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Thursday, May 31, 2007
Breaking Down the Male Power Structure
By VictorM: There is nothing new to me in this statement by Bill O'Reilly, but for those of you still not convinced that Bill, and those who listen to him, are nothing but a bunch of scared white guys, take it directly from the mouth of the creep as he addresses John McCain:Bill O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right.John McCain agreed with him. Paranoid little shits, aren't they?
Tags: immigration, bill o'reilly, john mccain, male power, white power
Idiot of the Day: Answers in Genesis
By VictorM: Ken Ham is the CEO and president of Answers in Genesis, the nonprofit ministry that built a $27 million museum to showcase creation. The basis for the creation museum is explained this way:The Book of Genesis, that famous first chapter of the Bible, which Ham's group has interpreted to claim that the universe was created in six 24-hour days a mere 6,000 years ago, serves as the blueprint for the museum. Astronomy, geology and evolution, as they are commonly understood in mainstream science, have no place here. As Ham later tells me, the conclusions of modern science are not to be trusted, as they are biased by the fickle reasoning of man and a modern antagonism toward faith. On the other hand, he says, the Book of Genesis is true "from the first word to the last."OK, the stupidity of all this is self-evident. But hey, if Michael Jackson can build his Neverland park, why can't these morons build their own magnet for the innocent and gullible?
Anyway, what I found really funny is that they spend $27 million and this is the best they can do for the mannequins depicting Adam and Eve:
Photo © 2007 Monica Lam
Neatly trimmed beard you got there, mister Adam.
US Supreme Court is anti-women
By August Pollak: [The] beyond-absurd Supreme Court ruling... essentially, declared it perfectly alright for companies to pay women less as long as they get away with it for the first six months. In a stunning two-fer, Alito once again writes a majority that by saying the problem is the employee's lack of filing a complaint in the alloted time, not that the complaint isn't valid (it was), suddenly makes this the woman's fault.... The Roberts majority isn't just anti-abortion. It's anti-women.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
New Jersey: Leading the nation
By VictorM: I'm glad to see that the issue of obesity is being taken more seriously. This is another example of where government needs to lead otherwise people are left alone at the mercy of greedy business people. Will it help? Will it be efficient? Will any good come out of this? I don't know but time will tell. Programs like this need to be started and tweaked as necessary to make them better, but even if imperfect now, sitting around doing nothing is not any better.New Jersey's health department is escalating the battle against the bulge by starting a new Office of Nutrition and Fitness to better coordinate programs to prevent obesity.
The agency is particularly needed in New Jersey -- possibly the first state to create such a government body.
The Garden State has the highest percentage of overweight and obese children under age 5, at 17.7 percent, according to a 2004 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Idiot of the Day: Richard Cohen
By VictorM: So why has Bush been such an abysmal failure? According to Richard Cohen it's because he's too liberal. I kid you not:Years ago, someone coined the term "neoliberal." I was never sure what it meant, and it has since fallen into disuse, but whatever the case, I'd like to revive (and mangle) the term and apply it -- brace yourself -- to George W. Bush. He's more liberal than you might think.If you read the whole piece, which quite clearly sheds a strong light on Bush's failures, the author dabbles on the topic of incompetence with some of Bush's nominees, but refuses to apply the same reason to the top guy's decisions.
This is one of the dumbest opinion pieces I have read in a while.
Good for Brazil
By VictorM: I don't know how good a solution this is but attempting to tackle the problem with an approach that contradicts the pope and the Catholic church is gutsy for a politician in a predominant Catholic country such as Brazil.The key point for me is what Lula said about providing the poor with "the same right that the wealthy have to plan the number of children they want."Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI denounced government-backed contraception in a visit to Brazil, the president unveiled a program Monday to provide cheap birth control pills at 10,000 drug stores across the country.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the plan will give poor Brazilians "the same right that the wealthy have to plan the number of children they want."
Brazil already hands out free condoms and birth control pills at government-run pharmacies. But many poor people in Latin America's largest country don't go to those pharmacies, so Silva's administration decided to offer the pills at drastically reduced prices at private drug stores, said Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao.
