Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Catching Up
I have fallen behind in my blogging this week while working on the technical side of the site. I don't know why I have not learned to let well enough alone. Here are a few things I wanted to address and have not:
-First- hat tip to Geerwynn for pointing me in the direction of One Cosmos- a fascinating blog described in it's masthead as:
Exploring the Intersection of Parapolitics, Biocosmology, Developmental Psychoanalysis, Transdimensional Anthropology, World Historical Evolution, Advanced Leisure Studies, Post-Primate Theology, Overmental Mysticism, Cognitive Onanism, and the Bo Diddley Beat
With posts titled Good Girls Gone Wild: Leftists and Their Devout Amorality how can this blog go wrong? Here is a brief taste:
Morality in and of itself is neither moral nor immmoral. Sometimes--perhaps more often than not--a moral system can actually be a source of great evil. One of the things that sets human beings apart from animals is that we cannot avoid making moral distinctions. There seems to be a built in need to distinguish between right and wrong. What is more, there are very few people, no matter how evil, who actually believe they are doing wrong. Even Hitler, after all, believed he was doing a great good by ridding the world of "Jewish blood."
I'll be spending a good bit of time on this blog, I think.
-Next, Al Gore gave a pretty good speech the other day at We Media (thanks, Peter, for the tip)- he actually voiced many of the same concerns I have- he is concerned about the state of public discourse (so am I!), he is concerned about the influence non-stop media coverage of certain events has on our collective psyche (so am I!), he is concerned about the political literacy of youth today (so am I!), he is concerned no no-one will watch his new TV channel (so am ...?). Ok- It was a a pretty good speech until it became an infomercial. Oh well, it is Al Gore. What can you expect? Good luck Al, keep plugging away- something is bound to work out for you, but you are right, probably better to forget the whole being elected President thing.
-There has been much ado about U/S Karen Hughes and her tour of the Middle East. It was, it seems, a baptism by fire of sorts. One line in the reporting by the Opinion Journal really jumped out at me:
In Ankara, the U.S. embassy negligently arranged a meeting with a left-wing women's group; they blasted her with familiar blather about the supposed impossibility of exporting democracy through war and references to Cindy Sheehan.
Now I know that I have been critical of our PD efforts over the last year, but arranging a meeting with the very people we most need to show the light does not strike me as negligent. A world tour of the echo chamber would have been a waste of the tax-payers dollar. I am glad that Hughes met with those who are friendly or inclined to be friendly to us, we need to pay attention to them. But more than anything else we need to bridge the gap between the type of folks she met with in Turkey and ourselves. Cindy Sheehan is a grieving mother who is most likely being used by the extreme left- but she is also a symbol of the freedom all Americans have. Maybe is it is just me, but I don't recall any news stories about Muslim women openly challenging any Muslim leader- ever.
Was that meeting tough? Sure it was. Welcome to the big leagues, Ms. Hughes.
-Do I even want to touch the "Bush hears God tell him to wage war" drivel that is out there? Not really. Mark Steyn has done it better than I could, anyway.
-Finally, and I hope you are still with me here, Heavy Handed Politics ran a piece the other day entitled EU's KISSIN' COUSIN about the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Prosperity Agenda. I hope you will take the time to read his post and the document I (and Heavy Handed) have linked to on the White House web site, as well as some of the others he links to. I will be following up on this single issue with a post of it's own shortly. Mexico is headed into an election season, and you can bet that Mexicans in the U.S. are paying attention. The rest of us should be too.
-Finally, today's sign the end times are near- while watching images of the destruction and chaos in Pakistan on CNN during lunch today an ultra-liberal colleague turned to the group and said "No matter how bad it was in New Orleans at least those poor folks were in America. These people (points to TV) are still going to be in Pakistan if they can relocate." I am sure he did not mean that the way I heard it, but still, maybe he gets it, after all.
(End of linkfest.)10/12/2005 09:57:00 PM posted by Dr. Demarche
-First- hat tip to Geerwynn for pointing me in the direction of One Cosmos- a fascinating blog described in it's masthead as:
Exploring the Intersection of Parapolitics, Biocosmology, Developmental Psychoanalysis, Transdimensional Anthropology, World Historical Evolution, Advanced Leisure Studies, Post-Primate Theology, Overmental Mysticism, Cognitive Onanism, and the Bo Diddley Beat
With posts titled Good Girls Gone Wild: Leftists and Their Devout Amorality how can this blog go wrong? Here is a brief taste:
Morality in and of itself is neither moral nor immmoral. Sometimes--perhaps more often than not--a moral system can actually be a source of great evil. One of the things that sets human beings apart from animals is that we cannot avoid making moral distinctions. There seems to be a built in need to distinguish between right and wrong. What is more, there are very few people, no matter how evil, who actually believe they are doing wrong. Even Hitler, after all, believed he was doing a great good by ridding the world of "Jewish blood."
I'll be spending a good bit of time on this blog, I think.
-Next, Al Gore gave a pretty good speech the other day at We Media (thanks, Peter, for the tip)- he actually voiced many of the same concerns I have- he is concerned about the state of public discourse (so am I!), he is concerned about the influence non-stop media coverage of certain events has on our collective psyche (so am I!), he is concerned about the political literacy of youth today (so am I!), he is concerned no no-one will watch his new TV channel (so am ...?). Ok- It was a a pretty good speech until it became an infomercial. Oh well, it is Al Gore. What can you expect? Good luck Al, keep plugging away- something is bound to work out for you, but you are right, probably better to forget the whole being elected President thing.
-There has been much ado about U/S Karen Hughes and her tour of the Middle East. It was, it seems, a baptism by fire of sorts. One line in the reporting by the Opinion Journal really jumped out at me:
In Ankara, the U.S. embassy negligently arranged a meeting with a left-wing women's group; they blasted her with familiar blather about the supposed impossibility of exporting democracy through war and references to Cindy Sheehan.
Now I know that I have been critical of our PD efforts over the last year, but arranging a meeting with the very people we most need to show the light does not strike me as negligent. A world tour of the echo chamber would have been a waste of the tax-payers dollar. I am glad that Hughes met with those who are friendly or inclined to be friendly to us, we need to pay attention to them. But more than anything else we need to bridge the gap between the type of folks she met with in Turkey and ourselves. Cindy Sheehan is a grieving mother who is most likely being used by the extreme left- but she is also a symbol of the freedom all Americans have. Maybe is it is just me, but I don't recall any news stories about Muslim women openly challenging any Muslim leader- ever.
Was that meeting tough? Sure it was. Welcome to the big leagues, Ms. Hughes.
-Do I even want to touch the "Bush hears God tell him to wage war" drivel that is out there? Not really. Mark Steyn has done it better than I could, anyway.
-Finally, and I hope you are still with me here, Heavy Handed Politics ran a piece the other day entitled EU's KISSIN' COUSIN about the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Prosperity Agenda. I hope you will take the time to read his post and the document I (and Heavy Handed) have linked to on the White House web site, as well as some of the others he links to. I will be following up on this single issue with a post of it's own shortly. Mexico is headed into an election season, and you can bet that Mexicans in the U.S. are paying attention. The rest of us should be too.
-Finally, today's sign the end times are near- while watching images of the destruction and chaos in Pakistan on CNN during lunch today an ultra-liberal colleague turned to the group and said "No matter how bad it was in New Orleans at least those poor folks were in America. These people (points to TV) are still going to be in Pakistan if they can relocate." I am sure he did not mean that the way I heard it, but still, maybe he gets it, after all.
(End of linkfest.)
