Now, I am shocked that in his latest column Peter Bronson did not take the opportunity, like many of his conservative comrades, to do a victory dance of taunts towards Democrats and liberals. Instead he takes a swipe at France, Arab TV stations, and the general anti-war movement.
What Mr. Bronson misses is a key fact about the issue of Mass Graves and crimes against humanity that he wants Saddam Hussein to face charges in a court of law.
When did most of these crimes take place? Ok, Gassing Iranian troops? In the 1980's. Gassing the Kurds in Iraq? In I think 1988 (or 1987?). The timing of most of mass graves? The vast majority of the people in mass graves are the Shiites and Kurds who dies after their uprisings in 1991.
Now, who has no right to use these issues as a political football, at least a credible or non-hypocritical argument? If you said George Bush and the GOP, then you would be right. Why do I say this? Why do I say it without a thought of the "good" Bush has done here? Simple, look and see who turned a blind eye to Iraq's use of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war, why that was the Reagan administration of course. Who did nothing when Saddam used WMD on the Kurds in his own country? Reagan again. Who let thousands of Shiite and Kurdish fighters get slaughtered in 1991? Well, that would have been George Bush the elder of course. His administration encouraged the rebellion and then let people get slaughtered when we refused to provide any significant assistance.
Now, Peter Bronson and company want to use avenging these horrid acts by Saddam as their reasoning for going after Saddam. WMD has once again been forgotten. Where is the report on what we have found so far? Anyone read that? Is it available?
If defeating tyrants is such a great feat, why didn't the GOP lead the fight to depose Milosevic in the Kosovo War? Instead they dragged their feet and wanted nothing to do with it, not even when we won. General Clark is even now testifying against Slobodan in a war crimes trial as I type, but his actions in the Kosovo War are being attacked by his military rivals and the GOP.
I find it so disgusting to see this kind of selective reasoning go on, and then part of the selectivity is to point out the other side's selectivity. (Yes, I know you can use that against me to a point too.)
I hoped that people would not use the war for politics. I wish the GOP would not lie about not using it as such themselves. They will surely blame every critic of the war of political grandstanding, but every commercial touting the win in Iraq next year will be just as exploitive of the over 458 (and counting) dead Americans. If anyone using winning a war as a means to win an election and then turn around and claim to care about people, then I really want to vomit. I predict I will be vomiting all through next summer.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Media Scum
Well, this is how you scare people into watching your local TV news. Put fear into the minds of parents of young children and they will do what ever it takes to "save" them.
Add in a picture of a young child that died from the flu and you have a full fledged community wide panic.
This is why the media, local TV news mainly, are scum. This will be the lead story for the rest of the week. It is sad that any child dies, but face facts, kids die often at Children’s Hospital. When a kid dies of cancer, where is the lead story pumping up the public to do something about cancer? Well, that is not really news either. It would be great drama. That is what local TV wants far more than news. If they want drama, why not just run ER reruns at 5:00 PM instead of useless health reports that reverse positions every six months?
UPDATE: The real local ER's are feeling the panic.
Add in a picture of a young child that died from the flu and you have a full fledged community wide panic.
This is why the media, local TV news mainly, are scum. This will be the lead story for the rest of the week. It is sad that any child dies, but face facts, kids die often at Children’s Hospital. When a kid dies of cancer, where is the lead story pumping up the public to do something about cancer? Well, that is not really news either. It would be great drama. That is what local TV wants far more than news. If they want drama, why not just run ER reruns at 5:00 PM instead of useless health reports that reverse positions every six months?
UPDATE: The real local ER's are feeling the panic.
Monday, December 15, 2003
Warning, I will now be insulting a religious sect
Ok, with that caveat I shall go ahead and say that the extreme Christian fundamentalist morons at the "Answers in Genesis" compound in Northern Kentucky are about a stone's through away from insanity. Some of them are honestly a few radioactive isotopes short of a Carbon 14 molecule.
I can tolerate those who do not believe in evolution. I think they are wrong, ignorant, or just plain stupid, but they are not totally off the deep end.
The "young Earth" theorists in the creationist movement on the other hand are just pure idiots. For anyone who has taken basic Earth Science in high school to then actually think the Earth is only a matter of 6,000 to 10,000 years old is just ludicrous.
