As one of the editors who adapted this piece, the lack of references to Patri Friedman's book was my fault, not China's. In the essay that appears in the collection Evil Paradises, China includes a footnote that cites (and lauds) Mr. Friedman's book. Since magazines like In These Times never use footnotes, I overlooked that citation, but that, obviously, was a mistake. I certainly should have incorporated it into the text, and I apologize to Mr. Friedman for not doing so.
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Brian Cook
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The change has been made, Raj. Thanks for pointing it out.
Posted to Outing is In Again
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The following is an email that ITT Associate Editor Brian Cook sent to Dave Lindorff that explains why ITT apologized for his unverifiable assertion that 3000 tons of DU have been used in Iraq. Dave Lindorff has still not provided any verifiable proof that DU has been expanded into bunker-busting bombs, which is the point at issue here: The question, though, is what can actually be verified. No one here doubts that the Pentagon lies, continuously, through their gnarled teeth and soulless fucking eyes. But the question here is whether they've lied in this particular instance and the burden of proof …
Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War
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I think "Father" makes an intersting point about corporal punishment. As I was writing this editorial, I actually got into a friendly, barroom argument about it with a young, single mother who practiced it on her rambunctious, five-year-old son. I could certainly see her point of view, and I thought about revising my argument accordingly, but, for aesthetic reasons, ultimately decided against it. I think our culture believes corporal punishment to be one of those "necessary evils," a quick and easy way to end a particularly troublesome and vexing situation. It is a short cut, then, a way to bypass debate …
Posted to Lose the Faith
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I'd like to respond to Cellie. We did not CENSOR this article, we EDITED it because its word count was far too long for our paper edition (and because much of it had already appeared in previous pieces that Zizek had written for us, such as "What Does Europe Want?" and "What Rumsfeld Doesn't Know That He Knows About Abu Ghraib.") In fact, the LRB version was substantially different from the manuscript that Zizek sent us. In particular, they removed an explicit negative reference that Zizek made concerning Henry Kissinger and his status as a war criminal. I would recommend that …
Posted to The Free World ... of Slums
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I find Oscar Wilde clarifies things quite a bit more than Bill Cosby: "Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have no sense of moral responsibility."
Posted to The Best and Worst of Times
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Ammonia D--Manners, please. There may be young children reading this. We want to conduct ourselves better than Cheney, no? Ken--you really did negate any argument with that "the kindest, gentlest war ever." Should we be patting ourselves on the backs for not bombing mosques? If this is something our culture feels the need to celebrate, we don't have much good to say about ourselves. L--I take serious issue with the idea of "humane war," which I believe greatly increases the future feasiblity of them. (Perhaps if you know any veterans returning from the Gulf, you can ask them how humane it …
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Ken, I think you perhaps overestimate our "kindness" toward Iraqis. Check out the following news story that appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune, which suggests that perhaps we have not made such great humanitarian strides since Vietnam. (This also does not even take into account our weapons made from depleted uranium, which are similarly revolting.) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20030805-9999_1n5bomb.html (As another sidenote, we DID in fact go in and rebuild the infrastructures "internally destroyed by a lunatic" (as well as, as you necessarily mentioned, our own fireboms) in both Germany and Japan following WWII. So, again, I take issue with your statement that …
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Personally, the notion of HST resting in peace strikes me as repellant. I much prefer the idea of him pissing on Nixon's tortured soul from high above, slipping mescaline and adrenochrome to his fellow inmates in heaven, drinking ol' St. Pete to the floor, and opening wide the Pearly Gates to all except Christians.
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Michael, I am all for critically evaluating and passing judgments on the ISM and the validity, and morality, of its tactics. But there is a world of difference between the Mother Jones article, which does precisely that, and the post on the "Discover the Network" website, which speaks of the "Corrie family jihad," incorrectly claims that your cited MJ article concludes that Corrie "was a dangerous and demented little twit," and attempts to link the deceased Corrie in some strange, conspiratorial nexus with Noam Chomsky, Betty Freidan, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Mohammed Atta. The former is useful and necessary; the latter …
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- Joined January 31, 2003
- Last Visit November 18, 2008
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