Checksum Arcanius

By Johann N. Neem
Special to The Times

SINCE the fall of the Soviet Union, nations around the world have been undergoing a long and halting transition to democratic self-government. Under President Bush, moreover, the United States has undertaken the ambitious mission of spreading democracy around the world. In Iraq, this effort has been made more difficult by the mutual distrust among Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, a distrust due in large part to atrocities committed under Saddam Hussein.

Emerging from totalitarianism, Iraqis must learn to work together as democratic citizens. A range of thinkers, from commentators to policymakers, have tried to distill what this transition will take. After all, democracies do not happen overnight. They require citizens to share certain core ideas. Among the most important is the ability to lose.
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My first day as as a University of Washington Husky began as a glorious late September morning in Seattle. The sun was showing signs of life, yet the air was cool and the lingering clouds made it clear they they would not easily relinquish their rule from the night.

I awoke earlier than normal, unaccustomed to the morning cross-bridge commute and expecting the worst. My preparations took longer than expected, but the commute was shorter than expected. I traveled across the I-90 bridge, then up I-5 to the Montlake E-1 parking area. I was additionally pleasantly surprised to find that, with my Husky Card, parking cost only $2.62 for the whole day. Clearly, I had not researched this process very well.
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Check out the live comment previewing I just installed. Not only was this the easiest Wordpres Plugin I have ever installed, it is also one of the coolest!

I highly suggest it to users of WordPress, to avoid whoopsie’s like half on my comment disappearing over at Passive Digressive, and shots in the dark like my recent comment at Bernie Zimmermann’s blog (even though that one worked).