Three From Bad Attitudes

This Howard Zinn article entitled The Scourge of Nationalism is simply a must read. Here's a tiny appetizer:

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on September 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What makes our nation immune from the normal standards of human decency?

Surely, we must renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Speaking of appetizing--or not so--James Doolittle found this germane tidbit (no pun intended) in National Geographic:

Among the occupational hazards of being king, tsar, or maharaja, few are so permanently incapacitating as a pinch of arsenic slipped into the soup. For that the royals have long had a remedy: the food taster …

These days, employment opportunities for tasters are in decline. In England, Buckingham Palace reports there is no formal procedure for food tasting. “The in-house help are fully vetted,” a palace spokesman says. The Japanese emperor hasn’t used a food taster in years, though President George W. Bush has used Navy mess specialists to handle the job.

Doolittle notes that "Navy mess specialist" means "Filipino steward." And in this instance, "President" means "imperial bozo."

Finally, Doolittle also points to a New York Times technology article about Google Maps. There's an element of "gee whiz" to the story--along with this fun trivia item:

NOW, a promised final word about Google's aerial views. Last month, I mentioned that one small part of the American land mass was obscured in an unusual way. It's not the headquarters of the C.I.A., which is there in such detail you that can tell the color of cars in the parking lots. Nor is the mystery zone a dam or a power plant. Some are clearer than others, but the differences result from varying quality of satellite photographs from place to place.

True, the roofs of the White House and two neighboring buildings have been Photoshopped, to conceal whatever protective systems may be up there. And the view of the United States Capitol grounds is blurry, though the contours of the main buildings are distinct. But to see what real camouflage looks like, zoom in on the satellite view of 1 Observatory Circle in Washington. That's where Dick Cheney lives.

Secure, and somewhat undisclosed...what more could a prince of darkness veep want?