Today's New York Times has a photo of a restaurant in Seoul, Korea with a prominent sign, "Americans are not welcome here". Even better, the Arts & Leisure section's main article is on Eurotrash.

I love how contradictory we can be. Xenophobia is bad in one article, and yet 15 pages later, xenophobia is condoned.

I spent a whole bunch of time today reading through http://www.joelonsoftware.com/. Basically, it's a guy summarizing what he knows and has done in terms of managing software development.

BookTV had a reading/talk on "Katharine Graham's Washington". The best speaker there was Sally Quinn, a writer for the Washington Post who was the most intelligently spoken one at the reading, beating out Michael Beschloss and others. Guess that just goes to show that there are lots of different kinds of intelligences. ;)

I just finished watching 'Bowling for Columbine', Michael Moore's latest cataloging of social ills in America. On the hit list is the unholy triumvirate of media, government, and big industry, which exploits the fears of the American public to gain money, power, and even more money.

The film leaves the audience in one of three states:

After showing much shocking footage, Moore tries to end on an upbeat note. Through his actions, Kmart agreed to phase out sales of ammunition within 90 days. This doesn't appear to be a valid solution, as Moore points out in the film that Canada has 7m guns for 30m people, yet Canada has nowhere near the per capita homicide rate that America does.

Half-way through the film, we see the most cogent criticism of America with respect to Columbine. This easily digestible summary was made by Marilyn Manson, and it made me realize that I really need to read his journal more often. I'd be very interested in a Marilyn Manson as a guest on Washington Week in Review.

Unfortunately, the overall effect of the film is to make me want to be more elitist. I see the impact of poverty and the mass acculturation of our youth, and I want my kids growing up in a small community, with a small high school. I don't want my kid stuck in a farm of locusts.

I see the influence of the bloodthirsty media, so I read the NY Times, the Economist, listen to NPR, and watch CSPAN. This just distances me from my community. I have no idea what goes in my small town.

Obviously, these effects aren't helping at all. Time to think, then time to act.