Polanski's rape seemed less "impulsive" to me after reading how he kept his victim's girlfriend from coming along that day. That moves it to premeditated.
The Narcosphere just had an article about Obama's, well, very cautious reaction to the golpistas in Honduras, and concluded with this:
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." — Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon
Health Care in Germany sounds mighty fine, too.
Wyman, Canadian health sometimes takes a little longer if things aren't urgent. If they are, they go to the front of the queue. That's not common. My parents became Canadians thirty years ago, and they love Canadian health care. Now that my sister has died, the thing I am most grateful for is that my parents are in Canada, not here. Not becoming a Canadian when I could have is one of my very few regrets in life.
What can I say? I underestimated US capitalism.
Greedheads claim Michael Moore lies or exaggerates when he talks about health care in other countries. I can't speak to every case, but from my family's stories, I know what he said in Sicko about Canada is true, and from good friends in France, I know what he said about that country is true also, so I'm inclined to trust the other claims.
I won't be able to follow this thread to answer any questions you might have about Canada, but I strongly encourage you to look beyond the claims of the right--including the claims of rightwing Canadians.
"...capitalism is not all about greed but is romantic, it involves noble sentiments of the human heart like the yearning for innovation and human creativity."
Just found what that reminded me of. I've been reading Tristram Hunt's Building Jerusalem. He says of Sir Walter Scott's feudal fantasies, "It was the close-knit society conjured up in Ivanhoe and the Waverly novels in which the romantic development of individual character stood paramount." Perhaps the greatest privilege of the rich is they can imagine any damn thing they please about how the world is.
"...capitalism is not all about greed but is romantic, it involves noble sentiments of the human heart like the yearning for innovation and human creativity."
Someone's cribbing from a note about feudalism. There's always romance at the top of a system.
"...the Pope should totally stick to his knitting, which is to say uterus patrol and propping up the rotting corpse of Pinochet"
I was appalled when Cardinal Rodriguez backed Pinocheletti (not my name for the head golpista--it's what some Hondurans call Micheletti). Recently, he beganequivocatingclarifying his position, which made me wonder if someone higher up hinted strongly that the Catholic church really shouldn't be supporting midnight expulsions of democratically elected leaders in the 21st century.
After reading up on vdare, I've been thinking about Racism 2.0 or what I currently think of as JAW Racists. In the old days, racists of different groups were prejudiced against each other, and they were divided regionally--in the west, things were worst for Mexican-Americans and Indians, in the south-east, for blacks, etc. But now Jewish, Asian, and White Racists are banding together. I can't decide if that's simply the evolution of a stupid idea, or if, as their individual strength dies, the last racists are being forced to work together.
Thomas @ 98, a fine example of why proportional representation makes more sense than winner-take-all. If groups had to work together more often to succeed, the US center would look far more liberal than currently. /hobbyhorse
Since the other thread is frozen, I'd like to apologize to Jim for not writing better, because I clearly sounded judgmental when I didn't mean to. I like knowing that a post has been deleted--then, if a later comment seems to reference something that's not in the record, I know that it's referencing something deleted, not something imaginary. It's useful in a discussion that more than two people are having.
But given the choice between never deleting something or deleting it without leaving a record, I prefer #2 now. I admire Jim's impulse completely. Sometimes choosing to be kind creates new problems, but the world could use more problems born from kindness.
heresiarch @ 77, yeah. A year ago, I was on the side of "always preserve the record!" Now I think it's often a kindness to delete posts--and I wish we all had that ability.
The compromise would be to leave a record of the deletion: "Post removed by moderator or author."
If any of you haven't already done this, it's your last day to show support for Lt. Dan Choi who is facing trial tomorrow under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule:
Courage Campaign | Sign the Statement of Support for Lt. Dan Choi
Evan @ 50, "Drag queens decide every day when they leave the house: safety or freedom. That's why they led the charge, because they already knew the price."
If there was a "like" tickybox, I would tick it. Very well said.
Fragano, et al: the most extreme anti-immigrant (and anti-Semite) I've ever met was a well-off Jewish immigrant to England (immigrated from Germany in the 1980s). 'Raise the drawbridge' describes people like that permanently. They don't really hate and fear group X: they hate and fear *competition from people like themselves*.
You're assuming his "themselves" is "immigrant." Five'll get you a bajillion that if you asked the guy, he'd say his "themselves" is "well-off."
Xopher @11, well said!
Since Gandhi and pacifism has come up, a quote that may apply: “My non-violence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice."
Lynn, Cheney "came out" in August of 2004: Cheney Sees Gay Marriage as State Issue. He said, "Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue that our family is very familiar with. . . . With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone. People . . . ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."
John Chu, I just meant those as snapshots of the situation. Didn't mean to imply causation.
Josh Jasper, Cheney said, "I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish." Has Obama said anything comparable?
Raphael @ 237, in this morning's reading, I came across this quote: "To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the need for thought." Jules Henri Poincaré, La Science et l'Hypothèse. It's from a blog post I recommend, In Fraud, We Trust? It cites many articles I've read, including some I didn't read carefully enough. For example, I'd missed this point that anyone interested in the elections should know:...the ballots weren't confusing. They had no list of names or added legislative initiatives. They had one single, solitary question on them: Who is your pick for president? There is one empty box to note a number corresponding to the candidate of your choice and another box in which you are to write the candidate's name. No hanging chads, no levers to pull, no political parties to consider. Just write the name of the guy you want to win. How is this confusing?The suggestion that the ballots were counted too quickly to reflect a genuine result is in itself bizarre and unfounded. Al-Amin tells us, "There were a total of 45,713 ballot boxes that were set up in cities, towns and villages across Iran. With 39.2 million ballots cast, there were less than 860 ballots per box...Why would it take more than an hour or two to count 860 ballots per poll? After the count, the results were then reported electronically to the Ministry of the Interior in Tehran."
David, that's a point made at antiwar.com: "There is considerable criticism for this program, not just from the perspective of getting the US involved in the internal affairs of Iran, but also for the taint it places on various opposition groups and NGOs, whether they received any of the grant money or not."
A friend made an interesting point recently: the gay movement wasn't embraced by Democrats or Republicans: gays and their friends had to do it themselves. As a result, liberal gays are baffled by Log Cabin Republicans, yet Dick Cheney is in favor of gay marriage and Barack Obama, despite the public's support, won't even end "don't ask, don't tell."
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| 2007 | 30 |
| 2006 | 17 |
| 2005 | 6 |
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