Trust, But Verify

A Gentle “Sheesh!”

2011-12-21T06:34:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: The New York Times,Tom Friedman,Language

Even the better writers sometimes goof.

Today it’s the turn of Thomas L Friedman in The New York Times with this bit lifted from today’s column on Iraq:

We overpaid in lives, in the wounded, in tarnished values, in dollars and in the lost focus on America’s development. Iraqis, of course, paid dearly as well.

Now the column is, of course, about America’s involvement and what we, and the world, can hope for in the future; but to use the cavalier of course makes Friedman seem a tad dismissive of the terrible times inflicted upon the Iraqis in our name.

“Of course” is just too casual and clichéd to be used in such a serious matter.

Sheesh!

Trust, but verify. (And that means edit yourself, Tom.)

Oh, Dave!

2011-12-09T05:39:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: David Brooks,New York Times,punditry

“Most people just want somebody who can articulate their hatreds…”

Interesting clause, eh wot, Dear Gentle Readers? It flows from the virtual pen of David Brooks this morning in his column posted in the New York Times.

While one hates to nit-pick, it seems quite unlikely that most people are in want of an articulate mean guy (or gal) to give voice to innermost disdain.

Edit yourself, Sir. Otherwise you write something which diverts the attention of a reader from your point.

Please.

Trust, but verify.

Define “huge”

2011-10-31T08:13:00.001-07:00

The National Law Journal has a great headline: Hips will be huge next year.

Of course, it isn’t really about pant-size, but it’s a hoot anyway!

Bravo, head writer!

Translations

2011-10-12T03:49:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Translations,Religion,Context

“Tolstoy wrote…” is an opening phrase you might hear a few times in your life. As soon as you do, Dear Gentle Reader, you might pause in your listening to think, “Really? Are you certain.”

Here are a couple of quotes from a French workbook:

“Elle a pris une decision.” (Sorry, you’ll have to imagine the accent over the e in decision.) The workbook then translates that sentence into 1) She made a decision; 2) She has made a decision; and 3) She did make a decision.

“Elle faisait..” can mean “She was doing…”, “She used to do…”, or “She did…”

Context matters; and context is a word which encompasses quite a lot, including, but not limited to the mores of the times—both of the time of the original writing and the time of the translation.

Much thought and subjective decision-making go into translations. So much so that we should be careful about placing too much confidence in what a translator finally presents.

And the more important the translated material might be to our individual and collective lives, the more cautious we should be.

For instance, religious writings should be treated with much caution. (Surely you saw that coming.)

Trust, but verify; or, in this case, read it in the original before you accept it totally.

Good luck with that.

Another war lost

2011-10-02T13:05:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: War on Drugs,Law Enforcement,LA Times

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting lead story today, with a fascinating headline: “Jail bars are no barrier to drug traffic” (print edition). It’s a fascinating read which brings up many questions. For instance, how is it that a guard whose divorces eat up “70%” of his salary stays on the job? (A recent attempt by LAPD to monitor certain officers’ bank accounts met with howls of protest.) Or, how is it that a 19-year-old was assigned to guard hardened drug criminals? (He’s served a 180 day sentence for providing drugs to an inmate.)

Fans of crime stories, though, should not be surprised that guards provide drugs to prisoners. Without that device of corrupt prison workers, writers would be stuck.

For now, it is obvious to everyone but those making a profit off of it (including, but not limited to, DEA bureaucrats and drug cartels) that we’ve lost the war on drugs. Really! We have. If law enforcement is part of the problem, what chance to we have? So it’s time to declare victory and turn the fight over to the United Corporations of America, you know, the folks who really run the country. It won’t take them long to get things right.

If we legalize the drug industry, we will obtain some worthwhile benefits. We will save money wasted on armaments; we will gain some needed tax revenue through the controlled sale of drugs; we will be able to regulate the drug industry; we will cut down on deaths caused by impure street drugs; and we will have a boatload of money to double down on anti-drug education.

Once Wall Street gets its hands on the business, everyone, especially those people in Central and South America whose lives are in jeopardy every day this senseless War on Drugs lasts.

It is more intelligent than what we’re doing now.

And Juan can get back to growing coffee beans.

Trust, but verify.

Sap, indeed

2011-09-20T03:36:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: New York Times,David Brooks,President Obama,Republicans

David Brooks, over at The New York Times, has unloaded on President Obama.

Brooks claims to have been “a sap” for believing just about anything Mr. Obama has said over the past 2 1/2 years because of the specifics in the President’s new plan to cut some taxes and raise some others.

But Mr. Brooks’ sappiness really becomes obvious when, towards the end of his column he writes: “at least Republicans respect Americans enough to tell us what they really think.”

Oh, Dave, Dave, Dave.

If you believe Republicans respect the average American, you’re such a sap.

Trust, but verify.

2nd step in reading

2011-09-17T06:53:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Doonesbury,Censorship,Palin,Reading,JoeMcGinnis

The current brouhaha regarding the Doonesbury comic strip is a good example of distraction as a metaphor for sleight of hand.

The strip is being censored in a few newspapers for its political content. At least that’s alleged reason.

If you look at the strips in question, though, it’s easy to see that Gary Trudeau isn’t being critical of Sarah Palin so much as he’s taking some shots at Fox News and the sort of newspapery being touted as journalism by right wing news outlets.

The panels quote from Joe McGinnis’s new book, to be sure, but the punch lines are aimed directly at the journalist who’s reading the book and then spinning the quoted material in absurd terms. He is the object of ridicule, not the former 1/2 governor (see the distraction?).

The sleight of hand comes in when the censoring newspapers allege it’s the political content which merits the removal of the strip, but actually those newspapers don’t want the public to think about what the comic journalist is doing. That might call too much attention to what the papers, themselves, are doing in reporting the political news.

It’s time for the English teachers of the world to point out to their students that calling words is only the first step in reading. The second step is thinking about the content of those words.

If there were more thought in the reading process, we’d’ve learned long ago that individual politicians are transitory, but institutions are more permanent. And there’s more danger to a flawed journalism institution than there is in a single pol.

Trust, but verify.

School Days

2011-08-21T09:37:00.001-07:00

It’s that time of year again—the imminent commencement of K-12 conventional schooling. It’s also that time of year for the usual words of caution and wisdom from edu-nerds pontificating in various newspapers and newsmagazines.

And, as usual, the focus will be on teachers, facilities, administrations and education measurements coming out of New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota and No Child Left Behind.

And, as usual, there will be little attention given to the role played by parents, even though parents are doubtless just as important in a child’s education as any other factor under public scrutiny.

It isn’t easy being a parent. It certainly isn’t easy being a parent in this very complex society of ours.

If the society is to continue to evolve in such a way that provides a “better” living for its members, we need to focus more energy and resources on supporting the parent component of educating the young—and that might well start with a class on child-rearing responsibilities, maybe in middle school. Lesson 1: Don’t even think about having a child unless you’re ready to commit for the 18-year-long haul.

The state of California requires a license before a person can work as a manicurist; the state of California does not require any sort of training for rearing a child.

How much sense does that make?

Read, if you must, the editorials and commentaries about what is needed to fix our “failing” schools. If they don’t mention parents, ignore them.

Trust, but verify.

Plop, Plop

2011-06-13T20:54:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Ross Douthat,David Mamet,Language,New York Times,Los Angeles Times

How annoying it is when writers become so lazy that they debase the language along with their ideas. For instance:

Ross Douthat, discussing the current Weiner foolishness, writes “In the sad case of Representative Anthony Weiner’s virtual adultery, the Internet era’s defining vice has been thrown into sharp relief. It isn’t lust or smut or infidelity, though online life encourages all three. It’s a desperate, adolescent narcissism.”

What is “desperate” about Mr. Weiner’s alleged adolescent narcissism? And just how does Mr. Douthat justify adolescent and narcissism? Has there been a diagnosis? Why can’t adults play without being labeled adolescent? (And what could be more narcissistic than putting your writing out there for the edification of others?)

(Full disclosure: I purchased my first convertible in 1986 at the age of 48. A colleague chuckled at my “attempt to recapture my youth.” Huh? Aren’t adults able to enjoy the pleasure of a top down ride? Who wrote those rules?)

Then there’s the recent epiphany of David Mamet into a right wing devotee of she-who-will-not-be-named, and labels NPR “National Palestinian Radio.”

Stupid, unsupported, yea unsupportable phrases indicate a lazy mind. Do they also indicate lazy editors as well as writers?

I cry bovine droppings on this sloppy writing.

Trust, but verify.

Pish and Piffle

2011-05-23T14:54:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,Daily Dish,Left,Language,Politics,Culture Wars

Sometimes Andrew Sullivan is exasperating.

Take this item in today’s Daily Dish: Bronski’s Beat.

It contains these lines:

It has always seemed chilling to me that gay leftists - when pushed to say what they really believe - want to keep gays in some sort of glorious, oppressed, marginalized position, until the majority agrees with the gay left's view of human nature, and revolutionizes straight society as well. This will never happen (and in my view, shouldn't).

Until then, the gay left focuses on demonizing those gays who argue for those who want to belong to their own families as equals, serve their country or commit to one another for life. In this, in my view, the gay left mirrors the Christianist right: they insist that otherness define the minority, even though most members of that minority are born and grow up in the heart of the American family, in all its variations, and of American culture, in all its permutations. No one should be marginalized for seeking otherness. But we are fighting for it to be a choice, not a fate.

All of that because some guy named Bronski wrote a book.

I don’t know Bronski; I don’t care about Bronski; I wish him well, as I would any stranger.

Sullivan, on the other hand (whom I also don’t know except through his writing) is part of my support system—OK, he doesn’t know that nor would he care much. And I find it galling that he would take the words of one, or two or even a hundred of such writers as Bronski and call him/them “the gay left.”

No one in my cohort of friends and acquaintances fits the description of Sullivan’s “the gay left,” but virtually every one of them is gay and/or a politically left person.

Sullivan trips up on his own style when in the first paragraph he uses “gay leftist.” Usually he reserves the suffix “-ist” for such as the odious Christian extremist (Christianist) or the odious Moslem extremist (Islamist).

By the second para he has forgotten that he’s writing about extremists and has omitted the suffix. Which brings me and my friends and acquaintances into the mix. We don’t belong there.

Significant writing error, that omission.

Do you suppose he’ll apologize, Dear Gentle Reader(s)?

Even when reading Sullivan (he will go over the top on occasion), the admonition applies:

Trust, but verify.

Are you…

2011-05-22T13:31:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: NPR,Spirituality,Religion

On NPR this morning a host asked, “Are you spiritual?”

What does that mean? What, specifically, does spiritual mean in that context?

Physically we aren’t spiritual. It’s corporal all the way, baby!

Does one believe in spirits? How can we?

One responds to a situation with emotion and then one might think about that particular emotion, questioning its genesis and its function.

The many degrees of sadness might somehow be emotionally akin to a contemplation which we might commonly call “spiritual.” So, too, though, can be degrees of joy, elation.

But does that make us spiritual?

What is the “spirit” of America? Why are cheerleaders sometimes called Spirit Teams?

Do you cogitate?

Do you believe in ghosts?

Are you spiritual?

I have emotional responses, some of which make me feel as though I had transcended something; I don’t call that spiritual.

Trust, but verify.

Frum-a-dumb-dumb

2011-05-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: David Frum,Newt Gingrich,Paul Ryan,The Dish,Medicare

There isn’t much from David Frum with which I agree; this quote, lifted from Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish, is one.

Writing about the Gingrich-vs-Ryan-Medicare-suggestion kerfuffle, Frum pens:

[T]he American public will not accept this kind of reform and will smash any politician who tries to force it upon them. There are ways to reduce the fiscal burden of Medicare, but telling seniors to buy their own damn healthcare is not going to be one of them. I wish it were somebody other than the Kenyan-anticolonialism-sharia law candidate making that argument, but it’s an important argument from any source.

