Voice from the Commonwealth Commentary, World Views and Occasional Rants from a small 'l' libertarian in Massachussetts
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
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Praise for Voice
"A smart fellow...I do like, recommend and learn from Barbera's blog." -Roger L. Simon
"Your blog is bullshit"- anonymous angry French reader.
“It's absolute nonsense,” Mr Mugabe said in an interview with foreign journalists. He described the redistribution of the land to blacks as an important program for uplifting the nation's poor. “It's the only way you can empower people to produce not just enough for subsistence, but more, to enable them to enjoy life and to enable the country also to continue to export maize,” he said.
You mean produce enough for export? Like the country was doing before you started your campaign of ethnic cleansing?
And Black leaders in Europe not only believe him, they are praising him.
Many black people in Europe have hailed President Mugabe's speech to the Earth Summit held in Johannesburg this week, which they said, served as a call for the total dismantling of all remnants of imperialism and present day neo-colonialism.
The Secretary-general of Davira Mhere, a black empowerment group in Britain, Mr Chinondidyachi Mararike said, President Mugabe did not just steal the show at the Earth Summit but put Africa on the path to total liberation. Mr Mararike told The Herald in a telephone interview that President Mugabe had played the role of an African liberator. His speech was to sell the land struggle in Zimbabwe to the rest of Africa, he said.
"In other words what he said is that Zimbabwe today is the epicenter of a liberationist volcano whose lava will spread, and in the process scotch the resisting settlers on the continent," said Mr Mararike. President Mugabe's speech was well received by all black people worldwide, he said. "We in Davira Mhere are pleased that a noble goal (of distributing land) has been achieved in Zimbabwe," he said.
It is easy to feel that way while living in the safety and non-disease and famine ridden lans ruled by Mugabe the Murderous Marxist.
This from Jono's Liberal Mom, in response to the story about Berkley not feeling the need to show any sort of love for their country on September 11th.
Indeed! Why don’t you all come to Amesbury (MA) where there will be a candlelight ceremony at the stadium? Kathy will sing Amazing Grace and there will be patriotic things, too. Children from every class in the elementary schools will be in a procession entering the stadium. I think they will be carrying a large American Flag. Candles are being sold all over town for people to take to the ceremony. The proceeds will benefit a young Amesbury family that lost its Dad on 9/11/02. Also the school children will be encouraged, not forced, to wear red, white and blue to school that day. We will say the Pledge of Allegiance at noon and will sing the National Anthem. California just needs to become another country. It seems that they don’t want to be Americans.
I'm sure Berkley residents would be suitably appalled.
Just in case Andy Cuomo thought he had a chance to run again in the near furture. He decided to 'open mouth insert both feet'.
Andrew Cuomo said his campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination failed, at least in part, because his opponent, H. Carl McCall, is black. "The negative here is that I was running against the first African-American. It was his turn,'' Cuomo, who is white, is quoted in Thursday's editions of The New York Times in a column by Bob Herbert.
Is there any filter between a newborn thought and his mouth?
Asked if the public's view of him would be the same if he had been running against a white candidate, Cuomo, the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, told the newspaper, "No. No. It was about this. I was an arrogant interloper, interfering on his turf. "I came from Washington. ... Didn't wait in line and came here and said, 'I'm going to run.' And got in the way of the first African-American.''
"What we did know wouldn't have helped in this "Politically Correct" culture. Imagine a memo from FBI Director, Robert Mueller, to American airports and the FAA ..."Twenty or so Middle Eastern men, who were learning to fly in American flight schools, are perceived to be Bin Laden terrorists. It is thought that they are planning to hijack commercial airliners. Please detain, question, and search ALL Middle Eastern men until further notice."
A reasonable voice in Africa. The Prime Minister of Zambia has offered land to the whites in Zimbabwe. He realizes his nation needs the experience the farmers offer and knows that it will help his starving people. Now the black workers who live on those farms need some protection.
