In "What Happens Next?: Six

In "What Happens Next?: Six options beyond war and peace," Jesse Walker covers the possibilities. Some people think that there's an option between his #'s 4 and 5; I'm not quite so sure.

New link here: David Chess.

New link here: David Chess. Thanks!

I've seen articles in Salon

I've seen articles in Salon and The Nation, as well as on other people's blogs, that say long-term, in order to eliminate the threat of terrorism, it's important to understand the terrorist's motives, and if possible to change the US's actions that led to the terrorist's hatred of America. Something about that argument struck me as incorrect, but I couldn't zero in on why I thought so. And because I'm trying to catch up with the work that didn't get done last week, I haven't had the time to think it through. Thanks to William Saletan of Slate for doing it for me, in Truth or Consequences.

Robert Scoble is back to

Robert Scoble is back to work, singing the praises of hosting at Weblogger.com. That's okay, that's his job, after all.

I just want to mention two data points that he doesn't:

• I wasn't able to find a terms of service anywhere on Weblogger.com. Anyone got a link?
  
• Erin Clerico (the guy who runs Weblogger.com) has made it clear (here and here) that it's a business requirement that all sites hosted by Weblogger.com must be squeaky-clean enough that they will not get the site blacklisted by any Net Nanny-type software. If you say "Fuck" on your site, it could hurt his business. If you link to content or show a picture that's considered questionable by any of the censorware vendors, you could hurt his business.

The Salon article "Rally round

The Salon article "Rally round the flag: I love Old Glory. I just wonder if I can take it back from the creeps who've waved it all my life" sums up exactly how I feel about the number of flags I've seen flown around here lately.

For most of my life, the American flag has been the cultural property of people I can't stand: right-wingers, jingoists, know-nothing zealots. It's something that hypocritical politicians wrap themselves in. It's something that certain legislators would make it a crime to burn -- a position that's an assault on the very freedom that the flag represents. It's something brandished at times like these by idiots who say things like, "Let's go over there and burn those rag-heads!"

Clearly, better air security is

Clearly, better air security is needed. But some of the FAA's proposals won't really add to security; it's more like they're taking action to seem like they're doing something. Hey, Wait a Minute: Why Punish the Skycaps? notes what measures won't work, and which ones are more likely to do some good.

I haven't posted anything for

I haven't posted anything for more than a week, not because I don't have anything to say, but because every time I considered posting, I found that other bloggers had generally said it first and as well or better than I could have. Thanks for your words, folks. Then yesterday afternoon, I went into Horror Overload, and had to stop watching and reading the news. The stuff the news networks are now showing, like those poor pathetic family members holding up the pictures of their relatives, was just too heartbreaking for me to take anymore. I took yesterday evening and all day today off. Read a book. We went to a planetarium show about black holes today. Played multiplayer Starcraft with my son this evening. Watching a movie tonight. Trying to get back to some equilibrium. Can't get back to normal; that's too much to ask. But I can at least catch my balance again.

Hal from Blivet wrote this

Hal from Blivet wrote this piece, which brought the first smile to my face in several days. Thanks, Hal and Audrey!