Our Quote of the Day is from Bertrand Russell who said, "The
whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
Some observations on the news...
Hugo Chavez has dispatched tanks and troops to Venezuela's border
with Colombia. Ecuador has done the same, after Colombian troops
killed a rebel leader inside their border. There are reports
that Ecuador has also severed diplomatic relations with Colombia.
Meanwhile, Colombia claims to have documents that show Chavez
has been supporting the FARC rebels. Chavez denies it. Three
countries threatening two wars, Colombia splitting its forces
two opposite borders, and one wonders where they all got their
weapons and training?
Check this lead from a BBC article: "Opium poppy production
in Afghanistan reached another record high last year and Kabul
must do more to stop it, a US State Department report says." What
a conundrum. First let's acknowledge that the most backward country
in the world is holding itself together because it is the world's
supplier of heroin. More than 96% of the world's stuff comes
from Afghanistan. The crop puts food on the table for perhaps
a third of its populace, in addition to sustaining the Taliban.
There are no good agri-alternatives. So the notion that we're
telling Karzai to do something about it, when he controls less
than a third of the country and certainly not those areas where
the poppies are grown, is patently, and ominously, absurd.
A new study reported in the British medical journal Lancet draws
a direct correlation between high rates of religious adherence
and abortions. In more secular societies, abortion rates are
lower.. For example, the U.S. abortion rate is twice what it
is in more secular Western Europe. Also, to no one's surprise,
cultures that lack access to contraception and reproductive education
have higher abortion rates. Irony of ironies, the policies of
the so-called pro-life people like The Bush Boy and the Pope
increase both the number of abortions and the number of women
who die trying to terminate their pregnancies in countries where
abortion is outlawed or limited.
Frank Rich made a good point in his Sunday essay when he observed
of Obama that "His upbeat notion of a yes-we-can national
mobilization for the common good, however saccharine, speaks
to the pride and idealism of Americans who are bone-weary of
a patriotism defined exclusively by flag lapel pins, the fear
of terrorism and the prospect of perpetual war. "
I didn't think I would ever agree with Karl Rove but he's right
when he says that Democrats calls for Hillarod to withdraw -
especially if she doesn't do particularly well in today's voting
- are unwise and unbecoming. Of course, we believe this for different
reasons. He wants the Dems to keep fighting to hurt each other,
thinking that will damage the eventual nominee. But that may
not happen. As my friend Yo suggested yesterday, a lot of us
would like a better choice. Indeed, the best thing that could
happen to this country would be that Clinton becomes competitive
again and they take the contest all the way to the convention.
Where the Democrats could come to their sense and draft Michael
Bloomberg or Al Gore or Leon Panetta instead. Hillarod and Barack-O
just haven't shown the depth and character needed to lead this
country out the hole that The Bush Boy and the Congress - including
Clinton and Obama - have dug for us.
A piece in the Financial Times goes to the heart of the Hillarod
problem; her heart. Or rather, her character, or rather the lack
there off. The author suggests, "For the answer, one should
turn (as always) to the teachings of Marx. 'The secret of success
in life is sincerity,' Groucho once famously observed. 'If you
can fake that, you've got it made.'" I would supplement
that view with that of a character in one of Douglas Adams' books,
when he describes a television anchorwoman appraising herself
in the mirror before heading off to a meeting: "She looked
cool and in charge, and if she could fool herself, she could
fool anybody."
Senator Senile has weighed in on the red-phone moment saying
that he was more equipped to handle any emergency. So maybe Barack-O's
people will produce a new commercial, like the one Hillarod made,
except after she answers the call, she takes the phone away from
her ear, looks behind her and says, "John, it's for you." Then
the shot changes to McCain in his pajamas, waking up from a deep
sleep muttering, "Bomb, bomb, bomb....bomb, bomb everyone."
Speaking of fooling themselves, Hamas declared victory after
Israel withdrew its troops from the Gaza Strip. Fighting there
left over a 120 Palestinians dead. Some victory. It's akin to
the chief morale officer on the Titanic suggesting, "Not
to worry, we're just stopping for ice."