Prime Minister Martin Ziguele told Anita McNaught on BBC's HARDtalk: "We will offer them land. My country has no problem with land. We are a country with 3.5 million inhabitants on 624,000 square kilometres. It's a very big country. For each kilometre of land we have less than one inhabitant. So we have land."
Before you start hearing the sob stories about the Canadian-Pakistani being held read this about the US Special Forces medic, Christopher Speer, the man he killed.
Before U.S. Special Forces medic Christopher Speer left for Afghanistan last spring, he quietly hid notes in his house for his wife and two young children to find while he was away.
The man confronted the intruder, who started walking toward the man with the screwdriver, which was probably used to break a living room window and enter the house, Wendling said. The homeowner backed up, then fell. At that point, he fired one shot, which hit his own hand. The intruder continued to advance and the man shot him several times, Wendling said.
This could be very important. While still maintaining that he wishes for a diplomatic solution Australian Prime Minister John Howard stated clearly that we have the evidence to prove Saddam is still in posession of weapons of mass destruction.
"We obviously have access to intelligence," Mr Howard told reporters at Amberley Air Base, west of Brisbane. "We haven't idly said that we believe Iraq has weapons of mass destruction."
Also of note.
Defence Minister Robert Hill said the probability of war was increasing.
"If the US reaches the conclusion that there is no other alternative, and it seems to be gradually heading that way . . . then it is reasonable to expect that they will seek some assistance from Australia," Senator Hill said.
Senator Hill's office also confirmed yesterday that massive Russian Antonov aircraft have been transporting Australian troops and equipment into Kuwait but denied it was part of a major military build-up in the region.
Neither “to stiff” nor “to crawfish” is a familiar metaphor in Britain. Both are vivid, as any boy who has fished for crawfish (or crayfish) in the chalk streams of England knows. The little critturs are brilliant at backing out of the kettle-on-a-string baited with rotting meat saved from school lunch. “To stiff” has several meanings in British English, either murderous or sexual. George’s application of it, meaning to cheat, will exercise the translators at the General Assembly. It should produce some hilarious malapropisms, with delegates shaking their écouteurs in disbelief.
Pedants will sneer at George’s neologisms. They always have. Other times of unprecedentedly rapid lexical innovation provoked outrage from the Mr Grumpies. They called them “inkhorn” terms. If the word had existed, they would have called them “cowboy” English. Dryden complained about “those who corrupt our English Idiom by mixing it with too much French”. Defoe called the inundation of slang “a Frenzy of the Tongue, a Vomit of the Brain”. By far the greatest sinner against the purity of English in their time was Shakespeare. Many of that great neologist’s creations have stuck: accommodation, assassination, barefaced, countless ... Others have fallen off the language tree: abruption, cadent, vastidity...
OK, say the pedants — or, in their case, “with the greatest respect”. It is one thing to accept neologisms from poets and other “creative” writers. C’est leur métier. But do we have to take vulgar new words from politicians? Especially from those whose command of English is as Brahma-bullish as Bush’s? Of course we must and do. Politicians and others in the public domain are prolific creators of new words and phrases. The Prime Minister has taught us the “Third Way”. Margaret Thatcher (through the impish medium of Julian Critchley) has given us “to handbag” as a verb. Chris Patten, a politician with a creative gift for language, popularised “porkies” and also the “double whammy”. The Chingford Skinhead will be recorded for having instructed us to “get on our bikes”. Politicians too neologise. C’est leur métier, aussi.
Too bad most American editorial writers are too blinded by their own predjudices to think before the damn Bush for words they don't happen to know. Personally, I find people who completely divorce themselves from where they grew up to be somewhat odious. Like they have something to be ashamed of and turn themselves into a bland cardboard representation of themselves.
So let it be with the President. “To stiff” (to cheat, or refuse to pay or tip) has been floating around in the US since 1950. The Washington Post, 1982 declared: “Instead of stiffing his servers, McCarthy should be stiffing their employers.” “To crawfish”, meaning to withdraw unreservedly from an untenable position, has been swimming backwards in US bayous for even longer. The Congressional Globe, 1848 observed that: “No sooner did they see the old British Lion rising up than they crawfished back to the 49th parallel.”
