TRUE, or anything.

George Allen's Painful, Public Bar Mitzvah

Senator George Allen, R - VA, may harbor more unsavory prejudices than his now famous "macaca" remark would suggest. Hurling a racial epithet at a dark skinned young American of Indian origin shows Allen's contempt for the heritage of others. But the latest revelations about the Allen family's efforts at denying its Jewish roots illustrates Allen's shame and discomfort with his own ancestry. Allen has always paraded himself as a red, white and blue child of the American South although he grew up in southern California. The son of a tough football coach, a Confederate flag on his pick up truck and a noose hanging from a tree outside his law office - all added to his persona of a tobacco chewing, cowboy boot wearing, horse riding  good ol' boy.  How much more red blooded southern Christian can one be?  But Allen's mother is French-Italian-Spanish- Jewish and  grew up in Tunisia. He has acknowledged all of the above hyphenated components of his mother's heritage except the Jewish one.

Last Monday, during a televised debate with his Democratic challenger Jim Webb, Allen had the following exchange with reporter Peggy Fox, who also asked him if he had learnt the word "macaca" from his French speaking mother. I watched the debate. Allen was seething when asked about "macaca" and his mother's religious roots.  Here is more from Washington Post's Dana Milbank about Allen's reaction to Fox's question.

"You've been quoted as saying your mother's not Jewish, but it had been reported her father, your grandfather Felix, whom you were given your middle name for, was Jewish," Fox asked Allen. "Could you please tell us whether your forebearers include Jews, and if so, at which point Jewish identity might have ended?"

Allen recoiled as if he had been struck. His supporters in the audience booed and hissed. "To be getting into what religion my mother is, I don't think is relevant," Allen said, furiously. "Why is that relevant -- my religion, Jim's religion or the religious beliefs of anyone out there?"

"Honesty, that's all," questioner Fox answered, looking a bit frightened.

"Oh, that's just all? That's just all," the senator mocked, pressing his attack. He directed Fox to "ask questions about issues that really matter to people here in Virginia" and refrain from "making aspersions."

Allen repeated what he has said in the past: "My mother's French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian."

Aspersions?  Being Jewish is a crime?  I agree with George Allen that a candidate's religion is not relevant. (How I wish ALL Americans agreed so that we'd be mercifully spared the hypocrisy of our "devout" politicians.) If so, why is Allen so angry and why did he feel the need to lie?  Also please note that  Allen's supporters in the audience booed at Fox's question.  As if raising the possibility of a Jewish heritage is an insult to the senator! Now Allen claims that he did not know about his mother's Jewish family until recently - in late August of this year.  But the above debate was last Monday, on the 18th of September at which time he was aware of the truth. So why did he not acknowledge it then?  (The full Washington Post story here)

"Henrietta "Etty" Allen said Wednesday that she concealed her upbringing as a Jew in North Africa from her children, including Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), until a conversation across the dining room table in late August.

She said Allen asked her directly about his Jewish heritage when he was in Los Angeles for a fundraiser. "We sat across the table and he said, 'Mom, there's a rumor that Pop-pop and Mom-mom were Jewish and so were you,' " she recalled, a day after Allen issued a statement acknowledging and embracing his Jewish roots as he campaigns for a second term in the U.S. Senate.

At the table in Palos Verdes, Calif., Allen's mother, who is 83, said she told her son the truth: That she had been raised as a Jew in Tunisia before moving to the United States. She said that she and the senator's father, famed former Redskins coach George Allen, had wanted to protect their children from living with the fear that she had experienced during World War II. Her father, Felix Lumbroso, was imprisoned by the Nazis during the German occupation of Tunis.

"What they put my father through. I always was fearful," Etty Allen said in a telephone interview. "I didn't want my children to have to go through that fear all the time. When I told Georgie, I said, 'Now you don't love me anymore.' He said, 'Mom, I respect you more than ever.' "

Allen's heritage became an issue in the Virginia Senate campaign Monday, when television reporter Peggy Fox raised it at a televised debate in front of 600 business executives in Fairfax County. Allen repeated what he has said in the past: "My mother's French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian."

In fact, Allen had just recently learned about their Jewish roots when he made those comments. Allen declined to comment, but his mother said she had sworn him to secrecy.

