Flexible Reality
Saturday, March 27, 2004
A Workhorse SUV - not a Show-Horse for the Ladies
Cheap, Ugly and Tough. Meet the Pinzgauer.By PHIL PATTON
Published: March 26, 2004
To capture the material he needs for his work, Warren Cross, a sound designer, ranges far and wide, recording everything from storms and waterfalls to police sirens to be used on stage or in films. A few years ago, he discovered what he considers the perfect vehicle for his work: a 1974 Pinzgauer 710K. The Pinzgauer is a boxy, canvas-topped military vehicle built in Austria, and Mr. Cross and other Pinz owners insist that it is the toughest off-roader in the world. "It'll go over anything, especially ditches," Mr. Cross said. "It doesn't matter how you attack them, it's not going to get stuck."
Theo Hanson, a vice president of SoCal Pinzgauers, an importer, said, "It's a ruffian vehicle, the unique beast of the world." SoCal, which has offices in San Diego and Hemet, Calif., is one of a handful of companies that sell the few hundred used Pinzgauers brought to the United States each year, including Southwest Unimog and Pinzgauer in Prescott, Ariz., Cold War Remarketing in Littleton, Colo., and Northeast Off-Road in Keene, N.H.
Would-be buyers at Northeast Off-Road are taken up a 70-degree slope, a demonstration the company says is especially persuasive. "Please wait until the vehicle comes to a complete stop before writing your check," its Web site requests. Unlike the latest generation of beauty S.U.V.'s, with their gleaming finishes and leather seats, the Pinzgauer is clearly a workhorse, resembling nothing so much as a small utility building that has sprouted wheels and begun to drive off. (It is, in fact, named after a famously sturdy Austrian breed of draft horses.)
Introduced by the Austrian manufacturer Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1971, the Pinzgauer in its 4-wheel and 6-wheel versions is used by about 30 armies around the world. The 4x4 version, the 710, weighs 4,300 pounds and can carry 2,200 pounds. It enjoys ground clearance of about a foot. A used 710 sells for as little as $10,000 in a bare-bones version; the six-wheel 712 goes for about $16,000.
But they do not necessarily stay that cheap. Many owners heavily customize their vehicles, adding creature comforts like sound insulation, tops and air-conditioning. It is not uncommon for customers of SoCal or Cold War Remarketing to put $100,000 into their $10,000 Pinzes.
Mr. Cross's model was originally a radio command car for the Swiss military. And while he is enthusiastic about where it has been able to take him to record sounds, including "a heron rookery at two in the morning in a state park that was not supposed to be open," he did not truly appreciate the vehicle's toughness until he started building a house in upstate New York a couple of years ago. Once a truck delivering lumber got stuck trying to get up his dirt driveway. So Mr. Cross attached a chain to the truck and used his Pinzgauer to tow it up the drive. "It's truly unstoppable," he said.
Indeed, Robert Lutz, the General Motors vice chairman who owns a Czech-made jet plane and a garage full of sports cars, has called his Pinz "the most competent off-road vehicle in the world." And while the Pinz does not yet have the Hollywood cachet of a gleaming Mercedes G-Class, it does have its celebrity fans. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, the great Hummer fan, also has two Pinzgauers, which were customized for use in the film "Terminator 3" with larger engines and gearing. "They're in a warehouse now that Arnold is chauffeured in a state car," Mr. Hanson said.
But Pinz owners — even famous ones — tend to be quiet about their cars. "The Pinz is less about standing out than belonging — and being in the know," Mr. Hanson said. When Pinz owners do get together, it is usually for regional "treffens" (German for "meet") — weekend mini-treks on famed roads like the Rubicon Trail in California or in areas like the Big Scrub, in Florida.
The gatherings tend to be small. Dealers estimate that there are only about 1,800 Pinzes in the United States. The current supply goes back to a decision made in Austria in 1988 when Steyr-Daimler-Puch replaced the vehicle's gas engine with a diesel one. As it buys the new models, the Swiss military has been selling off its older, gasoline Pinzes, many to customers in the United States. Those vehicles fall under federal regulations that exempt models at least 25 years old from Environmental Protection Agency emissions rules.
