THIS MODERN WORLD

Is it really possible that Andrew Sullivan is only now learning about something that’s been common knowledge since 2002?

The most revealing items, of course, are the following: in discussing whether Iraq could have been involved, the notes say: “judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. at same time.” Later comes: “Hard to get a good case.” Then there’s this: “Go massive … Sweep it all up. Things related and not.” My confidence that there was no deliberate misleading of the American people after 9/11 just slipped a notch.

Unbelievable. I’ve asked this many, many times, but why exactly is it that anyone takes this guy even remotely seriously?

… puts the Orwell quote at the top of his page (“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle”) into context, doesn’t it?

Just looking at that picture takes a little of the edge off, doesn’t it? One of the (many) things I miss about life on the West Coast is the ability to take spontaneous trips down the coast to Big Sur, so this inspired some wistful memories. One thing, though — apparently no one told the writer about my favorite place to stay in the area, Ripplewood. You can camp there, which I have done, but I prefer their cabins, several of which have kitchens, bathrooms, even fireplaces. I haven’t been there in many years, but if their website is up to date, it looks like they’re still the area’s best bargain.

Or else the terrorists have won.

Seriously, I really do need to make a good showing with this one. I could have stayed with St. Martin’s, putting out a compilation every two years that got absolutely no promotional support and sold respectable but modest numbers. Instead I took a risk on a new publisher, and they’re excited about this one and putting a lot into it — I don’t even want to tell you how optimistic they’re being with the first print run — but if it doesn’t do well, I’m sure that excitement will cool down quickly, and I will find myself with even fewer options than before.

As far as my future book publishing career is concerned, I’ve basically put everything on red 23 and the roulette wheel is spinning.

Ad’s over to your left if you want to pre-order.

Since dimwits like Michelle Malkin are jumping to the conclusion that liberals who are wary about the UAE ports deal somehow validate their own prejudices (as if they ever cared about our opinions anyways), here’s my question : How would a policy of scrutinizing every brown-skinned male with a funny name help us catch people like the infamous American Taliban John Walker Lindh :

…or Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols :



…or Chechen suicide bomber Zulikhan Yelikhadzhiyeva :



…or Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph :



…or Belgian suicide bomber Muriel Degauque :



…or alleged al Qaeda members with normal-sounding (to Western ears) names like Richard Reid and Jose Padilla?

Concentrating on superficial details like skin color and gender doesn’t help when you’re at war with an ideology or a tactic or whatever the hell the “war on terra” is supposed to be. I know the indignity of taking off your shoes at the airport has fueled your dream of replacing metal detectors with a “paper bag test”, but racial profiling doesn’t work. You may get a false sense of security, but trying to justify your own racism by scrutinizing people who fit your stereotype of what sort of person constitutes a threat isn’t just offensive, it’s counter-productive. Not only does racial profiling have the side-effect of making it easier for non-brown dudes to skip through the system, but it also can alienate many of our allies whose support we need if we’re ever going to catch Osama Bin Laden and his million or so second-in-commands.

The Bush Administration wants to hand over control of vital ports to a state-run company controlled by an oligarchy whose ruling family used to go on hunting trips with their Taliban buddies, apparently including Osama himself.

And if this doesn’t seem quite right to you, according to David Brooks you are a racist and a xenophobe.

As Bush said yesterday, “This deal wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America.”

Chances are — like a lot of inexplicable Bush administration behavior — this is all about backroom deals and shady connections and things we can only guess at. And I hope that somebody, someday, writes the secret history of all this crap and tells us what the hell was really going on.