Happy 8th Year of New Millennium!
Where is the bridge to somewhere? And is it virtual or real? Good solid bridges with long histories are those you can look at, ride over, and find on the road atlas. How about the bridge to the 21st Century?
On December 31, 1999 things seemed a little precarious. Those prone to superstition, aided and abetted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, could reel off numbers to prove that we were coming to the jumping-off place. Those threatened by computers needed technical reassurance. Techies explained how memory deprived early computers were. Back when some computers had only 2k, meaning 2048 bits of memory, every bit counted. A bit is one binary digit, which is either off or on in the computer. To use space by putting “19" on the front of the year was wasteful. It could be patched, however. And river locks would work, plumbing would function, hospital ORs would have lights. There were plenty of old programmers to code the fixes. We trainees from the 60s knew about such things. I have a friend who hooked up with an outsourcing firm in Washington D.C. and worked for nearly two years in the offices of WorldCom. The division of the company which had once been MCI was important to the government for communications. Things worked out for everyone except for Bernie Ebbers who didn’t know how to keep books.
For my part, as 2000 A.D. was approaching I felt a sense of wonderment. On TV, I watched celebrations from around the globe. The world is not flat, after all!
“Weird†and “spooky†set the adjectival tone in those days. Before two years played out in the new millennium, we were stuck with “scary.†I still prefer to dwell on some positive actions leading up to the calendar shift. For one, Knoxville had a new publication. Our local writing group hosted a columnist from the Knoxville News Sentinel. That night I got a good feel for the writing of Tom Wolfe. The columnist, Don Williams, and I jabbered a little about Ken Kesey. He came to tell us about a new magazine he started. Through it, I became acquainted with Cormac McCarthy, specifically with his early novel Suttree. The publication turned out to be more than just another little mag. Check it out at http://www.newmillenniumwritings.com/ where the rules for submissions are posted, as well as the winning entries. Don still writes a weekly column for Friday’s edition of the Sentinel, the latest taking the MSM to task.
Since Bill Clinton first introduced his idea of a bridge to the 21st Century, some water has run under it. By reading his book and hearing about his foundation, it’s obvious that President Clinton treats the issue seriously. However, it certainly doesn’t resonate in most publications, nor with the general public. Perhaps it’s too much to hope that a virtual bridge can rest on concrete pillars.
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Bill Clinton Hope MSM
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Uh, dude, it's not Bush's
Submitted by Soylent Green (not verified) on 30 December 2006 - 5:56pm.
Uh, dude, it's not Bush's legacy...it's the legacy of Islamic terrorists, the likes of which were perpetrating similar crimes all throughout the nineties, which
clinton did zilch about, so, hello 9/11.
And that's the point. You felt as if you could travel to anywhere in the world, because no one wanted to face the truth yet. You weren't really safe. Oh, by the way, the reason you couldn't go to the West Bank today is because Israel stupidly gave it to the P.A., and Jerusalem is overrun with Muslims.
I am so glad we have cleaned ourselves off from the nineties. I was an adolescent in that decade, and can now look back and see that an attitude of moral depravity and permissiveness permeated that decade. My mind-set was corrupt, and so were most of my contemporaries. It was accepted, because it was condoned from the highest levels. I'm glad we now see how wrong it was and will actually stand for something. Clinton stood for nothing, and that is his legacy.
I assume this is a joke
Submitted by mole333 on 31 December 2006 - 9:05pm.
You CAN'T possibly be serious.
REPUBLICANS built up the Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan. I saw back in the Reagan era that SOMEDAY those weapons we gave them would be turned on us. Clinton was the FIRST president to try and take out bin Laden and to stop al-Qaeda. You are ignoring MANY facts, including:
1. Clinton was so focused on al-Qaeda that REPUBLICANS called him "obsessed,"
2. Clinton ordered missle attacks that came very close to taking out bin Laden, hitting the location he had JUST vacated,
3. Clinton stopped the Millenium attacks,
4. Clinton did his damnedest to cut off international funding for al-Qaeda, something that was just about negotiated by the end of his Presidency...BUSH AND THE REPUBLICANS NIXED it.
5. Clinton wanted to stabilize Somalia and had 90% of the nation stabilized. But Republicans didn't have the guts or forsight to BACK their President in wartime, so we abandoned Somlia to warlords and al-Qaeda linked fundamentalists allowing it to become one of al-Qaeda's number one bases.
By comparison, Bush IGNORED a memo warning of the attacks, pulled our troops out when we had bin Laden cornered, is buddies with Saudi Arabia, a major source of funding for terrorists including al-Qaeda, refuses to do what it would take to cut off funding for terrorists, focuses on Iraq rather than fighting the people who actually attacked us, letting al-Qaeda get away with killing Americans on American soil, Bush did NOTHING when Israel and Palestine were in limbo between war and peace and allowed chaos to begin again, Bush did NOTHING to help stabilize Somalia, allowing it to fall to fundamentalists.
Bush fucking did NOTHING but sit in terror and paralyzed with uncertainty as America was attacked. Bush lied to shift the war from fighting those who attacked us to those who had nothing to do with attacking us. Bush lied to get us into a war that has now killed 3000 American soldiers FOR NOTHING.
Had Bush followed Clinton's lead there is a good chance 9/11 would never have happened, bin Laden would be dead, and though Hussein would still be alive, he would also still be contained.
You clearly have no understanding of the Palestine/Israel issue whatsoever. You display considerable ignorance. Jerusalem is no more or less "overrun with Muslims" than it was when I visited...or, for that matter, than it was for centuries. What has changed is that there was NO LEADERSHIP from the US through any period of the Bush presidency. The only time progress was made in Israel/Palestine was under Democratic presidents. Under Carter peace was achieved between Egypt and Israel, a LASTING peace. Under Clinton peace was nearly achieved between Israel and Palestine. Bush had no clue how to follow up. Nothing happened for years. Bush sat on his sorry, lazy ass as things slid back into chaos.
Name one single thing that Bush has done that has benefitted America in any way. He has led America to the largest deficits EVER, through the rock bottom job growth rate, through a period of essentially stagflation, though few have used that word, through a period where we can't even deal with a rag-assed bunch of terrorists who we had cornered and whose largest funding sources we know, and has quite simply done nothing of any worth whatsoever.
And what does he STAND FOR again? Pissing on police cars? Going AWOL? Sitting in utter terror and letting the mayor of NYC lead the nation in a crisis? Sitting on vacation and laughing it up with John McCain while Americans drown in New Orleans? He is a poster boy for drunken frat-boy losers whose daddies bail them out of everything. He ran an oil company to bankruptcy in Texas. He has done nothing of value during his entire life.
And yet he is your hero? Give me a break. You are either joking or you are one of the biggest fools...you might fall into Lincoln's category of "fooling some of the people all of the time."
2nd WTO hit like a Greek tragedy
Submitted by Margaret Bassett on 30 December 2006 - 6:52pm.
I wasn't as shocked as I was
mad when I saw the Towers fall
because the first attempt in
1993 should have made it
clear something was likely.
My reaction was: "Those Damned
fools!" Bush obviously didn't
understand the world scene and
was so blase about it. By the time
the plane landed in Penn I told
myself we had WWIII, because now
he could hit Iraq. Braggart son
showing his dad how to be a
hero. The psychologist at Norther
Ill U is again giving her
"dry drunk" version of him (Common
Dreams). I just think Greek
tragedy. What cinched my hunch
was the "Crusade" slip.
Bush bashing may have had a
purpose until last Nov. With
an impotent president the ball
is in the court of public opinion.
US can't leave until the oil
question is settled. SPIEGEL
online has an article about how
China et al are trying to
horn in on the contracts.
Jim Baker is there to prevent
it. The interesting next step
is State of Union speech.
Image: Pelosi saying, Mr. Speaker,
I have the ....to introduce the
president of the United States."
I wonder who is pulling Dubya's
thoughts together.
Participatory democracy has its
work cut out for it, but I hope
it works.I recall the heartbreak
I felt during Nixon's witch hunt days followed by Tailgunner Joe's gift of
his name to an ISM. Being in int'l
education I took it on the chin. So I
guess I'll just have to
stay alert enough to last
through another couple of
years. We octogenarians
have a way of thinking two
years is a long planning time.
