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| "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." -- John F. Kennedy |
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The fall of RealNames - by it's ex-CEO |
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| Topic: Computers |
11:05 pm EDT, May 12, 2002 |
Valuable read for those interested in MicroSoft tactics, registries, naming systems, and .NET. The fall of RealNames - by it's ex-CEO |
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Yahoo! News - Israeli Ruling Party Says No to Palestinian State |
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| Topic: Current Events |
7:58 pm EDT, May 12, 2002 |
"The end game is now clear," Erekat told CNN. "This war is not against terror but...to continue ruling 3.3 million Palestinians. It is very dangerous and I hope it will be an eye opener to the world to show them who we are dealing with." The Israeli government shows it's stripes. Yahoo! News - Israeli Ruling Party Says No to Palestinian State |
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The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | _Foreign Affairs_ |
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| Topic: Society |
10:33 pm EDT, May 10, 2002 |
Foreign Affairs is making available the full text of a selection of new and previously published articles on the interests, goals, and political dynamics on all sides, as well as the history of the two parties' recent interactions and American involvement in the region. The Last Negotiation, Hussein Agha and Robert Malley (May/June 2002) Conventional wisdom says the best approach to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict is to strive for a ceasefire followed by a return to painstaking step-by-step negotiations. In fact, the incremental approach is doomed to failure, and peace will only come through outside intervention based on a clear plan to end the conflict once and for all. The Last of the Patriarchs, Aluf Benn (May/June 2002) What does Ariel Sharon want? Not to make peace or push the Palestinians out of the territories, but rather to freeze the status quo and put off final-status negotiations for years. Palestinians Divided, Khalil Shikaki (January/February 2002) Yasir Arafat will be able to fend off internal leadership challenges only if he can deliver a substantial settlement with the Israelis or give his own people better and more open government. Neither is likely, and what follows Arafat may be even worse. Back to the Bazaar, Martin Indyk (January/February 2002) After its victory in Afghanistan, the United States has an opportunity to strike a new bargain with its major Arab allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It should indeed press for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also challenge authoritarianism, anti-Americanism, and the lack of Arab support for Middle East peace. The Sentry's Solitude, Fouad Ajami (November/December 2001) Arafat wants the "Arab street" to rise up in rebellion and force the United States to accept his claims. Better the fire of an insurrection, he reasons, than the risks of reconciling his people to a peace he has not prepared them for. Middle East Peace Through Partition, David Makovsky, (March/April 2001) Why did the peace process begun at Oslo fall apart? Because of what the Palestinians and Israelis failed to do, because of what the Palestinian Authority became, and because there was no clear strategy for an endgame. Now disengagement is the only route to stability. Israel After Heroism, Eliot A. Cohen, (November/December 1998) On its fiftieth birthday, Israel looked on the verge of a new and less epic phase of its history. With survival no longer in question, the country could turn to the less stressful, if less edifying, challenges of identity and normal life. That was then. [Originally from Jeremy]
Dive in deeply, and go beyond the nightly news with the crew at the Council on Foreign Relations. In particular, I highly recommend the Martin Indyk article cited above. [ Looks like some interesting reading. -Rek ] The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | _Foreign Affairs_ |
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Spreading by the Web, Pop's Bootleg Remix |
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| Topic: Intellectual Property |
10:21 pm EDT, May 10, 2002 |
The song may sound familiar at first. But, suddenly, the recording changes course. As the recording moves on, it is clear that the song is neither fish nor fowl; it is a crossbreed. It is something that is completely different, often illegal and, thanks to the Internet, becoming explosively popular. "The best bootlegs don't sound like bootlegs; they work at a profound level, and actually sound like they are the original record." "It is a case of bootleggers bootlegging bootlegs." "It's my favorite record of the year so far." Neil Strauss on the latest fad in online music. Spreading by the Web, Pop's Bootleg Remix |
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Israeli Intelligence Agencies |
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| Topic: Politics and Law |
12:55 am EDT, May 9, 2002 |
A bit about Mossad. Scroll down to the Technology Department heading. A want ad was published last year with the title "THE MOSSAD IS OPEN: Only to 13 Engineers." A bit of the ole' Jewish mysticism perhaps? Israeli Intelligence Agencies |