The President may not know it, or show it. But he is a linguistic archaeologist as well as a poet. His vivid metaphors are just the kind of colloquialisms that we Limeys expect to hear around the Texan barbecue or bar of our imaginations. They are lovely.
I hope the enviros in Johhannesburg are ready to accept the consequences of their deplorable behavior. By booing blair and Powell for their denunciations of Mugabe and embracing the murderous dictator and cheering him every step of the way, they have sent him back to Zimbabwe with a popular 'world mandate' to kill and starve and murder. Thousands will die as a result of these people working to mute any attempts to force changes in Zimbabwe. The interference they ran for him is despicable.
I suppose that is one way to do it. A Swedish politician, a mother of three, is calling for porn to be on TV all day every day. It is her plan to counter the negative population trend in Sweded.
Teres Kirpikli, a 35-year-old mother of three, said she wanted to help boost the Swedish economy by encouraging people to have more children. "I want erotica and porn on television every Saturday and all day. Then people would feel like having more sex," Teres Kirpikli said. "I think most people like porn, even though they don't want to admit it."
When will the madness ned? Now a theater teacher is in trouble for telling her students to stay out of the sun because "Lighter is better". She said this because the darker someone's skin, the harder it is to light them on stage. This sent some students and parents into a tizzy.
Some black students thought that was a racially insensitive remark. DeLana Clark, the mother of one of those students, complained Wednesday to principal Barbara Shorter. "I just can't believe an adult, for one, let alone a teacher, would say those type of things to a black kid who may be feeling insecure already," Clark said.
She was placed on administrative leave "for allegations of inappropriate conduct in a classroom,"
She is brave neough to stand up for herself though.
Mitchell, hired by Pinellas schools in 1988, said she was telling her students the truth about getting into show business. "The world is ugly, okay, and the television, movie and theater industry is ugly," she said. "How can I teach when I can't teach what's true?"
I guess with parents this sensitive it must be a tough work environment.
At least one parent is pleased that the school district is investigating the incident. "When it's just so blatant like that, they're should be some kind of repercussion," Clark said.
Yes that is what Liberals feel. Any blatant truth that they don't like with should have swift and severe repercussions.
UpdateJust a thought, wouldn't not liking the word based on how it sounds and not what it means be profiling?
Analysts in the Middle East give their take on how Sept. 11th has affected Arabs. This is well spoken and reasonable. This is where 'dialogue' should be used, there are rational issues for Arabs who have limited news access.
What exists in the Arab world today, that did not exist September 11 2001, "is a wave of fear." That is the assessment of Abdel Moneim Sa'id, the head of the al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. Mr. Sa'id says there is fear of terrorism, economic depression, loss of democracy, and political oppression. "You have all kinds of uncertainties here, so this issue of Muslim terror is not something to be taken lightly,"he said. "It showed us that we are not as good people as we thought, at least on the side of liberal people."
According to Mr. Sa'id, many Arabs feel that they have been indirectly victimized by terrorism.
There is no shortage of statistics to support that feeling. Income from tourism has been nearly cut in half. And new foreign investments dropped as much as 40 percent in some Arab states. Democracy is also suffering while various Arab regimes use military laws to crack down on terrorism and fundamentalism.
This is good point that we have to handle carefully. Bin Laden and his supporters do threaten the governments of the Middle East. At the same time those governments tend to be fairly unpopularwith their own populations. But we should be talking more about the danger that terrorism poses in Arab countries. Tunisia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have had incedents and it should be addressed openly and included in the discussions about the War on Terror.
Milad Hanna, a religious expert at the al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, says the majority of Muslims believe "fanaticism has no place in religion. "Religion is like fire," he said. "If it is ruling the house it will burn the house. If the fire is slow in a fireplace it brings warmth. Therefore, we do need religion, but a small amount of religion gives people security and happiness. A big amount of religion will end up by fanaticism." Mr. Hanna says many Muslims throughout the region believe the war against terrorism is really a U.S. war against Islam. As a result, many political analysts in the region say some Arab regimes are reluctant to support the campaign against terror for fear of angering their people.
We hear this alot and we say well of course it's not a war against all Muslims and expect the average guy on the streets of the Middle East to take our word for it (if that word even makes it to the state sponsored media). The say Islam does not equal terror, yet we ask for proof. It si reasonable for them to ask this. We should be vey firm with our 'allies' and tell them to moderate their media and allow us to make our case to their people.
Although many Arab leaders share the U.S. desire to stamp out extremist violence, it is sometimes difficult for them to support the effort enthusiastically and publicly.
Hassan Nafae, an analyst who heads the political science department at Cairo University, says leaders throughout the Arab world want to fight terrorism, but not on American terms. "You have a problem in the Arab and Muslim worlds and deep reform is needed, but this does not mean we, as Arabs and Muslims, have to resolve it the way the West wants it," he said. "It has to come from within to have a real consensus from the major players and the United States and the West has to understand this."
During the past year the Arab world has seen an internal crackdown on fundamentalist organizations. Arrests of Muslim fundamentalists are almost routine. And while that might help fight terrorism, it has also raised some concerns.
Cairo-based Arab affairs analyst Abdullah el-Ashaal says, "in the name of state security and suspicion, democracy has been the greatest victim of September 11". "The security is taking the utmost importance,' he said. "You are giving new justification for the dictators to use their power and justify their dictatorships. So I think now democracy orientation is suffering a lot in the Arab world and nobody can talk about democracy because they say it is the security of the regime, security of the whole nation."
This is reasonable and relates to what I said above about a balance when tryng to work with fairly repressive governments while trying to appeal to their people. I accept that they may need a different strategy for fighting terrorism but, from what I have seen so far there needs to be more open cooperation and a cleaning up of their own security forces which some of these governments themselves fear (the ISI for example).
Many Arabs, the majority of whom say they were overwhelmingly saddened by the events of September 11, say they feel a greater sense of tension than they did a year ago. Some have become fearful of flying. Others say they worry about the security of their bank accounts or have concern for their own safety and the safety of their family and friends. One man told VOA, "in a heartbeat your life or your family's, can be wiped out by ghosts who possess evil minds."
This is something we should exploit, to begin a real dialogue with the public in these places. The representatives from all of these nations are given a great deal of exposure in American media, we should demand no less from them. Bring our case to them let them no the terrorist pose a threat to them to. As far as al Qaeda is concerned their lives mean nothing, too.
Canada does somethingin the home-front. Saudis will now be required to get a visa before entering the country.
...Immigration Minister Denis Coderre announced Thursday, citing security concerns.
An exemption on Saudi residents was lifted because the Kingodom's passports are "vulnerable to abuse," Mr. Coderre said, making it a target for those who want to enter the country illegally.
Life imitates The Simpsons. The new Albuquerque Tripla A team will be names the Isotopes.
Albuquerque Mayor: Looks like we'll have to steal some other Baseball team. See what Dallas wants for the cowboys.
Assistant: Uh, that's a football team, sir.
Albuquerque Mayor: They'll play what I tell them to play.
For all those of you who wonder what the President meant by crawfished and for those of you who think he is ignorant for using it, the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 defines it thusly:
SYLLABICATION: craw·fish
PRONUNCIATION: krôfsh
NOUN: Chiefly Southern & Midland U.S. Variant of crayfish.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: craw·fished, craw·fish·ing, craw·fish·es
Informal To withdraw from an undertaking.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has served notice to American farmers that the Bush administration may be willing to end agricultural tariffs as part of an effort to remove global trade barriers.
