Failing Pastordan: My Brunch With Sergeant Aguina

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Tuesday August 07, 2007 · 4:27 AM PDT

2007/08/07 · 04:27

At the YKos Sunday morning service, Pastordan encouraged us to reach for the spark or soul within our adversaries, and engage with them. Shortly after the service, I had an opportunity to practice what he preached, and I failed.

During the Sunday Blogger's Brunch, Sergeant Aguina sat next to me at my table. And I did not engage.

Free Radical

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Sunday August 13, 2006 · 10:23 AM PDT

2006/08/13 · 10:23

If Republicans are going to persist in supporting a "war president", and insist that criticism of the president during a time of war hurts America, perhaps Democrats can look towards Great Britain and counter by promoting a candidate for "Law and order President".

Our allies must be learning that, if they want to pursue counterterrorism investigations, that they have to be careful what to tell the Americans, who are establishing a record for prematurely publicising these investigations for political gain. Read More

Kids in the Hall Present: The Perfect Lieberman Allegory

Free Radical

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Saturday August 12, 2006 · 6:26 AM PDT

2006/08/12 · 06:26

Wherein the challenger keeps getting his ass kicked, and ignores the pleads to "stay down!"

YouTube video

Would the drink-sipping guy represent Lieberman's Republican backers? "He won the battle, not the war...right beside ya buddy...heh heh heh, let's go kid..."

As for his girlfriend Sharisse...

Why is marriage recognized by law?

Free Radical

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Wednesday July 05, 2006 · 7:41 AM PDT

2006/07/05 · 07:41

New York State's highest court is supposed to rule today on whether the state should recognize same-sex marriage.

I've been exasperated for quite a while by debates on the issue of same-sex marriage, because there's a key question that I am not seeing being addressed, and I think it's the elephant in the room.

Why does the State recognize marriage as a legal institution? Read More

The "One Percent Doctrine" applied to an Inconvenient Truth, and a de-lurking

Free Radical

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Thursday June 29, 2006 · 5:48 PM PDT

2006/06/29 · 17:48

The title of Ron Suskind's latest book, "The One Percent Doctrine", arises from this statement by Dick Cheney (via wikipedia):

If there's a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al-Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It's not about our analysis ... It's about our response.

What if this doctrine were applied to other, much more likely, scenarios?
Read More

Rolling Stone: All-Volunteer Army Must Volunteer Until 2031

Free Radical

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Tuesday February 15, 2005 · 5:48 PM PST

2005/02/15 · 17:48

I just came across this Rolling Stone article. I hadn't realized the stop-loss program had reached such a point:

"This is an 'all-volunteer Army' with footnotes," says McPeak. "And it's the footnotes that are being held in Iraq against their wishes. If that's not a back-door draft, tell me what is."

David Qualls, who joined the Arkansas National Guard for a year, is one of 40,000 troops in Iraq who have been informed that their enlistment has been extended until December 24th, 2031. "I've served five months past my one-year obligation," says Qualls, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the military with breach of contract. "It's time to let me go back to my life. It's a question of fairness, and not only for myself. This is for the thousands of other people that are involuntarily extended in Iraq. Let us go home."

Free Radical

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Sunday July 25, 2004 · 8:44 AM PDT

2004/07/25 · 08:44

The latest Klein article on NoLogo.com,The Mother of All Anti-War Forces, suggests that the most important "Parental Demographic" category in the election won't be Soccer Moms, or NASCAR dads, but Grieving Parents of Soldiers:

It is as if these parents have lost more than their children, they have also lost their fear, allowing them to speak with great clarity and power. This represents a dangerous challenge to the Bush administration, which likes to claim a monopoly on "moral clarity"....

American elections always seem to swing on some parental demographic or other: Last time it was soccer moms, this time it is supposed to be NASCAR dads. But on Sunday, NASCAR car-racing champion Dale Earnhardt said that he had taken his buddies to see Fahrenheit 9/11 and that "It's a good thing as an American to go see." It seems as if there may be another demographic that swings this election: not soccer moms or NASCAR dads but the parents of victims of war. They don't have the numbers to change the outcome in swing states, but they might just change something more powerful: the hearts and minds of Americans.

Free Radical

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Thursday July 22, 2004 · 1:19 PM PDT

2004/07/22 · 13:19

I was just thinking....Bush is fond of referring to Saddam as a "madman". I wonder if Saddam's lawyer could collect statements from various world leaders and use them to help support an insanity plea :)

"Well, if Bush says he's a madman, it must be true!"

On a more serious note: what is the evidence that Saddam is mentally unstable? As opposed to just cruel, evil or whatever....

Naomi Klein: Canadians Endangered by PM Stephen Harper

Free Radical

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Sunday June 20, 2004 · 11:38 PM PDT

2004/06/20 · 23:38

Naomi Klein says in her June 15 article that, if Stephen harper is elected PM and sends troops to join the "coalition of the willing", Canadians at home and abroad will become targets. Read More

Conservative Spin on Reagan's "Ketchup is a Vegetable"

Free Radical

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Sunday June 13, 2004 · 10:05 AM PDT

2004/06/13 · 10:05

All the Reagan retrospectives reminded me of this. I used to work with a bunch of ditto-heads, and one of them had a rationale for proclaiming "ketchup is a vegetable". The argument was that it had nothing to do with nutrition, but that by categorizing ketchup as a vegetable, the government could supply the schools with cheaper surplus ketchup.

This smells beyond fishy, but I like to check things out before dismissing them offhand. Can anyone point me to some primary sources that would debunk this?

RSS

Failing Pastordan: My Brunch With Sergeant Aguina

Framing: "War President" vs. "Law and Order President"

Kids in the Hall Present: The Perfect Lieberman Allegory

Why is marriage recognized by law?

The "One Percent Doctrine" applied to an Inconvenient Truth, and a de-lurking

Rolling Stone: All-Volunteer Army Must Volunteer Until 2031

Naomi Klein: Soldiers Families demographic trumps NASCAR Dads?

Could Saddam use an insanity plea?

Naomi Klein: Canadians Endangered by PM Stephen Harper

Conservative Spin on Reagan's "Ketchup is a Vegetable"