tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63219552011-04-21T21:15:29.402+02:00Blog Egypt: Ahlainby William HuntingtonWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comBlogger491100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1081974149394888842004-04-14T22:11:00.000+02:002004-04-14T22:26:26.060+02:00This evening, Mohamed ElBaradei came to AUC to speak. ElBaradei is the director of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the UN agency tasked with assisting member states with the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy, and also with conducting inspections of all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to ensure compliance with that treaty. You've probably read Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1080808991759805732004-04-01T10:35:00.000+02:002004-04-01T10:46:49.763+02:00Alert! Even fewer posts than usual for the next 12 days! In a couple hours, after I email my thesis prospectus (do you think "The International Black Market Arms Trade and its Potential Role in Nuclear Proliferation to Non-State Actors" is a little strained?) back to Watson, spring break officially begins! Raghu, Thomas, Emily, Lisa and I fly tonight to Beirut, then next week to Amman. We'll Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1080577596532844012004-03-29T18:17:00.000+02:002004-03-29T18:30:10.920+02:00An interesting factoid to be had from Tom Paine's discussion of the Pledge:
"Also in 1942, to prevent the cheapening of the flag, the American Flag Code prohibited its use in advertising or on any disposable item, a prohibition that clearly has rarely been enforced."
So it turns out that those little American flag lapel pins that Bush Co. are so fond of are actually illegal! As are their TV Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1080137724028686682004-03-24T15:36:00.000+02:002004-03-24T16:23:19.750+02:00*WARNING* Upon rereading this post, I realize that it is one huge ramble. But I had to get some of this stuff out. So, enter this thorny maze of political philosophical thought at your own risk.
This whole Richard Clarke (that's Dick Clarke, if you are part of the administration smear campaign) thing is really coming together in my head, now that Rand Beers name is in the mix as well. Rand Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1079866996133292702004-03-21T11:55:00.000+02:002004-03-21T13:11:33.060+02:00Yesterday was an interesting day. Like so many other Saturday mornings, this one saw me up bright and early to tour some of Cairo's most ancient funerary monuments with my Art and Architecture of Cairo class. Of course, I barely got up in time, and was a little inconvenienced by the previous night's excesses at the Nile Hilton bar, rocking out with some crazy Irish cover band.
A few words onWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1079435148403517602004-03-16T12:14:00.000+02:002004-03-16T13:09:04.950+02:00Last weekend me and some buds (Emily, Lisa, Thompson) went to Alexandria. The overt reason was that Emily's rugby team had a match against there, and the rest of us just wanted to get out of Cairo. But the deeper reason for going was the lingering suspicion that our previous trip to Alexandria, with Tomader Rifat and the ISSO, had not really shown us anything at all of the city. Turns out thatWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1078823978183773572004-03-09T11:10:00.000+02:002004-03-09T11:23:25.700+02:00Ok ok, so I understand that some readers prefer posts about Egypt to posts about random other things. And I respect that. And because of that feedback, I am going to make a concerted effort to post at least once or twice a week with in-depth, detailed descriptions of my life here in Cairo. Because really, if I can't think of some interesting stuff to tell you all about, then that's just Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1078590251082227102004-03-06T17:52:00.000+02:002004-03-06T18:27:14.000+02:00Yesterday I was up bright and early (over the complaints of my pounding head) for another Art and Architecture of Cairo field trip. This time, the professor toured us through some of the most important mosques in the city, including Al-Azhar and Al-Hakim, as well as a foot-tour of Fatamid Cairo.
Al-Azhar was amazing. If you don't recognize the name, I will note that Al-Azhar is one of the Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1078172029981912112004-03-01T22:01:00.000+02:002004-03-01T22:16:46.373+02:00So Aristide is gone, and the Marines have moved in. Ok. But what about those 50 French troops that landed today? The Security Council approved a multinational force? We didn't veto that? What about the Monroe Doctrine? Joshua Micah Marshall was the first one I read to bring up this interesting twist, about a week ago, when the French were said to be considering a deployment to Haiti. And Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1078046542402799812004-02-29T11:12:00.000+02:002004-02-29T11:25:16.763+02:00The WaPo has a great article today on the failures of the Dean campaign. Before my mother disowns me for writing about the obvious problems with the campaign, let me say that I believe the Dean campaign was incredibly important, and not just for fundraising. He's the reason we're all fighting again. Period. He was the shot in the arm, the slap on the face.
