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Misc. Good News, Feb, 2003
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA (617) 623-8080

2/28/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of intelligence -

  1. Ike's wisdom, letter to editor by Cynthia Fisk of Gloucester MA, Boston Globe, A18.
    President [Dwight D. "Ike"] Eisenhower, [a Republican and] an experienced military man who knew and understood more about war than almost anyone, spoke out strongly on the subject in a speech made in 1953 at the end of the Korean War. We would do well to heed his words.
    "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborerss, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross."

  2. Labor criticizes Bush on Iraq, pointer digest (to A13), NYT, C1.
    After backing past administrations during the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, the nation's labor movement has departed from tradition and criticized pResident Bush's approach to a conflict with Iraq.
    ["Approach to a conflict" nothin'!   His PUSH to a WAR. This country has a serious suckee-uppee media problem.]

  3. [another big antiwar ad -]
    Mr. Bush - This war is not a sign of strength, but of desperation!, full-page ad by *Dr. Matthias Rath, NYT, A15.
    ...The war against Iraq is not primarily about fighting 'terrorism' or conquering oil fields.
    [except for the 'coincidence' of oil executives in top posts around Bush....]
    It is part of a long-term strategy of the pharmaceutical/petrochemical[=oil] investment groups to create the psychological state of fear to maintain global control.
    Long term international conflicts, wars - even the use of weapons of mass destruction - can be used to achieve this goal and suppress any opposition....
    Feb.27, 1933, 70 years ago - the German Parliament building, the Reichstag, was set on fire. This event delivered the pretense for the transformation of a democracy into a dictatorship on behalf of the largest European corporate cartel. [photo caption - photo of Reichstag burning]
    In the Nuremberg War Tribunal in 1946/47 this cartel was tried for 'conquest,' 'robbery' and 'slavery' 'and - as a result - it was dismantled into Bayer, BASF and Hoechst. This war tribunal established that without these corporations, World War II would not have been possible. US Chief Prosecutor Telford Taylor stated: "If their guilt is not brought to...light, they will do even more harm in future generations." Then and now millions of decent people are in danger of being mislead by their own governments. And those who do not learn the lessons from history are doomed to live through it again!
    "Mr. Bush, in th ename of mankind: Stop this war!" Matthias Rath, MD.
    [Thank you for the history lesson, Dr. Rath. You gotta lotta chutzpa - more than most Democrats in Congress.]

  4. Young brides stir new outcry on Utah polygamy, by Michael Janofsky, NYT, front page.
    [At laaaast Mormon women are realizing that "all men are created equal" means "all persons are created equal," entering the 19th century via the Declaration of Independence and standing up for themselves and for equal treatment!]

  5. Immigrants on the run, ...letter to editor by Stephen Weppner of Bigfork MT, NYT, A28.
    There's a simple way to avoid the experiences being suffered by thousands of immigrants from Pakistan and other nations (front page, Feb.25): Get a visa before you arrive; don't overstay your welcome; don't hide from the Immigration & Naturalization Service or other authorities; and pay your taxes.
    In short, don't break our laws. It's really not that complicated.

  6. U.S. seeks a cleaner coal plant, pointer digest (to A20), NYT, C1.
    [Radical - boy, is this overdue!]
    The Energy Dept. announced plans to build an experimental powerplant within 10 years that runs on coal but emits no carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that makes existing coal plants major contributors to global warming.
    ['Course, if Dubya's taxcuts stand, there won't be any dough for these in 10 years.]

2/27/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. [1 UPsizing]
    Miscellany, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C6.
    Dentsu, Tokyo, is opening an office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, called Dentsu Vietnam, with 24 employees.

  2. A solar future, letter to editor by Exec. Dir. Glenn Hamer of Solar Energy Assn of Washington, NYT, A30.
    Nicholas Kristof should not have included solar energy among technologies he says "fell flat" ("Our new hydrogen bomb," column, Feb. 21).
    The solar industry shipped $3 billion worth of solar modules in 2002, and for the last decade, the industry has been growing at an annual rate in excess of 20%....

2/25/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope - 2/22-24/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. 2 UPsizings, totaling 625 new jobs, plus unspecified, in WSJ & NYT -

    1. 2/22   Gentex to build new auto mirror plant, Bloomberg via NYT, B2.
      ...The world's largest maker of automatically dimming mirrors for cars and light trucks plans to build a factory for $97m that will create 625 jobs.... The factory, the company's 4th, will be across the street from Gentex's HQ in Zeeland MI, the spokeswoman, Connie Hamblin, said.... The company will begin demolishing the building at the site of the new factory during the next few months, Ms. Hamblin said. ...She said that the company expected the new..\..225,000-sq-ft factory...to be completed in 2005.
    2. 2/24   Pipeline is planned, AP via NYT, C7.
      Greece and Turkey agreed [yester]day to build a pipeline linking natural gas producers from the Caspian Sea region with the European market. The $625m deal, signed at the end of a 2-day meeting of EU energy ministers...extend[s] the pipeline from the town of Karacabey in western Turkey to the city of Komotini in northeastern Greece....
      [Unspecified new jobs.]

  2. [Lordy, when not even U.S. soldiers believe in a war -]
    2/24   Homesick for schnitzel, 40 miles from Iraq - US Army's 22nd signal brigade left German bases for Kuwait; 'Deutschland is meine Heimat', by Yaroslav Trofimov, WSJ, B1.
    ..."The French and the Germans have a good point of view. I see what they're saying, and I see what America is saying," say Sgt. Ernie Sutliff, a transmissions systems operator deployed to Kuwait from Germany a year ago. "But I don't think us going in right now is a good idea."...

  3. 2/23   At a gathering of Democrats, many seek to take on Bush, by Adam Nagourney, NYT, A18.
    [Democrats speaking out at last?]
    WASHINGTON...- Twelve years ago, when the Democratic National Committee organized a winter meeting with speeches by presidential candidates, there were barely enough candidates and party leaders to fill the hall. Few Democrats believed there was much chance of unseating Pres. George Bush Sr. from office in 1992.
    By contrast, the Democratice National Committee's 2003 winter meeting drew so many candidates that their speeches attacking the current pResident Bush had to be scheduled over two mornings, and the hall was packed until the last gavel dropped.... The sessions left little doubt what Democratic Party leaders were looking for: a candidate who would..."take it to Bush."...
    [11 column inches of text? Pretty thin coverage from the NYT, but then ... where are the calls for impeachment!?! You know if this was a Dem administration the GOP would have been digging for grounds and screaming for impeachment now for months. The GOP is no longer a political party - they're a religious party, and that takes more courage, more religion-separating discipline and much more energy and cunning from any opposition if it is to be effective. But - maybe it's just the incomprehensibly lame coverage. And this from the supposedly liberal national newspaper. After pages and pages of transcripts of Bush's twaddle, we sure don't hear much of that "full-throated denunciation." This is the same cowardly coverage as Phil Hyde received from the supposedly Republican paper in Boston during his campaigns against Joe Kennedy in 1996 and 1998 (or his would-be replacements after he quit the race in '98). The Boston Herald would not even include the Republican candidate in its one big TV debate for the 10 Democratic candidates. Astonishing. A "full-throated" alternative may be mentioned, but it sure isn't being presented by the newly consolidated media. Recall the headline about radio on 2/20/2003 #3, "The trouble with corporate radio: The day the protest music died."]

