9.30.2002

yes, i was very busy today.

posted by Lynne 4:54:00 PM
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::new search strings
myfoldoutmenu
foldout menu and web
vb.not 2002 -2001 -2000

it's kind of sad that people are being directed to my site for foldout menus, since so much of my old web design stuff doesn't work right now. maybe i should look into fixing that...

posted by Lynne 2:44:00 PM
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9.27.2002

it is amazing how much havoc one missing quotation mark can wreak on a web page...

posted by Lynne 2:18:00 PM
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::people from high school with whom i want to touch base
melissa bender
tracy cavanaugh
yadi echevarria
alisia eckert
amy haegele
laura kwinn
kelly noah
gwen "mitchell"
stephanie tolentino
cheryl vivar
laura williams

perhaps one of them will stumble onto this site in some egomaniacal search for themselves online...or am i the only person who does that?

::11.18.2002
laura (kwinn) found me.
is anyone else not surprised she was the first?

::05.10.2003
i found laura (williams).
what's up with all of the lauras?

::06.27.2003
steph found me.

::08.05.2003
yadi found me.

posted by Lynne 2:17:00 PM
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"In a cracked nutshell, here is what happened: Dubya finally agreed to ask for congressional approval to launch his dad's grumpy unfinished war and then Cheney had his flying monkeys orchestrate it so anyone who voted "no" would have their political genitalia handed to them in a Dixie cup by Ashcroftian goons and/or an very perturbed-looking Jenna. Consensus is a beautiful thing, especially when it's ramrodded down the nation's throat.

"There is no one of any significant voice in Congress, no top Bush adviser, no vociferous Independent, no major media outlet or celebrity pundit or influential foreign leader anywhere -- put your hand down, Gerhard -- speaking for the huge contingent who are right this minute scream-sighing: Wait wait wait, are we insane? What the hell are we doing? What is wrong with you people?"

posted by Lynne 11:55:00 AM
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exactly...
uncle oSAMa says: i want YOU to invade iraq

posted by Lynne 11:03:00 AM
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::even more search strings
blogchalk chicago il
potbelly free lunch

posted by Lynne 9:24:00 AM
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ok, now...what was UP with what happened on er last night? i mean...i don't know what i mean. ugh...

posted by Lynne 9:23:00 AM
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9.26.2002

the e-mail program that i've been using for the past few months is no longer available, security issues and all that, so i've lost quite a few people's e-mail addresses. so...if you want me to be able to e-mail you, please toss me an e-mail from your preferred e-mail account. it would help me out greatly...

posted by Lynne 2:48:00 PM
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did you know...
"The average woman uses nearly 17,000 disposable pads and tampons throughout her lifetime mentrual cycle. In North America alone, an estimated 20 billion bleached pads and tampons end up in our sewage systems each year."
~brochure for sea pearls sea sponge tampons

posted by Lynne 2:22:00 PM
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9.25.2002

yes. people do make fun of you if submit your resume in ms word-wizard format...and then they throw it out.

posted by Lynne 4:24:00 PM
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everyone should go and register at campusregistry.com because i'm the only one on it right now. and, unlike all of those other alum sites, it's completely free.

posted by Lynne 4:19:00 PM
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while avoiding the things that i should be doing, i stumbled upon one of my old classmates from grade school, chris deir. turns out, he has a radio show.

posted by Lynne 3:55:00 PM
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to do for class tonight:
read "beta and return"
read "revisiting the capm"
read and write notes on chapter 9
do problems from chapter 9
read and write notes on chapter 11
do problems from chapter 11
read and write notes on chapter 13
reread chapter 12
print out lecture notes for class tonight

uh-oh...on to chapter 11.

posted by Lynne 2:31:00 PM
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while we were on our way up to the el platform at 35th and archer this morning, the escalator stopped. is that a sign?

posted by Lynne 9:44:00 AM
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9.24.2002

i just got my stickers from mushycat, and they are fabulous, as always.

