BuzzMachine

– Foreign Affairs magazine’s relevant stories [via Die Zeit].

– God bless the king of Jordan for trying to break into peace: an offer to create a cross-Arab guarantee Israel’s security in return for a Palestinian state. Bravo on someone for realizing that we can’t untangle the Mideast knot; the Mideast must.

– Benjamin Barber — who wrote Jihad vs. McWorld sometime in the last millenium — is interviewed in Die Zeit (in German) regarding 9/11: “It became clear to the entire democratic world with one blow: We are no longer in control.” The interview gave me flashbacks to my days as a poli sci student with much quoting of Hobbes and Rousseau (vs. Samuel “Clash of Civilizations” Huntington). Barber argues that the conflicting pressures of ethnic, religious, and fundamental Jihad vs. economic and cultural expansion in McWorld endanger democracy. I disagree; democracy is too strong for would-be Hitlers or economic realities to defeat; democracy is on a winning streak. No, instead, this reminds us to reaffirm the civilization we are defending: What is the nature of this civilization, society, and humanity we are fighting for? Finally, poli sci students have something relevant to talk about.

– Chelsea Clinton as anti-anti-war demonstrator. More Chelsea. And Chelsea in Talk thinks she’s going to die during a bomb scare.

– Great idea from MoreThanZero: A Mapquest satellite view of Ground Zero. Here’s the huge and impressive version of the same photo [via World After WTC].

– Bill O’Reilly has done a brilliant job leading the charge against the bureaucratic charities that aren’t doing what they promised to do: get money to the families of heroes and victims. He’s even appearing on competing networks (NBC this morning) to keep the pressure on. Good cause.

– Andrew Sullivan digs up a wonderful Orwell quote on warring against evil this morning. He also gives Bill Clinton a fair shake in the item below. I’m becoming a Sullivan admirer.

– Times of London says Bush considering universal smallpox vaccinations.

– Guardian on cracks in US-UK marriage.

– Mixed agendas: The good news is that Ashcroft is reorganizing the FBI to focus on protection over prosecution — it’s about time. The bad news is that this is a convenient opportunity to drop agendas he and his boss don’t much care about, like civil rights and pollution.

Make love and war: Barnes & Noble stock fell 36 percent when it announced lower earnings because of 9/11. People are quaking, not reading. I’m waiting for this to be added to the list of patriotic duties: Shop… eat out… travel… mail… buy stock… read… How can we extend this to sex and liquor?

– Moslems sell bin Laden video in Brit mosque.

– ‘Thraxed buildings can’t be guaranteed to be safe.

– The competing theories on anthrax. Makes me feel less save in Jersey.

– Now this is getting weird: A Vietnam connection to anthrax. First, a Vietnamese-American woman dies of the disease in New York with no clues as to how she got it. Now a British company in Vietnam gets anthrax.

– Literary analysis of the anthrax letters: knows New Jersey; may speak Arabic languagues; may know Canada.

– Der Spiegel (in German): Bin Laden has gum interests in Africa so “every time anyone buys a cola you could be enriching the treasure chest of Bin Laden.”

– Another wonderful Rossi Rant on our post traumatic stress syndrome: the memories of 9/11.

– Become a reporter, get a biohazard suit.

– Antiwar protester uses flower as weapon against Prince Charles. Find irony at will.

– Winston Churchill played with anthrax on what is now called Anthrax Island: “He didn’t see why the devil should have all the best weapons.”

– We appoint an official war spin doctor.

– BBC enters Kabul, breaking Al Jazeera’s monopoly.

– From the horse’s (ass’) mouth: Good on Nick Denton for finding WBUR’s daily translation of leading stories on Al Jazeera. See also Cursor’s site on the Arab TV network. See also a great Newsrack roundup of translations of scary stuff from Arab press (including the scary link to an anthrax love letter that has been working its way up blogdex).

– My favorite spam of the day: “Are YOU PREPARED for a TERRORIST ATTACK ? Then you need the BioChem Survival Manual”

– Complicating an already complicated war: Blair pushes to tie Middle East harmony with the war on terrorism. Both are good causes but tying them makes each job harder. The coverage of this angle on Blair’s visit was emphasized much more in the UK than here. Times. Independent.