  4. 2/23   Spring theater - In times like these -...Looking for a conscience, by playwright Arthur Miller, NYT, 2:1, 2:13, flagged by colleague Kate.
    ...Almost 50 years ago now, I felt compelled to write in a speech for Judge Danforth in "The Crucible": "You must understand, sir, a person is either with this court or against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time - we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God's grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not light will surely praise it. I hope you will be one of those."
    How many times do we have to indulge the same idiocies for which we must later be ashamed?...
    [Arthur Miller's most famous play is "Death of a Salesman" (1949). His most recent play is "Resurrection Blues."]

2/21/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. Greenspan may not seek reappointment, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, D2.
    Alan Greenspan...last week may have signaled the end of his tenure as head of the Federal Reserve.
    [Good news in view of his increasing flights in the face of common sense - see 2/14/2003 #1 and 2/07/2003 #4.]
    He also may have undermined pResident Bush's proposed $690B taxcut....
    [He went back on that the next day, but his partial retraction appears not to have registered with some -]
    "His statements indicate he is leaving the job," said William Niskanen, a former economic adviser to Pres. Ronald Reagan and a longtime Greenspan acquaintance.

  2. 7 states to sue E.P.A. over standards on air pollution, by Jennifer Lee, NYT, A24.
    ...accusing the EPA of failing to enforce the Clean Air Act by neglecting to update air pollution standards.... The lawsuit...would be the 3rd brought by states against the Bush administration over the Clean Air Act in the last 7 weeks....
    1. CT, ME, MA, NJ, NY, RI, WA - Feb. 20
    2. CN, ME, MA - Feb. 12
    3. CN, ME, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT - Dec. 31

  3. Calpers elects labor leader [VP Sean Harrigan of United Food & Commercial Workers] as president, Reuters via NYT, C5.
    [Calpers is the huge state pension fund in California. Giving labor a little more power, when last we checked it was down to 14% of the American workforce, may help strengthen the much weakened centrifugal forces on the nation's income - though cutting to the chase and just trimming the workweek to share and spread the vanishing work would centrifuge and activate spending power a lot more directly and efficiently.]

2/19/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. Dating of Australian remains backs theory of early migration of humans, by Nicholas Wade, NYT, A10.
    [dating rock flakes to 46-50,000 years ago instead of 62,000, as in 1998. This supports the theory that the first "break out" from Africa occurred around the coast of the Indian Ocean, possibly in primitive boats. Then, the latest theory goes, a breakout to the east coast of the Mediterranean radiated to Europe (40,000), Scandinavia, Siberia, China and IndoChina, and via the middle three and the Bering Straits to North America in two pulses, 25,000-34,000 years ago and 12,000-15,000 years ago, and thence in two pulses to South America. So if we could break out of Africa and the Eastern Hemisphere, maybe we can break out of what Bucky Fuller's *World Game would stamp the "loser's" resort to war.]

  2. Will Tokyo's lights go out? - Dispute over safety of nuclear plants prompts critical closures, by Todd Zaun, WSJ, A12.
    [Here's hopin' we in the USA give the coup de grace to our nuclear power industry and that countries currently dependent on nukes, like Japan and France, wean themselves onto safer energy sources. Messing with stuff that pollutes on the order of 30,000 years is just nuts. Timesizing.com has succumbed to the realization that all our morality is going to be coming from ecology dba environmentalism and conservationism - and the sooner the better, for us and our successors, if any - and that means we break out of our current concepts of "long term" (5-10, maybe 50, rarely 100, years) and start looking at the 1,000-10,000-100,000-year ranges. Phil Hyde's two new backgrounders, "Defining Time" and particularly "The Football of Time," lay the groundwork for breaking out of the limiting threshold beyond 5-10 years on quantitative forecasting, a threshold that exists because qualitative changes build up and change the essential rules of the game after about that long, and no one before has come up with a methodology to break thru this threshold and enable qualitative forecasting on a level of accountability and reliability comparable to quantitative. But using methodology from linguistics, such as paradigm tidying, gap exposure and filling, Phil has extended the human roadmap a path-breaking distance into the future. These books will be available on Amazon.com but right now are only available for $14 apiece by check to Timesizing.com, PO Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140. This is not The Big Launch of these backgrounders, which have a lot of sensational potential because of the dimensional tidying in Defining Time - eg: time is 5th-dimensional, not 4th, (and not arbitrary or optional - Newton's candidate for 4th was and is correct). We may want to wait till the media channels are cleared of Bush's backward and violent distractions before doing any big announcements. No "pearls before swine." So keep this "under your hat" for now. ]

  3. Intel Corp., Dow Jones via WSJ, D13.
    ...CEO Craig Barrett at a forum for chip developers in San Jose, Calif...said the central tenet [not "tenant" - editors!!!] of the chip industry - Moore's Law - should continue for another 20-30 years. Moore's Law says the improvement in chips' performance doubles every 2 years or so, even as prices fall.

  4. Nations seek world order centered on U.N., not U.S., by Richard Bernstein, NYT, A14.
    [Lord, free us from this cabal of prancing brainstems in the White House.]

  5. [Bush turned a deaf ear to all the protests but maybe he listens to this kind of news -]
    Stocks advanced on relief that war with Iraq may be delayed...., pointer summary (to C1), WSJ, front page.
    [Stocks advanced for a 2nd day in a row on this kind of relief - see yesterday's #2. One possible caveat...]
    War worries set aside, investors buy technology stocks, Reuters via NYT, C8.
    [Ah, would those be weapons technology stocks by any chance? And, of course, there's the usual cynical optimism of speculators dba "investors" once war gets started -]
    Rallying behind war - Historically, markets shaky - until the combat begins, by Beth Healy, 2/20/2003 Boston Globe, E1.