posted by Lynne 2:14:00 PM
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this guy cracks me up...
september 22, 2002
"I was running down by the harbor today when I saw ahead of me a trail of beautiful bright-orange flower blossoms drifting across the water. It really struck me that there in that urine-smelling and polluted harbor there could be some kind of exotic and delicate flower growing along the banks amidst the cigarette butts, candy wrappers, and dog poop and that the flower would drop its delicate blossoms onto the grey water of the harbor so late in the summer. I stopped to get a closer look when I realized that the bright orange things weren’t flower petals, they were Cheetos. I still haven’t decided exactly how I should feel about the experience."

posted by Lynne 12:23:00 PM
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9.23.2002

i'm out sick today, so amuse yourselves with the new ways people have found my site:
lynne bryant clothes
shower curtain with pockets

posted by Lynne 11:36:00 AM
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9.20.2002

someone searching for "anal blogs" found my site.

ewww...

posted by Lynne 4:35:00 PM
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i am:

Find your inner Smurf!

posted by Lynne 11:56:00 AM
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"Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), who obviously had nothing to do with Bush's nomination of his son, David Bunning, 35, to be a federal judge - even after the American Bar Association deemed the boy 'not qualified.'"
~ one of the nominees for mother jones magazine's diddly award for family values

posted by Lynne 9:12:00 AM
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9.19.2002

dilate is an awesome song...

posted by Lynne 3:17:00 PM
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women & children first is open until 9 tonight. woo hoo!

posted by Lynne 2:44:00 PM
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i want these books, too:
the little locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway

tea by Stacey D'Erasmo

the chelsea whistle by Michelle Tea

posted by Lynne 2:41:00 PM
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i live in new york,
the city that never shuts up.
~ ani, "cradle and all"

posted by Lynne 2:13:00 PM
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any want to buy me this book?

posted by Lynne 2:02:00 PM
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i know i'm only on the second song, but...I LOVE THIS CD!

posted by Lynne 1:59:00 PM
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just got an appointment with "james" at milio's for 5:30. yes, i am finally getting my hair cut (after months of whining about it).

posted by Lynne 1:59:00 PM
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::i couldn't have said it better myself:
As the Bush administration violates international law it has been systematically engaged in a campaign of division and repression in the United States including a wholesale assault on the Bill of Rights, institutionalization of racial profiling, and aggregation of near dictatorial powers to the Executive branch.

In articulating the so-called doctrine of preemptive war, the Bush administration is preparing to violate all existing international law and the UN charter which forbids countries to carry out war except in the case of self-defense. Preemption is merely a slogan to justify a foreign policy of armed aggression and military adventure.
~ International A.N.S.W.E.R.

posted by Lynne 1:35:00 PM
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oh, and there is a silver lining:
i just got my ani double-cd. woo hoo!

posted by Lynne 1:29:00 PM
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from your favorite president and mine:
"It's a chance for Congress to say, 'We support the administration's ability to keep the peace.' That's what this is all about."

ok, so let me get this straight:
if saddam decides to have bombs, he is not being peaceful, but if "our" government decides to go into a country that hasn't made any direct moves of aggression in an area already dealing with all sorts of unrest, then we are "keeping the peace." that makes perfect sense.

is our country really this stupid? i'm worried that it is. where are all the protests against these actions? first of all, why aren't people protesting against going into iraq at all? i mean, i've sent letters to my representatives, but i don't feel there's any outlet to do more. more importantly, however, why aren't we freaking out about shrub's obvious power-grab? and he calls saddam a dictator!

from the same article:
With a rift among members of the U.N. Security Council slowing action on a tough new resolution against Iraq, Bush laid down a clear marker and made clear his growing impatience.