Tags: brazil, lula, birth control
Monday, May 28, 2007
Iraq War: We're Just Training the Enemy
By Kevin Drum: Michael Kamber writes that after spending a week with an infantry company in Baghdad he can find virtually no one who still believes they're doing any good in Iraq... The reports of individual soldiers provide a very limited view into how well or how badly the war is going. But eventually their voices add up, and it sounds like Delta Company has figured out the truth: that they're mostly just training Iraqi soldiers to be more efficient at killing both Americans and each other. They're inflaming a foreign civil war, not defending America, and the fact that their commander in chief continues to insist that they risk their lives anyway represents a betrayal of trust rarely equaled in modern history. These guys deserve better. They deserve a president who understands when to fight, how to fight, and how to win. George Bush plainly understands none of these things.
Bush gang is grudgingly accepting the reality
By Steve Benen: Would it be rude to point out how often the [Bush gang is grudgingly accepting the reality that Dems have been pushing for quite a while] has happened of late? Dems said Bush should talk directly to Syria; Bush said Dems were weak to even suggest it; and Bush eventually came around. Dems said Bush should talk to North Korea and use Clinton's Agreed Framework as a model for negotiations; Bush said this was out of the question; and Bush eventually came around. Dems said Bush should increase the size of the U.S. military; Bush said this was unnecessary; and Bush eventually came around.And Dems said Bush should engage Iran in direct talks, particularly on Iraq. It took a while, but the president came around on this, too.
For years, all we've heard from the right is that Bush is a bold visionary when it comes to foreign policy, and Dems are weak and clueless. And yet, here we are, watching the White House embrace the Dems' approach on most of the nation's major foreign policy challenges.
Now, if Bush could just bring himself to accept the Democratic line on Iraq, too, we'd really see some progress.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Ronald Reagan: A legacy of surrender?
By VictorM: Let's take a stroll down memory lane and and try to relate this one event to Republicans today using the term "surrender" to reflect the will of the American people about the Iraq war.Beirut remained a dangerous place for US citizens to live and during the 1980s, 270 American people were killed in bombings, assassinations and kidnappings and five were abducted but later released...
US President Ronald Reagan ordered military personnel to begin pulling out of the area over a week ago following a recent upsurge in terrorist attacks.
The withdrawal ends 18 months of conflict in a country which has been torn apart by war with Israel.
Despite the withdrawal, President Reagan insisted that the US was not turning its back on Lebanon.
"Once the terrorist attacks started there was no way that we could really contribute to the original mission by staying there as a target just bunkering down and waiting for further attacks," he said.
"I don't think we have lost as yet, although I know things don't look too bright. As long as there is a chance we are not bugging out.
"We are moving to deploy into a more defensive position."
So, you tell me, did Ronald Reagan surrender? Is he to blame for sending the message that terrorism can succeed against America?
Soccer Basher Turns Corner?
By VictorM: I put a question mark on the title because I can't be 100% sure that the following quote was written by Frank DeFord, a well-known sports writer who in the past has shown little sympathy for soccer. The following quote was taken from a blog run by him, so I'm assuming he wrote it. This snippet was in response to an email he received listing the pluses of the game as currently conducted by Major League Soccer (MLS):Tags: mls, major league soccer, soccer, soccer growthIt seems to me that MLS has grown up to a large degree. The marketing of soccer in the US in the past has simply not worked... MLS started out promoting soccer on the basis that US men were about to burst onto the international soccer scene and soccer would then necessarily become as big here as it is everywhere else. Nice thought, but not based in reality. Now, MLS seems to be marketing the game and a few of the recognizable players on a major sports outlet and that could just make the league a player in terms of sporting attention in the US.
