Live at the DNC
Since Monday I’ve been hanging out downtown Denver and covering the DNC. I’ve met some really cool people; in addition to bloggers and writers from Momocrats, JackandJill, Green Mountain Daily, Huffington Post and other places, I’ve had a chance to meet and talk briefly with Katie Couric, Senator Ken Salazar, Congressman James Langevin and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Of course, if you don’t know it already I ought to mention that I am attending the DNC (as well as the RNC next week) on behalf of Disaboom.com, an online community for those touched or affected by disability. Naturally, any comments that I make on this particular blog do not necessarily reflect those of Disaboom.com, which is a non-partisan organization. To...
Satanic Verses Continue to Influence
This sort of thing is getting boring; is it even possible to take fundamentalist Muslim Leaders seriously? Esteemed author, Salman Rushdie, was just awarded a well-deserved knighthood. Now, unfortunately, Sir Rushdie will be watching his back again with a renewed vigor. Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister of Pakistan, told the Pakistani Parliament and the world that addition of the word “Sir” to Rushdie’s name is clear justification for suicide attacks in general. “This is an occasion for the 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision,” Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister, told the Pakistani parliament in Islamabad. “The west is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If...
African Economics and AIDS
I just read an excellent interview of James Shikwati, an African Economics expert. He argues convincingly that Western Aid is destroying Africa, and if the West would completely stop sending food and money and worrying so much about an ‘overstated’ AIDS problem Africa would gradually be able to stand on its own feet. Even though the interview is about two years old, I think its relevance is undiminished. Go read the interview here. Excerpts follow (emphasis added): SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty. Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The...
America at a Crossroads
If you have any interest at all in current events I imagine you’ve likely spent a fair amount of time pondering or worrying about events in the Middle East. It isn’t uncommon for me to run into people who have managed to develop incredibly strong ideas about what is wrong and how it ought to be fixed. It seems like everyone these days professes to be some kind of expert about the conflict between “the West” and militant Islam. I’ve spent a bit of time myself looking into the matter and have managed to read a small stack of books exploring the history of Islam. Some of these books have veered into a historiography of sorts and have posited theories of how and why the situation that exists today came into being. I do think it is...
RE: Imus isn’t the Real Bad Guy
If you haven’t heard about Imus yet you probably live under a rock in the desert. There’s been a considerable uproar about the whole incident. Some good thoughts, along with a tremendous amount of noise, has arisen from multiple perspectives on the issue. Jason Whitlock, an excellent columnist for the Kansas City Star (my hometown paper), published a column today on the incident that I find to be superb. I’ll quote a good deal of it here, but I encourage you to read the whole thing at the source. Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is...
Climate Change: Caused by Humans?
Regardless of what you think about Global Warming and whether, or to what extent, human actions are primarily responsible for it, there’s a good chance you might be interested in the potential event below. The following text from an actual invitation: The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley presents his compliments to Vice-President Albert Gore and by these presents challenges the said former Vice-President to a head-to-head, internationally-televised debate upon the question, ‘That our effect on climate is not dangerous,’ to be held in the Library of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at a date of the Vice-President’s choosing. Forasmuch as it is His Lordship who now flings down the gauntlet to the Vice-President, it shall be the...