i haven't been blogging about the movies i've seen lately. but i gotta say that mahmoud ahmadinejad was awesome in little miss sunshine
honestly, say what you want about the president of iran, but he sure can act. not even a trace of an accent. truly amazing.
NOTE: this post created for the sole purpose of pissing off golden boy who, for some reason, gets all upset if i bring up the iranian president without also calling him eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil
Thursday, August 31, 2006
spotlight
bill frist (8/29/06):
I think what [the Democrats are] doing – it’s such a political problem – is that they’re taking the spotlight and doing whatever they can to focus that spotlight on Iraq....Bush Shifting Public Focus to Terrorism and Iraq War
With the midterm elections approaching, President Bush is beginning an extended tour to draw attention to the threat of terrorism and the Iraq war, quickly pivoting to more comfortable territory after the focus on the Hurricane Katrina anniversary.who is that mysterious figure behind the spotlight?
Starting with an address to veterans on Thursday, Mr. Bush intends to outline what one adviser described as the “consequences of victory and defeat,” a theme he conveyed here on Wednesday night, when he warned that a hasty departure from Iraq would create a terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East.
Advisers said Mr. Bush would continue his speeches on Iraq and the broader struggle against terrorism for several weeks, keying off the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
blockade
how does maintaining a blockade of lebanon serve israeli interests? putting aside whether israel was right or wrong to do it in the first place, i don't see how keeping lebanese ports and airports closed serves any purpose for the israelis.
in international law a blockade is considered to be an act of war, just like a military attack or invasion. in other words, if one country blockades another, then the blockaded country is justified under international law to attack the blockader. in this case, israel claims that it has no beef with the lebanese government, only hezbollah. that's why israel insisted upon the lebanese army come into southern lebanon along israel's southern border. yet its blockade is directed at all of lebanon. the action directly contradicts israel's official stance. it not only imposes more hardship on the lebanese people, it also it means that lebanese troops now lining the israeli-lebanese border would be justified under international law if they started firing south.
don't get me wrong, i think there is zero chance that lebanon will do that. they have no incentive to, and unlike israel the lebanese government seems to be acting in a way that at least arguably serves their national interests. but it means that israel, once again, has taken whatever justification it might have once had for its actions and flushed it down the toilet.
but most importantly putting international law aside, the blockade is simply stupid policy. lebanon, like many small countries, relies on imports. because the israeli-lebanese border is heavily militarized and closed there's only three ways to get goods into lebanon: by sea, by air and through one of the border crossings with syria. an air and naval blockade closes off the first two options, leaving only the syrian border. yet israel claims it is maintaining the blockade to stop weapons shipments from syria.
the blockade forces lebanon to get all of its shipments through syria. that makes lebanon more dependent on syria and increases the chances that weapons will be smuggled into lebanon that supplies moving across the border.
the only reason i can come up with for the continuation of the israeli blockade is simple testosterone poisoning. the olmert government went into lebanon to prove that they had cajones. the policy was a colossal failure, accomplishing none of its stated goals. almost two-thirds of the israeli public wants olmert to resign over the bungled operation. olmert doesn't want to add the blockade to the pile of embarrassments, so he's keeping it in place until the international forces arrive (if ever).
at least that's the best theory i can come up with. maybe someone out there has a better one.
in international law a blockade is considered to be an act of war, just like a military attack or invasion. in other words, if one country blockades another, then the blockaded country is justified under international law to attack the blockader. in this case, israel claims that it has no beef with the lebanese government, only hezbollah. that's why israel insisted upon the lebanese army come into southern lebanon along israel's southern border. yet its blockade is directed at all of lebanon. the action directly contradicts israel's official stance. it not only imposes more hardship on the lebanese people, it also it means that lebanese troops now lining the israeli-lebanese border would be justified under international law if they started firing south.
don't get me wrong, i think there is zero chance that lebanon will do that. they have no incentive to, and unlike israel the lebanese government seems to be acting in a way that at least arguably serves their national interests. but it means that israel, once again, has taken whatever justification it might have once had for its actions and flushed it down the toilet.
but most importantly putting international law aside, the blockade is simply stupid policy. lebanon, like many small countries, relies on imports. because the israeli-lebanese border is heavily militarized and closed there's only three ways to get goods into lebanon: by sea, by air and through one of the border crossings with syria. an air and naval blockade closes off the first two options, leaving only the syrian border. yet israel claims it is maintaining the blockade to stop weapons shipments from syria.
the blockade forces lebanon to get all of its shipments through syria. that makes lebanon more dependent on syria and increases the chances that weapons will be smuggled into lebanon that supplies moving across the border.
the only reason i can come up with for the continuation of the israeli blockade is simple testosterone poisoning. the olmert government went into lebanon to prove that they had cajones. the policy was a colossal failure, accomplishing none of its stated goals. almost two-thirds of the israeli public wants olmert to resign over the bungled operation. olmert doesn't want to add the blockade to the pile of embarrassments, so he's keeping it in place until the international forces arrive (if ever).
at least that's the best theory i can come up with. maybe someone out there has a better one.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
excellent
booman lists me among the ranks of excellent philly bloggers.
luckily sir oolius skipped town so i could make it on the list.
oh, and the reason philly has so many excellent bloggers is because we have a couple of big-name bloggers who have been very generous in showering a some love on the little people like me. in other words, philadelphia probably doesn't have a better pool of bloggers than any other city. it's just that the bigger fish in the pool make some effort to feed the little fish too. the net result is that the whole pool looks bigger.
so that's the secret of my immense power and influence.
luckily sir oolius skipped town so i could make it on the list.
oh, and the reason philly has so many excellent bloggers is because we have a couple of big-name bloggers who have been very generous in showering a some love on the little people like me. in other words, philadelphia probably doesn't have a better pool of bloggers than any other city. it's just that the bigger fish in the pool make some effort to feed the little fish too. the net result is that the whole pool looks bigger.
so that's the secret of my immense power and influence.
clowns
echidne's post reminded me of a post i almost wrote a long time ago. basically, i realized that i was thinking of two world leaders as essentially the same. both are leaders of countries currently on the outs with the u.s. both resist american hegemony, but neither are a serious threat to the united states. both have been touted as a serious threat to the u.s. by the bush administration. both were popularly elected, but both have been called threats to democracy. both are populists. both champion the poor in their respective countries, but both also are looking for the support of the dispossessed in the wider region or world. both like to say outrageous things to get attention from the foreign press. both are a bit of a clown.
i'm talking, of course, about hugo chavez and mahmoud ahmadinejad. are they the same guy or what?
i'm talking, of course, about hugo chavez and mahmoud ahmadinejad. are they the same guy or what?