I doubt I’ll ever see soccer in the US with a following equivalent to that of European nations or fans with similar passions. But my longtime reader is correct; soccer is healthier now in the US than it has ever been.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Al Gore: A bad habit of being right
By VictorM: What hasn't Al Gore been right about? On all topics that matter, Al Gore has been ahead of the pack and right in every case. From global warming to the internet, from the Iraq war to TV. Yeah, TV. Here's what he said on the Daily Show:"[M]y position is that all television is bad except my network, Current TV, and The Daily Show, and whatever show I happen to be watching at the time," Gore joked, before adding, "But in all seriousness, the television news programs have probably spent a lot more time on Britney Spears' shaving her head, and Paris Hilton going to jail, and Anna-Nicole Smith's estate lawyers and Joey Buttafuoco, and all this stuff, than they have spent giving us the facts — for example, telling us before the invasion of Iraq, that actually Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack of 9/11."Gore's comments about TV coverage of fluff over serious matters are more than just an opinion, they are a verifiable fact:
Both MSNBC and Fox News devoted more coverage to Anna Nicole Smith — three weeks after her death on Feb. 8 — than they did to the multiple developments involving the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed military hospital.And it's also a verifiable fact if we compare Anna Nicole Smith's death and the Iraq war itself:The most lop-sided coverage by far was aired by Fox News, which featured only 10 references to Walter Reed compared to 121 of Anna Nicole — roughly 12 times the coverage. MSNBC featured 84 references to Walter Reed and 96 to Anna Nicole.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism's news coverage index, a weekly look at what is at the top of America's news agenda, has revealed that of all programming on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel monitored by the project, 21% of it across the week was dedicated to Smith, pushing the Iraq war into second place with 15% of monitored minutes.OK, to do what the main news boys seem to think they need to do, I'll balance this post out. Mister Gore has been wrong on one thing: he supports the death penalty. What an evil guy!
Tags: Al Gore, Anna Nicole Smith, TV coverage, TV news
The bastards knew
By The Lighthouse Keeper: It's coming out. The Bush Administration was warned, repeatedly, months before the event, about the consequences of a badly planned Iraq invasion, with no meaningful strategy to "win the peace." It wasn't that they had NO plan, but that it was a BAD plan with no chance of succeeding. AP reports that analysts in the intelligence community widely circulated what is by and large a deadly accurate estimate of the consequences of the Iraq invasion... Rumsfeld, Jay Garner and L. Paul Bremer ramrodded an ideologically-based system through which effectively, accomplished nothing except to allow the insurgency to gain its footing...
Remind me again why we're kowtowing to these people and giving them their war funding? WHAT DOES IT FREAKIN TAKE to say NO to these people?
Idiot of the Day: John McCain
By VictorM: Here's a passage from the Army Times (bold is mine):For generations, soldiers have come back from war with mementos of time spent in battle: The canteen that got them through long days in the Vietnamese jungle; the Lugar they wrested from the German who jumped into their foxhole; the torn flack jacket that showed they were among the lucky who survived the D-Day invasion of the Normandy beaches.What's the point of that quote? Look at the bold text. See how they spelled "flack"? I point this out because replying to a press release by Barack Obama who used the term "flack jacket", Senator John McCain tried to be a smartass by ending his reply with this: "By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket."
Well, Mister I'll Even Kiss Falwell's Ass In the Grave To Be President, the words "flak" and "flack" are both perfectly correct, not only as evidenced by the selling in the Army Times, but according to the New Oxford American Dictionary.
No wonder a majority of Republicans aren't happy with their choice of candidates. How petty and stupid was it to pick on the spelling of one word, only to be proved wrong. Sure, he wanted to show that Obama doesn't know military terms, but the little gag backfired on the idiot.
This could be McCain's "potatoe" moment.
Tags: barack obama, flak jacket, flack jacket, john mccain
Diets: pathetic success rate
By VictorM: I was flying recently and sat next to an obese woman. During the flight, she ordered a diet coke, munched on something from a bag that said "100 calories snack", and then started reading a magazine with a cover featuring a thin woman inside a very large pair of pants claiming she had lost 130 pounds.The woman next to me, quite elegantly dressed, is so typical of overweight people these days who face the pressure of a society getting fatter but encouraged to be thinner. And of course, where there is a need, vultures will close in:
The pathetic success rate of diets isn't news, but what is groundbreaking is the growing awareness of just how unethical the $34 billion-a-year (some estimate as high as $50 billion) diet industry is... it is not a lack of willpower that is standing between the average American dieter and her perfect body but a corrupt industry that keeps so many of us -- women in particular -- unsatisfied, obsessed and misinformed.I was reminded of the one line from the Sunscreen Speech: Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly. But I didn't say it to her. I had the window seat and she had already taken over the arm rest between us.