People can believe what they want to believe, but I really want to know why anyone takes this group seriously? Why would the Cincinnati Post take them seriously? Why don't they send a reporter to interview someone and ask some, oh....I don't know, CRITICAL questions?
The problem here is that it is pointless with the delusional folks at the creationist museum. They are part of a quasi-cult. The dogma they feed on is so circularly based, you can't tell where their head begins and their ass ends.
Full disclosure. If you don't know, I am an atheistic agnostic. I have my bias, but for the life of me, I just can't see why this group gets this kind of attention. It is like giving attention to NAMBLA, the KKK, or the New Black Panther Party. The only unfortunate difference, there are far more people who actually buy into the extreme creationist dogma than those extremist groups.
These same religious extremists most often correlate with other right-wing beliefs: anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, anti-intellectualism, and even anti-women rights. Yes, I am painting with a broad brush here, and their those who share some, but not all of these beliefs who don't fit into this category of paleo-thinkers. It is a cause for concern that these types of extremists are not shunned the way the KKK, NAMBLA, or the New Black Panther Party is. These types of extremists have money are have influence over a growing number of people. I will admit, they freak me out sometimes, and in the back of my mind I really don't trust them.
I hope I am just paranoid on this one. I don't want to be in Bush's Heathen Death Camps come 2005. (Tongue in Cheek, well just a little)
More on this from Wes Flinn, and Greg Mann.
I can tolerate those who do not believe in evolution. I think they are wrong, ignorant, or just plain stupid, but they are not totally off the deep end.
The "young Earth" theorists in the creationist movement on the other hand are just pure idiots. For anyone who has taken basic Earth Science in high school to then actually think the Earth is only a matter of 6,000 to 10,000 years old is just ludicrous.
People can believe what they want to believe, but I really want to know why anyone takes this group seriously? Why would the Cincinnati Post take them seriously? Why don't they send a reporter to interview someone and ask some, oh....I don't know, CRITICAL questions?
The problem here is that it is pointless with the delusional folks at the creationist museum. They are part of a quasi-cult. The dogma they feed on is so circularly based, you can't tell where their head begins and their ass ends.
Full disclosure. If you don't know, I am an atheistic agnostic. I have my bias, but for the life of me, I just can't see why this group gets this kind of attention. It is like giving attention to NAMBLA, the KKK, or the New Black Panther Party. The only unfortunate difference, there are far more people who actually buy into the extreme creationist dogma than those extremist groups.
These same religious extremists most often correlate with other right-wing beliefs: anti-abortion, anti-homosexual, anti-intellectualism, and even anti-women rights. Yes, I am painting with a broad brush here, and their those who share some, but not all of these beliefs who don't fit into this category of paleo-thinkers. It is a cause for concern that these types of extremists are not shunned the way the KKK, NAMBLA, or the New Black Panther Party is. These types of extremists have money are have influence over a growing number of people. I will admit, they freak me out sometimes, and in the back of my mind I really don't trust them.
I hope I am just paranoid on this one. I don't want to be in Bush's Heathen Death Camps come 2005. (Tongue in Cheek, well just a little)
More on this from Wes Flinn, and Greg Mann.
Iraq: Time for Action
Ok, now that Saddam is out of the picture, this is the time to step up action. Send in more troops. Get the lid on security now while Saddam's followers are in the dumper. Time is not going to allow much dawdling; we need a first of the year change including more international human involvement with foreign troops or police forces on the ground.
If Bush sits back too long and tries to bid time to figure out what he is going to do about the mess that is an Iraqi transitional government, then I think he will have wasted another year of American's having to control the country. If he wants to turn over control to the Iraqi's by next summer and not have it turn into civil war, then he better hit the ground running now.
This is the test for Bush. Will it be home for the holidays for the administration or a new push for action? With Powell out of action for a while, I don't see Bush making much headway before January, which means no new troops for another month beyond that.
If April comes and we rotate large units of troops out, while security stays the same, I hope people on all sides, even the rabid Bush Hawks, will begin to question what the hell the plan is. Now, most of us rational folks (even many conservatives) have been wondering what the post-war plan was before the war even started. I just hope this cheerleading exercise does not lead to complacency by the media and the rest of the chattering class.
