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Archive for the 'Disasters and Tragedies' Category

Culpability

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

by Mike

Make sure to read this excellent article by Stanley Fish, Law Professor and New York Times opinion contributor. This gist of his observation is this:
“If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But [...]

Determining A Man’s Worth

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

by Mike

How much money should a person make?
For most people, it’s a moot concept. For most white collar workers, the free market (in some loose sense) determines how much we get paid, perhaps marked up or down somewhat depending on a person’s negotiation skills. For most blue collar workers, their wages are determined by [...]

On Bullying

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

by Mike

Bullying has been in the news a lot lately, unfortunately due to a teen’s suicide in a small Massachusetts town and the ensuing prosecution of some of the kids who were involved for statutory rape and civil rights violations.
That particular case is a tragedy all the way around. The behavior of the kids involved [...]

Kidnappers With Good Intentions

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

by Mike

I have no idea why 10 Americans, in Haiti on a humanitarian mission, thought it would be a good idea to take 33 Haitian kids to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. No one that I have seen has suggested that they were paid or had any insidious motive. My guess is that [...]

Fox Fiction, Part II

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

by Mike

You want to know what bad journalism looks like? Read the article “Free Speech Rights Prevented Probe into Hasan Emails, Investigators Say“, currently the headline article on Foxnews.com. A few days ago I lambasted Fox & Friends for jumping to a quick conclusion that political correctness concerns prevented the military from taking preemptive [...]

Fox Fiction

Friday, November 6th, 2009

by Mike

We don’t yet know what happened yesterday at Ft. Hood. We don’t know why a psychiatrist started shooting people. We aren’t even sure that he was the only gunman involved. We don’t know what, if any, warning signs there might have been.
Oh, there is certainly speculation. There are reports that the [...]

Grassroots Movements

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

by Mike

I’m sick of people justifying rude, insensitive, anti-democratic, behavior behind the phrase “grassroots movement”. Just because a movement is supported by quite a few people, doesn’t make the movement any more beneficial or legitimate than a movement that is only supported by a few. In fact, many of the worst tragedies we’ve seen [...]

Once a GOP Cheerleader, Now a Bush Critic?

Friday, April 25th, 2008

by Mike

John McCain believes that the government response to Hurricane Katrina was “disgraceful”. In a speech yesterday he faulted FEMA’s organization, it’s leadership, and President Bush’s response in particular. It was the kind of speech you would expect of someone who was severely disappointed in how the leadership of his own party responded to [...]

Good Intentions, Bad Timing

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

by Mike

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will vote this afternoon on a resolution to declare that the deaths of over one million Armenians in Turkey shortly after World War I constitutes genocide. The Bush Administration has asked them to reject the proposal.
For once, President Bush is right.
By no means am I defending Turkey. While [...]

Watching Home

Thursday, August 2nd, 2007

by Mike

That’s my hometown.  The quaint local news station that whose feed CNN taps into–that’s the station my mom watches.  I’ve walked along the wreckage strewn paths.  I’ve driven over the heap of concrete and twisted steel.  I know how absurd it is for the news anchor to ask questions about pollution in the Mississippi.  (In [...]