Not long after he bought his Pinz, Mr. Cross became the resident sound designer at Cornell University's Department of Theater, Film and Dance, and it became his commuter car. (He now drives a smaller, more fuel-efficient Steyr-Daimler-Puch vehicle called a Haflinger.) It was noisy and chilly, he said, but the biggest drawback was being stopped and queried by curious observers.
Mr. Sweeney knows exactly what he means. "It does stand out," he said. "I guarantee you a Pinzgauer will get twice as many people looking as a Ferrari."
Note: If you are having trouble thinking of a Pinz in your driveway, perhaps you need to consider the Ultimate SUV, which you can see here.
Or maybe you're more in tune with Euro-customized Rice Rockets. Well there's info for you here on that too.
Pakistani troops found 'executed'
Aljazeera
Saturday 27 March 2004, 15:32 Makka Time, 12:32 GMT
Eight Pakistani soldiers have been found executed a few days after being taken hostage during fighting with alleged al-Qaida fighters and their tribal allies near the border with Afghanistan. The soldiers, their hands tied behind their backs and apparently shot at close range, were found on Friday near Wana, the capital of the South Waziristan area in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal territories.
They were likely killed shortly after their convoy was ambushed on Monday, a Pakistan army official said. Scores of people have been killed since last week when paramilitary forces hunting fighters allegedly linked to Usama bin Ladin ran into a hail of bullets as they approached a suspect's house in the rugged South Waziristan region.
The battle, involving 5000 troops, is Pakistan's biggest ever in the region. The executed troops are separate to a group of 14 soldiers and officials thought to have been kidnapped at the start of the clashes. Tribal elders had been trying for days to persuade the fighters to release the men and surrender.
President Pervez Musharraf's government announced on Thursday more troops would be sent to the tribal territories bordering Afghanistan to reinforce a campaign to root out al-Qaida fighters and their Pakistani tribal allies.
Some reports put the number of Pakistani troop deaths in the operation at over 100 and observers have called it a disaster for Musharraf who came to power in a military coup in 1999.
What is Art Good For ?
Bridges, Translations and Change: The Arts as Infrastructure in 21st Century AmericaBy William Cleveland
Part 2: SIX ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE ARTS IN AMERICA
1. The Arts Are an Essential Resource for Community Development
"Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is unthinkable..."
-Albert Einstein
ECONOMIC IMPACT: Numerous studies show the consistent and dramatic positive economic impact the arts have had on communities large and small. Recent research shows that each dollar spent on the arts generates three to four dollars in non-arts expenditures. Other research has further demonstrated that the arts are a magnet for large corporations and an effective and economical catalyst for the revitalization of urban centers. Rural arts providers, as well, make the case for the arts as particularly useful tool for both economic and social development, particularly in depressed areas.
The selling of cultural destinations, urban and rural, has become a core marketing strategy in the tourism industry. Beyond tourism and community renewal, the arts are big business. In California, the state with the largest economy, the arts and entertainment industry is the third ranked economic segment, generating $3.5 billion in wages subject to taxation.
FUTURE LEADERSHIP: In recent years, the top executives of America's leading companies have complained about the lack of creativity and problem-solving abilities exhibited by entry level workers, managers, engineers and scientists. Similar sentiments are also being voiced in the public sector, where one often hears talk of a leadership deficit. Government and business leaders alike have invested millions of dollars in training programs designed to increase the creativity and teamwork of the American work force.
Education in the arts, for young and old alike offers access to the kinds of skills our next generation of workers and leaders will need. These skills include: harnessing and synthesizing the qualities of logic, organization, flexibility and insight; creative teamwork; learning that problems are opportunities not obstacles; learning to discipline the imagination to solve difficult problems; and learning that "failure" is a functional aspect of discovery.
2. The Arts Are a Basic Educational Reform
Since the publication of A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, educators, parents, and civic leaders have sought reforms in education. In response, school systems nationwide have placed a greater emphasis on the generally accepted "building blocks" of basic education: math, science and the language arts.
