ncfocus

(This one was subsequently taken down? from the website in which it appeared - or at least it is not currently up - so am not providing link to it unless it reappears.) Re compare and contrast of Bush WMD columns-

Kristof and Krugman emphasized the way the Bush administration deceived the American people in its presentation of the Iraq war, Cohen and Meyerson explore the more interesting psychological question: How the Bushies deceived themselves.
The basic answer is, irrational thinking: A refusal to allow contradictory data to interfere with a pre-set world view based largely on faith rather than evidence. As Meyerson puts it, "My friends on the left fear the administration's budding imperialism. I'm more concerned by its raging anti-empiricism."

And Steven Berlin Johnson on America, 4th of July, what we ought to be patriotic about-

4th of July imagery and rhetoric is usually full of old-time Americana: the small town's one firetruck decked out for the main street parade, the little league game, the white picket fences with their patriotic bunting. There's plenty to celebrate about the joys of small communities, but there's little that's fundamentally unique to the American experience. World history is teeming with small, successful communities united by a common culture and worldview, after all. What is rarer -- not quite uniquely American, but much closer to it -- is that scene today in Prospect Park [of racial and cultural diversity & harmony]. Few countries have figured out how to attract that kind of diversity, much less develop spaces where all those groups can somehow coexist. When some of our politicians make passing references to the "real America," what they're usually saying is that real America is everything that's not in our big cities. But if we're looking for a true site of American exceptionalism, something we've figured out how to do better than any other civilization on earth, today in Prospect Park wouldn't be a bad place to start.

posted by Anna at 7/23/2003 08:31:16 AM

Monday, July 21, 2003

correction

Rxd a very kind missive from king Steve Cottrell pointing out that were he to don a cloth coat it would not be a Republican one. Apologies. Sloppy writing. Old, stale imagery - if current national administration is any indication, the Republican cloth coat is very much extinct.

posted by Anna at 7/21/2003 08:03:55 PM

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

jakob nielsen on behalf of the lazy

I love this guy. Web design guru, biweekly columns, perhaps sometimes a bit too pleased with himself but.
Latest column is on information foraging on the web, helping us predators seize the data we seek.

posted by Anna at 7/2/2003 07:07:11 AM

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