"his growing impatience"? what? so, the un should move a) as quickly as shrub wants them to and b) in the direction that he wants them to? what is happening?

and more:
"The United Nations Security Council must work with the United States and Britain and other concerned parties to send a clear message that we expect Saddam to disarm, and if the United Nations Security Council won't deal with the problem, the United States and some of its friends will," he said.

huh? why is he giving the un directions? plus, the whole "if you don't do it, them we will" thing is straight off a third-grade playground. why does this country, and shrub in particular, think it has the right to decide what is right for the world? i mean, i understand having input, but not absolute say.

but this is the best:
With the chief U.N. arms inspector, Hans Blix, expected to meet Iraqi officials on Sept. 30 in Vienna to discuss practical aspects of how inspections will work, Bush sounded a skeptical note.
"First of all, there are no negotiations to be held with Iraq. They have nothing to negotiate. They're the people who said that they would not have weapons of mass destruction. The negotiations are over. It is up to the U.N. Security Council to lay out resolutions that confirm what Iraq has already agreed to, see," he said.

iraq has nothing to negotiate? how do you know they have weapons of mass desctruction? how can he simply declare, "the negotiations are over?" this is beyond ridiculous.

if there's a march on washington to protest, believe me, i'll be on the first plane out there.

posted by Lynne 1:28:00 PM
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9.18.2002

check this out:


take the which member of the trading spaces cast are you? quiz!

posted by Lynne 3:58:00 PM
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has anyone else become addicted to that sorority girls show on mtv? if i had cable, i'd definitely make sure i caught every episode. anyway, here's what this dude has to say about it. believe me: i can, like, totally relate. here are just a few choice tidbits:

"After all, these are merely young, post-pubescent sorority girls, a priori annoying and de facto shrill, and this is why they're on television...We are fascinated because they are dumb as doorknobs and this makes them wildly entertaining and fascinating and soap-opera-ey and much akin to the thrill one might get from watching stoned ferrets try to mate inside a gumball machine during a nuclear holocaust. Useless tragicomedy at its finest."

posted by Lynne 12:26:00 PM
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my site is accessible to china. good to know.

is yours?

posted by Lynne 10:50:00 AM
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i'm not feeling all that great today. i took some medicine this morning, so, hopefully, i won't keep feeling this way.

on a brighter note, i did get some stuff done for tonight:
reread two articles
write up case
read and take notes on chapter 12
do problems for chapter 12

i'm almost done...

posted by Lynne 10:28:00 AM
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9.17.2002

i just realized that my resume has not been updated in forever.

posted by Lynne 4:47:00 PM
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::to do for class tomorrow night
read two articles
reread two articles
read case
do calculations for case
write up case
read and take notes on chapter 6
do problems for chapter 6
read and take notes on chapter 7
do problems for chapter 7
read and take notes on chapter 8
do problems for chapter 8
read and take notes on chapter 10
do problems for chapter 10
read and take notes on chapter 5
do problems for chapter 5
read and take notes on chapter 12
do problems for chapter 12

aren't i productive?

posted by Lynne 4:44:00 PM
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::more search strings
pretty heels nadine
diy.net

why would one search for "pretty heels nadine"?
update: i just realized that someone searched for "pretty heels nadine" in august, too. what's up with that?

posted by Lynne 3:43:00 PM
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and we're back up...it's about time.

posted by Lynne 2:52:00 PM
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what makes krispy kreme donuts so good?

posted by Lynne 1:26:00 PM
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so, yesterday, i get this thing from a mail recovery center that says that a book i sold probably didn't get to the person to whom it was supposed to get. fabulous. so, now i have to try to get the book back from...let me see...minnesota. great. i mean, the book sold for about $60, so i was all excited, but...

oh, and my stupid site isn't up. cyberpixels has some 'splaining to do...

posted by Lynne 9:37:00 AM
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9.16.2002

::highlight of my weekend
i finally closed the dreaded tcf checking account. i don't think anyone really knows how happy that makes me.

posted by Lynne 4:48:00 PM
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...and my magnetic board from ikea is finally up.

posted by Lynne 2:22:00 PM
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::how people have found my site since last week
beautiful wrigleyville women
life span of bill cosby
picture-elf
st nicholas of tolentine chicago

posted by Lynne 9:42:00 AM
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9.13.2002

oh, and just so no one ever forgets...

