Ron Paul & the Acolytes of Strategic Ineptitude
As Oscar Wilde quipped, "The only thing worse than being talked about is being ignored." Based on the plethora of comments concerning our column below on Rep. Ron Paul, that is not a fate we'll have to endure.
It would be largely unproductive to parry the various arguments readers presented because even those that were constructive inadvertently confirmed the premise of our original piece, which is that liberals instinctively disdain American exceptionalism. From there, it's a short polemical leap to the conclusion that America's every decision on the world stage is fraught with imperialist designs, economic exploitation, or ideological hegemony.
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Has Bush seen the light on climate change?
If we take President Bush at his word, the United States is ready, even determined to move to the front of the international community when it comes to climate change. “The United States is taking the lead,” the President announced on May 31, “and that’s the message I’m taking to the G8.”
Given the Bush administration’s long history of obstructing international action on climate change, starting with his rejection of the Kyoto accord months after taking office, I felt the need to ask one of his spokespersons on climate policy, Kristin Hellmer at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, if President Bush was serious about this.
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Rep. Ron Paul's Flawed Theory
It's almost an article of liberal faith that the ability to misconstrue the essence of a message is a inalienable birthright. John Dickerson, writing in Slate, argues that Libertarian Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's counter-message at the recent Republican debate was criticized because he expressed "unpopular opinions." The confusion between popularity and the credible explication of events is, indeed, a hallmark of modern liberalism.
Mr. Dickerson further expands his theme by arguing that Paul's assertion that 9/11 was the result of our presence in the Middle East is, in fact, a GOP talking point. However, as always, he misses the larger point: bin Laden himself has issued fatwas that stipulate that America's power projection worldwide, but in particular in the Middle East, were the predicates for 9/11, so that is not at issue. Rather, the more profound question is whether the U.S.'s efforts to correct the balance of dictatorships and totalitarian regimes is a legitimate global role?
Blair pushed out of office because of Lebanon, not Iraq
The party is over. Ten years in office, some of them even in power, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair departs not amid the farewell tour that his aides planned just last year but with an embarrassing and forced goodbye.
This is not a transition. This is a push and a putsch. Delayed, disguised but deliberate. Blair is being ditched by his own party to be replaced by a man with whom he has been barely on speaking terms since 1997.
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Anti-choice is the new buzzword
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold a controversial abortion ban that has no health exception for the mother has apparently emboldened anti-choice activists to press on and attempt to strike while the iron is hot. According to Women’s Enews, in the two weeks since the historical SCOTUS decision to limit women’s rights, state lawmakers have pushed through anti-choice legislation in no less than 6 states with more poised to jump into the fray.
My family recently moved back to the area from Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry’s culture of pseudo-morality has led the state to the highest teen birth rate in the country and an incredibly high rate of unintended pregnancies and teenage STDs. In Texas it is abstinence-only sex education combined with large state funding for faith-based “crisis pregnancy centers.” It's interesting that abstinence-only programs have been shown to actually increase the risk of contracting AIDS and other STDs and that real medical facilities like Planned Parenthood clinics languish from increasing partisan budgetary cuts. Doesn't that seem like an illogical way to decrease soaring teen pregnancy rates – to cut funding for the very programs aimed at educating teens, then denying them treatment unless they believe in the fundamentalist rhetoric of what essentially equates to church volunteers!
Dark, sordid truth
First the purge, then the surge, now the urge - to withdraw. By the next anniversary of the Iraq war we will see the retreat. It won't be called that, more likely it will be termed the 'handover after victory'. Vietnam was the Bright, Shining Lie, Iraq is the Dark, Sordid Truth.
The war is lost and the signposts to retreat are clearly visible. It is not just the disputed death toll, it is not just the sheer terror of daily life, it is not just the sectarian strife, it is not even that the country is not functioning or the Green Zone is surrounded by a Red Zone.
Iraq War Funds Mishandled
An AP article appeared on April 30 with the title, “Bush seeks cooperation on U.S. war funds.” The story mentioned the House and Senate bills approved last week which approved an additional $124.2 billion.” The story failed to mention the bills provide more money than Bush originally sought to fund the military in Iraq. Also absent from the story was the amount of money already spent on the Iraq war.
The National Priorities Project (NPP) created an online “Cost of Iraq War Calculator.” In February 2007 NPP stated the calculator is set to reach $456 billion by September 30, 2007, the end of the fiscal year. Last week Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi warned the Iraq war could cost over $1 trillion even if the military pulled out now.
The Remedy to our Cultural Malaise
As is often the case in profound atrocities such as that in Virginia on Monday, the cultural aftershocks are only latently beginning to register. We now hear that mass murderer, Cho, may have had a mental illness to which authorities may not have appropriately responded. That he was a loner with a long list of festering hatreds is perhaps all we truly know.
