Schwarz
View current page
...more recent posts
walls of new york
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Fareed Zakaria wrote a 6,791-word cover story for Newsweek titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" Think how much effort he could have saved if he'd waited a few years. As we learned last week, the question of why they hate us can now be answered in just one word: Newsweek.
"Our United States military personnel go out of their way to make sure that the Holy Koran is treated with care," said the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, as he eagerly made the magazine the scapegoat for lethal anti-American riots in Afghanistan. Indeed, Mr. McClellan was so fixated on destroying Newsweek - and on mouthing his own phony P.C. pieties about the Koran - that by omission he whitewashed the rioters themselves, Islamic extremists who routinely misuse that holy book as a pretext for murder.
That's how absurdly over-the-top the assault on Newsweek has been. The administration has been so successful at bullying the news media in order to cover up its own fictions and failings in Iraq that it now believes it can get away with pinning some 17 deaths on an errant single sentence in a 10-sentence Periscope item that few noticed until days after its publication. Coming just as the latest CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll finds that only 41 percent of Americans think the war in Iraq is "worth fighting" and only 42 percent think it's going well, this smells like desperation. In its war on the press, this hubristic administration may finally have crossed a bridge too far.
Let's stipulate flatly that Newsweek made a serious error. For the sake of argument, let's even posit that the many other similar accounts of Koran desecration (with and without toilets) by American interrogators over the past two years are fantasy - even though they've been given credence by the International Committee of the Red Cross and have turned up repeatedly in legal depositions by torture victims and in newspapers as various as The Denver Post and The Financial Times. Let's also ignore the May 1 New York Times report that a former American interrogator at Guantánamo has corroborated a detainee's account of guards tossing Korans into a pile and stepping on them, thereby prompting a hunger strike. Why don't we just go all the way and erase those photographs of female guards sexually humiliating Muslims (among other heinous crimes) at Abu Ghraib?
Even with all that evidence off the table, there is still an overwhelming record, much of it in government documents, that American interrogators have abused Muslim detainees with methods specifically chosen to hit their religious hot buttons. A Defense Department memo of October 2002 (published in full in Mark Danner's book "Torture and Truth") authorized such Muslim-baiting practices as depriving prisoners of "published religious items or materials" and forcing the removal of beards and clothing. A cable signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez called for interrogators to "exploit Arab fear of dogs." (Muslims view them as unclean.) Even a weak-kneed government investigation of prison abuses (and deaths) in Iraq and Afghanistan issued in March by Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III of the Navy authenticated two cases in which female interrogators "touched and spoke to detainees in a sexually suggestive manner in order to incur stress based on the detainees' religious beliefs."
[....]
[....]
Fire Yourself
To his careers as a sometimes cash-challenged real-estate mogul, fragrance shill, and reality-show blowhard, Donald Trump has added architecture critic.
Standing beside a 9-foot-high architectural model in the atrium of Trump Tower, he announced that he had signed onto a plan devised by architect Herbert Belton and structural engineer Ken Gardner to rebuild the destroyed Twin Towers as a fortified version of the Minoru Yamasaki-designed originals. If the Freedom Tower is built, the world-class diplomat declared, ``the terrorists win.''
Trump decried the Freedom Tower design as ``not appropriate for freedom,'' and ``a skeleton.''
Belton and Gardner have been schlepping this ghastly proposal about for over a year. The details are predictably depressing: memorials in the old footprints that look like abandoned garden- show displays, a cluster of 12-story Miami-condo look-alikes posing as a memorial museum and ``Hall of Heroes.''
Lest fans fear Trump has lost his priapic interest in height for its own sake, a crude telecommunications antennae plunked on the north tower rises high enough to claim world's-tallest status.
Neither Belton, Gardner, nor Trump have found supporters among the firefighters, police, victims' families, downtown residential community (many of whose windows would be darkened by these hulks), nor the downtown business community (with the exception of a former tenant, John Hakala, who has energetically promoted the plan).
Shameless Synergy
Trump could not be bothered articulating what these feeble fakes symbolize. Let me help. These bumper stickers pointed at the sky express a crude, empty defiance.
Trump swore he would not stick his name on the towers in shiny metal letters. So what's in it for him? Well, an ad for his fragrance was pasted on the pink marble walls behind the model, well within range of the two-dozen TV cameras that showed up for the circus-like event. Trump mentioned ``The Apprentice'' at least half-a-dozen times, and said he may display the model in an upcoming episode. That's synergy for ya! Trump has defined shamelessness down, no easy feat in our civility-challenged era.
[....]
