UNScam today
Friends of Saddam’s Oil for Food Lives.
Alhamedi’s blg
The Religious Policeman is observing.
American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
By Fausta
UNScam today
Friends of Saddam’s Oil for Food Lives.
Alhamedi’s blg
The Religious Policeman is observing.
By Fausta
I am affronted
I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, therefore I am an American citizen by birth. I am American by choice: I live here because I truly believe this is the best country in the world. I also place high value on character, and on people like Pat Tillman who lived by their convictions. It is therefore twice as offensive to read diatribes such as this, and to hear the “writer” talk of “my neighborhood in Puerto Rico”, and watch him gasbag his way through some sort of tripe about “those living outside the (sic) American borders”.
I am insulted, and angry to a point beyond words, to see the man who wrote this refer to Pat Tillman as a pendejo. While the “writer” says it means “idiot”, the word originally meant pubic hair, and its equivalent in English slang is a**h*le.
I am appalled that a college newspaper would not check the meaning of the word, and publish a disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature attack on a human being who died in service to his country.
I am disgusted that people like the “writer” can lead parasitic lives in freedom, benefiting from the guarantees of the American Constitution to free speech, simply because throughout our history heroes like Pat Tillman have died for the cause of liberty. I am so disgusted that even when I’m aware that bringing to anyone’s attention this “writer” glorifies him, I must comment on it.
Samizdata‘s Johnathan Pearce says, [Note: Johnathan initially thought the writer was a woman]
I will not bother to fisk the piece. The illogicality of it is so glaring, its vile intent so obvious, that a line by line response would merely insult the intelligence of this blog’s readership. Suffice to say that a man gave up the promise of a fat paycheck and the comforts of a loving family to go and join the army, knowing that in so doing he might be called upon to fight in situations those moral perfectionists in our academic world would find abhorrent.
. . . This sorry excuse for a human being has not just traduced the memory of a very brave and good man; she (sic) has done so against all those who believed they were fighting to defend the freedoms we enjoy.
I am angry.
Update: As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.
By Fausta
Property rights: Highlands version
Paul‘s on the money, again,
And if the state wants to preserve water, Gagne notes, it’s not development in the Highlands that should be curtailed. It’s development in the lowlands. The typical Highlands homeowner uses a septic system that returns about 80 percent of the water to the aquifer. But 100 percent of the water used in the cities is pumped out to the ocean and lost forever.
An excellent point. If we’re truly concerned with “the water supply for more than half the state’s population,” we should stop pumping it out of the Highlands in the first place. Let’s halt growth in all of those lowlands areas. That would make more sense than stopping growth in the Highlands, at least from a water conservation standpoint.
But let’s not pretend that water is the real issue here. The real issue is that the state wants to turn the Highlands into a park. But state officials don’t want to pay for the parkland. It’s nice to think that you can legitimately acquire some of the most beautiful property on the Eastern Seaboard for a mere $2,069 an acre. But if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I can let you have real cheap.
And again, the owners of the land are the ones stuck.
By Fausta
UNScam today
¡No Pasarán! has The UN’s Oil-for-Terror Program (and the World’s True Oil-Hungry Nations) entry. Koffi coughs.
Samizdata tells us about how the EU’s flirting with another dictator.
Fearlessness
Comedienne maddens Mullah.
By Fausta
Sarkozy goes to it
All of the sudden, the French newscasts are interesting:
Even when my French is not-good-at-all, I watch the France 2 news every evening when possible, and am fascinated by Nicholas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is a rarity: a fearless, confrontational politician (he reminds me of the pre-mayoral Rudolph Giuliani — if my French and my memory serve me right — NS was also a prosecutor) with a lot of spine.
Sarkozy had a fall-out with Chirac and actually challenged him publicly in the UMP party, so, after the latest cabinet shuffle (caused by the Socialists winning a lot of seats formerly held by the UMP), Chirac named NS as Minister for the Economy, which is, in view of the state of the French economy, possiby the most difficult job in the cabinet. NS however, has ventured on in his inimitable style and, while vigorously attending to his cabinet work, has
1. visited the USA last week to attend a benefit in his honor held by the Jewish Council in DC
2. while here, visited Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, for a little networking, bien sur.
This week he’s criticized the Jospin (Socialist) government’s slack attitude towards anti-Semitism on the floor of the National Assembly. All heck broke loose.
Chirac might have placed Sarkozy in the hot seat, but NS’s feeling right at home in it.
By Fausta
UNScam, in a chart
. . . brought to you by The Spoons Experience!
By Fausta
Headline: School Budget of $62.3 Million Passes Amid Low Voter Turnout at Area Polls
Only in The Principality does one read that only 6% of Borough and 7% of Township voters eligible to vote approve a school budget, which causes the School Board President to be “very pleased”, as “this was a great indicator of the confidence the community has in its School Board”.
Am I the only one reading irony in this?
Indicator of the confidence the community has, yeah, right.
By Fausta
El demócrata liberal y el conservador republicano
Eduardo Estrada escribe sobre la diferencia que existe hoy entre los dos partidos:
Los republicanos, en cambio, favorecen el concepto de trabajar duro, estudiar y sacrificarse por muchos años para llegar a tener éxito en la vida y poder ofrecerle todo lo necesario a la familia. Esta independencia y afán de superación personal crea hombres libres, sin el derrotismo de aquéllos que piensan que nada pueden hacer sin la ayuda del gobierno, idea instilada por esos mismos liberales que enmascaran así su racismo contra los hispanos, las mujeres y otras minorías. Este es uno de los motivos por el cual esos demócratas han logrado por mucho tiempo controlar el voto latino y negro.
Es importante que todos los que tenemos fe en este país, aunque no seamos religiosos, nos preparemos para defender estos sagrados principios que heredamos de los padres fundadores y que ahora corren un serio peligro