"Allen's Jewish heritage has been a subject of low-level political speculation for years, in part because the former governor and first-term senator often refers to his grandfather's incarceration by the Nazis in political speeches. But Allen has always said Lumbroso was a member of the Free French resistance movement and insisted that he and his mother were raised as Christians..."

The Devil Is In The Details

The annual UN General Assembly Session is under way in New York. World leaders, possessing varying degrees of power and reputation gather once a year, presumably to discuss solutions to world problems.  Instead, big egos and small minds jockey on the world stage armed with grandiose postures and hot air. It is a bit like an Open House for an unruly clan. You never know who will turn up and what they will do -- and you can't turn anyone away for just being obnoxious. The petulance, unpredictability and gamesmanship of grown up men (yes, they are always men) sometimes resemble the antics of ornery five year olds in a sandbox.

The history of the UN is replete with dramatic performances by world class windbags.  1960 was a banner year for histrionics.  At the height of the cold war and nuclear arms race, the world was clearly divided into camps. The US and the erstwhile USSR were in bitter competition with each other in arenas as diverse as the Olympics and space exploration. That year in September, the UN general assembly session saw two dramatic performances by communist leaders.  Nikita Krushchev, the Soviet prime minister gave a fiery speech and is said to have banged his right shoe on the table to make a point. Whether he really did that is in dispute. No photographic evidence exists. But it is such a widely held belief that it has become the diplomatic equivalent of a tenacious urban myth.  The new revolutionary leader of Cuba, a young and charismatic Fidel Castro, gave a speech containing blistering criticism of the US. That speech to this day holds the record of being the longest speech ever delivered on the floor of the UN.

This year's UN session too is full of drama. With the world in turmoil and a belligerent and divisive leader like George W. Bush in the White House, other hostile thespians have ample opportunities to orate, pontificate and wag accusatory fingers. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, whose name for Bush until today, was Mr. Danger, promoted him to the rank of the Devil. For added effect, Chavez also brandished a book by Noam Chomsky and crossed himself several times when mentioning the presence of the devil.

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and telling the General Assembly that its system is "worthless."

"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body during its annual meeting Tuesday. "And it smells of sulfur still today."

Chavez accused Bush of having spoken "as if he owned the world" and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement.

"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.' "

Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky on imperialism and said it encapsulated his arguments: "The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its hegemonistic system of domination, and we cannot allow him to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated."

Managing so many oversized egos and clashing ideologies under the same roof is akin to directing a bunch of narcissistic operatic divas in a musical production. Protocol officers and diplomats must have nightmares and bleeding ulcers. Yet some much anticipated and feared melodramatic moments never materialize and other unexpected ones do because of events unfolding thousands of miles away.

There was the much-discussed handshake that never happened and the presentation of the coca leaf.

When leaders from dozens of U.N. member states suddenly find themselves crammed in the same building, strange things happen. On the first day of the annual U.N. General Assembly session, it was difficult not to feel that one was witnessing the intricate, poorly understood social rituals of a rare and exotic animal species.

The practiced U.N. protocol officers prevented any major gaffes, even when Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had to scrap his appearance because of a coup back home. And the much-anticipated run-in between U.S. President Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never materialized.

As was customary, Bush delivered the second speech of the day and co-hosted a lunch with Secretary-General Kofi Annan just before 1 p.m. Ahmadinejad didn't deliver his speech until the evening, and was not even in New York when Bush was at the U.N.....

As usual, things were running late all day, forcing some leaders to sit around and wait for everyone else. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe had an empty chair next to him at lunch (it was supposed to have been filled by Thaksin), and was clearly not pleased to have arrived on time for Annan's lunch. Cameras caught him looking annoyed, once raising his hands in exasperation...

Diplomats waged battles of a different sort during their speeches. The most theatrical was President Evo Morales of Bolivia, who brandished a tiny coca leaf before the hall to hammer home his longtime argument that coca has many uses besides cocaine.

"It is not possible for the coca leaf to be legal for Coca-Cola but illegal for other consumers in our country and throughout the world," said Morales, who presumably did not declare the leaf to customs when he arrived in the U.S.

The Associated Press article here.

