some government web sites are actually mildly interesting

Transcripts of conversations between Nixon and Kissinger discussing the 1971 pre-war crisis between India and Pakistan were recently released here. Nixon calls Indira Gandhi an "old witch" and Kissinger offers some equally unflattering comments.

Democrats need an overhaul before I give them any more money or time

Recently I've been bombarded by requests for donations from Democrat-affiliated groups (DNC, John Kerry, and today in the mail, Hilary Clinton). I gave a crapload of money to the Kerry campaign, in the hope that somehow we would get past the chaos and incompetence that was apparently going on with that ticket. And of course I got nothing for it, but OK, I understand that elections are tough. But things don't seem to be getting better. Things like Howard Dean's comments: "The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same, and they all look the same. It's pretty much a white, Christian party." This was awful, and he's the guy in charge.

I want to support the causes I believe in, with money, volunteering, or whatever. But I'm not going to reward proven incompetence with additional donations. Show me some results, some competence, Democratic Party, and you'll have my full support.

Historian, Novelist Shelby Foote Dies

I first became aware of Shelby Foote, like many people, from his role in the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War. Never read him but I have one of the Civil War trilogy and the novel Shiloh. Add it to the stack of books I'm trying to get read before Nov. 1.

could you live somewhere for a long time and never know the language?

In Snow, Pamuk's main character, Ka, has come back from living in Frankfurt for something like 10 years, and he tells everyone in the Turkish city that he visits, Kars, that he never spoke to any Germans, and lived in almost complete solitude for all those years. The only people he spoke to were other Turks. Is that possible? It depends if there was a large, possibly self-contained Turkish community in Frankfurt. Will there be communities of English speakers where I go? I would think there would have to be, with English being such a common language now. Interesting to think about...

avoiding procrastination

Ironic that I found an article on avoiding procrastination while I was cruising the web on company time, checking out blogging sites, RSS readers, etc. Granted, it started off a link about RSS from the company intranet, but man, 2 hours later and I forgot where I am. Quite typical. Am I getting work done? Should I care?

U.N. Officials Seek and are repeatedly denied Guantanamo Bay Visits

This article describes yet another scenario which most Americans would never have guessed would come to pass - that the UN has been denied repeated requests to visit and examine detainees (read: prisoners) at Guantanamo Bay and other military prisons in Iraq and elsewhere. Some of these requests go as far back as 3-4 years, and have still been left unanswered. It is clear from the article that the UN is being stalled while someone cooks up another story as to why they can't see the prisoners. I can't believe this. I can't believe my country did this, started this war, and let us come down to this level. Who do you think is winning, George Bush? You or your enemies? You think you know the answer, but ask the rest of the world ...

have to start somewhere

I don't know what the subject of this blog is. A journal (sigh), news pointers, an aggregating blog, or a record of my life in another country - it could be any of these things. Or a way to get me to write on a regular basis. It really is just the hardest thing for me to maintain any level of discipline. And I'm not sure that exposing my emotions in a public forum is the best way to start, but what the hell, I'll delete it if I can't take it.

I just finished Independent People by Halldor Laxness. It took me something on the order of 3 months to start and finish, after 3 or so false starts. I read at least 3 other novels in the interim: The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Eleven Minutes, by Paulo Coehlo, and After the Quake, by Haruki Murakami. I just got Snow by Orhan Pamuk out of the library. I love to read. It's writing that's difficult. Some people got it and some don't, and I'm inclined to think that I fall in the latter group. But being poor and following a hopeless dream are the subject of novels and poetry, so I'm going to do my best not to disappoint in that regard. I once told someone that I would be perfectly happy being a failed novelist, and from the looks of it I'm well on my way.

Independent People is truly a phenomenal novel. And it was made more vivid or real or immediate or whatever by going to Iceland after having read about 2/3rds of it. The guy was clearly a genius, if for nothing else than for creating a believable turn-of-the-century Iceland for 482 pages. Stuff like that used not to impress me in the slightest, but having tried it myself on a much smaller scale, I appreciate it all the more.