On The Third Hand

Friday, 18 Jan 2002

If you are in Kabul, golf has some rather unusual hazards. The people in Kabul might have a tourist attraction there, for those who like to live dangerously. They'd do much better; though, if they'd serve beer at the 19th hole.

Short stuff

• The PC statue has been scrapped. This is good news, I never thought a statue of a flag-raising was a good memorial for the heroes who went into the towers. Let's have a memorial acknowledging their bravery and self-sacrifice, and not a memorial honoring the flag. It's a great picture, of a very American sentiment, but it's not suitable for a memorial.
• "It is unrealistic to believe that ever again, a plane full of passengers will sit quietly when someone tells them, 'Sit quietly. Everything is going to be all right,'" said Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. Ma'am, you got that one right on the nose. I hereby declare you and the other flight attendants official Bellicose Women, because you went and made your own guidelines, without waiting for "the officials". Bravo.
• Exploding chips could foil laptop thieves. I love it. Steal this computer, and it becomes totally useless. Great idea. And I'm damned glad al Qaida computers didn't have these chips.
• Kabul Session. Scientific American has discovered that some of the terrorists were reading them. They have very kindly authored a tutorial to help those terrorists who might be slightly deficient in scientific knowledge. I hope the terrorists will learn a lot from this very informative article.
• We are freezing the detainees in Cuba. Or so they say: "He said that in the US army prison in Cuba, the Afghan Taliban were kept like wild animals in 6'x 8' outdoor cages where they were exposed 24 hours to rain and freezing cold winds at night and the only concession allowed to them was a mat to sleep on, if sleep was possible with the bright lights blazing down on the cages throughout the night. " That is some real media slant. I do agree about the lights, but freezing in Cuba? I checked the weather forecast for today in Guantanamo. It is supposed to get down to 74F (23C) -- I don't think they will be very uncomfortable, especially since they have recently been surviving the 'brutal' Afghan winter.
• Collectivism Kills. I'm mulling this one...

Glenn Reynolds says: "A READER WRITES that there's something not-quite-right about this story. I'm inclined to agree, though I can't put my finger on it." It's a story about the Egyptian student who was falsely accused of having an aviation radio in his hotel room.

The student is being very forgiving, and accepting of it all. He doesn't seem to want revenge (though I think his lawyer would like to sue). He seems to want to forget it and get back to studying. He's a sensible and cool-headed computer-nerd type. I think that is exactly what both Glenn and his reader find not-quite-right. I think there is a bit of subconscious stereotyping going on here, we have been focusing so much on the victim-oriented types and the screaming fanatic types that we forget that many people in many places would just like to 'get on with it'. Personally, I think there is something very right about that article. However, the US government does owe the man an apology, in my opinion, and an investigation on just how that radio got into the student's room. Strikes me that there is something very much not-quite-right in that.