It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. Three journalists working for Reuters report they were detained by American forces and "forced into humiliating acts and compelled to make demeaning gestures as soldiers laughed, taunted them and took photographs." Abu Ghraib? No. These journalists were detained at Forward Operating Base Volturno, near Fallujah. Either there are two sets of bad apples spoiled in exactly the same way, or someone very high in the chain of command is at the source of the rot. Read all about it. ![]() ![]() ![]() |