  6. 2 war foes take steps on seeking presidency, by David Rosenbaum, NYT, A18.
  7. Argentina: Industrial production rises, Bloomberg via NYT, W1.
    Argentina's industrial production rose [to a seasonally adjusted 18% from a year earlier] in January for a 3rd consecutive month for the first time in more than 2 years, signaling that the country may be recovering from its worst economic slump in a century.
2/18/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. The Internet tax trap - Wal-Mart and Target sock it to the small Web retailers, editorial, WSJ, A22.
    No discussion of Internet taxation gets very far without someone using the phrase, "a level playing field." Sure enough, the recent decision by retail behemoths Wal-Mart, Target and Toys 'R Us to start collecting sales taxes for online purchases is being touted by tax proponents as a move toward parity. It's anything but.... Dell, which has no retail outlets, would be forced to master the tax laws of 7,600 state, county and city jurisdictions with different and constantly fluctuating rates and reporting requirements....
    The burden on the remote seller is too high.... And besides, why should a retailer in Orlando collect and remit taxes to support the police department and public schools in Denver?
    But governors, cash-starved and desperate for fresh veins of tax revenue, are hellbent on getting the law changed....
    [Here we are courting recession - a crisis of sliding sales - and what are we doing? Mulling more sales taxes. Meanwhile we have too much idle investment capital, because it can't find sustainable large-scale productivity to invest-in that has sustainable markets. The Timesizing.com transitional solution? Repeal ALL sales taxes and restore graduated income taxes to keep the economy alive until we can tranzish from fudgy taxes to targeted fees-for-service. Despite what incomprehensible economist Robert E. Hall says in -]
    Bush's stimulus plan and its two big ifs, by Daniel Altman, NYT, C1.
    ..."We need to have a tax 'reform' [our quotes - ed.] that straightens out the tax system to remove its bias against capital formation." Robert E. Hall, Stanford University. [photo caption]
    [the wealthy have been removing so many of these "biasses against capital formation" - alias money centrifuges - one by one ever since the end of World War II, and by now we have recreated 1929. It's a more complicated question of balancing the centripetal and centrifugal forces on money flows in the national economy to avoid - And right now by anybody's standard, we have the latter, not the former, all of which leads to the question, "What planet is Robert E. Hall of Stanford living on?" More intelligible is Robert J. Gordon on Northwestern -]
    ...Opponents of the White House's plan were less equivocal, expressing their skepticism of both assumptions..\..
    1. that the proposed changes in the tax code - including an end to taxes on some dividends and expanded tax-free savings accounts - will increase households' eagerness to save.... [never mind that that's the last thing we need right now!]
    2. that the accumulation of enough capital would, by itself, lead to innovation.... [never mind that employees won't be contributing, because innovation in America has been leading directly to downsizing, insecurity and poverty rather than to "timesizing" alias shorter hours alias more free time for family and community - or at least to lifetime employment with "featherbedding" and makework as in Japan from 1945 to 1989 before it started downsizing itself into the economic toilet]
    "I just don't see the logical carry-through, except in ritual chanting," said Robert J. Gordon, an expert on productivity at Northwestern University who signed the advertisement in The [NY] Times \along with\ more than 400 who predicted the policies' failure...last week....

  2. Global markets gain on optimism that Iraq war can be avoided, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
    Quotation of the day, by the 15 EU nations, NYT, A2.
    "War is not inevitable. Force should only be used as a last resort."
    [War is not inevitable unless you've got a simpleton at the helm, playing chicken with a madman.]

  3. [so, what to do about Bush? -]
    Duct tape could work wonders, letter to editor by Justin Newmark of Newton MA, Boston Globe, A10, flag credit to colleague Kate.
    . Duct tape! A stroke of genius in its simplicity and effectiveness. First we use it to gag the war-obsessed Bush administration. Then we bind their hands and feet and store them in the White House, which itself will be sealed. Nothing gets in and nothing gets out. Then, maybe, more thoughtful leaders could work with the world community to achieve a less homicidal (and suicidal) solution to the Iraqi problem....
    [But then, Bush could always just get surgical and assassinate Saddam, as Nixon did to Allende of Chile - oh but we forgot, then Cheney-Rummy-Condee & pals wouldn't get Iraq's oil per their plan since 1997. And taping their mouths would stop the free speech of the freespeech-stoppers. Hey, why not just follow their first advice and just tape them into a sealed White House "for their own protection." Judging from 9/11/01 and Bush's military record, they love to hide when things get hot anyway. Seriously, as we've said sooo many times before, if the Dems had the same chutzpah as the GOP, they'd have been screaming IMPEACHMENT already for months now. They have a lot more reason than sex in the White House.]

  4. Europe Union says Iraq must disarm quickly and fully - But force is 'last resort', by Richard Bernstein, NYT, front page.

  5. Proposal by Turkey stalls US bid to use its bases - Turks want an agreement on a financial deal before a deal on troops, by Filkins with Miller, NYT, A12.
    [Smart move with this treaty-breaking administration.]

  6. War planners begin to speak of war's risks, by Sanger & Shanker, NYT, front page.
    [About time. Or is it only that we're just beginning to hear about it?]

  7. Political dilemma closes in on Blair - U.K. leader argues in line with U.S. stance on Iraq, but British public disagrees, by James Hagerty, WSJ, A20.
    [How much are they payin' this guy? Or is he really this gullible? -]
    'I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honor,' Tony Blair said. 'But sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction.'
    [Lordy, when a British PM can't distinguish between appeasement and containment, we hafta start talking about the Dumbing of Britannia and not just America.]

  8. [This looks rather like we're using the containment approach on China -]
    U.S. pursues a trade ally in Beijing - American official says the two look to support common free-trade agenda, by Peter Wonacott, WSJ, A20.
    [And though free trade with China will rapidly lower our wages and living standards even further into the 3rd World, this is how "poorly" the containment approach has worked with China -]
    China loosens its restrictions on news media, by Susan Lawrence, WSJ, A20.
    [Ironic. While our media corporations consolidate and "innocent" Bush and his oilwar cheerleaders and "war"-on-terrorism jitters-orchestrators drain our freedoms, China lightens up. Better start learning some Chinese. The Yale method is the easiest.]

  9. [but "credit where it's due" - looks like the "I'm crazier than you" approach is working on a bit player -]
    The heat on Iraq spurs Syria - Eager to stay out of U.S. cross hairs, a harsh regime eases up, by Hugh Pope, WSJ, A21.
    [But then, anybody wanna try confrontation with China to see if Vietnam eases up? As Castaneda's don Juan said, "Carlos, Carlos, Carlos. Have I taught you nothing? You must NEVER confront a human being."]

  10. 300 groups file briefs to support the University of Michigan in an affirmative action case - Lining up against the Bush administration position in an important case, by Diana Schemo, NYT, A14.
    [including Massachusetts -]
    Mass. backs University of Michigan - AG (Atty Gen. Tom Reilly) weighs in for affirmative action, by Thomas Palmer, Boston Globe, B2.
    ...Reilly joined 11 states in defending admissions programs at Michigan and the Michigan Law School.... UMass/Amherst uses a similar admissions process....
    [And as of 2/19 radio news, including Harvard. Sharp-shooting playing-field leveling like affirmative action and rent control etc. are admittedly not ideal, but they are useful temporary strategies to stem the worst abuses until we get the playing field levelled by fairer, more general means, such as, one-at-a-time balancing of access to employment and skills, then to income and skills, then to a whole series of subsequent value dimensions off into the future, which may well take us longer than the whole of this new millennium.]

