No, somehow it doesn't. Last night we heard a folk musician, Spook Handy, sing a song he wrote which incorporates Iraq War references and the chorus, "This train is headed for The Hague." If only it were so — rich countries supply the judges, who clearly aren't inclined to judge the politicians who appointed them.

Handy is a disciple of Pete Seeger, the 89-year-old folk icon who lives in Beacon, New York, and probably doesn't have a euphemistic bone in his body. An engaging documentary about his life, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, was released last year (highly recommended).

http://tinyurl.com/2ded5x

Some amazing archival footage was located for the film. One clip from the 1930s shows Seeger's parents, both classically-trained musicians. His dad is dressed like an Old World, European Jew. They decided to tour America, presenting live classical music to the masses. The effort was met with massive uninterest. But at folk festivals in North Carolina, the Seegers learned that the hillbillies had some vital music of their own. Pete Seeger picked up the banjo, and ended up actually writing the now-classic How to Play the Five-String Banjo (1948).

Going back to Bromwich's rather colorless essay, his assertion that discussion of U.S. policy as a root cause of terrorism "has barely begun to register in The New York Times, in The Washington Post, or on CNN or MSNBC" made me bust out laughing. Get a grip, Dave! You might as well as search in Der Stürmer for articles about "New Currents in Jewish Intellectualism."

The Revolution will not be televised, not will it be covered in the Slimes or the WaPo. Print journalism is like, so 20th century (sorry, Phil).

Its an important distinction, that too often leads to FAILED diagnoses and treatments.

As if there were a single "cause" to anything in the world.

Events occur in conditions. In different conditions, different events occur.

There is still responsibility to participate in effecting conditions, if you have the power, but "cause" is itself a lazy word.

"US policy "caused" Arab terrorism" is a lazy use of an already lazy word.

" 'Cause' is itself a lazy word."

And science is all a crock. Newton's laws of motion? F = ma? Mere casuistry!

Or, in the alternative, Witty's gauzy semantic fog, in which cause and effect birth each other like chicken and egg, is an elaborate exercise in obscurantism.

Too bad the English language, with its oppressive subject-verb-object syntax, is so resistant to efforts to erase the distinction between act, actor, and acted-upon. You would find this so much easier in Japanese, Richard. Onegai shimasu, sensei.

the subtext being: 'You can't blame Israel for the Occupation' and/or 'you can't blame the neocons for Iraq'.

'Its an important distinction, that too often leads to FAILED diagnoses and treatments.'

Such as 'the occupation causes the terrorism, so get off their land and see what happens' ? Maybe that is wrong, but the only way to find out would be to try it, no?

'Events occur in conditions. In different conditions, different events occur.'

Of COURSE, why didn't I think of that? Different conditions, different events.. brilliant. I dips me lid.