This is a fairly extreme example, but Atlanta has really taken to "new urbanism." The idea is that in typical suburban "zoning" you work, live, shop, and go to school in different places, and the result is that you interact with different people in each place. Therefore you tend not to care about them. By doing all of these things in the same place you form stronger bonds with the other people in your community.

INFOTO : Mega City Pyramid TRY 2004

] CNN inadvertently broadcast a series of pre-prepared
] obituaries of world figures, who have not departed this
] mortal coil.

The Scotsman - Top Stories - CNN makes a deadly mistake

] This site is a coalition effort of bloodthirsty hawks and
] ineffectual doves united in admiration for Mohammed Saeed
] al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information (currently on
] administrative leave).

I think any corporation would be happy to employ this man as their spokes person. He is a consumate professional, and damn loyal. Someone get him an offer letter.

We Love the Iraqi Information Minister

] The split by France and Germany from the United States
] over war in Iraq may mark the beginning of a strategic
] shift in which once-staunch allies are now willing to
] form blocs to oppose the unilateral American exercise of
] power, a senior intelligence analyst said Tuesday.

U.S.-Europe Disputes Over Iraq Seen as Foreshadowing Strategic Shift in Alliances - from Tampa Bay Online

ahhh.... the days of BBS's and Mondo2000.

The Way We Were

] This amazing image is included in the standard US
] Department of Defense briefings on North Korea. It was
] mentioned in a news briefing on 23 December 2002 by
] Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who stated that "If you look
] at a picture from the sky of the Korean Peninsula at
] night, South Korea is filled with lights and energy and
] vitality and a booming economy; North Korea is dark."

North Korea Is Dark

] When it comes to political truth, I think many Arab
] citizens today can have a more informed perspective than
] Americans. Don't get me wrong - that's not because my
] country is more democratic, has better journalists, or
] more intelligent analysis. None of these is true (not yet
] - but I remain hopeful for Bahrain's new democracy). But
] we do see your news as well as our news as well as
] Israeli news. In my (so far limited) experience of
] American life, Americans are extremely sheltered in the
] news that they see. When I read Haartez, I learn about
] Isrealis suffering from the conflict, I learn what they
] are worrying about, I learn how they deal with their own
] extremists, and I learn about their many citizens that
] would like to see peace. And I learn all this from an
] Israeli perspective, so I hear a positive human side.
] Americans do not seem to be learning such things about
] Arabs. Reading British commentary does not count as
] getting "a different perspective".

[IP] In the Arab world today, we get a more informed perspective than you.

] This is the only time in my many years serving America
] that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an
] Administration of the United States.

More high level resignations...

] These include a powerful propaganda machine — America’s
] is the most comprehensive and sophisticated in history —
] centered around a few simple, powerful symbols which,
] though in themselves meaningless, are nonetheless, in
] old-fashioned parlance, taboo. It remains an offense to
] “desecrate” the flag.
]
] They also include a public rhetoric so far removed from
] ordinary speech as to constitute practically a separate
] language and whose intended effect is essentially to
] baffle...

Do you watch cspan?

ArabNews: Neo-Totalitarianism

quote from msnbc weblog central:

"Ostensibly based in Baghdad, Where is Raed? is written by a person blogging under the pseudonym of Salam Pax, a tech-savvy Iraqi whose mastery of English provides for vivid descriptions, cutting wit, and thoughtful commentary. In the past there has been some discussion of the veracity of the writer’s claims, but those appear to have been resolved, with several bloggers offering testimony to Salam’s authenticity —and frankly, the more you read, the less doubt there seems to be."

Where is Raed ?