  11. Fare increase is rescinded by big airlines, by Edward Wong, NYT, C7.
    Northwest refused, pointer summary (to D5), WSJ, front page.
    ...to go along with an effort by airlines to raise fares by $20 a ticket, forcing other carriers to roll back prices.
    [And for info re the industry leader -]
    Nonstop to the top - "The Southwest Airlines Way - Using the power of relationships to achieve high performance" by Jody Gittell, book ad by Barnes & Noble, A8.
    [But Southwest may be losin' it - check out our timesizing news for today, 2/18/2003.]

  12. The Bentonville tortoise, by Jesse Eisinger, WSJ, C1.
    The most sought-after corporate quality these days is to be boring....
    [Aah, the virtue of being boring. Canada and Canadians, for the most part, are terminally nice, spellt b-o-r-i-n-g, bless'em. Phil Hyde's granny (official name: Grannie Hyde) watched Lawrence Welk and other "boring" shows - turned off "violent" cowboy movies in the 60s - Phil has come to appreciate her position, and Canada's. So where's Bentonville come in?]
    Wal-Mart Stores has [that sought-after quality] in spades. Plugging away, the Bentonville, Ark., retailer reports its Q4 earnings today....
    [Oh we'd say America's posterboy corporation for subtle slavery doesn't have nearly enough of the sought-for quality of being boring - see 6/25/2002 #1: "Suits say Wal-Mart forces workers to toil off the clock."]
    [followup]
    Wal-Mart's net jumped 15.5% in 4th quarter, Reuters via 2/19/2003 NYT, C3.
    [What wondrous things you can do with slabery - in the short run. The Wal-Mart monoculture also greatly reduced the diversity of small businesses in any semi-rural area it invaded. Yes, it's a kind of kudzu, or killer bee, or starling, or water hyacinth, or Q.]

  13. J.P. Morgan CEO's share, option grants cut, Dow Jones via WSJ, C9.
    ...William Harrison Jr...reported that last week he received...restricted shares valued at $2.3m.
    [Poor baaaby - our hearts bleed]
    For 2001, [he] received a stock and option package valued at roughly $10m....
    [Anything that conduces to centrifuge spending power into the hands of those who actually spend it will have a recession-reversing effect at this point. Most efficient and healthy for the economy would be flexible adjustment of the workweek.]
    [Compare tomorrow -]
    Electronic Data chief [Richard H. Brown] received no bonus, Bloomberg via 2/19/2003 NYT, C4.

  14. Indonesia: Economy grew 3.7% last year, by Wayne Arnold, NYT, C4.
    [The 28th-biggest world economy, in between Norway and Saudi Arabia.]

2/15-17/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. 2/17   Gap between pay of men and women smallest on record...sustaining consumer spending - Pay for male workers has failed to keep up with the low rate of inflation, by David Leonhardt, NYT, front page.
    [Note hidden message = gap...smallest...sustaining consumer spending. Think how much consumer spending we'd get out of reducing the gap between rich and poor, for example, by spreading around the vanishing work, instead of downsizing and concentrating work and income.]
    [but -]
    ...Women's pay still lags men's in virtually every sector of the economy. Full-time female workers made 77.5% of what their male counterparts did last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the previous 8 years, the inequality worsened slightly, to 76% in 2001 from 77.1% in 1993....

  2. [a sprinkling of headlines -]
    2/15   Critical of judge's ruling, antiwar demonstrators gear up for U.N. rally - Protesters say a gathering to oppose a war on Iraq should have included a march, by James Barron, NYT, B15.
    2/15   Powell calls for U.N. to act on Iraq and meets deep resistance - Clash comes as inspectors tell of progress, by Julia Preston, NYT, front page.
    2/15   Report complicates US [nyaa, Bush] stand - In mixed verdict, Blix faults Iraq, cites cooperation, by Geneive Abdo, Boston Globe, front page.
    2/15   Objections of allies limit moves, by John Donnelly, BG, front page.
    [Yeah, check out the applause for France and Russia and silent treatment for Powell.]
    2/17   A new power in the streets...- World outrage raises cost of immediate war on Iraq \-\ A message to Bush not to rush to war, by Patrick Tyler, NYT, front page.
    2/17   The protests - On a day of their own [Sunday], thousands rally in San Francisco, by Dean Murphy, NYT, A10.
    2/17   Strategic advice from the public - Diplomacy first, Al Qaeda first, op ed by Bob Herbert, NYT, A23.
    2/15   Britain - Antiwar marchers are hoping they can change Blair's mind, by Alan Cowell, NYT, A10.
    [Mind? Mind? What mind? -]
    2/17   Britain - Blair, increasingly alone, clings to stance, by Alan Cowell, NYT, A9.

  3. 2/16   Radio address - Bush advises calm amid threat, tells nation to be alert, by Jennifer Loven, BG, A17.
    [Here's the Bush double-message in a nutshell. Colleague Kate suggests a "DFM" (Duct-tape Fright March) on Washington - everyone holds a roll of duct tape on high and walks a couple of steps, looks round apprehensively, another couple of steps, another terrified look-round, etc.]

  4. [oops, another Bush reversal -]
    2/16   Bush AIDS relief in Africa & Caribbean eases abortion rules, by Edwin Chen, Boston Globe, A15.
    WASHINGTON - In a major policy shift, pResident Bush has decided to allow social service agencies in Africa and the Caribbean to receive US funds under his $15B emergency AIDS relief plan even if they promote family planning and provide abortions.... "The pResident views this as a healthcare issue," the [White House] official said....
    [No kidding.]

  5. 2/15   Industrial production rises 0.7% [with what margin of error?] - But consumer confidence index drops to a 9-year low, by Daniel Altman, NYT, B1.
    [Did any media have the guts to split off the bad news at the end?]

  6. 2/15   Democrats try to turn debate back to home, by Sheryl Stolberg, NYT, A12.
    [Oh yeah, we've think we've heard of them. Of course, the Dems haven't had a new idea since 1933 when FDR stumbled across the phrase "new deal." After they dusted it off in the 60s as New Frontier and Great Society, it became obvious under "good guy" Jimmy Carter that, despite good intentions, he didn't have anything to offer except peanuts, when all he had to do was look back to maverick Democrat Hugo Black. And through the orchestrated jitters of homeland security, we seem to remember "home" - and "e-con-o-my." Here's another tiny glimmering of hope -]
    2/17   Liberal radio is planned by rich group of Democrats - Trying to find alternatives to conservative hosts like Limbaugh, by Jim Rutenberg, NYT, C1, C8.
    [But don't count it. A big part of Democrats' hesitancy the last 20 years has gotta be their idea bankruptcy. Let's face it, there's not a lot of difference between the desperate Republican hijacking of the White House in 2000 and the pathetic Democratic opening of the floodgates to unprecedented immigration in the 90s - immigrants who would probably vote Democrat.]
    Al Franken, a political satirist and author, may join the new network. [photo caption]
    [How about *Jimmy Tingle and *Barry Crimmins? How about *Michael Moore?]

  7. World trade talks in Japan falter after 3 days - Disagreements over agricultural tariffs, cheaper drugs and other issues, by Ken Belson, NYT, A2.
    [Good, let's cut the hypocritical race to the bottom and move toward automatic playing-field-balancing tariffs.]

  8. 2/15   Subsidy is sufficient, Amtrak says, Reuters via NYT, A16.
    ...The nation's passenger RR said it could maintain all its services this year even though Congress, in approving $1.05B in subsidies to it on Thursday, gave it $150m less than the RR's officials had said it needed [$1.3B] to continue operations.
    [Thank God they'd added 15% to their barebones demand.]
    ...Lawmakers allowed Amtrak to defer payment on a $100m loan granted by the Bush administration in last summer's budget crisis.

  9. 2/15   Maine - Obesity is target of bills, Reuters via NYT, A16.
    State lawmakers introduced what experts called the nation's first comprehensive antiobesity legislation, a package of bills that restricts the sale of soft drinks and junk food in school vending machines, calls for chain restaurants to display nutritional information and allows state transportation money to be used to promote bicycling and other healthy forms of transportation. Rep. Sean Faircloth, the Dem. sponsor of the bill, said the state was paying close to $1B in obesity-related healthcare costs [and] a recent state health report found that Maine, with 1.25m residents, had the highest obesity rate among the 6 New England states [CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT] over the past 3 years.

  10. 2/15   Beliefs - The new archibishop of Canterbury [Rowan Williams] is known for taking stands, and often stirring controversy - A world religious leader whose politics were shaped by the 60s, by Peter Steinfels, NYT, B16.

  11. Pay-if-you-drive in London, pointer squib (to A3), NYT, front page.
    London's plan to fight gridlock takes effect at 7 am today, when motorists will have to pay $8 to drive into the central city.
    [Hey, that's a good way to utlilize public transportation, clear away smog, cut traffic and open up parking.]

2/14/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. Poll finds most in U.S. support delaying a war - U.N. backing is seen to hinge on inspections - Public supports waiting for war until U.N. is done, survey shows - The economy tops a list or worries that includes terrorism and a standoff with North Korea, by Tyler & Elder, NYT, front page, A13.
    [Gee, don't tell us Americans are smartening up, regardless of the Bush Rush to invade Iraq? Here's another thrust -]
    Dissent - City leaders carry message against war to pResident, by Elizabeth Olson, NYT, A13.
    WASHINGTON...- Leaders from some of the 90 city councils that have adopted resolutions opposing military action against Iraq...carrying blue-and-white placards with the outline of a dove, represent[ing] cities including Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore and Santa Fe...met here to urge pResident Bush to heed citizens' concerns about war, and to call on Congress to oppose any pre-emptive military strikes....
    [Can Bush spell c-o-n-t-a-i-n-m-e-n-t?]

  2. [here's another group that's smartening up -]
    State G.O.P. legislators think the unthinkable - Anti-tax fervor fades as revenues fall short - States are in their worst financial shape since World War II, by Michael Janofsky, NYT, A16.

  3. Utah: Lake Powell at low level, AP via NYT, A28.
    ...lowest level in 30 years, a result of low snowmelt and heavy demand from 3 states [UT, AZ, NV?] that use it for drinking water....
    [Good, maybe this will wake up these 3 desert states to the need for loooong-term planning and tough limits on development - not to mention California which uses Lake Powell water after it flows out into the Colorado River.]

  4. Big forecast for the elderly, AP via NYT, A28.
    The elderly population is expected to double by 2030, to 71 million...from 35m, or to nearly 20% of the [total US] population from 12.4%..\..the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention said.... The increase reflects the aging of the babyboom generation and improvements in life expectancy.
    ["But," say the luddites and Chicken Little's, "what are we going to do when there aren't enough workers to support the retirees?" Ever heard of technology? automation? robotization? cybernetics? Oh, we forgot - technology etc only works if you respond to it by timesizing, not downsizing.]

  5. [and a couple of Valentine items]
    Monarch butterflies are alive and well and living in Mexico, by Carol Yoon, NYT, A6.
    Reports of the demise of the monarch butterfly appear exaggerated. Millions are wintering in Mexico. [photo caption]

  6. Russia's falling in love, nuzzling Valentine's Day - A lovers' rite, imported, is 'spreading like fire', by Michael Wines, NYT, A6.

2/13/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. [Remember "Shortened workweek shortens French tempers - Some French workers say a new 35-hour week is tiring them out" on 1/10/2003 when the NY Times tried to smear the way another nation handles something - and wound up promoting it instead of blackening it? Here's another try -]
    Long lines mar Canada's low-cost health care, by Clifford Krauss, NYT, A3.
    [Nice try, Times, but American healthcare is truly pathetic, and waaay behind all other industrial nations. How goes it with free healthcare in the US for a tiny fraction of citizens? -]
    Some concerns thrive on Medicaid patients, by Milt Freudenheim, 2/19/2003 NYT, C1.
    ...Kelly..\..Jankowski...said she faced delays in getting authorization for surgery for [her son] Steven. [photo caption]
    As pResident Bush presses Congress to let private insurers take over more of Medicare and Medicaid, a handful of for-profit managed care companies are already hard at it, running state programs for 5m low-income people in Medicaid plans.... The companies say they are prospering by providing services tailored to the needs of low-income people.... But some hospitals and doctors say the companies also profit by denying more claims than most insurers...up to 3 times as [many].
    [Bottom line - both systems have problems, but while the U.S. system has problems, millions of Americans don't have health insurance, whereas while the Canadian (and every other developed nation's) system has problems, ALL CANADIANS ARE COVERED BY HEALTH INSURANCE (and so are all citizens of most other developed nations). And in either system, if you're rich, you still get instant service. Damn, it's just getting sooo hard to maintain the fiction that America is the greatest country in the world. Then why don't we move back to Canada? Because if you're doing economic design innovations, ya gotta do them here in purgatory, because more eyes round the world are still on this economy than on any other single economy. Canada has taken care of the biggest problem level - covering all its citizens with health insurance. Now its problems are at a whole lower level of serousness. It doesn't matter how much the "great" US of A nitpicks about Canada's new problems - it's picking at gnats while swallowing camels. It's in no position to criticize - except by ignoring its own much huger problem - and it's sooo good at turning a blind eye to its own huge problems at home. Its watchword under its current lunatic "leadership" is distraction. The U.S. has nothing to offer on the healthcare front - with hospitals and nursing homes going bankrupt right and left - but arrogant hypocrisy. America under George W. is a society in rapid decline, and maybe this rapidity will jar Americans awake, to vote for quality instead of money in politics, or if quality is too hard to evaluate, then to elect the candidate who gets the most votes per dollar, not the most votes, or the least known candidate, not the best. It's like in gin rummy, where you win by taking a chance on the unknown, on the third or fourth party candidates, not the first or second, which you know are corrupt and backward.]