Clearly, the Post does not have Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1077970509088157282004-02-28T14:01:00.000+02:002004-02-28T14:18:02.293+02:00Just how much does our government spy on us? Frankly, I am getting curious. The recent allegations about British bugs in Kofi Annan's has raised my hackles, and now there is some other info coming out. Juan Cole has an interesting and slightly scary description of the operating procedure between the NSA and the British Government Communications Headquarters. It turns out, since the NSA is Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1077903259592427242004-02-27T19:30:00.000+02:002004-02-27T19:37:11.546+02:00And the newest link on the page is.... Wonkette! Why? Because politics is funny and Wonkette knows this.
Here's Wonkette's take on the last debate:
"CNN Democratic Primary Debate: Quick First Impressions #
Tape-Delayed Live Blogging:
• Ooo! They're sitting down!
• If John Kerry and John Edwards respected and liked each other any more, we'd have to pass a constitutional amendment against Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1077807692614351712004-02-27T16:44:00.000+02:002004-02-27T16:47:03.186+02:00First, an apology. I am quite late getting around to writing a post on our trip to Luxor. But it's not my fault! OK, I'm kidding, of course it's my fault. But I have been tired and sort of busy every time I've sat down to the 'puter, and I wanted to really give this post the effort it needs, because the impressions from the trip were so strong. So, now is the time! I've just gotten up from Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1077210707021130212004-02-19T19:03:00.000+02:002004-02-19T19:14:28.153+02:00Off to Luxor for the long weekend. We are taking an overnight train in both directions, which is good because we will save all that daylight for awe. But it is bad because we get back to Cairo at 6am Monday, a whole 2 hours before my first Arabic exam. That's OK, though, it's all review. I mean, if I don't get the goomla is'miya by now, I won't ever get it.
So expect nothing from this Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1077188515003406252004-02-19T12:42:00.000+02:002004-02-19T13:04:35.950+02:00I just came across something that needs to be shared. Following a link from Josh Marshall's page today, I was pleased to find that the new blog The Dreyfuss Report looks like it will be pretty good. But the real surprise came down towards the bottom of Dreyfuss's posts, where he linked to three Iraqi blogs. Wow. What a window into a world that I cannot imagine, even living here in the center Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1077106688569571942004-02-18T14:00:00.000+02:002004-02-18T14:20:48.030+02:00Bit of a blah day al-yom. I think this whole getting-up-at-the-buttcrack-of-dawn-everyday thing is starting to wear thin, here in week #2. But days like this are what The Getup Kids are for. Two upsides for the day: 1, the rediscovery of my red and blue pens in the depths of my backpack. Since there aren't any Brown Journal articles or layouts to be edited round these parts, who knows what Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076951103286431842004-02-16T18:02:00.000+02:002004-02-16T19:07:40.403+02:00Man, my readers are the BEST. A little bit bloguiltrip and the honey pours. Sweet. I'll have to remember to whine about comments more often.
So I believe that I promised to get back to the pyramids. Let's see if I can do that with any clarity, any insight, anything.
First off, a disclaimer. I am not one of those people who can so easily pull out the
Meaning from an experience on the Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-107672542924903212004-02-14T04:11:00.000+02:002004-02-14T04:26:22.496+02:00Excellent party. A good, perhaps great, time.
But I must mention that the dearth of comments makes me wonder whether anyone at all is reading this blog. Yes, I know that my parents are reading it, and I know that SophaLophaBread is reading it, but is anybody else? Quoth Dar Williams: "Are you out there/ Can you hear this/ Jimmie Nelson, Johnny Memphis."
So. Whether you are out there orWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076698530260278682004-02-13T20:31:00.000+02:002004-02-13T20:58:03.436+02:00Today was a day for the Pyramids. It was pretty incredible.