If Bush sits back too long and tries to bid time to figure out what he is going to do about the mess that is an Iraqi transitional government, then I think he will have wasted another year of American's having to control the country. If he wants to turn over control to the Iraqi's by next summer and not have it turn into civil war, then he better hit the ground running now.
This is the test for Bush. Will it be home for the holidays for the administration or a new push for action? With Powell out of action for a while, I don't see Bush making much headway before January, which means no new troops for another month beyond that.
If April comes and we rotate large units of troops out, while security stays the same, I hope people on all sides, even the rabid Bush Hawks, will begin to question what the hell the plan is. Now, most of us rational folks (even many conservatives) have been wondering what the post-war plan was before the war even started. I just hope this cheerleading exercise does not lead to complacency by the media and the rest of the chattering class.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Insta-DickHead
Shorter Glenn Reynolds: In your face everyone who did not favor my hawkish stance on Iraq!
What an asshole. Now, I say that knowing full well that I piss people off, but most of the time I try to limit the scope of who I attack to a specific group or specific person. Here the 800-pound gorilla sounds like a jerk. A partisan hack of the Coulter vein. Why can't he just cheer for his side without trying to rub it in the face of people? I find it offense that Glenn, arguably and educated man, lumps people together just like a GOP partisan hack. He does it at a time that everyone is glad to Saddam caught alive. Now, Glenn might be pissed that the troops did not drag his dead body in the streets of Baghdad, but you can't quell blood lust via long distance. If Glenn wants revenge, he better hop on a plane and kill his own Arab with his bare hands.
Off the blogroll he goes!
For the record, just so my conservative readers don't try and tar and feather me: SADDAM IS DEAD, HIP-HIP HOORAY!
What an asshole. Now, I say that knowing full well that I piss people off, but most of the time I try to limit the scope of who I attack to a specific group or specific person. Here the 800-pound gorilla sounds like a jerk. A partisan hack of the Coulter vein. Why can't he just cheer for his side without trying to rub it in the face of people? I find it offense that Glenn, arguably and educated man, lumps people together just like a GOP partisan hack. He does it at a time that everyone is glad to Saddam caught alive. Now, Glenn might be pissed that the troops did not drag his dead body in the streets of Baghdad, but you can't quell blood lust via long distance. If Glenn wants revenge, he better hop on a plane and kill his own Arab with his bare hands.
Off the blogroll he goes!
For the record, just so my conservative readers don't try and tar and feather me: SADDAM IS DEAD, HIP-HIP HOORAY!
Friday, December 12, 2003
Better Start Swearing While You Still Can
If Congressman Doug Ose gets his way, you might get busted if specific words are broadcasted. Those words are included in this section from his proposed bill:
Actually I think anything "profane" is what he wants to punish. I would guess he did not like Bono's slip of the tongue at the Golden Globes this year getting a pass by the FCC.
I hope this fascist gets his bill stomped.
[Via Atrios].
As used in this section, the term `profane', used with respect to language, includes the words `shit', `piss', `fuck', `cunt', `asshole', and the phrases `cock sucker', `mother fucker', and `ass hole', compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms).So while I still can I will just wish Mr. Ose a shit kicking knock the piss out of your asshole kind of a day. I hope no motherfucking cocksuckers mess with his cunt. I guess Dickhead, God-Damn-It, asswipe, dickwipe, Dicksmacker, buttmuncher, butthead, asshead, asschin, bitch, son of a bitch, etc are ok?
Actually I think anything "profane" is what he wants to punish. I would guess he did not like Bono's slip of the tongue at the Golden Globes this year getting a pass by the FCC.
I hope this fascist gets his bill stomped.
[Via Atrios].
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien Resigns
Ok, why did Chretien resign? I can't find a simple sentence or two explaining why he resigned. I think I have pieced together that he is resigning ahead of next year's elections, and by resigning now he gets out of the way for a new person to take over from his party. The assumption is that he is retiring and this is the traditional way to leave power in Canada.
I would hope that news stories might just explain that simple fact, especially for us Americans who don't know the details of Canadian politics.
I would hope that news stories might just explain that simple fact, especially for us Americans who don't know the details of Canadian politics.
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