posted by Lynne 4:09:00 PM
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and more proof that i am correct in hating dick cheney:

"In a recent interview, Vice President Dick Cheney uttered a troubling remark. He stated that when it comes time for the administration to convince Congress of the need to go to war, the White House will not tell Congress all it knows: 'There are certain pieces of information that are highly classified and need to remain highly classified.'"

so, congress (our real elected leaders) are not allowed to know everything. that makes perfect sense.

posted by Lynne 3:29:00 PM
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and now, i love jacques chirac (the president of france), too:

"We were all Americans, New Yorkers, that day. Can the Bush administration be for one minute aware of the solidarity and sympathy capital it has wasted?... People here are more afraid of George Bush than of Saddam Hussein."

posted by Lynne 3:28:00 PM
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see? this is why i love tompaine.com:

"This notion that the Iraqi leader is in cahoots with Osama will be easy to feed the American people. To the American people, one bad Arab is the same as the next, and Osama equals Saddam. People who wonder about the Bush war-urgency only need to think about this: There’s a blind spot that needs to be exploited now, before too many journalists get the idea to go inside Iraq and find out what’s really happening."

"George W. Bush and his advisers, with their obsessive focus on Saddam Hussein, transformed the 9/11 recall-a-thon into a prep session for war. They have exploited a terrible event for their next crusade. And on their watch, the horror of that day has been used not to lessen the distance between America and the rest of the world, but to increase it, as other nations recoil from and fear Bush’s march to war."

posted by Lynne 3:22:00 PM
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random updates:
i finally got around to submitting a work order to get my magnetic board hung. that only took about a week and half.

in a few hours i get to go home and watch queen of the damned. the book was pretty good, but nearly as good as the tale of the body thief.

i'm getting better at backgammon.

i sent the funding requests in, and was only missing two...one, really.

posted by Lynne 3:07:00 PM
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i watched the sweetest thing yesterday and let me tell you: it was horrible. i mean, horrible along the same lines as wild things. i actually had to distract myself by reading a magazine while watching it. i was convinced that a man had to have written and directed it...but no. a woman wrote it! unbelievable. it's bad enough when men write this sort of drivel (i guess it's possible that they may think some of it rings true.), but to be so insulted by a woman...unthinkable! i think i'm actuallyl dummer for having wached it. [must go read james joyce now.]

posted by Lynne 9:37:00 AM
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9.12.2002

I’ve got better things to do than smile a big idiot’s smile and wave my little flag while Bush threatens the kick the world’s ass.
~brian morris on 9/11 on his blog at house of noh

posted by Lynne 3:55:00 PM
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oh no!!!
all of my navigation stuff in my old homework is jacked. fabulous. well, i guess i can go fix them tomorrow. i love javascript errors.

posted by Lynne 12:45:00 PM
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oh, and i will be taking that portfolio management class this quarter. i think i definitely made up my mind when my professor said, "now, put your thinking caps on."

posted by Lynne 12:21:00 PM
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someone found my site by searching for "living in wrigleyville" - isn't it ironic...don't you think?

posted by Lynne 11:52:00 AM
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9.11.2002

it just makes me wanna go and vote libertarian...
“September 11 is a day for Americans to proclaim, ‘We will never surrender,’ ” said Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party executive director. “We will never surrender to the terrorists who threaten our safety, nor will we surrender our fundamental liberties to the government.”

“In the trauma following the 9/11 attacks, an anxious public was clamoring for politicians to ‘do something,’ ” said Dasbach. “Unfortunately, they did the wrong thing, by passing laws restricting the freedom of innocent people.”