May the new year bring civility (joke, hope not)
Submitted by Margaret Bassett on 1 January 2007 - 1:36am.
Remember when Gingrich was big on the word, civility? Is it possible that the Dems can hold things together in Congress? There's so much heat and so little light in political discourse. As an example look at the reaction to Carter's book. I don't know what he wrote, but he surely was serious in trying to solve the New East conumdrum. When he called off US participation in the Olympics because of USSR in Afghanistan, be was pilloried for it. And there was the famous sniping of Bill Clinton. He did a little sabre rattling over Iraq because they didn't stay in their fly lanes. Since he was having impeachment problems at the time, the newspapers said that he was using it as a diversionary tactic.
Tonight I re-visited Jerry Ford's acceptance speech at the 76 convention. At the time, I was disgusted because he bragged about beating inflation. On his short watch we had gas lines and the price went from 35 cents to 65. His WIN buttons were the butt of jokes. By the way, can one still buy the cleaning solution "Mr. Clean?" That is what people called him. I have no dispute with his handling of his caretaker government, except that he hired Cheney and Rumsfeld and came out for more military spending. On hearing it again, I realize the speech was a leadin for what we would hear from Reagan four years later.
Move toward the light!
Submitted by JJ Ross on 1 January 2007 - 10:23am.
Yes, WAY too much heat and precious little light.
Bitter, brooding pillory of public men living or dead is bloodsport or warfare, hot and dark. Not courageous, not inspiring the best in people, not statesmanship, civility and third millennium light-shining on the paths ahead.
I'll look to partisan pecking order politics for the light of progressive ideas right after I see some from those fakey athletes who call themselves pro wrestlers.
Fakey, flakey politicos
Submitted by Margaret Bassett on 1 January 2007 - 6:02pm.
When I was still enamored with the study of the three branches of government, I thought I wanted to go for a law degree. When someone told me about how many hours was spent on study of torts, I decided there must be another way of influencing legislation. It was hard to give up on the notion that "there ought to be a law" was a citizen's main responsibiltiy. With a little maturity, it occurred to me that most laws were made to satisfy public opinion (at least an influential part of it) and that elected officials were interested in giving the voters what they wanted (or thought they wanted.)
Was an educated electorate the answer? If so, who would decide on the type of education? Then I learned that the Black Panthers, in organizing their priorities did not have a Dept of Education, just a Propaganda Division. In time I thought about that idea after NCLB was crafted. My Senator, Alexander from TN, campaigned against a Dept of Educ. before he became its Secretary. Go figure.
Maybe it is not unrealistic to think that public opinion, freely expressed in person and in the media, is the glue which directs the direction of society.
For what it's worth, blogdom is a part of some new direction. Let's hope is has more light than heat.
Bridge to the new millenium
I entered the 21st century with great enthusiasm. The 2000 "election" fiasco gave me such a sense of forboding that I started writing a fiction novel based on what I thought was a paranoid conspiracy theory where right wing religious fanatics in the US took over the US government through the election of Bush and were trying to spark the apocalypse. On Sept. 10th, 2001 I reached a point in the story where I was trying to think of the climatic event to end the plotline on a kind of cliffhanger.
The next day the event now known as 9/11 happened. The reality started matching my paranoid novel too closely for my tastes and I have never touched the story since. In addition to the horror of living through the event and losing a friend to the attack, I felt my own brain's attempt to create a barely believable conspiracy theory had hit too close to reality and I was creeped out.
Clinton's presidency was the peak of opitmism in my life and for many good reasons. Bush's presidency has been the lowest point, with fear and pessimism permeating the world. During the late 1990's I felt I could hop on a plane at a moment's notice and visit any part of the globe. My wife and I almost visited the West Bank and Jordan, something that as Jews we would never consider now. Finiancially and personally I felt all was going well.
Now it is hard to find the sliver lining in a very, very dark cloud that I picture still rising in all its toxic glory from the crater of the WTC and extends over us as far as I can see. Thanks Bush. This dark cloud is your legacy.