This is a response to more than one recent diary. I've suggested that critics of those in my title contact them directly. It really is very easy, democratic even, to express your frustration, disagreement with those who had excelled in creating wealth.
You might be surprised.(Not with a personal response, but a very public one)
Instead of taking my suggestion to contact the principals of these capitalist, wealth creating targets of liberal disdain; some choose to use a liberal blog to vent their frustration.
Hence, I offer my defense of those undefended in the liberal hemisphere.
flame away, or offer logical arguments for your position below:
I do not expect any challenge from the sources below regarding quotes exceeding a paragraph. My bias, contributions to save Sesame Street, and other PBS/NPR educational offerings. You decide:
http://www.theamericanview.com/...
Warren Buffett “Agnostic,” Bill Gates Rejects Sermon On the Mount, Not “Huge Believer” In “Specific Elements” Of Christianity
Well, in a succinct email to me, Debbie Bosanek, Assistant to Warren Buffett, says: “Mr. Buffett is agnostic.”
And Bill Gates? In a November 1995 interview of Gates by David Frost, this exchange took place:
Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?
Gates: I don’t. I’m not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I’m a huge believer in. There’s a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very, very positive impact.
Frost: I sometimes say to people, do you believe there is a god, or do you know there is a god? And, you’d say you don’t know?
GATES TOLD interviewer David Frost that he does not believe in the Sermon On The Mount.
Gates: In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don’t know if there’s a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.
On January 13, 1996, in a “Time” magazine profile of Gates by Walter Isaacson, there was this exchange:
Isaacson: Isn’t there something special, perhaps even divine, about the human soul?
Gates: I don’t have any evidence on that.
Isaacson wrote: “Gates face suddenly becomes expressionless, his squeaky voice turns toneless, and he folds his arms across his belly and vigorously rocks back and forth in a mannerism that has become so mimicked at Microsoft that a meeting there can resemble a round table of ecstatic rabbis.”
Isaacson also quotes Gates as saying: “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.” – J.L.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
U.S. Libraries
In 1997, the foundation introduced a U.S. Libraries initiative with a goal of "ensuring that if you can get to a public library, you can reach the Internet." The foundation has given grants, installed computers and software, and provided training and technical support in partnership with public libraries nationwide.
Most recently, the foundation gave a $12.2-million grant to the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) to assist libraries in Louisiana and Mississippi on the Gulf Coast, many of which were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Education Smaller Schools
The Gates foundation claims one in five students is unable to read and grasp the contents of what they read, and African American and Latino students are graduating with the skills of a middle school student.[
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has invested more than $250 million in grants to create new small schools, reduce student-to-teacher ratios, and to divide up large high schools through the schools-within-a-school model.
Cornell University
Faculty of Computing and Information Science received US$25 million (of the US$60 million in total) from the Foundation for a new Information Science building which will be named the William H. Gates Hall. This will be part of the newly planned Information Campus at Ithaca and is expected to be finished by 2014.
Carnegie Mellon University
The Foundation gave US$20 million to the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science for a new Computer Science building which is named the Gates Center for Computer Science.[36] It officially opened on September 22, 2009.
D.C. Achievers Scholarships
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced March 22, 2007 a $122 million initiative to send hundreds of the District of Columbia's poorest students to college.[38]
….
William H. Gates Public Service Law Program
This program awards five full scholarships annually to the University of Washington School of Law. Scholars commit to working in relatively low-paying public service legal positions for at least the first five years following graduation.
Pacific Northwest
Discovery Institute
Donated US$1 million in 2000 to the Discovery Institute and pledged US$9.35 million over 10 years in 2003, including US$50,000 of Bruce Chapman's US$141,000 annual salary. According to a Gates Foundation grant maker, this grant is "exclusive to the Cascadia project" on regional transportation, and it may not be used for the Institute's other activities, including promotion of intelligent design