Posts Tagged ‘history’

Good news from the war front:

Posted: February 16, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, war
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Looks like a big fish has been landed:

The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The administration is allowed to take credit here and we should not hesitate to approve when they either do something right or get out of the way to let our agencies do it. The war is an American problem not a republican or democratic problem.

Then again when the first words out of the mouth of some is this:

Apparently Baradar has been in custody since last week and is being interrogated by both the Paks and us. (This is why the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group exists.) The ultimate point of fighting the Taliban is to compel them to give up fighting and accept some version of a post-Taliban order in Afghanistan. Torturing Baradar — which the Pakistanis have been known to do — is counterproductive to that effort. If we treat the guy respectfully, in a demonstrated way, it might spur a reconsideration of Taliban goals. I am not counting any chickens, but any hope of a game-changing possibility will be foreclosed upon if we or our allies torture Baradar. Let’s be smart — and true to Obama’s stated principles/executive order. If there was any doubt whatsoever, the Abdulmutallab case proved we don’t need to torture to get good intelligence. emphasis mine

What is he a baby seal? Shall we just make up signs that say “Save the Terrorists?” When the very first words out of some people’s mouths are this nonsense you wonder what world they live in.

Some people just shouldn’t be taken seriously.

If I am George Soros

Posted: February 15, 2010 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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I’d be financing 3rd party Tea Party candidates in every congressional race I can.

If you think Democrats are NOT thinking of doing this you’d better think again. Historically the best features and issues of 3rd parties are adopted by one of the major parties and they tend to be folded in, otherwise you are going to get a series of plurality elections.

Morning Joe is also talking about this as an advantage for Harry Reid.

Remember Bill Clinton never won 50% of the popular vote in either of his elections. I’m with Glenn Reynolds on this one:

I think it’s smarter for Tea Party activists to target primary races, rather than starting their own party as seems to be happening in Nevada. Two words: “Ross Perot.” Two more: “Ralph Nader.”

I would actually run candidates in both democratic and Republican primaries. There is no reason why a person who is fiscally conservative can not be liberal in social issues. Cast a wide net and work together when you can.

A little perspective people

Posted: February 15, 2010 by datechguy in baseball, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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There has been a bit of a fuss about Eric Erickson and his decision to keep out birthers and truthers from Red State.

I have already given my opinion on both subjects, but in terms of Red State here are my thoughts:

1. Everybody has a right to their opinion

2. Everybody has the right to try to propagate that opinion as best they can.

3. That doesn’t include a right to post at RedState.

Just over 16 months ago I signed up for a free blog at wordpress and began blogging here. How successful that blogging has been was dramatically illustrated recently. There is nothing to stop anyone with internet access from starting their own blog and making their case to a world wide audience. If your arguments are skillful then others who agree will link and eventually notice will be given outside your circle.

But to expect Erickson to give you a platform against his will? Sounds a lot like an entitlement to me, not very conservative.

If your argument is good it can stand up under fire, otherwise you are like the kid in the old Ty Cobb story.

You don’t know the story? It’s from the 1985 edition of the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (p.113) and goes like this:

A small town pitcher 6′ 4″ says he can strike out Cobb on three pitches anytime and writes Cobb’s manager saying it only will cost him $1.80 train fare to find out. Jennings sends the cash and after warming up then send out Cobb. As James tells the story:

Cobb hit his first pitch against the right field wall. His second pitch went over the right field wall. The third pitch went over the center field wall. Cobb was thinking they ought to keep this guy around to help him get in a grove.

“Well,” said Jennings. “What have you got to say?”

The pitcher stared in hard at the batter’s box. “You know,” he said, “I don’t believe that’s Ty Cobb in there.”

For suggesting reading I would name Eject Eject Eject’s famous post on conspiracy theories: Seeing the unseen. Give it a read, think about it and then make your choice as you will and remember this, there is no shame in being wrong, everyone is wrong about some things.

How left wing hackery killed Doctor Who…

Posted: February 15, 2010 by datechguy in doctor who, internet/free speech, oddities
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…in 1989.

Sylvester McCoy, the actor who played Doctor Who for two years in the 1980s, has revealed that left-wing scriptwriters hired by the BBC wrote propaganda into the plots in an attempt to undermine Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.

Shades of the Adventures of Robin Hood circa 1955:

“The idea of bringing politics into Doctor Who was deliberate, but we had to do it very quietly and certainly didn’t shout about it,” said McCoy.

“We were a group of politically motivated people and it seemed the right thing to do. At the time Doctor Who used satire to put political messages out there in the way they used to do in places like Czechoslovakia. Our feeling was that Margaret Thatcher was far more terrifying than any monster the Doctor had encountered. Those who wanted to see the messages saw them; others, including one producer, didn’t.”

And the Doctor wasn’t alone in this belief:

Sophie Aldred, who played Ace, the Doctor’s feminist companion, said a shared contempt for right-wing ideology had inspired “a real bonding process” for cast and crew.

“Thatcher was our prime minister and we weren’t happy,” she said.

Well of course they weren’t, after all you had people like Sakharov repressed not to mention people shot trying to cross the wall. Thatcher had much to answer for, oh wait that was East Germany and the Soviets the people Thatcher was opposing wasn’t it?

Well it didn’t matter after all it wasn’t as if a leftist tilt would kill a British institution that had existed for 26 years…oh wait:

However, ratings slumped from a high of 16m, when Tom Baker was the Doctor a decade earlier, to 3m and the show was taken off air twice: in 1986-7 by Michael Grade, then the director of programmes — who said it had “no redeeming features” — and again in 1989, two years after Grade had left the BBC.

Ah the joys of the left managing to make a British institution so unpalatable that it could not survive. One interesting thing to note, You see that same tilt in a few of the 7th doctor audios such as The Fearmonger. I wonder if this will come up in some of the commentaries?


Update: I just realized that I neglected to give the deserved hat tip to Life Dr. Who and Combom. Very much my bad.

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