Of course this proposal of Ryan’s is right wing social engineering. How can anyone not see that?

For once in his strange little life, Gingrich gets it right and has to apologize. Where’s the justice?

And I’m loving it.

Trust, but verify.

Any man’s death diminishes me.

2011-05-02T11:21:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: President Obama,BinLaden,Los Angeles Times,John Donne

At this particular moment in time, as we digest the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden, Dear Gentle Reader(s), we might take a cue from President Obama as to the appropriate behavior for us all. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, “Inside the White House, aides said Obama's mood was not celebratory when told of Bin Laden's death, but rather was ‘sober and serious.’"

On the surface, the cheering crowds in New York City and outside the White House had just cause for celebration. Mr. Bin Laden certainly was cold-blooded and cruel in his capacity as the leader of al Qaeda, and he well deserved the ultimate punishment at the hands of American servicemen and in the name of the American people.

Regardless, Mr. Obama’s sobriety and seriousness are the appropriate tones for the occasion. As John Donne wrote in Meditation XVII, “…any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind…”

Especially in circumstances such as this, we are diminished. The act of killing another human being surely stems from a failure of some sort on the part of us humans.

Somewhere in the rearing of a child who grows to become a murderer there was a lesson untaught, a lesson unlearned. Most people are not murderers—lessons taught, lessons learned. These lessons are part of every social contract.

Until we have discovered the key to unlocking the secrets of whatever causes motivations to kill, our sense of satisfaction at the time of exaction of justice ought to be tempered with, at least, a soupcon of sobriety.

Trust, but verify.

SCOTUS and the First

2011-03-22T16:08:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: SCOTUS,Phelps,Freedom of Religion,Freedom of Speech

Here’s the First Amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Here’re some quotes from Snyder v Phelps:

Speech deals with matters of public concern when it can “be fairly considered as relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community,” Connick, supra, at 146, or when it “is a subject of legitimate news 7 Cite as: 562 U. S. ____ (2011) Opinion of the Court interest; that is, a subject of general interest and of value and concern to the public,”

The “content” of Westboro’s signs plainly relates to broad issues of interest to society at large, rather than matters of “purely private concern.” Dun & Bradstreet, supra, at 759. The placards read “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” “America is Doomed,” “Don’t Pray for the USA,” “Thank God for IEDs,” “Fag Troops,” “Semper Fi Fags,” “God Hates Fags,” “Maryland Taliban,”“Fags Doom Nations,” “Not Blessed Just Cursed,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “Pope in Hell,” “Priests Rape Boys,” “You’re Going to Hell,” and “God Hates You.” App.3781–3787. While these messages may fall short of refined social or political commentary, the issues they highlight—the political and moral conduct of the UnitedStates and its citizens, the fate of our Nation, homosexuality in the military, and scandals involving the Catholic clergy—are matters of public import. The signs certainly convey Westboro’s position on those issues, in a manner designed, unlike the private speech in Dun & Bradstreet, to reach as broad a public audience as possible. And even if a few of the signs—such as “You’re Going to Hell” and “God Hates You”—were viewed as containing messages related to Matthew Snyder or the Snyders specifically, that would not change the fact that the overall thrust and dominant theme of Westboro’s demonstration spoke to broader public issues.

And here’s my problem with the Supreme Court’s decision in reversing the judgment against Phelps and his Westboro Baptist church: Content of those signs. Since Phelps and his family base their protests entirely on passages from the Christian Bible, haven’t the Supreme Court 8 given a nudge to establishing the Judeo-Christian religion as the official religion of the United States; or at least given substance to using a biblical citation as justification in a court case?

How, for instance, can the current cases involving same-sex marriages prevail against the religious onslaught found in every one of the arguments against such marriages in light of this decision? It certainly seems as though by giving carte blanche to Phelps and his congregation and including the biblical interpretations as protected speech the Court has done damage to the establishment clause, if not to the free exercise clause.

Where does Phelps’ free exercise end and my freedom of association and inherent right to privacy begin?

What’s the difference?

2011-02-14T13:26:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Religionists,Extremism,Knights of Columbus,Opus Dei,Muslim Brotherhood,Masons

What’s the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Knights of Columbus?

Between Opus Dei and the Masons and the Muslim Brotherhood?

Which organization really is a threat to our way of life?

Just askin’.

Right Wing Interpretation

2011-02-11T11:47:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Egypt,The Daily Dish,Drudge Report,Right Wing,Propaganda,Truth

If you ever needed an example, Dear Gentle Reader(s), of the disingenuousness of far-right propagandists, seek no further. Thanks to The Daily Dish, we get this from The Drudge Report:

“Military coup?” Not a “People’s coup?”

No credit the the men and women and children in the streets?

Shame.

Trust, but verify. (And you really need to verify the Drudge Report!)

Um…Mr. Friedman…

2011-02-06T06:33:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: New York Times,Tom Friedman,Egypt,Twitter,Facebook

In today’s New York Times, Tom Friedman discusses the unrest afflicting the Middle East. In it we find this paragraph:

The Arab world has 100 million young people today between the ages of 15 and 29, many of them males who do not have the education to get a good job, buy an apartment and get married. That is trouble. Add in rising food prices, and the diffusion of Twitter, Facebook and texting, which finally gives them a voice to talk back to their leaders and directly to each other, and you have a very powerful change engine.

Much has been made of the part played in the uprisings by Twitter and Facebook. A question arises, though: If there are no jobs and rising food prices, who’s able to pay for access to Twitter and Facebook?

We see pictures of stones. We do not see pictures of people tweeting; nor do we see pictures of people taking pictures—as we did in the Iranian uprising in 2009.

Clarification, Mr. Friedman?

Trust, but verify.

Best phrasing of the day…

2011-01-11T05:51:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: New York Times,Bob Herbert,Gun violence,Language,Politics,Political commentary

Here’s the opening para of Bob Herbert’s piece in today’s New York Times:

By all means, condemn the hateful rhetoric that has poured so much poison into our political discourse. The crazies don’t kill in a vacuum, and the vilest of our political leaders and commentators deserve to be called to account for their demagoguery and the danger that comes with it.

Here’s a nominee for best phrasing: “The crazies don’t kill in a vacuum.”

There are a lot of commentaries holding that the rhetoric of the right wing cannot be proven to have been related to the shooting in Tucson last Saturday. See, for instance, David Brooks in the same issue of the Times.

Point taken…if you’re looking for specific, direct-line relativity.

Herbert, though, takes the argument; there is no social vacuum in today’s world.

Trust, but verify.

It’s a start

2011-01-06T07:06:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Islam,Egypt,Terrorism,Koran

Here, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a link to a UND website which contains a statement by an Egyptian Muslim leader repudiating the efforts of certain Islamic extremists to use the Koran to justify killing.

Salient point:

There is no religion worthy of the name that does not regard as one of its highest values the sanctity of human life. Islam is no exception to this rule. Indeed, God has made this unequivocal in the Quran by emphasizing the gravity of the universal prohibition against murder, saying of the one who takes even one life that “it is as if he has killed all mankind.” Islam views murder as both a crime punishable by law in this world and as major sin punishable in the Afterlife as well. Prophet Mohammad said, “The first cases to be decided among the people on the Day of Judgment will be those of blood-shed.”

The Islam that we were taught in our youth is a religion that calls for peace and mercy. The first prophetic saying that is taught to a student of Islam is, “Those who show mercy are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you.” What we have learnt about Islam has been taken from the clear, pristine, and scholarly understanding of the Quran, “O people we have created you from a single male and female and divided you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”

Terrorism, therefore, cannot be the outcome of any proper understanding of religion. It is rather a manifestation of the immorality of people with cruel hearts, arrogant souls, and warped logic. It is thus with great sadness and outrage that we witness the emergence of this disease in our nation with the recent bombing outside a church in Alexandria that killed tens of Egyptian citizens. There is no doubt that such barbarism needs to be denounced in the strongest of terms, and opposed at every turn.

We need more of this sort of discussion.

Trust, but verify.

Gaydar Humming…mmmmmmmmmmmmm

2011-01-04T06:48:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Owen Honors,Culture Wars,VirginianPilot

Um, Dear Gentle Reader(s), this teapot tempest about the Navy officer and his politically-incorrect videos is indicative of not very much, isn’t it?

It’s astonishing to watch one of them as presented by the website of the Virginian Pilot*, but only in the sense of “Huh?”

Even a few years back, when these videos were made, we had evidence of the omnipresence of private information available through the internet. How could Honors have not known these vids would come back to, er, bite him on the ass?

Besides, I’m not nearly so offended by fag and faggot. Black men call each other nigger all the time—at least they do on certain tv shows and in certain movies. Why should I be offended when a man, who most certainly has a strong marriage and enough offspring to crew a small boat, sets my gaydar off?

Let him keep his command, I say. He’ll do more good than harm after this exposure.

Trust, but verify.

*Thanks to the paper for posting three videos.

Yule Tree

2010-12-27T14:15:00.001-08:00

Took down the Yule Tree today. Messy job, but somebody had to do it.

Time for an e-mail interview, Ma’am?

2010-12-11T05:30:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Salon.com,Time,Alex Pareene

If Time didn’t foresee the fallout from this boondoggle, it deserves the loss of respect it will surely get from this.

“This” is an item in Salon.com by Alex Pareene.

Time gave she-who-will-not-be-named a cover and an interview conducted by e-mail?!?!

Trust, but verify.

Would you buy a used car from…

2010-12-07T05:22:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: New York Times,Republican Party,U.S. Senate,President Obama,Education

Mitch McConnell?

If you would, why?

In a New York Times article discussing the President’s concession to the Senatorial Republicans’ holding middle class tax cuts hostage, McConnell is quoted as saying nice things about Mr. Obama’s “openness to preventing tax hikes.”

The package will reportedly cost $900 billion dollars which will have to be borrowed. At some point the $900 billion will have to be repaid—with interest. That’ll push the total cost of this package quite near the trillion dollar mark.

Does McConnell think the re-payment will be made without raising taxes?

“Borrow and spend” makes much less sense than “tax and spend.”

Nothing implies a failure of the American education system more than the fact that the Republicans continue to get the public to vote against its own best interest.

Trust, but verify.

Frustration

2010-12-02T06:34:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Bush Administration,Obama Administration,Republican Party,Torture,Don't Ask,Don't Tell,Senator Reid

How’s this, Dear Gentle Reader(s), for frustration: the U.S. Senate is on track to fail to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the 111th Congress.

What has the lip service of the President done to prevent this? Not much.

It would be nice if Senator Reid would give something other than a sleep-inducing speech about Republican intransigence. It would also be nice if chocolate covered cherries grew on trees.

No single-payer health plan. No movement towards more favorable policies for the middle class.

Surviving the 8 years of G.W. (Bring on the torturers!) Bush’s administration wasn’t pleasant. It was probably a good exercise for 10 years of Republican obsequiousness to the super wealthy (Obama’s last two and Romney’s eight) which are about to descend upon us.

22 months of frustration.

Sigh.

Get Real

2010-11-22T08:34:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Airport security,Department of Homeland Security,Religious extremists

All this brouhaha, Dear Gentle Reader(s), about pat downs and scanners at the airports makes one wonder.

Do we really want the perceived enemy to know exactly what to expect at the security points in our airports? Do we want him or her to know not to expect to have a full body scan or to know there will be a pat down which won’t disturb “junk”?

If someone is so convinced of the rightness of their cause that they will recruit pregnant women to carry out a suicide mission, do we think they won’t somehow ask, or trick, grandma to carry some explosives onto a plane?

How often do we read of some unfortunate soul who kills a child of their own to save the child from an unhappy life? Do we think that religious fanatics are less capable of such an atrocity?

