Arlen Specter switches parties.
I don't care precisely why he did it right now, because it was long overdue. He held out for a revival of the moderate wing of the GOP, but instead it's continued to shrink, and now extinction seems likelier than not. No doubt, he'll miss being ranking member of Judiciary, but hopefully the warm welcome wagon will be some consolation.
Yeah, I've always liked this guy, my former senator, but today seals the deal.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
I just don't get it.
If a bunch of people sat in a room with the task of imagining the most f***ed-up thing they could think of, it couldn't be much worse than this:
A 13-year-old girl is raped by three men, and when her father complains to the authorities, they accuse her of adultery and sentence her to be stoned to death. She is taken to a football stadium where 1,000 people watch as she is placed in a hole in the ground and buried to her neck. Fifty men stone her, and at one point nurses are sent to check whether she is still alive. She is, so they put her back in the hole until she dies. Then a story is fabricated for the press in which she is 23 and pleads guilty to "adultery," accepting her fate, rather than pleading for her life, as she did in reality -- as if these changes of detail makes the hideous spectacle somehow excusable. Later, Amnesty International learned the factual details from witnesses to the execution. One boy was shot in a crossfire as members of the crowd attempted to assist the girl.
So, yes, this is what is happening on the mainland in Somalia.
After reading that horrible, enraging story, I needed to search for organizations that are helping women in places that hold little hope for them -- although, in the case of the organization below, not specifically Somalia, but perhaps they will include that country in the future. But it is helping women in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, etc. It looks like a wonderful organization. I have been looking for something like this to support.
Women for Women International
A 13-year-old girl is raped by three men, and when her father complains to the authorities, they accuse her of adultery and sentence her to be stoned to death. She is taken to a football stadium where 1,000 people watch as she is placed in a hole in the ground and buried to her neck. Fifty men stone her, and at one point nurses are sent to check whether she is still alive. She is, so they put her back in the hole until she dies. Then a story is fabricated for the press in which she is 23 and pleads guilty to "adultery," accepting her fate, rather than pleading for her life, as she did in reality -- as if these changes of detail makes the hideous spectacle somehow excusable. Later, Amnesty International learned the factual details from witnesses to the execution. One boy was shot in a crossfire as members of the crowd attempted to assist the girl.
So, yes, this is what is happening on the mainland in Somalia.
After reading that horrible, enraging story, I needed to search for organizations that are helping women in places that hold little hope for them -- although, in the case of the organization below, not specifically Somalia, but perhaps they will include that country in the future. But it is helping women in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, etc. It looks like a wonderful organization. I have been looking for something like this to support.
Women for Women International
Monday, April 06, 2009
Quote du Jour: Obama in Turkey
Obama: "I've said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."Yes, these comments may be controversial to some here at home who, while dropping the term "founding fathers" quite a lot, appear not to have read them very thoroughly. If they had, they might realize that our nation is based as much on secular classical principles of justice, equality and democracy (principles inherent in early community-based Judeo- and Hellenistic Christianity, but not in Christianity as it was later conceived as a state religion) as it is on Abrahamic or Judeo-Christian values.
Except for the unfortunate concession on Armenia implied by his phrasing, the conciliatory Ankara speech is another very encouraging example of the new tone Obama is setting.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Overseas Contingency Operation
I, for one, like it (the name, that is.)
Because, as John Oliver so sagely put it on "The Daily Show" last night, after eight years of an administration appealing, through its nomenclature and other means, to our basest war-mongering instincts, America needs to "calm the f*** down."
Because, as John Oliver so sagely put it on "The Daily Show" last night, after eight years of an administration appealing, through its nomenclature and other means, to our basest war-mongering instincts, America needs to "calm the f*** down."
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