July 2005 Archives
In response to this post by Bob Fancher:
As you will no doubt be surprised, I am opposed to any amendment to the constitution that bans flag burning. First of all, I too am an “old school Republican,” and think that this ban falls outside the scope of the government’s responsibility. That in and of itself should be sufficient reason for any American. It is, however, probably not adequate for those people who feel that as the symbol of America and freedom and all good things in the world, like peanut butter and Dr. Pepper, the flag should be protected against the hoodlums and Liberals of the nation. To them I can only say that it is because the flag represents America and its on-going, yet imperfect, search for freedom, that we must allow those who would to deface the Standard.
As I have said about other recently proposed (and failed) constitutional amendments, it is inappropriate and a violation of the spirit of the Constitution to add articles limiting the rights of the people. All the standing amendments are designed to extend and protect individual rights and the one that has been eliminated had the opposite aim. America is about the rights of the individual to do and act freely insofar as those actions do not violate the rights or property of others, i.e. I can’t steal your flag and burn it to a crisp.
his is one of those crowd pleaser amendments that actually make me sick. It serves no other purpose than to make hay out of a non-issue while making the opposition look like unpatriotic Americans. Out congressmen have better things to do with their time and I for one fully expect them to get to those things and give up on this kind of crap.
Don’t forget girls and boys, the war on terror is now a struggle against extremism. It appears that the president and his advisers realized that people don’t like wars, especially ones that are never-ending and indeterminate in scope. Better to call something like that what it is, a long-term, complicated, gray area-riddled, mess with little chance of complete success — in other words, a struggle.
I support the war, er… struggle, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that the sloganism of this administration seems disingenuous. It’s not so much about what we are doing, but what we say we are doing, and that is bothersome.
Via the International Herald Tribune.
Originally uploaded by larslevie.
Yet more proof that in LDS Utah it is not okay to remain single after the age of 30.
Have you ever heard of the MIT Media Lab? Media Lab is one of those institutions, like Xerox Parc and IdeaLab, that just crank out the most amazing, cool stuff. MIT’s Media Lab announced a project to create a $100 laptop to sell to third world countries for school children. The plan is to build millions at a time and hand them out like textbooks through ministries of education in countries like China and India. According to Nicholas Negroponte they hope to build 100 to 200 million units by 2007; that is more than the number of computers existing in the top 10 computer-owning countries combined. Reading about the initiative reminded me that some people and organizations are still interested in doing amazing good in the world.
Read more here
That’s what we call it up north when one’s sister becomes pregnant! Congrats Kj, here’s hoping it’s twins.
(Just kidding about the twins part.)
We can already see the chilling effects of the courts’ decision to force Judith Miller and and Matthew Cooper to reveal their sources, Ohio’s largest daily is withholding publication of two pieces that the publci would be “well served” to know about. The paper is concerned that it’s reporters and itself will be held liable for the secret nature of the contents of the articles. More in the New York Times.
The federal government is classifying documents at a rate of 125 per minute.
Some choice examples include the deletion of the fact that the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was interested in “fencing, boxing and horseback riding” from a Defense Intelligence Agency report along with CIA budgets from the 1950’s and 60’s. What is that all about?
It costs taxpayers nearly $8 billion a year to make sure that they aren’t aware of what is in the reports their government creates. It is a priority that the public not know about a possible milk supply contamination — or maybe that is a dairy industry priority?
Even the man in charge of making sure what we say is secret needs to be and stays that was thinks things are growing out of control. J. William Leonard, the head of the Information Security Oversight Office says, “I’ve seen information that was classified that I’ve also seen published in third-grade textbooks.”
Of course, the administration would like us all to think that it hasen’t classified a single document without an obvious cause, in fact it would like us to believe that it is actually a very open government. This despite having classified 15.6 million documents last year, a record and double the number classified in 2001.
With the customary newspeak, Frederick L. Jones II, a National Security Councel member, claims that the administration is “proud of its record of openness.” Meaning that being the most closed govnerment in America’s history is not a problem, but in fact a virtue.
