Islam means peace, according to some Muslims who, it seems, have a rather tenuous connection with reality. Today the peacemakers struck in in Tirin Kot, Afghanistan: In the first suicide attack, a bomber rammed his car into a convoy of international troops in Tirin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, killing five children…
Author: marc
Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.
War in the Classrooms
In America the debate is over how to deliver universal education to all American youth, not whether it should be done. There is some argument about what the content of that education should be – evolution vs. intelligent design, for example – but very little disagreement over whether education should be a public right. In…
Polygamy 2007
Reuters says that fundamentalist Mormons are pushing for legalization of their polygamous ways: Polygamy, once hidden in the shadows of Utah and Arizona, is breaking into the open as fundamentalist Mormons push to decriminalize it on religious grounds, while at the same time stamping out abuses such as forced marriages of underage brides. The growing…
Obligations
There are those who believe that the United States is obligated to help poor nations because we are “rich”. And there are those who believe that America’s influence in the world must be reduced so that their own can increase. The interests of these groups intersect in the debate over global warming which, to summarize,…
Immigration Reform? No…
…things are just fine the way they are. Or so Senate Republicans seem to think. What I’d like to know is on earth were they high on? Do they really think that they’re somehow going to be able to get a better bill through Congress after the next election? Please, let’s not be as dense…
If I Could Meet One Person…
…it wouldn’t be any of the American political hacks whose antics I blog about. I certainly wouldn’t waste a wish on any overpaid athlete, artist, rock-n-roll star, or movie idol. If it were possible to turn back the clock I would like to meet George Orwell and especially Ayn Rand, although I’d approach both with…
William Jefferson (not Clinton) Indictment
Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana has been indicted on, according to Fox News, “16 counts of bribery, obstruction of justice, wire fraud, money laundering and racketeering”. From the article: The indictment says Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and sought millions more in separate schemes to enrich himself by using his office to broker…
Ups and Downs
A few loyal readers may have noticed the lack of posts in recent days…Seems the Black Shards-meister’s broadband connection was down for most of 5 consecutive days. Nice! 🙁 That’s what happens when monopoly powers are at work. Considering where I live some would say we’re lucky to have broadband at all, let alone a…
Of Ants and Grasshoppers
Received this unattributed depiction of liberalism in the natural world via email: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls…
Russia’s New Aims
Perhaps I shouldn’t call them new – Vlad Putin’s had a plan in mind for quite a while, I now understand – but his real objectives are new to me. It’s a bit embarrassing, really, to have missed the obvious. Putin’s policies (and tantrums) have never been about Iraq, although that little debacle has certainly…