Bloody hands
BY PETER DALE SCOTT
(09/10/99)

The carnage which has occurred in Timor makes a total mockery of American claims to defending "human rights." Remarkable during the grim proceedings of the last week has been the reticence of the U.S. government to take steps to stop the bloodthirsty behavior of the Indonesian army. What ever happened to the idea of American leadership? Even though many more people have died in Timor than at Tienanmen Square, President Clinton has chosen to deal with the Indonesians with kid gloves. If China had committed a similar crime, the expressions of outrage would be deafening. When a U.S. ally does it, the silence is deafening.

-- Peter L. Curtis
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Peter Dale Scott writes, "At stake now is whether those in both capitals who seek establishment of an orderly civil society can design a policy to implement that desire."

True enough, but something more fundamental is at stake: the very nature of American government. No one is above the law in America, period. The law is decreed by elected representatives of the citizens. All these classified, scofflaw agencies run absolutely counter to the whole concept of America and everything noble it has ever stood for. This episode looks like yet another profound failure by our government to function the way it is supposed to: The people, who are the rightful rulers, are kept in the dark so they don't know what they're voting for, and even though their representatives try to do the right thing they're thwarted by cowardly, antidemocratic agencies who answer to no one. This is a disgrace.

Someone once said that a country gets the government it deserves. I'm not sure what we did to deserve a secretive military autocracy concealed behind a puppet republic, but it's high time we atoned for it and demanded our country back. Then, and only then, will we be able to deal honestly and ably with disasters like East Timor.

-- James Robinson

Another U.N. disaster
BY IAN WILLIAMS
(09/11/99)

East Timor is not another United Nations disaster. It is another American and British disaster. If the British and American governments had not had a cozy relationship with the Indonesians for a quarter-century, something like a quarter of a million East Timorese would have had a chance to live out their natural life spans.

If what was happening in Kosovo last March required the bombing of Belgrade and dozens of other Yugoslav cities in order to make us feel moral, why aren't cruise missiles demolishing Jakarta right now? Why have our smart bombs suddenly gone so totally stupid?

Ian Williams frets over the fact that there are 23,000 Indonesian troops in East Timor. There were 60,000 Yugoslav troops in Kosovo and that didn't stop us bombing the whole country from 15,000 feet. So why aren't we hitting the Indonesian military from a nice, safe distance in the sky?

Answer? Just check all the shirts and T-shirts in your cupboard, or your kid's toys, or other knickknacks around the house. The fact that not one of them will have a "Made in Serbia" label is the reason we decided to demolish Serbia in March. The fact that you'll find plenty of "Made in Indonesia" labels is why we will not demolish Indonesia in September.

-- John Xiros Cooper
Vancouver, British Columbia

The best and quickest way to get the attention of these totalitarian governments is by an economic boycott of all their products. Do not buy products that are made in Indonesia (or China, for that matter) nor patronize the stores that as a matter of policy carry their products. With the millions of people on the Internet boycotting, and urging others to do likewise, the leaders of these countries may soon change their oppressive ways. Get them in the pocketbook; that's where it hurts the most.

-- Joe Neil

"Stigmata"
REVIEWED BY MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
(09/10/99)

Despite a few colorful metaphors, Mary Elizabeth Williams' review of "Stigmata" completely missed the driving aesthetic behind the occasionally amateurish film: that of Catholic icon-tweaking and the Madonna/whore complex. These dynamics have been effectively employed by Madonna, Depeche Mode, Garbage, Enigma, Nine-Inch Nails and other major, prolific musical groups (making Corgan's soundtrack all the more right), not to mention "The Omen" and the brutally effective "Seven." Despite failing to outdo "The Exorcist," "Stigmata" dips into the well of Catholic iconography, a powerful dynamic that entrances youth worldwide. Next time you sound off about a recent work of art you should look closer (as well as deeper).

Also -- incessant rain is a classic Gothic element and has roots to the "Castle of Otranto," the first Gothic novel ever written, as well as having been used to great effect by Ridley Scott in "Blade Runner."

-- David J. Morris

The Cybercommunist Manifesto
BY ANDREW LEONARD
(09/10/99)

Yes, the GNU General Public License ensures that "free" software remains "free." But as anyone who has ever taken a quick glance at the GPL will know, this does not mean that no money can be charged for it. On the contrary, the license explicitly mentions right up front that there is no objection to one's making money off free software. It also says very clearly that "free" should not be taken to mean "free of charge" but rather alludes to "freedom" of certain legal restrictions. In fact one of the primary goals of the license is to prevent the usurpation of intellectual property and to support authors' rights to license the use of their work as they see fit.

Frankly, I think this leaves little basis for this kind of "communism is coming back" reasoning, which in any case is no more than an echo of Microsoft's line of defense against GNU software: "GNU is free, and if you give software away, it has no value" (never mind that Microsoft gives away Internet Explorer for free and has made it a point in the past to effectively charge below-zero prices for Windows when it suited them). As the article could hardly avoid noting, even today's IT market (which can only barely be said to be a free market) is quite capable of absorbing a phenomenon such as open source and putting it to good use, as it has done for the past decades.

Ideologists from time to time jump on the free-software movement to prove their pet theories; but the plain reality of the thing is that this development is driven by real, sensible people who to some extent view software development as an art. And art may be practiced to gain fame, wealth or personal fulfillment -- but it does not, as Oscar Wilde so rightly observed, try to prove anything.