A measure passed by the San Francisco supervisors, apparently
without some or all of them reading it, would have the city install
human-shaped bronze plaques in the sidewalk where homeless people
died. The plan was hatched by a homeless advocate who has spent
years working with the mentally ill. His two-foot-by-two-foot
plaques - think of the pavement commemorations for stars in Hollywood
- would include the details of their lives as well as how they
died. Ian Brennan said the plaques were not meant to be provocative
but if they were then maybe people would be prompted to do something
about the homeless problem. Hmm, maybe instead of squandering
scant city funds digging up the sidewalks and embedding plagues
and provoking even noble folks, the tax dollars might be better
spent treating the living homeless.
The Black-Robed Nine has postponed deciding whether the FCC
should prevail in the case of fleeting swear words in a live
broadcast. At issue is when something unscripted and unplanned
pops out of the mouth of someone who either doesn't know better
or is messing with a broadcaster. The Bush administration is
backing FCC which wants to be able to levy hefty fines against
networks and stations that "allow" such behavior. It
should be noted that Congress, too, is all fired up at protecting
Americans' delicate sensibilities; last year they increased the
existing fine ten-fold. How brave of them; kinda like holding
hearings on steroids in professional sports while the economy
sinks into the mire and the environment toasts up. Back to swearing
on the air, it doesn't happen often, it's even less rarely deliberate,
and if we can't make allowances for such, then we are expecting
too much of not only the broadcasters but of the species.
SetonnoteS
A part-time math teacher won't be helping students at one California
State university. She was fired for failing to sign a loyalty
oath, unabridged. For years and years, Marianne Kearney-Brown
had inserted the word "nonviolently" where it said
that she would "support and defend" her country and
her state. She's a Quaker, and while she would do her part if
either needed her, it would be nonviolently. And in such times
of need, there is plenty of need for people to support the effort
without guns.
Indeed, the 50-year-old woman who specializes in helping struggling
students haS been amending the oath she signed for a long time,
at various school districts in Northern California and no one
seemed to care. They recognized her talents and what she could
gave to her students. They respected her religion. They had no
doubt that come a war, she would be contributing greatly to our
side.
A lawyer for the university declared that modifying the oath "is
very clearly not permissible." Eunice Chan added, "It's
an unfortunate situation. If she'd just signed the oath, the
campus would have been more than willing to continue her employment." The
campus human (sic) resources manager backed up the lawyer: "Based
on the advice of counsel, we cannot permit attachments or addenda
that are incompatible and inconsistent with the oath."
Yeah, well, the unfortunate part is that you have your head
up your law books, madam. Where rules conflict with reason, you
can tell the good lawyers from the bad because they latter eschew
reason. This miscreant denied the university and its students
a clearly proven, qualified teacher because she said she wouldn't
shoot some stranger because he was wearing a different uniform.
That's what it amounts to.
Also, this lawyer might have checked first with the state Attorney
General's office. Said a spokesman for Jerry Brown, "as
a general matter, oaths may be modified to conform with individual
values." For instance, he said, atheists aren't required
to swear to god. And in this case, a citizen who was willing
to affirm her support of nation and state, just without a gun,
was demonstrating a higher moral value than the oath required.
Kearney-Brown may have violated the letter of the law, but not
the spirit, and with Brown seemingly behind her, perhaps she
will ultimately prevail. In the meantime, the university is spending
money defending a morally indefensible position, while our children
are deprived of important lessons. Said the teacher, "I
was born to do this. I teach developmental math, the lowest level.
The kids who are conditionally accepted to the university. Give
me the kids who hate math - that's what I want."
Clearly the lawyer and the H-R person who acceded to her nonsensical
judgement are the ones who should be fired, as a lesson to all
of those lawyers, bureaucrats and other managers who inappropriately
use rules to defy what is right.
And that's SetonnoteS...for March 4th.
If you know others who you think might be interested in what's
reported here, please forward this to them, or they can find
it on-line.
If you have comments, please send to me an email..
Respectfully,
Tony Seton
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Tony Seton
Quality News Network
PO Box 2318
Monterey CA 93942
