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I will bring you down
Mar. 1st, 2003 12:09 pmI am thrashing around in the brain here, 'processing' all the gloom and doom that's ranging around hereabouts right now, the majority of which centering around things that, y'know, haven't even happened yet. But every new messenger brings evil reports, etc.
I know many people saw this uplifting If It Happened Here - A bioterrorism attack on Los Angeles might look a lot like this, um, article (article? piece?). Since no one actually died horribly in real life, just 38,000ish people in the parallel world of the article, I'll just say the thing I was left pondering was the long-term consequences of something like this... having a "containment zone" of now questionable safety that formerly was desirable real estate, and the impact of a port shutdown. It's all speculative I know but it underscores for me once again how fragile things can be, things we have grown to depend on as "just how things are". I mean, of course the grocery store always has food for me.
Clearly no country can absorb attacks such as those that happened on 9/11 indefinitely. And these "asymmetric weapons", well they'll really fuck you up. So what do you do? This is the problem right?
So, I read that article last night, and just thereafter - I ain't foolin' - Jim Q. emails me some horrible nightmare prediction of how a war involving North Korea would go. Fuck. Just what I wanted to see, right? It's called Steep price tag expected for victory in N. Korea and is just about as horrifying as one might expect, although I don't recall them emphasizing anything about North Korean attacks that might hit actual U.S. territory. Jim wants me to email him back with my 'opinion' on this... I think it will be less an opinion and more of a strangled cry of terror.
Then, this morning, I get up and someone has emailed yet another ray of sunshine, this one is an account of some Newsday reporter who attended a meeting of the World Economic Forum (whoever they are) in Switzerland. Her summary of some of what was floating around is here. Here's my favorite part:
'These WEF folks are freaked out. They see very bad economics ahead, war, and more terrorism. About 10% of the sessions were about terrorism, and it's heavy stuff. One session costed out what another 9/11-type attack would do to global markets, predicting a far, far worse impact due to the "second hit" effect -- a second hit that would prove all the world's post-9/11 security efforts had failed.'
Lovely. And if it happens in Europe, I'm telling you, the "World Police State" timetable will be stepped up a few years.
So after all that, here's me, sitting around contemplating the weekend. I want to ride my bike. I need to get some groceries at some point. I kind of have a bug up my ass about going through some stuff in "storage" (moving boxes in the closet...) here and separating some things out to sell on eBay or otherwise lose. I am also itching to organize my comics.
As part of my recent bookbuying spree, I picked up this book called The Mount by Carol Emshwiller. I started reading it last night and it is pretty interesting so far. Something about the description I had read of it put me in mind of John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy, which I had enjoyed quite a bit as a youngster. I liked several of his books come to think of it, although the public library in my hometown tended to have only 1-2 books out of "trilogies" he had written, which was a drag. Ha ha! A drag! A real "bummer". Yes! "Dude!"
And more in that bummer vein, oh yes more, please to forgive, I got an email from friend Jay this morning in which he noted he has now been unemployed for 1 year, since Apple laid him off. And he's not the only one I know in that boat. Christ - 1 year. I'd be sleeping in a pile of leaves somewhere within a month if I lost my job. Which I could, of course, lose my job... ugh. Poor Jay though, he's a smart guy and one of the most caring people I've ever worked with, someone who is truly motivated to do the right thing in life. He needs some good Mac support job, he thinks. That's his trouble, I might say, but then that is the thing he is really interested in, his passion and what have you - the Mac. I am sure just the thought of "I have been out of a job for a year" thing is doing a number on him. I'll have to email him back and, as hard as this might be to imagine of me, say something positive.
Hmmm I provided links to 3 scary stories in this post. I feel like the 'Crypt-Keeper'.
I know many people saw this uplifting If It Happened Here - A bioterrorism attack on Los Angeles might look a lot like this, um, article (article? piece?). Since no one actually died horribly in real life, just 38,000ish people in the parallel world of the article, I'll just say the thing I was left pondering was the long-term consequences of something like this... having a "containment zone" of now questionable safety that formerly was desirable real estate, and the impact of a port shutdown. It's all speculative I know but it underscores for me once again how fragile things can be, things we have grown to depend on as "just how things are". I mean, of course the grocery store always has food for me.
Clearly no country can absorb attacks such as those that happened on 9/11 indefinitely. And these "asymmetric weapons", well they'll really fuck you up. So what do you do? This is the problem right?
So, I read that article last night, and just thereafter - I ain't foolin' - Jim Q. emails me some horrible nightmare prediction of how a war involving North Korea would go. Fuck. Just what I wanted to see, right? It's called Steep price tag expected for victory in N. Korea and is just about as horrifying as one might expect, although I don't recall them emphasizing anything about North Korean attacks that might hit actual U.S. territory. Jim wants me to email him back with my 'opinion' on this... I think it will be less an opinion and more of a strangled cry of terror.
Then, this morning, I get up and someone has emailed yet another ray of sunshine, this one is an account of some Newsday reporter who attended a meeting of the World Economic Forum (whoever they are) in Switzerland. Her summary of some of what was floating around is here. Here's my favorite part:
'These WEF folks are freaked out. They see very bad economics ahead, war, and more terrorism. About 10% of the sessions were about terrorism, and it's heavy stuff. One session costed out what another 9/11-type attack would do to global markets, predicting a far, far worse impact due to the "second hit" effect -- a second hit that would prove all the world's post-9/11 security efforts had failed.'
Lovely. And if it happens in Europe, I'm telling you, the "World Police State" timetable will be stepped up a few years.
So after all that, here's me, sitting around contemplating the weekend. I want to ride my bike. I need to get some groceries at some point. I kind of have a bug up my ass about going through some stuff in "storage" (moving boxes in the closet...) here and separating some things out to sell on eBay or otherwise lose. I am also itching to organize my comics.
As part of my recent bookbuying spree, I picked up this book called The Mount by Carol Emshwiller. I started reading it last night and it is pretty interesting so far. Something about the description I had read of it put me in mind of John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy, which I had enjoyed quite a bit as a youngster. I liked several of his books come to think of it, although the public library in my hometown tended to have only 1-2 books out of "trilogies" he had written, which was a drag. Ha ha! A drag! A real "bummer". Yes! "Dude!"
And more in that bummer vein, oh yes more, please to forgive, I got an email from friend Jay this morning in which he noted he has now been unemployed for 1 year, since Apple laid him off. And he's not the only one I know in that boat. Christ - 1 year. I'd be sleeping in a pile of leaves somewhere within a month if I lost my job. Which I could, of course, lose my job... ugh. Poor Jay though, he's a smart guy and one of the most caring people I've ever worked with, someone who is truly motivated to do the right thing in life. He needs some good Mac support job, he thinks. That's his trouble, I might say, but then that is the thing he is really interested in, his passion and what have you - the Mac. I am sure just the thought of "I have been out of a job for a year" thing is doing a number on him. I'll have to email him back and, as hard as this might be to imagine of me, say something positive.
Hmmm I provided links to 3 scary stories in this post. I feel like the 'Crypt-Keeper'.