“Bush seems oblivious to one of the lessons of 9/11, which is that meddling in hostile foreign nations doesn’t solve problems; it causes them,” Dasbach said.

check out the press release.

posted by Lynne 4:40:00 PM
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random thought:
i love ani difranco.

posted by Lynne 4:39:00 PM
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on a lighter note:
there's been this beeping (exactly once a minute, every minute) since last friday. today, nadine (spurred on by the anniversary) decided that, since it could be a bomb, she needed to find out what it was this morning. after some talking to our neighbor, it turned out that the smoke/carbon monoxide detector in the basement was low on batteries. on the down-side, it makes us think that our neighbor is a jerk because she knew what it was for 5 days, obviously heard it, but neglected to tell us about it. on the up-side, at least we know that, if it did actually go off, we'd sure be able to hear it.

posted by Lynne 10:25:00 AM
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well, the day is upon us. the sky looks almost exactly like it did on this day last year. how odd. i remember being on the el, riding toward downtown, after learning some of what was going on and thinking, "but it is such a beautiful day." as if the sky determines the quality of the day we will all have. have i just seen too many over-produced hollywood depictions of what "war" or "terrorism" are? i think we all have.

then i remember actually going to my job, but not going into my office. i went into my boss's office instead, to watch the tv. peter jennings had no idea what was going on. finally, the inevitable announcement to go home came over the pa system. so, we all did. we got in the elevators and streamed out onto van buren and jackson and state. and we walked. some of us took the el; i got on the bus. i called nadine and told her to get on a bus, and, eventually, she did. and then i noticed that something else was weird: everyone was being so nice. that's what i remember the most: how nice everyone was. we didn't fight over who got on the 22 first, we just took turns, with kind/shocked/worried/terrified looks on our faces. we took care of each other in a way. we made the unscheduled commute less traumatic.

so, i got home, thanks to the surprisingly good work of the cta. then i turned on the tv and cried. nadine finally got home and i just needed to get out. i couldn't sit there and watch anymore. little did i know that all i'd be watching for weeks to come was footage of the towers, their collapse, the pentagon, the plane that crashed, people streaming out of new york, people being brave and considerate and heroic. we met a friend at caesar's and ate lunch while watching the coverage.

and i was angry. i thought, "if afghanistan did this, then let’s just go bomb the entire country. let's just kill everyone there." and why did i think this way? because i no longer felt safe here. i wanted that feeling of security back, and i was willing, at that moment, to support whatever action would make that happen. but you know what? nothing can bring that feeling back. america swaggered about for decades with its chest out, telling everyone how it was indestructible and stepping on those without its money, power, and size. that era is now over. we can no longer expect that our government’s actions, i.e., aggressions, abroad will not impact us directly because they have.

as for our government's actions post-9/11, well...what can i say? while i was able to move past my fear to think rationally, it seems that our government never bothered. "oh, they bombed us? well, then we have to bomb them back." the logic of a five-year-old. not that i expected more, but still... i have constantly been amazed/infuriated/disheartened by the actions of our government under the rule of gw since that day, and not just in regards to "the search for bin laden". has anyone noticed the "administration's" treatment of women, minorities, AIDS, aid to other nations? regardless of what happened on 9/11, that does not justify the backward mode of the government.

however, the thing that frightens me most is that there seems to be little, if any, opposition or (at the very least) questioning of "our" government's decisions post-9/11. why is that? why are we so willing to follow blindly? has fear really gotten the best of us? doesn't anyone remember how he won/stole that election? have the events of 9/11 completely erased our collective memory before that day at 8:46 in the morning? i can't believe that. where are the voices of opposition that make our country great? does anyone see the irony in the "war on terror"? as if war wasn't terror. i do not accept that aggression by the US = war, while aggression toward the US = terror. you shouldn't either.

if this event has taught us anything, it should show us that we cannot continue to see the world in terms of "good" versus "evil". when we believe seeing america (white, upper-class, male, straight, christian america) as "good" we can begin justifying not only aggression and discrimination toward those in other countries, but also the aggression and discrimination toward women, minorities, the poor, those of other religions, and anyone else who differs in any way from the WASP male in our own country. that is not america. we are better/stronger/smarter/more diverse than that.

