Politics

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in politics. (I guess that in itself is revealing of the sad state of things.) Anyway, this was an editorial in the Saturday Washington Post. It made me smile. Here it is: IF YOU LIVE BY politics, you can die by politics, too. That's the lesson of the school board vote on Tuesday in Dover, Pa. All eight of the board's Republican incumbents were defeated. And all of the defeated incumbents had supported a policy -- the first in the country -- requiring the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution in ninth-grade biology classes. The board had been sued by a group of parents who argued that intelligent-desi…

A small victory for conservationists? http://ogj.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ONART&C=GenIn&ARTICLE_ID=241235&p=7

This is truly terrible, or rather, as someone had well put it, "a logistical nightmare". Does anyone else feel like this is a repeat of the bombings that took place in Egypt? Deja-vu? Geez...But at least now, the Jordanians are speaking out and protesting against Al-Qaeda. To say that they're pissed would be an understatement. Ugh. I just hope things don't take a turn to even worse events. What are your thoughts on the situation? I put some article links down here about the situation right now in Jordan in case anyone was interested. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051110/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_explosion_68;_ylt=AvNjhXMBqual7iMC8oCRbH1YU.0A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYw…

I thought McCain was unusually blatant in his anti-Bush bias. Don't get me wrong -- I was glad to see it. Frankly I'm unhappy with myself that I voted for Bush over McCain in the primaries in 2000. If McCain runs against Hillary in 2008 I'm going to have a seriously hard time making that call. I like the guy a lot.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a conference in Tehran called aptly "A World without Zionism" where he said that a Palestinian uprising would wipe Israel off the map. Should be interesting to see where this leads to. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1845402,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/11/08/BL2005110800679.html Broop broop, this is the rhetoric police. You're under arrest for epistrophe abuse. So as long as the cause is fighting the war on terror, Bush is convinced that we can do no wrong. Yikes.

I just finished reading an article on Marilyn's death (this month's Playboy mag...which also has a great interview with Pacino and another good read on Super Bowl tix bookies.) I'm not an expert (although I admit to being a Forensic Files junkie), there were a few points that the article brought up that really make me wonder how it could have been classified as an "apparent suicide" and not further investigated as a murder. Though this might be fun to discuss...as I'm sure everyone has an opinion on theory. Feel free to add your thoughts: 1) Her house was completely bugged, under 24/7 surveillance from all sorts of people (FBI, CIA, Hoffa, etc.) So how could no one h…

The Malaysian-born Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker has been confirmed as dying by Indonesian police. He's thought to have been living in Indonesia for over three years, since leaving Malaysia, and made several of the bombs JI had set off. Most reports say that he died after setting off explosives during the raid. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aHdTZ3lDVWps&refer=asia

Fascinating to watch this showdown between the Senate and the Bush administration on torture and coersion. What do you guys think about it? I happen to agree with McCain and the Senate, with one reservation which I'll get to in a moment. I think we've allowed the executive branch their leeway, we've seen insufficient results or learning from the experience, and it's cost us more than it's gained us -- that seems to be clear. It's time to define what it is that we're going to allow, and then stick to it. BTW, on the Jon Stewart show, McCain outright threatened to override any presidential veto of the bill. Bully for him! My main concern is that the bi…

How they handle it in Australia: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/kosky-rules-intelligent-design-a-faith/2005/10/28/1130400365346.html October 29, 2005 Kosky rules intelligent design a faith Victoria's government schools will treat intelligent design as a religious faith, not science, Education Minister Lynne Kosky has ruled. In her first statement on the subject, Ms Kosky reaffirmed the principle that government schools were secular and did not promote any religion. She said the two areas in which religion could be discussed were optional religious education lessons and VCE studies comparing religions. "In line with the above principles,…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051102/ts_nm/bush_leak_italy_dc

So here's a short timeline of events for you: 2002: The Bush administration sends Joseph Wilson to Niger to confirm the authenticity of documents obtained by British intelligence showing that that Saddam had attempted to purchase significant quantities of yellowcake from there, allegedly as part of a clandestine nuclear program. He determines that the documents were forgeries and that the alleged events never happened, and reports this information to the State Department. 2003: In the State of the Union address, Bush claims that British intelligence has discovered that Saddam had attempted to purchase large quantities of yellowcake from Africa. Joseph Wilson i…

Good times: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17104337-28793,00.html The funniest part is right at the end of the story. Not only do they have to pay a fine for damaging the reef, but they didn't find any evidence of damage to the reef due to global warming! BWahahashdAHAHsdahafda!!!11one!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-03-carter-bush_x.htm

Motivations aside (for now), is terrorism valid? I am defining terrorism as the murder of innocents in the cause of furtherance of a political goal. I would also like to point out that the firebombing of Tokyo, Dresden, and Hamburg in WWII, and to a lesser extent Hiroshima and Nagasaki (as the political message was more direct here), were orchestrated in the hopes of demoralizing the German and Japanese citizenry to the extent that the citizens would support a radical shift in the policies of their governments (i.e, surrender). Since all of these campaigns resulted in the slaughter of, for the vast majority, innocents, I fail to see the difference in tactics betwe…

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040423/D824KL5G0.html He was a better man than I.

I didn't know whether to post this in Education or politics, so I tossed a coin and it came down politics. Read this article. It looks like a lot of black students are cutting off their noses to spite their faces..... http://rdu.news14.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=76301

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-1021body,0,282956.story?track=mostemailedlink

Is there any way to find out if you are on the fbi's blacklist?

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13006182.htm Yes, I know - not very smart comments from the coach. Not politically correct, but I bet 95% of coaches agree with him. Do we deny that the average black athelete will be quicker and more coordinated? The average asian student will have a higher SAT than others? There are exceptions and the reasons may not always be genetic and we have the whole, what is a race thing, but can we not make any generalizations, even if there is some truth in them? As they find genome differences, will they be able to publish them without a bunch of flack? If you know that African Americans have a tendancy towar…

They found a way to extract stem cells from mice embryos, interestingly without harming the actual embryo. It'd be interesting to see what happens to conservative groups when they lose a huge chunk that they normally stand on. http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/10/16/hscout528569.html

President Bush is about to spend 7 billion in preparation for a possible pandemic. Some of the usual suspects like Kennedy and Pelosi claim it too little too late, others say it's an over reaction. There's also an issue on whether the Feds have complete responsibility, or if the States should chip in. Any thoughts?

I thought you might find this interesting for a couple of reasons. "The West Wing" is an American television show, which comes on the NBC network on Sunday nights. It's several seasons into its run. Martin Sheen plays a Democratic president, and I've always found the show interesting because of the way it attempts to portray the job and the office as realistically as possible. They discuss real politics, real political choices, real ethics and morality, and they look at real consequences. Just to give a brief example of this, the president is a "liberal Democrat", but he's often forced to act in "conservative" ways, such as with situations requiring military …

Long-time readers here will know that I'm not a fan of Tom DeLay, or of House Republicans in general. Frankly I think they personify much of what's wrong in Washington these days. But fair is fair, and today's objections bothered me. In a nutshell, people are annoyed that the judge in the Tom DeLay case was removed. He had donated five grand to MoveOn.org, and there are allegations of statements he's made in the past about Tom DeLay of a pretty bias-indicative nature ("Do you oppose Tom DeLay?" "In every possible way" was one quote I heard on the radio today). Also I have to apply my "reversal rule" here -- would it be objectionable (to the same people who …

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17084566%255E2703,00.html One more similarity... both scare me