If it keeps the potential bomber guessing, then whatever the Department of Homeland Security comes up with is pretty much fine with me.

Don’t give murders a road map.

Trust, but verify.

An omitted step

2010-11-07T05:01:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Thomas Friedman,Abrahamic religions,Metaphor,Modernity

Thomas Friedman, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a provocative writer. One can’t help but think while reading his columns, agreeing and/or disagreeing. Today’s on-line column edition, “Long Live Lady Luck,” is a prime example.

Friedman writes about how lucky we, in the U.S., were to have escaped 5 efforts to bring, once again, death to our shores via Al Qaeda plotting. He also writes about what we should do to stop “the savage madness .” As usual with most of the writing found in similar arguments, Friedman chooses not to address the subject of Koranic interpretation which is used for justification for this “madness.”

Friedman writes,

When Muslim jihadists are ready to just gun down or blow up unarmed men, women and children in the midst of prayer — Muslim or Christian — it means there are no moral, cultural or religious restraints left on the Islamic fringe. It’s anything goes. And it’s becoming routine.

Then he discusses moral and cultural restraints, but not religious.

Christians believe that Jesus came to reform the Abrahamic religion of the day. Perhaps that underlying belief makes it easier for Christians and some Jews to “modernize” their religions than it is for moderate Muslims to do the same for theirs.

Religious writings were written for a specific people at a specific time, dealing with specific problems. We choose to believe that those writings are applicable to our own day, but to insist that the intervening years of development of human understanding of the human condition count for nothing could well be as blasphemous and arrogant an insistence as anything ever.

Change is part of The Plan.

Writing is, in essence, metaphor.

We should remember that, we should teach that—especially if we want to address all the ways to end the “madness.”

Trust, but verify.

A quick question

2010-11-01T13:24:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Elections,Money,Politics,Corporate Accountability

It’ll never catch on, Dear, Gentle Reader(s), but what do you think would be the result if, at every Congressional committee hearing which allowed, or requested, non-Federal government testimony, to have the very first question for each testifier be, “How much money, and to whom, have you contributed to a Federal election campaign, either at the general election level or the primary election level, in the past five years?”

That would be one way to keep track of monies expended in political campaigns, as well as to whom it was directed.

Cui bono—who benefits? Until we know that, we don’t know enough.

Trust, but verify.

DWF (Driving while floating)

2010-10-30T21:22:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Drug War,Gainesville FL,Driving,ColumbiaTN

Perhaps it’s different for others, but from my personal experience, driving home after a couple of tokes at a friend’s house some 35 years ago was a slow-motion experience. I found myself stopping for stop signs in the middle of the block, and deciding to move forward after much deliberation of the pros and coms with myself.

And I know it was slow-motion because it took me 20 minutes to make the 5 minute drive—there’s almost no place in Gainesville, Florida (Go Gators!), that’s more than 5 minutes away from any place else. (Of course, I haven’t been back in 35 years.)

When I taught speech to police and sheriff officers in Columbia, Tennessee, they would often joke about the local “hippies” who were blocking traffic on local roads with their road scorching speeds of 25 miles per hour.

When people show you a picture of a smashed-up car and speak of the dangers of driving under the influence of weed, look askance. That car could well have been hit by an alcoholic-influenced driver—which trumps a marijuana-influenced driver.

Cui Bono--Follow the money, Dear, Gentle Reader(s), it will tell you who will benefit with the continued “drug wars.”

Trust, but verify.

ALEC—and Arizona and Prisons

2010-10-28T05:14:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: NPR,Arizona,ALEC

There’s a new corporation acronym on the block, and it’s not a comic actor, by a long shot. Meet ALEC, Dear Gentle Reader(s), and be afraid. Be very afraid. (Good tie-in for Halloween, eh wot?)

Here’s a rather chilling excerpt from NPR’s website:

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

According to NPR, the genesis of Arizona’s immigrant law, SB1070 occurred last December at a conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council—ALEC. An Arizona pol was at the conference, and the rest of the story we all well know.

Admittedly, Capitalism has brought us to a very good life, but every once in a while we surely have to wonder about making profit off of the misery of those who are less fortunate.

Or not?

Trust, but verify.

Reading Comprehension Test

2010-10-27T05:47:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Justice Kennedy,New York Times,Politico,Citizens United,Republican Party,Democratic Party

Wow! Here’s a headline from The New York Times: Democrats Retain Edge in Spending on Campaigns; and this one is from the website Politico: Dems getting outspent? Not so fast.

So, the Democrats are outspending the Republicans? Isn’t that counter-intuitive to what we’re hearing about all those millions being spent on negative ads against Democratic candidates?

Well, yes and no.

The stories go on to say that the Democratic Party has more money than the Republican Party.

Really, though, what would be the point of the Republicans trying to gather money when there are others, secret others, doing the work for them?

And why would anyone who wants to keep their wealth bother to contribute large sums to “regulated” political fund raisers when they can get a possibly bigger bang for their buck by giving without having to admit publicly their largesse?

There can be little comfort for Democratic candidates with the headlines this morning.

Ah, Mr. Justice Kennedy. What have you wrought? (And how long will it be before you admit your error in judgment?)

So, what have we learned today, Dear Gentle Reader(s)? Read beyond headlines; sometimes they don’t accurately reflect the whole story.

Trust, but verify.

p.s. Gold Star to those who can spot the spelling error at the Politico website!

Words have meaning…Continued

2010-10-22T11:19:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,Juan Williams,Bill O'Reilly,NPR,Muslim,Religion,Bigotry

And the Juan Williams confab continues.

In a post today, Andrew Sullivan writes…”He said it was legitimate to feel fear when someone in Muslim garb is on a plane.”

Not quite. Williams said, “…when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Now, DGR(s), is fear, which Sullivan used, equal to worried or to nervous?

If Williams had refused to get on the plane with those dressed “in Muslim garb,” then it could be argued that the two words he used are, indeed, equivalent; but he doesn’t indicate in the interview with O’Reilly that he canceled his trip. The presumption must be that he rode along with those in the “garb,” albeit a touch fidgety.

So, how about Sullivan’s position? Was Williams really legitimizing fear of Muslims?

One would be hard pressed to think so.

It’s easy to be nervous around anyone who sports religious symbolism in their garb or accessories. I’m nervous around guys walking around with crosses in their lapels, but I don’t fear them. I certainly am more aware of what they do when they’re near.

Their presence is always a good time to

Trust, but verify.

(I stand by my support of NPR; their decision was based on their standards about differentiating between reporters and commenters.)

Um…Say what? (Or, do words have meaning?)

2010-10-22T05:44:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: NPR,Juan Williams,Michelle Malkin,Townhall.com

Dear, Sweet Juan Williams has found a new permanent home, and good luck to him.

His firing from NPR, and subsequent commentary about that firing, however, raises an old question: do words have meaning?

For instance, when Williams worked for NPR, as little as three days ago, he was a “reporter.” Now, Michelle Malkin, in a column published in Townhall.com, begins with “commentator Juan Williams.”

And that, Dear Gentle Reader,* is the problem.

In NPR’s eyes, Williams’ “I get nervous” moved him into the category of commentator and out of the category of reporter.

Reporters need to be as objective as possible so that those of us relying on them have the sense that facts are being offered for our edification and consideration.

Otherwise we have entertainment, but not material with which we can make informed decisions.

Listening to some clips of Williams on O’Reilly’s show last night (Sorry, no citation available at this time), one might think Williams was ready for the change in title.

NPR had good reason to let Mr. Williams move on to more lucrative pastures (a lot more money is made bloviating than reporting…alas).

Ladies and Gentlemen, we present the erstwhile reporter, Juan Williams.

Trust, but verify.

Nervous?

2010-10-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

Technorati Tags: Nervousness,Civil Rights,Race,Religion,Culture Wars

The current brouhaha about Juan Williams’ nervousness in an airport is generating a little heat.

While we bruit about various rationales supporting or decrying the fact that Williams lost his NPR job, how about if we take a longer view?

Do you suppose the average Iraqi or Afghani, walking down the street is or is not nervous these days? Talk about nervousness!

Frankly, I think three or four skinheads are scary…three or four black guys with “dreads” are scary…biker girls are scary.

It’s a scary world out there.

Trust, but verify. And keep a sharp eye out.

Well, yeah, Eddie, but…

2010-09-27T10:07:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Eddie Long,Religion,Hypocrisy,Greed,Cupidity

Eddie Long, a Bishop, has denied charges of sexual misconduct with young men of his congregation.

You might have seen television coverage of his denial from the pulpit yesterday.

Here is the gist of it:

I have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man, but I am not the man being portrayed on television That’s not me. That is not me.

I am not going to try this case in the media, it will be tried in the court of justice and decided in the court of justice. Please hear this: I’ve been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know as I said earlier I am not a perfect man. … But this thing I’m going to fight. I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet.

Notice Long doesn’t deny the charges. He’s going to fight them, but he doesn’t deny them.

Long has made a lot of money preaching against gay rights. What does that tell you?

Long needs to remember the Biblical admonition: For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?

Trust, but verify.

A block to inevitability?

2010-09-20T16:55:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,Walter Shapiro,Republican Party,Sarah Palin

Andrew Sullivan linked this from a posting by Walter Shapiro:

…the Republican National Committee recently voted to switch to proportional representation (the system that was used by the Democrats during the protracted Obama-versus-Hillary Clinton battle) for all primaries held during the first two months of the 2012 season. What that means is that it will very difficult for a divisive candidate like Palin to sweep the table before the party establishment (buffeted though it may have been recently) can regroup.

Could it be the first salvo (albeit a quiet salvo, who knew about this?) in the Republican establishment’s skirmish with La Palin?

Trust, but verify.

Who leaves out?

2010-09-10T08:30:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Los Angles Times,Robin Abcarian,Akbar Ahmed,Koran,Religion

Over at the Los Angeles Times, Robin Abcarian has a column entitled “For Muslims, Koran is ‘light from God to humanity.’”

Abcarian gives the standard info about how the Koran is too often misunderstood by non-Muslims. Interesting, as far as it goes; but the article ends with a bit of obliviousness.

One Akbar S. Ahmed is quoted by Abcarian:

"The Koran is often criticized in the West by people pulling out one verse or another to establish its violent nature," said Ahmed. "They will say the Koran says 'Fight the Jews and Christians and Muslim renegades,' but they leave out the next line — 'But make peace because God prefers peace….' "

What Ahmed didn’t admit, or Abcarian didn’t include, is that those Islamist murderers who kill far more fellow muslims than they do any other religionists and non-extremists, seem to “leave out the next line” far more often.

Get it together, Akbar.

Trust, but verify.

Um…sure about that, Ruth?

2010-09-06T06:17:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Washington Post,Ruth Marcus,Palin

Ruth Marcus, astute columnist for The Washington Post and occasional participant on The News Hour, came up with a “Huh?” moment in her Labor Day posting in the Post.

In an otherwise dead-on as usual piece on Palin, Marcus writes, “No male politician accused a female reporter of being hormonal or frigid.”

That sentence ought to be easily disproved. Perhaps it can’t be, but I would be mightily surprised.

If not accusing, at least wondering by men about various female biological functions and influences is so ubiquitous in our culture that it’s hard to conceive that somehow female reporters are exempt, by anyone.

Apologizing in advance if I leapt too soon, Here’s to you Ms Marcus.

Trust, but verify.

The occasional pearl

2010-08-29T08:30:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Diana West,Park 51,Amman Message,tolerance,ciatations

While slogging through the Townhall.com muckroom email the other day, I happened onto a column written by Diana West. Ms West has on occasion written some columns with which I totally agree, and some which are not so compelling.

This week’s column, available at her website here, caught my eye because of its underlying subject, the so called, and mis-named, Ground Zero Mosque. (The project has been re-named by its proponents as Park 51.) What follows is a lesson in the advantages of close reading and accuracy in citation.