A 1989 Assembly Office of Research report, Arts Education In California: Thriving or Surviving?, cites evidence that "a more balanced approach" emphasizing "the arts as well as basic skills" would be more "advantageous." The report also cites "evidence that suggests that in schools where students perform above average academically, they also receive a richer dose of visual and performing arts courses."
Other studies suggest that the arts offer an alternative for success and respectability for students who struggle academically, particularly learning disabled and ESL students. Indications are that the discipline and self-esteem these students acquire often carries over to their study of other academic subjects and provides motivation to stay in school.
The fact of the matter is that education in the arts is a curricular necessity. The creative process is the means we employ to put our basic skills to use. The problem solvers of the future-the explorers, scientists, engineers who will confront tomorrow's challenges- require more than the basics of math, science and language. They need hands-on experience, manipulating the tools of change-taking chances, challenging convention, taking on the impossible.
Educators are only just beginning to acknowledge the complex mix of human intelligences and learning styles. In this context, arts education is educational reform. The pedagogy of the future should not be just arts inclusive, it should be arts-based. Teachers should know and employ the creative process in everything they do. Arts-based education is the laboratory for harnessing the power of the intellect through the discipline and vision of the creative process. Arts-based education will support the growth of the imagination and creativity as tools students must employ to succeed in a complex society.
3. The Arts Provide a Common Language in a Complex Global Culture
"...the ichnography of the Great Goddess arose in reflection and veneration of the laws of nature.... The message here is of an age of harmony and peace in accord with the creative energies of nature which, for four thousand prehistoric years, anteceded the (next) five thousand-a period James Joyce has termed the "nightmare" (of contending tribal and national interests) from which it is now certainly time for this planet to wake."
-Joseph Campbell, from the Forward to The Language of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas
The ichnography to which Joseph Campbell refers is the symbolic vocabulary embodied in European and African Neolithic art. Although the written language we use daily evolved from these symbols, we no longer recognize these shared roots. The marginalization of the arts in this country has separated the American "tribes" from a powerful common language. As change gives rise to protective and reactive responses, we must rediscover the power of the arts to translate cultural difference as a common bond. We must also acknowledge and learn from those artists now working as agents of community change and builders of bridges.
As these bridges are built, we should focus on the strength inherent in our growing diversity. In her book, Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America, writer/critic Lucy Lippard describes the changed face of America as an "ajiaco" - the flavorful mix of a Latin American soup in which the ingredients retain their own forms and flavors. She describes this new model as "fresher and healthier; the colors…varied; the taste…often unfamiliar" that "calls for an undetermined simmering period of social acclimation."
Many artists in America, particularly those in California, are beginning to manifest the new American aesthetic. Their work is the product of a media age, in which, for the first time, cultural interaction, influence and change have not been tied to man's ability to move physically from place to place. These artistic dialogues and collaborations are models for the new ways we will have to interact as global citizens.
4. The Arts Help Maintain Our Competitiveness in a Technological Age
During the last decade the arts have been dramatically transformed through the introduction of new technologies. In areas such as film, video, music, design and holography, new technologies adapted by artists have produced innovative applications and opened new markets.
As inventors, artists are a breed apart. They are unencumbered by the practical constraints experienced by their more product-minded counterparts. Hardware and software in the artist's hands are merely a technical means to an aesthetic goal. The commercial feasibility of a given solution is often not relevant. But, as has been the case with the artistic exploration of special effects technology and computer graphics, new and unexpected applications emerge. In some ways, the interface of the arts and technology has created an unintended research and development arm for commercial high tech concerns.
The roles of the artist and the technological innovator are often interchangeable. In his book The Paradox of the Silicon Savior, Grant Venerable points out "that the very best engineers and technical designers (in the Silicon Valley) are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians."
In education, the melding of the arts and technology provide a unique training ground for the high-tech demands of the 21st Century. Innovative curricula in video, electronic music, and computer graphics provide an opportunity for students to experience technology as a creative resource. This provides students a particularly accessible and non-threatening way to learn and explore their possibilities. These new technologies are complex tools that will require increasingly facile and creative minds to put them to their best use.
