Allusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned, as in “I will not bring up my opponent’s questionable financial dealings.”

A philosophical term, describing an insoluble contradiction or paradox in a text’s meanings. Apparently plays a central element in Derrida’s philosophy (more study needed here). Also “perplexity”. Intellectural paralysis. Conceptual puzzlement. Etymology goes back to “lacking a way/path”. By extension, an expression of doubt or befuddlement. A crisis of choice, of action and identity, as well as of belief. Adjectival form is aporetic: “an aporetic encounter”. Epistemic emptiness.

Not purely negative—can also function as a stimulus to some kind of breakthrough.

Lively debate last night among the Democratic candidates for President.

Up to now I had thought Joe Lieberman was sort of harmless and confused. Now I started to think he is actually dangerous. Attacking Dean when the latter proposes we try to take a balanced position in the Middle East. Making his lame appeals for the black vote. Insisting we add more troops in Iraq when no-one else, not even President Bush, wants to do that. What’s he trying to do, appeal to the reservist vote? Did he forget that he was only chosen as VP candidate in 2000 as an Clinton-neutralizer since he had come out early against Presidential philandering? Has it not occurred to him that he’s one of the reasons Gore lost in 2000?

Best impressions: Carol Moseley Braun—thoughtful, intelligent, articulate. Great VP candidate. Worst impressions: John Kerry—his hair can only get him so far, since he apparently doesn’t really believe anything and can’t express it if he does. But Dean is brighter and more presidential than the rest of them put together, and actually has the better-drawn policies, in spite of rabid right-wing talk-show hosts trying to paint him as a 21st century McGovern.

We now have fancy computer graphics technologies which can do entire animated movies like Finding Nemo, or create a hundred bad guy clones like in Matrix: Reloaded. So why does movie rain still look so fake? The only rain I ever see in movies looks like it’s being poured from a pitcher. In my life I’ve probably experienced really heavy rain only a half-a-dozen times, yet’s that’s always how the rain looks in movies. I guess computer graphics can’t help out here yet because although it could certainly do the rain itself, it can’t do the rain hitting the people’s clothes and the street. But what would be so hard about building a better rain machine, with settings like light drizzle, sprinkle, or misty rain?

I think the US is ready for a big-time Unagi (eel) boom.

I foresee an immensely successful chain of unagi restaurants. Of course, we’ll serve the basics, like una-don (grilled eel on rice) and kabayaki (plain grilled eel). Then we’ll have Bob’s super-duper unagi sandwich: unagi with mozzarella in a focacchia, grilled to perfection. And of course Unagi mousse.

Unagi mochi as well.

For dessert: unagi pie, of course. No—not what you think. It’s a Japanese confection, crisp savory sweet biscuits, just coiled in the shape of an eel—hence its name.

We’ll focus on the nutritional benefits of eel. It’s an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and fatty fish oils. Then, of course, our marketing geniuses will figure out how to make the appeal for the so-called “stamina” properties of eel—in other words, it’s a great aphrodysiac!

Ran across Al Gore’s speech to moveon.org. Listen to it now. It’s a shame that our political system could not elect a man like this even after he won the popular vote, and that instead of him running this year we have the nine dwarfs. He leaves them in the dust in terms of his intellect, his compassion, his honesty, and his policy expertise. He honed in in his speech on what I agree is the real issue: the fundamental dishonesty of the Bush administration and its contempt for the political process and the American citizenry.

Everyone in America was dismayed at the looting that went on in Iraq after its “liberation”. We felt ashamed that human beings could behave so abysmally, do things so obviously wrong. That’s why it really struck a chord when Gore quoted the Nobel-prize winning economist George Akerlof as saying that in the Bush team’s economic policies “…we have a form of looting”. Not chairs or fans looted from a government office in Iraq, but billions of dollars quasi-legally looted from the American people by the rich, the drug companies, and the energy companies.

I’ve finished Hillary’s book. All accusations of blandness are certainly well founded. “Then I had the privelege of meeting Queen Sofia, whom I found fascinating and committed.” Whatever.

Still, this book is a highly valuable distillation of the key political events of the last decade by one of the major players in those events. And it’s a personal, and in its own way, intimate self-portrait by this girl from Chicago who ended up spending eight years in the White House, and is doubtless the leading candidate to be the first female President of the US.

We all know about the “vast right-wing conspiracy”, and have been programmed to chuckle internally when we hear the phrase. But one thing this book brings out in stark relief is the utter mean-spiritedness and take-no-prisoners tactics of destruction practiced by that group of people who, for what reason is hard to fathom, apparently devoted the entirety of their political and personal energies to the utter ruination of the boy from Hope, Arkansas, and his activist wife.

Chief among them is Newt Gingrich. And, of course, Kenneth Starr. After having read this book it’s hard to doubt the total banality and malevolence of their motives.

I was interested in something else, though, which Hillary really didn’t go into. What, exactly, accounts for the fact that this middle-class suburban girl from Chicago ended up as an activist at Wellesley, a lawyer, a child-rights advocate? Certainly a large part of her career depended on marrying one certain guy, but clearly even without doing that Hillary would have been a community leader, politician, or activist. Reading the book, it all seems to have evolved so naturally. But there must have been seeds planted somewhere which grew into this woman. What were they?

Personally, I can’t think of a better President of the US than Hillary. How about 2004?

Posted August 22, 2003, after the blackout.

Now we have more things to think about. Would we rather be working to ensure people have electricity in Baghdad, or in Cleveland, Ohio?

At the end of the day, a political party is the sum total of all its policies. When you realize you don’t support any of its policies is when you realize there’s no reason to support the party itself.

If lying about Monica Lewinsky was grounds for impeaching Bill Clinton, then what is George W. Bush’s lying to us about the war, the economy, and the environment grounds for doing?

Think about it.
—Bob

Postd August 29, 2003

With Bush’s policies, now there is no money to fix NASA or invest in space exploration. Instead, the money is being spent on tax breaks for the rich and making war. And there is no political will to even think about what we should be doing in space. Instead, the political energies are being spent figuring out which interest group to pander to for the upcoming election. Remember that the vision required for the moon program came from a Democrat—John F. Kennedy. What would Father think?

Think about it.
—Bob

Posted August 18, 2003

I found it interesting that George W. Bush, in his standard speeches he gives at his fundraisers (he gave two this week, 20 minutes each, raised a total of $2M), emphasizes that

“right now I’m focused on the people’s business” and “the political season will come in its own time.”

This is while he is at a campaign event, raising money for his campaign! He intends to raise $150-170 million this time around.

If you don’t like any of the Democratic candidates, you could consider supporting Wesley Clark, the ex-NATO commander. He understands military issues and the role of American power in the world. Recently, he said:

“We went into Iraq under false pretenses . . . You call it deceptive advertising, you’d be taking [Bush] to the Better Business Bureau if you bought a washing machine the way we went into the war in Iraq,” the former NATO commander told CNN.
“We haven’t made America safer by this. We’ve made America more engaged, more vulnerable, more committed, less able to respond. We’ve lost a tremendous amount of goodwill around the world.”

Think about it.
—Bob