Te Deum totius consolationis

Many thanks to all who have sent their warm greetings on this feast day of my heavenly patrons, St. Thomas Aquinas in the West and St, Ephrem of Syria in the East, two of the greatest of the Doctors of the Universal Church.

A prayer ascribed to St. Thomas:

Te Deum totius consolationis invoco, qui nihil in nobis praeter tua dona cernis, ut mihi post hujus vitae terminum donare digneris cognitionem primae veritatis, fruitionem divinae majestatis. Da etiam corpori meo, largissime remunerator, claritatis pulchritudinem, agilitatis promptitudinem, subtilitatis aptitudinem, impassibilitatis fortitudinem. Apponas istis affluentiam divitiarum, influentiam delitiarum, confluentiam bonorum, ut gaudere possim supra me de tua consolatione, infra de loci amoenitate, intra de corporis et animae glorificatione, juxta de Angelorum et hominum delectabili associatione. Consequatur apud te, clementissime pater, in eo rationalis sapientiae illustrationem, concupiscibilis desiderabilium adeptionem, irascibilis triumphi laudem, ubi est, apud te evasio periculorum, distinctio mansionum, concordia voluntatum, ubi est amoenitas vernalis, luciditas aestivalis, ubertas autumnalis, et requies hiemalis. Da, domine Deus, vitam sine morte, gaudium sine dolore, ubi est summa libertas, libera securitas, secura tranquillitas, jucunda felicitas, felix aeternitas, aeterna beatitudo, veritatis visio, atque laudatio, Deus. Amen.

I apologize for quoting the Latin. There seems to be no English version on line for me to copy and paste.

Spring Offensive Planned

Thousands of U.S. forces would be involved, as well as Pakistani troops, planners said. Some of the 10,600 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan would be shifted to the border region as part of regular troop movements; some would be deployed within Pakistan.

"Before we were constrained by the border. Musharraf did not want that. Now we are told we're going into Pakistan with Musharraf's help," a well-placed military source said.

Spotted by mrdankelly

Mr. Bush may feel he needs a full scale world war to get elected this time. Of course he may think he can pick Osama up as easily as he did Saddam. But Saddam was handed over by the Kurds. But there is nobody, nobody I know of, in Afghanistan or Pakistan remotely analagous to the Kurds.

This may be the main reason Musharraf is so willing to bury the hatchet with Mother India.

The New Face of the Silicon Age

And therein lies the opportunity for Americans. It's inevitable that certain things - fabrication, maintenance, testing, upgrades, and other routine knowledge work - will be done overseas. But that leaves plenty for us to do. After all, before these Indian programmers have something to fabricate, maintain, test, or upgrade, that something first must be imagined and invented. And these creations must be explained to customers and marketed to suppliers and entered into the swirl of commerce in a fashion that people notice, all of which require aptitudes that are more difficult to outsource - imagination, empathy, and the ability to forge relationships. After a week in India, it seems clear that the white-collar jobs with any lasting potential in the US won't be classically high tech. Instead, they'll be high concept and high touch.

Indeed, Kirwin, the programmer in Delaware, partly confirms my suspicion. After he lost his job at J.P. Morgan, he collected unemployment for three months before he found a new job at a financial services company he prefers not to name. He's now an IT designer, not a programmer. The job is more complex than merely cranking code. He must understand the broader imperatives of the business and relate to a range of people. "It's more of a synthesis of skills," he says, rather than a commodity that can be replicated in India.

Daniel Pink in Wired

High concept, high touch, we're good at that.

We should still be cautious about outsourcing that can give unrestricted access to confidential information to people beyond the reach of our criminal justice system. A company that does that may be putting itself at risk in ways it doesn't appreciate.

And even if free trade is a good idea in general, it might not be a good policy for our own government to send its work abroad.

Orient Express

On this date in 19... never mind what year exactly, my mother had an operation from which I never recovered. For one thing, I got in the habit of breathing air. And I have agreed to celebrate the anniversary of that event on Broadway at 100th Street at the first restaurant I ate in when I first came to New York some two decades later. It was the Harbin Inn then, and I had "buddhist delight" for the first time before returning to the Paris Hotel.

Now it is the Turkuaz, the food is Turkish, and tomorrow night (not tonight, alas) they will have a dancer. They hadn't, as far as I know, for some time, but they have started their Thursday evenings again, and my faithful browser tells me that Neon, a performer I very much admire and a talented painter besides, is again one of their regulars. I had been depressed to hear that she had quit the business, and pleased to learn that that was far from the case. Indeed, she was one of a number of dancers whom I had enjoyed at a monthly event near City Hall, and who migrated, professionally, that is, to my old neighborhood just uptown from my present haunts. But these events ceased before I had made it to more than one of them, and I am glad to see them resumed. Tonight, though, the food -- and my family -- will have my full attention. And I anticipate it will be worth it.

In ten minutes or so I will go to my last meeting of the day, after which I shall head for the IRT uptown express.

Whether or not it is good to be the King I cannnot say from personal experience, but there are days, and nights, when I am pretty pleased to be a New Yorker.