On June 22, 2008 — I read an interesting article in The New York Times claiming the sovereign state of Poland was, in fact, the 51st state of the United States.
I wonder what sort of tax rate the people of Poland will pay to help us bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Terrorism is not a single, violent, act.
Terrorism is living in fear of what might happen and not what has happened.
Yesterday in New York and New Jersey we experienced the strang
e and pungent odor of natural gas. No one could explain then and no one, even today, can begin to explain now. What’s going on in the urban core?
The olfactory mystery in the New York region was matched by strange activity elsewhere. In Austin, Tex., police cordoned off 10 blocks of the downtown business district early yesterday after more than 60 birds were found dead overnight along Congress Avenue, which leads to the State Capitol.Air testing there failed to find a cause, but preliminary results determined that people were not at risk. In New York, the piercing odor was the talk of Manhattan, and it called to mind another mystery: the maple syrup odor that people reported smelling on separate days in late 2005 and whose source has never been established. In yesterday’s case, several people said they were overcome by the odor.
The production of Osama bin Laden’s 
body — dead or alive — will soon be in our future as will the body of Saddam Hussein hanging dead from its neck.
We will have successfully produced the body — but are we perpetuating the ghost?
Do Osama and Saddam have more value and resonance in death than they had in their lives?
Is there a downside to assassinating charismatic madmen?
By providing their deaths, have we gifted them immortality and martyrdom and a reason for their evil example to be followed by others?
How should bad people be dealt with in the world?
Can we heal the wounds terrorism rips open by engaging in a dialogue with the neighbors of the terrorists?
Is conversation better than condemnation?
Continue reading → Producing the Body, Perpetuating the Ghost
In my article, The Incongruity of Mourning and the 9/11 Memorial, we discussed how to create an appropriate memorial for the World Trade Center loss.
Last week we received updated news the Ground Zero World Trade Center site would be re-built using invisible buildings that blend into the sky, reflect the environment around them and form a transparent skyline while shouting to the world: “Please don’t hit us again! We’re here, but our buildings really aren’t!”
Continue reading → Building Invisible Buildings at Ground Zero
I woke up on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at approximately six-fifteen in the morning. I did not wish to be late to work. I wanted to work my four hours, study for my classes, and then later in the evening go home. A few minutes after nine, a news report showed up on CNN Asia that turned into one of the biggest tragedies in American history.
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