Walkin' the Obit and waitin' for death to bark.
I'm livin' life on a leash.
- E. Ethelbert Miller
E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Quote of the Day:
Bloggers are increasingly getting sued or threatened with legal action for everything from defamation to invasion of privacy to copyright infringement. In 2007 - the most recent data available - 106 civil lawsuits against bloggers and others in social networks and online forums were tallied by the Citizen Media Law Project at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, up from just 12 in 2003. There have been about $17.4 million in trial awards against bloggers to date, according to the Media Law Resource Center in New York, a nonprofit clearinghouse that tracks free-speech cases.
The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2009.
Bloggers are increasingly getting sued or threatened with legal action for everything from defamation to invasion of privacy to copyright infringement. In 2007 - the most recent data available - 106 civil lawsuits against bloggers and others in social networks and online forums were tallied by the Citizen Media Law Project at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, up from just 12 in 2003. There have been about $17.4 million in trial awards against bloggers to date, according to the Media Law Resource Center in New York, a nonprofit clearinghouse that tracks free-speech cases.
The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2009.
Tricycle's Daily Dharma
The Value of the Present Moment
Recognizing that past turmoil and future rhapsodies are projections of our mind prevents us from getting stuck in them. Just as the face in the mirror is not a real face, the objects of our memories and daydreams are likewise unreal. They are not happening now; they are simply mental images flickering in the mind.
Reflecting on the value of our precious human life also minimizes our habit of ruminating. Our wondrous potential becomes clear, and the rarity and value of the present opportunity shines forth. Who wants to ruminate about the past and future when we can do so much good and progress spiritually in the present.
–Thubten Chodron, from Taming the Mind (Snow Lion)
The Value of the Present Moment
Recognizing that past turmoil and future rhapsodies are projections of our mind prevents us from getting stuck in them. Just as the face in the mirror is not a real face, the objects of our memories and daydreams are likewise unreal. They are not happening now; they are simply mental images flickering in the mind.
Reflecting on the value of our precious human life also minimizes our habit of ruminating. Our wondrous potential becomes clear, and the rarity and value of the present opportunity shines forth. Who wants to ruminate about the past and future when we can do so much good and progress spiritually in the present.
–Thubten Chodron, from Taming the Mind (Snow Lion)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
CONGO BLUE:
By now, the internecine wars of eastern Congo have acquired a haunting familiarity: rebels plunder the country's natural riches, and the looting feeds a cycle of impoverishment, corruption and violence. But in Vitshumbi, more-elemental changes have been complicating the pattern. The hippopotamuses started falling first. Then the elephants. And now the fish are disappearing, too. An ecosystem seem to be unraveling.
-Delphine Schrank, The Atlantic, June 2009
By now, the internecine wars of eastern Congo have acquired a haunting familiarity: rebels plunder the country's natural riches, and the looting feeds a cycle of impoverishment, corruption and violence. But in Vitshumbi, more-elemental changes have been complicating the pattern. The hippopotamuses started falling first. Then the elephants. And now the fish are disappearing, too. An ecosystem seem to be unraveling.
-Delphine Schrank, The Atlantic, June 2009
Steven Soderbergh:
We continually have these fantasies that technology will solve whatever societal problem we have that every generation buys into. I just wish it was being used to solve the really big problems. You wonder if the ability of all the people in the Sudan to Twitter would finally tip the world into taking some significant action to stop genocide, then you'd think it was a good use of technology. If the ability to be in constant communication and the ability to connect to anybody anywhere in the world hasn't resulted in the solving of a problem like that, than what is it for?
We continually have these fantasies that technology will solve whatever societal problem we have that every generation buys into. I just wish it was being used to solve the really big problems. You wonder if the ability of all the people in the Sudan to Twitter would finally tip the world into taking some significant action to stop genocide, then you'd think it was a good use of technology. If the ability to be in constant communication and the ability to connect to anybody anywhere in the world hasn't resulted in the solving of a problem like that, than what is it for?
TERRORISM & HOMELAND SECURITY FORUM
Invitation to a meeting co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s International Security Studies and Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies
Topic: Book discussion -- The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days
Speaker: Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security, New York University School of Law
“Legal scholar Greenberg covers the period from December 2001 through March 2002, when Camp X-Ray opened to house suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives captured in Afghanistan…. Greenberg's account is not an exposé of Guantánamo horrors; instead, she draws a lesson on the banality of goodness-that dutiful adherence to international law, not personal integrity, is the ultimate guarantor of humane policy.” -- Publishers Weekly
Date/Time: Thursday, May 28, 2009, noon to 1:30 p.m.