Friday, May 25, 2007
When Democrats Go Stupid
By VictorM: So the Democrats screwed up, caving in to the worst president ever and not having the balls to represent the American people properly. The moral of this vote is that there are too many republican-like members in the Democratic party. Further house cleaning is necessary.Is there a silver lining? I believe so. The president's vision for Iraq will continue, so we'll get to confirm that: the surge is a disaster, September will come and go with no sign of improvement, and right-wingers will have to work a little bit harder to point fingers for this nightmare.
Barack Obama: No to a blank check
By Barack Obama, explaining why he voted against the bill to give the delusional president what he wants:“I opposed this war in 2002 precisely because I feared it would lead us to the open-ended occupation in which we find ourselves today.”
“This President has led us down a disastrous path and has arrogantly refused to acknowledge the grim reality of this war, which has cost us so dearly in lives and treasure.”
“After he vetoed a plan that would have funded the troops and begun to bring them home, this bill represents more of his stubborn refusal to address his failed policy.”
“We should not give the President a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path.”
“With my vote today, I am saying to the President that enough is enough. We must negotiate a better plan that funds our troops, signals to the Iraqis that it is time for them to act and that begins to bring our brave servicemen and women home safely and responsibly.”
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Average Americans Know Best
By VictorM: Damn Americans! Looks like they hate America too. Take a look at this poll. In every single category that matters, the American people side with the Democrats:Rasmussen. 5/21-22. Likely voters. MoE 4% (no trend lines)
| Issue | Dem | GOP | Net Dem Advtg. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nat'l Security | 46% | 43% | +3 |
| Taxes | 47% | 42% | +5 |
| Abortion | 45% | 38% | +7 |
| Economy | 48% | 40% | +8 |
| Ethics & Corruption | 43% | 32% | +11 |
| War in Iraq | 49% | 37% | +12 |
| Immigration | 47% | 33% | +14 |
| Education | 50% | 35% | +15 |
| Soc. Security | 50% | 34% | +16 |
| Healthcare | 57% | 30% | +27 |
It's the second goal, stupid
By King Kaufman, talking about one of the best things in sports and the final of the European Champions League:But one of those best things in sports has to be the first goal of a big soccer match. Is it possible for human beings to be any happier than, for example, Milan's fans, not to mention the players, were Wednesday after Inzaghi shouldered that ball home? To say the fans were delirious would be like saying that crowd in Times Square was mildly pleased with the end of World War II.
We educated each other on the importance of a first goal in soccer during the World Cup last year, though astute readers will recall that the really important goal in international soccer is the second one.
And who scored the second goal Wednesday? Milan. And who won? Milan.
You can't argue with science, people. Especially junk science.
Tags: soccer, champions league, ac milan, soccer goal
Willing Propaganda Tools
By Glenn Greenwald, commenting on Time magazine's Joe Klein's repeats the words of "senior U.S. military official" and "several other sources":As always, the very idea of granting anonymity to government sources to do nothing other than repeat pro-government claims is both manipulative and moronic on its face. What possible journalistic value could there ever be in cloaking someone with anonymity in order to say something that Tony Snow would happily say, and does say, every day from the White House Press Briefing Room?
That was one of the principal though-still-unlearned lessons of the Judy Miller Saga: when a journalist does nothing but mindlessly repeat the claims of government sources which are completely consistent with -- or designed to bolster -- the claims being made by the administration itself out in the open, the journalist is doing nothing more than turning himself into a willing propaganda tool.
Right-wing terrorism
By Rick Perlstein: Stop it, stop it right now. Stop pretending Islamicists - or environmentalists or animal rights activists... are the only imminent terrorist threats to our nation. We now know that students at Liberty University were ready to napalm protesters at Jerry Falwell's funeral. One of the suspects is a soldier at Fort Benning. [Falwell gave the kid a scholarship.]If the media does not start connecting some dots, they will have abdicated their citizenship duties. How many times has the nation potentially come within a hair's breadth of suffering a right-wing terrorist attack this spring? As of today, three, or possibly six times - at least that we know about.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Young Muslims and Right-Wingers: So much in common
By VictorM: A recent AP poll says thatOne in four younger U.S. Muslims said in a poll that suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstancesRight-wingers like Michelle Melkin and Jonah Goldberg are taking issue with this because they fell the number is too high. For once, I agree with them.