posted by Lynne 10:21:00 AM
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9.10.2002

i just won my first game of backgammon. yeah, i'm not very busy today...

posted by Lynne 4:23:00 PM
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ani's brand-new double-cd comes out today!!! go buy it!

posted by Lynne 9:57:00 AM
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9.09.2002

the fire alarm in this building is very loud. after about 5 minutes of beeping, it has finally been deemed a false alarm. of course, no one leaves duing these things. we all just kind of step out into our respective common areas and look at each other. lame-o-rama.

posted by Lynne 12:34:00 PM
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9.05.2002

what i have to look forward to for the rest of 2002:
~next week: start school
~september: the new ani double-cd
~october: nothing?
~november: ani concert; trip to washington, even if it is for work
~december: christmas [paid] vacation

posted by Lynne 2:50:00 PM
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as for other happy news, my tcf account is officially down to $5.00, so i can go ahead and close it out. i can't wait!

posted by Lynne 8:56:00 AM
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wish nadine a happy 24^th birthday!

posted by Lynne 8:56:00 AM
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9.04.2002

i couldn't locate this on bush watch, so i'm just going to post it here:

Like The Germans, We Don't Know What's Hitting Us
By Maureen Farrell

Sometime between last fall and Christmas, scientists discovered an alternative universe. This wasn't confirmed nor publicized, mind you, but they're bound to announce it soon. Unless, of course, like Dick Cheney's energy task force meetings or President Bush's SEC files, it's being kept secret as matter of national security.

But no matter. Because anyone who's been paying attention hasn't missed the evidence that's been mounting steadily since last September. From the moment authorities discovered Mohamed Atta's "Terrorism for Dummies" manual and we learned about 72 virgins, Evil Doers' grooming tips, and how terrorists' passports (unlike black boxes) survive fiery crashes into buildings, things have become increasingly surreal.

If an alternative universe didn't exist, you see, jets would have been scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, and, in the time it takes to say, "Payne Stewart," innocent lives would have been saved. The president wouldn't have fooled anyone with his "they hate us for our freedoms," schtick and Americans of all political stripes would have asked, "Why don't they go after Canada, then, eh?"

And how else could we explain Condoleezza Rice's insistence, that, despite warnings from French intelligence, G-8 Summit organizers and Tom Clancey novels, nobody could have predicted that terrorists would fly airplanes into skyscrapers? Because, in the alternative universe, on that very same day, CIA honcho John Fulton was conducting simulations of planes doing just that. As literature from this year's September 6th Chicago-based homeland security conference confirms: "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building."

Imagine that.

Of course, that's not the only strange incident that occurred that day. At the moment the first plane struck the first tower, bin Laden family members were meeting with members of the Carlyle group, the nation's fifth largest defense contractor, which includes the president's father as a board member. Equally surreal was the New York Times' account of Representative Porter Goss (R-FL) and Senator Bob Graham's (D-FL) September 11 breakfast with the head of Pakistani intelligence, who reportedly ordered that $100,000 be wired to Atta days before the attacks. Goss and Graham, you might recall, are co-chairs of the congressional committee investigating the attacks on New York and DC.

If that's not enough to convince you that weirdness prevails, consider this: if a post-9/11 parallel universe hadn't emerged, America would not be discussing first-strike nuclear policies or preemptive strikes against Iraq. Brent Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger, and Chuck Hagel wouldn't have suddenly and ironically become our nation's most vocal doves and G.W. would understand that declarations of war are Congress' department, not his. Cries of "Saddam gassed his own people!" wouldn't be shouted ad naseum, while Bush #41's role as Hussein's silent ally during that gassing wouldn't remain largely ignored. And if not for this brave new world, civil rights commissioner Peter Kirsanow wouldn't be openly anticipating suspension of civil rights, while America's attorney general would cringe at the thought of concentration camps for anyone.