The strains are evident in the design for a new museum that will house the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center, unveiled yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The building, by the Norwegian firm Snohetta, is strangely seductive: with some fine-tuning, it could even become a fascinating work. It is already closer to the standard set by Santiago Calatrava's soaring glass-and-steel transportation hub than that of the site's troubled Freedom Tower, for example.
this is one of my favorite local JC red meat political hot topics. Cliffie Waldman's relentless attempts to create restrictions on dogs in vanvorst park in jersey city through fear mongering :
FYI...... We went thru this charade a few years back with Cliff Waldman...
Last time, right before the vote, the "Friends" changed the boundaries of the proposed dog run and people voted based on the original dimensions... What's also interesting is that Steve Fulop doesn't officially become the Downtown Councilman until July 1st.... What's the rush???? This is the first I've heard of this and I'm in the park daily.... So I surmise it's another bait & switch before Fulop has a chance to get involved.... I suggest that if you're a dog owner you get your friends out there to vote, for better or worse..... PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL ALONG........
Dog run vote set for June 4
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Letters to the Editor
The Jersey Journal
Re: June 4 Van Vorst Park vote on pet-free, pet-friendly park areas and a dog run.
The Friends of Van Vorst Park (FVVP), in association with the City of Jersey City's Office of the Mayor, its City Council, its Law Department and its Department of Public Works, announces the holding of a democratic ballot for all adult Jersey City citizens to determine the fair solution to preserving some portion of small, historic Van Vorst Park's lawns for safe, clean human use, while providing resources for dogs also, like a dog run. This solution will help both humans and dogs have what they are deprived of: healthy lawns and a place to run free.
This vote will take place from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 4 by the gazebo. This vote will be hosted by the FVVP in association with the VVPA, groups of the Jersey City Parks Coalition and other neighborhood groups. It will be overseen by Public Works Director John Yurchek. It will repeat the same ballot and outline that was drawn up three years ago. The new City "Pet Free/Pet Friendly" ordinance was spearheaded by the FVVP in 2000. It requires the oversight of the director of Public Works, which is why we are repeating the process now. Director Yurchek has committed himself to immediately implementing the community choices, including a possible dog run.
If a dog run is chosen, all interested dog owners will have input into its design. Though the city has a financial limit to how much they can spend on a dog run, we will support the ideal design (aesthetically and hygienically) and will pursue collateral grants to get any needed additional funds.
It is hoped that this first application of this quality-of-life ordinance will spread throughout Jersey City to improve all of its parks and public spaces. It is also hoped that this will be the beginning of what will become Mayor Healy's legacy of being our great city's Quality of Life Mayor. We also thank Downtown Councilman-elect Steve Fulop's support of the community empowerment approach to park development.
We hope that all interested citizens will participate in this important community decision.
DR. CLIFFORD S. WALDMAN FVVP CO-CHAIRMAN JERSEY CITY
Mia Scanga Executive Director- Talking Politics TV Show Jersey City, Channel 51 on Mondays at 9:30 pm, Wednesdays at 8:30pm & Thursdays at 7:30 pm; Hoboken, North Bergen, Union City and Weehawken, Channel 19 on Thursdays at 9:30 pm. See SEVENTEEN of our shows video streamed off our website: www.TalkingPolitics.net. 201-200-1958
Thanks Mia, Waldman is such a nut.
Q. The terrace of our New York apartment faces due north, with almost no direct sun. Impatiens and begonias are the only flowering plants we have found for shade. Can you suggest other ornamentals, flowering or otherwise?from the nyt
A. Unobstructed north light is usually bright enough for any plant that can thrive in partial shade, and if you include hardy perennials that gives you a long list of choices A collection of ferns could be a beautiful study in greens: some blue, some silvery, some edged in black. For flowers, consider plumelike astilbes, statuesque golden ligularias and - especially if space is tight - small woodland bleeding hearts like Dicentra eximia and D. formosa.
Unlike the larger garden bleeding heart (D. spectabilis), these little pink or white beauties do not go dormant in midsummer. While bloom is most abundant in spring, they flower intermittently well into fall.
Woodland bleeding hearts have fine-textured, blue-green leaves that look best when balanced by something broader. Try heucheras, bergenias or hostas, or mix things up with tropicals like coleus and caladium.
And do not forget the pansy tribe, which includes violets and violas. In a cool, north-facing location, they can bloom all summer. Sources for partial shade perennials include Fieldstone Gardens, (207) 923-3836 or fieldstonegardens.com and Busse Gardens, (800) 544-3192 or bussegardens.com.