Zoellick has asked the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent agency, to estimate the effects on the economy of eliminating duties on hundreds of farm products, including orange juice, sugar and dairy, among the most highly protected. A new law expanding President George W. Bush's authority to negotiate trade agreements requires a review before tariffs can be halted on ``sensitive'' products.
In the waning hours of Operation Desert Fox in 1998, a British missile sheared off the top of a military hangar in southern Iraq and exposed a closely guarded secret. Plainly visible in the rubble was a new breed of Iraqi drone aircraft -- one that defense analysts now believe was specially modified to spread deadly chemicals and germs.
Up to a dozen of the unmanned airplanes were spotted inside the hangar, each fitted with spray nozzles and wing-mounted tanks that could carry up to 80 gallons of liquid anthrax. If flown at low altitudes under the right conditions, a single drone could unleash a toxic cloud engulfing several city blocks, a top British defense official concluded. He dubbed them "drones of death.'
Or perhaps now Ramsey will call the U.N. files a fraud, too.
In addition, Iraq is known to have converted crop-dusting gear into a germ-spaying device mounted on helicopters, U.N. files show. It also has developed biowarfare "drop tanks" that can be mounted on Iraq's fastest fighter aircraft.
Why is it that the only UN insprector that seems to think Iraq doesn't have chemical weapons is Scott Ritter?
Timothy V. McCarthy, a former UNSCOM deputy chief inspector and one of the agency's top missile experts, scoffs at Iraq's claims that the warheads were unilaterally destroyed, arguing that unconventional weapons are far too valuable to Hussein to be lightly discarded.
"Iraq demonstrated amply its ability to deliver chemical and biological weapons before the war," McCarthy said. "If one assumes Iraq retained its missile system, then that capability is still there."
Ramsey Clark should be tried as a damn traitor. I would think this would come under 'aid and comfort'.
"The claim that Iraq is a threat is a complete fraud. I don't think they believe it for a minute," Clark said, referring to the Bush administration's stated grounds for seeking to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Talk about not getting it. Over at Editor and Publisher.com Alex Jones is perplexed. He can't quite seem to figure out why the pulic doesn't care for or necessarily trust the media.
This spring and summer, that day came. The triumphant story ran its course, and the what-really-happened story began to be covered, with disquieting results. We started to get reports that there were significant civilian casualties, and serious questions began to be raised about the wisdom of an invasion of Iraq. Darkening the news atmosphere further were the stories of Enron Corp., Global Crossing, and the betrayal of shareholders. The market fell. The news from the Middle East had seldom been worse. These past six months have not been a happy time on the news pages.
So, has the public simply returned to its pre-9/11 attitude when the press returned to its normal adversarial role as the news itself turned bad? When the lapdog turned back into a watchdog?
Perhaps if it was just a case of them becoming watchdog and not using their lead stories and itemsreported as 'news' to convey their editorial spin. But Jones seems to think it is just because we are not comfortable with questioning and delving into stories. He then goes on to prove exactly why we don't like them.
There are genuine assaults on the press now under way that make these questions especially urgent. The Bush administration is taking unprecedented steps to limit access to public records, and the Freedom of Information Act is in real jeopardy. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made many Pentagon officials afraid to be seen speaking to journalists, and lately the FBI has been conducting a scorched-earth search for the source of leaks on Capitol Hill.
Such evenhanded and non-inflammatory 'reporting' of 'facts'.
The point is that we need the public's support, now more than ever. We need for the public to understand that it is not unpatriotic to want government officials to leak information.
What? Getting leaks on specific military and terrorist information and plastering it above the fold and rehashing it every hour, so every enemy of America with a computer or cable access knows our plans isn't unpatriotic?
We need them to believe we are acting on their behalf when we fight for such things.
Sort of gives the game away. Not 'We have to prove to the public that we are acting on their behalf". Instead the public must believe it. What a gagfest. He askes questions and then figures out it is all the public's fault. They just don't understand what is good for them. They are too dumb to realize that brave reporters are bringing them unslanted and unbiased truth.
What are Israeli school children learning from their textbooks?
