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Impending war makes mundane things cast a shadow. September 11th changed the way we in NYC look at foreign conflicts. There is an immediacy to far off events, the possibility that they aren’t as remote as we thought. A vague uneasiness discolors regular events. Not many people on the street this morning. Is it odd? Is something going on? Nothing. A service change in the subway. Why? What happened? Is it really a signal failure downtown? Of course. Sirens. Anything happening? None of this would rate a second thought but now it seems awfully important.

It hardly matters that it’s not technically war- that requires an act of Congress- but the commitment of troops. Splitting semantic hairs. And no matter that it is without the formality of international sanction. The U.N. wasn’t forthcoming. Or that it is outside an existing treaty. Turkey wouldn’t play along. Or that we supported the Iraqi regime change and encouraged it during our opposition to the Iranian theocracy. Crying over spilt milk. This is, we’re told, the rooting out after twelve years of armed impatience a threat to the stability of the Mid-East. And I’m sure it is.

Less surely, I have to wonder if what is playing out is a distraction from an incoherent domestic policy. Not the first time, and surely not the last. Or it may be a ham-fisted attempt to bump-start a floundering economy. War, historically, has been good for some businesses even if it hasn’t been good for individuals. It could be crassly putting a more friendly hand on the spigot of oil production. It does not take a policy think tank to surmise that installing a new regime and divvying up the rights to a denationalized Iraqi oil industry to the multinational petroleum companies would incline both to the benefactor U.S. Or it might simply be sending a stiff warning in the direction of other destabilizing influences. Our "friends", Saudi Arabia and Pakistan leap to mind, have their own regimes or engaged in murky business.

The most worrisome thing is the uncritical acceptance of the administration’s statements by otherwise thoughtful people. It doesn’t follow along the usual suspects: generational, educational and socio-economic lines. It isn’t exactly flag-wrapped patriotism either. It’s full-throated and unquestioning and as lacking in subtlety as our Administration’s public persona and that makes me apprehensive, too.

The Blank Slate  by Steven Pinker. Well researched survey of the ideas, trends and arguments surrounding the topic "Human Nature&quot. The pace of each chapter is more textbook than entertainment but his style is good if dense. I found it interesting but slow going for a recreational read.

I just started this 800-page paperback: The House of Morgan  by Ron Chernow. Interesting so far, but then, I have a background in History and read widely on The Gilded Age and early 19th century America (a fact my student loan payment reminds me of each month).

Not in my hands yet but I’m buying the books of Vince and David J. Gingery. These self-described, "inventors, machinists, writers, publishers, eccentrics and geniuses at large" have a collection of do-it-yourself books for the mechanical tinkerer. The rest of the Lindsay Books roster looks interesting too. So what if my NYC Co-Op won’t let me get away with building a foundry, assembling an engine or building a vacuum forming machine in the flowerbeds behind the building, it still looks like great reading of the same stripe as the hobbyist titles of the late-1930’s, 40’s and early 50’s that were full of mildly dangerous but really interesting experiments with high voltage coils, exothermic reactions and clever machines that suburban migration and liability suits kicked in the ass. I can’t wait for them to arrive.

It’s not the local commercial stations, thanks.

• WFMU Free-form, independent radio broadcasting FM near NYC with simulcast in mp3. I love it even though it’s a hit or a miss what I’ll hear… might be Afro-Cuban beats segued into post-punk leading to Japanese pop or it might be someone droning about collegiate sports.
• SomaFM Listener supported, commercial free internet radio. Particularly the mp3 casts Groove Salad, Beat Blender and Indie Pop. Very cool eclectic stuff.
• WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Alan Chartock’s gift to New York and New England in mp3 and RealAudio stream. I practically grew up on it (okay, I’m not that young, but by the time I was old enough to appreciate it, WAMC was on the air) and hearing it again is great.

I’d like to listen to National Public Radio’s feed itself, but sadly, they only run Windows Media and Quicktime streams. And I’m fond of WBGO, a public radio Jazz station out of Newark, but their RealAudio feed hangs XMMS.