Archive for July, 2008
Chinese Christian Separtist Groups Vow Attacks During Olympic Games
Sunday, July 27th, 2008I keep waiting for that headline and yet it never comes. Nope. The headline is really this and gotta love MSNBC man, don’t say it, guys. Don’t. You. Dare. Say. It: “Chinese group vows Olympic game attacks.” A group, eh? Must be a Christian group! Oh, wait. The subheading says this: “Muslim separatists also claim responsibility for recent bus bombings.” No way. They’re Muslim?
Sorry for the heavy sarcasm, folks. Good grief. I am so sick of the political correctness. Did you read the follow up article? Yeah, it’s titled, “Moderate Muslims outraged at the terrorists hijacking the ‘Religion of Peace’ during the Olympic ceremonies which bring people of all cultures and faiths together.” I didn’t read that article either. Still waiting, after lo, these many years, for the millions and billions of peace-loving Muslims to stand up and take their religion back.
So, here’s the story. There’s the obligatory threatening video made by masked Muslim men, of course :
In the video, a man identified as Commander Seyfullah says the group aims “to target the most critical points related to the Olympics.”
“We will try to attack Chinese central cities severely, using the tactics that have never been employed,” he says, according to a translation provided by IntelCenter, a terrorism research firm based in Alexandria, Va.
Muslim separatists
Terrorism experts believe that the group is the same as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, an underground separatist organization in the Xinjiang region of western China, which advocates independence for the area’s Muslim Uighur inhabitants. China often warns of the danger posed by the group, though some experts say the government exaggerates the threat as an excuse to suppress dissent against Chinese rule.
Another truth inadvertently revealed: Communist countries suppress dissent? I did not know that! I thought communist countries delivered superior medical care, supplied everyone with a job, and made sure all people were fed unlike the greedy capitalist nations that let people die in the streets, jobless and hungry.
The Olympic games should be interesting, indeed. A friend mentioned that Beijing hosting the games reminded him of Germany hosting the games before World War II. The point wasn’t to raise stature in the world, but to unite the country behind the communistic leadership. Well, we’ll see how that works for China.
More On Autism-Savage Firestorm: Is Autism The New Sacred Cow?
Saturday, July 26th, 2008Katherine Berry of Villainous Kate fame wrote a thoughtful article for Pajamas Media about Autism being the new protected class:
But Savage chose to stand by his comments, explaining in a New York Times interview:
“My main point remains true,” Mr. Savage, whose radio audience ranks in size behind only those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, said in the interview. “It is an overdiagnosed medical condition. In my readings, there is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism.”
While there’s no denying that Savage’s initial remarks were cruel and ignorant, this situation has made one thing perfectly clear: autism is big news. It’s the latest celebrity cause. It’s the new chipotle, the disorder du jour, and now it’s a plot line on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives.”
And when it comes to protecting autistic children from discrimination, everything else takes a backseat.
She continues, by citing the situation of a child melting down on a plane and the resulting actions of the stewardess and pilot:
Consider, for instance, an incident last month involving a mother and her 2-year-old autistic child who were escorted off of an American Airlines flight after airline personnel declared the boy’s behavior “uncontrollable.” According to the airline, the child’s behavior simply compounded an unsafe situation stemming from the mother’s refusal to place her carry-on bag in the overhead compartment and the boy’s inability to remain in his seat.
Naturally, the mother’s story differs. In her telling it all comes down to the airline not understanding that, due to autism, the child had special needs to which the airline should have been more sensitive.
She claims, for instance, that the attendant repeatedly came by to tighten the child’s seatbelt because, in the mother’s own words, the child “was wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt.” When the attendant reached over to tighten the child’s seatbelt again, the mother says she warned that the action would exacerbate her son’s autistic behavior. The child once again got out of his seat.
Her conclusion:
While the pilot and the airline are being pummeled on blogs for their “cruelty” — and at the risk of sounding insensitive myself — I can’t help wonder when “special needs” became synonymous with disregarding the needs of others, or when the parent of a child with special needs was accorded special needs of their own.
