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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Tuesday, May 25, 2004
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"Grief Doesn't Entitle Sept. 11 Families To Their Entitlement Attitude" Finally, somebody says it Nolan Finley at The Detroit News, May 23: .... But grief doesn’t explain the increasingly inappropriate behavior of some September 11 family members. Greed might. Nearly as soon as the federal government established the $6 billion compensation fund — an average $1.3 million per victim — some survivors began squabbling over its size, who would be eligible and how much they’d get. The fund was set up as an alternative to the families filing questionable lawsuits against airlines and building owners, and as a gesture of the nation’s sympathy. Other private funds provided for college scholarships for some of their children. All this is good. But some family members forget that thousands of Americans die each day, many in incidents equally tragic and senseless, and their survivors get nothing. The lack of gratitude by some September 11 families is unseemly. As is their venture into politics. A group calling itself September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows exploits its victim status to attack the Bush administration on issues ranging far afield from the terrorist attacks. They are leftists and peaceniks in mourner’s clothing. But they’re presented simply as September 11 families, allowing their rantings and ramblings to go out unfiltered.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 05/25/04 09:39:52 PM |
Kerry Talks Tough Against Bush Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCV Displaying the lofty mentality developed during two decades in the United States Senate. Kerry pokes fun at Bush mishap. + + + + + From combined dispatches Democrat John Kerry joked about President Bush's weekend bicycle accident by comparing the president to a child, Internet newshound Matt Drudge reported yesterday. "Kerry told reporters in front of cameras, 'Did the training wheels fall off?' " Mr. Drudge reported on his Web site, www.drudgereport.com. Interviewed by The Washington Times yesterday, Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter would say only that the words Mr. Drudge reported were "off the record." Mr. Drudge said the debate among reporters over the on-camera "training wheels" remark has been "whether to treat it as on or off the record." In comments reported by the Associated Press, Mr. Kerry said, "I hope he's OK. I didn't know the president rode a bike." Mr. Bush, who is widely ridiculed by liberals and Democrats as dumb and incompetent, suffered "minor abrasions and scratches" in the accident, which came near the end of a 17-mile mountain bike ride on his Texas ranch Saturday. Mr. Kerry had his own bicycling mishap earlier this month, taking a spill while riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, Mass. Mr. Kerry fell when his bike hit a patch of sand. He was not injured. + + + + + The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 05/25/04 09:15:34 PM |
Democrats Know Kerry is Flaming Hypocrite Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCIV That's what I get out of the opening paragraph of this WaPo article, May 23: Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) has begun targeting swing voters and disaffected Republicans in an effort to expand the election battleground, a strategy that includes emphasizing centrist themes on the campaign trail while privately reassuring liberal constituencies he is committed to their core issues.... I also detect a couple of blatant spins in the article. First, in this paragraph: Kerry has also come under fire among African Americans after some black lawmakers raised concerns about the prominence of minorities and minority issues in his campaign. Kerry aides promised to promptly deliver to black lawmakers details of a new paid media campaign in urban areas, and the campaign quickly hired several minority staffers. Actually, the complaints were about the absence of minorities, not the "prominence" of them. And, the campaign's hire of "several minority staffers" was IIRC merely... well... cosmetic because the highest-level positions were unaffected. Second, in this paragraph: What is more remarkable to many Democrats is how Kerry is catching little flak from the party's base even when he strays from liberal orthodoxy. Abortion rights groups, for example, defended Kerry this past week when he told the Associated Press he would consider nominating antiabortion judges. Even so, Kerry sent a clear message to the base hours later when he issued a statement saying he would never appoint an abortion rights opponent to the Supreme Court. The idea that pro-abortion groups "defended" Kerry is AFAIK quite a stretch. See Johnny Got His Mind Straightened. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 05/25/04 05:39:27 PM |
Marxoids Want More Leeway to Smear George W. Bush That's how I interpret this. See also Behind the Numbers: Liberals in Public, Press More Likely to Self-identify as Moderates. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 05/25/04 05:19:31 PM |
Plan 9 From Outer Space? Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCIII + + + + + I believe President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld's thinking goes along these lines: The American population is growing about 0.92 percent a year; 66.7 percent of that very same population is between the ages of 15 and 64 and these same people are having about 14 babies a year per 1,000. At this rate, we need to greatly reduce the male half of the population. Without the males, females will slow down and, in some cases, stop breeding. This will move us in the direction of a more controllable number of people, mostly weak women. By sending large quantities of men to fight this war in Iraq that we've cooked up, we can eliminate many of the stronger ones. The children who lose fathers in this war, especially the boys who won't have a father's guidance, will succumb to depression and have possible suicidal tendencies. The surviving female children will be hardened by losses and by their mothers who turn bitter and tough. We'll give these children one great thing to hold onto and strive toward, an absolute sense of patriotism; not just faith in our country, but unshakable faith in our president and other leaders since we are in fact guided by God himself. We will make machines out of these children, willing to die for any course we decide to lay out for them. We will keep some of the weaker ones in the factories to build our weapons and machines for our continued plan of world domination.