PR
the wall street journal is reporting that bush will launch yet another PR campaign win over the american public on the iraq war (note: link is to the think progress blurb about the article. no one has given be a free WSJ online account yet so i can't link to the article itself)
what is this, PR offensive number 87? how can he possibly expect it to work? most of his iraq-war related efforts in the past 3 years since "major combat" ended have been dedicated to public relations campaigns. and yet support of the war drops every time someone polls it.
when bush was first elected, he was touted as the first MBA president. maybe that's the problem here. bush apparently sees the problem with the war as a problem of marketing. if a product is tanking, you just roll out a new advertising campaign. if the campaign doesn't work, you roll out another one. but the problem with iraq is not marketing. it's not that americans don't know enough about how the iraq war is going, they know too much about it. no rebranding will erase the quagmire from their minds. the problem isn't the selling of the policy, it's the policy itself.
this morning i looked at the front page of the new york times and found no mention of iraq at all. yesterday was the same. the problem is not that the media is highlighting the bad news from iraq. the media is highlighting very little at all, even on a day when five american soldiers were killed there. since bush is unwilling to change his policy at all no matter what happens there, he's better off just leaving well enough alone and ignoring the matter entirely.
what is this, PR offensive number 87? how can he possibly expect it to work? most of his iraq-war related efforts in the past 3 years since "major combat" ended have been dedicated to public relations campaigns. and yet support of the war drops every time someone polls it.
when bush was first elected, he was touted as the first MBA president. maybe that's the problem here. bush apparently sees the problem with the war as a problem of marketing. if a product is tanking, you just roll out a new advertising campaign. if the campaign doesn't work, you roll out another one. but the problem with iraq is not marketing. it's not that americans don't know enough about how the iraq war is going, they know too much about it. no rebranding will erase the quagmire from their minds. the problem isn't the selling of the policy, it's the policy itself.
this morning i looked at the front page of the new york times and found no mention of iraq at all. yesterday was the same. the problem is not that the media is highlighting the bad news from iraq. the media is highlighting very little at all, even on a day when five american soldiers were killed there. since bush is unwilling to change his policy at all no matter what happens there, he's better off just leaving well enough alone and ignoring the matter entirely.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
out boning the president
i spent much of this morning driving around central pennsylvania. it was one of those crack-o-dawn days, when i had to wake up before the sun rose to drive to a hearing in the middle of nowhere.
anyway, i got to listen to all these little NPR affiliates in the middle of the state. i say "all these" because it seems like whenever i got a good signal from one, i would drive around a mountain and lose it. so i ended up listening to quite a few different channels, interspersed with a bit of static.
although the national morning news was the same, the local news was quite different once i left the WHYY (the philadelphia NPR station) behind. one of the main local stories on all of the non-WHYY stations was a speech given by rick santorum yesterday in harrisburg. the radio stations excerpted two different recordings from his speech. i'm doing this from memory, i can't find the speech online, but here's the rough gist of the two santorum quotes:
1. rick said that we are not at war with a country like iraq or afghanistan or an action like terrorism, but rather against islam. or a strain of islam.
2. rick said that distinctions like those between shia and sunni, secular and religious have no bearing on this war.
even though the two quotes were played in succession, there seemed to be no awareness that they directly contradicted one another. it seems elementary that if this is a war against a strain of islam, then who is secular and who is religious is an important distinction to make.
it's also remarkable that the quotes were only playing in the middle (i.e. the "red") parts of the state. why didn't WHYY pick up on it as well?
finally, i was struck by how rick santorum actually managed to articulate a worse middle eastern policy than the president. honestly, i thought bush was the low-water mark when it came to bone-headed policies for the region. i wouldn't have thought you could do worse than him. but i guess i overestimated santorum. rick is always full of surprises.
anyway, i got to listen to all these little NPR affiliates in the middle of the state. i say "all these" because it seems like whenever i got a good signal from one, i would drive around a mountain and lose it. so i ended up listening to quite a few different channels, interspersed with a bit of static.
although the national morning news was the same, the local news was quite different once i left the WHYY (the philadelphia NPR station) behind. one of the main local stories on all of the non-WHYY stations was a speech given by rick santorum yesterday in harrisburg. the radio stations excerpted two different recordings from his speech. i'm doing this from memory, i can't find the speech online, but here's the rough gist of the two santorum quotes:
1. rick said that we are not at war with a country like iraq or afghanistan or an action like terrorism, but rather against islam. or a strain of islam.
2. rick said that distinctions like those between shia and sunni, secular and religious have no bearing on this war.
even though the two quotes were played in succession, there seemed to be no awareness that they directly contradicted one another. it seems elementary that if this is a war against a strain of islam, then who is secular and who is religious is an important distinction to make.
it's also remarkable that the quotes were only playing in the middle (i.e. the "red") parts of the state. why didn't WHYY pick up on it as well?
finally, i was struck by how rick santorum actually managed to articulate a worse middle eastern policy than the president. honestly, i thought bush was the low-water mark when it came to bone-headed policies for the region. i wouldn't have thought you could do worse than him. but i guess i overestimated santorum. rick is always full of surprises.
Monday, August 28, 2006
peering into the future
chris is laying out his house race predictions for the fall election. his pdf chart is like political junky crack.
seriously, it takes guts to make a prediction like that and lay it out for everyone to see. guts that i certainly don't have (also, i don't know crap about a great majority of the house races. how do people like chris keep track of all of them?) but he predicts that my repulsive congressman will get his ass whooped by lois murphy. i can at least back him on that one.
seriously, it takes guts to make a prediction like that and lay it out for everyone to see. guts that i certainly don't have (also, i don't know crap about a great majority of the house races. how do people like chris keep track of all of them?) but he predicts that my repulsive congressman will get his ass whooped by lois murphy. i can at least back him on that one.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
the forgotten war
the only mention of the iraq war on the front page of today's new york times is an article about scantily-clad dancers who are entertaining american troops there. it's really odd. if you looked at the front page, you would hardly know there was a war there.
in the middle of the article i saw this bit:
in the middle of the article i saw this bit:
Sgt. Dale Gooden, 31, a Marine reservist from Jacksonville, Fla., who is assigned to the dam security unit, saw the show as a sign that the American public had not forgotten about the troops. The most impressive part of the show, he said, was “just the fact that they came out here to see us.”maybe not. but it is strange how we've settled into such low-key coverage of a place where american soldiers die just about every day.
pseudo pscience psunday
smell that? that's data collection in the air! everyone's doing it. you should too.
so do this
then do that
see? that wasn't so bad. i didn't even make you believe in evolution or anything.
so do this
then do that
see? that wasn't so bad. i didn't even make you believe in evolution or anything.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
benis bumb
there's no "p" in the arabic language. a lot of arabs do have trouble pronouncing the sound and a "p" often turns into something like a "b."
my very first arabic professor once told this story about when he first came to the u.s. as a student. he lived in berkley and didn't always understand the lingo on the signs on the side of the road. one day he asked a police officer "can i bark here?" "you can bark whenever you want, it's a free country." the officer replied.
anyway, that's not nearly as embarrassing as this guy's story.
(via nina (aka spouse of dave))
my very first arabic professor once told this story about when he first came to the u.s. as a student. he lived in berkley and didn't always understand the lingo on the signs on the side of the road. one day he asked a police officer "can i bark here?" "you can bark whenever you want, it's a free country." the officer replied.
anyway, that's not nearly as embarrassing as this guy's story.
(via nina (aka spouse of dave))
instapundit
why does anyone read instapundit? i'm not being facetious or anything, i really wanna know.
i mean, back when i started blogging insty had the largest number of hits on the planet. he isn't quite #1 anymore (and he hasn't been for a while), but he still has a lot of people reading the site. every once in a while i drop in for a look. while there are plenty of sites i don't particularly like (and i'm sure there are no shortage of people who see nothing of worth in rubber hose), i usually can at least imagine why a site may appeal to someone out there.
but not instapundit. i mean, glenn reynolds really doesn't say much at all. most of his posts are just links to somewhere else with pithy quotes. because he has such a big audience, i'm sure anyone who gets a front page link sees a nice hit spike. that seems to be all he's offering. he has a lot of hits and so he hands them out, without really adding any content. so while i understand why a blogger would like to be linked by instapundit, i don't get why anyone would want to read his blog.
in other words, given the site's large audience, i understand why glenn reynolds is influential, despite the lack of content on his site. but given his lack of content, why the large audience? isn't he really just a link aggregator? but there are web sites that function as aggregators that you can custom tailor yourself, why would anyone want to rely on glenn's choices for links rather than their own?
anyone out there who reads instapundit, riddle me this: why?
i mean, back when i started blogging insty had the largest number of hits on the planet. he isn't quite #1 anymore (and he hasn't been for a while), but he still has a lot of people reading the site. every once in a while i drop in for a look. while there are plenty of sites i don't particularly like (and i'm sure there are no shortage of people who see nothing of worth in rubber hose), i usually can at least imagine why a site may appeal to someone out there.
but not instapundit. i mean, glenn reynolds really doesn't say much at all. most of his posts are just links to somewhere else with pithy quotes. because he has such a big audience, i'm sure anyone who gets a front page link sees a nice hit spike. that seems to be all he's offering. he has a lot of hits and so he hands them out, without really adding any content. so while i understand why a blogger would like to be linked by instapundit, i don't get why anyone would want to read his blog.
in other words, given the site's large audience, i understand why glenn reynolds is influential, despite the lack of content on his site. but given his lack of content, why the large audience? isn't he really just a link aggregator? but there are web sites that function as aggregators that you can custom tailor yourself, why would anyone want to rely on glenn's choices for links rather than their own?
anyone out there who reads instapundit, riddle me this: why?
finding my secret identity in 3 easy steps
1. buy this book
2. turn to page 509 and look for this picture
3. go to the photo credits in the back of the book
yeah, it happened again. the thing is: i'm not that good of a photographer--certainly not anywhere in the same class as some of my friends. it's more a matter of traveling to places that a lot of other people don't go. the relatively small pool of photos out there works to my advantage.
2. turn to page 509 and look for this picture
3. go to the photo credits in the back of the book
yeah, it happened again. the thing is: i'm not that good of a photographer--certainly not anywhere in the same class as some of my friends. it's more a matter of traveling to places that a lot of other people don't go. the relatively small pool of photos out there works to my advantage.
randian paradise
one of the articles of faith of my libertarian friends is that capitalism is the natural state of a human being and that the only thing that stops it is government regulation.
yet iraq has had a barely functioning government for a little while, so why are they facing runaway inflation and not prosperity? somalia has not had a functioning government for more than a decade. so shouldn't it be a shiny high-tech paradise by now and not one of the poorest countries in the world? there are plenty more examples; the governments of haiti and afghanistan barely control much of their hinterlands. in many third world cities, the government has basically withdrawn from the slums. so why aren't we all clamoring to move to korogocho or other juicy tax and regulation-free places?
yet iraq has had a barely functioning government for a little while, so why are they facing runaway inflation and not prosperity? somalia has not had a functioning government for more than a decade. so shouldn't it be a shiny high-tech paradise by now and not one of the poorest countries in the world? there are plenty more examples; the governments of haiti and afghanistan barely control much of their hinterlands. in many third world cities, the government has basically withdrawn from the slums. so why aren't we all clamoring to move to korogocho or other juicy tax and regulation-free places?
Friday, August 25, 2006
loser president
a year and a half ago, i wrote my argument for why a timetable for withdrawal is the only way to "win" the war in iraq. at the time, i used hezbollah's reaction to the israeli pullout from south lebanon in 2000 as an example. but i think the perceptions following the latest conflict in lebanon lend further support my argument.
this week's news in southern iraq is exactly as i predicted it. if the british has announced an august 2006 pullout date three years ago, it would have been a lot harder to spin this as a victory for the local militia. by not having a pre-announced timetable, withdraw can easily been seen as a retreat.
the u.s. will not be in iraq forever. the american public is now solidly against staying in iraq and iraqi public opinion is overwhelmingly against it. the writing is on the wall. it's really just a matter of "when" not "if." without pre-announced plans any withdrawal becomes a retreat. by utterly refusing to accept any timetable for withdrawal, president bush has guaranteed that we will lose the war in iraq.
this week's news in southern iraq is exactly as i predicted it. if the british has announced an august 2006 pullout date three years ago, it would have been a lot harder to spin this as a victory for the local militia. by not having a pre-announced timetable, withdraw can easily been seen as a retreat.
the u.s. will not be in iraq forever. the american public is now solidly against staying in iraq and iraqi public opinion is overwhelmingly against it. the writing is on the wall. it's really just a matter of "when" not "if." without pre-announced plans any withdrawal becomes a retreat. by utterly refusing to accept any timetable for withdrawal, president bush has guaranteed that we will lose the war in iraq.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
fighter jet escort
i've never really understood the point of "fighter jet escort" in these kind of situations. all the fighter jets can do is shoot down the passenger plane. but i thought a blown up passenger plane is what we're trying to avoid.
i guess, it make a kind of statement to have military planes escort the commercial aircraft back to the airport. nothing says "this is serious" like a pair of F-16s.
and, i suppose, the fighter jets can shoot down the passenger plane before it rams itself into some important dutch monument (like a big windmill or something). but still. this fighter jet thing just strikes me as a way to act like we're really doing something even though what we're doing can't accomplish what we say we want to do.
i guess, it make a kind of statement to have military planes escort the commercial aircraft back to the airport. nothing says "this is serious" like a pair of F-16s.
and, i suppose, the fighter jets can shoot down the passenger plane before it rams itself into some important dutch monument (like a big windmill or something). but still. this fighter jet thing just strikes me as a way to act like we're really doing something even though what we're doing can't accomplish what we say we want to do.
bush books
there's lot's of fun out there surrounding bush's alleged reading habits. there's the white house's claim that bush has read 60 books in the past year. (which the carpetbagger argues cannot be true). i don't know if it's true or not, but at least it would explain why bush hasn't been paying any attention to his presidency.
then there this stranger business. i guess i missed this small hubbub (smubub?) while i was away. but the idea that bush read the existential classic on his vacation is so packed with comic potential that i almost wish me and mrs. noz had scheduled our baltic trip around it. i mean, the hero of the book is a man who is unable to feel normal human emotion and then kills and arab man for no reason. the fact that bush's spokesperson was bragging about reading that particular book itself is pretty good evidence that bush never even bothered to read the cliff notes.
then there this stranger business. i guess i missed this small hubbub (smubub?) while i was away. but the idea that bush read the existential classic on his vacation is so packed with comic potential that i almost wish me and mrs. noz had scheduled our baltic trip around it. i mean, the hero of the book is a man who is unable to feel normal human emotion and then kills and arab man for no reason. the fact that bush's spokesperson was bragging about reading that particular book itself is pretty good evidence that bush never even bothered to read the cliff notes.
why arabic is the bestest language
what other language has a single word (عامرية) that means (to quote herr wehr) "camel-borne sedan and the virgin riding in it into battle"?
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
drinking liberally
i'll be at the philadelphia drinking liberally tonight. come to be bored to tears with my tales of lithuanian adventure, estonian excitement, and um, latvian lunacy. or just show up to give me a ride home.
in any case, it's the same as always: tangier, 18th and lombard. 6 p.m. until someone drives me home.
in any case, it's the same as always: tangier, 18th and lombard. 6 p.m. until someone drives me home.
rum away
there's a rumor that bush is quietly trying to find a replacement for donald rumsfeld. there was a time when replacing rumsfeld could have been a really good political move (e.g. just after the abu ghraib story broke). as much as i would love to see rummy go replacing him now could turn into a huge political blunder.
the problem is that the secretary of defense must clear a senate confirmation hearing. giving an opportunity to debate the administration's failings in iraq is not a smart thing to do just before 1/3 of the senators are up for reelection while 61% of the public opposes the war in iraq.
of course, because control of the senate could change hands, maybe bush feels this is his last chance to replace rummy with another loony neo-con. or maybe bush thinks he can time the hearings so they occur during a lame-duck session in november or december.
on the other hand, it is just a rumor. and even if it's right, i'm not that hopeful that bush would tap anyone who's any better. as atrios says, anyone stupid enough to take the job won't be an improvement.
the problem is that the secretary of defense must clear a senate confirmation hearing. giving an opportunity to debate the administration's failings in iraq is not a smart thing to do just before 1/3 of the senators are up for reelection while 61% of the public opposes the war in iraq.
of course, because control of the senate could change hands, maybe bush feels this is his last chance to replace rummy with another loony neo-con. or maybe bush thinks he can time the hearings so they occur during a lame-duck session in november or december.
on the other hand, it is just a rumor. and even if it's right, i'm not that hopeful that bush would tap anyone who's any better. as atrios says, anyone stupid enough to take the job won't be an improvement.
Monday, August 21, 2006
screwed
overwhelmed by the pile of crap on my desk.
it's the price i pay for going away. it's worth it, but this is gonna suck for a little while.
it's the price i pay for going away. it's worth it, but this is gonna suck for a little while.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
"strained"
i believe the word they meant is "broken"
hopefully, the ceasefire won't fall apart. but if it does, it's only because hezbollah is willing to pretend israel's violation did not happen.
hopefully, the ceasefire won't fall apart. but if it does, it's only because hezbollah is willing to pretend israel's violation did not happen.
القاعدة --إسحاق أسيموف
now that i'm back, it's time for a new obsession. the liberal avenger emailed me this four-year old article (LA posted about it here and MatthewB directed me to this other article that discusses the same theory). the article argues that the name for the terrorist group "al-qa'ida" may have been inspired by the 1952 arabic translation of isaac asimov's "foundation". the translation used "al-qa'ida" as the arabic title.
so now i simply must have a copy of the arabic translation of this book. the 1952 edition would be ideal, but i would also be satisfied with any version that has the title القاعدة ("al-qa'ida").
for the record, i think the notion that osama bin laden named his terrorist organization as an homage to the classic sci-fi novel (by a jewish author, no less) is rather far fetched. but this is one of those rare intersections between two otherwise unrelated interests of mine (science fiction and the arabic language), so i just gotta find me a copy of this.
this morning, i sent several emails out to people i know who may have some leads, either from the book collecting or arabic language angles. so far nothing has panned out (though i also haven't heard back from everyone yet either). i think what i need is a searchable database of books in arabic like AddALL, or even just an arabic version of amazon. of course, if anyone out there happens to have a mouldering old copy sitting in their attic that would work too. the arabic wiki entry for asimov does not have any external links that can be used to track down his books. in fact, the wiki article doesn't mention "foundation" at all.
if anyone out there has any ideas or information that could conceivably lead to that book ending up in my greedy hands, let me know.
so now i simply must have a copy of the arabic translation of this book. the 1952 edition would be ideal, but i would also be satisfied with any version that has the title القاعدة ("al-qa'ida").
for the record, i think the notion that osama bin laden named his terrorist organization as an homage to the classic sci-fi novel (by a jewish author, no less) is rather far fetched. but this is one of those rare intersections between two otherwise unrelated interests of mine (science fiction and the arabic language), so i just gotta find me a copy of this.
this morning, i sent several emails out to people i know who may have some leads, either from the book collecting or arabic language angles. so far nothing has panned out (though i also haven't heard back from everyone yet either). i think what i need is a searchable database of books in arabic like AddALL, or even just an arabic version of amazon. of course, if anyone out there happens to have a mouldering old copy sitting in their attic that would work too. the arabic wiki entry for asimov does not have any external links that can be used to track down his books. in fact, the wiki article doesn't mention "foundation" at all.
if anyone out there has any ideas or information that could conceivably lead to that book ending up in my greedy hands, let me know.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
monato
this has happened several times now. i get an email from someone who says that they liked an image i posted on flickr and requests permission to use the photo in a book or magazine. so far, the inquiries have all been about my mali or uzbekistan photos. my answer is always the same, of course they can use the image so long as they give me credit and send me a copy of the book, magazine, or whatever. even though i've gotten these kind of inquiries 4 to 5 times now, one time a book publisher even emailed me a contract (which i edited, signed, and faxed back, noting my edits on the cover sheet), each time the communication ends with assurances via email that i will get something in the mail and then nothing comes.