As I’ve shared before, I have an autistic son. And, as it turns out, I had a very similar travel situation, except that it turned out differently. Here’s what happened: My husband, just-turned-three year old autistic son and baby daughter were taking our first plane trip to a family reunion. My son hadn’t traveled on a plane before. His personality was docile, non-aggressive and he rarely melted down, but we were still nervous. It was new. Autistic children don’t do “new” well. So, we get on, the door closes and the engine starts, so the pressure changes. Now, a typical child often melts down at this point. The pressure changes hurt delicate ears which is why all people inwardly groan when they’re seated in a child’s proximity. Well, my son started screaming…in pain. He tore out of my arms, started running for the plane door, and started tearing at it trying to escape. He was obviously suffering. The other passengers were as horrified as we were. It was obvious that he wasn’t throwing a fit or being rebellious, he was anguished. I ran after him, scooped him up, and looked at my son in despair. We weren’t sure how it would go, should we ask them to return to the gate? It was horrible.
I held him close as he sobbed and screamed. The stewardess came by but did not force me to put him into a seat. She could have. Instead, she came over and asked what could be done. I said, nothing, I’ll just hold him and I did. I essentially nearly had my biceps ripped out holding him close so he couldn’t escape. He sobbed himself to sleep and was a zombie the entire family reunion visit. He had retreated into some remote place. I was deeply distressed about forcing him through the return flight. The return trip was a bit better, but he sat in my lap again.
We didn’t take him on a plane trip again for years. And when we decided to try again, we were very worried. And he cried and shook and leaned into us, but he was okay, he stayed buckled in his seat, and by this time we could explain what was happening. He still grabs his sister’s hand on plane trips, but he can do it.
I’ve already said that Michael Savage is a moron about autism. But society at large isn’t much better educated. Here’s the problem: Autistic children look “normal”. If they had some sort of physical deformity, I think people could handle accommodating them better. For all the talk of a child-centric society, children in general are not cut much slack. Special needs children who look like typical kids get the same treatment.
Now, I’ve seen the dopey parents with undisciplined children running amok in restaurants and stores. And even disciplined children have bad days. Each of my children chose to throw a public fit–once. But it happened in places like Target and Dillards and they were public and the impression could definitely be that I have unruly children. When I say it happened once, it’s because it was a learning experience. It didn’t happen again.
For my autistic son, it has never been about discipline. His melt-downs were always stimulus response cycles. They were unpredictable and still, we did everything we could to predict them. We also severely limited our lives. For the first four years of his life, we simply didn’t go anywhere or do much of anything. The plane trip was a big risk, it back-fired and we retreated. Very often, the parents of autistic children who do venture forth, do so with trepidation.
Autism is constant, unrelenting work. The diagnosis often takes forever to get. The treatments vary in success and aren’t paid for by insurance. It strains relationships. The child may or may not make progress even after investing significant resources. They don’t potty train. It takes years and years if they do. They self-stimulate to deal with pain or discomfort or whatever it is that’s bothering them. Parents are told by ignorant pediatricians that the child will “grow out of it” or is just delayed when early interventions are key to development and outcomes.
Down here, in Texas, many churches are starting to do outreach for parents because government resources are non-existent. So, there are “date nights” sponsored by the “Special Needs” ministry. Parents also worry non-stop about leaving their child with anyone else for a variety of reasons. First, the child might react unpredictably. Second, the child cannot communicate. Do this search: autistic child + assault. You’ll get the few, bizarre cases of the child assaulting someone. More likely, you’ll get horrifying cases of the autistic child being assaulted. Why? They are the perfect victims; they can’t speak.
So while I have sympathy for the argument that autistic children are the latest faddish protected class, I have to chuckle. Please. The lives of most families with an autistic child are unrelenting hell. If families do attempt to engage the world–which eating, wearing clothes, going to church, and working tend to force, other people will have to deal with the uncomfortable feelings they have when they see a child acting “weird”.
As for the safety of others: that is why early intervention is so important. These children and their parents, need help when the child is small. A 6’0″, 200 pound emotional child is dangerous, indeed. I understand a church putting on a restraining order because the son is aggressive, but I understand, too, a mother’s desire to get spiritual sustenance after years of raising this child. The church could spend it’s resources, not on a lawyer, but on special care so the mom could get a break on the weekends. How about that? Churches are in the business of tending the weak, are they not?
It is easy, from the outside, to judge these families. In addition to receiving a bleak diagnosis, parents have to fend with discipline advice, harsh condemnation and isolation. Also, and I saw this over and over at the conferences I attended, overwhelmingly, mothers deal with the child because the parents separated–often because the father had been undiagnosed but was on the spectrum somewhere himself and he either could not or would not help. (I met one father in this position.) These single parents must be highly commended. Working to survive, in addition to caring for these children is a monumental task.
