Sixty-one years ago today, my country dropped an atomic bomb on a nonmilitary target: In the closing days of World War Two, the United States dropped a 10,000-pound plutonium-239 bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," on Nagasaki. It exploded about 500 meters (1,600 feet) above the ground, instantly killing about 27,000 of the city's estimated population of around 200,000. By the end of 1945, the number of dead due to acute radiation exposure reached about 70,000. The names of 2,831 people who... Read more
Gravity always wins "Fade Into You," Mazzy Star "Fade Into You," Pedro the Lion "Faded From the Winter," Iron & Wine "Fair to Midland," Dwight Yoakam "Fairytale of New York," The Pogues "Faith," George Michael "Faithfully Dangerous," Over the Rhine "Fake Plastic Trees," Radiohead "Fall at Your Feet," Crowded House "Fall on Me," R.E.M. Read more
I'm headed to God's country for a couple of days (i.e., the land of my birth, New Jersey) and won't be near a computer during this time in paradise. * * * * * From McSweeney's: The Bible You Sold Me Is Clearly Defective and I'd Like to Return It, Please." This has got to be a bad translation because the Book of Revelation, instead of very clearly explaining the end times, the Rapture, and the final war with the... Read more
It is hopeless to try and pin him down to any definite remedy … Some very interesting discussion below about the meaning of the globalrichlist calculator ("How rich are you?"). OK, so there I am in the top 6.57 percent of the world's population, income-wise. I'm richer than all but 394,655,173 of my felow humans. But so what? Much of that income is spoken for before it gets to me — by Comcast, Working Assets, PECO, State Farm and my... Read more
The heated debate in comments to this post reminded me of this: How rich are you? (I'm doing quite well myself, thanks. I'm in the Top 6.57 percent worldwide in terms of personal income — provided I get that next paycheck.) It also reminded me of a story: My first job out of college was as an intern with … let's just call them The Company. As an intern, I wasn't a part of the complex salary structure of grade... Read more
"You're not allowed to kill civilians." That sentence, deliberately, lacks specificity. The "you" is universal — it refers to everyone. No one is allowed to kill civilians. Feel free to provide particulars, to make the statement more specific: "Bob is not allowed to kill civilians." Let's be clear that this sentence does not include an unspoken "only" at the beginning. It should not be read as "[Only] Bob is not allowed to kill civilians," but rather as "Bob [like everyone... Read more
Left Behind, pg. 221 People seemed reluctant to leave, even after Bruce closed in prayer. Many stayed to get acquainted, and it became obvious that a new congregation had begun. The name of the church was more appropriate than ever. New Hope. – – – – – – – – – – – – A Cautionary Note to Young Writers As you select names for your characters, for the businesses where they work, and for the town or city in... Read more
This may not be the place we thought we would end up in "Earth and Sun and Moon," Midnight Oil "Earth Has No Sorrow," Vigilantes of Love "East of Eden," Lone Justice "Easy for You to Say," Emmylou Harris "Easy Listening," Steve Taylor "Easy to Ignore," Sixpence None the Richer "Easy to Remember," Billie Holiday "The Edge of the World," Sonia Dada "Eleanor," Vigilantes of Love "Eleanor Rigby," The Beatles Read more
It's been awhile so it seems again it's time for a helpful reminder that noncombatant immunity isn't just a good idea, it's the law. In other words: You're not allowed to kill civilians. Killing civilians is against the law. Killing civilians makes you a criminal. Yes, but … No buts about it. You're not allowed to kill civilians. And, also: You're not allowed to kill civilians. This is neither new nor controversial, yet putting the matter in such stark terms... Read more
Here's a headline of one of today's editorials in the paper: "It looks like most blogs are about 'me'." It gets worse. With all the buzz about blogging, there's finally a quantifiable sense of who these Internet traffickers are, and what they're up to. And it's mostly far more ordinary than the online stars who pound away about politics and journalism. In recent months the nonpartisan Pew research center in Washington surveyed about 7,000 adults about whether they kept or... Read more
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