h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ormondroyd, i don't know how you are defining "the west" in the dazed & confused article. i'm sure it means more than the good ole u.s. of a; no matter what all of us here would like to belive (we are the only country that really matters 'round these parts, aren't we?). but the general opinion amongst the workin' folk is " all those camel f***ing towelheads must die!!!". the more metaphoric blue collar people say, "we need to turn all that sand to glass.".as somone who's family comes from nyc & someone who spent 2 weeks trying to locate family members, i sympathise. but we have a really strange situation here. the continued bombings can be viewed as just the byproduct of an ongoing war. spreading anthrax is biological warfare; it doesn't really matter who is spreading anthrax at this point. everyone is sure that it's those religious zealots. it may turn out to be a white supremist group in idaho, but few will belive it, even if that's the truth.& even if we do manage to apprehend bin laudin, or kill him; won't it just make him a martyr?

The anthrax scare is creating a general paranoia that spreads even to
remote parts of the US.
consider this quote from the Lansing MI State Journal.
"As the threat of another terrorist attack continues, Michigan Attourney General Jennifer Granholm(I presume the moderators do not consider her a key person) says more needs to be done to protect residents here.
She has proposed 25 measures to change state law, ranging from stiffening penalties for terrorist acts to making it a crime for implying a threat such as sending white powder through the mail with the intent of frightening someone." I also read that Northwest Airlines has stopped using powdered coffee creamer on their flights.

It seems to me that the media is doing more than their fair share of stirring up terror without the help of Bin Laden. My mother is no longer able to watch the news because it scares her too much. Too many people in the U.S. are only listening to what the media says and taking their word as absolutely true, without stopping to consider the fact that the media is in this for the money, not for the purpose of informing people. At least, that's what one of the editors of Newsweek told me, and from everything I've seen recently, I believe him. What our country needs is a news source that isn't providing information as a means to attracting viewers, but as a means to telling people what they need to know without sensationalizing it for prime time.

Now that I've finished this week's 'Notes', I have a moment to reply to messages about last week's 'Notes'... Sorry about the delay!

geode: you're right, it probably is a bit misleading to talk about 'the west' as if it were a unified entity. I have to say that your comments about the general attitude to the war in the USA don't entirely surprise me: I have seen some postings from Americans on the Talking Point sections of the BBC Online news pages that reflected similar 'nuke 'em all' attitudes, so its good to come to h2g2 and see some different views being expressed by American Researchers. I've been quite pleasantly surprised at the mixed, thoughtful response from a lot of people in Britain, although that may possibly reflect the kind of friends I have and the kind of newspapers and TV shows I favour. Mind you, the UK Government is getting fairly intolerant of dissident views (see this week's 'Notes') and I wonder which way UK public opinion will go when British ground troops get involved. I suspect that the mood may get a bit more gung-ho when 'our boys' are involved.

Shagbark - yep, much the same here. The maximum penalty for creating a hoax anthrax scare in Britain has been hurriedly increased to seven years' imprisonment.

Vidmaster, I sympathise with your Mum! I must admit that I've got pretty depressed when writing 'Notes' lately: it really does feel like trying to make sense of madness. As for a non-partisan news source: well, if there really is nothing homegrown that fits the bill, there is always the BBC, via BBC Online and the BBC Radio World Service!

Agreed. I've found that the BBC is pretty much the only news source that's given good news on all major events without scandalizing or dramatizing them. And luckily our local PBS station carries it.
Thanks Britain