FCC closes its public reading room, citing "homeland security"

This sets a bad precident, while the FCC does a fine job of maintaining is documentation on the website, sometimes there is no better alternative to going into a document room and searching in person, as a governmental office they should be require to maintain access to the general public. Granted being in Arizona now I am far more likely to use the website, but part of serving the public good is maintain that access. I hope this policy is soon reversed.

Update: The change in policy has been cancelled. The policy was reversed the same day, and people say the government can't work efficently. -------- AUTHOR: Thomas Vincent DATE: 2/10/2003 12:25:46 PM

From the Professor this morning

It followed from all this that the hawks were the only Westerners not surprised by September 11. The attacks that day fitted with how they thought the world was going, and they were therefore ready with the analysis and with the counter-attack. The "war against terrorism" and the "axis of evil" were not mere phrases - they were formulations of doctrine.

Regular readers know I am not a hawk, I'd prefer peace but sometimes it's a necessity, in war nasty things happen and people die, it ain't pretty no matter how many times CNN or someone else tries to make it look like a video game. September 11th shocked my senses on the level of death, destruction, and pain, but sadly it did not surprise my intellect as in Charles Moore's assertion. Students of the body politic knew this was a possiblity the US. Terrorism experts had been predicting that we would be eventually hit by a event since the late 1970s, we had gotten lucky. The luck ended that day. Much like facing the Soviets post World War Two this will not be over tomorrow, these terror networks operate on tribal and feudal level that require human intel, something that has been a second or third tier career track since the mid-1970s. It's going to take a generation at least in my person estimation. And it won't be the clear Soviets Bad/ America good line in the sand, because it involves human intel most of the battles will be in the shadows and in the relhm of the grey. Most Americans will likely forget in their day to day mind that we are still out there fighting within five to ten years, but the battle will rage on. Efforts to establish structures of freedom may help this fight, but establishing them among regions of ancient tribal conflicts, corrupt leaders, and fanatical leadership will be difficult at best. But before we let this myth transform into accepted fact, follow your history and it's not a surprise, just a sad fact in this world in which we live. (Off the soapbox)

Oh well, another reason not to get a tv or cable at the cabin, Dawson's Creek is being cancelled. While I have freely admitted to it being a guilty pleasure show of mine I have not seen much of it this year, between the move and the like. Truth be told it lost it's direction since graduation. They try to keep the characters lives intertwinned and they are not pulling it off well, the lives would be going in different directions so probably for the best to put the show to bed. I'll have to add the season dvds to my Amazon list :) (Thanks to David for pointing it out)