First of all, we decided to take the metro out to Giza, instead of taking a cab. Eventually we realized that the Giza that the metro stops at is about 9km from the Giza Plateau that the Pyramids call home. But by then it was too late. And the whole time Raghu was trying to figure out different scenarios where we would actually Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076610792748679922004-02-12T20:32:00.000+02:002004-02-13T20:34:20.483+02:00Welcome the newest link, Hannah's Blog! Although it currently only consists of two entries, both of which are remarkably lame, it is sure to get better.
Go Hannah Go!Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076603197283505372004-02-12T17:46:00.000+02:002004-02-12T18:33:10.606+02:00Easterbrook had a really stupid post yesterday about how the military is underfunded in Bush's budget. Well. Anytime I see the words "military" and "underfunded" and "402 billion dollars" in the same sentence, I get goosebumps. Let's not forget that this $402 billion doesn't include funding for our deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, which will certainly be billions, perhaps a couple tens of Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076582778434773132004-02-12T12:26:00.000+02:002004-02-12T12:50:36.200+02:00Ok I'm no longer annoyed that Brown is making me take 5 classes (although I am still annoyed that either nobody told me about the rule, or I forgot about it). That's because my Modern Arabic Literature in Translation prof ROCKS. She is such a BADASS it is just great.
She's this fairly small lady, maybe later 40s or so, with an incredible intensity. In my opinion, lit profs have a pretty Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076528385283298622004-02-11T21:25:00.000+02:002004-02-11T21:43:39.310+02:00I am hereby adding my phone number. As far as I know, it is 20-2-739-7507. The 20 is Egypt's country code, the 2 is Cairo city code, and the last 7 dig's are my actual number. Really this post is for the approximately 4 or 5 people in my immediate family who might actually call me. (This because I've been here 2.5 weeks and still haven't called home. But hey, they've been reading this, so Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076355639927056172004-02-09T21:26:00.000+02:002004-02-09T21:43:06.996+02:00So upon the urging of my intuition, I shopped a political science seminar this evening. The subject was "The Meaning of 9/11." Big mistake. First of all, the bastard (whoops, did I call him a bastard? That's me getting ahead of myself...) professor got to class 40 (FORTY) goddamn minutes late. That is just disrespectful. Then the first thing he says is, "Rule one: Do not be late to this Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076318701899614272004-02-09T11:22:00.000+02:002004-02-09T11:27:28.576+02:00And another thing.
I have now had the extreme displeasure of attending two universities with horrendously ugly libraries. If I go to grad school, I refuse to spend 4 more years in a concrete slab (real wood grain!!) box. Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076318224140714682004-02-09T11:10:00.000+02:002004-02-09T11:19:30.920+02:00Holy jesus but this university has some administrative problems. So yesterday, I got to the office 5 minutes too late (1:05pm) to do my add drop. No problem, they say, come in tomorrow between 11 and 1, you can do your add drop then. Perfect, think I. So after my 3 hour Arabic class, 11:00 on the nose, I go to the add/drop office. I wait for Tomader to ask me into her office. Nothing Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076260570429865302004-02-08T19:06:00.000+02:002004-02-08T19:19:50.186+02:00Woke this morning feeling quite sick. Like a sack of shit; a carry-on of crap; a parcel of poo. (Also, somehow channeling Tom Robbins.)
