I’ve often argued that terrorism is a poor tactic because it doesn’t achieve its political ends. My son Kevin, one of the smartest people I know, argued that terrorists really weren’t trying to achieve political ends, but were trying for glory within their group. After we talked about it for a while, we decided that both statements were true, but only covered small pieces of the phenomenon. Now Louise Richardson has written a book that covers both and much more in What Terrorists Want. Her thesis is that terrorist groups have primary political aims, but individual terrorists are motivated by what she calls the three R’s, Revenge, Renown, and Reaction. To these individual, the primary aim is mainly used for self justification. I’m oversimplifying, of course, but it makes a lot of sense. She also offers solutions. I think they make sense, and perhaps we will someday try them. In the meantime, read this book. It’s worth it.
|
||
|
Blogs are a fascinating phenomenon. I indulge very lightly compared to many, but there are still more than I can keep up with. I list some of them in the sidebar. I was reading a post in presentsimple (she has problems keeping up too), but I was struck by her mention of culture. Can you say that you are part of the local culture if you never watch TV? All of the cultural catch phrases seem to come from TV shows, and people sometimes have to explain what they are talking about. Often I can fake it without their noticing, but sometimes I get quite mystified. It’s a culture gap. I think she must have a rather bigger one, living in a land that makes foreigners perpetual outsiders. Of course, I know that I don’t understand the Japanese, so I’m impressed by her bravery. There’s a deeper question underlying that one, and it’s bothered Americans since 1776. Just what makes a person an American? It’s not ethnic, it’s not cultural in the traditional sense, because we have a blend of other cultures. What are American attitudes? I’ve taken several courses on the questions and I’m still not sure of the answers. Some people believe that the lack of a simple answer is a grave weakness. I think that we’ve managed pretty well without it. Maybe, in a world that’s changing so rapidly, there’s something to be said for making it up as we go along. I’d say that things were getting back to normal, but everything is different, so it’s really getting to a new normal. Oh, did I mention that while I was gone to Washington, they moved my office? I have a nice window, looking out at the parking lot and the freeway. It’s actually not bad. The parking lot has trees that are starting to turn, and there are squirrels bouncing around there, too. The soundproofing is good, so I don’t hear the freeway. It’s actually kind of soothing watching the traffic going by. It’s sort of like watching water flow by, but a bit lacking in the aesthetics. Slowly we’re starting to have more time, and may soon be able to have a social life again. How nice it will be to go out to dinner for good food and pleasant conversation, rather than quick sustenance before getting back to work. No, I’m not claiming to have reached nirvana, but I do think I’ve gotten enough sleep for the first time in quite a while. The week before last, we moved. Last week, I went to Redmond. This weekend, I slept. I slept 11 hours Friday night, 3 hours Saturday afternoon, 9 hours Saturday night, 1 1/2 hours Sunday afternoon, then 8 hours last night. Today, I actually felt alert and awake without coffee. The last couple of weeks I couldn’t get in that state with a near overdose of caffeine. Things were a lot more productive at work, and I actually feel bloggy ambitions. I’ve had people asking me about my professional blog, which I haven’t touched since Sun. I think I’m going to set one up on my own website rather than on Microsoft’s blog site. I also have a collection of documents and bibliographic notes that I think I’ll put up there. I had them on the intranet at Sun, and some people actually came to depend on it. The difference is that I can’t put local copies of most of the documents on the web, so I’ll have to locate them again. Fair use may extend to my local group, but not to the whole web. Oh, we may be in the city now, but we’re right next to a park, and at least the squirrels are abundant. There are the big grey ones, and the little black ones, and the monster kinds that land on our roof and scamper off loudly….. We made it to Cupertino, though it’s been a trial. I’m back on the air, but we still haven’t found Flo’s computer, and it looks as though it went to storage. It wasn’t supposed to, but lots of things like that have happened. It’s still possible that it will show up. Things are seldom where you would expect them to be. Moving again at our stage in life had to be madness! Of course, we sort of had to do something about that huge house anyway…. Now we have to sell our house and buy another, then move again. Today I fly back to San Diego to help with the packing and loading. Next Wednesday we all come up to Silicon Valley, leaving behind an empty house and with our household goods following somewhere behind. It’s going to be really nice to get this part of the process behind us.
Well, let’s try again and see if I can get a regular flow going here. It’s not really that I haven’t had time to write, though I haven’t had much spare time. It’s more that I haven’t had the gumption to sit down and do it. I’m living in Cupertino now, in the apartment that will be our temporary home. Up until last weekend, I travelled to San Diego each weekend to continue with the packing and sorting tasks. Next weekend, I’m flying down to help prepare for the movers, who start the packing on the second. They expect to be done loading on the fourth, and we can travel up here to supervise the unpacking. We got them to guarantee they’d do it by the eighth, because on the ninth I have to fly up to Redmond Washington for some meetings. I’ll say one thing for Microsoft; they didn’t hesitate to authorize overtime so I could get to those meetings, just like they don’t hesitate to pay a little extra for a non-stop connection to save a couple of hours. Last weekend I had nothing particular scheduled, though I did have a todo list. I got the list done, but the rest of the weekend turned into naps as I played “sleep camel”. I hadn’t realized just how tired I’d gotten. I was planning on writing something last night, but I ended up going to bed early instead. I do have some things saved up, and I’ll write about them over the next day or so. Things should regularize when we actually get both of us up here. I’m really missing Flo, and yes, even the cat. Talking on the phone just doesn’t substitute for real contact. I realize that I haven’t been keeping up my end of this blogging deal, but I have an excuse. This moving stuff is distracting, especially when combined with a new job where I’m trying to learn what’s going on. I’m supposed to initiate a new area using an established framework, so I have to learn the framework. Talk about drinking from a firehose! Anyway, I keep running around trying to get stuff set up in this apartment, while running back on weekends to sort stuff. It’s kept me busy. Last night was the first time I did a workout at the apartment complex, and though the CV room was fine (it’s hard to screw up a bicycle) the weigh room had real problems. For example, there was no machine that let you do curls! They didn’t even have free weights. I’ll have to do something about that, either get some weights or find another place. I went out looking for a Club One, which is the club that MS Pays for. I had an old address for it, and got thoroughly lost in the process. After I sorted that out, I found a Target where I bought a floor lamp so I had light in my bedroom. The store was being remodeled, and it looked like a hurricane had been through it. What I noticed was that people took it with good humor, and there was even a sense of camaraderie from the shared adversity. It was a lot different from the way I remember Palo Alto. People were friendly! I think we’ll like it here better than in Palo Alto. It sort of makes it worth the trouble. Well, I’m back on line in the Bay Area. I just got cable internet access installed in my apartment. It will probably take me a little while to get caught up on the various details. For example, I don’t have a printer, and I’m still in the process of setting up remote access to MicroSoft. I supposedly have the hardware, but knowing how to use it is something else. I have a neat picture from my Seattle trip, but the software to put it on the blog isn’t set up yet. Daily life is a work in progress. |
 |
|
|
Copyright © 2012 Mike Ball - All Rights Reserved |
||
