WHY I LOVE GABON In case you missed this a few weeks back, the president of Gabon announced at the World Conference on Sustainable Development that it would "create 13 new national parks on roughly 10,000 square miles of land. Logging leases on those lands would be bought out or cancelled." Michael Fay, a research scientist who trekked 2,000 miles across Africa in 2000, says of Gabon: "Blue seas, white sand, elephants, whales, sea turtles, monkeys, bush pigs, unbelievable scenery. Gabon has it all. It has everything that everyone ever dreams about in paradise, as far as I'm concerned."

BUY A VOWELL An LATimes review of Sarah Vowell's new book of essays, "The Partly Cloudy Patriot." Vowell, who you'd better damn well know from "This American Life" or McSweeney's is described by the Times as "Joan Didion without the gloomy foreboding," which kinda makes me want to burn all of her books. I've been told I need to give Didion another chance.

TAKE A LOOK (AT A BOOKER) The Guardian reviews two of the Booker Prize longlist nominees -- Jon McGregor and William Trevor -- and presents the entire longlist at the end of the article.

IS THAT YOU, GOD? Do you want to tear your eyes out of their sockets when you see those annoying "Got God" billboards on the highway? This site offers up some much more realistic alternatives, such as "I never said, 'Thou shalt not think.'" and "I'm flattered you liked my book so much. Now why don't you read something new?" Buy the damn t-shirt, would you?

A YEAR IN THE LIFE The Middle East Forum's Daniel Pipes reflects on the past year, what it has meant to him and some of the lessons he has learned. After a "book, 8 long articles, 80 short articles, 110 television appearances, 120 in-person lectures, 360 mentions in the media (that I know of), and 450 radio interviews," he's learned a fair bit.

WEBLOG LOVE The effervesent MightyGirl tells her version, and so does her new fiance. Too bad she didn't stab someone.

THANK THE TRIANGLE If you ever have occassion to drive through the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, say a little prayer of thanks for two mainstays of alternative music to emerge from the region: Superchunk and the Two Dollar Pistols. The Independent Weekly calls the Pistols' new release, "You Ruined Everything," one of the finest country music releases in a good, long while. And they ain't so bad live, either.

IGNATIUS CHIMES IN I told a friend just last night that David Ignatius remained one of a small handful of mainstream writers and analysts whose perceptions continue to ring true on events in the Middle East. Today's piece cuts right to the heart of what should be on everyone's mind as war with Iraq draws closer. "...the intelligence officials don't appear to be worried about the Iraqi military, its air defense, its nuclear program, its links to al Qaeda or its ability to mobilize global support. And they doubt there will be much instability in the Arab world," Ignatius writes. What worries them? "The very fact that Saddam Hussein will go down fighting as hard as he can. "He knows we're going for his throat," says one of the intelligence officials. In other words, if he can't win conventionally, look for Hussein to play dirty. That shouldn't be reassuring to anyone.

BEHIND THE CHANGE An old report is going to be released today that speaks volumes about where the military is headed in the coming decade. Dry stuff, perhaps, but critical. The report was developed in 1992 and it focuses on transformational trends in defense strategy -- driven by new technologies, and that nebulous "asymetrical" concept of warfighting. The real interest here isn't whether we buy more tanks or start building lasers. It's that over the next decade, there is going to be major upheaval within the U.S. military structure as the government adapts to a new way of thinking about defense. It should be a fascinating, and painful, process for everyone involved.

A FALLING CURTAIN Mary McGrory is an old Washington hand who has seen tides of excess sweep that city over the past five decades. But she's alarmed by what she sees taking place today, as evidenced by a new report released by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, which looks at the impact of last September 11 on civil liberties. McGrory says it's time for Democrats to speak up (as several Republican-appointed judges have done in recent weeks): "Democrats put curbs on their own free speech. It's because they are in a position where, as Franklin Pierce said, "the president himself announces to us that it is treasonable to speak or to write otherwise than as he may prescribe." Things will only get worse unless people speak out."

THE JULIE/JULIA PROJECT If you're not going to change the way the world thinks, the least you can do is show the world the way you change. That's my take on the Julie/Julia Project, in which an outer borough maven decides to take the Julia Child classic, "The Art of French Cooking," and spend a year cooking all 536 recipes. Here she shares her results, through words, with the rest of us.

