Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

When you have the Charleston Gazette’s editorial board behind you…

Posted: October 8, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…then you are really doing well.

Congratulations Charles you’ve managed to get your slanderous attack on Robert Stacy McCain actually repeated in a Newspaper in Charleston West Va.

Now Don Surber writes for a paper in the same city (Charleston daily mail) so far be it from me to deride the state but I suspect that this was based on the clip from Rachel Maddow via LGF now that’s sourcing for you!

So to try to score a cheap shot against Sarah Palin they have committed an actionable offense. Once they repeated that claim in print and online it became so. And since the paper is on the net so if it’s picked up by a paper or a blogger in the UK. Robert Stacy and co might even choose to sue under British Libel laws.

Robert Stacy has already taken the first step demanding a retraction:

Over the years, this malicious campaign against my reputation has metastasized spectacularly on the Internet, as individuals and organizations with various political or personal motives have elaborated and repeated them. Some of the original sources for these accusations (e.g., a column by Michelangelo Signorile) contained factual errors, which have been incorporated into the urban-legend mythology, producing a Gordian Knot of non-fact that is not worth the effort it would take to unravel it. Like ancient Alexander, however, I am prepared to swing the sword. Retract, please.

These charges have, as I say, taken on an Internet life of their own. However, never before have they been published in a print newspaper. Whatever malice against the former governor of Alaska inspired your publisher, editors and writers to undertake this false and dishonorable guilt-by-association smear, it was a most foolish blunder. Retract, please.

Congratulations Charles you now have a chance to make Robert Stacy a fair amount of change and to have your charges refuted in a court of law and it will likely not cost you a cent. Then again if he is already going to court one more person in the doc won’t make a difference will it? You will make a real great witness at the trial. I suggest deleting those Archives asap.

I guess 13 isn’t 13 in Thailand either

Posted: October 8, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Via the AP and headlines at HotAir yet another twist to the Polanski saga:

Mitterrand’s 2005 book, “La mauvaise vie” or “The Bad Life,” describes painful periods in his childhood and his homosexuality. One passage describes his “bad habit of paying for boys” in Thailand. Mitterrand later denied he was a pedophile, saying on France-3 television that he uses the term “boys” loosely.

Mitterrand was a television personality when the book came out but not in the government. President Nicolas Sarkozy named Mitterrand culture minister in June this year.

Concern about the book resurfaced in French political circles after Mitterrand’s impassioned defense of Roman Polanski last week. The director was arrested in Switzerland on U.S. charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 in Los Angeles.

Oh it’s a bad habit well that’s different, that certainly drops the Ick Factor, I’m Sure Tom Shales will think so too.

Then again if we could only get Hollywood to treat this bad habit like smoking then we might see change.

I’m with John Noltie it’s all about moving the ick goalposts:

And this is how cinematic propaganda works. Whether the filmmaker’s motivations are good or evil, the idea is to get decent and thoughtful people to start second guessing themselves as they’re enveloped in the dark and held captive by the powerful sound and fury of the moving picture. First we’re led to identify and sympathize with a particular character, then that character does something designed to challenge our belief structure. This can range from, “If John Wayne opposes racism, maybe I should,” to, “Well, if a loving mother is okay with it, maybe I need to get a little more nuanced and tolerant about this whole child-rape thing.”

On its face, that may sound laughable, and maybe it is, but that doesn’t mean our eyes are lying to us. Last year merely topped off a campaign targeted at our children that began some time ago.

It is my opinion that the culture wars in general and the war on Christianity in particular is all about legitimizing sin and removing guilt from it. Once it becomes unacceptable to call sin “sin” then everything changes. That way this case matters; it exposes in sharp relief the contradictions that this involves, and we will as a culture have a choice to make. Is this unacceptable or a bad habit?

Update: Of course some uses of the Ick factor are simply brilliant.

Update 2: Don Surber notices

Hey, maybe there is an opening in the Obama administration. Consider the safe schools czar.

How’s that Common Ground on Abortion going Notre Dame?

Posted: October 8, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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…apparently not so well:

In his address at the University of Notre Dame, Obama talked a good game about respecting conscience on abortion rights. He did the same thing when he met the Pope.
But that was all it was — talk.

The Obama Administration’s attack on Belmont Abbey College proves that.

Apparently the Catholic College decided that the “Catholic” part actually matters as they were unwilling to cover contraception, abortion, and voluntary sterilization all directly opposed to the college’s faith so of course we had a lawsuit and the results were interesting…

Belmont Abbey College was not discriminating against women. Unlike many “believers in name only” the college was adhering to the principles of its faith.

At first, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found no evidence of gender discrimination by Belmont Abbey College… After a few weeks, the EEOC mysteriously reversed course and announced, in effect, that the college had better toe the Administration’s line, or else.

They are now demanding the school go against the very principles it exists to serve.

I presume they are going to fight it as far as they can, if they lose then there is only one choice that is acceptable in terms of faith and that is to simply drop all coverage divert the cost into the pay of the employees so they can purchase private insurance to cover what they wish.

But I’m over-reacting after all the state wouldn’t go after Catholics for obeying their faith would they?

So how did that work out Fr. Jenkins?

Of course, this does not mean we support all of his positions. The invitation to President Obama to be our Commencement speaker should not be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of human life, including abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Yet, we see his visit as a basis for further positive engagement.”

Maybe you should thank him.

If so many more Americans are fat these days…

Posted: October 8, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…is an ad campaign against a candidate designed to tweak his weight a good idea?

Mr. Corzine’s television commercials and Web videos feature unattractive images of Mr. Christie, sometimes shot from the side or backside, highlighting his heft, jowls and double chin.

Meanwhile, Mr. Corzine, 62, is conspicuously running in 5- and 10-kilometer races almost every weekend, as he did last Saturday and Sunday, underscoring his athleticism and readiness for the physical demands of another term — and raising doubts about Mr. Christie’s.

On Morning Joe where Corzine is often a guest and Mika is almost a health nazi they thought it was over the line. I think that kind of thing is going to turn off a lot of voters.

The Huffpost has the ad and a poll concerning it, but I think the ad has a bigger problem for democrats to wit:

didn’t pay taxes you owe
ignored ethics laws

There is some buzz on it but for myself I didn’t think that particular ad highlighted his weight but considering the Charlie Rangel vote yesterday and the acorn issues is it really a smart idea for a democratic ad to be highlighting not paying taxes and ethics laws? That is going to have ramifications all the way down the ticket.

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