But as we begin to perform the cultural forensics, something else is becoming apparent, and that is how we've become inured to the disproportionate response by people who harbor internal demons. Low on the seismic scale are the outbursts prompted by excessive alcohol in response to seething gender or ethnic hatreds. On the other end of the scale are the grotesque expressions of a person wholly consumed by anger, which, of course, is what our nation witnessed at Virginia Tech.
Free Trade & Mexican Workers: Recipe for Disaster
A factory in my hometown of Fresno which makes the Quickie wheelchair moved part of its fabricating and welding division to a plant in Tijuana. Only about ten workers are affected in the Fresno factory and the company told The Fresno Bee, Fresno’s only daily newspaper, they were moved to the customer service division. However, Fresno Bee’s article failed to mention an important acronym, NAFTA, and the effects it has had on Mexican workers, let alone an important word in Tijuana, maquiladoras.
NAFTA stands for the North American Free Trade Agreement which established a free-trade zone in North America. Signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1992, it took effect on January 1, 1994, but immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the three participating nations, and called for the gradual elimination of most trade barriers over a 15-year period.
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Are Imus' Critics Sincere About Zero Tolerance?
In response to Don Imus' hateful remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, we have had to listen to one guardian of public civility after another lecture us on subject of the common decency. However, most of them seem disingenuous to me.
For one thing, they took advantage of the situation and used it as an opportunity to advance various tenets of the left-wing political agenda -- like the call for universal health coverage, as if that had anything to do with the matter at hand. They also trotted out their trusty, but completely invalid, mantra about the lack of minorities and women in certain areas being proof positive of discrimination and unequal opportunity.
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Our 21st Century Challenge
As we have argued in these columns, historical comparisons often provide an enlightening context to our challenges, persuasively arguing that ours is not the unique age it appears to be, that in fact, as George Bernard Shaw wrote (and borrowed from the Bible), "there is nothing new under the sun."
Writing in the Times of London, Anatole Kaletsky reviews the last century in light of comparative technological advancements and the major wars that were fought, and makes the credible conclusion that despite our travails we have little to complain about.
Understanding the Religion of Global Warming
This topic has been picking up steam through the years and the post-"Inconvenient Truth" world, it is encouraging to see a lot of other opinionated folks are picking up on this as well. See here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
My question is, how did so many in this generation get duped into becoming so religious? And how come these people have the gall to call it undisputed science? It strikes me funny in the same way when I listen to the laughable "creationist scientists" (the folks who believe the "earth is 6000 years old and we have proof").
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Obama flawlessly spouts out 6.3 cliches per minute
Every time I hear Obama speak, I can't help but laugh. For the sake of my own entertainment, I counted and highlighted the cliches from Obama's speech announcing his run for the Democratic nomination. 126 cliches in total, and according to the C-Span video, it lasted 20 minutes (from 6:30 to 26:30).
6.3 cliches per minute. It's even worse than I thought; hiliarous and scary at the same time.
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Have We Lost All Sense of Proportion?
Don Imus' deplorable remark about the Rutgers Women's basketball team being "nappy-headed ho's" deserved to be met with harsh criticism. However, what we actually got was a reaction that was way out of proportion to the original action. Even some otherwise-intelligent people helped lead the charge and carry the whole backlash to ridiculous levels. I'm starting to wonder if there would have been any more outrage, had Mr. Imus killed some of those women.
Yes, what Imus said was both racist and sexist. But we must also remember that they were only words. Why do we have to be so fanatical about them? And who the heck cares what some silly talk show host has to say anyway? Why can't everyone just ignore him and move on? If some popular on-the-air blowhard were to say, for instance, that all 46-year-old white male Protestants were cross-dressing Nazis, I wouldn't lose one second of sleep over it. I wouldn't be protesting. I wouldn't be demanding that he be taken off the air. I have more important things to do than worry about someone's empty words. I'm not that petty.
Federal Government’s Response to January Citrus Freeze
A rare January freeze destroyed the citrus crops of California’s San Joaquin Valley, causing over $1 billion of damage. Thousands of people became jobless as a result in small towns where the citrus crop is the biggest business. President Bush waited two months to declare the destroyed citrus crops a disaster area.
An editorial in California Fresh Fruit, a publication serving San Joaquin Valley farmers, bears the title, “Lessons for All of Us from the 2007 freeze.” Towards the end of the editorial the writer declares, “It is not the government’s job or responsibility to support us or bail us out should disaster strike. We as individuals and families…as a people should learn from what we have seen others experience and do everything within our power to plan and set aside for a time when there could be fewer resources than we enjoy today.”
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