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Dancing on Graves

Doing some more reading, this time on the Holy Land Foundation, which had its assets frozen by the US government a couple of days ago. The group had some choice words on the matter, calling it an "attack on Islam", among other things.

Well, today an FBI memo came to light, describing various ties between the HLF and Hamas. My favorite part was the snippet from a 1995 fundraiser in Los Angeles, where a Hamas military leader spoke:

"I hope no one is recording me or taking any pictures, as none are allowed... because I'm going to speak the truth to you. It's simple. Finish off the Israelis. Kill them all! Exterminate them! No peace ever!"

The event raised $207,000, some of which went to reward the families of suicide bombers. It took us six years to shut these people down?

Ok, let's turn to some happy news: Enron has now come begging us for power.

"We don't want to dance on anyone's grave," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources. "But this is sort of ironic."

Nonsense, Mr. Hidalgo! Dance, I say, dance!

We're also being treated to a number of sad stories about poor rank-and-file Enron employees, whose retirement funds melted away as Enron's stock fell from $90 to change-under-the-couch-cushion levels. Looks like the Labor Department is even getting involved. You've got to hand it to the U.S. government -- even if you're a bunch of arrogant manipulative trash-talking middlemen, the plodding old Labor Department will cheerfully step in to save your ass. That's duty for you.

But let's face it. Enron and the other energy traders simply took advantage of the massive loopholes in our own "deregulation" scheme. We Californians wore a short skirt and asked for it. After all, in 1995 we allowed ourselves to be distracted by the burning issues of the day, such as whether or not to provide cheap preventative medical care to illegal immigrants. Hmmm... sexy issue with lots of people screaming on both sides, or complex arcane issue involving huge transfers of money and power? Guess which one penetrated our consciousness? Fortunately, we had plenty of experts (Gov. Wilson, legislators of both parties, and hordes of industry lobbyists) to decide the tough issues for us.

Not to beat this Enron thing to death, but a few days ago I heard an "industry analyst" on NPR assuring the public that despite the debacle, energy production would continue. "Power plants will continue to create electrons," he said.

Arrrgh. All together, now: power plants don't create electrons. And while we're on the subject, power plants don't move electrons, either. Neither do computers. If we're talking AC power, electrons just shake back and forth. That's about it. And DC power? Well, you crack open your Halliday and Resnick and calculate the electron drift speed for typical values of current and wire diameter. Then call ZDNet and let them in on the secret. I'm sure they'll thank you for it.

Posted by Evan Goer on Dec. 06, 2001 at 2:22 PM