Ah, dear reader, it’s not that you’ve been forgotten, but simply that I’ve had no time. I’m back in Boston, returned from San Jose, and one week into class.The world news of recent note is, without any question, the Massacre in Beslan. Chechen separatists seized a school filled with little kids, held them hostage, and ended a Russian troop raid by detonating explosives, killing hundreds of the kids. Beslan, aside from proving the depravity that some humans are capable of, shows the absolute danger of negotiating with terrorists or acceding to the demands of hostage takers. Putin said in a speech after Beslan that “we showed weakness, and the weak are trampled upon.” This is not alpha male posturing. The Russians gave into the demands of Chechen hostage takers in an incident in the late 90s, and since that time, hostage taking (most imfamously at the Moscow Opera House in 2002) has been rampant.
The other moral of the Chechen story is the real nature of a new kind of warmaking nearly completely located in Islamic areas. I’m not one of those who argue that something about Islam, the religion, is the reason that political hostage taking and suicide bombing and flying planes into buildings are tactics seen nearly only in the Islamic world. But certainly the present mass culture of the Islamic Heartland (Arabia/NE Africa/Pakistan), for some reason, sees these tactics as valid, and consequently Muslims in far off places like Bolivia, Aceh (Indonesia) and the UK are beguiled into the belief that terror is a valid form of argument. You often hear that poverty is the root of terror. This is bullshit. Malawi doesn’t have terrorists. Sierra Leone isn’t the center of a global terror network. East Timor is currently the poorest nation in the world (as of the 2001 stats, so says the CIA) at $500 US per capita PPP GDP, and the only terror in that nation are attacks instigated by rich Indonesians against poor Timorese. I think that, in the long run, fair and democratic states in the Islamic heartland will lead to a moral repulsion of terror tactics among nearly all Muslims, but in the short run, the world needs a policy that’s better than “let’s talk to and empathize with the bombers.”
So gun rights people tend to argue that banning guns will only lead to more crime using blunter instruments (say, knives). Well, in the UK, they have the solution. Anyone caught carrying a knife without good reason now faces jail time. Will the insidious danger of the cricket mallet be next on the list of horrors to be banned?
Washington Monthly magazine had a great article this month about a Welfare office in Wisconsin, which supposedly runs the best welfare program in the nation. It’s nuts - former welfare recipients hired to work as caseworkers at the welfare office, then dealing crack and sleeping with the clients, among other things. What I take out of the article most, though, is confirmation of my General Theory: If people would stop abusing drugs and having kids before they can afford to raise them properly, the welfare rate would drop to almost zero. (Mind you, legitimate welfare recipients - those that are unemployed temporarily, recently divorced, etc., would still recieve welfare, but those people aren’t the type who live off the system for years).
Hey, your boy Kev is now a real-life football player! No kidding. I’m punting and kicking for a team called the Boston Bandits. They’re actually one of the better semipro teams in the country, and are undefeated thus far this year. The first game I’ll be here for is tomorrow, so hopefully they can dig up some shoulder pads and a space helmet and I can get some PT. Sweet, huh?
Will Farrell as George Bush filming a new campaign ad, at whitehousewest.com. Pretty funny stuff.
Oh, here’s another solution to short-term poverty: Stop spending so damn much. Economist Arnold Kling notes that among people who’ve made similar incomes during their lives, there are tremendous differences in their net worth. Basically, your willingness to save for a rainy day or invest in a house rather than buy new designer clothes is as important to your economic well-being as how much you get paid. (Saving is actually better than earning more in a number of ways, principally because you have to earn about 3 dollars more to get 2 bucks back after taxes).
I’m living in the same room as I have the last 2 years, but I have a new roommate because my bud Dave is in Germany this semester. The new roomie is pretty cool: He’s an exchange student from Northern Ireland, nice and quiet, studying dentistry back home (and management while he’s here). Not too bad. He also brings over bomb foreign chicks all the time that he knows because all of the international kids hang out together - I swear the Romanian-Ukranian girl that was here yesterday could be a model.
Go Pats. Go Red Sox. Boston sports are doing their thing. Now if only the Sox can sweep when the Yankees come to town in two weeks…
Josh, Tyler, Trav and I headed down to San Fran and San Jose a couple weeks ago for a videogame show (yeah, yeah, I know, but us guys are entitled to guy time, right?). Highlights: Meeting the guy who made the first videogame I had ever played (Activision Boxing for the Atari), the rare goods auction where Josh was bidding furiously, and playing Pong against the inventor of Pong. I was walking by the very first Pong arcade machine when, of all people, Al Alcorn rounds the corner. Al Alcorn, inventor of Pong. Co-founder of Atari. Rad guy all around. So I introduce myself and have him sign my Atari joystick. He says, “OK, Kevin, how about a quick game?” Now Pong is won by scoring 15 points first. I pull into an 11-10 lead. This is against the inventor of pong, mind you. The wily vet came back for the win, but still, pretty cool.
An article from a reporter in the dictatorship of Turkmenistan shows that the days of the crazy dictator are not over. Read it and realize how lucky we are.
(Epilogue: As I was typing, this Danish girl my roommate is working on came by, and asked me what I thought about the Romanian girl that was over the other night. Apparently, I’m not very subtle, hehe. She’s single, by the way. It must be destiny.)
Prime Cuts
“Float On” by Modest Mouse
I’d been sleeping on Modest Mouse, but these guys are dope. Great rock track.“Callin Out” by Lyrics Born
New party rap track from Bay Area-based Lyrics Born. We heard it on the radio when we were in Cali, and it’s gonna blow up, no doubt.