Students who are familiar with the creative applications of new and emerging technology will be an invaluable resource in the new industrial age. John Scully, Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, Inc., speaks forcefully on this point: "As a chief executive of a technology company that thrives on creativity, I want to work with people whose imaginations have been unleashed and who tackle problems as challenges rather than obstacles. An education enriched by the creative arts should be considered essential for everyone."
5. The Arts are a Proven Strategy for Healing. Prevention and Empowerment
"They speak of changes; changes in attitude, changes in self image and often changes in behavior. They say it is as if some new power, positive, creative and constructive, had at long last forced itself into their consciousness, an expression from the heart and soul of the artists's experience."
-Senator Henry Mello, from the catalog for 1988 prison art exhibition, Light From Another Country
Artmaking-the study and practice of the creative process-is inherently empowering. Each day the artist engages the muse, he/she does battle with the new and unexplored. All artists-student or master, young, old or infirm-are creative pioneers and adventurers. The challenge is to work honestly, with self-discipline, owning the success or failure of one's endeavors.
In the early '70s, a time when traditional arts education was beginning its decline, many professional artists began to look to society's neglected corners for a new constituency. The results of their work with youth at risk, people with physical and mental disabilities, prisoners, patients, seniors and others have shown that the arts can make a significant positive impact in the lives of these largely forgotten citizens.
In California, the establishment of permanent comprehensive arts programming by the Departments of Corrections, Youth Authority and Mental Health is testimony to the effectiveness of these efforts.
The variety of problems being addressed by the increasing numbers of artists engaged in this work has valuable implications for educators, social service providers, and community leaders. Artists working and succeeding in these "other places" have generated a new technology for problem solving, communicating, building self-esteem and much more.
A significant body of research in the field shows the practice of the arts is, in itself, a healing, transformational, therapeutic activity that, in some cases, may be more effective than traditional approaches. Documentation further shows the arts to be an effective and cost-beneficial resource for reducing violence, recidivism and psychopathology.
6. The Arts Help Us Communicate about Transcendent Values and Issues
"The artist as shaman becomes a conductor of forces that go far beyond those of his own person, and is able to bring art back in touch with its sacred sources.…(The shaman) develops not only new forms of art, but new forms of living."
-Suzi Gablick, Has Modernism Failed?
In the dying shadows of the prehistoric ritual fire, the shaman beseeches the gods on behalf of the gathered tribe. The year's final hunt is about to begin. The future of the community rests on the potency of the shaman's powers.
Today, although the artist has been cast out from the center of community life, he/she continues to sustain a vital link to the transcendent-to provide the imaginative sustenance and vision for the quest for truth and meaning, beyond the material. The artist, says psychologist James Hillman, "bears sensate witness to what is fundamentally beyond human comprehension."
The trivialization of the arts in America has produced many negatives. But none has been so damaging as the undermining of this connection between man and the artistic illumination he needs to explore the transcendent. Losing it, Hillman continues, "diminishes our ability to love the world." Our alienation from and abuse of what artist Isamu Noguchi has called "our temple," the earth, is but one symptom of this condition. The artist at work in these realms mediates the moral, the rational and the spiritual; the artist sensitizes us to the presence of social and material toxicity.
There is no doubt that a new artistic process has started asserting itself in response to what many feel is a spiritual vacuum. Critic Suzi Gablick sees great hope in the work of artists such as Anselm Keifer and Joseph Beuys, who have "placed primary value on (the artist's) function as a…bridge builder between the material and the spiritual worlds. Beuys and Keifer are part of the long but largely ignored history of "artist shamans" working in a century that has been dominated by science and material progress.
As we tire of our fascination with material flash and velocity, the need intensifies for the aesthetic bridge to what Alexis de Tocqueville termed "the mystical forces that govern ordinary events." A connection, he declared, which is "functionally necessary to society." In the Greek cosmology the gods could not appear in the material world without the presence of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love, and fertility. She made manifest the divine mind. In the 21st Century, that presence will be needed as never before, as we continue to lift the veil on the mystery of creation and struggle to stop ourselves from destroying our temple.