[Sorry for light posting; had trouble getting to Blogger; technical difficulties, as they say on TV.]

– Former head of Saudi intelligence says bin Laden was a “nice guy” who changed: “I saw radical changes in his personality as he changed from a calm, peaceful and gentle man interested in helping Muslims into a person who believed that he would be able to amass and command an army to liberate Kuwait. It revealed his arrogance and his haughtiness.”

– If we try to run this war the way we run the country — by polls — we’re in trouble. Did Britain worry about that in World War II? Russia? Us?

– Interview with Harvard’s Samuel (Clash of Civilizations) Huntington. [Via Bushwacker]

– Thanks to TV and Osama, Islam discovers the power of PR: a call for an Islamic media network from Iran.

– Bush says bin Laden is out to get nukes. And Netanyahu says on Fox that if terrorists get nukes, New York is the target.

8 weeks after: Generation 9/11…
I cannot think of one event on one day that so changed the future. World War II broke out over years and its implications did as well. But Sept. 11 immediately changed life and lately I’ve been wondering how it will change the future for my children. Newsweek’s cover calls them Generation 9/11. What will this mean to them:

– They will have to be more insecure and probably depressed. Watch for a return of depressing poets and philosophers. Here come Plath and Satre.

– Time will tell whether religion will see a resurgence. On the first weekend after 9/11, churches and temples around here were jammed; on the second Sunday after, they weren’t. Still, I think people — especially young people — will be seeking new meaning.

– There is bound to be a new respect for — actually, craving for — authority. We all want somebody to be in charge and beat these criminals. Where my generation (I’m a young child of the ’60s) questioned all authority; this generation, I think, will embrace it as the WWII generation did. They will become our own parents.

– Patriotism is back with vigor and with no apology. Here, too, our children will be like our parents.

– Watch for the magazine stories about the latest return of the family. Families will at least try to come closer together, to recognize that they, together, are what matters. I see it all around New York: people spending more time with their kids and that will be good if it lasts.

– You might think that this event might lead to ethnic distrust but I’m not so sure. My kids go to school with Muslims and Hindus, with people from Asia and Arabia and South America and even France. I think that will have greater impact than the evil of a few people on one day in September.

Yes, Sept. 11 changed our world but it changed our children’s world more.

– We will need some comic relief and now we’re going to get it with Geraldo Rivera going to FoxNews. He’s not as pretty as Ashleigh Banfield but he’ll be a kick to watch, guaranteed. I’ll watch him. The quotes begin with Geraldo on his ability to run on the battlefield: “I’m very fit. I still box. I don’t smoke. I’d like to find a reporter who can outdistance me. I have a 31-inch waist, a 42-inch chest. I’m still real butch. Courage has never been my problem.” [Via Romenesko]

– The New York Times has had a spectacular series about small, meaningful objects from 9/11. Read last week’s first: about a pair of handcuffs used to dig the last two survivors out of Ground Zero. Then read today’s about the paramedic’s uniform on the man who made that rescue. Previous weeks: A photograph in the rubble. And a great, dramatic tale of a squeegee that was a key to life.

– Germany to contribute 3,900 troops (in German).

– Anthrax hoaxters to be flogged.

– Russian germ warriors warn: Start vaccinating against smallpox now.

– Christian Science Monitor looks for the voices of moderate Islam; can’t find many.

– Iranians celebrate the anniversary of taking our embassy workers hostage. Iranian official: “Although we condemn the September 11 terror attack on America,

the event proved that America’s might is rickety and illusory.”

– Tough journalistic duty in Pakistan [via Romenesko]. And Arab cab drivers in Arabia are just like Arab cab drivers in New York, says Paknews [via Moonfarmer].

– They arrested this guy with knives and mace at the airport… and then released him… even though he lists the same address as a material witness to 9/11. [via Marshall]

– Post on Pravda says bin Laden’s videos foretell his next targets and this guy says the UN General Assembly is next.