La montagne a accouche d’une souris: IT finally debuted this morning on “Good Morning America”. As was widely speculated, IT turned out to be a scooter, powered by batteries, that can go up to 12 miles per hour. I doubt, however, as IT’s inventor claims, that it will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy. But IT will probably offer more choices for people traveling short distances (e.g. trips to the grocery store).
There’s an excellent article today by Saad Mehio today in the New York Times:
So what comes after the Taliban and Osama bin Laden are finished? Probably more Talibans and new Osama bin Ladens. This is the sad and shocking reality that we must confront. It will happen apart from all the fanfare surrounding America’s military triumph in Afghanistan and all the other achievements of this so- called war on terror. Why? Because the Taliban and Mr. bin Laden are not isolated cases but manifestations of a complex, and potentially durable, sociopolitical phenomenon.
Basically, this phenomenon involves the immoral, unscrupulous and irreligious exploitation of Islam as a political weapon–by everyone. The West, the United States, Arab and other Muslim tyrannies have all used the weapon of Islam. And all are paying their different prices for it.
My all-time favorite justification for having unlimited detentions without due process of ’suspected’ terrorists was provided by British Home Secretary David Blunkett:
We could live in a world which is airy fairy, libertarian, where everybody does precisely what they like and we believe the best of everybody and then they destroy us.”
They are declaring a state of public emergency in Britain, so Brits can get ready to say goodbye to those “airy-fairy” civil rights UK to Detain Terrorism Suspects Without Trial
Greed is dividing families of the September 11 attacks. I heard on NPR of an incident in which the widow of a police officer got into a shouting match with a civilian widow, with the former claiming she should get more money because, she argued, her husband had died in the line of duty. I couldn’t find a link to the specific incident, but I did read that:
[S]ince the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, breathtaking sums of money have poured in for the families of about 400 police officers, firefighters and other uniformed personnel who died trying to lead thousands to safety (…) For the widows of firefighters and police officers, the money has provided financial security, a sense of being embraced by a nation. But for the families of civilian victims - and even some of those raising money for the rescuers’ survivors - the flood of charity to the families of the uniformed dead has obliterated the hope that America’s donations will be distributed in an even-handed way to all the survivors.
Gifts for Rescuers Divide Terror Victims’ Families
It’s obscene to be having a discussion based on the premise that not all lives are equal, with that of a NY police officer or firefighter worth more than that of an office worker at the World Trade Center. I suppose that, along that same continuum, and at the very bottom of the pole, are the lives of destitute Afghan civilians.
The violence does not stop. Today: Palestinian Attacks in Israel Kill at least 25:
A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens when he blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel on Sunday, hours after a double suicide attack killed 10 people in Jerusalem.”
The horror, the horror. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Yasir Arafat to crack down on the militants. Aside from condemning the attacks, he has declared a state of emergency in all areas under PA control, and has ordered dozens of arrests. (By the way, the attack is yet another sign that Arafat doesn’t control Hamas, though this point is lost on many.) There will surely be massive retaliations, with many more dozens of Palestinians dying. And the cycle will continue. Elsewhere in the Arab world, Morocco issued a statement expressing its regrets over the attacks stating that they stand in the way of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
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