This short paper is worth reading; there are some good thoughts here on some hard problems.

Increasingly, I find a certain confluence between the uninspired laziness of the American mass[ively] media^hocre and the weak-spiritedness of our public diplomacy.

Care should be taken in the labeling of adversaries so as not unintentionally to disparage those to whom the United States is trying to appeal. Whether there are circumstances in which intentional disparagement may be warranted remains an open issue.

The vituperative rhetoric of pre-prison Nelson Mandela stands in stark contrast to the modulated discourse of Martin Luther King.

Perhaps Mandela in his pre-imprisonment phase considered attaining the support of moderates to be so unlikely that the way to move forward was not through internal change, but through a greater polarization to galvanize the situation to crisis levels and thereby compel action from the international community.

The Middle East must be Born Again!

How To Think About Public Diplomacy

"If you have a plan on how you're going to approach the opposition, and you execute consistently, then you're going to have success."

There it is ... that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Get Your War On

The perceived threat is a politically driven fantasy -- and al-Qaida is a dark illusion.

Terror? What terror? We don't need to do anything. (Isn't there a game on, or something?)

the terror myth

It's clear that freedom of speech also includes freedom to listen.

John Gilmore drops his rhetorical sledgehammer on TSA's pinhead, drawing on a century of Supreme jurisprudence to demonstrate the error of their ways.

He is, of course, absolutely right on point, but that does not excuse his extreme Constitutional fixation. John seems determined to prove the Wrongness of TSA's plan, and in the process totally misses (or ignores) the folly of it.

Russ Nelson promptly chimes in, echoing the nugget of wisdom proffered by a short pull on the cord of his Bruce Schneier talking plush doll. "Hey, guys -- it won't even work!" (We would have also accepted: "Security is a Process!")

The question we should ask ourselves is, What should we do?

John Gilmore: 'I'm Right, And You Know It!'

It's a beta. It has limitations. For example, it won't index multiple disk drives on your system.

My fundamental complaint is that this product lacks the fundamental essence of Google. That is, it has no sense of link structure. It is a simple full text indexer. As many have already pointed out, existing products perform this function more effectively and with better and more complete system integration.

In time, they could migrate this product into a remembrance agent. That would present a good opportunity for Google's famed PhDs to demonstrate their supreme geekiness.

Here's to hoping ...

Google Desktop Search

I found an abandoned grocery list in a Schnuck's parking lot in St. Louis in 1996 or 1997. I decided to keep them every time I came across one. And the internet is a great place to do stupid things. So here it is.

Grocery Lists

The essential element of a democratic society -- trust -- has been weakened, as secrecy, mendacity and intimidation have become the hallmarks of this administration.

Rhetoric matters.

Freedom Is Not Just a Slogan

Comedian Jon Stewart talks about the presidential candidates and the media in a discussion hosted by Syracuse University.

The streaming video is now available.

Jon Stewart on American Perspectives

Tommy Franks says that John Kerry's version of the events in Afghanistan doesn't square with reality.

First, Kerry says we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded.". This is simply not true. Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.

Second, we did not "outsource" military action.

Third, the Afghans weren't left to do the job alone. Neither attention nor manpower was diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq.

What starts out with promise ends up seeming like quite a stretch, and by aping the methods he aims to debunk, only sustains Kerry's arguments.

War of Words

Generally speaking, Indians love show tunes.

Hollywood is tone deaf. Meanwhile, Bollywood has more than doubled its exports in the last few years.

Three of the top 10 movies in the United States last year were rated R.

The Bollywood process -- in which a popular American film is "chutneyed" -- basically has three stages: sex scenes are toned down, the schmaltz factor is ramped up, and much singing and dancing is added, sometimes without regard to plot or logic.

Almost 50 percent of Chinese city dwellers regularly visit a Western fast-food restaurant.

G-rated exports