It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
Korean War II?

More proof today that the senior members of the Bush Administration are still living in the 1950s: they're moving America towards a war against communism on the Korean Peninsula.

Refusing to hold direct talks with the North Koreans, Secretary of "Defense" Donald Rumsfeld has taken great pains to state that the United States is ready to fight a war against Iraq and a war against North Korea at the same time. Of course, we're still fighting in Afghanistan, and have troops in the Balkans, and the Philippines, and in...

In response to the taunt from Rumsfeld, North Korea has threatened "total war" against the United States and South Korea if the United States continues to build up military forces in Korea.

The North Korean government announced yesterday that it has restarted its nuclear program, and said that it would be "foolish for the United States to think that we sit idle with folded arms to wait until it gives orders" for an American attack against North Korea. It seems that the North Koreans have been listening carefully to George W. Bush, who has proclaimed that he has the right to direct a pre-emptive nuclear attack against North Korea and said that, on a personal note, he "loathes" North Korea's national leader.

This is supposed to make us all feel safer. Do you feel safer?

Didn't think so


Posted by J. Clifford Cook at 1:00 PM. # (permalink)  




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