ß---------------------------------à
Note: Emphasis Added Above: Ok, ok,…sometimes I get a little over-the-top in this; but there are some key points in the discussion above that we can all gain something from.
Thursday, March 25, 2004
EU Won't Recognize Changes in Israel's 1967 Border
Thu Mar 25, 2004 08:02 PM ET
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Thursday it will not recognize any unilateral change in Israel's borders from before the 1967 Middle East war. The EU took the stance in an apparent bid to reject any effort by Israel to use the security barrier it is building in the West Bank to change borders unilaterally.
Israel says the barrier is vital to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers, but the Palestinians have branded it a land-grab that deprives them of territory they want for a state. "The European Union will not recognize any change to the pre-1967 borders other than those arrived at by agreement between the parties," said a draft statement approved by EU foreign ministers for issue on Friday at a bloc summit.
The statement condemned Israel's "extra-judicial killing" of Hamas's spiritual leader and founder Ahmed Yassin on Monday and said a cycle of violence had taken the region further away from a negotiated settlement.
It urged President Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority to do more to fight terrorism and for Israel to reverse its settlement policy, dismantle settlements built since March 2001 and reverse construction of the barrier.
The EU reiterated a policy set last month that any unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip must be a step toward a two-state solution, must not involve a transfer of settlement activity to the West Bank and must involve an organized and negotiated handover to the Palestinian Authority.
U.S. Vetoes UN Vote Condemning Israel Over Yassin
Thu Mar 25, 2004 07:16 PM ET ORE
By Grant McCool
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution by Arab nations to condemn Israel for assassinating Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. The Bush administration, alone among major powers in not condemning Monday's assassination as an extrajudicial killing, rejected the resolution because it did not also denounce Yassin's group Hamas for suicide bombings in Israel.
The vote was 11 in favor, three abstentions and the U.S. veto.
"Israel's action has escalated tensions in Gaza and the region, and could set back our effort to resume progress toward peace," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said in a statement before the vote. "This Security Council does nothing to contribute to a peaceful settlement when it condemns one party's actions and turns a blind eye to everything else occurring in the region," Negroponte said.
Washington's "no" vote killed the resolution because it is one of the five permanent members of the council with veto power. Britain, Germany and Romania abstained after Algeria, negotiating for Arab nations, rejected an amendment they wanted that would have condemned "atrocities" against Israelis.
The measure was supported by China, Russia, France, Angola, Chile, Pakistan, Spain, Algeria, Benin, Brazil and the Philippines. Israel dismissed a growing international outcry over the assassination of Yassin, the quadriplegic spiritual leader of Hamas, killed in an air strike outside a mosque in Gaza City.
Hamas, which is bent on Israel's destruction, said it would target Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other top officials to avenge Yassin's death. Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's political chief living in exile in Syria, said on Thursday attacks would be confined to Israel and the Palestinian territories despite U.S. warnings to its citizens of a heightened security risk.
Note: The Bush Administration publically condemned Israel's extra-legal assasinations in the daily news cycle; but then takes actions that neutralize their comments by in this case, vetoing the UN Security Council Resolution. And why is this not front page news in any of the major market newspapers in America when it is in most other leading international newspapers? Even liberal bloggers like Eric Alterman and Paul Krugman say nothing about it. Being Jewish is not a justifiable excuse for failing to denounce Israel's illegal actions any more than being American would be an excuse for acquiescing to the assasination of Fidel Castro, or Saddam, or Gadaffi by the CIA.
Hopefully sometime in the future our country's leaders will demand adherence to International law by it's "friends" as well as by it's "enemies".
The Medicare Muddle
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NY Times Op-Ed
Published: March 26, 2004
In advance of Tuesday's reports by the Social Security and Medicare trustees, some credulous journalists wrote stories based on tips from advocates of Social Security privatization, who claimed that the report would offer a radically downgraded vision of the system's future. False alarm: projections for Social Security are about the same as last year. Projections for Medicare, however, have worsened: last year the trustees predicted that the hospital insurance trust fund would last until 2026, and now they've moved it back to 2019.