But, with President Bush's support at roughly the same percentage, we have one in four Americans supporting an unprovoked and unnecessary war, torture, secret prisons, suspension of our civil rights, fear as a political weapon, cronyism, and the most corrupt administration in many decades.
The question that matters to me the most is, just like their counterparts who support what they claim is a just war but do nothing about it other than talk, are the 1 in 4 Muslims the same type of chickenhawks?
For all our sakes, I hope so.
The more things change, the more screwed up they get
By Obsidian Wings: David Ignatius says that the administration is coming up with a new plan for Iraq: The new policy would focus on training and advising Iraqi troops rather than the broader goal of achieving a political reconciliation in Iraq. Training the Iraqi army! Why didn't we think of that before? While we're at it, why not train the police force too? When this brand new strategy fails, maybe we can come up with some other as yet untried strategic initiatives, like, oh, maybe "Clear, Hold, and Build".
Idiot of the Day: Bob Kerrey
By VictorM: Former Senator Bob Kerrey has been been wrong about the Iraq war from day one, and he continues to be wrong. It is this type of Reagan Democrat that resulted in massive defeats for Democrats. I'm glad he's out of office because his views continue to show the weakness we must no longer support.Returning to the Wall Street Journal, Kerrey makes some stunningly wrong statements:
Kerrey's implication that Al Qaeda would have had an impact in Iraq if Saddam fell is laughably stupid. He provides no basis for saying Iraq posed a bigger threat after 9/11. He makes no mention that leaving bin Laden alive and basically free to continue his business because we had our forces many miles away instead of looking for him are the greatest victory we could give bin Laden.
- The U.S. led an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein because Iraq was rightly seen as a threat following Sept. 11, 2001....
- Iraq was a larger national security risk after Sept. 11 than it was before...
- a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would hand Osama bin Laden a substantial psychological victory.
Tags: Bob Kerrey, idiot of the day, reagan democrats
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
When Will The Media Learn?
By Attywood: You would think that after after all the official and unofficial lies that came out of the Washington spin machine during the 2002-03 run-up to the war in Iraq, newspapers would be a little more skeptical about similarly unsupported, high-level but anonymous and bellicose allegations about Iran (or anyone else). And you would doubly think that about a newspaper that, day in and day out, is one of the best in the world: Britain's Guardian.
You'd think...but you would be wrong:
Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say."Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned. "They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]."
The story does have another source -- another anonymous U.S. official, but in Washington:
"Tehran is behaving like a racecourse gambler. They're betting on all the horses in the race, even on people they fundamentally don't trust," a senior administration official in Washington said. "They don't know what the outcome will be in Iraq. So they're hedging their bets."
Boo! Scared yet?
The understatement of the century
By VictorM: Once in a while you hear or read something that you know with every fiber of your body is so true that there is no need to explain, quantify, or justify. Here's one from Al Gore:Gore acknowledges that he did feel he would have been a better president than Bush. "Anybody who runs for president, as I did twice, has the impression that they could do the job better than anyone else," he said.No duh!
Idiot of the Day: Newt Gingrich
By VictorM: Newt Gringich is another one of those leaders who says whatever sounds good to the sheep he's speaking to knowing they will not connect the dots to what amounts to amazing hypocrisy. Gringrich's recent words at Liberty University:Anybody on the left who hopes that when people like Reverend Falwell disappear that the opportunity to convert all of America has gone with them fundamentally misunderstands why institutions like this were createdConvert America to what? To more greed? To more spousal cheating? To more hateful division? What else does mister Gingrich have to offer? Nothing!
Tags: newt gingrich, idiot of the day, liberty university
Monday, May 21, 2007
Lessons about gays in the military
By VictorM: Are we too closed-minded or too stubborn to learn from others?Since the British military began allowing homosexuals to serve in the armed forces in 2000, none of its fears — about harassment, discord, blackmail, bullying or an erosion of unit cohesion or military effectiveness — have come to pass, according to the Ministry of Defense, current and former members of the services and academics specializing in the military. The biggest news about the policy, they say, is that there is no news. It has for the most part become a nonissue... At least 24 countries — many of them allies of the United States, and some of them members of the coalition forces fighting alongside Americans — now allow gay soldiers to serve openly in their armed forces.
