god bless approximate utopia

10/10/01
Bin Laden's Gambit -
Sacrifice Afghanistan
The U.S. military predictably bombs predictable targets long evacuated and the bin Laden propaganda public relations machine rallies the fundamentalists, converts more, a clear line is drawn between Us and Them. On America's side are some shaky corrupt regimes and on the anti-American side some popular revolutionary movements and thousands of potential suicide bombers. We attacked Afghanistan because bin Laden wanted us to and he outwitted the U.S. government, not that its so difficult. Our problem is not that bin Laden is so evil- millions of evil people in the world - our problem is that he is more intelligent than any of our leaders, especially the chief executive the Supreme Court chose for us and who is now in way over his head.
What the fuck are we going to do?

GOD BLESS APPROXIMATE UTOPIA,
global city of peace,
approximately no where,
on the best planet in the best solar system in the best galaxy in the most beautiful of all possible universes
Do not fear the Last Day, it may be billions of years away
before our Sun dies
and don't cry
over a spilled Milky Way
The universe is still my universe, right or wrong.

10/14
go anywhere
do anything
harm no one
food will be provided, sandwiches for everyone.
Salad bar,
coffee
You will be given the medication you need
and a spoonful
of sugar
to help it go down
Everyone will have a place
to crash
Everyone will have a
stash

Can we build nations that will leave us alone when we want to be left alone and take care of us when we need to be taken care of? Can we balance security and privacy - community and freedom?
A mountain rises out of the sea and a new Moses walks down from it carrying a stone tablet on which is engraved a single phrase -
"Unquestioned Authority is bullshit"

10/17
So far the 21st Century sucks
We are under seige,
maybe forever,
by small and large groups of killers,
freelance killers, and killer nations.
Ordinary things are turned into weapons for mass murder.
jet planes, letters.
Can money be infected? Is it possible to make George Washington and Abraham Lincoln carriers of a plague?
How long will this go on?
How many Octobers will be diseased? How many perfect September mornings blasted to bloody pieces?

I show my I.D. to the guard and enter the food court.
Is this salad bar safe?
I do a little ethnic profiling of the employees, the food-handlers. One of them is startled when my foot knocks a salad dressing container across the floor. I feel the few people at other tables are watching me with suspicion and I'm suspicious of them. I see there are ATMs for my bank at the next level and I go up to withdraw money and just before I enter the bank the power goes off in that section of the building and everyone jumps and I decide to forget the ATM and get out of the building immediately.