How should we react to this news?
It has become standard practice among privatizers to talk as if there is some program called Socialsecurityandmedicare. They hope to use scary numbers about future medical costs to panic us into abandoning a retirement program that's actually in pretty good shape. But the deteriorated outlook for Medicare says nothing, one way or another, about either the sustainability of Social Security (no problem) or the desirability of private retirement accounts (a lousy idea.)
Even on Medicare, don't panic. It's not like a private health plan that will go belly up when it runs out of money; it's just a government program, albeit one supported by a dedicated tax. Nobody thinks America's highways will be doomed if the gasoline tax, which currently pays for highway maintenance, falls short of the system's needs — if politicians want to sustain the system, they will. The same is true of Medicare. Rising medical costs are a very big budget issue, but 2019 isn't a drop-dead date.
The trustees' report does, however, give one more reason to hate the prescription drug bill the administration rammed through Congress last year. If deception, intimidation, abuse of power and giveaways to drug companies aren't enough, it turns out that the bill also squanders taxpayer money on H.M.O.'s.
A little background: conservatives have never mounted an attack on Medicare as systematic as their effort to bully the public into privatizing Social Security. They do, however, often talk about Medicare "reform." What this amounts to, in practice, is a drive to replace the traditional system, in which Medicare pays doctors and hospitals directly, with a system in which Medicare subcontracts that role to private H.M.O.'s.
In 1997 Congress tried to take a big step in that direction, requiring Medicare to pay per-person fees to private health plans that accepted Medicare recipients. There was much talk about the magic of the marketplace: private plans, so the theory went, would be far more efficient than government bureaucrats, offering better health care at lower cost.
What actually happened was that private plans skimmed the cream, accepting only relatively healthy retirees. Yet Medicare paid them slightly more per retiree than it spent on traditional benefits. In other words, instead of saving money by subcontracting its role to private plans, Medicare was in effect required to pay H.M.O.'s a hefty subsidy.
The only thing that kept this "reform" from being a fiscal disaster was the fact that after an initial rush into the Medicare business, many H.M.O.'s pulled out again. It turns out that private plans are much less efficient than the government at providing health insurance because they have much higher overhead. Even with a heavy subsidy, they can't compete with traditional Medicare.
There's a lesson in this experience. Sometimes there's no magic in the free market — in fact, it can be a hindrance. Health insurance is one place where government agencies consistently do a better job than private companies. I'll have more to say about this when I write about the general issue of health care reform (soon, I promise!).
But whether because of ideology or because of H.M.O. campaign contributions, the people now running the country refuse to learn that lesson. As part of last year's prescription drug bill, they tried again, offering an even bigger subsidy to private plans.
And that turns out to be an important reason for the deterioration in Medicare's prospects: of the seven years lopped off the life of the trust fund, two are the result of increased subsidies mandated by last year's law, mainly in the form of higher payments to H.M.O.'s.
So what did we learn this week? Social Security is in decent shape. Medicare has problems, but ill-conceived "reform" has only made those problems worse. And let's rip up that awful prescription drug bill and start over.
Dust and Seas
Science Magazine
Copyright (c) 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
How were such dry conditions of the "Dust Bowl" drought of the 1930s maintained for so long over such an extensive area? Schubert et al. (p. 1855) use an atmospheric-land general circulation model to show that the root cause was the combination of anomalous tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs)--warm in the Atlantic and cold in the Pacific--that prevailed at the time. Proxy records, mostly from tree rings, show that similarly severe droughts have occurred once or twice a century during the last 400 years. Whether we can expect a similar episode soon is unclear, say the authors, because climate models still cannot make detailed enough SST predictions for more than 1 year or so in advance.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Cycle of vengeance must be broken
South China Morning Post
March 24, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was no angel and no friend of Zionism. He called for a complete dismantling of the Israeli state and advocated violence to achieve this aim. But the Israeli assassination of Yassin this week represented yet another wrong turn in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's increasingly unrealistic attempt to end attacks on his countrymen by cracking down on Palestinian militants and their leaders. The government-sponsored murder is not only illegal and immoral, it is hypocritical when coming from a democratic state that professes adherence to international laws and human rights principles.