So I decided to skip the class I was going to shop, and went back to bed. Woke up again feeling considerably better, but still not so hot. Basically my stomach won't shut the hell up, and my head is fogged up like cold glasses entering a hot room. In thisWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076185376743524802004-02-07T22:15:00.000+02:002004-02-07T22:25:53.436+02:00Just returned from the sound-and-light show at the pyramids followed by a kick-ass ride in the desert. This time, we got some pretty strong horses. Exhilarating. Plus, it was a full moon. I did quite a bit better this time using my legs to hold the horse and to control my own movement. But now my knees are all wobbly. I may have mentioned this before, but there is one gait (the canter?) Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1076023211615212872004-02-06T01:11:00.000+02:002004-02-06T01:22:33.733+02:00So Musharraf pardons A. Q. Khan, and nobody in their right mind is surprised. The Pakistani drama of the last two days has perhaps run its course, fully scripted the whole time. Khan, immensely powerful and wealthy, transferred nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea because he wanted money? Ha ha. Neither the Pakistani government nor its military (difference?) knew about it? Not Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075994933299493182004-02-05T17:21:00.000+02:002004-02-05T17:32:24.966+02:00I would like to direct your attention to the newest link on the side bar, which leads you to Raghu's Blog. I have already mentioned Raghu once because of his eerie resemblance to Che Guevara, and once in relation to a certain bidet. Beyond these two no doubt well-known facts, he is also one of my best new friends here in Cairo. Hailing from Bangalore, in southern India (Raghu's favorite line: Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075984856874934632004-02-05T14:38:00.000+02:002004-02-05T14:43:28.060+02:00Wow, what a truly disgusting and disturbing article this is. Who thinks that our beef is being rigorously tested for madcow disease? I didn't before I read this, and afterwards, well, let's just say that I won't be eating American beef until some major and very public changes have been made. Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075913600590134922004-02-04T18:51:00.000+02:002004-02-04T18:55:41.233+02:00And there's also this interesting sidebar about the U.S. Army's new strategy for defeating RPG attacks against vehicles. Seems simple and effective.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075913289280363302004-02-04T18:33:00.000+02:002004-02-04T18:51:35.873+02:00The big news coming out of Pakistan today was A. Q. Khan's admission that he had proliferated nuclear weapons technology and materials to Libya, Iran, and North Korea. Khan is the "father of the Islamic bomb," one of the most revered and powerful figures of Pakistani politics. He jump-started the Pakistani nuclear weapons program by stealing the design for a uranium enrichment centrifuge. The Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075905074558875232004-02-04T16:24:00.000+02:002004-02-04T16:33:34.576+02:00Classes start tomorrow! Intensive Arabic at 8 in the mo'fo'ing morning. I don't honestly know what I was thinking when I signed up for that... Looking through the online course catalogue today, I realized that even before the first day of classes, I have screwed up my registration. Hopefully I can deal with it tomorrow. Over the next week I will start filling in details about classes and Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075840490674794792004-02-03T22:32:00.000+02:002004-02-03T22:37:23.733+02:00I like this post from the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk blog. To sum it up: states that vote Democrat pay more federal taxes than they receive federal spending, states that vote Republican receive more federal spending than they pay in federal taxes. Simple, somewhat obvious when you think about it, and beautifully ironic. Welfare party indeed.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075820173902708422004-02-03T16:25:00.000+02:002004-02-03T16:58:32.233+02:00So I definitely left something out in my last post about Alexandria. It was certainly the signature experience, or theme, of our stay there. And it centered on our toilet's bidet. Now for the caveat: I have very little experience with bidets. So there, I said it.
(For those of you wondering if this heretofore somewhat serious blog is about to take a serious detour south, that is really Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075744667593053242004-02-02T19:25:00.000+02:002004-02-02T20:00:04.700+02:00Haaaaa jeez. Well. Quite a bit has happened in the last few days, in the time since I lasted wrote. Let's see if I can start from the beginning and end at the end. Probably won't happen, but I'll try.
So about that party that I mentioned I was on my way to... It really was wild, and I certainly can't post about a few parts of it, out of respect for those who aren't in college right now. Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075388508486293882004-01-29T16:54:00.000+02:002004-01-29T17:04:47.140+02:00We learned some interesting things in yet another orientation session today. Actually, this one had way more than the usual share of useful information. Yet I still ditched early. Karma made me get lost in the subway as I tried to navigate my way back to Gazira Island on the Metro for the first time.
Of possible interest:
The American Consul in Cairo: We can help with marriages. But only Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075321990137280412004-01-28T22:24:00.000+02:002004-01-28T22:35:20.873+02:00Sarah is totally correct when she mentions how arbitrary our choices of blog topics are. There's just too much that happens in a given day to get it all out. It comes in bits and pieces, but I hope it gives some good impressions...
