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Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Prince of Peace
Mac: I doubt very much that the Bushies had anything to do with the Saudi proposal. Just two days ago, Colin Powell was calling it a "minor development"; now that Sharon considers it "interesting," its status in State Dept circles has hurriedly been upgraded. I know that Bush and Powell aren't always the best of chums, but the White House would never intentionally embarrass Foggy Bottom like that.
What you seem to be hinting at is that it is a shockingly good idea -- too good, almost, for the Crown Prince to have suddenly thought it up himself. Pre-1967 borders in exchange for complete peace with the institutional Arab world. It reminds me of Gorbachev's out-of-the-blue proposal at Reykjavik in 1987: total nuclear disarmament in exchange for the US abandoning Star Wars. We could have ended the Cold War two years early if Reagan had agreed to that one. I just hope Sharon is more trusting. If it works out, the Crown Prince will have not just short-circuited a certain war on the West Bank, but taken away one of the fundemental props that Islamic terrorism relies upon, and the post 9/11 world will suddenly seem a lot rosier. Every international leader, it seems, has the capacity to surprise us with Solomon-like solutions.
In other news, I see Rumsfeld has disbanded that awful Office of Strategic Intelligence, the one formed in too much haste after 9/11 that last week leaked plans to plant false stories in the foreign media. It's an enormous shame that the idiot running it couldn't see the distinction between good information warfare (ie. the idea of putting up billboards in Pakistan detailing the World Trade Center deaths) and bad information warfare (telling lies). Anyone who thinks an institution like the Pentagon can get away with the latter needs their head examined. Think of all the journalists who cover that place, the ones who are already rending their garments because they're not allowed to cover operations in Afghanistan with any degree of freedom. Thank God Rummy had the sense to know that you can only push the media so far. But really, he shouldn't have allowed the proposal to circulate -- and leak -- in the first place. Isn't he supposed to be running a tight ship?
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