Buddha and Mickey Mouse

My week long trip to Japan is over and it is nice to be home.  Our flight in each direction was delayed by more than three hours. On the way up, a thunderstorm over Osaka prevented the plane from landing and we had to cool our heels on the tarmac in Nagoya until the skies cleared. A thirteen and a half hour journey turned into a toe curling sixteen and a half hour confinement within the belly of the plane. On the way back the delay occured on the ground, at the Dallas Fort Worth airport, due to "technical" problems. So after a 12 hour flight from Japan, the three hour transit time in Dallas dragged on to six and a half. We reached home at midnight - bedraggled and grimy.  But Ali, our lonely cat who was left in the care of a petsitter was delighted to see us.

It was also fun to read the blog from a distance - enjoying the lively articles posted by Sujatha and Joe in my absence. (Dear Sujatha and Joe, thanks a lot.  You don't have to stop just because I am back!)

This was my third trip to Japan in the last eight years.  I have traveled to Japan each time strictly as a tourist, accompanying my husband who visits for professional reasons. The longest trip lasted two weeks. I do not speak the language except for a few common words and phrases. I have only lived in hotels, traveled to interesting places with the help and meticulous guidance of our many longtime Japanese friends, some of whom have accompanied us on our travels.  And although I have had numerous unusual and interesting experiences in Japan, I have never really lived there and faced life on a mundane, day to day basis. It will be somewhat presumptuous therefore to claim any deep philosophical insight into Japanese culture and way of life based only on such limited, fun filled exposure to that country. The only thing I can say for sure is that every time I go there, I am struck by the picture post card beauty of Japan and the unfailing courtesy and friendliness of its people - not just our friends but also total strangers.

Japan, I often like to say, is Disneyland masquerading as a country. It is neat, clean and everything works like clockwork. Smiling people bow to you at every juncture and in a couple of days, you too become adept at bowing deeply at strangers. White gloved workers clean roads, operate elevators and drive tourist taxis. Being a small country with very fast trains, it is possible  to see a lot of Japan in a short time. To date, I have seen Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Nara among the bigger cities and some picturesque little towns and islands in southern Japan - one of them atop an active volcano. Every place is spotless and the people friendly. Wild haired teenagers take the trouble to throw their cigarette butts and beer cans into the nearest trash receptacle. And most impressive, young women walk the streets alone, late at night in big cities without fear. I love the delicious food in Japan. But I can imagine vegetarians having a bit of a hard time there. Almost everything contains fish or meat. Pastries, tea and coffee are very, very good, and TV shows very, very bad. Japan is technologically highly advanced and the technology and modern conveniences are incorporated artistically and unobtrusively within the natural beauty of water, forests, mountains and ancient artefacts. Land is in short supply. Yet the Japanese are very conscious and concerned about maintaining as much of the natural beauty of their countryside as possible when building new structures. Recycling of trash is undertaken methodically and painstakingly by nearly every Japanese citizen (perhaps more about this practice another time). Another example of Japan unselfconsciously blending the ultra modern with the traditional; in most public places, bathrooms have western style commodes as well as Asian squatting toilets. (In a hotel in Tokyo, I once came across a women's bathroom where the taped sound of a waterfall plays in the background when the toilet is in use.)

On my recent trip I visited Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nara.  Of these, I had seen Kyoto and Hiroshima before. But this time my sister had joined me from India. It was her first time in Japan. So I had a lot of fun revisiting some of the previously seen places with her. My husband lost the camera towards the end of our stay - he left it on a train. So I will provide web links to some of the more interesting places that I visited. And yes, upon questioning I found out that except for one, all my Japanese friends would like to see a woman emperor occupy the Chrysanthemum throne.

In Kyoto: Nijo Castle,  Ryoanji Zen Temple, Kinkakuji (Golden Pavillion),  Sanjusangendo (Hall of the 1001 Buddhas)

In Hiroshima: The Peace Memorial Park and Museum,  Miyajima Shrine. 

In Nara: Todaiji Temple, Daibutsuden (world's biggest sitting Buddha), Kofuku-ji Temple, Hot Spring Spa (my sister and I had great relaxing fun here).

The Big Buddha in Todaiji Temple, Nara. ( click for enlargement)

The Japanese are devotedly traditional but not overly religious.  Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines dot the landscape. My Japanese friends laughingly declare that they are Shinto at birth, Buddhist when dying and not much of anything in between. They are tolerant and mildly reverential towards the ancient religions but not fanatical or particularly observant. It is a refreshing change from the suffocating religiosity on display  all over the world currently.