Tags: gays in the military, homosexual, homosexuality
Right-wingers idea hits a snag
By VictorM: Every time there's some kind of shooting, right-wingers are quick to claim that a solution to the problem is to arm more people. But, apparently, their message never reached this Idaho sniper:A sniper sprayed dozens of bullets on a courthouse, killing a police officer and wounding a sheriff's deputy and a civilian, then apparently killed a caretaker and himself Sunday in a nearby church, police said.This guy actually choose to shoot people with guns. Imagine that.
Tags: idaho sniper, guns, gun control, right-winger
Success in Iraq... For Some People
By VictorM: Seven USA soldiers were killed in Iraq on Saturday. Twenty one were killed over 3 days last week. So far this month the number stands at 71 Americans killed in Iraq to bring us safety from a country that never attacked us and has no means to harm us.You'd think that would be cause for concern and reassessing the same fake promises and false premises. But, you'd be wrong:
See? Our "officials" are so good that they know exactly what they're doing. The extra deaths are really a good thing because it proves them right. Did you hear that, American people? Rejoice at the ever escalating number of deaths because it's all part of the plan.U.S. officials warned when they announced the plan in mid-February that putting as many as 25,000 additional U.S. troops in the urban environment would raise their exposure and vulnerability, and that higher casualty rates were expected.
Tags: deaths in iraq, iraq war, iraq surge
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Immigration Bill Should Be Improved
By NY Times Editorial: The immigration deal announced in the Senate last week poses an excruciating choice. It is a good plan wedded to a repugnant one. Its architects seized a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul a broken system and emerged with a deeply flawed compromise. They tried to bridge the chasm between brittle hard-liners who want the country to stop absorbing so many outsiders, and those who want to give immigrants — illegal ones, too — a fair and realistic shot at the American dream... Many advocates for immigrants have accepted the deal anyway, thinking it can be improved this week... The deal should be improved. If it is not, it should be rejected as worse than a bad status quo.Tags: immigration bill, NY Times editorial
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Someone is not happy with Nancy Pelosi
By Rusty1776: Earth to Madame Speaker . . . Which part of, "Kiss my ass, I’m the Unitary Executive Commander Guy" haven’t you and Harry Reid figured out yet?
How many times are you going to bring a toothpick to a gun fight? How many times are you going to try to "compromise" with that smirking idiot from Crawford? How many times are we supposed to endure these humiliating contortions you call "working with the president?" A blank check for Bush is a blank check for Bush, even if you don’t call it a blank check. He just spit on your latest blank check. Congratulations.
A good idea from Platini
By VictorM: Suggestions for changing the laws of the world’s most popular sport are more frequent than fake diving. Luckily, the FIFA's rules committee (IFAB) takes a lot longer to consider changes than a bunch of guys at a bar. But recently I read a suggestion that caught my attention because it came from someone in-the-know, with authority, and well respected .Michel Platini, France’s greatest player ever (in my humble opinion), and currently the president of EUFA (European Federation), has proposed that two additional assistant referees be added to cover goal lines, thus giving soccer a pair of eyes in each of the 4 outer lines of the field. Since these two assistant referees would cover very little ground – each would basically be positioned behind one of the goals -- we could utilize referees who have retired. Not only would this give us a new pair of eyes where it matters the most – around the goal mouth and the penalty area – but these individuals would bring their vast experience from their own full refereeing days.
The more I’ve thought of this suggestion, the more I like it. I have tried looking for dissenting opinions, but so far I have not read a single well-articulated reason for not implementing this change.
Tags: michel platini, soccer, rule changes, goal line referees
Friday, May 18, 2007
Global Warming: Wrong!
