Marc Weisblott was one of blogland’s savviest culture commentators, but he
quit blogging. So said I on Monday. He read the item and on Tuesday began posting
again. This time he’s calling his posts radio
weisblogg, “news and commentary about the evolution of AM/FM
etc.” Have a look while it lasts. You’ll see what I meant. …
The Burlington Free Press, in Vermont, was the first daily newspaper I worked at (as a
feature writer). They even put me to work writing the occasional editorial. This item, “Banned in
Burlington” (via Poynter), would have caught my attention anyway.
But it’s particularly lousy news for someone who was proud to work there once
upon a time. …
This op-ed piece also grabbed my eye: “Improve the CIA? Better to abolish
it.” It’s from February in the San Francisco Chronicle, but very timely
in view of George Tenet’s testimony earlier this week before the 9/11 commission. And it’s by the
historian Chalmers Johnson, the same guy who wrote with chilling prescience in “Blowback: The Costs and
Consequences of American Empire,” a year before the 9/11
attacks:
Terrorism by definition strikes at the innocent in order to draw attention to
the sins of the invulnerable. The innocent of the twenty-first century are going to harvest
unexpected blowback disasters from the imperialist escapades of recent decades. Although most
Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are
likely to pay a steep price — individually and collectively — for their nation’s continued efforts to
dominate the global scene. Before the damage of heedless triumphalist acts and the triumphalist
rhetoric and propaganda that goes with them becomes irreversible, it is important to open a new
discussion of our global role …
Has the damage become irreversible? Johnson thinks so, as noted earlier this week.