I have seen numerous Buddhas in Japan in various moods and poses - even a surprisingly ferocious one (Buddha is the quintessential model of peace and calm) holding up a sword.  And astonishingly enough, the Japanese Buddha is always guarded at the temple gate by the twin pair of Hindu gods representing the wind (Vayu) and thunder (Indra).  In case of the 1001 Buddhas in Kyoto, a pantheon of thirty three major and minor Hindu gods including the all important Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Lakshmi among them, guard the Buddhas from evil forces.

So in a reversal of religious hierarchy, the powerful Hindu gods of India become mere guardians of the central figure of Buddha in Japan. For all their love and adoration for the Buddha, the Japanese are not averse to using his image in a casually humorous and crassly commercial way. On the side of a tourist taxi in Nara, I saw the image of a laughing Buddha and Mickey Mouse holding hands in a most congenial fashion!   

Guardian Hindu gods in the front row before the 1001 golden Buddhas (click to enlarge)

Update on the Unapologetic "Apology" post (Sujatha)

A couple of pertinent links to add to the discussion. Read these and form your own opinions regarding the pope's speech.

Translation of the pope's speech

It's my considered opinion on reading the whole speech ( seemed like a form of water torture to follow the meanderings from the main idea) is that while the pope was ostensibly discussing of the concept of a 'reasonable God', by pulling in a non sequitur insult of Islam from Manuel Paleologus, is arguably implying that Islam is not founded on the same concept of a 'reasonable' God as Christianity. The quotation from the emperor that he chose to insert in his speech is not germane to his discussion of the reasonableness of his preferred deity. It merely serves as a gratuitously derogatory reference to prophet Mohammed.
To me, it seemed like an off the bat reference to something only faintly connected to the main topic of discussion, as if a professor lecturing his students on the desirability of vegetarianism, suddenly added " I happened to be reading a book by prof.XYZ the other day and  XYZ said, and I quote "All non-vegetarians are the most evil and reprehensible beings on the planet." Which brings us to the main point of the discussion- How can we perceive that the influence of the ABC culture on our society has had the beneficial effect of promoting vegetarianism."

MJ Akbar's excellent commentary on the speech

The Unapologetic "Apology" (Sujatha)

Is it an apology if the apologizer says in effect "I'm sorry at your reaction to my remarks"? Seems like that's what the Pope is saying in his almost too carefully constructed statement, which has already had the distinction of being pored over and parsed by more people on the planet than any line in the Bible. I just wish that more would pore over this one, truly vastly more worthy of being hammered into the minds of the faithful (of any religion or not) than regurgitated insults from long-dead emperors.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Voting Machines and Viruses (Sujatha)

How safe is our e-voting system now? This report makes me want to go back to pen and paper days again. More details on the actual paper here .

From the MSNBC report:

Felten and graduate students Ariel Feldman and Alex Halderman found that malicious programs could be placed on the Diebold by accessing the memory card slot and power button, both behind a locked door on the side of the machine. One member of the group was able to pick the lock in 10 seconds, and software could be installed in less than a minute, according to the report.

The researchers say they designed software capable of modifying all records, audit logs and counters kept by the voting machine, ensuring that a careful forensic examination would find nothing wrong.

The programs were able to modify vote totals or cause machines to break down, something that could alter the course of an election if machines were located in crucial polling stations.

It was also possible to design a computer virus to spread malicious programs to multiple machines by piggybacking on a new software download or an election information file being transferred from machine to machine, Felten said.

Harvard Cancels Early Action Program (Joe)

This is great news for the promotion of social equality with respect to higher education in the U.S.  The New York Times has the story:

Harvard University, breaking with a major trend in college admissions, says it will eliminate its early admissions program next year, with university officials arguing that such programs put low-income and minority applicants at a distinct disadvantage in the competition to get into selective universities.

Harvard will be the first of the nation’s prestigious universities to do away completely with early admissions, in which high school seniors try to bolster their chances at competitive schools by applying in the fall and learning whether they have been admitted in December, months before other students.