By VictorM: Got to give the global warming naysayers their due credit. They've been saying those predicting dire consequences are wrong, and events are proving them right. In fact, things are starting to get worse sooner than even the alarmists predicted (bold is mine):Tags: global warming, carbon dioxide, antarticaThe Southern Ocean around Antarctica is so loaded with carbon dioxide that it can barely absorb any more, so more of the gas will stay in the atmosphere to warm up the planet, scientists reported Thursday.
Human activity is the main culprit, said researcher Corinne Le Quere, who called the finding very alarming.
The phenomenon wasn't expected to be apparent for decades, Le Quere said in a telephone interview from the University of East Anglia in Britain.
The Bush Bubble
By Paul Krugman: What we need to realize is that the infamous “Bush bubble,” the administration’s no-reality zone, extends a long way beyond the White House. Millions of Americans believe that patriotic torturers are keeping us safe, that there’s a vast Islamic axis of evil, that victory in Iraq is just around the corner, that Bush appointees are doing a heckuva job — and that news reports contradicting these beliefs reflect liberal media bias.And the Republican nomination will go either to someone who shares these beliefs, and would therefore run the country the same way Mr. Bush has, or to a very, very good liar.
Tags: republican candidates, bush bubble, paul krugman
Idiot of the Day: Atlas Shrugs
By VictorM: Addressing the situation with Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, the reliably despicable Atlas Shrugs demonstrates, once again, what it's like to live without contact with reality:Wolfowitz was reforming the World Bank and making serious inroads in corruption at the World Bank. The looters and the moochers didn't like that at all. It seems Malloch Brown, Queen of the Pig people and and an international boulevardier, is coveting Wolfowitz's still warm chair. Brown also stands for everything Mr. Wolfowitz opposes, beginning with the issue of corruption.The hypocrisy is so obvious here that one can't help but to laugh at how idiotic right-wingers have become. Yes, Wolfowitz was a beacon of anti-corruption... and Saddam Hussein was a master of getting people to get along, Paris Hilton is a victim of injustice, and Opie and Anthony are the Miss Manners of satellite radio.
Tags: idiot of the day, world bank corruption, right-winger
Retired generals blast torture supporters
By former Marine Corps commandant Gen. Charles Krulak and former U.S. CentCom commander Gen. Joseph Hoar:Fear can be a strong motivator. It led Franklin Roosevelt to intern tens of thousands of innocent U.S. citizens during World War II; it led to Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunt, which ruined the lives of hundreds of Americans. And it led the United States to adopt a policy at the highest levels that condoned and even authorized torture of prisoners in our custody. […]
The American people are understandably fearful about another attack like the one we sustained on Sept. 11, 2001. But it is the duty of the commander in chief to lead the country away from the grip of fear, not into its grasp. Regrettably, at Tuesday night’s presidential debate in South Carolina, several Republican candidates revealed a stunning failure to understand this most basic obligation. […]
If we forfeit our values by signaling that they are negotiable in situations of grave or imminent danger, we drive those undecideds into the arms of the enemy. This way lies defeat, and we are well down the road to it.
Tags: fear, torture, republican candidates
Good News, Bad News
By Mercury Rising: The Good News: Wolfowitz to resign from World Bank. The Bad News: George W. Bush gets to nominate his successor. It is traditional in the Bush regime to replace a bad choice (e.g. John Ashcroft) with a much worse choice (e.g. Alberto Gonzales). Since we’re talking about Paul Wolfowitz here, “a much worse choice” will have to be very bad indeed. My money’s on Ahmed Chalabi.Tags: Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales, George Bush, bad choices
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Idiot of the Day: Opie and Anthony
By VictorM: After an example of extreme bad taste, shock jocks Opie and Anthony have been suspended for 30 days. Sure, they issued the boilerplate apology, and their bit was over satallite radio not public airwaves, but to me, it makes no difference. The action by XM is not censorship, just a point for decency.So what did these idiots say? I read the transcript of the broadcast but I won't repeat it. This is as close as I'll get with what Opie and Anthony said:
The two came under fire last week after they aired a segment that featured a homeless person saying he wanted to have sex with Condoleeza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth. The two even joked about Rice being raped and punched in the face.These idiots will be back and they'll be more popular with their fans than before. But hopefully the kind of crap they deal with will be scaled back.
Tags: opie and anthony, idiot of the day, condi rice