By now you have probably all heard Democratic senator Durbin’s infamous comments comparing American servicemen and women to Nazis. David Gelerneter has a great article in the LA Times in response. In it he argues eloquently that we have lost our ability to think and reason when we have only learned an ideologically correct version of history. His last couple paragraphs certainly bear repeating:
"If you are proud of this country and don’t want its identity to vanish, you must teach U.S. history to your children. They won’t learn it in school. This nation’s memory will go blank unless you act."
You can read the whole thing here.
A well designed new conservative blog has sprouted in the liberal soil of New York city and it certainly bears checking out. Suitably Flip has already posted several good insights — including some intriguing comments on the recent flag burning:
Ah, what did the FDNY write back? Is it hard to guess?
Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link (a daily e-zine on pro-family issues) has an interesting story a recent boycott of Ford:
"In the meeting, Ford associates requested time to see if
the concerns raised by the boycott could be addressed by
the dealers in cooperation with officials from Ford Motor
Company.
"’We believe the dealers were making a good faith effort,’
said AFA chairman Donald Wildmon. ‘Therefore, we accept
the suspension request and will work with the dealers in
attempting to resolve our differences.’
"AFA launched the boycott May 31 to protest the company’s
support of same-sex marriage. In less than a week, more
than 110,000 people signed the pledge, agreeing to boycott
the automaker."
The Cornell Intelligent Design Evolution Awareness Club (IDEA), which was started up by Intelligent Design advocates last semester now has their website in order. Click here to check it out. Their goal, as stated on their website is to “sponsor monthly discussions, debates or lectures on topics relating to origins, intelligent design, or evolution”. I have also added a link to their site with other Cornell student organizations under Our Backyard.
Bench Memos is reporting that Bush is planning to send a bunch more candidates to the lower courts.
We’ve been realizing that the blog has been taking a long time to load lately. I thought it was just our computers till one of our readers kindly alerted us that she was also having trouble.
I usually use Firefox. However, when I tried using opening it up on Internet Explorer on one of the fast library computers it crashed the browser.
It seems like we now fixed the problem. Please let us know if any of you run into any more problems or if it still loads slow.
A funny story from Write Wing Blog I hadn’t heard before:
I began to think at parties now and then — to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
I began to think alone — "to relax," I told myself– but I knew it wasn’t true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother’s.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don’t mix, but I couldn’t stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking on the job, you’ll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I’ve been thinking…"
"I know you’ve been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it’s not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don’t make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won’t have any money!"
"That’s a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.
"I’m going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors…
They didn’t open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.
You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster. Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky’s." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed…easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
Today I made the final step, I registered to vote as a Democrat.
Moderate Andy Guess (Cornell Sun’s editor emeritus) has decided to vote ‘non’ in the upcoming Swiss referendum on EU membership this September. Good for him.
Jim Geraghty from TKS makes an observation along the lines of what I’ve been thinking myself.
–John Howard: supported Iraq war, reelected fall 2004.
–George W. Bush: supported Iraq war, reelected fall 2004.
–Tony Blair: supported Iraq war, reelected spring 2005 (with smaller majority).
–Jacques Chirac: opposed Iraq war, handed humiliating personal rebuke with rejection of EU Constitution. A reelection campaign is unthinkable.
–Gerhard Schroeder: opposed Iraq war, party had disastrous results in spring 2005 regional elections, now calling for early elections, and is 17 points down.
Is it comparing apples and oranges? Perhaps. And of course, Aznar was defeated in Spain in March 2004. But perhaps it reflects a bit about how the people of these nations see their leaders. The decision to invade was neither politically popular nor easy for Howard, Bush, or Blair, and perhaps at least a slim majority of their electorates credited them for making the hard call. Chirac and Schroeder’s decisions were popular at the time and neither country wishes to join the mission in Iraq – but neither man can portray himself as a courageous leader who makes the hard and politically unpopular choice.
BBC has always reported the news with a decidedly liberal slant and pro-European Union bias. However, I have always found them the best main new service in interacting with their readers. On their website one of ways they do this is with a “Have your say” section where readers can write in their thoughts.
This time several Dutch people wrote in some very insightful e-mails, letting on that the Dutch have not lost yet all of their common sense.
Erik Ijsselstein writes:
“I’ve voted a strong ‘No’ today. It’s not that I am against Europe, but I am against this constitution. I often hear that a No vote is a vote against Europe or the Euro, but I think this is not the case (at least for me). There are factual arguments against this constitution (liberalisation is for me the main argument against) and I’ve heard no factual argument in favour.”
Simon Goetzel says the people want to be able to think for themselves:
“I live in Amsterdam and have done the past four years. My girlfriend, a Dutch lawyer, was in the dressing room of a department store the other day when she overheard two shop assistants. One saying to the other “Which way are you voting?”. “I’m going to vote No” says the second. First: “Why?” Second:” Because everyone wants us to vote Yes”. This is the mentality we are dealing with here.”
Jesse from Utrecht writes:
“The [yes] campaign here in the Netherlands was terrible. They tried scaring no-voters into voting yes and pretended that all no-voters were going to vote no for reasons outside of the referendum. This has done the yes-side no good.”
And Johann Pranger asks for a little less misinformation:
“What we are doing is asking for clarification. We have never been informed or consulted in all these years regarding the EU, at all. Now the government has proposed a 2 inch thick constitution and given the Dutch citizens a 3 page pamphlet explaining the whys and why nots. We in Holland have been ill-informed and mis-informed for two decades and the result is that we now have a monster in Brussels (or is it Strasbourg?).”
N. Klaus writes further:
“. . . I’m fed up with the money wasting and arrogance from overpaid people discussing chocolate cigarettes and things like that. The EU is ok, as long as it goes about economic cooperation. The EU of this moment isn’t about that. Besides, the Constitution, (Grondwet in Dutch Main Law) isn’t a Constitution at all. So why vote for something not real?”
However Rob Oliver from Leiden is worried that there is still much to be done to roll back the undemocratic gains made by pro-European Union politicians:
“Whatever happens today, the ‘no’ camp will wake up tomorrow with the Netherlands still a member of the EU, an unwieldy and impersonal organisation which is palpably not living up to its original ideals. At some point the No campaigners will have to start presenting some positive and new proposals for the future of Europe, rather than relying on a negative rhetoric based on rejection.”
Geert Wilders, who seems like one of the Netherlands’s more sensible politicians declared: “I had not expected this massive turnout. I am proud of the Dutch people.” As an American who lived in Netherlands and whose mother is Dutch, I also am proud of the Dutch people. Maybe there is still a small chance the Dutch people will shake off the chains with which they have been bound by the elite and rise to choose their own destiny. I surely hope so.
The latest exit polls in the Netherlands are projecting a overwhelming rejection of the mass of regulations commonly known as the EU constitution. Turnout, like in France three days ago, was exceptionally high. According to Reuters:
“. . . While most Dutch were hostile to the constitution, they seemed keen to make their voice heard in the country’s first national referendum, with turnout seen much higher than the 39.1 percent who voted in European Parliament elections last year.
“The Dutch vote is not legally binding, but lawmakers say they will be guided by it if turnout is over 30 percent.”
Well, with a turnout of more than sixty percent, hopefully the ‘political elite’ will be more than just slightly guided. Time will have to tell.
Powered by WordPress.
26 queries. 0.482 seconds
