Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 187 entries, all of them here in full.
August 31, 2007 · 530 words
$9 Billion Gone
” . . . in March 2004, your company magically wins a contract from the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq to design and build the Baghdad Police College, a facility that’s supposed to house and train at least 4,000 police recruits. But two years and $72 million later, you deliver not a functioning police academy [
Read entry →August 31, 2007 · 334 words
Drugs for Uncle Sam
In my last post, I referenced drugs. Which are bad for you, right?Unless they’re good, patriotic drugs used to enhance our soldiers and disable— sorry, “calm”— our enemies. In which case they’re terrific drugs!Here’s an article from the Herald-Tribune on the militarization of medicine. “We could also see tr
Read entry →August 31, 2007 · 288 words
Drugs
So why is it that a couple of my favorite TV series are about drugs? The Wire is my current candidate for best dramatic series ever. Covering the entire spectrum of people concerned with the distribution and sale of narcotics (the cops, the gangsters, the courts, and the neighborhood), The Wire is essentially about poi
Read entry →August 28, 2007 · 447 words
Wide Stance
Another week, another conservative politician arrested on a morals charge. Senator Larry Craig of Idaho has pleaded guilty to “disorderly conduct” for attempting to have sex with a police officer in an airport toilet. Naturally, Senator Craig is a politician devoted to family values. Naturally, Naturally, he voted for
Read entry →August 23, 2007 · 976 words
Thin Man, Thick Plot
Since I live in the middle of nowhere, it takes time for me to get from nowhere to somewhere, time that generally I spend in an automobile. Usually I’m by myself and there’s no one to talk to. In order to engage my brain on the journey, I rely on audio books. A couple weeks […]
Read entry →August 23, 2007 · 267 words
Waiting for the Rain
2006 was, meteorologically speaking, the oddest year in New Mexico history. The first six months of the year were the driest on record: there was something less than an inch’s worth of rain in that entire period. The second half of the year was the wettest on record— it came down in buckets.We rejoiced. We’d [&he
Read entry →August 21, 2007 · 189 words
Butt Pluckers
The other day Kat gifted us with a package of eighteen fresh eggs from her chickens, collectively known— from one of their less savory behaviors— as “the butt pluckers.”So it has been Egg Heaven around here. We have had omelettes, but for the most part I’ve just fried the suckers, because that’s the best wa
Read entry →August 16, 2007 · 926 words
Water/Paper/Tea
Last night I did a hit-and-run on Santa Fe, to see the American premiere of Tea: a Mirror of Soul, by the Chinese composer Tan Dun, who among other things scored the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.We hadn’t intended to go to Tea, but the description in the program book made it too irresistible. Since […]
Read entry →August 15, 2007 · 58 words
Engage Shields!
A microwave-generated plasma shield has been granted a patent. Applications for the “pseudo surface microwave produced plasma shielding system” supposedly include “a stealth system from RADAR and SONAR, a protection system from WMD, and a weapon system to generate and launch plasmoids as a plasma gun.”Here’s a useful l
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