In contrast, the new study of 350 Israeli textbooks, including those published in 2000 and 2001, showed that many promote peace, speak of the peace process, and discuss the issue of borders between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority.
What are the Palestinian children learning? Or not learning as the case may be.
58 textbooks being used in Palestinian Authority schools did not mention of Israel or the peace process.
Alright. This sounds like something right out of The Onion. Greece has banned video games.
The Greek government has banned all electronic games across the country, including those that run on home computers, on Game Boy-style portable consoles, and on mobile phones. Thousands of tourists in Greece are unknowingly facing heavy fines or long terms in prison for owning mobile phones or portable video games.
Greek Law Number 3037, enacted at the end of July, explicitly forbids electronic games with "electronic mechanisms and software" from public and private places, and people have already been fined tens of thousands of dollars for playing or owning games.
You want a revolution? Try and take away kids' video games.
Nigeria's oil income since 1986 has totaled more than US$121.6bn. 2000 and 2001 were the highest years with more than $14bn each. And yet, Nigeria remains one of the world's 20 poorest countries and is considering a move to defer payments on outstanding foreign debt.
Banned during five years of hardline Islamic Taliban rule, and surviving bloody civil war and Soviet occupation, a handful of pioneering movie makers are enjoying their first taste of relative freedom and stability in 23 years.
Didn't we fight a war over taxation without representation? Now we find out that tomorrow Jaques Chirac will call for a 'globalization tax'.
French President Jacques Chirac will urge world leaders to launch talks on a new international tax to fight
world poverty, sources with him at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg say. The sources said Chirac rejected the existing "Tobin Tax" proposal to raise levies purely on foreign exchange transactions but would call in a speech to the summit for discussion on a wider tax on wealth generated by globalisation. "It could be a tax on airplane tickets, on carbon dioxide, on health products sold in industrialised countries, and indeed on international
financial transactions," one source said.
``Iraq poses a real and a unique threat to the security of the region and to the rest of the world,'' Blair told a news conference. ``This is not just an issue for the U.S. It is an issue for Britain and the wider world.'' Blair said Saddam was violating United Nations resolutions and was continuing ``in his efforts to create weapons of mass destruction.''
``We cannot have a situation where people turn a blind eye,'' he added.
How does he feel about the way the US has been handling the situation?
``If Sept. 11 teaches us anything, it teaches us that it is wrong to wait until the threat materializes,'' he said. ``These issues are being raised rightly by the United States.''
He also announced that Britain would be issuing a dossier on Saddam sometime in the coming weeks.
An article about the arrests of radical Islamists that have been made in Holland since September 11th.
"With the arrests in Rotterdam last year, a very nasty attack on the US Embassy in Paris may have been prevented… the problem with the Netherlands is that we have a reputation of being tolerant. Frankly, I feel this is not something to be ashamed of, but tolerance should not be taken to mean that you allow anything to happen on your territory and I think it's a good thing to be tolerant and act like a host to people who are being persecuted elsewhere. That's a Dutch tradition that goes back centuries."
Beruacracy at work. The EU Commission lead by Romano Prodi is afraid that demands by European leaders could threated the power and influence of the Commission.
In a document written to fellow commissioners and seen by the Financial Times, Mr Prodi complains that moves by European Union leaders to extend the time-frame in which their key decisions are taken risk cutting across the Commission's right to introduce legislation.
He is afrai that power in the Eu may be moving toward the Council of Ministers. This is a Council made up of European government ministers, and Prodi feels that such important things as ruling the people of Europe should not consider the input of those people.
One tyrannical murderous dictator celebrating another. Yasser Arafat has sent a nice floral basket to Kim Il Jong to celebrate the 54th anniversary of Kim family-led genocide.
The French surrender again. Failing, yet again to find any evidence that Lance Armstrong used any type of performance enhancing drugs, French investigators have closed an overly long investigation. Proving, yet again, they are a spiteful group of whiners and Lance is the best athlete in the world.