At one point West writes,

The crucial fact is, whether we are brutalized by acts of jihad or confused by acts of dawa (proselytizing), their goal is identical: more Islamic law. And this end will always justify the means as seen, for example, back in 2005 when hundreds of acclaimed Islamic clerics and heads of state gathered in Amman, Jordan. There, quite anti-climactically, they issued the "Amman Message" that declares that no Muslim who adheres to a recognized school of Islam may be labeled an apostate. Subtext: Not even Osama bin Laden could be, in effect, ex-communicated or otherwise blackballed or removed from good standing by these Islamic authorities. One of the 552 signatories was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. [Rauf is the imam of the Park 51 project.]

The problem with the quote is that a reading of the Amman Message doesn’t support West’s claim.

An inquiring email to West produced a prompt response:

Here you go:

http://ammanmessage.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=74

(1) Whosoever is an adherent to one of the four Sunni schools (Mathahib) of Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i and Hanbali), the two Shi’i schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Ja`fari and Zaydi), the Ibadi school of Islamic jurisprudence and the Thahiri school of Islamic jurisprudence, is a Muslim. Declaring that person an apostate is impossible and impermissible. Verily his (or her) blood, honour, and property are inviolable. Moreover, in accordance with the Shaykh Al-Azhar’s fatwa, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to the Ash`ari creed or whoever practices real Tasawwuf (Sufism) an apostate. Likewise, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to true Salafi thought an apostate.
Equally, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare as apostates any group of Muslims who believes in God, Glorified and Exalted be He, and His Messenger (may peace and blessings be upon him) and the pillars of faith, and acknowledges the five pillars of Islam, and does not deny any necessarily self-evident tenet of religion.

West’s opening link brings up a discussion section of the Amman Message, which, indeed, does support her claim. There’s a problem. The supporting material does not appear in the Amman Message itself. On the site’s home page is a link to “”Three Points of the Amman Message,” where you will find her source.

The Message itself does, however, contain this:

…the origin of divine religions is one, and Muslims believe in all Messengers of God and do not differentiate between any of them. Denying the message of any one of them is a deviation from Islam. That is because the origin of divine religions is one, and Muslims believe in all Messengers of God and do not differentiate between any of them. Denying the message of any one of them is a deviation from Islam" which is in the original document. [emphasis added]

Maybe the sentence “Denying the message of any one of them is a deviation from Islam” could be interpreted as the basis for the Point West quoted.

Religious writing is often ambiguous. Personal essays should be less so.

There’s a lot to be learned. While West is correct in that there are questions to be asked about claims for tolerance, there are also questions to be asked about where the answers might be found.

There are many references in the Amman Message to the evils of extremism, but “Denying the message of any one of…” could very well negate the effect of those references.

I owe Ms West a debt. Had she been more precise in her column, I wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to check her facts; and I wouldn’t have read, albeit cursorily, the Amman Message, some parts of which are disturbing to my Western mind.

Trust, but verify.

Sometimes, it’s just tooooo easy…

2010-08-23T13:38:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: HuffPost,Right Wing,Bill O'Reilly,Margaret Hoover

Every once in a while, the right wingers say things which make everyone else stop in amazement. We blink, we shake our heads in amazement, we smile in amusement.

The Huffington Post blog presents us with one such moment. In case you’re not on Huff Post’s email list, I offer you: Bill O’Reilly Blasts Kim Kardashian for Justin Bieber Pics.

Delightful quotes:

"I think it's gross," Margaret Hoover said on "The O'Reilly Factor" Friday night. "It's like a pre-pubescent 16-year-old having an affair with a celebutante!"

When Fox Business contributor Rebecca Diamond said the photo shoot was "every 16-year-old male's dream," O'Reilly took exception.

"I wanted to be a baseball player [when I was 16]. I didn't want to hang around with Kim Kardashian," he said. "I had a baseball bat and a glove and ice skates! That's what I was doing.

Who’s Margaret Hoover? What world did she inhabit as a 16-year-old? Did she consider herself “pre-pubescent”? Honestly.

Oh, maybe Bill-o remembers himself as pre-pubescent; you know, a 10-year-old who’d rather play with a bat than with icky girls. Though, there is the phallic element to a bat; a confused 16-year-old?

You know, I don’t believe a word of it. I think they’re just trying to stir some…stuff. Surely given the opportunity, especially with his harassment history, 16-year-old Bill-o might’ve behaved differently than the 60 plus year-old nascent senior citizen remembers.

Bill-o just needed to fill air time.

Trust, but verify.

Debit Cards and Big Bank Profits

2010-08-13T07:21:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Bank of America,Chase,Citibank,Wells Fargo,David Lazarus,Los Angles Times,Debit Cards

They want your money, but you already knew that, didn’t you, Dear Gentle Reader(s)?

David Lazarus, in today’s Los Angeles Times, limns the latest in the on-going struggle between banks and their customers, between getting and keeping, so to speak.

It seems Wells Fargo and Bank of America, Citibank, and Chase debit your checking account in the order of high-to-low amounts rather than chronological entries. This means you’d better keep a very close eye on your checking account, or you could face stiff penalties if you keep most of your money in savings rather than savings.

Wells Fargo just got fined for doing that in a questionable way. W-F plans to appeal. According to Lazarus, the others don’t have any plans to change the practice.

Why people use debit cards is beyond me, but if you like it, make sure you’re keeping close track of balances. And remember, that big mortgage payment will hit the balance before the $5 for cleaning. And the cleaning could end up costing $40.

Lazarus points out that this practice is not yet included in the new banking rules. He suggests lawmakers look into it now. If you agree, get out out the pen and paper and send in those cards and letters, boys and girls.

Trust, but verify. And write your Congressperson.

Zero Tolerance

2010-08-11T07:41:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Michael Hiltzik,LA Times,zero tolerance,responsibility

At last! Someone’s said it: “…zero tolerance is a dodge. It's a way of shedding the responsibility to weigh all dimensions of a decision in the real world, not according to some rigid rule.”

Thanks to Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times for finally putting that out for all to see.

Zero tolerance is a foolishness from which we should be liberated. Assess facts; make an informed decision; and the rest of us should trust the decision-makers, after, of course verifying.

There’s a price to be paid…

2010-08-07T16:11:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Vista,Windows 7,Office Max,Google

When one encounters “error 80072efe,” and it isn’t pretty.

It first showed up, Dear Gentle Reader(s), sometime after June 22, 2010. That’s the last time Windows Update was able to access the machine. And the last time I had true peace of mind. (By this morning it was pieces of mind—scattered hither and yon.)

For more than a month I ignored it. But it didn’t go away on its own. Then I contacted a local fix-it, but he didn’t seem eager to get into detail, not, especially for $25.00 an hour.

Then I went online and bought a program which would solve the 80072efe problem “in two minutes.” $58.00 later the little snip was still hanging around, gloating behind his blue error 80072efe. #@!^&!

Another local fix-it, at $95.00 an hour was engaged. He left, a little defeated, telling me the best solution might be to wipe the hard drive clean and start over. He was here for 2 hours but only charged me $50.00 “for diagnosis.” (The first note of some small success!)

Ensued were two weeks with e-mail exchanges between myself and two technicians working for Microsoft. They were very pleasant. Good English. Seemed knowledgeable. No luck with their suggestions.

Question: If one Googles (or Bings?) “error 80072efe,” one gets “About 24,900 results (0.25 seconds)” dating back to “ Last post: Jan 26, 2008;” wouldn’t one think that Microsoft would have come up with a solution for this “error?”

Well, they haven’t.

On to the local Office Max with a little consulting with some quite young and knowledgeable computer-types to buy an update. The end is in sight!

Hah!

Not content with merely wiping the hard drive clean, since one is going to all that trouble, one might as well upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step Right Up, Folks! Getcher easy-to-install programs Right Here! Hurry! Hurry! That’s it, Ol’ Geezer! Step Right Up!”

24 hours later, the deed is done. Not without mishaps.

It seems not only must the hard drive be wiped clean, it must also be re-installed before Windows 7 can be overlaid. That means hours of downloads to bring Vista up to speed. Over and over the Windows 7 installation failed because of the lack of “Vista Service Pack 1.”

You can’t find a download of Vista Service Pack 1. Well, not true, entirely. There is a download of Vista Service Pack 1 available, but “Do not download this for one machine only.”

Wouldn’t you think (note how frustrating this is—not using “one” anymore) that Microsoft would have thought all this out prior to shipping out copies of Windows 7? They knew Vista Service Pack 1 is essential to a Vista upgrade to Windows 7. They had to know it; they told me on the disk it had to be in the machine.

Why didn’t they put it in the program in the first place? Or at least have the program send out one of their little virtual messengers to get it during the process?

But they didn’t. And SP1 (it somewhere lost Vista) finally showed up. And the download/installation of Windows went on apace.

So far so good.

Peace of mind is restored.

I hope.

Trust, DGR(s), but Verify.

--especially anything Microsoft tells you.

P.S. If you see “error 80072efe,” immediately buy a new machine.

Wanted: Spell Check for frmr gov, near veep

2010-07-19T07:18:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Palin,Republicans,Language

Of all the gaffes, this is the best one in years:

Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate

The idea of a new verb, to refudiate, might be a good one.

Let’s hope the Republican electorate puts it to good use in the near future.

Trust, but verify. (And Spell Check can help with that—although maybe Facebook doesn’t have that app.)

La papiere grizzly…WTF?!?

2010-07-15T13:17:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: S.Palin,JohnMcCain,W.Kristol,Politics

Much, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is being made of S. Palin’s recent “Mama Grizzly” speech, with emphasis being given to the number of people who have watched portions, at least, of the speech.

Some 368,000 of us have tuned into the You Tube, it seems. However, only some 33,000 have watched from the vantage of her Facebook page.

I watched, I confess, out of a sense of knowing the “enemy.”

Everlasting shame on John McCain and William Kristol for unleashing this political nightmare on the United States of America.

(And everlasting shame on the educational system, of which I played a part for 35 years, for not preparing the American public’s ability to spot dubious logic.)

Trust, but Verify.

She’s a-comin’ round the mount’n

2010-07-08T12:03:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Sarah Palin,GOP

Anybody notice how.., um…white…the Palin Grizzlies ad is? (It’s easy to spot only 1 woman of color. How many can you find?)

And the GOPers wonder why the ethnic demographics are going against them.

It’s time to be thoughtful, folks; not emotional.

Trust, but verify.

Thank you, the Atlantic and…

2010-06-24T06:41:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: the Atlantic,Conor Friedersdorf,Mark Oppenheimer,flawed loved ones

…intrepid reporter Conor Friedersdorf for publishing and holding an interview with Mark Oppenheimer which contains this gem:

The most common flaws in religion reporting are the same as common flaws in all reporting: lack of skepticism, taking the speakers' words for it. We always have to be skeptical, even of monks and priests and imams and rabbis. And we have to remember that power corrupts, so the people we are likely to revere may be the most likely to fail us.

Was ever published a better rationale for the phrase

Trust, but verify?

Boot(s)

2010-06-23T03:27:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: New York Times,General McChrystal,Maureen Dowd,Thomas Friedman,Max Boot

The kerfuffle about General McChrystal has hit the editorial and op-ed pages of The New York Times. The paper’s editorial staff, Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, and Max Boot (Max Boot?!?) all hold forth today, June 23, 2010.

All have interesting points, and they vary.

It’s a little amusing to note that there is a little blurb at the end of Boot’s commentary. It reads: “Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is writing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.”

Mr. Boot once wrote regularly for the Los Angeles Times. He’s a conservative. To learn that he’s writing “a history,” and remembering recent revisionist practices of certain members of the right wing (not Mr. Boot himself), causes one immediately to think, “Well, I hope he’s not re-writing the history.” You know, in case “revisionism” is catching.