until today. sitting in the pile of mail that was waiting for me and mrs. noz is a copy of the august/september 2006 issue of monato. the cover photo of samarkand is mine (the cover is pictured on the upper left side of the monato page), as are two photos inside the magazine. sure the magazine is in esperanto, a language i can't read, but i can at least read my name in the photo credits.
anyway, it's not that big a deal, but it was a nice homecoming present. also this gives me a nice opportunity to brag, link to some of my prior holiday photos and make some kind of vague promise that a new batch from my recent trip is on the way.
until today. sitting in the pile of mail that was waiting for me and mrs. noz is a copy of the august/september 2006 issue of monato. the cover photo of samarkand is mine (the cover is pictured on the upper left side of the monato page), as are two photos inside the magazine. sure the magazine is in esperanto, a language i can't read, but i can at least read my name in the photo credits.
anyway, it's not that big a deal, but it was a nice homecoming present. also this gives me a nice opportunity to brag, link to some of my prior holiday photos and make some kind of vague promise that a new batch from my recent trip is on the way.
Friday, August 18, 2006
vilnius
today is our last full day away. mrs. noz and i mostly toured the baroque old city of vilnius. it was a fun day, but to be honest, i'm mostly just posting this because i thought it would be unfair to leave the impression that lithuania or vilnius is all about the holocaust. in fact, mrs. noz and i purposely did all of the WW2 stuff in one batch yesterday so that our last day away wasn't just about the early 1940s. this city has a long and complicated history. part of the reason there were so many jews here on the eve of WW2 was because it had a history of being a tolerant place.
the vilnius old town is a UNESCO world heritage site (the old towns of riga and tallinn are on the list as well). by my count, it looks like i've been to 51 sites on the list now. there's so much more to see out there (like this one. the rumor is that if you call them they answer the phone "head smashed in, may i help you?")
anyway, we fly back tomorrow morning. barring diverted flights or other travel headaches, we should be home by mid-afternoon tomorrow. normal life will return sometime after that. thanks for bearing with me, and i really enjoyed staying out of the political arguments in my comments for a change. this trip was meant to be a getaway, so i just let most of the stuff go. but thanks to everyone who kept up the good fight for me while i was focusing on other things. i'll be back in the ring when i'm back.
the vilnius old town is a UNESCO world heritage site (the old towns of riga and tallinn are on the list as well). by my count, it looks like i've been to 51 sites on the list now. there's so much more to see out there (like this one. the rumor is that if you call them they answer the phone "head smashed in, may i help you?")
anyway, we fly back tomorrow morning. barring diverted flights or other travel headaches, we should be home by mid-afternoon tomorrow. normal life will return sometime after that. thanks for bearing with me, and i really enjoyed staying out of the political arguments in my comments for a change. this trip was meant to be a getaway, so i just let most of the stuff go. but thanks to everyone who kept up the good fight for me while i was focusing on other things. i'll be back in the ring when i'm back.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
paneriai
in the post below, i promised that i would write about klaipeda later. well, it appears that i won't get around to it. sorry (as if anyone really cares) so much happens during my travels that klaipeda already seems like a long time ago--even though it was only yesterday morning.
instead i want to talk about today. today, mrs. noz and i went to paneriai. paneriai is where most of the vilnius jewish population was liquidated by the nazis during world war two (along with a bunch of poles and lithuanians). prior to he war, vilnius had one of the largest proportions of jews in europe. the city was called "the jerusalem of the north." 94% died in world war two. and most of those few who survived left. vilnius is a very different place now because of what happened at paneriai. it is literally a different city than it would have been if the nazis never came.
when you're in a place where some kind of atrocity happened, you almost expect the place to feel different than anywhere else. maybe a cloud will hang above it; maybe there will be a strange chill in the air; maybe the air will taste a little different; or maybe when the wind blows you will hear the moans of the people who died. i'm not a superstitious person, i don't believe in ghosts or hauntings, but part of me still expects something like that. the magnitude of what happened almost demands it that it be different.
instead, when mrs. noz and i reached paneriai (itself a bit of an ordeal--the locals do not make it easy to find), we found a peaceful wooded area. the place didn't feel any different from anywhere else. it's like the banality of evil; the ordinariness of the place makes it all the more frightening. if such a horrible thing could happen in such a normal place, then it could happen anywhere. we attribute the actions of history to a place, a spot of land, or whatever. but the ground in paneriai didn't do anything. specific people did. people who were there over 60 years ago and are now gone.
there are a couple of plaques and monuments at paneriai, and a small museum that was closed even though we were there during its posted hours. but the plaques don't make the place especially horrifying. it was still a beautiful and peaceful woods. it was hard for me to imagine what it must have been like six decades ago.
instead i want to talk about today. today, mrs. noz and i went to paneriai. paneriai is where most of the vilnius jewish population was liquidated by the nazis during world war two (along with a bunch of poles and lithuanians). prior to he war, vilnius had one of the largest proportions of jews in europe. the city was called "the jerusalem of the north." 94% died in world war two. and most of those few who survived left. vilnius is a very different place now because of what happened at paneriai. it is literally a different city than it would have been if the nazis never came.
when you're in a place where some kind of atrocity happened, you almost expect the place to feel different than anywhere else. maybe a cloud will hang above it; maybe there will be a strange chill in the air; maybe the air will taste a little different; or maybe when the wind blows you will hear the moans of the people who died. i'm not a superstitious person, i don't believe in ghosts or hauntings, but part of me still expects something like that. the magnitude of what happened almost demands it that it be different.
instead, when mrs. noz and i reached paneriai (itself a bit of an ordeal--the locals do not make it easy to find), we found a peaceful wooded area. the place didn't feel any different from anywhere else. it's like the banality of evil; the ordinariness of the place makes it all the more frightening. if such a horrible thing could happen in such a normal place, then it could happen anywhere. we attribute the actions of history to a place, a spot of land, or whatever. but the ground in paneriai didn't do anything. specific people did. people who were there over 60 years ago and are now gone.
there are a couple of plaques and monuments at paneriai, and a small museum that was closed even though we were there during its posted hours. but the plaques don't make the place especially horrifying. it was still a beautiful and peaceful woods. it was hard for me to imagine what it must have been like six decades ago.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
tag
just a quick note. we were in klaipeda, a town that didn't have internet cafes all over the place. more about that later. we just arrived in vilnius and we're staying in a much more connected place (free internet access everywhere).
anyway, i just wanted to check in before i have to give this terminal up to let mrs. noz check her email and then maybe get something to eat.
anyway, i just wanted to check in before i have to give this terminal up to let mrs. noz check her email and then maybe get something to eat.
