Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

Bash Palin win a pulitizer…

Posted: April 12, 2010 by datechguy in media, opinion/news
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…hey it worked for Kathleen Parker.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is very generous:

I know she has been unfair to conservatives — and the truth — at times. But she has also been open to us and it. She has a perch at the Washington Post that she has undeniably used to highlight issues and views that wouldn’t otherwise get attention there.

Let me put it bluntly: If she didn’t come out loudly against Sarah Palin she would not have won this award. Period!

That’s the way it is and the willingness to accept a crumb or two doesn’t change it.

In fairness to Lopez your friends are your friends no matter what their political opinions and she is right to be happy for her.

The Nuclear Zero campaign…

Posted: April 12, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…is very funny.

Of course without Nuclear Weapons millions upon millions of Japanese and Americans would have died in an invasion of Japan in 1945. The Soviet union would likely still be occupying parts of China since the war would have dragged on. The Soviets might not have been deterred in Europe and of course it would not be 37 years since the last full scale multi nation Arab assault on Israel.

When these fools (assuming they are motivated simply by foolishness) can get Nukes out of North Korea then I will consider taking them seriously.

I know remembering history isn’t popular but might one recall how well the naval treaties of the 20’s and 30’s prevented the rise of rogue powers and ruinous wars.

Maybe its because I remember the cold war and who funded the disarmament groups that railed against the US but I suspect the idea that removing the deterrent effect that Nuclear arms on certain nations is a feature not a bug.

I see the NYT has written the closest thing…

Posted: April 12, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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…to a fair story on the pope that they will likely ever produce:

This isn’t an isolated case. In the 1990s, it was Ratzinger who pushed for a full investigation of Hans Hermann Groer, the Vienna cardinal accused of pedophilia, only to have his efforts blocked in the Vatican. It was Ratzinger who persuaded John Paul, in 2001, to centralize the church’s haphazard system for handling sex abuse allegations in his office. It was Ratzinger who re-opened the long-dormant investigation into Maciel’s conduct in 2004, just days after John Paul II had honored the Legionaries in a Vatican ceremony. It was Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict, who banished Maciel to a monastery and ordered a comprehensive inquiry into his order.

So the high-flying John Paul let scandals spread beneath his feet, and the uncharismatic Ratzinger was left to clean them up. This pattern extends to other fraught issues that the last pope tended to avoid — the debasement of the Catholic liturgy, or the rise of Islam in once-Christian Europe. And it extends to the caliber of the church’s bishops, where Benedict’s appointments are widely viewed as an improvement over the choices John Paul made. It isn’t a coincidence that some of the most forthright ecclesiastical responses to the abuse scandal have come from friends and protégés of the current pope.

I haven’t seen Morning Joe use any of the links I suggested, however this comes from the preferred source, the New York Times. Let’s see if it gets any play.

China spies on journalists? NO!

Posted: April 12, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, opinion/news
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I know for decades the NYT has acted as if communists were simply benign creatures who only have a different view than greedy capitalists. In their minds the west has always oversold the evils contained within.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this article:

Even if we have scant evidence, most foreign journalists have come to assume our phone conversations are monitored. We have learned to remove our cellphone SIM cards when meeting dissidents. At the office, we often reflexively lower our voices when discussing “politically sensitive” topics.

Whenever I see stuff like this I remember a series of Cox & Fordum cartoons where Jimmy Carter would be asking “But Why?” questions and the answer would be “I’m a communist dictator you fool!”

China has long been a source of virus’ and spyware. Anyone who thinks that this is a coincidence is just deluding themselves.

Don’t worry the next time there is a question that doesn’t cover an employee of the NYT I predict that things will be just as they were before, particularly if a republican is in office.

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