I just want to say that I am SOOO glad that I bought and brought an iPod to Qahera. It is so great to lose yourself in the music that you love when you are far Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075227492117040872004-01-27T20:03:00.000+02:002004-01-27T20:20:21.593+02:00Joshua Micah Marshall is the man. In his eagerly awaited (at least, by me) article on empire for the New Yorker, his analysis is as sharp and on point as usual. The opening furthers what I was saying in that last post:
"Last March, after Jacques Chirac, the French President, announced that he would veto any new United Nations resolution sanctioning war against Iraq, the White House saw a Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075225632255563852004-01-27T19:38:00.000+02:002004-01-27T19:49:21.280+02:00Bob Herbert had a pretty good column yesterday in the Times. The prime line is this quote from Craig Barrett, the chief executive of Intel: "If you look at India, China and Russia, they all have strong education heritages. Even if you discount 90 percent of the people there as uneducated farmers, you still end up with about 300 million people who are educated. That's bigger than the U.S. work Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075201268475369372004-01-27T12:57:00.000+02:002004-01-27T13:04:00.996+02:00And to your right....
You will find two new links. One is to Ryan's new blog, which, as Katie O. pointed out, is probably only making fun of these study-abroad blogs. But the thing with Ryan is, you just can never tell. Damn his irony! Damn his Indy rock!
The second link is for The Swing State Project, which has very interesting analysis of and information about the minutiae of Democrat andWilliamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075198439149448152004-01-27T12:11:00.000+02:002004-01-27T12:16:08.233+02:00I just took a long solo walk around downtown Cairo. Saw the us and UK embassies. Must be a hundred Egyptian cops guarding each one. (this may be misleading. There are cops EVERYWHERE, packing big heat. But the embassies did have what seemed like a grossly excessive amount. Aren't there any crimes to fight somewhere?) they have whole city blocks closed to car traffic in the area. I guess Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1075145980932179602004-01-26T20:54:00.000+02:002004-01-27T12:42:25.216+02:00Well. I certainly second whoever it was (Sarah? Katie?) who said that their school abroad made brown seem like a "well-oiled machine." Among the things nobody told me about: an advising meeting, an Arabic placement exam, that there would not be any toilet paper, a dorm orientation. Turns out that the reason that I never got any emails from AUC is that all four Brown students addresses had Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1074974282314167462004-01-24T21:41:00.000+02:002004-01-24T22:00:07.983+02:00Egypt. I mean, I am here. And boy is there quite a lot to say.
But before I get to all that, it needs to be said that for Andrew King to post a comment posing as my mom is just weird.
Back to Egypt! Since I am mildly overwhelmed by everything around me right now, I will just sort of throw out some of my impressions. I have been in country for 23 hours now. And if you put together the Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1074665556844362112004-01-21T08:12:00.000+02:002004-01-21T08:14:37.403+02:00Extra! Extra! I've just finished adding a script that allows comments to be posted by you, the enthralled readership. Just click the link under any post that says "Comments," and immortalize yourself here on my blog. Hopefully, people will enjoy this feature and this page will become community-like.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1074627323009182032004-01-20T21:35:00.000+02:002004-01-20T21:40:04.250+02:00Fareed Zakaria has a pretty good column in the Washington Post today. He claims that we suffer two problems in Iraq: not enough power and not enough legitimacy. I tend to agree with him on both points, and most of all on the second one. One can only wonder what circumstances would be like right now if those responsible for post-war planning hadn't been so unbelievably incompetent. Although Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1074540622291052362004-01-19T21:30:00.000+02:002004-01-19T21:32:20.640+02:00Well it's coming down to the wire for me here in Sonoma County. Just a few days until I get on that plane in San Francisco and head out to the unknown. Predictably, now is when I start realizing all of the things that I need to do, buy, think about, and square away before I get out of here.
The New York Times has a very good editorial today about problems with our democracy. While their Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6321955.post-1073963949914348592004-01-13T05:19:00.000+02:002004-01-13T05:19:31.080+02:00Ah, a blog's first post. What a feeling of freedom, what a chance to begin on the right note. For this blog, that note is clearly a fifth above middle C. Tra la la la la, indeed.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02497258767262253123noreply@blogger.com