Monday, August 14, 2006
further afield in latvia
we spent the day at latvia's national parks looking at bogs and castles. we ended up doing quite a bit of hiking. they don't call this country "the small, flat and largely boggy meat in the sandwich between its Baltic neighbour[s]" for nothing.
i still have to figure out how to write "vietnam" and "kenya" in latvian before tomorrow morning (i'm betting the latter is "kenja").
i still have to figure out how to write "vietnam" and "kenya" in latvian before tomorrow morning (i'm betting the latter is "kenja").
Sunday, August 13, 2006
riga
so apparently a lot of stuff is closed in riga on sunday. oh well, i guess i was in the mood for a hike with a week's worth of laundry on my back. how am i supposed to keep track of the days of the week when i'm on vacation anyway?
dirty underwear aside, riga is a nice place. it seems much more like a living breathing city than tallinn does. not that tallinn is dead, it's just that its old town is too preserved and perfect. even the city walls are still standing. that means it has become a quaint little tourist enclave that is separated from the rest of the city where the locals who aren't selling postcards live and work.
riga, on the other hand, has an old town that is woven into the fabric of the surrounding city.
they have obliterated most traces of the soviet union in both places. mrs. noz just came from the museum of the occupation of latvia which was actually quite well done. i was wondering how they would deal with the nazi period here (many latvians welcomes the nazis as liberators from the soviet occupation and because of the nazi's strong anti-communist stance), but i thought it did a good job of acknowledging that many latvians favored the nazis and yet did not whitewash nazi crimes.
anyway, tomorrow we're gonna try to leave riga and explore another bit of latvia before we move on to lithuania the day after. i've gotten a couple of emails about the new flight restrictions. honestly, i'm hoping that this all gets cleared up in the next week before we have to fly home. we have the BBC in our hotel room here and apparently the consensus in england is that the heightened security restrictions there, at least, are unsustainable. we shall see whether they last another 6 days.
dirty underwear aside, riga is a nice place. it seems much more like a living breathing city than tallinn does. not that tallinn is dead, it's just that its old town is too preserved and perfect. even the city walls are still standing. that means it has become a quaint little tourist enclave that is separated from the rest of the city where the locals who aren't selling postcards live and work.
riga, on the other hand, has an old town that is woven into the fabric of the surrounding city.
they have obliterated most traces of the soviet union in both places. mrs. noz just came from the museum of the occupation of latvia which was actually quite well done. i was wondering how they would deal with the nazi period here (many latvians welcomes the nazis as liberators from the soviet occupation and because of the nazi's strong anti-communist stance), but i thought it did a good job of acknowledging that many latvians favored the nazis and yet did not whitewash nazi crimes.
anyway, tomorrow we're gonna try to leave riga and explore another bit of latvia before we move on to lithuania the day after. i've gotten a couple of emails about the new flight restrictions. honestly, i'm hoping that this all gets cleared up in the next week before we have to fly home. we have the BBC in our hotel room here and apparently the consensus in england is that the heightened security restrictions there, at least, are unsustainable. we shall see whether they last another 6 days.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
paldiski
i guess i spoke too soon this morning. from my cursory news check this british airways terror plot thing seems to be a big deal after all.
we spent today in paldiski, what used to be a sprawling submarine training facility for the soviet union and now is a sprawling wasteland of decaying soviet architecture. the guide book called the town "hell on earth", so of course mrs. noz and i thought it would be a good place to spendour vacation.
it turned out to not be quite as bad as i imagined. people still live there, among the crumbling concrete buildings that used to house soviet seamen. so the buildings sometimes had a fresh coat of paint or a nice garden in front. we decided to walk to the lighthouse which sits at the north end of the penninsula, right on the baltic sea. so mrs. noz and i had a nice 5-6 km hike up a dusty road past rotting barracks, wildflowers and an impressive looking wind farm. honestly, as shitholes go, i have seen a lot worse. and it was a nice break from the super-cute old town of tallinn (where i am again now).
we spent today in paldiski, what used to be a sprawling submarine training facility for the soviet union and now is a sprawling wasteland of decaying soviet architecture. the guide book called the town "hell on earth", so of course mrs. noz and i thought it would be a good place to spendour vacation.
it turned out to not be quite as bad as i imagined. people still live there, among the crumbling concrete buildings that used to house soviet seamen. so the buildings sometimes had a fresh coat of paint or a nice garden in front. we decided to walk to the lighthouse which sits at the north end of the penninsula, right on the baltic sea. so mrs. noz and i had a nice 5-6 km hike up a dusty road past rotting barracks, wildflowers and an impressive looking wind farm. honestly, as shitholes go, i have seen a lot worse. and it was a nice break from the super-cute old town of tallinn (where i am again now).
no time for a title
hey, im not dead or anything. i just havent been in a blogging mood much lately.
over the past few days weve been mostly bumming around tallinn. two days ago we took a day trip to finland (its only a short boat ride from here) where we met echidnes little sister and then wandered the city before boating back to estonia. its been a nice relaxing trip. i am pretty convinced, however, that estonias largest import from the united states is tex-mex restaurants. theres nothing like wandering through the twisty streets of a midieval city and finding a place called amarillo with a bunch of blondes in cowboy hats behind the bar.
as usual life in the united states seems very far away. we are not really trying to keep up with the news here--im trying to take a break from my newsjunkiness. and yet every time i check my email i peek at the headlines and find that i really havent missed much. except for the one about lieberman losing the primary, most of them could have been written last week before i left. the observation i made three years ago still holds true, and yet it still surprises me a little bit every time.
oh, and anyone out there who happens to know how punctuation works on an estonian keyboard, please let me know
over the past few days weve been mostly bumming around tallinn. two days ago we took a day trip to finland (its only a short boat ride from here) where we met echidnes little sister and then wandered the city before boating back to estonia. its been a nice relaxing trip. i am pretty convinced, however, that estonias largest import from the united states is tex-mex restaurants. theres nothing like wandering through the twisty streets of a midieval city and finding a place called amarillo with a bunch of blondes in cowboy hats behind the bar.
as usual life in the united states seems very far away. we are not really trying to keep up with the news here--im trying to take a break from my newsjunkiness. and yet every time i check my email i peek at the headlines and find that i really havent missed much. except for the one about lieberman losing the primary, most of them could have been written last week before i left. the observation i made three years ago still holds true, and yet it still surprises me a little bit every time.
oh, and anyone out there who happens to know how punctuation works on an estonian keyboard, please let me know
Monday, August 07, 2006
tallinn
we spent the day today wandering and climbing up towers in tallinn. the old town is a beautiful mediaeval city, with a torture museum and everything. also there are all kinds of things named after he-who-is-not-to-be-named, who once ruled here.