Trust, but verify.

If…(and a big “if” at that)

2010-06-21T18:15:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Religion,Marriage,Gay Marriage,Theology

…when all is said and done and “gay marriage” is a norm for the United States, will people see that their religious leaders snookered them for a long time about gays and lesbians?

And when the non-gays realize the snookering occurred, will they then begin to ask, “What else have they been lying about?” Resurrection, Virgin birth, rewards in Paradise, Chosen People, Nirvana?

Could that be the end of religious corruption as we have come to know it in the 21st century?

Trust, but verify.

Er…what?

2010-06-14T06:25:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Ross Douthat,New York Times,Sarah Palin,Katie Couric,misogyny

Here, dear Gentle Reader(s), is a quote from The New York Times’ Ross Douthat: “the peculiar left-wing misogyny that greeted Palin’s candidacy.”

Misogyny greeted Palin’s candidacy? Really? How? When? Wasn’t Palin’s introduction back in August, 2008, a “Wow!” moment? Didn’t she walk up those steps full of confidence and energy, ready to take on the job? Yes.

True, just a couple of weeks later, when the true Palin readiness to step into the Oval Office became more apparent (she wasn’t), the shine of her candidacy began to fade, but was that misogyny?

How was it misogyny that the first true blow to Palin’s luster come with the Katie Couric interview? That was a female journalist asking, appropriately, somewhat substantive questions of the candidate, and the candidate was woefully unprepared to provide answers.

That’s not misogyny, that’s preparation—and lack of preparation.

Douthat, sadly, has fallen into the pattern of the naysayers of “conservatism” of the early 21st century: History doesn’t quite fit? Re-write it.

Trust, but verify.

Education Reform—the missing element

2010-06-13T15:01:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: David Brooks,Education Reform,The Atlantic

Alas, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the search for a meaningful education reform program continues, unabated, without a reference to the most meaningful relationship in the equation—parental guidance.

For example, in the latest edition of The Atlantic, July/August 2010, David Brooks on page 41 pens that the “core issue” is “the relationship between teacher and student. It is mushy to say so, but people learn from people they love.” Brooks goes on for three more paragraphs, but not once is there a mention of parents. Do children not love their parents?

Bash unions and their allegedly self-protecting rules all you want; pour money into the system; fire every school superintendent; replace all school boards with correct-thinking people; turn every building and campus into a charter school; nothing will bring results without a concurrent program to involve the parents in a more meaningful way than merely suggesting unplugging televisions, game systems, and cell phones.

In my 35 years of teaching, all of the better students, regardless of GPAs, had a firm and involved hand at home. All of them. The less-than-better students and I struggled as best we could, with varying results.

When it comes to education reform, check that the package offered has a parental involvement program. If not, don’t support it. It won’t work.

Trust, but verify.

SCOTUS—syn. Scrotum; tea-bag

2010-06-09T11:22:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: New York Times,SCOTUS,Campaign financing

According to The New York Times, the Roberts’ Gang has once again screwed the middle and lower classes’ abilities to run for office.

The ~~Scrotum~~ Roberts court has struck down the Arizona law intended to level the financial playing field for candidates for office.

This means that the Carly Fiorinas of Arizona have a free hand to buy elected offices, thus freezing moderate Republicans out of the field.

~~SCROTUM~~SCOTUS has taken similar steps recently. The Times editorial lays them out for you.

Check it out, and support Mr. Obama’s choices for the Federal court system.

Trust, but verify.

Good start, but too few…

2010-05-24T09:13:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: CENTCOM,Saudi Arabia,Fatwahs,Counter Terrorism

Again, Dear Gentle Reader(s), there’s some interesting news out of CENTCOM.

It seems that last month some religious leaders in Riyadh, a Council of Senior Scholars, issued a fatwah (“A fatwa is a religious opinion, issued by an Islamic scholar concerning Islamic law.”) which “specifically condemns and outlaws the financing of terrorism as a violation of Islamic law.”

It’s about time that the Saudis issued such a condemnation. A Google search reveals many citations regarding fatwahs issued against terrorism, but those coming out of Saudia Arabia have been too few and too far between.

Now, if the governments of that part of the world would only take steps to make these fatwahs effective.

Until then, we have no recourse other than to

Trust, but verify.

A problem of 24 hour instant information on the internet availability

2010-04-02T07:15:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,Admiral Mullen,Karzai,New York Times,US Centcom

Chairman Admiral Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the latest to fall victim to a 24-hour news cycle.

On April 1, 2010, US Centcom’s newsletter sends out a story with this headline: “Mullen: U.S.-Afghan partnership stronger than ever.”

On April 2, The New York Times reports that on April 1 Afghan President Karzai gave a blistering speech against, among other entities, The United States.

A selected Karzai quote with commentary: “In this situation there is a thin curtain between invasion and cooperation-assistance,” said Mr. Karzai, adding that if the perception spread that Western forces were invaders and the Afghan government their mercenaries, the insurgency “could become a national resistance.”

A comment, and embedded explanation, from former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Galbreith: “Mr. Galbraith, who was dismissed by the United Nations after the disputed election, called Mr. Karzai’s speech ‘so absurd that I considered it an April Fools’ Day joke.’ He also said Mr. Karzai’s speech ‘underscores how totally unreliable this guy is as an ally.’

So Admiral Mullen’s comment: “…never has our partnership … been stronger, or the challenges we face, clearer” seems a bit injudicious, given the speed with which events alter realities in this electronic age.

‘Tis a mess.

Trust, but verify. (But how?)

The more we know…

2010-03-23T16:24:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Health Care,Mary Bono-Mack,Washington Post,Ezra Klein

…the better it sounds.

The Health Care Reform bill signed into law this morning has some features which have not been given much airing. Ezra Klein, over at a Washington Post blog, offers this:

“Transparency and the health-care reform bill” …hospitals will have to post prices. Insurance products will be presented with standardized information, consumer ratings and quality measures. The payments physicians take from drug and device companies will be in a public database. There will be independent funding for research on the relative effectiveness of different treatments. Some of these changes are small and some are big, but put together, the system is going to become a lot more visible in the coming years.

This is what the Republicans, such as my own Representative Bono (BoNO), find to be “socialism?” They say “NO” to this transparency?

Trust, but verify.

Not asking…

2010-03-05T06:24:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Merrill McPeak,New York Times,Don't Ask Don't Tell

Today’s question, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is why doesn’t anyone from the cadre of supporters of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” bother asking a basic question.

For example, in today’s The New York Times, one Merrill A. McPeak pens a few thoughts under the headline “Don’t Change ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” The former Air Force Chief of Staff rests his case on this sentence:

Seventeen years ago, the chiefs — all four of us, plus the chairman and vice chairman — concluded that allowing open homosexuality in the ranks would probably damage the cohesiveness of our combat units.

Then he proceeds to argue against several other elements in the current discussion—rights, costs, etc.

What he doesn’t do is offer any evidence to bolster his “probably damage cohesiveness” statement.

As a matter of fact, his only other approach to this issue is found in the opening of the third subsequent paragraph,

Perhaps young American men and women will fight better when openly gay soldiers are included in the ranks, though I’ve heard no one make this claim.

McPeak should ask why no one makes this claim. Perhaps it’s because the answer is self-evident based on the experiences of three of our most steadfast allies, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom, all of which have no policies which discriminate against sexual orientation in their armed forces.

McPeak uses probably and perhaps, but not whether. He ought to ask whether unit cohesion would be damaged or not. So far our allies haven’t halted their programs; that ought to indicate a bit of evidence.

The answer is there, General. But you have to ask the question—if you’re truly interested.

Trust, but verify.

Quo Vadis, Washington Post?

2010-02-23T06:58:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Washington Post,John Yoo,Jay Bybee,torture

The Washington Post has come under fire lately for taking on a bit of a rightward bias on its editorial pages. In an on-line, unsigned editorial one might find some fairly damning evidence to support that charge. In it, the Post defends the recent decision of the Office of Professional Responsibility in the Justice Department to say “tsk-tsk” to the Yoo, Bybee infamous torture memos.

“No punishment for torture memos' authors, but no exoneration, either” might sound well-reasoned, for a short piece, in the mind of a neo-con or tea bagging partisan, but it ought to raise an eyebrow or two with almost everyone else.

You might, Dear Gentle Reader(s), read the editorial for yourself. I just want to quote from the final sentence in which the WaPo writer stated these “…lawyers provided cover for reprehensible and abusive techniques that stained the country's reputation and diminished its moral standing in the world.”

The Nuremberg trials settled what should be done to such lawyers under those circumstances, didn’t it? Perhaps not, suggests this editorial.

Should we follow the lead of The Washington Post in this case?

Trust, but verify.

More than combat

2010-02-13T06:22:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Centcom

Centcom, Dear Gentle Reader(s), does more than engage with enemy combatants. It also assists other governments in quite esoteric assignments.

Recently a Navy dive team was sent to Lebanon to assist in recovering the wreckage of an Ethiopian air liner which crashed recently.

Read about it here.

Support the troops everywhere.

Trust, but verify.

Gates in Paris—Iran nukes

2010-02-10T05:57:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Centcom,Secretary Gates,Iran nukes,The Daily Beast,Reza Aslan

Centcom reports on Defense Secretary’s trip to Paris where he continues to raise warnings over Iran’s nuclear research activities. His trip has been pretty much under the MSM radar, although some mention can be found on the blogosphere. Our problem, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is trying to ferret out the relevant info.

Centcom quotes Gates: “I think that everybody’s interest is in seeing this issue resolve without resorting to conflict. But it makes it all the more important. We have to face the reality that if Iran continues and develops nuclear weapons it almost certainly will provoke proliferation in the Middle East. That’s a huge danger.”

It certainly is.

The question remains, how do we address the problem?

Trust, but verify.

Uh Oh

2010-02-09T06:09:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Iran nukes,Secratary Gates,Turkey

Alas, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the Iranian nuclear situation is raising its very ugly head in new quarters; that is discomfiting.

The US Centcom website reports on a recent meeting with Defense Secretary Gates and the Turkish Chief of General Staff in which Gates raises the issue of Iranian intransigency on curbing their nuclear ambitions. Gates warns, “Iran is in violation of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and I think there is a very great worry that if Iran … proceeds with this program unconstrained, there is a very real danger of proliferation here in the region that would make it even more unstable and more unsafe for everyone." He adds, “the response [of other governments] has been quite disappointing [to Obama administration warnings].”

Turkey is our linchpin ally in the area.

Be alert. Be informed.

Trust, but verify.

Monetize?

2010-01-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

Ah, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the foray into commercialization was short.
The blogger.com folks, ever eager to improve their product, make it easy to add ads (!) to your blog. Simply click the "Monetize" button in the settings section. So, why not try it? Pick up a few sheckles along the way towards universal education and edification.
Then one looks at the ads by Google.
Eeek! In a blog about reforming Islam there appear ads inviting you, DGR(s), to visit websites of what appears to be Christianist churches!
Oh, dear.
The good folk at blogger, though, makes it just as easy to unMonetize, with another click of the button.
Ads gone.
The world is safe.
Trust, but verify.

It’s a slow start, but…

2010-01-08T15:50:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: The Daily Beast,Leslie Gelb,Muslim Public Affairs Council of L.A.,Religion & Ethics Newsleekly,Religious Extremists

There is finally public movement towards engaging the moderate Muslim community in the struggle against Islamic extremists.

Over at The Daily Beast, Leslie H. Gelb has an excellent commentary, “Only Muslims Can Stop Muslim Terror.”

