Friday, September 01, 2006

blinded by the war-on-terror concept

* oooh - motherjones has a new interactive shiny tool thingy about the iraq war lies.

* dana milbank has a lovely hitpiece on Walt and Mearsheimer in wapo.

* Time has a great article about the terrificness of the VA.

* soros:
"Similarly, the United States has become less safe since Bush declared war on terror.

The time has come to realize that the present policies are counterproductive. There will be no end to the vicious circle of escalating violence without a political settlement of the Palestine question. In fact, the prospects for engaging in negotiations are better now than they were a few months ago. The Israelis must realize that a military deterrent is not sufficient on its own. And Arabs, having redeemed themselves on the battlefield, may be more willing to entertain a compromise.

There are strong voices arguing that Israel must never negotiate from a position of weakness. They are wrong. Israel's position is liable to become weaker the longer it persists on its present course. Similarly Hezbollah, having tasted the sense but not the reality of victory (and egged on by Syria and Iran) may prove recalcitrant. But that is where the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas comes into play. The Palestinian people yearn for peace and relief from suffering. The political -- as distinct from the military -- wing of Hamas must be responsive to their desires. It is not too late for Israel to encourage and deal with an Abbas-led Palestinian unity government as the first step toward a better-balanced approach.

Given how strong the US-Israeli relationship is, it would help Israel to achieve its own legitimate aims if the US government were not blinded by the war-on-terror concept."

* AP:
"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday the thought of Democrat Nancy Pelosi becoming the next leader of the House and third in line to the presidency is frightening. "The prospect of her bringing San Francisco values and a whole attitude on foreign policy that is, I think, an attitude of weakness and appeasement and surrender, I think, would be a disaster for the country," the outspoken Republican said."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

about mother jones's 'lie by lie' article, which info is totally great and very well needed, i have HUGE issues w/its usability. the fact they have to have a special section on 'how to use this timeline' bothers me no end. as well, i find it confusing (e.g, 'left click on the slider, hold the clicker down, and mouse up.'). WHAT THE FUCK? they should've read one of my fave usability books 'don't make me think' by Steve Krug

and it's in flash...*sigh* great for bands and such, but for info? gimme a break.

HTML, motherfucker! DO YOU CODE IT? (sorry, my love of 'Pulp Fiction' got the best of me for a change).

nb: one of my major areas of independent study from about 96 on was site usability. i still do freelance work on it (my last job was the Bristol International Airport site, originally a massive mess w/pages and pages of total shite that i had to critique and offer suggestions so that even idiots like me, could use it). ps, they changed the site; used all my suggestions. *proud*

i shall wait until (hopefully) it catches on and gets really BIG and then some knowlegeable soul will make a regular HTML version w/clickable links and all instead of convoluted instructions (it's gonna be a big job but totally worthwhile).

rant over. for now. *evil* ;-)

lukery said...

rimone - can't agree with you more. it's a total disaster. BUT IT"S SHINY. i made so many usability 'mistakes' in the first few minutes and i was like 'bah - i'll try to work it out later'

Congrats re the airport site! that's awesome news.

I don't know that book - i wish i'd read it a decade ago (i used to work in a web agency - usamability stuff can get confusing)

profmarcus said...

on va hospitals...

i am extremely fortunate... if it wasn't for va health care, i would be among the growing ranks of americans without health insurance... and, credit where credit is due, it was through the urging of my daughter-in-law that i dragged myself in to the va hospital to get signed up, believing that i wasn't eligible for care...

i went in with no small degree of trepidation, having heard for years of the abysmal condition of veterans health care... to my surprise, i experienced a better standard of medical care than i had when i was under a group health plan and had access to the so-called "best..." i am glad to see the va health system, to which i now feel proud to belong, getting its due...

lukery said...

prof - glad to hear that you are getting good treatment. and kudos to daughtersinlaw everywhere!

from what i can gather, VA care is much better than any other system in the US - and nearly as good as health care in most 2nd-world countries.