#1
Yawn.. sooo... it is all George Bush's fault. This guy seems to have coopted the Paleo mindset that it is more important to locate the human or humans who failed as God(s) rather than to hold the Israeli people responsible for the weak leaders they have elected. How exactly did those leaders who bow to Bush Co. get into power anyway? Did they fall out of the sky?
For the Paleo's it is the Jews that are to blame for all that ails them. No need to hold the Paleo leaders accountable for their sucky life since it is not their leaders, but the Jews who are to blame.
And apparently for this writer - it is simply George Bush and Co. responsible for all that is wrong. He's and his neighbors have no personal responsibility for the weak leaders that they have selected. Nothing they can do but sit back and figure out who is to blame. How "Paleo" of them.
Posted by: AT ||
08/04/2007 21:25 Comments ||
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#1
Everybody knows that the Iraq conflict could have been avoided if our leaders better understood the history and current conditions in the region.
Why do I always feel like the slow kid in the class when this observation comes up...
What again would a Saddam and Sons Iraq looked like in 2007 and beyond? Would our airbases be doin business as usual in Saudi Arabbabba still?
Can someone explain to me like I am a third grader how the mid east would be all grins and giggles if we hadn't done a little attitude adjustment?
#2
In the 1970s it was run out of Indochina by Vietcong guerrillas. In the 1980s it withdrew from Lebanon after a terrorist attack. In the 1990s it fled Somalia rather than fight local warlords.
Um...don't get me wrong, but as I recall the US wasn't "run out of Indochina by Vietcong guerillas.", we weren't in a war in Lebanon (and probably shouldn't have been there in the first place), and I do believe that it was the Clinton administration that got us into the mess in Somalia and then didn't have the nerve to smash Mogadishu and the warlords there to rubble after the Blackhawk down incident. Regardless, it wasn't a war either.
In point of fact, America has won on the battlefield every time our troops have been allowed to engage the enemy with ruthless and calculated force and that includes Vietnam, Lebanon, and Somalia.
Also, most of the world's oil doesn't appear to be in the Middle East anymore, but right under our own noses exept that we're not allowed to touch it. We'd much rather throw away trillions of dollars and thousands of lives getting the stuff from the MidEast rather than from under our own lands and seacoasts. Heaven forbid that somebody's ocean view might be interfered with by those pesky oil platforms.
#3
Hey Capsu78, after reading this guys's column, I feel like the slow kid in the 3rd grade. His writing style sucks. He has a couple of points but they get lost in the editorial carnage that he wreaks.
#4
FOTSGreg, We'd much rather throw away trillions of dollars and thousands of lives getting the stuff from the MidEast rather than from under our own lands and seacoasts.
Certainly, but... if there was a way, I would try to suck up as much ME oil reserves in a shortest time as possible. Sure, Soddys fund crap as far and wide as one can look, but they also waste money on a grand scale. Bare the option of taking over ME oil fields, it is somewhat a rational approach. If we won't buy, China will... there always would be a buyer as long as the supply is there. Once the region is sucked dry or near that point, it would slither back into 10th century, economically and become irrelevant.
I am not sure what's over/under for this strategy, it may have a razor thin margin between being successful and having serious negative impact before the sucked up dry status.
I would prefer, though, more proactive approach of both taking over and sucking it up dry as quickly as possible.
#1
When I see how different all Maliki's opponents are to each other - how mutually contradictory their objections are, I begin to wonder if Maliki may actually be doing about as 'well' as anyone could. Musharraf is in the same position. Sheparding free people is a very tricky proposition (Jesus even recognized that).
"Not even a teensy weensy smidge of worry. Fair winds, following seas, etc."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday considered the US arms deal as an old trick to create divisions in the region, noting that Tehran was not worried about the deal.
"This is not the first time the US sells weapons to the region; they in the past 20 years have sold over 400 billion dollars worth of weapons to the region. The US is trying its best to create division in the region so to impose its policies to the Middle East," Ahmadinejad told a group of Algerian journalists and mediapersons ahead of his visit to Algeria Monday.
Ahmadinejad added that Iran was not worried about this package, because of the brotherly relations the Republic has with countries of the region.
He also referred to the efforts of the US for fixating the Zionist regime in the region and said, "They are trying to introduce the region's enemy as a friend and the region's true friend as an enemy." "My only advice to our regional brothers is that, do not waste your national resources and capitals on such things; apply and use them for your country's progress and development," he said.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
08/04/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
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#1
"My only advice to our regional brothers is that, do not waste your national resources and capitals on such things, we already spend enough for all of you on weapon programs, so you can sleep in peace... you are getting more sleepy, your head is starting to feel heavy... your eyelids are slowly closing... do not resist, you're feeling sleepy, sleepy...
