Talking, laughing, hearing the voice of a friend...now, it all seems to mean much, much more.

Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every "terror network" that is rooted out, another will emerge - until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.

I'm dazed, I'm unfocused, I'm confused, I'm angry, I'm uncertain. Things seem quieter, even here, thousands of miles away from New York.

2 thoughts I keep coming back to (on my living room soapbox):

1. Everyone wants immediate revenge. I want it too. A good ol' fashioned war - snub out the bad guys! NOW! But even if bin Laden were "removed," it likely wouldn't make a bit of difference in the risk of more terrorism. It's going to be a long, quiet, drawn out process, since we don't have a country to plop bombs on, or a dictator to dethrone. The seeming inaction, as the intelligence begins against the Al Qaeda, etc., is going to make a lot of people mad, and I worry that it's going to escalate anti-Arab-American attacks and splinter people in the U.S. I doubt that any U.S. action against these terrorists is going to be as geared to the media as their attacks against us - it's covert, it's dirty work, and it's probably slow. And even if this "war" is begun (i.e., continued) against terrorists in the Middle East, how do we know when we've won?
2. None of the media talking heads discuss the psychology of the Arab mind, or of Arab politics and religion. Protestant Americans go to church on Sunday, and then they go to school or work on Monday, and there's often little (if any) crossover between the two. Many church-going Americans keep their church social circle separate from other circles in their lives - it's a part of their life, but it's not their life. There's no such thing as that in the Middle East. I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 1/2 years, and I can tell you that there is absolutely no separation between Islam and politics, Islam and education, or Islam and business. It's all so inextricably linked - politics and religion and business - in a way that no American can comprehend. There is such a deep, deep reverence for Allah that's threaded through the daily activities of so many Arabs...there's simply no corollary (practiced by a similar percent of the population) in the U.S. (But I should note, even though I shouldn't have to, that none of these terrorist attacks had anything to do with the Islam practiced by the vast majority of Arabs.)

I have always wanted to read, for some inexplicable reason, the book Flowers for Algernon. Maybe because I don't know anyone, and have never known anyone, named Algernon, and thus would never have the pleasure of giving an Algernon any flowers. What kind of nicknames does an Algernon have? Algie? (Algae?) Nonny?

...you get the idea.

I suspect there is a high correlation between:

• (Non-ironic) gingham-patterned apparel owners and owners of SUVs.
• George Foreman grill owners and people with more than 2 televisions.
• Caffeine-free Diet Coke drinkers and people who think Nathan Lane is a genius.
• Chronic list-makers and the unemployed.

I was just thinking about how long this weblog has been up and running, and I couldn't remember. I get my years mixed up. I think I started it in the spring of '99, though it could have been '98. My archives were wiped out in an unfortunate server accident, and ever since, I kind of wondered what the point of archives were in a weblog. I mean, it's a daily thing, right? Isn't that the point of this whole "weblog" business? And it's not like I'm reporting on issues that matter. Good god...in more discriminating times I would be strung up by my peanut toes and lambasted for writing such dreck. Anyway. Lack of talent has, for better or worse, kept me from doing few things.

Ten Things to Say in an Interview for a Job You Don't Really Want All That Much

1. "My scabs got better when I stopped itching so much."
2. "...Nice to meet you. And say hello to my wittle fwiend 'Mister Wooby.'"
3. (talking to self in compact mirror) "You're the bestest! In the whole wide world!! Yesss you are! Yess you are!"
4. "Will there be room in my cubicle for my vintage sandwich collection?"
5. "...Good god. Did you just fart?"
6. "Sometimes I like to make a little raisin trail from my cubicle to the bathroom. It helps me remember the way."
7. "So who did you sleep with to get this office?"
8. "I find that most people, when asked to really think about it, don't appreciate the smell of parmesan cheese."
9. "To boost coworker morale, I like to cover myself in yellow Post-Its and prance about the office while singing 'I Touch Myself.'"
10. "Hoowee, I'm tired. Got any crank?"

BB: [...] And irony, oh, the goddamned irony, that courses through the popular culture like a cancer. If nothing is serious anymore, then there's nothing to satirize. Look at George W. Bush. He knows the game. He knows he's a maroon, as Daffy Duck would say, and refuses to take himself seriously. He cut off our satirist balls. We're like a gaggle of eunuchs running around the palace, wishing we could hump the princess. The game's changed forever.