In our former reality, lessons from Vietnam were firmly ingrained. States hadn't yet linked driver's license applications to selective service registration, and the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which would require young men to report for 6-12 months of military training, education and indoctrination, had not been introduced in the House. Likewise, homeland security camps, like the one held for troubled teens over the summer, were more likely to be found in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch than in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. And hypothetical dilemmas posed at the camp would be more parody than preparation. "If I have 40 acres of forest," one problem began, "how many search dogs will I need to find a fugitive?" If we weren't living in an alternative universe, you'd think I was making that up.

Then too, Frank J. Gaffney's nationally televised diatribes wouldn't be so glaringly at odds with foreign press reports regarding America's reputation worldwide. Wedding party bombings notwithstanding, Gaffney's claims that the citizens of Afghanistan are grateful for their American-sponsored liberation doesn't gel with Irish and American-made documentaries about U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. And, if anything, newspaper reports of "cruel Americans" storming into homes and filming naked Afghan women, whose clothing was burned off during bombings, reveal, at the very least, an alternative truth.

And how, but for a separate reality, could we ever explain the media hype surrounding missing children -- despite FBI statistics that show that kidnappings are not on the rise? How else could a mother from Texas, whose infant was stolen the day before, warrant a nationally televised press conference -- especially when she doesn't speak English and her baby was returned unharmed? And in what kind of world do newspapers run front page stories on why parents should consider having their children implanted with microchips -- as our global satellite positioning system babysits America's most branded?

"We have [global positioning system] units for our cars," Applied Digital spokesperson Matthew Cossolo told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "If your car is stolen, we can locate it. Do we love our cars more than our children?" Translation: Have your kids "chipped" or you're a horrible person.

When the media reminds us, day in and day out, of how vulnerable our children are, we can overlook the Orwellian implications and understand why some people are clamoring for this device. In this alternative universe, however, we can also understand the implications of treating children like cattle, and why the Armageddon-minded view this chip as "the mark of the beast."

"Face it," wrote Garrison Keiller in Time, "a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality." No kidding. These days, however, it's hard to know what's real and what's not - including approval ratings, which seem grossly over-inflated. But then again, before 9/11, could we have imagined a futuristic world where governmentally-monitored biochipped children participate in mandatory military training? Or where state-sponsored concentration camps were anything other than History's horror stories?

In his book, "They Thought They Were Free," Milton Mayor chronicled the thoughts and experiences of citizens in Nazi Germany and offered a glimpse of how the German people could have allowed the Third Reich to thrive. As one unnamed scholar reported:

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. . . .Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head."

Perhaps the Germans lived in an alternative universe, too.

--Maureen Farrell is a freelance writer who prefers the universe the way it was before the 2000 selection.

posted by Lynne 4:08:00 PM
(0) fabulous little things

am i sexist if i (really, really) prefer working with women because they are, at least in my recent experience, much more considerate, communicative, and efficient?

posted by Lynne 2:05:00 PM
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how people have found my site as of 09.03.2002:
::august
fabulous life
chunky heels
decorating a birdcage
joust menu
k-mart-news
pretty heels nadine
::july
shaped like canada
david friedman hidden order -site:daviddfriedman.com_best.com/~
::june
nadine's new job
cyberpixels
dhtml foldout menu

posted by Lynne 10:18:00 AM
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so, i brought my ikea stuff today, and i just discovered that the screws that are already in my wall are too far apart, so...i guess i need to call someone about that...but who? i also have some cute magnets, onto which i am going to put my stickers from mushycat...if i ever find them. i am, however, utilizing my fabulous mouse pad and keyboard pad with wrist rests; they're wonderful.

posted by Lynne 9:42:00 AM
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9.03.2002

oh no...i bought a bunch of cool stuff for my office at ikea on wednesday and, of course, forgot to bring it with me today.

posted by Lynne 9:41:00 AM
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now, i have tons and tons and tons to catch up on. fabulous...

posted by Lynne 9:38:00 AM
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for anyone who was concerned: i was très sick at the end of last week. i feel a bit better today, though.

posted by Lynne 9:36:00 AM
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