The greater significance, however, lies in Yassin's status as the second-most popular Palestinian leader and a respected cleric. Mr Sharon has taken a gamble in ordering his death, and in targeting other Hamas leaders, believing this will weaken the militant factions and pave the way for the Palestinian Authority to take control when Israel withdraws from parts of Gaza and the West Bank. Such deaths could just as likely have the opposite effect: mobilising Palestinian opposition to Israel's plans.
This possibility was demonstrated in the massive street protests Yassin's death provoked and the promises of further suicide bombings. If Hamas had no lack of volunteers for its suicide bombing missions before this event, recruitment could now become that much easier. Meanwhile, the peace process launched this time last year with a road map backed by the United States and Britain, one that envisaged both countries living in peace and security, is rarely mentioned anymore.
The Yassin affair follows Mr Sharon's announcement of his plan to fence Israelis off from much of the Palestinian population and his earlier attempts to expel Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. But as long as the border he foresees leaves Palestinians with less than half of the territory most agreements provide them, he will stand accused of making a grab for land. His idea that Israel can be secure behind a fence that provokes Palestinian anger is a fantasy, while methods that favour guns over diplomacy can only bring international condemnation.
No one expects Mr Sharon to negotiate with Hamas. Yet there is also no visible engagement with moderate Palestinians, such as prime minister Ahmed Qorei. Closing off the avenues moderates offer while conducting aggressive raids and targeting leaders such as Yassin can only be a recipe for stronger resistance - and much bloodshed on both sides. Getting back to the negotiating table after the events of this year will not be easy. But if Mr Sharon, Mr Arafat and Mr Qorei want to save the road map, this is the only option.
U.S. Will Give Cold Fusion Second Look, After 15 Years
By KENNETH CHANG
NY Times
Published: March 25, 2004
Cold fusion, briefly hailed as the silver-bullet solution to the world's energy problems and since discarded to the same bin of quackery as paranormal phenomena and perpetual motion machines, will soon get a new hearing from Washington. Despite being pushed to the fringes of physics, cold fusion has continued to be worked on by a small group of scientists, and they say their figures unambiguously verify the original report, that energy can be generated simply by running an electrical current through a jar of water.
Last fall, cold fusion scientists asked the Energy Department to take a second look at the process, and last week, the department agreed.
Fusion, the process that powers the Sun, combines hydrogen atoms, releasing energy as a byproduct. In March 1989, Drs. B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, two chemists at the University of Utah, said they had generated fusion in a tabletop experiment using a jar of heavy water, where the water molecules contain a heavier version of hydrogen, deuterium, and two palladium electrodes. A current running through the electrodes pulled deuterium atoms into the electrodes, which somehow generated heat, the scientists said. Dr. Fleischmann speculated that the heat was coming from fusion of the deuterium atoms.
Some cold fusion scientists now say they can produce as much as two to three times more energy than in the electric current. The results are also more reproducible, they say. They add that they have definitely seen fusion byproducts, particularly helium in quantities proportional to the heat generated.
Update on Pres. Clinton's Boyhood Home For Sale on eBay
One of former President Clinton's childhood homes was put on eBay, and was promptly attacked by bogus bidders who bid it up over $10M before the auction was ended with administrative oversight actions by eBay. The home was relisted later under secure bidding terms. The new eBay item number is: 2389796022, and ends April 2nd, 2004"The Wal-Mart You Don't Know". More info on what effect the giant retailer has on companies it does business with.
Ecunet Note #36277 from VHCHILD to UCCHRIST CHATTER:
At 9:05 AM -0500 3/24/04, Sharon Warnock wrote:
"My question to the group is are you experiencing that some of your congregants who have been welcoming to the gay community are now feeling very threatened by the word "marriage"."