as it happens i actually got to speak arabic in estonia. this morning i went into a shop to buy some postcards. the woman behind the counter was a muhajiba and so i asked her if she spoke arabic in arabic. she turned out to be from cairo. i knew there were a couple of thousand muslims in estonia, but i assumed they were all uzbek, tajik, chechen or tartar transplants settled from other parts of the soviet empire.
as it happens i actually got to speak arabic in estonia. this morning i went into a shop to buy some postcards. the woman behind the counter was a muhajiba and so i asked her if she spoke arabic in arabic. she turned out to be from cairo. i knew there were a couple of thousand muslims in estonia, but i assumed they were all uzbek, tajik, chechen or tartar transplants settled from other parts of the soviet empire.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
stockholm
we got an 8 hour layover here before continuing on to estonia. so mrs. noz and i have been wandering the city, trying to keep ourselves awake. i can't sleep on planes and have been up for about 23 hours now--only eight to go before i can let myself sleep. espresso is my friend.
anyway, i've never been to sweden before and this city is quite nice.
that's it. more later.
anyway, i've never been to sweden before and this city is quite nice.
that's it. more later.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
we're off
we're not quite out the door yet, but this might be my last post states' side in the next two weeks. i plan to post when i'm gone if the mood strikes me. but mostly i'm gonna concentrate on doing what the tallinners, rigans and vilniusians do (which may very well be blogging. i suppose i'll find out)
if all goes well, i will be meeting a certain snake goddess's sister. obviously, if i have any secret readers located in the baltic republics somewhere, now would be a good time to hit the "harass me" link on the right.
anyway, more later when i got something to say.
Friday, August 04, 2006
shia crescent
it's a phrase we've heard a lot about lately. the thing that's been bothering me is that if you map out where the shia live, it doesn't make a crescent on the map. take a look for yourself.
i guess you can kind of imagine a crescent that starts in western china and tajikistan dips south across afghanistan and iran, and then goes up again by the caspian sea and then skips over to lebanon. but the people who started all this shia crescent talk live in the gulf region. the shia areas there go south hugging the gulf coast of the arabian peninsula which seems to undermine the concept of a crescent sweeping north from iran. there's also all those shia areas in india.
maybe they're talking more about shia-ruled areas. in that case the only country that's like that so far is iran and iraq. maybe you can also count syria (which has a secular government but is ruled by alawites, a minority sect that is an offshoot of shia). i guess the idea is that if lebanon becomes a shia-ruled country, then we at least have a continuous line from iran to iraq to syria to lebanon. i still don't think it looks much like a crescent. and what about bahrain (one of the few countries with a shia majority)? how does azerbaijan fit in?
i understand why they would want to use a crescent as the metaphor for the location of a muslim religious group on a map, but i'm simply not seeing it. really what i see is greater persia with a couple of other clusters along the mediterranean and gulf coast and in south and central asia.
i guess you can kind of imagine a crescent that starts in western china and tajikistan dips south across afghanistan and iran, and then goes up again by the caspian sea and then skips over to lebanon. but the people who started all this shia crescent talk live in the gulf region. the shia areas there go south hugging the gulf coast of the arabian peninsula which seems to undermine the concept of a crescent sweeping north from iran. there's also all those shia areas in india.
maybe they're talking more about shia-ruled areas. in that case the only country that's like that so far is iran and iraq. maybe you can also count syria (which has a secular government but is ruled by alawites, a minority sect that is an offshoot of shia). i guess the idea is that if lebanon becomes a shia-ruled country, then we at least have a continuous line from iran to iraq to syria to lebanon. i still don't think it looks much like a crescent. and what about bahrain (one of the few countries with a shia majority)? how does azerbaijan fit in?
i understand why they would want to use a crescent as the metaphor for the location of a muslim religious group on a map, but i'm simply not seeing it. really what i see is greater persia with a couple of other clusters along the mediterranean and gulf coast and in south and central asia.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
anyone got a plan C?
now that israel is admitting that its plan A in lebanon has failed, it's falling back on plan B--the same plan that failed back in 2000 (and created hezbollah along the way):
The Israeli military began preparing to reoccupy southern Lebanon on Thursday, and Israeli officials conceded that their three-week bombing campaign has had no significant impact on Hezbollah's ability to fire short-range rockets into northern Israel.and now that they're gonna reoccupy lebanon, will they still pretend to be enforcing UN resolution 1559? you know, since the resolution calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from lebanon. or didn't they read that part?
The dispatch of thousands of Israeli soldiers to retake as much as one-fifth of Lebanon - the operation must still be approved by the Israeli Cabinet - would mark a major expansion in Israel's Lebanon campaign and would reverse Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon six years ago after a troubled 18-year occupation.
the secret meaning of conspiracy theories
in an odd way, i am reassured when the qana conspiracy theories started bubbling out of the crazy end of the blogisphere.
implicit in their efforts is the notion that there would be something wrong if israel did kill so many civilians. if they didn't think so many civilian deaths was a big deal then why go through all the trouble to prove israel didn't do it? sure, they may be in denial. but their denial reveals a level of discomfort of what is happening there.
implicit in their efforts is the notion that there would be something wrong if israel did kill so many civilians. if they didn't think so many civilian deaths was a big deal then why go through all the trouble to prove israel didn't do it? sure, they may be in denial. but their denial reveals a level of discomfort of what is happening there.
prozac anyone?
this is horribly depressing. (bet ya can't resist to click the link just to see what i'm talking about. right? you know you shouldn't, who wants to be depressed. but you will anyway)
the article doesn't clearly distinguish between two very different problems: (1) the use of iraqi police and military uniforms by insurgents/militia who are not really in the police or military, and (2) the infiltration of the police and military by militia. the infiltration is the real issue. it's far more serious if iraqi officers themselves are taking part in sectarian violence. and that's why no new hard-to-counterfeit uniforms will solve the problem.
in fact, i'm not sure how the problem can be solved without scrapping the existing military and police and starting over from scratch once again. even that might not work, but in any case it's not gonna happen either. starting over would mean an american pullout would move even further over the horizon, something the iraqi government would not want to ever say in public. and iraqis who risk their lives to join the new force will be in even more danger if they are demobiled and told they can reapply later.
and here in the u.s. such an announcement would be tantamount to an admission that the entire iraqi reconstruction project is an abject failure. president bush has made the new iraqi army the centerpiece of his speeches for much of the past year-and-a-half. for all his bragging about the number of iraqi forces trained (numbers which are dubious at best and often inconsistent from speech to speech), bush won't acknowledge that many of those forces are part of the problem, not the solution.
and so we're stuck. many elements of the iraqi army and police prey upon the civilian population, engaging in sectarian killings and kidnappings. that's been widely reported for quite some time.
and yet the practical and political reality of the situation dictates that it's not going to get any better.