Location: Woodrow Wilson Center in the Ronald Reagan Building, ("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 5th Floor Conference Room
For directions, go to www.wilsoncenter.org/directions Please bring a photo ID and allow additional time to pass through a security checkpoint. Lunch will be served. Seating is limited.
Invitation to a meeting co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s International Security Studies and Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies
Topic: Book discussion -- The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days
Speaker: Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security, New York University School of Law
“Legal scholar Greenberg covers the period from December 2001 through March 2002, when Camp X-Ray opened to house suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives captured in Afghanistan…. Greenberg's account is not an exposé of Guantánamo horrors; instead, she draws a lesson on the banality of goodness-that dutiful adherence to international law, not personal integrity, is the ultimate guarantor of humane policy.” -- Publishers Weekly
Date/Time: Thursday, May 28, 2009, noon to 1:30 p.m.
Location: Woodrow Wilson Center in the Ronald Reagan Building, ("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 5th Floor Conference Room
For directions, go to www.wilsoncenter.org/directions Please bring a photo ID and allow additional time to pass through a security checkpoint. Lunch will be served. Seating is limited.
Sports:
The best thing to happen to the Wizards was being awarded the the 5th pick in the NBA lottery.
Now they can't mess up too bad. No one is going to expect much from the 5th guy selected -right? If the Wizards trade the guy for some old/tired veteran - look for the 5th pick to become an All-Star. We live in Bizarro World. Never forget that.
The best thing to happen to the Wizards was being awarded the the 5th pick in the NBA lottery.
Now they can't mess up too bad. No one is going to expect much from the 5th guy selected -right? If the Wizards trade the guy for some old/tired veteran - look for the 5th pick to become an All-Star. We live in Bizarro World. Never forget that.
EVERYONE HAS A MISSILE IN THEIR POCKET. Why?
Iran, North Korea - everyone wants a new bomb. Sooner or later somebody is going to do a first strike - and World War III will start. Tehran and Tel Aviv seem to be located on a fault. How many days are we away from bombs falling on these cities? Like Midnight in New Orleans before Katrina- everything seems normal on Bourbon Street. How long before the levees break and we are facing nuclear war and thinking about the unthinkable?
HOW THE MOON WAS BUILT
It seems like just a matter of time before someone decides that the bad prisoners at Guantanamo will have to be sent to the moon. Nobody seems to want the bad guys living next door. In the old days one looked for a penal colony at the end of the world. Well, why not another world? Our space program was going to shift to the establishment of a moon settlement in the near future - right? How often has prison labor been "exploited" in the past? One could quickly start an online movement like Mecca on the Moon. My fear is that hatred and racism often results in things like this. Speak Japanese to me if you don't understand.
NOT EVEN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD YET
Don't look for a Middle East change anytime soon, unless some deals are being made in the back rooms. Netanyahu is a tough cookie. The media just mentions Hamas. We never seem to hear the names of their leaders. It's as if we've given the entire leadership of a people a thug label. Hamas needs a PR makeover. Meanwhile the two state goal needs to be pushed without restrictions and excuses. A halt to the building of Jewish settlements, the lifting of the Israeli embargo, a stop to knocking down Palestinians homes (I've never understood the thoughts behind this - or maybe I do), and big time economic assistance to the area. Oh, and Hamas has to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. This isn't marbles. Suffering and maybe "history" in this region must end. Close the chapter. Heal and grow. Move forward. Please no quoting of scriptures for a week or two. Just view one's neighbor as a distant lover.
Don't look for a Middle East change anytime soon, unless some deals are being made in the back rooms. Netanyahu is a tough cookie. The media just mentions Hamas. We never seem to hear the names of their leaders. It's as if we've given the entire leadership of a people a thug label. Hamas needs a PR makeover. Meanwhile the two state goal needs to be pushed without restrictions and excuses. A halt to the building of Jewish settlements, the lifting of the Israeli embargo, a stop to knocking down Palestinians homes (I've never understood the thoughts behind this - or maybe I do), and big time economic assistance to the area. Oh, and Hamas has to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. This isn't marbles. Suffering and maybe "history" in this region must end. Close the chapter. Heal and grow. Move forward. Please no quoting of scriptures for a week or two. Just view one's neighbor as a distant lover.