Who better than fiction writers to dream up new ways to kill lots of people?

It's alarming that our intelligence agencies ignored some early warnings of the possibility of a 9/11 style hijack-suicide attack. But wouldn't it be more alarming if there hadn't been any early warnings that were ignored? (In other words, if nobody in the vast anti-terror bureaucracy had figured out the possibility?) ...  To avoid such a complete failure of imagination, Blogger N.Z. Bear  argues that science fiction writers should be called on to staff a government "dream team" to think of what terrorists might do next. (Better them than some Hollywood hacks!)  Bear notes some promising precedents, offers four novelist names, and calls for further nominees. ...kf's candidate: Thriller writer James (Six Days of the Condor) Grady. ... Update: Alert kf reader S.R. writes:

Why do you need to "staff a government dream team" to tap into the creative intelligence of the country. The Office of Homeland Security should put up a web site with an e-mail link: Send us your terrorist plots. Give a $1000 bounty to anyone who submits a new one, $250 to anyone who suggests a new twist on an old one..

That's thinking outside the box about thinking outside the box! Sounds good to me. ....

Sunday, May 19, 2002

On his  Le Show today, Harry Shearer noted that the David Frum bio on the Web site of NPR station KCRW  (on which Frum regularly appears) boasts:

"David Frum, former economic speech-writer for President George W. Bush, is credited with creating nearly all of the phrase 'axis of evil,' which made headlines and raised political hackles across the world when used in Bush's 2002 State of the Union address."

P.S: This morning's Le Show was a good one, but isn't yet online. ...P.P.S.: Which part of the three-word phrase was Frum not responsible for? Answer: "evil." Frum  had it as "axis of hate."  ... Hey, that means he wrote only 6 of the ten letters. OK, 7 of 10 if you give him credit for the "e" in "hate." ... Studies show that "nearly all" requires at least 8 of ten. ....

Harmonic convergence of misguided populism: Did you know that bad influence  Bob Shrum is behind Robert Reich's campaign  too? .. Shrum is also helping historian Doris Kearns Goodwin rehabilitate herself. ... Maybe if Reich loses his gubernatorial race Shrum can run a campaign to get Reich tenure at Harvard! [It would be easier to get Reich elected governor. Actually, it would be easier to get him elected Miss America--ed. I forgot -- at Harvard they know him].

Saturday, May 18, 2002

The joy of being able to blame others (blamenfreude?): John Ellis has a short, cogent analysis  of why AOL's incoming CEO Richard Parsons must be smiling inside, despite all his company's highly-advertised troubles: