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Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002

paper chaser

"This is one of the great puzzles of the modern workplace. Computer technology was supposed to replace paper. But that hasn't happened. Every country in the Western world uses more paper today, on a per-capita basis, than it did ten years ago. The consumption of uncoated free-sheet paper, for instance�the most common kind of office paper�rose almost fifteen per cent in the United States between 1995 and 2000. This is generally taken as evidence of how hard it is to eradicate old, wasteful habits and of how stubbornly resistant we are to the efficiencies offered by computerization. A number of cognitive psychologists and ergonomics experts, however, don't agree. Paper has persisted, they argue, for very good reasons: when it comes to performing certain kinds of cognitive tasks, paper has many advantages over computers. The dismay people feel at the sight of a messy desk�or the spectacle of air-traffic controllers tracking flights through notes scribbled on paper strips�arises from a fundamental confusion about the role that paper plays in our lives."

dressed for success

"The complete irrationality of violence has never been more clearly on display than in the Middle East this year, yet the grip of violence on the minds of Israeli and Palestinian leaders both could not be stronger. In America, meanwhile, we tell ourselves that our robust ''war on terrorism'' has gone well, yet the Israeli experience suggests how efficiently amoral terrorists are recruited out of the ruined pieces of nature that fall from ''overwhelming force.'' Israel's dilemma is a foretaste of America's: This great nation shall so wear out to naught."

no no noonan

"The hallmarks of the hero-worship style are a Manichaean moral sensibility, eloquent prose, and assertion rather than argument. This might seem like a harmless, even refreshing, counterpoint to the politics of personal destruction, which both parties now disdain as mindlessly partisan and corrosive to civic health. But Peggy Noonan's glorification of George W. Bush isn't a departure from the politics of personal destruction at all. It's the very same thing."

the comfortable way

"Mr. Chertoff�s toughness is exactly what�s needed as Enron and Andersen run for the hills. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Andersen executives have whined that the prosecutor is treating them like crime bosses. They seem to believe that because shredding documents wasn�t forbidden in the firm�s by-laws, they did nothing wrong. They are in for a rough education."

remember me

"Despite Saddam Hussein's biochemical assaults on Iranian troops and his own Kurdish population in the 1980s, his invasion of neighboring Kuwait in 1990, his repeated threats against Israel and the U.S., and his decades-long commitment to building a secret doomsday arsenal, he now poses little threat to the world, according to Halliday. Halliday proposes a nonviolent strategy for resolving tensions between America and Iraq. In addition to catastrophic consequences for the Iraqi people, he says, an invasion would create long-term problems for the United States in an already volatile region."

progressive reviewing

"Chomsky's newest book, 9-11, contains interviews he gave in the days following Sept. 11. In those interviews, Chomsky argues the unpopular position that the United States itself is a terrorist nation which supplies economic support and weaponry to some of the world's most hostile and repressive regimes in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. He notes that, not only has the United States both secretly and openly supported "terrorist" factions in Nicaragua, Columbia and Afghanistan, it also frequently and blatantly disregards international law. In 9-11, Chomsky asserts that war against Afghanistan in response to a terrorist attack violates United Nations guidelines. Under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, the United States should have sought action through the U.N. Security Council, a directive the Bush administration chose to ignore. Not only does Operation Enduring Freedom violate international law, it brings further destruction to an already war-ravaged, war-impoverished nation. As Chomsky foresaw in 9-11, "An attack in Afghanistan will probably kill a great many innocent civilians...in a country where millions are already on the verge of death from starvation. Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism."

dont think

"The Israeli public � partly by choice � is living with a complete information blackout with regard to the extent of the damage and death taking place only a few kilometres away from their homes. Maybe the public doesn't want to know, but the media has a responsibility, which it has shirked," he wrote."

"More than five months after the United States launched a war in Afghanistan, there is no truce between the media and the Pentagon, with journalists continuing to voice frustration at the military's control over information."

chicken hawks

"AVOT�s avowed purpose, according to Bennett, is to "take to task those groups and individuals who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the war we are facing." Ah, but it may not be just a "misunderstanding" on the part of people like me � for example � who oppose a US policy of global intervention. A full-page ad taken out by AVOT in the New York Times denounced not only bin Laden & Co. but those Americans on the home front:

"Who are attempting to use this opportunity to promulgate their agenda of 'blame America first.' Both [internal and external] threats stem from either a hatred for the American ideals of freedom and equality or a misunderstanding of those ideals and their practice."

when we were young

"But it's not just the media who are to blame. According to Schalit, the American left, both scornful of the religious right and overly deferential to it, simply doesn't take this community seriously. When President Bush repeatedly invokes the word "evil," with obvious religious connotations, too many Americans, especially journalists and liberals afraid of insulting someone else's faith, don't bat an eye. As a result, the left fails both to understand the doctrine of the religious right, and to challenge it. To fully understand the religious right's worldview, Schalit suggests, might mean taking a hard look at the Bible. But rather than offering the left or the Democratic Party a method of counterattack, "America the Enchanted" is more of a wake-up call."

promises in the dark

One of seven children featured in the film "Promises" -- a strong bet to win the Academy Award for best documentary on Sunday night -- Moishe has never met a Palestinian. Still, he is convinced he can't stand them. Speaking directly to the camera, in his husky, high-pitched voice, he tells us he comes from the West Bank settlement called Beit-El, "a place where people who hate Arabs live."

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