And there’s also this Religion and Ethics Newsweekly website which contains a partial transcript from one of their sessions with one Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

Here are some quotes from the discussion between Bob Abernethy and Mr. Al-Marayati:

AL-MARAYATI: There’s a rise of the mob mentality. You read the comments on a number of stories, you get the emails, you get the phone calls, and I feel, unfortunately, that the level of hostility against Islam and Muslims is at an all-time high, and I’m very concerned.

ABERNETHY: Many Americans think that Muslims leaders in this country and in the Middle East should be doing a lot more to combat and condemn the interpretation of Islam that is so popular among many young radical extremists. Do you agree with that?

AL-MARAYATI: Well, I think that we as Muslims have done a lot in terms of the message against extremism. Our problem is that we have not been able to develop an effective way to get the message out. We don’t have the capacity in terms of public relations, if you will, in terms of making our message of moderation more newsworthy than the sensationalist message of extremism.

ABERNETHY: Do you think there is a role for the Unites States government in combating the ideology of radical Islam?

AL-MARAYATI: The Unites States government will not be able to defeat ideology of radicalism. It needs the Muslim American community in partnership, for those people unfortunately who are being recruited by extremists, they don’t regard the United States government as an authority, but they regard Muslim leaders as authorities. So it is our task, Muslims, who will help win the victory against radicalism and extremism.

It would’ve been nice if the Muslim Public Affairs Council in L.A. had been more forthcoming with their efforts. But now that the information is in the open, it’s time for all of us to assist them as much as we are able.

(And, yes, we can continue to fight our own extremists in Judaic and Christian theology.)

We cannot win this war against religious fundamental extremists without the help of moderates.

Trust, but verify.

Finally!

2009-12-31T13:50:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,The Daily Dish,Islamists,Modernization of religions

At last someone in the “mainstream” blogosphere has put it out there for all to read:

This is a deep struggle in the Muslim soul - a struggle to come to terms with its own sectarian past, the bloodiness of some of its scriptures, and the real and present threat of modernity as it crashes down on their medieval order with the power of technology they cannot control.

The paragraph appears in a posting by Andrew Sullivan on The Daily Dish. “…the bloodiness of some of its scriptures…” is a powerful statement, and a challenge to all moderate Muslims to begin to dismantle so much of “their medieval order” which is causing all peoples of the world concern, and the daily blood of so many ordinary Muslim citizens in so many countries.

Those young Muslim men who think jihad is “cool” are wrong. They should do a little more thinking and praying.

Trust, but verify. And thanks to Sullivan.

Why not a blessing in disguise?

2009-12-28T10:38:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Marty Peretz,Abdulmutallab,CAIR,Islamicists,Homeland Security,Air Safety

There’re all sorts of ranting and raving about the undie-bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, not being on the “short” list (is there a pun there?) of those not allowed to fly in U.S. airspace; and there are others who are a bit more sanguine.

Mightn’t one accurately think, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that the fact Mr. Abdulmutallab did not make a short list is a stroke of good luck for Homeland Security as well as the good folk who do the airport screening?

With the inept, thankfully, attempt of Mr. A, we now have increased knowledge of bomb delivery capabilities and techniques, and, as with the “shoe” bomber of a few years back, we are somewhat more alert, if not actually safer, in the skies.

We’d all, to be sure, prefer not to have to worry about religious dimwits trying to gain entrance to some strange idea of Paradise (What, exactly are those 72 virgins supposed to do to make Paradise so special for these guys?) with the shedding of others’ blood, but if we have do worry about it, let’s have as much info into their thinking as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Abdulmuttallab for your failure. It was a blessing for us.

Trust, but verify, transportation workers.

(And get on the stick, CAIR; encourage more moderate mullahs to condemn these killings and attempted killings.)

The junior Senator from Aetna and Bad Publicity

2009-12-15T05:19:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Aetna Insurance,Senator Lieberman,Health Care

Imagine the surprise, Dear Gentle Reader(s), to learn that a Google search of “Senator from Aetna,” which yields some 300,000+ mentions, list both Senator Dodd and Senator Lieberman.

(Wow! That’s some power for an insurance company, eh wot?)

Ergo, the “junior” for Mr. Lieberman.

Mr. Lieberman’s obstructionism and flip-flopping on the issue of the current health care legislation wending its way through the Senate is much in the news lately. What isn’t mentioned too often is the benefit which accrues to Aetna through his machinations. While it’s OK, to make a profit, it isn’t OK for a company to accrue as much bad publicity as is going to Aetna during this time.

If you had an option between Aetna and some other company wouldn’t the antics of Senator Lieberman influence your decision? Wouldn’t you go somewhere else?

If you would, you might take this opportunity to send Aetna a little email telling them so. Here’s an address should you care to let Aetna know that bad publicity from Mr. Lieberman’s actions does the company little good.

Trust, but verify.

The Narrative

2009-11-29T05:59:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Tom Friedman,The New York Times,CAIR,Islamic governments,Ft. Hood,Islamic extremists,Religions

Tom Friedman has an interesting column today, Dear Gentle Reader(s). It concerns the way the United States, in particular, and the non-Islamic West are portrayed in media with an Islamic orientation. It ain’t pretty.

The portrayal is called “The Narrative,” and it is enlightening. You might take a few minutes for reading and contemplation.

Implicit in this writing is a call for the United States to hold to account the leaders of those Gulf and Mideast states which give tacit support to the dissemination of this Narrative, and Friedman proposes an addition to the Cairo speech when President Obama next addresses a Muslim audience:

“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”

Sounds like good advice which could be taken by a lot of people, including, one would think, our own American neighbors who happen to follow Islam. Are you listening, CAIR?

Trust, but verify.

Why is it “None Dare Call It Blasphemy?”

2009-11-19T19:27:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Religious Extremists,Christians,Judaists,Islamists

Each of the world’s “religions of the book” have some adherents which proclaim that their “book” is the word of “God” in such a way that somehow limits divine pronouncements to the far past. At the same time, there is, at least in the Christian confession, an acknowledgement that humans cannot “know” the mind of “God.” If the adherents of Judaic and Islamic theology also have such an acknowledgement, why, then, are these religions hobbled by a concept that the Divinity stopped revealing certain “truths” 1400, 2100, or 5400 years ago? Isn’t holding that God stopped talking to Mankind centuries ago some sort of hubris? Isn’t it presuming to know what God’s plan might be? Isn’t it a virtual blasphemy?

How dare these people proclaim that they have the “last” of God’s words? How do they know that?

How dare people preach that God wants death in His name?

How dare they deliver sermons making women second class creatures of the race?

How dare they have prayers thanking God for not making them women?

How dare “mainstream” religionists not publicly chastise extremists?

How dare they not hurl epithets against religious suicides?

How dare they all blaspheme?!?

Trust, but verify.

GBA

2009-10-09T16:54:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: President Obama,Nobel Peace Prize

Surely most of you who drop by these postings have received one of these emails, but just in case you haven’t:

Gene --
This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I'd been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.
To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.
But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.
That is why I've said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won't all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.
This award -- and the call to action that comes with it -- does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.
So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we've begun together. I'm grateful that you've stood with me thus far, and I'm honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama

Now, tell me, what about this email from info@barackobama.com would upset the loyal opposition?

Trust, but verify.

And God Bless America.

Disappointing Dems

2009-09-29T12:37:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Health Care,Rockefeller amendment,Democratic senators,Baucus,Carper,Conrad,Lincoln,Nelson,poor people

Well, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the Finance committee has had its say, and it wasn’t pleasant, according to The New York Times.

Five Democratic Party senators, Baucus, Carper, Conrad, Lincoln, Nelson voted against the Rockefeller government sponsored amendment.

One has to wonder how many impoverished constituents of these senators will sleep more comfortably tonight knowing their voices were drowned out by insurance contributions to political coffers.

Next time these constituents vote, one hopes they’ll

Trust, but verify.

“Protection?” What are they thinking?

2009-09-29T08:21:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: The Desert Sun,Native born,Immigration,California

Here’s a bit of a mystery, Dear Gentle Reader(s). The headline in The Desert Sun’s online edition reads:

Group seeks to limit services for children of undocumented

Measure would require ‘foreign' stamp on birth certificates

The “group” is unnamed, but the cause for which they’re collecting signatures is “The California Taxpayer Protection Act 2010.”

Does California need this sort of protection? How do Californians benefit from under educated children who become ill educated adults? How do Californians benefit from children with health problems set loose in population centers?

And just how much truth is in their claim that taxpayers are footing the bill for children of illegals to the detriment of other children with “legal” parents?

Here’s an interesting tidbit included in a sidebar next to the main story:

In 2006, a Desert Sun analysis found undocumented immigrants pump nearly $1.5 billion annually into the Riverside County economy while costing residents roughly $220 million for the social services they use.

Taxpayers seem to benefit from “illegals” here in Riverside County.

Group claims to have gathered 100,000 signatures toward a needed 433,971 to make the June ballot of 2010.

There’s something shameful about this effort.

Group has the right to seek signatures for their petition.

The rest of us,

Trust, but verify.

Strange People

2009-09-26T06:03:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: KCRW,Tony Blankley,Meg Whitman,Global warming,New York Times,Domestic violence,Taxation,California

Dear Gentle Reader(s), there’s something quite unusual about some of our compatriots. They have an unusual world view.

On the September 25 edition of the KCRW-FM show, “Left, Right, and Center,” Tony Blankley asserted that global warming is a “hoax.”

The New York Times September 26 edition carries an op-ed entitled, “The Thaw at the Roof of the World.” It seems there’s a Tibetan glacier which is shrinking—some 830 feet in two decades. This glacier is part of a larger glacier system which feeds many of the rivers in Asia. As the glaciers melt, there will be an abundance of water. After they’ve melted? Hmmm.

On Tuesday Meg Whitman announced her run for the GOP nomination for governor of California. The usual mantra follows—lower taxes, smaller government, etc., etc.

On Saturday the Times publishes “Cuts Ravage California Domestic Abuse Program.” There are fewer and fewer places for battered women and for their children to seek shelter because of California’s budget crisis.

No global warming, no need protection of abused women, no need for protection of children of battered women, no need for health care for poor children, no need, in effect, for responsible taxation.

No vision.

Strange.

Trust, but verify.

Um…Change?…Don’t forget “Change”

2009-09-22T15:12:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Patriot Act,FISA Court,secret warrants,Constitutional guarantees

Granted, there must be some continuity in government procedures from administration to administration, but…

The Obama Department of Justice is requesting extension of some of the “Patriot Act” provisions which are about to expire.

The BLT (it’s not a sandwich!) tells us about it in “House Democrats Question Renewal of Patriot Act Provisions.” One of the provisions deals with extending certain search warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That Court is a secret Court, don’t forget. The DOJ has never used this power, but a committee of Congress heard testimony that those warrants “…meet an investigative need.”

Meets a need which has never arisen?

That doesn’t much sound like a change in DOJ policy from the last administration.

Trust, but verify.

Afghanistan commitment?

2009-09-14T06:24:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,US CENTCOM,US Congress

“NATO reaffirms commitment to Afghanistan” proclaims the headline from today’s US CENTCOM newsletter.

Maybe so, but…

There is increasing debate here in the U.S. as to just what shape that commitment will take. More and more, Congressional members are calling for more civilian advisors and not more combat troops.

Stay tuned.

Trust, but verify.

Are newts as slippery as Newt?

2009-09-09T14:36:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Morning Edition,NPR,Newt Gingrich,Renee Montagne,Health Care,VanJones Republicans

If so, they’re likely to rule the planet. (He is very slippery.)

This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition, the interviewer, Renee Montagne, asked former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich if he thought language such as “death panels” was appropriate?

Mr. Gingrich responded:

I think it's fine to say to people, "Be very careful the amount of power you are going to give bureaucrats."

Note, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that Mr. Gingrich did not answer the question. He did not address the appropriateness of Death Panels.