The basic idea is to stop giving this admissions advantage to affluent applicants.  This is far from a panacea, mind you.  Harvard, while perhaps this nation's top university, is still just one school, and there are other major issues afflicting the college admissions process (e.g. legacy admits, wealth/fame admits, expensive SAT prep courses, etc.).  And the law school admissions process, even with its more supposedly meritocratic criteria, is probably at least as flawed as the one high school seniors suffer through annually -- due primarily to overreliance on the LSAT, a test which is (1) easily gamed and (2) intentionally biased.

Blessed Are the Rich (Joe)

Prosperity Theology.

Disturbing, no?

TIME Magazine has a story (CNN summary for non-subscribers such as myself) on this aberrant Christian philosophy.

Known (or vilified) under a variety of names -- Word of Faith, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It, Prosperity Theology -- its emphasis is on God's promised generosity in this life. In a nutshell, it suggests that a God who loves you does not want you to be broke.

[...]

"Prosperity" first blazed to public attention as the driveshaft in the moneymaking machine that was 1980s televangelism and faded from mainstream view with the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals.

But now, after some key modifications (which have inspired some to redub it Prosperity Lite), it has not only recovered but is booming.

Of the four biggest megachurches in the country, three -- Joel Osteen's Lakewood in Houston; T.D. Jakes' Potter's House in south Dallas; and Creflo Dollar's World Changers in Atlanta -- are Prosperity or Prosperity Lite pulpits (although Jakes' ministry has many more facets).

While they don't exclusively teach that God's riches want to be in believers' wallets, it is a key part of their doctrine.

And propelled by Osteen's 4 million-selling book, Your Best Life Now, the belief has swept beyond its Pentecostal base into more buttoned-down evangelical churches, and even into congregations in the more liberal Mainline. It is taught in hundreds of non-Pentecostal Bible studies. One Pennsylvania Lutheran pastor even made it the basis for a sermon series for Lent, when Christians usually meditate on why Jesus was having His Worst Life Then.

The movement's renaissance has infuriated a number of prominent pastors, theologians and commentators. Fellow megapastor Rick Warren, whose book The Purpose Driven Life has outsold Osteen's by a ratio of 7 to 1, finds the very basis of Prosperity laughable. "This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy?" he snorts. "There is a word for that: baloney. It's creating a false idol. You don't measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn't everyone in the church a millionaire?"

The brickbats -- both theological and practical (who really gets rich from this?) --come especially thick from Evangelicals like Warren. Evangelicalism is more prominent and influential than ever before. Yet the movement, which has never had a robust theology of money, finds an aggressive philosophy advancing within its ranks that many of its leaders regard as simplistic, possibly heretical and certainly embarrassing.

[...]

"Who would want to get in on something where you're miserable, poor, broke and ugly and you just have to muddle through until you get to heaven?" asks Joyce Meyer, a popular television preacher and author often lumped in the Prosperity Lite camp. "I believe God wants to give us nice things."

If nothing else, Meyer and other new-breed preachers broach a neglected topic that should really be a staple of Sunday messages: Does God want you to be rich?

A religious theory which not only accepts but encourages morally bereft behavior?  How appalling!  If not, sadly, novel or surprising.

Changes afoot in China? (Joe)

Ross Terrill in the New York Times today gives an overwiew of the changing nature of China, both politically and economically:

China’s new economy will surely experience setbacks. But eventually, with its emerging middle-class society, it will refashion the old politics. In that sense China’s economic boom will both fail and succeed. As Leninism-plus-consumerism it will reach its limit. But as a base for a post-communist political system, it seems destined to run well into the future.

Unfortunately, the reason for this level of optimism is unclear to me.  Before this (hopeful?) conclusion, Terrill tells us that we are going to see "a tussle between politics and economics," and the story he tells seems to point towards another possible outcome: political authoritarianism crippling the economy.  Certainly we'd like to see economic liberalization instead lead to greater social and political freedom.

Ruchira has previously discussed the process of democratization here at A.B.; indeed, I think that democracy will eventually win out in China (I just don't think the substance of Terrill's op-ed supports that), and am firmly of the opinion that promoting economic growth and liberalization in the Middle East would have been a much safer and more effective solution than invading Iraq.  Given the failed state that we've created, it's safe to say we couldn't have done any worse!

Ethan Leib, meanwhile, finds reason for optimism in the political process -- essentially, the rise of small-scale Chinese democracy at the local level (hopefully I've characterized that argument correctly).  I should add, if we consider that these two distinct processes are occuring concurrently, that has to be even more encouraging, right?