Not the weapons per se, but rather the implied commitment from us.
Posted by: N Guard ||
08/04/2007 9:41 Comments ||
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#3
While I understand the perverse logic of keeping even these treacherous so-called "allies" in our corner by having them hooked on our military hardware, I see no reason to give them anything remotely state of the art.
Accountability finally came to Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong last month, when he was disbarred as an attorney and forced to resign as a disgraced public officer. Last week he issued an apology and a full retraction of the rape accusations against three Duke University lacrosse players.
Now, with students heading to Duke in just a few short weeks for the beginning of the fall term, the time is at hand to demand some accountability for Nifong's academic enablers.
Eighty-eight members of the Duke faculty publicly promulgated a dreadful letter, enflaming a premature and prejudicial atmosphere against their own students. Yet, their conduct is largely shielded from accountability. Equally troublesome, their ironically and suddenly protective university masters executed a confidential settlement to further immunize the Duke cabal from civil liability exposure.
The 88 are thus granted a kind of institutional immunity, a corruption of process all by itself because it sidesteps a day of public reckoning.
But although the group can't technically be charged with crimes - though abandoning your young and endangering youth sure do come close to real definable crimes - there are ways these professors can be held accountable. The identities of the 88 professors should be posted in significant ways and places, including in the media and on the Internet, so that they may be known for what they have done.
The likely howls of protest from the tenure police, university guild apologists and free-speech absolutists notwithstanding, the professoriat should not be shielded from appropriate public condemnation for their misconduct. Their dormant consciences and sensibilities should be reawakened to the abhorrent nature of the actions they inflicted on their own students.
But even belatedly squirming consciences are not enough to compensate for the betrayal of fundamental principles involved here.
Because the identities of this "Group of 88," as they have been dubbed, are blurred by their group anonymity, they should not be allowed to get away with their prejudgment - a brazen violation of the presumption of innocence, despite later protestations to the contrary.
Their roles as teachers should have included special protection of their pupils from mob hysteria and media hype, not collaboration in the spectacle. These 88 and the rest of the Duke "family" stood in loco parentis - in the place of the parents who entrusted their youngsters to Duke's professionals, with substantial tuition payments. The parents' trust was painfully misplaced, and their children suffered irreparable reputation injury and a fundamental breach of duty.
The courses and classrooms of these 88 professors should be emptied. The university's academic leaders should consider assigning them to teach only elective courses. No students should be forced to sit through mandatory courses with professors who evidently believe more in their ideologies than in their human charges.
Next, when students select among their electives, they should shun these professors and their courses - a good, old-fashioned revived remedy of accountability. Shunning is, under these circumstances, a proportionate penalty for the sin of heedlessly injuring young people placed in one's care and charge.
These 88 would thus be professionally disenfranchised, and as they look out at empty rooms and seats, that lesson would be felt and take hold.
The university's powers that be are unlikely to have the backbone to employ this measure, based on their lack of spine throughout this debacle. But, it's an idea - and aren't universities supposed to be all about openly and courageously exploring ideas?
Duke and especially its 88 should-have-known-better professors were responsible for aiding and abetting Nifong's "crimes" against his Duke student targets. The DA has had his day of reckoning for what he perpetrated; the 88 should, too. They flunked with a capital "F" the course in Principles of Justice 101, whose first lesson is the presumption of innocence and protection of innocents.
Everyone should be held ultimately accountable for their actions, even the hostile unintended consequences thereof, lest, in the future, hubristic ideologues, invested with power and fiduciary responsibilities, think that they, too, can act irresponsibly, with impunity and immunity.
#1
Tried to Google the names, but this is all I found. Appears the list, once celebrated, has been..... removed?
Department of African African American Studies
at Duke University
Faculty & Staff | Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program | Projects & Research | Collaborations & Communities This page has been removed.
In a recent DIW comment thread, an anonymous commenterwho was clearly familiar with and sympathetic to Group members scholarship and the pedagogical approaches of at least a few Group memberscriticized the Group profile series.
To date, the series has profiled 11 members of the Group. That total is unrepresentative of the professors accomplishments, since Group members with few or no publications cant be profiled.