Virginia Child's Reply:
"The short answer? yes! There's something very emotional about the word "marriage" for some folks. I also think some homophobic people have latched onto the word "marriage" and are hiding their bigotry behind this emotional issue."
Another Look at Church and State
From VHCHILD on UCCHRISTNETMarch 24, 2004
"Remember, that particularly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, colonial-era towns were required to have a church before they could organize as a legal entity. So, the older the town,the more likely the church is to be positively intertwined with town life. it's also true that in many small towns the church was the largest building in town and thus was used to hold Town Meetings. I can imagine that led to some folks seeing the church as the religous arm of the secular government. I don't see that happening today, in my town.
But the original inter-twining of church and state led, in the early days, to the development of a method of church organization unique to the parts of the US where we were the "state church" . Part 1 was an "ecclesiastical society" which welcomed every voter in town - governed by the trustees - budget voted at Town Meeting; and Part 2 was a "church" which was composed of those who had owned the covenant - governed by the deacons - budget voted by the covenanted members.
There is still at least one church in the Mass conference with a dual organization, tho I don't know how their budget is handled. My church abandoned the dual organization within the past 10-15 years, and we still have a two-level membership system.
The church I serve is in a small town, and self-consciously sees the building as a community resource. it is used 6-7 days a week for meetings of one sort or another - Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Power Squadron, Women's Club, AA, Al-Anon, OA, play groups, music for toddlers, retreat space for teachers, police, etc. If the event is non-profit, we usually don't charge rent. We'd do a food pantry but the RC church next door does that, and we'd have a clothes closet, but have a problem with persistent dampness.
In my experience, there's not much difference between being a community resource here and being a community resource outside New England. I think it's rare for a church today to see itself as a part of the Town organization -- and if they did, that'd be an unhealthy, unchurch-ly mind set. I think it's healthy for a church to see its facilities as a resource, healthier than not allowing anyone to use the building.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
White House dismisses former adviser's charges
Clarke's allegations of pre-9/11 failures called politically driven
Sunday, March 21, 2004 Posted: 10:11 PM EST (0311 GMT)
Richard Clarke speaks at a security conference in San Jose, California, in 2002.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is dismissing as a "red herring" charges from the Bush Administration's former counter-terrorism coordinator that President Bush has been more focused on Iraq than al Qaeda.
Richard Clarke detailed his allegations that Bush has done "a terrible job" battling terrorism during an interview Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes" and in a book to be published Monday. A White House spokesman said Clarke is motivated by politics.
"He has chosen at this critical time, in the middle of a presidential campaign, to inject himself into the political debate," spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "And he has every right to do so. But in so doing, his judgments -- his actions, or the lack thereof -- should also come under scrutiny."
Clarke said he asked for a Cabinet-level meeting in January 2001, shortly after the president took office, to discuss the threat al Qaeda posed to the United States. "That urgent memo wasn't acted on," Clarke told CBS. Instead, he said, administration officials were focused on issues such as missile defense and Iraq.
Clarke said Bush "probably" shares some of the blame for the attacks. He is scheduled to testify this week before the independent commission investigating 9/11. "Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism," Clarke said in the CBS interview. "He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know."
According to a White House statement issued Sunday night, "The president recognized the threat posed by al Qaeda, and immediately after taking office, the White House began work on a comprehensive new strategy to eliminate al Qaeda." The statement said National Security Council deputies and second-ranking officials met frequently between March and September 2001 to work on that goal.
Note: Ah, so a White House spokesman says the NSC worked for six months on a plan to eliminate Al Qaeda, and came up with [ ??? ]
red herring: n 1: any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue 2: a dried and smoked herring having a reddish color. Let's see: The White House dismisses Clarke's charges because the charges distract attention from the main issue which is [ ??? ]. Or was the spokesman saying the charges are a fish? Sounds to me like Mr. Bartlett, (no relation to Jed Bartlett, the fictional President on West Wing), needs a bit more work on his use of metaphors and/or similes.