  2. [want some evidence of how "wonderful" the U.S. healthcare system is? -]
    A need for nurses, letter to editor by Elizabeth Staley, NYT, A32.
    Re "Indian nurses sought to staff U.S. hospitals" (news article, Feb. 10): As a nurse in a poorly staffed burn unit, I am well aware of how desperate hospitals are for nurses. I wonder, though, with so many people looking for work in the United States, could we perhaps institute some kind of program to train out-of-work people to work as nurses?...
    [Interesting. Nursing has just 'professionalized' to raise its pay and prestige by shutting down hospital non-degree nurse training programs all over the country and creating ... a shortage of nurses. Now some nurses want to relieve the shortage and re-lower their pay and prestige -]
    This would at least help alleviate two problems: the nursing shortage and unemployment.
    [Ah, those big-hearted nurses.]
    [Followup -]
    The Canadian way: Healthcare for all, 2 letters to editor, 2/17/2003 NYT, A22.
  3. Voluntary pacts to curb greenhouse gases, by Jennifer Lee, NYT, A22.
    WASHINGTON...- Administration officials announced several modest agreements with a number of industries [yester]day for voluntary controls on emissions of gases linked to global warming. The agreements, a result of aggressive meetings with industry executives, are an effort to stave off pending state and federal proposals for mandatory ceilings....
    [Oh that'll work - su-u-re - with no incentives designed in?]

  4. Bill to curb telemarketer calls clears hurdle but faces more, Reuters via NYT, A22.
    [For example,]
    ...Financing for it has not yet cleared Congress....

  5. NATO talks over Turkey [are] in deadlock, by Richard Bernstein, NYT, A17.

  6. Sharon faces Belgian trial after term ends - Belgium's 'universal jurisdiction' law reaches into Israel, by Marlise Simons, NYT, A14.
    Belgium's highest court opened the way yesterday for an investigation of a massacre of refugees in 1982.
    [Hmm, looks like little Belgium is on track to live down the disgrace of "King Leopold's Ghost." Well, more power to them!]

  7. Republicans back down on raising farm aid [i.e., agribiz subsidies], by Elizabeth Becker, NYT, A5.
    [Well, how many reverse-course's does this make on the part of these radical "small-government," "no government interference," and "lower gov't spending" hypocrites?]

  8. [and then there's the occasional good Republican, like the new governor of Massachusetts -]
    Romney aides moving to curb use of SUVs - Car-sharing push is next, by Anthony Flint, Boston Globe, B4.
    The Romney administration is moving ahead with new rules aimed at trimming the number of sport utility vehicles [SUVs] that are used by state officials, as a cost-cutting move and a show of environmental consciousness....
    [And recently Romney appointed environmental activist and former president of the Conservation Law Foundation, Doug Foy, to chief of Commonwealth development (more formal title pending) according to "Some are grumbling about Foy's fix-it-first philosophy," by Thomas Palmer, 3/02/2003 Boston Globe, J1, which states, "Never have we seen so many people scribbling notes as at last week's standing-room-only appearance by Douglas Foy before members of the National Association of Office & Industrial Properties.... One of the state's premier environmentalists, [he] emphasis[es] the current sad state of...roads [and] bridges [and] "fixing what we already have"..\..at the expense of new projects." But tomorrow Romney starts getting flack -]
    Business leaders hit Romney focus on environment, by Frank Phillips, 2/14/2003 Boston Globe, front page.
    [When are business leaders going to wake up and get with the program - environmentalism alias ecology is the Big New Thing and all our values and morality are going to be coming from it IF we plan to be around for long. Ecologese is rapidly displacing economese as the power dialect within English and the modern languages, just as economese displaced politicese before it (and policiticese displaced geographese ... sociologese ... anthropologese.]

2/12/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope - 2/11/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of intelligence -
  1. Ten Nobel laureates [in economics] say the Bush tax cuts are the wrong approach, half-page ad, NYT, A21.
    [Finally, but isn't this a little late? Well, better late than never. But seven of these ten may be dismissed as the pinko Cambridge-San Francisco axis (MIT: Modigliani, Samuelson, Solow; UCal Berkeley: Akerlof, McFadden; Stanford: Arrow, Sharpe), so it's good that the other half of the page contains the names of hundreds of economists from all over the country who agree. The liberal Boston Globe nevertheless unleashes some choice soundbytes on this story -]
    Nobel laureates attack tax plan - Predict drag on growth, damage to middle class, by Kimberly Blanton, Boston Globe, D1, flagged by colleague Kate.
    MIT's Franco Modigliani calls Bush's plan "preposterous." [photo caption]
    [Go, Franco!   Whatever his party enrolment, Modigliani signed Phil Hyde's nomination papers when Phil was running as a Republican for the 8th District Congressional seat in Mass.]
    ...Daniel McFadden...who was awarded a Nobel in 2000, termed it a "weapon of mass destruction aimed at the middle class."... Proponents of a dividend-tax cut also say it would benefit American investors at a time more than half of all households invest in the stock market.
    [There's that old canard again.]
    But [Joseph] Stiglitz, of Columbia University (2001 Nobel Prize), said few investors would gain, because most money invested in stocks is in 401Ks or other pension plans that are already tax-free. The plan, Stiglitz said, amounts to an attempt to disguise a longstanding "conservative" [our quotes] agenda - reducing taxes and shrinking government [$350 BILLION to the Pentagon is "shrinking gov't"???] - as an economic booster shot.... The more likely outcome, he said, would be continued government profligacy and ballooning deficits....

  2. 3 members of NATO [Germany, France, Belgium] and Russia resist U.S. on Iraq plans - Serious rift in alliance - Allies block effort to aid Turks - Moscow concurs in call for deeper inspections, by Craig Smith with Richard Bernstein, NYT, front page.
    [Thank God that the 3rd (Ger.) and 5th (Fr.) biggest economies have the sense to go with containment and "letting sleeping dogs lie" against the insane Bush-Blair "first-strike" provocation and aggression, in spite of the 1st (US) and 4th (UK) losing it. And folks of the world, plenty of English-speaking people in these two countries are still sane - we just can't seem to get the Big Mike away from the morons - our so-called opposition parties are corrupt or cowards or combo. (Bless that Canadian woman who called Bush a moron and took a fall for it.) The 2nd biggest economy (Japan) is having the sense to stay out of this one - or maybe it's got its hands full with another priority, North Korea, which based on current weapon-strike-capability should be our top priority too, but then, North Korea got a Big Bro right behind it and bully Bush & co-orks ain't really got balls, plus NK ain't got no oil and there's a "coincidence" of oil executives in this administration. So much for checks and balances.]