Kathleen Anderton + + + + + I do not think it's beyond question that the quoted letter to the editor is a hoax written by a conservative to make liberals look bad. But, who knows? Let's put some perspective on that woman's thoughts on the whole anti-war hysteria, for that matter with some stats from 2002:
Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 05/25/04 07:06:52 AM |
Michael Berg is a Sick Man Blinded by Ideology Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCII I knew about this last week, of course. I have been pondering whether to blog it. I decided to do so, not because it lets us see how grief can drive a man, but how ideology can continue to drive a man despite his grief. Nor do I feel bad about making such a judgement about a man who has not yet stopped dancing perversely on his own son's grave. + + + + + My son, Nick, was my teacher and my hero. He was the kindest, gentlest man I know; no, the kindest, gentlest human being I have ever known. He quit the Boy Scouts of America because they wanted to teach him to fire a handgun. Nick, too, poured into me the strength I needed, and still need, to tell the world about him. People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son's tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: "Don't you blame the five men who killed him?" I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration, but I am wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary man my son was. I take comfort that when they did the awful thing they did, they weren't quite as in to it as they might have been. I am sure that they came to admire him. I am sure that the one who wielded the knife felt Nick's breath on his hand and knew that he had a real human being there. I am sure that the others looked into my son's eyes and got at least a glimmer of what the rest of the world sees. And I am sure that these murderers, for just a brief moment, did not like what they were doing. George Bush never looked into my son's eyes. George Bush doesn't know my son, and he is the worse for it. George Bush, though a father himself, cannot feel my pain, or that of my family, or of the world that grieves for Nick, because he is a policymaker, and he doesn't have to bear the consequences of his acts. George Bush can see neither the heart of Nick nor that of the American people, let alone that of the Iraqi people his policies are killing daily. Donald Rumsfeld said that he took responsibility for the sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners. How could he take that responsibility when there was no consequence? Nick took the consequences. Even more than those murderers who took my son's life, I can't stand those who sit and make policies to end lives and break the lives of the still living. Nick was not in the military, but he had the discipline and dedication of a soldier. Nick Berg was in Iraq to help the people without any expectation of personal gain. He was only one man, but through his death he has become many. The truly unselfish spirit of giving your all to do what you know in your own heart is right even when you know it may be dangerous; this spirit has spread among the people who knew Nick, and that group has spread and is spreading all over the world. So what were we to do when we in America were attacked on September 11, that infamous day? I say we should have done then what we never did before: stop speaking to the people we labelled our enemies and start listening to them. Stop giving preconditions to our peaceful coexistence on this small planet, and start honouring and respecting every human's need to live free and autonomously, to truly respect the sovereignty of every state. To stop making up rules by which others must live and then separate rules for ourselves. George Bush's ineffective leadership is a weapon of mass destruction, and it has allowed a chain reaction of events that led to the unlawful detention of my son which immersed him in a world of escalated violence. Were it not for Nick's detention, I would have had him in my arms again. That detention held him in Iraq not only until the atrocities that led to the siege of Fallujah, but also the revelation of the atrocities committed in the jails in Iraq, in retaliation for which my son's wonderful life was put to an end. My son's work still goes on. Where there was one peacemaker before, I now see and have heard from thousands of peacemakers. Nick was a man who acted on his beliefs. We, the people of this world, now need to act on our beliefs. We need to let the evildoers on both sides of the Atlantic know that we are fed up with war. We are fed up with the killing and bombing and maiming of innocent people. We are fed up with the lies. Yes, we are fed up with the suicide bombers, and with the failure of the Israelis and Palestinians to find a way to stop killing each other. We are fed up with negotiations and peace conferences that are entered into on both sides with preset conditions that preclude the outcome of peace. We want world peace now. Many have offered to pray for Nick and my family. I appreciate their thoughts, but I ask them to include in their prayers a prayer for peace. And I ask them to do more than pray. I ask them to demand peace now. · Michael Berg is the father of Nick Berg, the US contractor beheaded on video in Iraq this month by a group believed to be linked to al-Qaida. This is an extract from his message of support for the Stop The War Coalition's demonstration, End the Torture Bring the Troops Home Now, which will be held at 11am tomorrow [Sat. May 22, 2004] at the Embankment in London + + + + + The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Tue. 05/25/04 06:59:37 AM |
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