But he did say something with which anyone should be able to agree: Be careful of bureaucrats—even disgraced politico-bureaucrats such as Mr. Gingrich, a very fine example of VanJones Republican.

Trust, but verify.

Sin of omission?

2009-09-01T18:00:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Laura Ingraham,George Will,Afghanistan

Is it deliberately misleading?

Today Laura Ingraham, during a promo for an upcoming segment of her show*, said something to the effect that there would be an analysis of how the Far Left was pressuring President Obama to leave Afghanistan.

This on the day that conservative columnist George Will called for the U.S. to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

White woman speaks with forked tongue.

Trust, but verify.

*No, Dear Gentle Reader(s), it’s perfectly innocent: I was slumming during an Olberman commercial.

RINOs* v Whatos?

2009-08-23T14:08:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Senator Boxer,Carly Fiorino,Meg Whitman,Deb Saunders,2010 election,RINOs

November 2010 is an election year in California, Dear Gentle Reader(s), and it promises to be almost as interesting as last year’s.

There has been much ballyhoo out here in the Pyrite State (Golden no longer, thanks to the Republican Party) about two mega-RINOs, Carly Fiorino and Meg Whitman, who have indicated a strong inclination to run for state office in 2010. Fiorino is looking to replace Senator Boxer and Whitman to replace Governator Schwarznegger.

There’s a fly in someone’s ointment, if not a grain of sand in the Vaseline. There are already Republican base snipers out taking pot shots at these two women. For an early introduction into the Republican names who might figure in the attempt to wrest a senate seat from the Democrats as well as keep the Republicans in the governor’s office, hie thee to the Muckroom to read Debra J Saunders’ column, “Too Big To Vote?”

Ms Saunders is thinking neither woman could win if for no other reason than their respective voting records—very spotty for both women; Whitman didn’t register as a Republican until 2007. Seems like a thin premise, but we’ll see.

Much ado about nothing? Can Boxer possibly fall? Are Californians finally getting tired of having Republican nay-sayers in charge?

Stay tuned and remember:

Trust, but verify.

*Republican In Name Only—Honorable men and women who do not adhere to the right wing fundamentalists

Why Afghanistan?

2009-08-21T16:32:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,Taliban,Charlie Wilson,CIA

Hmmm. Because it’s there? It’s where the money is? No and No. It is because we have a moral obligation to try to bring stability to that benighted nation.

Remember Charlie Wilson’s War? That’s why we’re there. No, not the movie; the subject of the movie. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, the CIA—our CIA—with the help or insistence of Mr. Wilson, began to supply and assist the various Afghani fighters with money, supplies, and information. One of the fighting factions were what would become the Taliban. We funded them. We armed them. Then, when the Russians finally left Afghanistan, we didn’t keep an eye on them. We let them take control of the post-Russian Afghani government, and then—we know the rest.

That’s why we need to continue in Afghanistan. We need to finish the job the Bush administration virtually abandoned.

We cannot morally allow the Taliban to inflect its cultic will on the Afghani people without some serious attempt to prevent a return of that country to the plight of those people under the oppression of 7th century thinking.

Trust, but verify.

Muckroom Follies 8.18.09 Brit Health Care

2009-08-18T06:42:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Health Care,Townhall.com,Cal Thomas,British NHS,Right Wing pundits

Watching the right wing tie itself into lying knots is mildly amusing; watching a commentator struggle to toe the line is sad. Cal Thomas is trying to help defeat the attempts to reform health care (Why? What will the right gain from insisting that the poor must be unhealthy?) while still keeping some semblance of rational thought is an example of the sad.

If you must, Dear Gentle Reader(s), you might go to a column by Thomas presented in Townhall.com, “NHS vs. USA.” In it he manages to cite stories from the British press which disparage the NHS. However, in his second paragraph, he is forced to admit that the British Tory leader, David Cameron, is not quite so politically unhappy with the government run health care: “In an apparent effort to outflank the critically ill Labour Party, Cameron promises to strengthen the NHS.”

If the NHS is so unpopular and so ineffective, why is the leader of the conservative party, the party of the Iron Lady Thatcher—you remember, she’s the one at the head of the Brit government which “defeated” Billy Eliot’s miner father—making political promises to “strengthen” the service? It doesn’t make much sense.

Perhaps it’s time for more progressives in the U.S. to take to the streets, or at least to the typewriter (metaphorically), and let the congressperson nearest you know that the fear tactics over “socialized” medicine will not work. Public option is necessary.

Trust but verify.

n.b. For a truly scary moment, drop down and read some of the letters following the Thomas article.

Example from a writer in MI:

Black Panther in White House Tanking....

The Kenyan coke-head is literally sinking among the American people. His real support base is among the losers like those in ACORN and SEIU.
What a shame but what could we expect? He had almost zero experience in life, other than race-baiting community organization, which is a fancy term for threatening to sue firms if they didn't hire enough so called "minorities".
The anti-American, Marxist-Muslim is tanking.......don't ya love it!

There is no better indication of the failures of the American educational system. Alas.

Um…

2009-08-14T07:20:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Paul Krugman,The New York Times,Republican Party,President Obama,Bipartisanship,Death Panels,Truth,Lies

Today, Dear Gentle Reader(s), Paul Krugman has a column in which he discusses the futility of trying for bipartisanship in the political climate of Washington, D.C.

The article, Republican Death Trip, is, as usual, fascinating reading.

Naturally, there’s a quibble. (Else why bother?)

Krugman uses much “ink” to discuss the Palinesque “death panels;” but the strongest language he (and/or possibly The New York Times editors?) can muster is: “It’s a complete fabrication, of course.”

Ouch.

Come on, Mr. K. Go for broke. Call it what it is: a lie. It won’t kill you to be a little more forceful.

Trust, but verify.

Let’s go home (after a little detour)

2009-07-30T07:53:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: The New York Times,Iraq,U.S. Forces

It seems, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that there’s a fly in the ointment of the Coalition of the Willing’s* plans to leave Iraq in a couple of years.

The New York Times is reporting that a “senior American military adviser in Baghdad” says we should leave Iraq by August 2010, some 15 months ahead of the pull out date which is now scheduled.

Good news.

Now, will that mean freeing up more troops for duty in Afghanistan? Or more drones for Pakistan? How about spending the money on schools for the United States—as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Let’s go home. Oh, but on the way…”

*The more or less imminent withdrawal of British troops reduces this entity to, as one wag puts it, “a Coalition of the One.”

NPR Tidbits—Health Care, Race 7.29.09

2009-07-29T06:10:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: NPR,Morning Edition,Race,Health Care,Congress,White House

A couple of quickie notes, Dear Gentle Reader(s), which come from today’s broadcast of Morning Edition on NPR.*

Senator Grassley made this point—there is no “Obama Plan.” All the plans coming out of the Congress are plans which have been developed by Senators or Representatives to far. The President has laid out some general goals, but the White House has not produced a plan of its own. So, DGR(s), whenever you read of, or hear, someone referring to the Obama Plan, they are being imprecise; there is no such plan. If they can’t get that basic bit of info correct, what else, you must ask yourself, do they not know?

In the continuing discussion of race, Inskeep and Williams brought in a couple of new twists—class and power. That much makes sense. It’s hard to continue to portray “minorities” as continuing victims when so much of the class and power structures have been integrated to the point we see today. Steve and Juan could, however, have benefitted from listening to another segment of today’s program where a while man said he didn’t support Obama’s plan (see above) because only minorities would benefit. He went on to say that the white middle class would end up paying for the plan. Lesson? While class and power are shifting around, there’s enough misguided “white” bias against “minorities” to keep niggling us for another couple of generations.

Trust, but verify.

*Playlist link

An appeal of “The Appeal”?

2009-07-20T15:05:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Supreme Court of West Virginia,John Grisham,"The Appeal",Judicial Bias

It seems, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that John Grisham might have the opportunity to write a follow-up to The Appeal.

The West Virginia case which gave Grisham, maybe, an inspiration is going back to the West Virginia Supreme Court in a 3rd try at an appeal.

Judicial bias is the question.

It’ll be interesting to see how the SCOWV will rule this time—now that the eyes of the nation are on it.

The Underlying Cause

2009-07-20T09:18:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Tom Friedman,The New York Times,Religion,Religious Extremists

Here, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a quote from Tom Friedman’s latest column for the New York Times: “America’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were, in part, an effort to create the space for the Muslim progressives to fight and win so that the real engine of change, something that takes nine months and 21 years to produce — a new generation — can be educated and raised differently.”

That’s the most important “in part” of all. The only weapon Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and for all that, fundamentalist Christianists, have is ignorance. Christian and Muslim progressives must fight lack of education at every turn.

Religious leaders of all stripe must somehow accept that, like the evolution of all things on this earth, revelation is ongoing and religions must change. Religion which has become concretized is religion of virtual blasphemy.

Trust, but verify.

A virtual perpetual motion machine

2009-07-16T14:29:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Movies,Lord of the Rings,Perpetual Motion,Accounting Practices,American Lawyer.com

Good news, Dear Gentle Reader(s), future energy problems have virtually been solved! Not, as you might expect, in the laboratories of General Electric, et al., but in the accounting rooms of New Line Cinema—at least, that’s what one can intuit from a little news item floated in the web site for Law.com.

There’s a lawsuit on behalf of J.R.R. Tolkein’s heirs seeking payment of “7.5% of movie receipts” from New Line Cinema. Seems simple enough, eh wot?

Nah.

It seems there’s a catch: “The 1969 agreement calls for Tolkien's percentage cut of the revenue to kick in only when the film's gross receipts reach a level that equals 2.6 times the cost production and a laundry list of other costs.”

The problem for the heirs is that even with a 6 billion dollar take on movie receipts and associated merchandise, that 2.6 figure hasn’t been reached. Furthermore, it would seem that with the actors’ take figured in as continuing costs (i.e., the more the film and merchandise make, the bigger the cut given to actors and others), the 2.6% will virtually never be reached.

It’s a virtual moving target which will virtually continue to move, which means the accountants have discovered a virtual perpetual motion machine.

Or something.

Trust, but verify.

Madam Justice Robota

2009-07-14T15:21:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Sonia Sotomayor,Chief Justice Roberts,Justice Scalia,Republicans

Republicans are such sillies.

The Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee seem to want SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor to be objective in deciding cases which come before her as a sitting judge.

Objectivity is a state to which human beings might aspire, but it cannot be achieved. Does Justice Scalia manage to leave behind his sense of entitlement as a male son from an Italian family? Or Chief Justice Roberts his Angle camaraderie?

Foolishness.

We can no more ignore what made us who we are than we can ignore the fatuousness of the opposition party in these nomination hearings.

Nor would we want a Justice to do that.

Trust (Republicans?!? Shirley, you jest!), but verify.

Dick, Dick, Dick, A-dick-a Dick, Dick, Dick

2009-07-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Richard Cheney,Bush Administration,CIA,Congress,President Obana

Actually, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the title comes from a song by Cole Porter, “Tom, Dick, or Harry,” in Kiss Me, Kate. In case you wondered.

Richard Cheney, vice president under W, otherwise knows as “Dick,” for reasons more and more apparent as each day goes by, is in the news again.

This time Cheney’s named as the force behind some faulty CIA intelligence reports given to Congress during a period of time in the previous administration.

The New York Times carries a “news alert” about this particular brouhaha this afternoon.

Poor Dick.

Poor W.

Poor us.

Dick just gets closer and closer to serious problems. How much longer can the Obama administration continue to protect this man and the shenanigans he pulled?

Transparency, Mr. Obama.

Trust, but verify.

Um…”…the voice of the majority…” Really?

2009-07-08T06:17:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Prop (H)8,Legal Teams,Language,Majority

The battle is engaged, Dear Gentle Reader(s).

The federal court case against Prop (H)8 is shaping up. The California lawyers defending (H)8 have gained a legal team based in D.C., and the judge has set August 19 for the next case management hearing.