The safety of everyone, autistic or not, is paramount. First, do no harm. After that, though, what should be done? Right now, parents soldier on alone, but these children, all grown up, will be society’s problem. Parents lament about their child’s care after they die. What will be done? I shudder to think of these children, the perfect victims, being housed in institutions with the mentally ill abusers. It already happens in early intervention: “at risk” children (code for the emotionally damaged aggressive, future-bullies-of-America, eventual prison inmates) are placed in the same classroom with children on the Autism spectrum.
Prison or institutions is where the one group ends up. Parents care for the other group, but they eventually need help. For as loud as the Autism awareness folks screech, it doesn’t really seem like anyone is listening.
To me, the solution isn’t a government program or huge institutions, but tax cuts so parents can choose educational resources and places for their children. Let the free market decide this. There is no question parents need help, let them have their tax dollars so they can find a solution.
Oh, and as I said before, it’s a free country, Savage can say what he wants, but on this, he’s wrong.
Break An Engagement, Pay Damages
Saturday, July 26th, 2008This is gender discrimination plain and simple. If a woman breaks an engagement, she can keep the ring. It’s a gift.
If this happens, it should be tough luck for the woman:
Nothing will heal a broken heart like $150,000.
That’s how much a Hall County jury has ruled Wayne Gibbs owes his ex-fiancee, RoseMary Shell, for breaking off their engagement. Shell sued for breach of contract after she left her $81,000-a-year job in Pensacola, Fla., in 2006 to move to Gainesville, Ga., and be with her fiancee.
Two months later, Gibbs told her he was having second thoughts. He broke up with her in March 2007.
Shell now makes $31,000 a year. The jury award equals one year of her old salary plus bonuses and benefits.
Shell told The Times of Gainesville she is “thrilled.”
Gibbs and his attorney declined comment to the newspaper.
A woman who gives up a job for a man made a choice. She could have chosen differently. How is it his fault, when he’s just being honest and avoiding a big mistake? And, by the way, why can’t she go and find a job like she had?
Republican Traitors To The Cause, Well, To What Used To Be The Cause
Friday, July 25th, 2008And what is the cause? The cause, quite simply, is money. Money is the root of all evil. Well, that’s certainly the case in Washington, D.C. where Congress seems to believe that your hands on your money is evil, while their hands on your money is good.
The Republicans have one issue that nearly every voter can agree on: the federal government stinks at knowing what the heck to do with your money and shouldn’t get a dime more. Let me rephrase that: the Republicans HAD one issue that unified voters of every stripe. Not now. Republicans have sold out the country and their voters by spending like drunken liberals.
So now, the Democratic Congress wants to raise taxes, but they need enablers from across the aisle and you can count on moderate Republicans to enable. Soren Dayton notes:
A bad day for Don Young is a good day for America. Thank you to Grover Norquist for helping to deliver a bad day to Young by declaring him a Tax Pledge Violator
Don Young (R-Alaska) violated the solemn oath he took to his constituents by voting for H.R. 2642, the Blue Dog Tax Hike. [...] “Republicans that vote for tax increases are like rat heads in Coke bottles,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “They ruin the Republican brand for all members. It should be readily apparent to a former ’Hero of the Taxpayer Award’ recipient that you don’t vote for tax hikes.”
Bless Grover’s heart. And give money to Sean Parnell.
Go Grover!
But the bigger issue remains: Republicans have lost credibility with voters because of how they have spent and behaved with America’s money. And they just don’t get it. And they will lose elections because they just don’t get it. You know why? Because Americans can elect Democrats if they want gluttonous fat cats spending their money.
Republicans need to catch a clue. And McCain needs to lead the charge by simplifying his blathering. He needs to repeat a couple mantras instead of mumbling vague policies. Keep it simple, John:
Stop spending
Stop taxes
Drill now
Win wars
This isn’t rocket science, I swear. But when Republicans undercut their core principle by acting, well, unprincipled, people hate them. There is a reason Congress has a 9% approval rating and Republicans contribute to the disapproval because they’re acting like….Democrats. Who needs Republicans when they act like Democrats? That’s what voters are asking themselves. Conservative Republicans get apathetic and stop giving money to campaigns because they’re disgusted with the whole lot of them.
Well, I do believe there are good, solid fiscally conservative people in Congress and running for Congress and they deserve support, like Soren mentions. But the Republican leadership have a lot of work to do to win over their voters. They need to start speaking the principles and more importantly, acting on them.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Has Obama “Peaked” Too Early?
