More from Barnett

Tom writes: 'As I explore in the PNM Blueprint for Action, shrinking the Gap is one big exercise in successfully bringing the population from rural to urban, connecting these people to larger opportunities in the process.'

Once you've done that, you can ruralize a little bit. People can move to less-urban areas and still remain connected. You get people tele-commuting, consulting, etc.

The challenge on the developing world is: can we get them connected up quicker and easier than we connected up? Can we skip certain technological developments that we went through. We're seeing landlines get skipped by cell phones. Great. Can we get wireless internet going well in these places? Can developing nations skip over polluting, degrading developments like coal?

Some of the problems are social: can developing nations (like China, for instance), skip more quicly over sweatshops and child labor and danger to workers, etc?

Tom's got a post entitled Europe's right across the board. The issues he's citing are: negotiate with Iran; rethink the transatlantic relationship (letting Europe decide more); forgive more Gap debt; do more on CO2 emissions; lighten up on China and let EU sell them arms; and be more patient with Russia. That kind of galls, but I don't disagree.

While I'm quoting Tom, I'll throw up this one. He writes that more and more countries are pushing English as the dominant second language. 'And what have we done since 9/11? We’ve made this country a much less friendly place. Why? Out of fear and misplaced attention. We don’t need interdiction, we need identification.'

An SDI rocket launch failed this week. What a waste of money!

If Pakistan can have nukes, why not Iran? Tom snarks.

Tom's going to be involved in some wargaming tailored to PNM. Cool. If I were more industrious I'd do versions of Civilization tailored to both PNM and 'Guns, Germs, and Steel'. But I'm not.