Wed - December 20, 2006Wed - November 22, 2006Tue - September 19, 2006Sat - September 16, 2006Fri - September 15, 2006Mon - September 4, 2006Fri - March 24, 2006Why Did We Invade Again?Generally, at least based on actions,
he wasn't in favor of randomly invading countries in order to establish
democracy, but if there was gross instability (such as in the Dominican Republic
of his day, as is referenced in the above article) that might threaten American
interests, military involvement with the purpose of democratizing a country, is
warranted.... However, I will note that any reasonable person could propose
that part of Wilson's desire to interfere with the Dominican Republic may have
been partially caused by a belief that the race of the island's inhabitants
caused them to be unfit to manage
themselves.
...I'm not completely sure that I would accept the premise that democracies are inherently more peaceful than other forms of government, but I do think that democracies tend to have fewer military type conflicts with other democracies, and so if every country had a democratic form of government, we might actually be in a more peaceful place. ...Frankly, I think the only appropriate response is either take over again, and eliminate Sharia law (a school of law so absurd that its apologists have to work overtime to try to convince every one that it isn't what it is), or pull out entirely. Posted at 01:48 PM Read More Tue - December 13, 2005Tookie and the Death PenaltySome children's books were published
under his name, but written by someone else, and he has gone on record as being
opposed to gang violence. From a Christian perspective, of course, we
understand that interior change is easily demonstrated by exterior behavior....
Yes, he wrote some books, but when asked to provide information to the
authorities that would allow them to dismantle the gang, he stated that he
didn't want to be a
"snitch".
...12:10 a.m. After surveying the room with the head movement he is allowed, Williams turns his head to his right. ...Of course, one of his biggest supporters has been Snoop Loser Dog, another crip who has at least stopped directly killing, but who now peddles trash - noise pretending to be music with grand lyrics like "Don't f***with Snoop too much cause he goes off when niggaz mouth too much."... At the end of all of this, if by some bizarre chance Williams didn't directly kill the people in question (roughly as likely as Aliens having landed in my backyard last night), he still bears responsibility for every killing ever perpetrated by a crip, if you ask me. ...Government (not individuals) do possess that right - although it needs to be administered with great integrity and fairness.... Frankly, we would have been better off if Williams had been dropped in a dark cell somewhere never to be heard from again in the public arena. Posted at 10:22 AM Read More Wed - August 20, 2003Mon - April 7, 2003Thank You, Mr. Bloom.The father of three young children
myself, I can at least appreciate the pain his family is going through, and our
prayers will be with them. Although it is, I'm sure, small comfort, his
children can grow up extremely proud of the work their father
did.
Posted at 12:23 PM Read More Thu - April 3, 2003Some Great Words from Colin PowellThere's a bit of an urban legend
wandering around about Colin Powell's response to a question from the Archbishop
of Canterbury. The sense of the legend is true, but the Secretary's words were
adjusted a bit, as were the words the Archbishop
used.
...Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. Posted at 11:21 AM Read More Tue - April 1, 2003Moral Fog?Our beloved North County Times here in
San Diego, hardly the bastion of great journalism, published an article entitled
"The Moral Fog of War". This article was yet another attempt to resurrect the
ghost of Vietnam's past by describing the struggle that soldiers are facing with
the death's of civilians, and essentially trying to draw the reader to some
ill-conceived view that there was an underlying moral dilemma with this
war.
...The only Moral Fog is the one that those who think that Saddam and his band of pond scum have some right to remain in power a day longer. Posted at 11:19 AM Read More Mon - March 31, 2003The Wisdom of Old ProfessorsThe professor at the time, who was
about a million years old (okay, I exaggerate a bit), anguished over the fact
that college students were no longer capable of critical
thinking.
...Its fine if there are people who don't agree that the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do. ...Now, however, we are faced with protesters who cannot see that there are a variety of presuppositions underlying their position and their actions. ...WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. Now, the stated scope is that people can abolish the government under which they operate, but I think there is an underlying principle here that any government which becomes destructive of rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness become necessarily invalid.... However, this seems to be a reasonable alternate view to the one that says that no country ever has the right to alter the government of another country.... Before anyone argues that it was a different situation owing to the invasion, they should recall that the vast majority of governments in place in this world were imposed at some point in history by some group on the larger body. ...Given the Iraqi government's history (you might want to check out Amnesty International's own report on the subject), isn't it reasonable that the loss of life in the current conflict, given that it's substantially smaller than the total of those killed directly by the current regime, is acceptable if it leads to the elimination of the current regime and the cessation of the torture and death of countless thousands of Iraqi civilians? ...Finally, the one very irritating presupposition underlying the actions of protesters this weekend is that somehow their right to protest supercedes all other rights. ...Be clear enough, and critical enough in your thinking to acknowledge that there are presuppositions that you hold, which are not axiomatic, and may, in fact, be wrong. Posted at 11:10 AM Read More |
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Total entries in this category: Published On: Dec 28, 2006 09:49 AM |
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