memory, nostalgia; the present can also be faked

Reading about Joan Didion's new book Blue Nights in the Times. It sounds utterly heartbreaking and I don't believe she doesn't cry anymore when she hears her daughter's name. She and John Gregory Dunne had the same post-christening lunch for Quintana Roo as we had for Nicholas--watercress sandwiches and champagne--although as I recall ours was on 81st Street, not in the country somewhere, as was theirs. Of course it was--the christening was at All Souls on Lexington Avenue.

Death by drone not due process

From the Times today:
'An American drone attack killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a preacher born in the United States and a leading figure in Al Qaeda’s outpost in Yemen, on Friday morning, officials in Washington and Yemen confirmed." blah blah blah. Yeah he was born in the US. Does that, uh, make him a citizen? Duh. I think so. So now the government of the US kills its own citizens without due process, a detail one would have thought our constitutional law "professor" president might have recoiled from. Silly to think so obviously. Silly Us.

At least all those people executed in Texas and other US states did get due process, appeals, the works. Terrorism of course makes it all academic...

What A Liar!

JTA News Alert 9/18: "The U.N. is not a place where Israel wins praise, but I think that it is important that I go there in order to represent both the State of Israel and the truth -- and the truth is that Israel wants peace and the truth is that the Palestinians are doing everything to torpedo direct peace negotiations," Netanyahu said Sunday.

This is simply Newspeak or maybe Alice in Wonderland. What is he thinking?

Yet another drug war letter to the Times

In regard to Desperate Guatemalans Embrace An Iron Fist in the Times today, I wonder if anyone in our Government ever acknowledges the culpability of the US in these horrible drug wars--specifically the insatiable demand for drugs in the US--and thinks about why that could be and tries to figure out how our society could be improved so people don't have to drug themselves into oblivion. Rather than warring on drugs, let's war on the root causes. Maybe we're not sure what those are, but surely making it a fairer, kinder society would help. Our Congress, our executive branch, everything conspires to be a model of greed and unfairness. People lead hard lives, untempered by decency from their elected leaders, who seem to confine themselves to egocentric posturing. I guess drugs are the only surcease for a lot of people.

After Riots, British Wonder Why, Can't Decide on Answer

Isn't it blazingly clear that we all live in a culture of impunity? The rich get away with Everything, why wouldn't everyone else instinctively try for that when they have a chance? David Cameron gets to be on holiday in Tuscany and doesn't even cut it short at first but there's no hope of ever getting a big TV, or an extra anything, for most people, unless they pay for it every month forever, so of course, take it while you can! Disheartening.

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A Summer of Cynicism?

How about a century? The Times has an interesting story on the DSK fiasco--how our reputation has suffered in Europe; how we humiliated an important man, etc. etc. And now we again totally rush to judgement on the woman accusing him (as some of those quoted pointed out, more or less). First, make fun of/convict w/o trial the supposed perp. Second, hear rumors of holes in the accuser's story and convict her w/o trial of making it all up. What difference does it make that she (perhaps) lied in trying to get asylum in the US? He has lied over a lifetime (apparently) about his womanizing. But apparently, for a lot of people, it's a relief to let him off--big fat continental white guy is fine, really, despite a few tiny peccadillos, especially in contest with small unimportant black woman. Oh and suddenly the Times notices that Europe views us as a dangerous country. Well, stop the presses. Here we are, turning the poor and disabled out on the streets rather than raising taxes on the rich--can't even raise our own debt limit, etc. and so on. And we sound dangerous. Well, yeah, I think so.

the Sofitel incident

Well I think it says something nice about New York, that a maid in a hotel with $3,000 a night rooms isn't intimidated by a guest who happens to be the head of the IMF. At least not intimidated enough to allow him to have sex with her, and not too intimidated to report that he forced her. Obviously, from what we're hearing, many women before her, even those with higher status, were intimidated by this creep--none had reported him to the police before this, apparently. So New York's spirit isn't dead at least. Hooray.