"History Is Going to Judge Us All":

Bill Delahunt (Dem. MA) is quoted in today's New York Times after Bush's veto of a bill that would limit the C.I.A.'s practice of torturing people, including waterboarding.

In his weekly radio propaganda message, Bush stated that "this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.” However, no evidence has ever been released to "prove" that torture has stopped even one terrorist attack of any sort. We only have the administration's assertion that this has occurred.


Eat like an American:

World-wide, food consumption is up, but so is the cost of eating. The world's population is growing, rather than stabilizing. The "Green Revolution" of the 1960s that staved off world-wide starvation is meeting its limits. In addition, people simply want to eat "better."

What does it mean to "eat like an American"? Consider this: in order to produce a pound of beef protein, three pounds of grain protein must be consumed by the head of beef. In other words, in order for you to receive a pound of protein from a steak, the cow that produced it had to eat three pounds of grain protein that a person could have consumed.

Americans don't just eat beef, of course. In fact we eat more chicken than any other kind of meat, but we do eat far more meat, food at the top of the food chain, than is good for us, not to mention necessary.

And world-wide, people are attempting to emulate Americans, resulting in a consumption rate that is exceeding production. Today's New York Times addresses the issue:

“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”

While inflation in the most prosperous countries, like the United States, is the inevitable result, starvation will be the result among the poorest countries.

Technology:

An "M.I.T. professor, says cellphones offer another way for the Facebook generation to share every life experience the second it unfolds." — Today's New York Times reports in a lengthy article on texting and teens.

One brief account reveals a teen who texts while driving, admitting that he sometimes looks up to realize that he isn't sure where he is or how he got there. Another tells of a daughter, while in Paris with her mother, answers every cell phone message, whether verbal or text, not because her friends want to actually talk about anything, but just to respond that she is in fact in Paris with her mother: "[H]er daughter’s friends didn’t even really want to talk. “'They just want to know where you are,'” Ms. Turkle said. “'It’s a new sensibility.'”

Actually, there isn't much knew about the sensibility, only the technology in use. The basic need that inspires this reaching out to others just at the age when teens are beginning to separate from parents isn't new, just the mechanism for doing it is.

Perhaps the most telling moment in this story comes in the last paragraph, revealing much that is both true of the new technology and probably about the technology that we humans have always invented: “'No one is teaching kids how to use these things,'” [Mr. Hampton] said. “'But in fairness, adults don’t know how to use them, either.'”

All of this particular kind of technology is perfectly suited for teens, who feel compelled to reach out and make contact, to seek acceptance, but to avoid any sort of serious commitment.