I thought everyone in the world was against an attack on Saddam. Let's recount shall we. Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Blair, Duncan Smith and Hoon in Britain, Downer in Australia, Israel, Kurdish leaders, and now the Kuwaiti foreign minister have said they back the removal of Saddam, by force if necessary.
The Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Salem al-Sabah, told The Telegraph: "While Saddam Hussein continues to keep Kuwaiti prisoners of war, and continues to televise threats against Kuwait, we consider the war against Iraq to have never ended."
A Kuwaiti government official said: "If America asks for support Kuwait will give it. I expect the same response from all Gulf states. There may be the need publicly to be anti-war, but under-the-table deals are being struck."
A spokesman for the deputy prime minister's office said: "The Kuwaiti people are tired of living under the constant threat of aggression from Iraq. "Those people who say that sending weapons inspectors into Iraq may be a solution to the current crisis are not those who are living within reach of his missiles and his chemical weapons. How can we feel safe with Saddam Hussein next door?"
Dr Masaad Shlash, of the department of sociology at Kuwait University, a prisoner in Iraq after the invasion, said: "Look at Saddam's treatment of his own people. He's the closest thing the Middle East has to Hitler."
It's about time that American representatives at the International Bash-America Conferences stopped taking the constant berating. All they do is sit around commiserating and bitching about how it is all America's fault and therefore America must give everyone more free money while trying to avoid comng up with any real solutions or looking at the real reasons so many countires are screwed up.
Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is quoted in the Washington Times as expressing outrage about environmental groups working to have African governments turn their backs on U.S.-proffered, genetically modified food that could feed millions of starving people.
"They can play these games with Europeans, who have full stomachs, but it is revolting and despicable to see them do so when the lives of Africans are at stake," he told reporters for the newspaper.
"The Bush administration is not going to sit there and let these groups kill millions of poor people through their ideological campaigns," he said.
I wonder. If colonialism was so horrible and is solely responsible for the disaster area that is Africa today, why is it that the former colonies of India, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia and Macau are not basket-cases? Sure not all of these places are perfect but, representational government exists to some degree in all of them, free markets reign, poverty and sickness are in decline in most of these places, education is on the rise and none are clamoring for handouts while refusing to accept the consequenses of bad government.
For instance, the noisy folks on the liberal end of the spectrum claim enlightened people support abortion on demand, stricter gun laws, and the recognition of homosexual "unions" as marriages. Clamorous conservatives, on the other hand, profess that reasonable people believe abortion is a euphemism for baby killing, homosexuality is an abomination, and the only gun control a person needs is a steady hand.
In casual conversations with a quieter segment of society I hear a different story.
The people that I talk to don't believe the government has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body. But neither do they think that abortions should be so convenient they take the place of abstinence or birth control. They don't believe that discrimination based on sexual orientation is acceptable. But they don't think "loving relationships" between homosexual partners measure up to their standards for marriage.
These people believe that reasonable gun laws are a good thing. But they don't believe that guns are the cause of violence in our society. They abhor discrimination and condemn slavery. But they don't believe that past sins are justification for any group of people - black, brown, or WASP - to receive special treatment today. And they don't believe trillions of dollars in "reparations", 100 years after slavery was abolished, is going to fix anything.
I also hear something else - something that troubles me. I hear people saying they are reluctant to speak out against the liberal view on so-called "sensitive issues." They have no qualms about speaking out against Falwell, Liddy or Limbaugh. But they slink away and speak in hushed whispers when faced with the prospect of going up against Rosie or Oprah.
When you examine the situation, their reluctance is understandable. The liberal movement is extremely powerful. Its followers have staked out the moral high ground by claiming to be defenders of diversity and tolerance. And they have made it clear that the debate is over. There is nothing left to discuss. Get over it. Anyone who opposes them is branded a racist, a bigot, or a homophobe.
Taken in small doses, the liberal stance is admirable. Diversity and tolerance are noble goals. But extremism in pursuit of a noble goal is still extremism. The fanatical pursuit of tolerance leads to intolerance. Excessive virtue is a vice.
