As I know more of mankind I expect less of them and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.
What a strange and oddly under developed open ended story.
Apparently some people in Peru came down with some form of illness after a metorite crashed in the country side and left a 100 foot crater… locals described a “strange odor”. Hopefully the metor just poped some swamp gas bubble that was under the surface where it hit… or maybe this is the beginning of some strange alien life form… HEY you NEVER KNOW!
Ok so Whoopi comes to the defense of NFL player Michael Vick
The problem however is that she points to Vicks up bringing and cultural background as the reason she feels why others should go easy on him. Whoopi says that in his upbringing these types of actions where never questioned — ok that might be true, but it does not provide an excuse for a 30 something year old man to break the law and abuse animals. The idea of using ones cultural upbringing as a defense of such crimes is extremely flawed.
First, I’m sure not everyone from the south is down with killing dogs and abusing animals, lets give them some credit Whoopi
Second, if we use “cultural” norms and up bringing to excuse the actions of individuals then we have to give a pass for all of the children of slave owners, all the children of racist parents, all the children of drug users, who then grow up and commit the crimes they saw their parents make. I simply don’t buy that excuse at all. As an adult, as a grown man or woman, we have the right to determine what is right and what is wrong and killing any animal in such a cruel way merely for sport and to get your gambling kicks is undeniably wrong. End of story. Grow up people and stop blaming your childhood for your short comings of character!
P.S Did I mention that I love me some Whoopi?
ABOUT BLOODY TIME! I can just imagine the huge load of work that was never addressed because Mr. “my worst days where better than my father’s best” spent all his time defending his unethical actions as Attorney General.
Just another sign that the Bush Admin feels they are above the law and that they don’t need to be accountable to anyone. Mr. Bush, when both sides of the senate say its time to go… its TIME TO GO. Republicans and Dems wanted Gonzales out, but you stuck with him. You stuck with him because he represents your way of “thinking” and to abandon him is to abandon yourself. How truly sad.
I’ve never really had strong feelings for or against Joe Biden but something swayed me a bit this evening. I think it was his combination of passion, frankness and intelligence.
Biden’s very blunt statements on Iraq needed to be said. They don’t make anyone smile but they constitute the reality of the situation. It’s bad, its horrid of over there and its going to take a lot to pull out safely. We need to move forward with intelligence and a plan that pulls together many aspects of diplomacy and regional involvement if we want that region to have sense of stability that in the long run affects our own safety here at home.
Why is it I continue to be drawn to candidates that are unable to gain a significant ranking in the poll?
In general I liked the youtube viewer content format. It gave a new depth to the questions and helped to connect the politics to the people it really affects. Real questions coming from those that are most influenced by what seems like just talk between the front runners.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/09/nword.funeral.ap.ap/index.html
So the NAACP held a burial for the infamous N-Word. One of the more lasting and pervasive expressions of hatred and racism. I think its great that so many African Americans have come together to help push this horrid word out of Americas vocabulary.
I fear however that the continued use of the word within their own communities undermines this movement. The musical artists and even the ordinary people who use this word in their daily lives are setting back the larger push for the freedom that the existence and use of this world prevents.
One day we will be past all of this sad nonsense, though I’m not sure how close that day is.
About a month ago I read in the news about a situation where Barack Obama failed to make an appearance, during their annual meeting, at the Federation of State and Provincial Firefighters Association.
If your on the campaign trail for President you are going to be busy and it really can’t be expected for you to make every appearance that is requested or that you feel is prudent. It is however severely unbecoming of a man seeking the highest office of our country to turn around and blame is his staff for a “scheduling error”…
“I have to tell you, I wish I was there,” Obama said over a speakerphone.
“My staff had already scheduled some things and they couldn’t wiggle out if it. They heard from me a little bit because I wasn’t happy I couldn’t be there personally.”
Wow… after I read this I thought, gees, blaming his staff for failure to make an appearance? How grown up Mr Obama!
Google cries over possible restriction of H-1B Visas
QUICK RUNDOWN: Google states they need the H-1B Visa program to bring in qualified foreign workers to fill a gap in the American work force. They argue to stay on top of their game they need workers from outside of the country.
My thoughts: HOGWASH
It’s hard for me to believe that American companies are truelly unable to find qualified employees here in the states to fill these high tech jobs. It would seem that if this truly was a problem Google and other high tech companies would be better served by instituting a better education reimbursement & rewards program. This would increase employee loyalty, improve desired “skill sets” and ease the need (if any real need actually exists) for foreign workers.
I guess part of my distrust for Google stems from the fact that they bend over backwards to meet the Chinese governments censorship requirements simply to make a buck.
Parents get two years each for serving underage children alcohol.
I think its obsurd that we have a 21 year old age limit on drinking. I think its also obsurd that a parent can not decide to introduce alcohol in a responsible manner to their own children to counter the bigne / secret drinking stage that many teens hit. Drinking has been made taboo and thus its more dangerous because people go overboard on it.
I do however feel that these parents crossed the line with misleading other parents and serving children other than their own though, for that, they should be held responsible.
I feel 27 months is a bit much however.
Politically I am an independent. I choose candidates that I support not by the party they belong to but by where specifically they stand on the issues that are important to me.
I try very much to keep an open mind. If someone had asked me who I would support in 08 if the two current front runners, Clinton and Giuliani matched up; I would have answered that I am undecided. That is of course if you had asked me before the 2nd Republican debate that occurred this past Tuesday.
So the military sees fit to cut off soliders from one of the few avenues of stress reduction, entertainment, and communication with friends and family by banning 8 popular websites including Youtube, Photobucket and Myspace. Official CNN Article Here.
We already see how much the big brass and the executive office values their low level grunts. With reports of crappy health care, allowing low ranking soliders to take the fall for / in place of higher ranking officers and now this most recent slap.
Its a sad state of affairs when a solider has so few things to help maintain their sanity in times of war that they can no longer log on to a social website and try to unwind.
The pentagon would like you to think this is all in the name of operational security, and “bandwidth” cost, thats simply a bunch of hogwash.
If the true reasons for this ban included operational security the military would see to it that soliders did not access ANY website where they could transmit information back home or to the general public and they would make sure that this ban was enforced universally, not just on DOD computer networks.
The argument about bandwidth is relatively mute as well. Caps can be placed on internet activity, systems can be put fourth to monitor usage if this was really such a problem.
Whats more important, the moral and mental health of soliders fighting and dieing thousands of miles from their families or keeping the “bandwidth” free on a computer network?
From my time in the military and since, its been quite clear that there is a real lack of respect for the soliders that put themselves out on the lines everyday. Of course many will disagree and make statements like “our soliders are our most important element” Of course they are, so why not start treating them as such?
Instead the higher ups see fit to shuffling our young men and woman around as if they were a bag of votes in their political game. It makes me sick.