POP SAVANT Bob Massey remains one of my quiet heroes for his desire and ability to be skeptical even as he shapes something genuine with a teaspoon of pop culture and some old reels of home video. He's working with David Wilson on an opera that is scheduled to be performed in D.C. in January. Here's a taste.

WIND IN IRAN Whit Mason penned this long article for World Policy Journal explaining from several angles why Iran is poised for dramatic change. He describes the atmosphere in Iran as being akin to that of Barcelona on the eve of Spain's Civil War: "Iran faces two almost equally hard-to-imagine futures. The reformists may somehow find the nerve and credibility to force a referendum on theocratic rule, which would certainly result in a vote to end the clerics’ monopoly on power. Or Iranians’ frustration will continue to be stifled until it explodes in uncoordinated street violence, with ultimately unpredictable political results." As the Bush Administration glares publicly at the regime in Iran, one can only hope that the quiet interactions taking place behind the scenes are focused on future possibilities, not past transgressions.

GITLIN PUNCHES VIDAL Todd Gitlin, an old hand at protest from his SDS days in the 1960s and a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia, takes off the kid gloves in his critique of Gore Vidal's latest. "Anti-Americanism is an emotion substituting for an analysis, a morality, an ideal, even an idea about what to do. When the hatred of foreign policies sputters into a hatred of an entire people and their civilization, then thinking is dead and demonology lives," Gitlin writes. And then he gets fierce. He then sets his sights on the book "Why People Hate America," which has been out for some time now. "Though their documentation is spotty, the strong point of their argument with America is corporate and Washington economic policies that magnify poverty elsewhere and despoil the environment. That America might have allies in this despoliation -- Japanese corporations, European corporations, Brazilian corporations, yes, Canadian corporations -- does not attract their attention." Gitlin remains a refreshing voice from the Old Left, or its remnants, and refuses to be caught up in stale standards or reactionary ideology.

"To love in the land without language
is to learn to live small in the world,
small and observant; wrapped in silence,
subdued like prayer.
To tug the gentle strands of our sounds
until we shake with each other's echoes;
until sleep slips like desert wind past minarets;
until language slumbers,
its exploding cinders glowing
in winter's gray,
glowing in the hushed
shhh of faith."

GIRL WRITE PRETTY SOMEDAY Someone get a baseball bat and find David Sedaris' kneecaps, because as I discovered long ago and somehow managed to forget, he has competition. The anonymously clever Pretty Girl is funny, smart and focused. And her weblog reflects that in spades, as her recent declarations of "Be The One People Go To When The Police Are No Help Day!" and "Ears Day" so smartly attest.

CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT? Bill Clinton played the middle so frequently during his eight years in the White House that he often failed the Golden Rule of implementation. He overpromised and underdelivered. Still, on the global front, some major movement took place in the 1990s that kept many cauldrons from bubbling over (though in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia and cnetral Africa there were plenty of bubbles to share). Clinton chimes in today on some of the central fibres he sees as critical to future global stability and security. He's surprisingly focused.

MANN-ERISMS Salon chats with Amy Mann about her new release, "Lost In Space," which currently shares my CD player with tw other stellar new releases: David Bowie's "Heathens" and Coldplay's newest disc.

KATE'S BIG BREAK Kate Sullivan, who continues to post to her weblog, now has a new gig as the Music Maven for the New Times L.A.

ALPHAGORSEUM I decided to use a link from a publication as far away as possible from Cape Cod to announce that Edward Gorey's house in the Cape has been opened to the public as a museum for all things Gorey. Now that I've taken care of the public service announcement, visit Goreyography for more details on the museum and many other Goreyesque subjects.

GEEK LOVE I suppose I'm posting this for two reasons, and they ultimately seek to cancel each other out. That's just an inherently useful approach, isn't it? I discovered via This Modern World that "Farscape" has been cancelled, which is a sad event in the mote in pop culture's eye. It was a rip-roaring good sci-fi series, also known as a rarity. I haven't seen it in two years, but it was nice to know it was out there. Secondly, I can't imagine the cancellation of a single television show that would cause me to launch a "Help Save [show title here]" webpage. Maybe if someone wanted to cancel Nova Scotia. I might get passionate about that.