The commenter, however, criticized the series for focusing on marginal academics rather than folks who have had long careers with stellar pedigrees.
The eleven profiled members, its worth noting, include:
*The chairperson of Dukes Academic Council;
*The dean of social sciences for Trinity College;
*A research professor who was listed as one of the Universitys top recruits in 2005;
*The director of the University Writing Program.
And coming Monday is a profile of a tenured full professor and two-term department chairperson.
If marginal academics rather than folks who have had long careers with stellar pedigrees occupy such positions at Duke, the University has some serious problems.
#5
A classic example of Group Think I suspect. "We are willing to abdicate evidence (Jurisprudence) and go along with the group so that we don't appear outside the norm, we want to maintain credibility as a team players." So says Steve Salbu, associate dean of graduate programs at UT Austin. Hitler had a similar following of Group Thinking blind. Bloody phueching academian sheep they are I'd say.
#6
In the early 90s Duke was home to a number of highly respected professors who valued the western tradition in literature and philosophy. There were massive ideological battles there, mostly won by the multi-culti crowd. Ever since, the quality of academic leadership there has declined and the administrations have been more and more compliant.
#7
lotp, it is my opinion the historical facts reveal the south and many of it's institutions began sliding into a dreadful abyss of European liberalism and decay shortly after 1865.
Seriously, although I was at UNC in the very early 90s and therefore might be considered a bit prejudiced about Dookies, there was a lot to admire about Duke in some of its earlier years. By the time I was in the Triangle they were already coasting on old accomplishments and a major good old boy/alumni finance network, tho.
On holy war, apostasy and the rights of women in Islam.
The undisputed definition of Islam by all her adherents is submission to the will of Allah. This divine will is outlined in the Koran and in the teachings and deeds of Muhammad, as recorded in the Hadith or Sunna.
While the Koran is considered to be the true, undiluted word of God revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, the Sunna carry less weight and have always been a cause for disagreement amongst Muslim scholars. Theologians of Islam have, however, reached consensus on the authority of a set of six volumes from the Sunna called the Sahih Sita, or authentic six.
On the issues of holy war (jihad), apostasy and the treatment of women, the Koran and Sunna are clear. It is the obligation of every Muslim to spread Islam to unbelievers first through dawa, or proselytizing, then through jihad, if the unbelievers refuse to convert. It is the obligation of the unbelievers to accept Islam. Exempted from this edict of conversion are the people of the book: Christians and Jews. Both peoples have a choice. They may adopt Islam and enjoy the same rights as other Muslims, or they may stick to their book and lead the life of a dhimmi (lower citizen). Legally, the rights of the dhimmi are not equal to those of a Muslim. For instance, a Muslim man may take a Jewish or Christian wife, but Jews and Christians are not allowed to marry Muslim women. If a Christian or a Jew kills a Muslim man, they should be killed immediately. In contrast, the blood of a Muslim should never be shed in recompense for the blood of Christians or Jews.
It is also the obligation of every Muslim to command virtue and forbid vice. Apostasy, the worst possible vice a Muslim can commit, should be punished by death. The punishment need not be carried out by a state, but can easily be enforced by civilians. When it is a question of Islamic law, justice is in the hands of every Muslim.
#3
The best thing that I could say about Islam is that it caused the Euros to unify. Of course, neo-Euros are now united in dhimmism to their Muslim masters.
#5
It is the obligation of every Muslim to spread Islam to unbelievers first through dawa, or proselytizing, then through jihad, if the unbelievers refuse to convert. It is the obligation of the unbelievers to accept Islam.
When it is a question of Islamic law, justice is in the hands of every Muslim.
The above two features of Islam make it an undeniable danger to all other cultures and requires its immediate reformation or simple annihilation. Much like the vast majority of Islam's clergy, my own money isn't on reformation. The only difference is expected outcome.
Thus, under the religious rule of Islam, it is still common today that a womans rights are essentially sold to a man she may not know, and most likely does not love.
This one abomination is enough to justify Islam's extinction. It represents the intent to oppress of over half of this world's population and cannot be countenanced.
A womans lack of social equality and freedom is a direct consequence of the teachings of Islam.
Which is why it's long past tea to recognize Islam as a direct violation of human rights and enact legislation declaring the Koran to be hate speech.
The lengths a Muslim society will go to in the pursuit of sexual control often cross into the territory of the absurd and, by western standards, criminal.
See the previous comment.
The sooner that Mecca gets Tancredoed the better.
From all appearances, Islam would not have it any other way.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