Friday, July 25th, 2008I’m just wondering what you think. Is the Obama momentum still building or do you think that there will be a backlash coming soon? It has already started in a way with the “mocking” of his unbearable lightness of being, but I don’t expect the United States press to stop the lovefest. However, will the average American be turned off, are they turned off, by his ostentatious displays? I think this foreign trip was pivotal and may well undo his presidential hopes because he overstepped. What say you?
Reaction To Dear Leader’s Speech in Germany–UPDATED
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Ace calls him Captain Bullshit, which is apt. But since he’s so into the totalitarian state of mind, I’m going with the simpler Dear Leader. Ace calls the Berlin speech the “Big Stupid Nazi Rally“:
“Vacuous, fatuous, and insipid like every other goddamned thing he says, and that complaint, as always, comes with the subterranean twinge of racism.”
Michelle Malkin shares an awesome poster of Obama and notes the Nazi references.
Ann Althouse synthesizes Obama’s speech for those who miss it:
“I guess we’re not supposed to think about how Obama wanted and still wants to give up on the Iraq war. Surely, if he’d been there in 1948, he would have said the Berlin airlift is hopeless. He thought the surge was hopeless.
I won’t excerpt the rest of the speech. You can read it, but I’ll summarize: Come on, people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another, right now.”
We’re not supposed to think, Ann, we’re supposed to feel.
Well, Glenn Reynolds, for one, thinks the Nazi references are misplaced and that the whole thing has a more gay, lovefest vibe. That’s fine for those in the “know”, but the average American sees a zillion adoring Germans waving flags for an American presidential candidate who has questionable patriotism credentials and Americans make a different connection. It might not be fair, but a “citizen of the world” is probably going for just such imagery. I don’t think the Obama people were thinking love-in, but maybe they were. Or maybe they weren’t thinking. I’m still wondering how on earth they decided this would be a good thing and foregoing visiting the troops in Germany would be a better thing.
Here’s the money quote from the speech: ‘People of Berlin — people of the world — this is our moment. This is our time.’
I think this speech may well be the undoing of his presidential hopes.
UPDATED:
Best comment over at Protein Wisdom from B Moe:
“this guy already thinks he’s president”
But President of what, is what I am trying to figure out. It is starting to look like America may be too small a bushel for that bright a light.
Karl says:
Substantively, I welcomed his call for more support from Germany to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she would make clear to Obama that there were limits to Germany’s military engagement in Afghanistan. Merkel may find Obama well-equipped physically, but this seems to be another case in which a government will not be dramatically altering its foreign policy just from a look at Obama’s magic face.
Updated Again:
From the Anchoress:
Senator Barack Obama went to Berlin today, a place to which he had no real connection, to make a speech for no actual reason, on no special occasion, and the speech reflected it. It was a brief speech of many words and a lot of filler.
MaxedOutMama says:
I think I disagree with the Shrink. I think Obama believes not that the actual meaning of what he says is important, but rather that the effect his words have on the hearer is important. This is the key to why he could tolerate Wright’s church for so long, because it would have sent most traditionally well-educated people out, screaming in frustration. Post-modernists truly do not believe in objective meaning.
Shrinkwrapped has a psychological analysis that you absolutely MUST read. He starts thusly and does this not say it all?:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 6 (1865).
The question is, on what day do Obama’s words mean what they mean him to mean? Shrinkwrapped continues:
Intellectuals earn the disdain of the hoi polloi honestly. They value words much more than they value deeds.
The intellectuals have been the gate keepers of news and memory. An intellectual could explain almost anything to fit his ideology and sanitize any excesses that the ideology facilitated. Thus, for example, The New York Times’s Walter Duranty could win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism for his laudatory series on Stalin’s Russia in the 1930s, while neglecting to mention the millions of deaths Stalin was responsible for by his engineered famine or offer a critical view of Stalin’s show trials. History was not only written by the victors but they could rely upon the useful idiots of the MSM to control the present news as well.
The world has changed but Barack Obama, emerging as he does from the hallways of academic excellence, sees the world through the eyes of an intellectual and apparently has ingested an unhealthy mix of intellectual arrogance and the over-valuation of language that is part of the academic culture. This may well sabotage his campaign; in the event he is elected President, it bodes poorly for his administration.
Jim Geraghty on “My New Messiah“.
