It's good to be back. Blogs are tricky creatures: certain people obtained the address for this one, and I didn't want those certain people to have it. Six months later or so, and I'm reconciled to the fact, the publicity, free speech, etc. I'm looking forward to writing again, although I can't promise complete sentences. In fact, let's start with a list. I entitle it Things I've Learned Since My Last Post:

1. Writing is more riveting in the present perfect, however much our brains are special for their ability to obsess over temporality.
2. Good journalism doesn't have all of the answers. Good journalism, especially of humanitarian crises, despairs.
3. Late twentieth-century Canadian war drama sucks.
4. Death is a gift, because it distinguishes us from all others, it establishes our subjectivity. Only you can die for yourself (even if you're dying for others). Derrida might be a heretical Christian, and I'm totally down with that.
5. I despise housework: two decades of positive, hygenic self-delusion comes to an end.
6. You CAN teach someone to read critically. Go--teach.

This is difficult. More later.