Politics...
Feeling a little out of touch with US politics, Steve checked out the Department of Homeland Security web page for the first time today. Other similarly themed websites can be found here and here.
There are also more than a few websites that address the political and security changes made in the USA in the last few years. Hermes-Press.com makes some comparisons between modern US politics and those found in Germany in the Thirties. These posters reference Homeland Security's role in our society. The Homeland Security Institute contains several essays on current event topics and terrorism in general.
Finally, this site contains a long list of news items in a reverse chronological order. It has numerous links to what they claim are "opinions of the Arab street" as well as links to some of the horrors that are being faced by members of the military and civilians in the Middle East.
Interesting stuff. While I'm trying pretty hard to avoid infusing this with my own opinions, I am curious to hear other's opinions, so please feel free to leave a comment. If you aren't into commenting, no worries, poke through the links above if you like, or come back later to read more about surfing, landcruisers, our dog and the rest of the regularly scheduled program.
And speaking of our regularly scheduled program: We are now taking advantage of the puppy's need to pee at 4:30a.m. every day. As dawn um... dawned... we drove our landcruiser down to the beach for an early morning session. Frequent sets of chest high waves (with some overhead sets) for over two hours with a total of seven surfers in the water made for a nice, exhausting workout. Breakfast at Gil's place (amazingly delicious burritos) didn't do much to perk us up, but it did fill us up. Eating too much after early morning exercise is just the sort of thing to make one want to sit in front of their computer and read a bunch of rhetoric online....
There are also more than a few websites that address the political and security changes made in the USA in the last few years. Hermes-Press.com makes some comparisons between modern US politics and those found in Germany in the Thirties. These posters reference Homeland Security's role in our society. The Homeland Security Institute contains several essays on current event topics and terrorism in general.
Finally, this site contains a long list of news items in a reverse chronological order. It has numerous links to what they claim are "opinions of the Arab street" as well as links to some of the horrors that are being faced by members of the military and civilians in the Middle East.
Interesting stuff. While I'm trying pretty hard to avoid infusing this with my own opinions, I am curious to hear other's opinions, so please feel free to leave a comment. If you aren't into commenting, no worries, poke through the links above if you like, or come back later to read more about surfing, landcruisers, our dog and the rest of the regularly scheduled program.
And speaking of our regularly scheduled program: We are now taking advantage of the puppy's need to pee at 4:30a.m. every day. As dawn um... dawned... we drove our landcruiser down to the beach for an early morning session. Frequent sets of chest high waves (with some overhead sets) for over two hours with a total of seven surfers in the water made for a nice, exhausting workout. Breakfast at Gil's place (amazingly delicious burritos) didn't do much to perk us up, but it did fill us up. Eating too much after early morning exercise is just the sort of thing to make one want to sit in front of their computer and read a bunch of rhetoric online....
Labels: beach, blog, food, news, surf
# posted by Steve Broyles @ 6/25/2004 10:32:00 AM 
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Perspective
Both my parents are from the Middle East (mom from Saudi, dad from Lebanon). My dad and that side of the family all currently live in Beirut. My dad (dual citizen US born) lived in the US for almost 20 years before going back to Lebanon to live. This past summer, he returned to visit for the first time in over seven years...
By the end of his first day back in the land of the free, his credit card was confiscated by a gas station clerk and his ATM card was eaten by the ATM machine. This was my first real encounter with
Home Land Security. Wow, I thought, the government is doing something? Clearly challenging American civil liberty, these blanket policies serve to comfort and falsely reassure the American public at the public's expense. Surprisingly, I wasn't too mad: I see no problem with searching an Arab-looking airline passenger or monitoring high-risk visitors to the US. I do have a problem with random searches, 9 times out of 10 which are performed on Bubba Jones or 80 year old Gramma Wilson. Terrorism isn't random. This isn't a case for political correctness.
Now to Arab public opinion: after talking at length with my dad about the feelings of Arabs towards Americans: as a very proud (stubbornly at times) culture, Arab's for the most part resent American occupation not culture. They agree with capitalism (hell, they have dance clubs, burger kings and dominos pizza in Beirut). The just want to be left alone to govern themselves, much like America does. To the extent that this conflicts with US economic policy and energy 'needs', we have a problem.
The fact is that US dependency on oil is the justification for the war on terror. Until the US and other industrialized nations fully implement alternative energy, we will have this conflict.
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Both my parents are from the Middle East (mom from Saudi, dad from Lebanon). My dad and that side of the family all currently live in Beirut. My dad (dual citizen US born) lived in the US for almost 20 years before going back to Lebanon to live. This past summer, he returned to visit for the first time in over seven years...
By the end of his first day back in the land of the free, his credit card was confiscated by a gas station clerk and his ATM card was eaten by the ATM machine. This was my first real encounter with
Home Land Security. Wow, I thought, the government is doing something? Clearly challenging American civil liberty, these blanket policies serve to comfort and falsely reassure the American public at the public's expense. Surprisingly, I wasn't too mad: I see no problem with searching an Arab-looking airline passenger or monitoring high-risk visitors to the US. I do have a problem with random searches, 9 times out of 10 which are performed on Bubba Jones or 80 year old Gramma Wilson. Terrorism isn't random. This isn't a case for political correctness.
Now to Arab public opinion: after talking at length with my dad about the feelings of Arabs towards Americans: as a very proud (stubbornly at times) culture, Arab's for the most part resent American occupation not culture. They agree with capitalism (hell, they have dance clubs, burger kings and dominos pizza in Beirut). The just want to be left alone to govern themselves, much like America does. To the extent that this conflicts with US economic policy and energy 'needs', we have a problem.
The fact is that US dependency on oil is the justification for the war on terror. Until the US and other industrialized nations fully implement alternative energy, we will have this conflict.
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