I need some psychological distance from last week's events, a little breathing room to recover my balance. I wonder if anyone else is feeling the same? Right now I have the amazing Mr. Miles Davis playing in the background, and it's another hot, humid evening in New Jersey. How the hell can it be so humid still in late September?
I see the arguments have raged here in the Off-Topics forum about what should be done, but I must say I've had my fill for now, I've had enough. The war that will result from this will last many years, and there will be more than enough time to argue and examine. All the arguments now just underscore how little we all know yet.
I was in the World Trade Center 3 weeks ago, in Tower 1 on the 51st floor, on a business call. It was my first time, and I hung on to the security pass like a new initiate. I was in Poland when I heard the news and saw those terrible images, and all I could think about was my half hour stay in that office, and watching heliocopters fly by their conference room window when I should have been paying attention. For the moment I'm grateful I had that experience.
American television is inundated with images of the disaster, of flags, of sound-byte histories of the Middle East written by journalists who know little or nothing about it themselves, and by the face of Osama bin Laden. While it isn't my major area of concentration I have had a lively side interest in the Middle East and I've read enough to know that the implications of this act of terrorism and the war likely to result from it are far deeper than most know or want to know.
So maybe it'd be a good idea for everyone to get some good "down" time in while they can... Read a book, play some Civ, relax.
I see the arguments have raged here in the Off-Topics forum about what should be done, but I must say I've had my fill for now, I've had enough. The war that will result from this will last many years, and there will be more than enough time to argue and examine. All the arguments now just underscore how little we all know yet.
I was in the World Trade Center 3 weeks ago, in Tower 1 on the 51st floor, on a business call. It was my first time, and I hung on to the security pass like a new initiate. I was in Poland when I heard the news and saw those terrible images, and all I could think about was my half hour stay in that office, and watching heliocopters fly by their conference room window when I should have been paying attention. For the moment I'm grateful I had that experience.
American television is inundated with images of the disaster, of flags, of sound-byte histories of the Middle East written by journalists who know little or nothing about it themselves, and by the face of Osama bin Laden. While it isn't my major area of concentration I have had a lively side interest in the Middle East and I've read enough to know that the implications of this act of terrorism and the war likely to result from it are far deeper than most know or want to know.
So maybe it'd be a good idea for everyone to get some good "down" time in while they can... Read a book, play some Civ, relax.
