Global

It's time to rally around an embattled concept: free will.

Having aligned myself against a battalion of irresistible forces over the years, I've become a student of inevitability. How do environmentally destructive choices become inevitable? Near as I can tell, it starts when the people who will benefit from these choices simply begin to assert their inevitability. People seem especially receptive to inevitability right now. We're comforted by the notion that amid all the uncertainty and confusion, the restructuring and rightsizing and layoffs and insecurity-some larger forces are at work toward a predetermined outcome. We're sort of relieved to hear that something's inevitable, even if it's not necessarily something we like. It clarifies things. It's more pragmatic to be resigned to the inevitable than to chart a new course through the chaos. So the myth of inevitability spreads and the prophecy fulfills itself. If the proponents of a particular course can get a critical mass of folks to believe that it's a foregone conclusion, pretty soon it will be.

In recent times, automotive companies have been incorporating a device that has been tracking your driving; this device can be used against you if you are in an accident. The device I mention of is an Event Data Recorder or an E.D.R. The E.D.R. is called the automotive black box because it monitors certain aspects of driving and can record information up to five seconds before an accident, or event.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize.

On the advice of my attorney, however, I can’t tell you exactly what it is that I am apologizing for. But trust me, it’s worth saying I’m sorry.

That’s because what I did was wrong, and I understand that now. I would like everyone to know that I take full responsibility for my actions, and see clearly that I’ve let my colleagues, my friends and my family down. And my publicist. And I deeply regret the pain my behavior has caused.

Especially for my publicist, who will now have to go out and try to sell a new endorsement deal for damaged goods.

I wish I could tell you what it is that I’m sorry about, but apparently such a move is no longer required when publicly apologizing for bad behavior.

I’m taking my cue here from New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, who, confronted with suspicions that he has used performance-enhancing steroids, held a Feb. 10 press conference in which he said he was sorry, but wouldn’t admit to what it was that he had done.

Legislation Would Enact Sweeping Reforms by Next Major Election Cycle in 2006

WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today unveiled comprehensive voting reform legislation to make sure that every American is able to vote and every vote is counted. Senators Clinton and Boxer announced the legislation today in a press conference joined by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), who will sponsor the legislation in the House of Representatives, and voting rights advocates. 

"Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process," said Senator Clinton.  "The smooth functioning of our democracy depends on voters having faith in the fairness and accuracy of our voting system, and the Count Every Vote Act is an important step toward restoring this covenant.  We must be able to easily and accurately count every vote so that every vote counts."

Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, will be filing an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court with the support of Senator Russ Feingold and 17 other members of the House of Representatives recommending that the Court not sanction the attorneys who brought Ohio election contest in Moss v. Bush (no.04- 2088). Mr. Conyers offered the following statement:

"The attorneys in this case had reason to believe that the election results did not reflect the will of the electorate. In good faith, they brought a case based not only on statistical probability but the depositions and affidavits of computer experts, statisticians, and election volunteers. In only a couple months, these attorneys have amassed over 900 pages of evidence.

President Bush has re-nominated seven candidates for the federal appeals courts. Each was blocked by Senate Democrats during his first term. He also sent back to the Senate five other nominees for the federal appeals courts whose confirmations were slowed because of Democratic concerns regarding their legal backgrounds. Bush has accused Democrats of blocking votes on so many of his nominations that they have created “judicial emergencies.”

In reality, Bush has had more judicial nominees approved than in the first terms of Presidents Clinton and Reagan, and the administration of his father. Of the 214 nominees sent to the Senate for a vote during his first term, Democrats blocked only ten, using the filibuster. As such, 95 percent of Bush’s nominees have been approved. By contrast, from 1995 to 2000, while Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate blocked 35% of Clinton’s circuit court nominees.

Once again the toady army of media Bushlickers has proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.  And once again, the real outcome is murder, mayhem and utter catastrophe, with worse yet to come.

For endless prime time hours, Fox and the major news desks -- the Izvestia and Pravda of Bush's America -- blare the party line about the "miraculous success" of the Iraqi balloting. 

No doubt it set amazing precedents.  For example, this may have been the world's first election in which the location of the polling places was kept secret, along with the list of the major candidates. 

It may also be remembered for the vast numbers of Iraqis who refused to vote.

The Iraqi vote did differ from the recent balloting in Ohio in that those Iraqis who turned out were at least able to get ballots. 

Years ago, my friend Edward Said's wife, Mariam, asked if I would make available my apartment in New York, where I lived at that time, as the site for a surprise 40th birthday for Edward Said. I dislike surprise parties, but, of course, I agreed. The evening arrived; guests assembled on my sitting room on the 11th floor of 333 Central Park West. The dining room table groaned under Middle Eastern delicacies. Then came the word from the front door. Edward and Mariam had arrived! They were ascending in the elevator. Now we could all hear Edward's furious bellow: "But I don't want to go to dinner with ******* Alex!" They entered at last, and the shout went up from 70 throats, "Happy Birthday!" He reeled back in surprise, staggered and, for a moment, I thought he was going to keel over with a heart attack. Of course he didn't, and after a few minutes looking somewhat dazed at the greetings of friends he hadn't seen for 20 years, he had a great time.

To the Editor:

History provides another "other side" to the debate over Senate Bill 24, the misleadingly titled "academic bill of rights for higher education".  Consider... 

There was a time when most people thought Earth was flat...  Until the 1500s, most people believed that Earth was the center of the universe, and Copernicus was excommunicated for arguing that Earth revolved around the Sun... 

I'd like to think that Senator Mumper will continue to support teachers persistently teaching that the Earth is round and goes around the Sun, even though his intellectual forebears would challenge HIS right to challenge THEIR values by doing so.  I'd also like to think that Senator Mumper would support discriminating against flat-earthers in hiring airline pilots, air traffic controllers, bombardiers, astronauts, and astronomers.