LOOK UP, LOOK DOWN, LOOK ALL AROUND Magdalen Powers gives us a primer to life in New York City. Sadly, most of us have already danced through the streets of Manhattan dozens of times on rainy evenings without the benefit of her insights. But already I sense that I'll have an easier time hailing a cab on my next excursion.

A PINKSY POEM Robert Pinksy was comissioned to write a poem for the Post Magazine on the events of September 11. The resulting poem, "9/11," appeared in yesterday's Post, and today Pinsky appeared online to discuss the piece. Pinky was poet laureate of the United States, is a good writer and an excellent reader of poetry. You can follow the link to the Post Magazine for either a written or read version of the poem.

Q&A WITH PETER BERGEN The author of "Holy War Inc." and the CNN news analyst who was one of the last folks to interview Osama Bin Laden hits the web with an online chat at the Washington Post Online. Bergen's thoughtful and knowledgeable, and he serves up some good interpretations in today's chat. Foremost among them being a concern that the sudden (or suddenly increasing) emphasis on Iraq runs the risk that we'll once again drop the ball on al Qaeda, which after all is still in business.

RECYCLE SUVS Car Talk and Stonyfield Farms have teamed up to thumb their organic, oil-stained noses at Sports Utility Vehicles. As the opening missive notes, the main point here is that larger vehicles have larger environmental and economic impacts, and that people who drive them should be aware of this. You can request a "Live Larger, Drive Smaller" bumper sticker while you're here.

ORGANIC HARVEST MONTH September is Organic Harvest Month, and our friends at Stonyfield Farms point out that the new National Organic Standards take effect in October. So, keep your eyes peeled for the USDA Organic label. And click on the lefthand link for $50 in organic product coupons.

SULLIVAN'S WORLD Thanks to This Modern World for sending me over to this weblog, which offers a smart bit of deconstruction of Andrew Sullivan. I read Sullivan's weblog regularly, and find myself disagreeing with somewhere in the neighborhood of... well, almost everything he writes.

THE PURSUIT OF LIFE, LIBERTY Newsday hosts this blurb from the Associated Press that lists some simple little rights that have been altered as a result of the 2001 USA Patriot Act. Cheerful stuff.

IF YOU MUST DRINK, DRINK WELL MightyGirl steps forward with her guide to drinking, developed under the premise that people drink, bars are becoming stocked with pre-mixed crap, and the few people interested in fighting the fair fight should arrive pre-armed. Make mine a Gimlet.

FREAK OUT PopPolitics takes a look at two new books that explore two different aspects of what we will breathlessly call "the sideshow arts." The first -- Sideshow USA: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination -- is more academic, and examines the evolution of the freak culture in modern times. The second -- Jay's Journal of Anomolies -- looks more at the craft of freakdom. Today's takeaway: During the filming of the legendary "Freaks," scriptwriter F. Scott Fitzgerald lost his lunch because his sensitive Princeton belly was unable to deal with bearded women and dwarves kissing.

PUMPKINS IN SEPTEMBER One Ring Zero and The Pumpkin Pie Show are returning to Richmond this weekend. One Ring Zero will be delivering a musically eccentric performance at Plan ( in Carytown at 2:00 this Saturday (September 14), while the whole Pumpkin Pie clan (Clay McLeod Chapman and company with musical accompaniment by One Ring Zero) will be at the Barksdale Theatre Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You can call 804-282-2620 for ticket info.

AH, AUTUMN, WHEN THE PROTESTORS RETURN At the end of September, the staying power of a variety of groups will (or won't) be demonstrated. That's when the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are scheduled to hold their annual meetings. But it's not their staying power that's in question. It's the groups who in 2000 and 2001 managed to pull together tens of thousands of activists, seriously disrupting daily life in Seattle, Washington and Genoa, as they protested a variety of issues -- chief among them the catch-all idea of gloablization. The September meetings in D.C. will really be the first time since the spring of 2001 that the activists will have had an opportunity to gather.

FORWARD-LOOKING QUESTIONS In the midst of an overwhelming amount of reflection and memorialism, Robert Kaiser asks three questions that look at past activity to frame future concerns. Kaiser asks: Why has the Bush Administration veered off course in its fight against terrorism? Why does the Bush Administration seem to focused on thumbing its nose at its friends as it pursues Saddam Hussein? And why has a serious national debate not emerged in the face of some of the most serious changes and adjustments in how the United States is focused in the arenas of global politics, military strategy, diplomacy and civil liberties?