-- Jeroen Vermeulen

Leonard writes of the "lucid lambasting of right-wing libertarian digerati domination of the Internet." Characterizing libertarians as "right wing" couldn't be further from the truth. Libertarians do not fit on the typical, one-dimensional socialist-liberal-moderate-conservative-fascist spectrum. Libertarians are neither liberal nor conservative, but believe in the maximum amount of self-governance in personal and in economic matters, with a minimal government, the primary role of which is to protect individual rights. This places us off the liberal-conservative spectrum and directly opposite authoritarian systems (whether socialist/communist or fascist).

-- Joseph Bommarito

It's not communism vs. capitalism. It's statistics. When you have a software-using population numbering in the millions, it is a statistical certainty that somebody somewhere will have both the means and the motivation to create the software. It might be a retired programmer looking for something to do, a student wanting to practice a new technique, new programmers wanting to flesh out their CV and/or advertise themselves, a teenager wanting to show how smart she is or a company wanting to claim a market. These are all selfish reasons that fortunately also happen to benefit our society as a whole.

And with intellectual property, particularly programs, all it takes is a single copy. That copy can be used by millions. In the open-software movement, the free market is doing what it does best: setting the sale price to a level appropriate to the cost of production.

-- Julian Byrne

Hitting the gold ceiling
BY JANELLE BROWN
(09/09/99)

It is time American society awoke to the ridiculous assertion that there is a glass or gold ceiling that prevents women from receiving equal rewards.

Western society's feminists have worked for and achieved equality in the American workplace. The laws and social acceptability at all levels have not only assured them huge rewards for gender discrimination, but have gone farther than needed, creating what I call the "Effeminization of America." The white male is everyone's enemy.

Contrary to the author's bias, gender does not stop women, or minorities, from reaching the top of business circles. Especially in America. What these people fail to realize is they don't have to play in any game that puts them at a disadvantage. They can start their own game,

Business is tough. It not only requires competence and skill, but mastery of several subjects, and a warrior's mind. Overcoming obstacles and understanding the nature of things are an executive's daily challenges. If being a woman or minority limits one's ability to compete in the real world, these people should lose out, and without apology.

-- D. Smyth

Kevin Spacey knows our secrets
BY MICHAEL SRAGOW
(09/10/99)

Kevin Spacey is enormously appealing -- and yet if he were not an actor, if I merely saw him on the street, I'm sure I wouldn't give him a second glance. He's so ordinary; he looks like someone's innocuous dad. Why do I find lust bubbling up in me every time I see him on screen? Talent, intelligence and mystery are all aphrodisiacs. And damn that little dimple.

-- R. Cleverly

Said critic blasts back at Hitchens
BY CRAIG OFFMAN
(09/10/99)

I am in absolute dismay at the paranoid bashing of Justus Reid Weiner by Edward Said, Alexander Cockburn and Hussein Ibish. Weiner spent three years factually untangling a tightly wound web of deceit spun by none other than Edward Said himself. Rather than answer Weiner's charges, Said chooses to espouse his usual vehement verbiage and utter contempt for those who may question his well-orchestrated delivery. He lashed out with dripping sarcasm and putrid innuendo towards Justus Weiner. Now, Said thinks he is the Palestinian victim once again. Wrong!

Justus Weiner is anything but the obscure, right-wing, unscrupulous human being that Said claims "was trying to make a name for himself by attacking a better known person's reputation." To the contrary, Weiner has published extensively in leading international and American law journals of Cornell, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, NYU, Boston University, Boston College and the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, to name a few. Moreover, contrary to Said's repeated accusations that Weiner did not contact him prior to publishing the article, I can attest, he shared with me in the summer of 1997 that he was researching the writings and speeches of Edward Said. Why? Because he was writing a law review article on the views of intellectuals, both Palestinian and Israeli, who opposed the peace process and he came across Said's writings. They initially fascinated Weiner, especially the way in which Said wove in his childhood. In true insatiable journalistic curiosity, Weiner hungered for more -- but the more he read, the more he discovered the story was too perfect and it was turning into a parable.

Justus is a legal scholar who also possesses an extremely deep sensitivity to Palestinians, so this despicable statement by Said that "Weiner was doing this to degrade Palestinians claims" was just more of his disputable rhetoric. Weiner has also been a member of Amnesty International, ACLU and a volunteer lawyer doing part-time pro bono work for the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP.

It would behoove Said to step down from his ivy-covered tower, keynote speeches and dinners long enough to see that a new generation is rising who are demanding peace. The real beginning of peace is baby steps of compromise. Or do we boomers interpret it differently? I believe these little steps started when the Arab woman gave her dead child's heart to a Jewish child. Or they start when a Jewish mom and an Arab mom end up chatting the morning away about their children. When a Jewish family has a place for an Arab woman at Shabbat dinner. When Arab men and women are as outraged at indiscriminate bombings as Jews. Peace is not rhetoric, it is gesture and it must begin with you and me.

In my further dismay, the Said supporters, with no factual expertise to the contrary, are accepting this fable which has taken Said wherever he wanted to go. To them it was easier to shoot the messenger. As time goes on they will discover that they shot themselves in the foot and the messenger is just fine.

-- Chambier Valerie Monsour-Bechtel
Sonoma, Calif.

Miami thighs
BY JOANN BIONDI
(09/10/99)

Oh, yes, this was on point! I am happy with my 35-inch Dominican hips! I'm glad there was no mention of Jennifer Lopez's butt; we've had enough of that. She's not the only one who's got one. It's typical in our culture: If you lose too much weight, your mother and/or grandmother will come after you, fatten you up and accuse you of unhealthy eating habits or of not eating at all!

-- Gypsy D. Guillen