The zealous pursuit of tolerance has brought the liberals full circle. They now rigidly demand that everyone be "tolerant" like them. And anyone who refuses is severely ostracized. The purported defenders of diversity and tolerance have been blinded by their passion and have lost the ability to see their own flaws. With tragic and poetic irony, the enemies of bigotry have themselves become bigots.
Remember and hold the anger and resolve necessary to complete what must be done to insure the safety of our loved ones.
On Sept. 11, Fire Capt. Walter Hynes waited for the sound of the beep. "Honey, it's real bad," he said into the phone just before he rolled out of Ladder Co. 13 at 85th Street and Lexington Avenue, and headed downtown to the World Trade Center. The second hijacked passenger jet had just roared into the south tower. "I don't know if we'll make it out. I want to tell you that I love you and I love the kids."
Melissa Hughes was trapped on the 101st floor. "Sean, it's me," she said to the answering machine, losing a battle against tears. "I just wanted to let you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building in New York." Her husband, asleep in their bed in San Francisco where it was just after 6 a.m., never heard the phone. "A plane hit the building, or bomb went off. We don't know, but there's lots of smoke and I just wanted you to know that I love you always. Bye." They had been married for one year.
Courtney began checking his voice mail, half-listening to his excited colleague, registering the words explosion, fire and the World Trade Center. "I didn't understand," Courtney says. "I'd just gotten off the subway." There was a message from Eugene Clark, his lover of 14 years, who spoke calmly. "Don't worry," Clark said. "The plane hit the other building. We are evacuating."
Although the word means stingy, Akwana Walker said it was inappropriate to use it because it sounds similar to a racial slur. She said she doesn't think fourth-graders can distinguish between the two words. "My daughter told me what that word was, and I told her not to complete that part of her homework," said Ms. Walker, who is black.
The teacher was forced to apologize, the student moved to another class and the teacher still may be fired. So she is punished for the ignorance of a parent and the spinelessness of the Principle.
Ghadaffi is still speaking a good game. I've said this before, and I still maintain, that of all the mercurial leaders in the Middle East he may be the one that ends up coming to our side. He rarely spews the rhetoric or threats that you see pouring from our 'allies' in Egypt and Suadi Arabia. Moreso than any other Arab or North African leader he has condemned the attacks on Sept. 11th. He has no love for bin Laden, who put a price on Ghadaffi's head. He occassionally gives the nod to Palestinian 'resistance' but of late he has been more interested in Africa. He does still work with and give aid to tyrants like Taylor and Mugabe (who he has had a falling out with) but no active terrorist networks are based in or are carrying out attacks from Libya. Once he admits Lockerbie and makes a move toward contrition I think we should open a dialogue with him and see what can come of it. By remaining adamant in the face of real reform and attempts at reconciliation we do more harm and add to the list of foes that we must deal with in the end.
In a two-hour speech on Libyan national television, Gadhafi condemned the Sept. 11 attacks, saying: "We have never seen such a horrific and terrifying act performed in such an exhibitionist manner."
He said that Libya's policy toward the United States and Israel will now follow the line of the African Union - a new grouping of African nations to which Libya belongs.
"Now, no one can say Libya is a rogue state. There is no Libyan policy. This is an African policy ... which represents Libya and Lesotho (alike)," Gadhafi said, referring to a country at the opposite end of the African continent.
His speech marked the anniversary of the 1969 coup in which he took power.
"In the old days, they called us a rogue state. They were right in accusing us of that. In the old days, we had a revolutionary behavior ... We acted like an independent state and we put up with the consequences of our action," he said to a crowd of several thousand in the south Libyan city of Sibha.
"Listen up here, because Bob Dole is telling you how it is."
The United States cannot afford more rhetoric masquerading as action or another delay of the inevitable. The administration is right, instead, to focus on building a coalition of the willing. As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told our troops last week, "Leadership in the right direction finds followers and supporters."
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