Ed Morrissey makes me laugh:
Barack Obama’s campaign started off by insisting that their Berlin speech wasn’t political. Then, after Obama snubbed the troops at Landstuhl and Ramstein, they said it wouldn’t be appropriate to visit while campaigning. At the same time, Obama told a throng of Germans that he wasn’t there as a candidate at all.
Lileks on being a “citizen of the world”:
Not that anyone enforces those duties at the moment. Novel sentiments aside, “World citizen” is used as a badge of empathy that carries no responsibilities. The more it’s used, though, the more it dilutes actual national citizenship, which naturally takes second place to World Citizenship. As it did in Obama’s speech – he said he was a citizen of America and a citizen of the world, not the other way around. To say you’re a citizen of the world and a citizen of America places the latter in the primary slot, no? It’s like saying “I am a married man, and I am also a lover of women.” People would assume you’re sneaking around.
If we are all citizens of the world, then rules about national citizenship sound like archaic encumbrances. If you do not consider yourself a citizen of the world, then you must not care about anyone else but your fellow national citizens, or at least you care less, and that’s not a sentiment you express in polite company. To say that you care more about a bomb in New York than you care about a bomb in Malaysia almost sounds chauvinistic, what with the death of one man anywhere diminishing us all, and so on. It’s a perfectly reasonable sentiment for someone to hold in private, but it is difficult for an American president to say that he cares as much about displaced workers in a Chinese province as he cares about Ohio factory workers. If it’s true, then he hasn’t really grasped the nature of his job. If it’s false, it’s just more windy BS.
Politico: “GOP Losing New Media War”, Newsbusters: How To Win
Thursday, July 24th, 2008The Politico’s Jonathan Martin cites this example of how the Left whomps the Right:
This week, for example, a young liberal writer named Spencer Ackerman heard that McCain committed a gaffe on Iraq in an unaired portion of an interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric. Ackerman, a former reporter for The New Republic and The American Prospect who now blogs at the liberal Firedoglake site, posted the transcript and pointed out the relevant portion just after 5:00 p.m. Tuesday night.
It was picked up by the Huffington Post two hours later, discussed on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show, moved onto The Associated Press wire overnight and by Wednesday afternoon McCain was forced to respond.
“We amplify its effect and then stay on it,” explains Arianna Huffington, namesake of the popular liberal news and entertainment hub.
What immediately sprang to mind were examples of conservatives finding examples of Media bias or gaffs by Obama, but here’s the thing: the left-wing media refuses to “amplify it’ because it doesn’t suit their purposes. Good luck getting a one day turnaround on exposing an Obama faux-pas or miscommunication or straight up misinformation.
Here are some examples:
Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs had to go to the major media who eventually used his work to give him credit for exposing Iran’s fauxtography. So, they finally noted what he found but gave him no credit because to do so would be to amplify a conservative’s message.
Gateway Pundit exposes misses, lies, fabrications and misinformation every, single day. I wonder how often his work is “amplified” by the press?
Michelle Malkin makes it her mission to expose and shift the balance of news power. She is both pundit and reporter and she is hated for it.
So, while I think the Right can and should do better to find and break conservative stories, I’d also say that there are many who are doing just that but are less likely to get the “amplification” that a liberal blogger would.
Matt Sheffield of Newsbusters.org and Rathergate fame, writes an Op-Ed for the Washington Times today, about what is wrong with the Right and he comes to different conclusions, and better ones, than Jonathan Martin:
A good Web site and marketing plan is no substitute for good operations in other areas, however. That’s why it is frustrating to hear some Internet consultants promising the world if you’ll just pay them to build your site for you. It simply doesn’t work that way. Good technology is good tactics. Good tactics can never save a bad strategy, but a good strategy usually requires good tactics. Countless political and business startup Web sites come and go, many built on technology that was far ahead of its time.
As different as they may seem, both the spending and the technology camps are making the same type of argument: one of tactics, not strategy. The reason the Right has fallen on hard times is that it is in need of a strategic recalibration, not just newer and more conservative tactics.
Agreed. The problem isn’t technological or even bias by the mainstream media against the conservative message, although the bias amplifies the Left at the expense of the Right. The problem is the conservative message, or rather, the lack of one. No amount of exposing lies can substitute for supplying truth. A good conservative message rings true. It is simple and clear and understandable.