As we go into the public relations segment of the case, it is well to remember some basic facts about language.

There are others, as will be pointed out in the days to come, but one basic example of “…well, maybe, but…” can be found in a statement issued by a lawyer from the D.C. firm:

We are the only party now defending the statute and essentially being the voice of the majority of Californians.

Well, maybe. But…

Remember, the population of California, by rough estimates, is 36,756,666. The number of voters in last November’s Proposition (H)8 election was 7,001,084 “yes” and 6,401,482 “no.”

That gives the law firm the right to say that they represent a majority of 52.3% California voters, not Californians.

Trust, but verify.

W’s Dangerous Legacy

2009-07-06T13:46:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Chief Justice Roberts,Supreme Court,Pres Bush,National Law Journal

Forget, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the disastrous foreign policy of the erstwhile Bush II administration, the real danger to the U.S.A. lies in the Supreme Court which W and the fat cats of the United States of Corporation have bequeathed to our endangered liberties.

For an analysis of the Court’s recent term, hie thee to The National Law Journal’s website, and read “Roberts Court takes narrow road to right.”

If the article doesn’t chill your bones, you’re not paying attention. Scariest quote:

"This Court can afford to be quite patient," said Thomas Goldstein of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld at a Washington Legal Foundation briefing June 30. Moving rightward by building on narrow precedents one by one rather than all at once "won't look as dramatic," said Goldstein. But instead of describing it as incrementalism, the founder of SCOTUSblog offered the word "actuarialism" to describe his view of the Roberts approach. In other words, by looking at who might leave the Court first (liberals) and who might replace them (liberal President Barack Obama), Goldstein thinks the Court's conservatives foresee as many as eight more years of dominating the Court, allowing them to take the long view.

“The long view…” means that, like a cancer, the changes will be so slow as to call little attention. Then, Pow! We’re screwed.

CJ Roberts—alas, a stealth corporate wolf in sheep populist clothing.

Trust, but verify.

Dudes! Think!!!

2009-07-05T07:07:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Steve McNair,Mike Lupica,Athletes

Just about the time, Dear Gentle Reader(s), I finished reading Mike Lupica’s Wild Pitch, the Nashville cops were deep into the investigation of the death of Steve McNair, a former quarterback for the Memphis team.

A mention in New York’s Daily News claims that McNair was murdered by a girlfriend,one Sahel Kazemi, who then committed suicide.

Lupica’s book is all about a sports “hero” who couldn’t keep up with his “gift” because he thought that the right, if not obligation, to par-tay was part of the package. Since McNair left behind a “devastated wife” and 4 children, it’s logical to think he, too, believed the same.

Not much sympathy here for Steve-o or Sahel.

But, Hey! Athletic dudes of all levels of stardom, the gift comes with responsibility, not par-tay.

Don’t take my word for it; listen to Lupica.

Trust, but verify.

The Apple and its proximity to the Tree

2009-07-03T06:27:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Jonah Goldberg,Lucien Goldberg,Gov Palin,Pres Bush,Townhall.com

Ah, Dear Gentle Reader(s), there’s fun over at the Muckroom today.

The fun comes from Jonah Goldberg, son of Lucien Goldberg, she of the spotted blue dress fame. You remember her, the sneaky-petess most responsible for keeping the dress secure. A woman of sterling character, no doubt.

Son Jonah has written an open letter to Governor Palin, “A letter to Sarah” in today’s issue of Townhall.com’s email compilation, which, in itself, is almost an effort of expiation for the family’s ills—but that’s most likely a fantasy of yours truly.

First Goldberg, J. touts Sarah’s unique qualifications for the vice-presidency (go figure), then he lists ways in which she is misplaying her hand lately. Along the way he pulls a couple of croppers, i.e., “For Democrats, fairly or not, you've become a laughingstock.” (Become?!? Better been. From day 2—when she first spoke unscripted.)

And then there’s this extraordinary admission:

“Yes, you can talk well about the stuff you know -- oil drilling, energy, etc. -- but beyond your comfort zone, you fall back on bumper-sticker language that sounds fine to the people who already agree with you but is useless in winning over skeptics.

President Bush had the same problem you do, which is why there's a hunger for Republicans who can effectively articulate and sell our policies and philosophy.”

That bit of honesty, Bush II was inarticulate, is rare from the Goldberg ilk; but, notice, DGR(s), it isn’t done in the spirit of admitting a mistake—Jonah’s mistake about both Sarah and W.

How tone deaf Goldberg is in this piece.

Hie thee thither and enjoy.

Remember,

Trust, but verify.

And don’t stand too close to an apple tree.

No surprise

2009-07-01T04:05:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Townhall.com,Gov Sanford,Republican Party

Today’s edition of the Townhalldotcom’s Muckroom, Dear Gentle Reader(s), has not one story about Republican Mark Sanford’s marital tribulations.

Circling the wagons as the party circles the drain?

Trust, but verify, Mrs. Sanford.

Status Quo Ante

2009-06-26T09:33:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Iran,Theocracy

Of all the Latin phrases we use, Status Quo Ante gives the most pause as well as exhilaration.

After incident X, do we really want to go back to the context in which we found ourselves prior to X? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.

Is it even possible to return to that prior context?

That is the situation in which the Iranians find themselves today, the 2 week mark from their problem election.

The hard-line mullahs must know that their regime cannot ever return to June 11, 2009. They must be scrambling to preserve something of their theocracy, but they scramble in vain.

The Islamic revolution of Khomeini ended on June 12, 2009. The status quo ante June 12 is gone.

Exhilaration.

Trust, but verify (and be patient).

Whiplash

2009-06-22T06:07:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Iraq,Bush Administration,US Centcom

Feel, Dear Gentle Reader(s), like doing some virtual neck exercise? Zip back and forth from the news organizations’ reporting of the latest suicide bombers’ body count in Iraq and US CENTCOM’s public relations’ “Latest News Feed” where you’ll read about a Farmers’ Market opening.

What have we visited upon those people with our shoot-‘em-up foreign policies?

Very good news and very, very bad news.

Trust, but verify.

Crocodile Tears

2009-06-20T14:14:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Iran

On Friday “Ayatollah” Khamenei wept. On Saturday his thugs murdered.

Crocodile tears, false holy man!

A Different Ayatollah?

2009-06-16T10:15:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,Iran,Islamic Reformation

Here, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a clip from a posting by Andrew Sullivan on his blog, “The Daily Dish.” The posting concerns a statement issued by a reformist cleric Ayatollah Montazeri who comments, in part, on the current demonstrations in Iran:

1- A legitimate state must respect all points of view. It may not oppress all critical views. I fear that this lead to the lost of people’s faith in Islam.

2- Given the current circumstances, I expect the government to take all measures to restore people’s confidence. Otherwise, as I have already said, a government not respecting people’s vote has no religious or political legitimacy.

3- I invite everyone, specially the youth, to continue reclaiming their dues in calm, and not let those who want to associate this movement with chaos succeed.

4- I ask the police and army personals not to “sell their religion”, and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before god. Recognize the protesting youth as your children. Today censor and cutting telecommunication lines can not hide the truth.

I pray for the greatness of the Iranian people.

So, there are some clerics in Iran who do not wish to reside in the Dark Ages any longer.

Let’s hope the Iranian people come out of this with better lives.

Trust, but verify.

4.6 and counting

2009-06-14T18:19:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Iran,Democracy,Islamic Republic of Iran,State Suppression

Bing tells us: “The Earth is about 4.6 billion years old and formed along with rest of solar system. The Milky Way galaxy that contains the solar system probably formed around 13.6 billion years ago. The universe is calculated to be about 13.7 billion years old, dating from the Big Bang.” (Encarta Encyclopedia)

So, taking the long view, the Islamic Republic of Iran, established on April 1, 1979, is a small point in the timeline of Earth. Friday’s vote could well have been the last day of that republic, regardless of what happens over the next few days or months or years.

The ruling theocrats have lost the support of too many of the people. The thugs might well get the upper hand for the time being, but, like the Chinese Tienanman Square democratic movement, the movement towards a more progressive and democratic Iran is inevitable.

Good luck to the people of Iran.

Bad cess to politically inclined theologians.

Trust, but verify.

Muckroom’s Snark of the Day

2009-06-07T06:04:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Townhall.com,George Will,Pundits

Perhaps, Dear Gentle Reader(s), Snort should be in the title instead of Snark. (Is there such a word as “snark?” “Snarky” is used often, but “snark?”)

Today’s “sheesh!” response to a Townhall.com email offering comes from the lede of a column by George Will. Try this for an eye-rolling moment: "I," said the president, who is inordinately fond of the first-person singular pronoun, "want to disabuse people of this notion that somehow we enjoy meddling in the private sector."

Cute, eh wot?

“…inordinately fond of the first-person singular pronoun…” somewhat skirts the point that a syndicated columnist based in the most influential newspaper in the nation’s capitol is the epitome of one who the “first-person singular pronoun” simply by virtue of position and ability to publish a personal essay which is nothing but a long first-person singular pronouns I, me, mine, my.

And, of course, the comment had nothing to do with the discussion at hand—the nation’s economy.

Nice work, Georgie Porgie.

Trust, but verify.

Martyrdom? Never! Updated*

2009-06-05T19:15:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Guantanamo Bay Detainees,Trials,Islamofascists,Pleas

There’s a breaking story in The New York Times, Dear Gentle Reader(s), which gives pause on first reading.

Here’s the email alert teaser:

U.S. Could Let Detainees Plead Guilty Without Trials

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law
for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death
penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid
airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It
could also allow the five detainees who have been charged
with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of
pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

Allow them to become martyrs? And give the Islamofascists more recruiting posters?

Never.

Name them as murderers. Have Islamic theologians denounce their crimes. Keep them imprisoned in shame for the rest of their lives.

Trust, but verify.

*Latest NYTimes link

More on “Pro-Life”

2009-05-31T11:02:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Bill O'Reilly,Abortion,George Tiller,Fundamentalists

Here’s a You Tube segment on Bill O’Reilly commenting a few weeks ago on Kansas abortion clinic, Dear Gentle Reader(s).

Doubtless now that Dr. George Tiller has been murdered, O’Reilly will protest the taking of a life. Doubtless, too, he will eschew any responsibility disregarding the inflammatory language he uses at the end of the clip.

We are all shamed by O’Reilly’s actions.

Trust, but verify.

Pro-Life? Yeah, right.

2009-05-31T10:10:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: George Tiller,Abortion,Pro-Life,Fundamentalists

Here’s all you need to know, Dear Gentle Reader(s).

Too soon to tell anything about the perp, but someone shot Dr. George Tiller, a physician who performed abortions, as he walked into his church this morning.

Pro-life?

Trust, but verify.

Alas, if you can’t trust Masterpiece…

2009-05-30T10:21:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Masterpiece Theatre,Wallander,Literary adaptations

…who, then, Dear Gentle Reader(s), can one trust?

The Masterpiece series on public television recently broadcast a Wallander segment titled “One Step Behind” which, it turns out, was a bit unfaithful to the book.

The villain in the screenplay (is there a word for a videoplay?) is limned as a jealous drag queen who kills for attention and for revenge.

That’s not what happens in the book. No spoilers here for readers, but the tinge of homophobia which colors the screenplay is totally absent from the pages of the novel.

Why might that have happened? Other than a bit of imaginative laziness on the part of the video’s writers, it’s hard to think of a reason.

Other than the villain’s rationale, the video is faithful enough to the book. It’s a 90 minute play developed from a 408 page book—much has to be truncated, characters omitted, incidents compressed. There was no reason, though, to alter the villain’s explanation. The book makes much more sense.

So, Masterpiece is one to be trusted, but read the book for verification. (Which is not a bad thing.)