I don't think that even makes an ounce of sense. We are not at the point in this country where the terms "Black", "White", "Hispanic", "Native American" or what have you are meaningless. We're only 50 years away from when Blacks in the deep South were essentially denied the right to vote. I mean, heck, women have been allowed to vote in this country for only 88 years and we've still not had a women in the White House.
To say that this doesn't matter is to say that all the trouble these people went through to get the right to vote doesn't matter.
If you still only get a choice between old white guys, and you know that only old white guys will be elected, ever, then your only really matters if you're an old white guy and can elect one of your own.
I'm still struck by the parallels between the 70s and today. We've kind of gone through the Nixon/Ford parallel. I guess the question is whether Obama will be another Jimmy Carter (like this country needs more than one Carter administration), or the Democratic version of Reagan. Either way, at this point it looks like McCain is more likely to be the next Robert Dole than the next President of the United States.
For better or worse, I think Jane Fonda has actually gotten more entertaining this time around, though I'm starting to wonder when they'll stop wheeling her out for each election.
Right, I believe we've found the missing link! Who knew that the Neanderthals were, in fact, alive and well and living in Lawrence, KS?
Okay, just a short question: How the heck did their kid get scratched by your cat? Was your cat coming over for a visit or something? Did they do something to anger it? Oh well, best not to ask, I guess...
Not to boost the PageRank of those stupid links you posted, but it's ridiculous that you and the articles in your "rebuttal links" are accusing the Popular Mechanics article of putting up "Straw Man" and "Red Herring" arguments. The Popular Mechanics article was addressing as many of the dozen or so conspiracy nut job ideas as it could. Just because the article is not tailor made to respond to the particular twisted vision of the events that you subscribe to, doesn't make your side more credible or the Popular Mechanic article less accurate.
And 9/11 is "politically convenient" because it is one of the few clear cut, black and white moments in history. No one out there can say "why don't we look at the terrorists point of view here", just like no one can "let's look at it from the Nazis point of view" with regards to the Holocaust, or "let's just try and see it from Stalin's perspective" with regards to the Gulags. There's no middle ground here, and that's why it's easy to use in a speech.
And no one out there, Popular Mechanics included, needs to go point by point to dispute any of these theories. You simply have to look at the options. Either the events happened pretty much exactly as the reporters, the 9/11 commission, and the government says, or there's a large group made up of thousands of civilian, government and military agents who are completely loyal, willing to do any job (no matter how dirty) and have managed to lie and cover their tracks for 7 years without one defector.
Other than the fact that this is yet another example of the failure of abstinence only sex education, which Gov. Palin claims to be an advocate of, I would completely agree with you. It's certainly not this newsworthy.
In fact, I think a large number of those pundits spend as much time trying to explain why this should be newsworthy as they do trying to give us the news. Which is an even bigger waste of time.
I'm not a Pat Buchanan fan, but I didn't see anything too disingenuous about either clip. The first clip was his honest opinion of Palin's strengths and weaknesses and the second was his kind of promotional pitch where he only mentioned the strengths. It's not any different than if you were to ask someone about a job outside of an interview, and then to ask them something similar during an interview.
In the first clip, for example, he said he was worried Biden would beat her badly in a debate. In the second, he said that the "bar was set so low, that if she stood up at all, it would be a win". Kind of damning with faint praise, but not really different from what he said before. He also said in the first clip, that he thought her biggest weakness was her inability to be a good "commander-in-chief." He sort of left that out in the second clip, though I'm sure if he was actually asked a "hardball" question about it, he'd probably own up to having those reservations, but say it's not important or emphasize he experience with the national guard or something.
Buchanan has always been a partisan hack, but he's not doing anything different from what we'd expect from the Clintons on the campaign trail for Obama. It's just that he's got less to work with, and he's not as good at it as they are.
"It is no coincidence that the end of the armored knight followed closely behind the introduction of the handgun in Europe."
And yet the continent was still ruled by monarchs and emperors. The only difference is that it was cheaper to raise an effective army now.
And now that you've finished beating up that straw "voodoo doll" of an argument, can you give me any acceptable reason why an ordinary person should regularly bring a gun (or other weapon also banned by these statutes) to a school?
There is a certain level of fear mongering on both sides of this issue but there are definitely places in society where weapons should be prohibited. Even Scalia and the 4 other Justices in the majority agreed with that and exempted School gun control laws from this decision.
Well it was published in the International Journal of Primatology under the assumption that it would probably be interesting to other people who spend most of their time watching monkeys. It's probably interesting to Primatologists just like finding a new set of notes from one of the founders about drafting the Constitution would be interesting to Political scientists or historians.
But hey, I bet this would make a great Simpson's episode, and I, for one, welcome the arrival of our new Monkey-Fisherman Overlords.
Top 10 Movies That Jumped the Shark
Yes, Superman II had flaws, but without Superman II we could not have had this fine candidate for President: http://zod2008.com/
November 12, 2008 at 3:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Bitterness on Display
Maybe they're talking about Eastern Europe (think Moscow)...
November 5, 2008 at 11:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Fear of Crashing
DOTDOT:
>Any reference to race AT ALL is racist.