  3. [another big guy gets "come-upped" -]
    Microsoft rivals allege antitrust in new EU case - Group opens added front, challenging software giant over Windows XP system, by John Wilke & Brandon Mitchener, WSJ, front page.
    [So, does XP stand for "expectorate"? And who's got the balls to fling the custard pie in Gates' face this time?]
    ...a coalition of global telephone, computer and consumer-electronics companies...a U.S.[!] trade group that represents dozens of companies. They include Nokia...Eastman Kodak...Fujitsu...NTT Comms...Sun Microsystems...AOL Time Warner...Oracle....
    [Oooh, maybe there's enough clout this time to make it stick.]
    Microsoft has so far managed to elude meaningful limits on its market power [read "monopoly"] in the U.S....

2/08-10/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of intelligence -
  1. 2/08   Europe: Wind power increases
    [Above is how the headline should read and as such, it should have led the 'Europe' section of the 'World Business Briefing.' Below is how it actually reads -]
    Belgium: Wind power increases, by Marlise Simons, NYT, W1.
    [This is the most grotesquely and irresponsibly mislabeled article we have ever seen in the New York Times - what an American-face-saving, oil-executive-face-saving disgrace! There is absolutely no mention of Belgium (or the EU!) in the squib -]
    Wind power in Europe increased by 33% in 2002 to reach a total capacity of 23,000 megawatts, or the equivalent of several large nuclear energy plants, the European Wind Energy Assoc. reported.  The group said Europe was the world's fastest-growing region for wind energy [in 2002].  Wind power last year represented a $6 billion market.  Germany, Spain and Denmark accounted for almost 90% of it.
    [This at a time when the rich folks on Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket in the U.S. are fighting a huge farm of beautiful windmills off their windy shores.]

  2. 2/08   Job market shows a rise in January - Unemployment dips [from 6] to 5.7%..., by David Leonhardt, NYT, front page.
    [Congrats, Dubya. War fever is finally starting to work. But it is the stupidest and most primitive, wasteful, inefficient and unecological stimulus you can get and there's still the rest of the headline -]
    - But analysts remain wary [- and a related inside headline -] Shares fall as war fears continue to dominate Wall St., Reuters via NYT, B4 [- back to front page -]
    ...Employment in January grew by 143,000 jobs, the biggest monthly gain since 2000, the Labor Dept. said yesterday. The gain nearly erased December's decline....
    ["Nearly"??]
    Economists cautioned that a statistical quirk made retail employment appear to fall sharply in December and surge last month, accounting for much of the seesawing of the last 2 months..\..
    [We're paying these clowns 6 figures and they've still got "statistical quirks"??? Then there's stocks -]
    ...But the stock market, after an initial rise, dropped yesterday as Wall Street absorbed the report's details and analysts said they were not convinced that the economy was recovering as strongly as the numbers might suggest. The S&P 500 lost 8.46 points or 1% to close at 829.69, the lowest level since October....
    [Well a couple of days ago they had a historical analysis that showed stocks always fell during war fever but rose once a 'good' big war got going. So Wall Street displays it's usual erraticism.]

  3. [activists tell Bush to step up or step aside -]
    2/09   Questions of fairness prompt calls to restore draft, by Darryl Fears, Boston Globe, A25, flagged by colleague Kate.
    [Check out previous article on 1/08/2003 #1 below. Rangel is calling Bush's bluff on warwarwar.]
    WASHINGTON - After two House Democrats [Chas. Rangel, NY and John Conyers, Mich.] introduced a bill last month [Universal Service Act of 2003] that would bring back the military draft, Defense Dept. analysts crunched some numbers to disprove the lawmakers' assertion that enlistees from the ranks of the poor and ethnic minorities were serving in disproportionate numbers, perhaps at risk [of] their lives. The analysts found that 21% of military personnel are black, versus 12% of the general population,
    [In other words, Rangel and Conyers were right, despite the squirm -]
    and that they tend to work away from the front lines, in roles such as administration, combat support, and medical and dental care.
    [Which just makes it worse. They're like minorities historically on American passenger trains, who are primarily porters, waiters and locomotive firemen, and not conductors, locomotive drivers, or passengers. And Rangel brings up another point -]
    Rep. Charles Rangel...said the issue of class was larger than race. A Dept. of Defense study two years ago of the armed services population concluded that "both active and reserve recruits are primarily from families in the middle and lower socio-economic strata." It found that soldiers from wealtheir families were "not well-represented among the backgrounds of new recruits."
    [So is it any wonder that our isolated and insulated wealthy rulers are pushing for war? What do they care - they and theirs are always the last to get hurt.]
    Neither are poor households well-represented, largely because of the military's education and skill requirements....
    [So the idea that war has the sneaky benefit of killing off the bottom doesn't work either - it just splits the population further toward sub-speciation - Eloi and Morlocks. By contrast, Timesizing pulls everyone together and delivers on-the-job training to the poor and everyone else without all the snobbish and inefficient baggage of the "institutions of higher education."]

  4. Note our fourth good news today is under 2/08/2003 if you scan down to the individual, dated cases on our mergers-in-banking page.

2/07/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of intelligence - 2 biggies pro containment, not war, today -
  1. Different man, different moment - My father went to the UN to stop a war [not start one], op ed by Adlai Stevenson III, NYT, A29.
    Pundits and officials in Washington have dubbed Secy of State Colin Powell's attempt to make a case for war against Iraq in the UN Security Council an "Adlai Stevenson moment."
    I couldn't disagree more. [True] my father...in 1962...presented the Security Council with incontrovertible proof that the Soviet Union...was installing missiles in Cuba and threatening to upset the world's "balance of terror." [But] that "moment" had an obvious purpose: containing the Soviet Union and maintaining peace.
    It worked, and eventually the Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight....
    This moment [of Colin Powell's] has a different purpose: war. The Bush administration clearly rejects the idea of containing Iraq through committed monitoring by the UN, even though this course is the better option....
    [And while Bushbrain is buzzing us all up about Iraq, check this out -]
    Pyongyang warns of 'total war' if U.S. attacks, by Jay Solomon, WSJ, A9.
    [Aaanyway, we love the way Adlai III carefully avoids calling Bush "president" by always referring to him as "the Bush administration," even though Adlai constantly refers to President Kennedy. Alas, Nicholas Kristof is not so careful in the neighboring piece, so we resort to our usual mixed-casing -]

  2. War and wisdom - A useful lesson on containment from Pres. Reagan, op ed by Nicholas Kristof, NYT, A29.
    pResident Bush and Colin Powell have adroitly shown that Iraq is hiding weapons, that Saddam Hussein is a lying scoundrel and that Iraqi officials should be less chatty on the...phone. But they did not demonstrate that the solution is to invade Iraq.
    If you've seen kids torn apart by machine-gun fire, you know that war should be only a last resort. And we're not there yet. We still have a better option: containment....
    [We're getting the strong feeling that the whole strategy of the administration is to sucker people into the wrong argument - does Iraq have bad weapons or is Iraq lying or whatever. To all that, we say, so what? Contain him, same as we did to the USSR for decades. Note that all the mouth-frothing hawks on the Letters page have all bought the line that "Saddam will eventually use those weapons." Some people said that all through the Cold War with the USSR too, but guess what - the Soviet Union never did "use those weapons." We didn't try any fool "first strike" - we didn't trigger armageddon or even lots of death and maiming with the Soviets - and they did "fall" under the weight of their own inefficient submergence of all their citizens' creativity and incentive underground into cynical jokes and poetry - and raised their creativity and incentive from underground thanks to the courage of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. There is no excuse for this disgraceful war whip-up by Bush and his cadre of oil-executive co-rulers. And Kristof provides a second and third counter-example to the panic that "we gotta attack him first cuz he's HITLER!" - namely, two other guys that we called "Hitler" at the time but fizzled or faded - Nasser of Egypt and Qaddafi of Libya. But the real news Kristof gives is -]
    That's why in the Pentagon, civilian leaders are gung-ho but many in uniform are leery. [For example -] [This last point is taken up by a letter writer on the opposite page -]
    America, Iraq and the court of public opinion, letter to editor...by Richard Gordon of Berkeley CA, NYT, A28.
    ...War should be the last resort, not the first or second. Containment is not appeasement. Mr. Powell mayu well have made a strong case against the Iraqi government, but he has not made a case for war..\..
    If the United States is going to go to war with every country that supports terrorists and terrorist groups, the list would be long and the wars almost without end....
    [These are good rebuttals to one reader from a misnamed hamlet -]
    ..\..by Richard Sacks of Hopewill Junction NY, NYT, A28.
    Those who continue to clamor for more inspections are missing the point....
    [No, Richard Sacks is missing the point. "Inspections" is just a code word for containment, the only sensible and historically tested and proven course of action. As Adlai Stevenson III points out in the above-cited op ed, "Even top officials at the CIA have acknowledged that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction are only a threat if Iraq is attacked. And Iraq's government, after all, is the same Baathist regime aided by the Reagan administration when [it] used chemical weapons in its bloody war against Iran." Kristof underlines this last point, "Back then [1980s] we reviled Mr. Qaddafi - while Don Rumsfeld was charming our man [Saddam] in Baghdad.... But Pres. Ronald Reagan wisely chose to contain Libya, not invade it - and this worked." Let's wind down with some positive stuff about where our attention, efforts and money should be focused, for example, from another letter -]
    ..\..by Janet Salmons of Boulder CO, NYT, A28.
    No one is signing up to rebuild the United States, so if we deplete our strengths in a needless war, whom can we count on to rescue us? ..\..We need to focus our resources on more troubling issues at home. The economy needs attention; so do education, healthcare and jobs for all Americans....
    [Nicholas Kristof reinforces this point -]
    ...Aside from lives, the war and reconstruction [would] cost $100-200 billion. That bill comes to $750-1,500 per American taxpayer, and there are real trade-offs in spending that money. We could do more for our national security by spending the money on education, or by financing a major campaign to promote hybrid cars and hydrogen-powered vehicles,
    [speaking of which, note good news today, "Toyota plans hybrid version of sport utility," by Danny Hakim, NYT, C4]
    and taking other steps toward energy independence....
    [Not to mention Israel 'independence.' We should 'get independent' of paying our yearly $3.5 billion tribute dba 'foreign aid' to Israel as long as they keep inflaming the Middle East by continuing to occupy the 'occupied territories' and by provocatively marching into particularly sacred mosques where they've never gone before (as Sharon did two years ago when he ignited all the present mishigas). It's really time Israel woke up and smelled the coffee -]
    Immigration to Israel [in 2002] reaches 13-year low, AP via NYT, A4.
    ...Immiigration officials explaining the drop said the potential pool of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union is dwindling, although security concerns also appear to be keeping some people from settling in Israel.
    [No kidding.]
    Scores of immigrants have been among the hundreds killed in the last 28 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting..\..
    The Central Bureau of Statistics...said 33,000 people immigrated to Israel in 2002, or about 10,000 fewer than in 2001....
    [Let's see, that's a drop of 10000/(33000+10000)= 23% in one year.]
    In the past decade, the vast majority of newcomers to Israel were Jews from the former Soviet republics. That was also true in 2002, but the influx decreased from the previous year. At the same time, migration from Argentina tripled, fueled by the severe economic troubles. The number of French Jews arriving in Israel doubled from the year before, and migration from the United States increased by 23%.
    [Hmm, the same percentage as the overall decrease. Well, the more Americans who are in favor of this newly bellicose Israel enough to immigrate thither, the easier it will be to phase out the $3½ billion subsidy that they are forcing the rest of American taxpayers to contribute to the disgraceful oppression that Sharon, in an insult to his own professed religion and its history, is inflicting on another, weaker people.]

2/06/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random hope - 2/05/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random hope -
  1. [1 UPsizing, with 2000 new jobs]
    Facility will be built in Texas to make Tundra pickup trucks, Dow Jones via WSJ, D7.
    Toyota Motor Corp. is expected to announce today that it will build an $800m pickup-truck plant in Texas - the stronghold of truck buying in the U.S. - as part of an effort to chip away at Detroit's dominance in big pickup trucks.
    [Oops, the pricetag has crept up $50m since Nov.]
    ...The plant, Toyota's 6th assembly plant in North America [including 2 in Canada], is expected to produce 150,000 Tundra full-size pickup trucks a year starting in 2006, and is expected to employ about 2,000 workers. The move...will be another critical step for the No. 1 Japanese automaker in its effort to boost its U.S. auto-market share to 15% by about 2010....
    [This is probably the plant they were talking about on 11/30/2002.]
    [Followup -]
    Toyota to build assembly plant in Texas - A challenge to the Big Three automakers on their own turf, by Ken Belson with Micheline Maynard, 2/06/2003 NYT, W1.
    Toyota will spend $800m to build a plant in San Antonio. [Photo caption.]
    [Finally, the location.]
    [Followup -]
    Yes, assembly lines can mix apples and oranges, by Micheline Maynard, 8/17/2003 NYT, 3:5.
    ...Toyota plans to include its flexible manufacturing system [= better robotics] in a new factory - its seventh in North America - under construction in San Antonio. There it will build big pickups....

  2. Home, green home: Builders embrace environmental goals - Pressure from activist groups, lower energy bills spur the trend; In some towns, expedited permits, by Jim Carlton, WSJ, B1.

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