Since McCain is the new voice of Republicans, he’s going to have to hone his message. I have a few hints about what would work:
1. Small government (but I don’t think McCain believes this.)
2. Keep lower taxes
3. Energy independence by drilling
4. Free market = more jobs (compare Michigan with Texas)
5. Strong defense (no mention of Iraq needed–the issue is over for Americans)
6. Shore up infrastructure
7. Protect the environment–religious conservatives are very moved by this issue
8. America as the leader of innovation–this notion needs to be reintroduced and reinforced
9. Education freedom–putting the power back in the hands of parents
Sheffield concludes this way:
The conservative movement needs to take stock of its principles in the 21st century and find ways to reach out to voters about the issues of our time. Fighting terrorism is vitally important, but it is far from the only issue facing America. It’s time for the Right to step up to the plate and forcefully articulate an agenda that addresses not only foreign policy and other traditional Right-friendly topics, but also issues like the environment, education, high-technology and government reform – in a manner that adheres to conservative principles and exploits available technologies.
Conservative leaders need to get the message clear, concise, understandable and it has to ring true. From there, the McCain campaign in particular, needs to change their website from “send me money” to “connect with me now”. Ideas first. Get the ideas right, the money will flow like water.
Bloggers on the Right need to connect and support similarities and stop focusing on the differences. There is far more we agree upon. Newsbusters, Redstate, TheNextRight, HotAir, PajamasMedia and Porkbusters are getting it right by pulling together Right-leaning thinkers. There is power in numbers.
And like Eric Erickson of TheNEXTRight says, “We stop minding our own business and we engage. We stop being pundits yelling into the wind and start being activists yelling into the telephone.”
We can do all of this.
“Jump In And Blow Your Brains Out”
Thursday, July 24th, 2008Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon moderating comments. I criticized Obama and wondered at his propaganda usage, location, and methods and that brought the rain of hate. But there was one comment that I loved the most just for sheer creativity. I mean, “die bitch” is pretty boring. This one has some flair and the respect goes to Charles Giacometti of Cosmo39@hotmail.com :
Truly, do your fellow Americans a favor and just blow your freaking brains out. Don’t leave us with the burden of caring for you.
In fact, make it neat. Dig your grave first, with all the dirt right there, and a shovel. Then jump in and blow your brains out.
Oh, and leave a few bucks for the poor slob who has to throw the dirt on you.
As a side note about comments: You might want to reread the commenting policy here. Here’s part of it:
Privacy: I will not publish your email address or share your information with third parties except in the following circumstances: you’re an abusive a-hole in which case all bets are off or my site administrator or one of his agents needs to work on the site. Otherwise, the information you disclose when you register is between you and me.
I think Mr. Giacometti’s comments qualify as “all bets are off”.
Mr. Giacometti also described Glenn Reynolds this way:
Well, Mother Jones just learned what yahoos Instarube’s readers are. That’s what you get when you don’t research a clown like this in advance. You could have easily discovered he is a petty, one note partisan hack who routinely (and approvingly) links to some of the most lunatic, racist, ill-informed commentary out there.
And he’s harassed Megan McCardle, too. Where he took umbrage at the idea that someone would publish his personal information. Here’s how Megan handled it:
Indeed, I hope that none of you called this fellow, or in any other way bothered him. I do not encourage offline harassing of web commenters, whatever the provocation. This is one of the reasons that I welcome commenters who use handles; on this blog, it’s the content of the comments that is important. The proper punishment for trolls is the silent derision of anyone who reads them, and of course, the fact that they are the kind of people who become internet trolls. If you did call this fellow before I took down his name and number, I would appreciate an anonymous tip off on this thread so that I can contact him and apologize for the inconvenience.
Please do not stalk the trolls. Also, do not talk to them. This seems like as good a time as any to remind readers that your attention–no matter how richly provoked you feel–merely encourages them to further heights. Your tears of just rage are sweet, sweet nectar to comment trolls. Presumably, they engage in this behavior because they feel that no one listens to them. Only you can help make this a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Mr. Giacometti took umbrage of the idea of his personal information being on the web. Well, I take umbrage at creative ways to kill me. Call me sensitive.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Europe Protects Baby Seals, We Protect Europe
Thursday, July 24th, 2008The latest, urgent crisis to grip the European Union, and of course, a commission is needed to enforce the rules. From the BBC:
Trade in seal products would be allowed only where they came with guarantees that the animals did not suffer unnecessarily.
A certification scheme would be established including, if necessary, a distinctive label or mark, showing that a seal-trading country met strict conditions.
And all that I can think is that Europe has the luxury of fretting over baby seals because they’re secure in knowing that America will spend resources to protect baby Europeans should it come down to it. So why would they need a missile defense shield?
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