I don't think that even makes an ounce of sense. We are not at the point in this country where the terms "Black", "White", "Hispanic", "Native American" or what have you are meaningless. We're only 50 years away from when Blacks in the deep South were essentially denied the right to vote. I mean, heck, women have been allowed to vote in this country for only 88 years and we've still not had a women in the White House.
To say that this doesn't matter is to say that all the trouble these people went through to get the right to vote doesn't matter.
If you still only get a choice between old white guys, and you know that only old white guys will be elected, ever, then your only really matters if you're an old white guy and can elect one of your own.
November 4, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Fear of Crashing
I'm still struck by the parallels between the 70s and today. We've kind of gone through the Nixon/Ford parallel. I guess the question is whether Obama will be another Jimmy Carter (like this country needs more than one Carter administration), or the Democratic version of Reagan. Either way, at this point it looks like McCain is more likely to be the next Robert Dole than the next President of the United States.
For better or worse, I think Jane Fonda has actually gotten more entertaining this time around, though I'm starting to wonder when they'll stop wheeling her out for each election.
November 3, 2008 at 12:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
RABIES!!!!!!!
Right, I believe we've found the missing link! Who knew that the Neanderthals were, in fact, alive and well and living in Lawrence, KS?
Okay, just a short question: How the heck did their kid get scratched by your cat? Was your cat coming over for a visit or something? Did they do something to anger it? Oh well, best not to ask, I guess...
September 25, 2008 at 12:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
9/11 in 33 Minutes: Determining the Official Story Cannot Be True
Not to boost the PageRank of those stupid links you posted, but it's ridiculous that you and the articles in your "rebuttal links" are accusing the Popular Mechanics article of putting up "Straw Man" and "Red Herring" arguments. The Popular Mechanics article was addressing as many of the dozen or so conspiracy nut job ideas as it could. Just because the article is not tailor made to respond to the particular twisted vision of the events that you subscribe to, doesn't make your side more credible or the Popular Mechanic article less accurate.
And 9/11 is "politically convenient" because it is one of the few clear cut, black and white moments in history. No one out there can say "why don't we look at the terrorists point of view here", just like no one can "let's look at it from the Nazis point of view" with regards to the Holocaust, or "let's just try and see it from Stalin's perspective" with regards to the Gulags. There's no middle ground here, and that's why it's easy to use in a speech.
And no one out there, Popular Mechanics included, needs to go point by point to dispute any of these theories. You simply have to look at the options. Either the events happened pretty much exactly as the reporters, the 9/11 commission, and the government says, or there's a large group made up of thousands of civilian, government and military agents who are completely loyal, willing to do any job (no matter how dirty) and have managed to lie and cover their tracks for 7 years without one defector.
Have you ever heard of Occam's Razor?
September 12, 2008 at 9:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Have you heard?
Other than the fact that this is yet another example of the failure of abstinence only sex education, which Gov. Palin claims to be an advocate of, I would completely agree with you. It's certainly not this newsworthy.
In fact, I think a large number of those pundits spend as much time trying to explain why this should be newsworthy as they do trying to give us the news. Which is an even bigger waste of time.
September 4, 2008 at 2:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Pat Buchanan is a Sad, Pathetic Man
I'm not a Pat Buchanan fan, but I didn't see anything too disingenuous about either clip. The first clip was his honest opinion of Palin's strengths and weaknesses and the second was his kind of promotional pitch where he only mentioned the strengths. It's not any different than if you were to ask someone about a job outside of an interview, and then to ask them something similar during an interview.
In the first clip, for example, he said he was worried Biden would beat her badly in a debate. In the second, he said that the "bar was set so low, that if she stood up at all, it would be a win". Kind of damning with faint praise, but not really different from what he said before. He also said in the first clip, that he thought her biggest weakness was her inability to be a good "commander-in-chief." He sort of left that out in the second clip, though I'm sure if he was actually asked a "hardball" question about it, he'd probably own up to having those reservations, but say it's not important or emphasize he experience with the national guard or something.
Buchanan has always been a partisan hack, but he's not doing anything different from what we'd expect from the Clintons on the campaign trail for Obama. It's just that he's got less to work with, and he's not as good at it as they are.
September 3, 2008 at 9:33 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
A cycle of guns and fear
"It is no coincidence that the end of the armored knight followed closely behind the introduction of the handgun in Europe."
And yet the continent was still ruled by monarchs and emperors. The only difference is that it was cheaper to raise an effective army now.
And now that you've finished beating up that straw "voodoo doll" of an argument, can you give me any acceptable reason why an ordinary person should regularly bring a gun (or other weapon also banned by these statutes) to a school?
There is a certain level of fear mongering on both sides of this issue but there are definitely places in society where weapons should be prohibited. Even Scalia and the 4 other Justices in the majority agreed with that and exempted School gun control laws from this decision.
June 27, 2008 at 2:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Sure, but can they play harmonica?
Well it was published in the International Journal of Primatology under the assumption that it would probably be interesting to other people who spend most of their time watching monkeys. It's probably interesting to Primatologists just like finding a new set of notes from one of the founders about drafting the Constitution would be interesting to Political scientists or historians.
But hey, I bet this would make a great Simpson's episode, and I, for one, welcome the arrival of our new Monkey-Fisherman Overlords.
June 16, 2008 at 2:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )