Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Keeping under Bludget

In his new blog, Keep Trying, Mike Sanders wonders why I returned to full blogging. The answers are A) Because I'm back and in the mood for it; and B) because I'm budgeting a strict half an hour a day for it, and I watch the clock.

That was :45 seconds.

Say what else

Says here CNN's boss wants more balanced coverage of the war in Afghanistan. For every bombed Red Cross warehouse, we need reminders that the intended targets are still very bad guys.

I'd like an executive decree to make the service less boring. On last week's cruise the only thing on TV that didn't have ruined audio was CNN International, which consisted of Larry King pressing his forehead into the lens and earnest authorities talking about anthrax. All dull as dirt.

Here's some added perspective from Deborah that ran on her blog last week while I was gone.

From bad to wurst

Nine of the last eighteen emails I downloaded were spam.

Accidental account

Dean Landsman, New Yawk native and Extreme Yankee Fan, weighs in with his rolled-car experience.

Thanks also to Brian Cheesman, who points back to Jerry Pournelle's car rolling experience in Death Valley back in '98.

Don't be afraid. Something bad might happen.

That seems to be the message from our government right now. There have been rumors for some time, circulating by email, of an attack on malls and/or other public places on Halloween. Kinda takes away the element of surprise, though.

Still, there's a lot to worry about.

I'm most concerned in the long run about Saudi Arabia, which I suspect is not as stable a government as we like to think, and perhaps even more despised by Osama Bin Laden than the U.S. It wouldn't take much to cause extreme damage to the oil fields and refineries there, not only causing all kinds of political and social havoc, but causing oil prices to rise to the sky everywhere.

Seymour Hersh had a great piece about it in The New Yorker, but I can't find it online. But I can find the magazine's online mother lode of outstanding writing on Our New World since 9-11.

[Later...] An alert reader just came through with a link to the Hersh piece: King's ransom: How vulnerable are the Saudi royals?