like i said, depressing.
the article doesn't clearly distinguish between two very different problems: (1) the use of iraqi police and military uniforms by insurgents/militia who are not really in the police or military, and (2) the infiltration of the police and military by militia. the infiltration is the real issue. it's far more serious if iraqi officers themselves are taking part in sectarian violence. and that's why no new hard-to-counterfeit uniforms will solve the problem.
in fact, i'm not sure how the problem can be solved without scrapping the existing military and police and starting over from scratch once again. even that might not work, but in any case it's not gonna happen either. starting over would mean an american pullout would move even further over the horizon, something the iraqi government would not want to ever say in public. and iraqis who risk their lives to join the new force will be in even more danger if they are demobiled and told they can reapply later.
and here in the u.s. such an announcement would be tantamount to an admission that the entire iraqi reconstruction project is an abject failure. president bush has made the new iraqi army the centerpiece of his speeches for much of the past year-and-a-half. for all his bragging about the number of iraqi forces trained (numbers which are dubious at best and often inconsistent from speech to speech), bush won't acknowledge that many of those forces are part of the problem, not the solution.
and so we're stuck. many elements of the iraqi army and police prey upon the civilian population, engaging in sectarian killings and kidnappings. that's been widely reported for quite some time.
and yet the practical and political reality of the situation dictates that it's not going to get any better.
like i said, depressing.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
hezbollah: a primer
here's a good primer on hezbollah. as it says in the introduction, a lot of the media's description of the group in this recent conflict have been pretty misleading.
(via cursor)
oh, and it's tueday. drinking liberally, 18th and lombard, 6 until ?, blah blah blah.
this is my last DL for a couple of weeks, so make sure to drop by, pay for my drinks, give me a ride home, give me a suitcase filled with cash, et cetera. if you're around philly, make sure to stop in. if you're not but happen to have the skinny on drinking liberally in tallinn, riga, or vilnius, then drop me an email.
(via cursor)
oh, and it's tueday. drinking liberally, 18th and lombard, 6 until ?, blah blah blah.
this is my last DL for a couple of weeks, so make sure to drop by, pay for my drinks, give me a ride home, give me a suitcase filled with cash, et cetera. if you're around philly, make sure to stop in. if you're not but happen to have the skinny on drinking liberally in tallinn, riga, or vilnius, then drop me an email.
connection
in september 2003, i was standing on the sandy ground that used to be the aral sea. i had hired a guide (let's call him R) to take me there nukus and as we surveyed the rusting fishing boats that lay on the ground around us, R asked me where i was from.
"near philadelphia" i told him. "no," he said, "where is your family from originally?"
like most jewish americans i am a bit of an eastern european mutt. i started rattling off countries: romania, austria, poland, lithuania...
"lithuania?" R interrupted. "yeah, my grandfather was born there," i told him.
"we're countrymen!" R exclaimed. "our grandfathers were born in the same country. welcome home!" i'd never really thought that coming to uzbekistan, a piece of the former russian empire, would be a return to my ancestral home. i looked over the barren terrain that surrounded us, possibly the worst ecological disaster in the world, and felt nothing.
...
i've been thinking about that exchange lately. actually, the more i think about it the weirder it seems. R was a karakalpak nationalist. he didn't even want his country to be part of uzbekistan, so in retrospect it seems a little out of character for him to view even more distant lithuania as some kind of bridge to connect us.
anyway, i realize that for all my travels i've never been to any of the countries where my great-grandparents lived.* that will change in about two weeks when mrs. noz and i cross latvia and arrive in klaipėda. i keep wondering if lithuania will feel different than anywhere else i've been. there's no rational reason to believe it will, but it doesn't stop me from wondering.
it's not like i grew up with any stories about lithuania or anything. in fact, i don't think i even knew that's where my grandfather was from until after he was dead. whatever relatives my grandfather left behind either got out themselves or were wiped out in the holocaust. so there won't be any reunions with long-lost cousins during our visit. just buildings someone related to me might have once looked at and ground some ancestor of mine might have once stood on. i'm not sure if that matters at all. but i guess that's something i'll find out when i get there.
this blog really hasn't reflected our upcoming trip all that much. it's been on my mind a lot lately, but when it comes to posting the israel-lebanon issue has hogged all the rants. we leave saturday evening and will get back two weeks later. like with my prior travels, this site will probably get a little less political and more like a travel log. because i'm going with mrs. noz and not alone, the posts will be a lot less frequent than they were last year in syria. but i will probably post something.
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*okay, i've been to austria. but my great-grandfather came from a part of the austro-hungarian empire that isn't part of modern austria. so i don't think that counts any more than visiting uzbekistan counts as a visit to lithuania.
"near philadelphia" i told him. "no," he said, "where is your family from originally?"
like most jewish americans i am a bit of an eastern european mutt. i started rattling off countries: romania, austria, poland, lithuania...
"lithuania?" R interrupted. "yeah, my grandfather was born there," i told him.
"we're countrymen!" R exclaimed. "our grandfathers were born in the same country. welcome home!" i'd never really thought that coming to uzbekistan, a piece of the former russian empire, would be a return to my ancestral home. i looked over the barren terrain that surrounded us, possibly the worst ecological disaster in the world, and felt nothing.
...
i've been thinking about that exchange lately. actually, the more i think about it the weirder it seems. R was a karakalpak nationalist. he didn't even want his country to be part of uzbekistan, so in retrospect it seems a little out of character for him to view even more distant lithuania as some kind of bridge to connect us.
anyway, i realize that for all my travels i've never been to any of the countries where my great-grandparents lived.* that will change in about two weeks when mrs. noz and i cross latvia and arrive in klaipėda. i keep wondering if lithuania will feel different than anywhere else i've been. there's no rational reason to believe it will, but it doesn't stop me from wondering.
it's not like i grew up with any stories about lithuania or anything. in fact, i don't think i even knew that's where my grandfather was from until after he was dead. whatever relatives my grandfather left behind either got out themselves or were wiped out in the holocaust. so there won't be any reunions with long-lost cousins during our visit. just buildings someone related to me might have once looked at and ground some ancestor of mine might have once stood on. i'm not sure if that matters at all. but i guess that's something i'll find out when i get there.
this blog really hasn't reflected our upcoming trip all that much. it's been on my mind a lot lately, but when it comes to posting the israel-lebanon issue has hogged all the rants. we leave saturday evening and will get back two weeks later. like with my prior travels, this site will probably get a little less political and more like a travel log. because i'm going with mrs. noz and not alone, the posts will be a lot less frequent than they were last year in syria. but i will probably post something.
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*okay, i've been to austria. but my great-grandfather came from a part of the austro-hungarian empire that isn't part of modern austria. so i don't think that counts any more than visiting uzbekistan counts as a visit to lithuania.
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