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| Topic: Economics |
12:37 am EDT, May 9, 2002 |
(NYTimes login required)
Political leaders in Washington are casting about for measures to ensure that the Enron debacle will never be repeated. Unfortunately, one of the main ideas being considered requiring companies to treat stock options as expenses on financial statements addresses an issue that not only had nothing to do with Enron's failure but is, in fact, not a problem at all. [ The problem is that there needs to be a clear line between the people with 2 million options and those with 2,000. -Rek ] Leave Options Alone |
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Information Wants to be Valuable |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
11:35 pm EDT, May 7, 2002 |
Open source article--what would happen to web if free software removed? [ Kind of preaching to the choir considering the current memestreams demographics, but definitely worth a read for re-inforcement. -Rek ] Information Wants to be Valuable |
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ZNet | Mideast | Sharon the merciless and Arafat the corrupt have nothing meaningful to offer each other |
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| Topic: Current Events |
11:07 pm EDT, May 7, 2002 |
For days, the US President demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from West Bank cities. Mr Sharon simply ignored him. "When I say withdraw, I mean it," Mr Bush snapped at one point. Mr Sharon ignored him. ... Only a day earlier, Mr Annan was forced, in utter humiliation, to disband his fact-finding mission to Jenin after Israel refused to accept it. ... The squalid, corrupt little dictator of Ramallah, Mr Arafat, and the brutal, merciless leader of the Middle East's mightiest army, Mr Sharon, have nothing to offer each other. Mr Arafat cannot fulfill his required role of colonial governor - to "control his own people" - while Mr Sharon cannot fulfill his promise to provide Israelis with security. ZNet | Mideast | Sharon the merciless and Arafat the corrupt have nothing meaningful to offer each other |
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ZNet | Terror War | Noam Chomsky Interviewed |
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| Topic: Current Events |
10:39 pm EDT, May 7, 2002 |
Great Noam Chomsky interview. If he offends you on the basis of what he professes, don't bother. If, on the other hand, you want a reasonable analysis, please read on. Snippets follow:
The basic situation remains as before. It is not a confrontation between two local adversaries, and even between those too there is nothing remotely like symmetry. Israel is a major military power, backed fully by the global superpower. For 35 years, it has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are alone, defenseless....the US-Israel coalition has been settling the areas of the occupied territories they intend to integrate within Israel, and acting to ensure Israeli control over the major resource of the West Bank: water.
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The US demands that Arafat, imprisoned in a dungeon where he cannot even flush the toilet, must produce yet another condemnation of Palestinian terrorism, which everyone knows to be completely meaningless. No one even suggests that Sharon should condemn his much worse ongoing atrocities, or that the US government, which provides the crucial support for them them, should do so.
... Military industry has some role but not a dominant one. Twenty years ago, the Reagan administration came into office proclaiming that a "war on terror" would be the core of US foreign policy, and we need not review how they fought that war. "Terrorism" plays a role similar to "Communism," "crime," "drugs," and other devices to frighten the public into supporting policies undertaken to serve the interests of the state and domestic power centers; when one pretext loses its efficacy (like "Communism"), others take its place at once, with scarcely a murmur from the educated classes. None of this, of course, is peculiar to the US. This is the way states and other power systems operate. Surely these are among the clearest lessons of history. ... The US is far too powerful to have any need to submit to an international authority. That is why it blithely rejects World Court condemnation, vetoes or ignores Security Council resolutions, and in general disregards international law and treaties when it chooses. As the world's most powerful state, it guards its sovereignty zealously, while ignoring the sovereignty of others as it chooses. Again, there is nothing new or surprising about this. ... No sane person is opposed to globalization, that is, international integration. Surely not the left and the workers movements, which were founded on the principle of international solidarity - that is, globalization in a form that attends to the rights of people, not private power systems. ... To speak of "abandoned socialism" presupposes that there was some socialism that was abandoned. That is quite an exaggeration. There have been moves towards traditional socialist ideals of the kind described by Dewey - who I quoted not because the observations are original, but because... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ] ZNet | Terror War | Noam Chomsky Interviewed |
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