Around The Sphere January 8, 2007
Our famous linkfest offering you links to sites with MANY different viewpoints. Links do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TMV or its cobloggers.
A Libertarian Republican In Congress Breaks With The White House Over The Expected Policy To “Surge” (Escalate) U.S. Troops In Iraq. And he has a long history of being independent.
Let’s Not Forget That There Are Four New American Civilians Taken Hostage by kidnappers in Iraq. Here’s the video.
Home Depot Has Its Problems And Booted Out Its Chief Executive but SoCalPundit argues the problem actually begins in their parking lots — and offers an interesting link related to that…(I go to Home Depot but everytime I do, I’m board.)
A Popular Blogger Announces He’s Done And His Blog Can Be Taken Over By Someone Else. From The American Street’s Kevin Hayden:
I hate surrendering to the inevitable, but the time has come to do so. From within our team or without, I’m looking for someone to take over the running (and ownership) of this blog. There’ll be some time to permit a smooth transition. I should be able to afford to stay online till the end of February. Sometime in March, renewal of the host server will be required, or a new contract with another host. It’ll be up to the new owner to pay for that. They should also plan on moving the blog to a new domain (besides reachm.com) sometime in May.
Read the rest. He says he doesn’t want to reconsider, but hopefully he will. Kevin: I’ll let you in on a little secret. About three (or more) times a year over the past three years yours truly has considered totally walking away from blogging. But I was fortunate enough to be put back on track by a highly thoughtful blogger who will remain nameless. He was one of the first people I “met” in blogging both online and in person. It turned out he didn’t live too far from my place.
He would argue “If you walk away from it, how will you express yourself?” And he noted that he, just like me, sleeps better after doing posts. (I know our readers sleep better READING my posts but that’s another story). So, Kevin, you might reconsider. To be sure, you’ve mentioned some very real, serious financial issues and concerns — plus the inevitable issue of whether writing a weblog really means anything in the end. My readers have suggested to me in many emails how it could mean something in the end, although I haven’t tried shoving my computer up there yet.
We have to see people with ideas from the left, right and center go. So hopefully you’ll reconsider at the last minute and hang in there a little longer. Then a bit longer. Then a bit longer. The Internet Street would be tragically emptier without The American Street.
It’s No Big Secret That Democrat John Edwards Is Rich But Does That Make Him A Hypocrite When He Champions The Poor? Mark Daniels thinks Edwards is getting a bum rap in a post that needs to be read in full. A tiny bit 4 U:
…I think it’s true that while it’s difficult for the wealthy–even the newly wealthy–to identify with the poor, it’s not impossible. There will be plenty of substantive reasons to question John Edwards on a whole host of issues. I’m not defending him and frankly, I don’t see him as a viable or compelling candidate for President. But The Post’s leap is not only unfair, it’s intellectually lazy and borders on the demagogic.
Read it all.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Attention-Getting Speech Embracing Centrism And Bipartisanship Has Received Praise from the moderate Ripon Society.
Mixed Messages Department: If you’re standing on the rooftops proclaiming you’re for ethics reform, it might not be a good idea to give a standing ovation to Rep. William Jefferson…
A Primer On Blogging For College Students From Someone Who Is Good At It begins like this:
Blogs. You can’t escape them. The name sounds like something a five-year-old extracts from his nose, but the medium has unearthed scandals, raised millions of dollars, disgraced legendary newsmen, helped elect senators, birthed books, made movies, and commanded endless media attention. Moreover, a vast swath of the political class now uses them daily: Campaigns and magazines and interest groups and lobbies and unions and newspapers and radio shows and anyone else with an idea to peddle or brand to promote has entered the blogosphere, and if you want a job with these folks, you’d be well-served to seek some familiarity. So here’s a quick primer to what you should already know about blogging.
The author: Ezra Klein writing on Campus Progress. MUST READING for ALL bloggers and aspiring bloggers (and those who have a life and don’t aspire to do it).
And Speaking Of Education: Did You Know That Thomas Paine Is Very Relevant To Today’s Events? Read THIS and see.
A New Phrase: “You’ve been Plutoed…” (We’re not stuck on stupid so we don’t use catch phrases at the end of the day…)
Yet Another Review Of “Superman Returns” and it’s clear Bogus Gold hopes he won’t.
Big News From Florida where they’re lowering IQ requirements in the state’s gifted programs. (Didn’t Florida’s voters do about the same thing when they elected Katherine Harris to the House of Representatives?)
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10 Responses to “Around The Sphere January 8, 2007”
Ok on some of these subjects
Ron Paul is only a republican to get on the ballot. He tried to run as a libertarian, was told no and he ran as a republican
and as a product of Florida schools… they have ways around the 120 in gifted programs anyway (which are used)
Nice linkfest, Joe, but don’t expect many comments until you fixed the filter of the comment engine. It’s a myour annoyance. The list of censored words seems to be a bit, uh, arbitrary. And you don’t even get a feedback about what went wrong. The comment simply doesn’t show up.
If you don’t trust commenters to use decent language, better disable comments once and for all, instead of exposing visitors to this charade. It’s a total pain in the derriere.
Test
Lobbyist
Spinmeister
Lawyer
Consultant
Mercennary
Columnist
Spokesperson
Tax collector
Creditor
Strange – only ‘b00ker’ seems to be regarded here as an obscene job…
“I go to Home Depot but everytime I do, I’m board.”
Heh, if there’s a contest for cringeworthy puns, you’ve nailed it with that one, Joe.
Regarding Edwards as defender of the poor, I agree it doesn’t make him hypocritical, but I do think he needs to acknowledge it beyond the simple “my Daddy was a mill-worker.” You don’t need to be in a car wreck to know that solid brakes are a good idea, and you don’t need to be poor to understand how poverty hurts this country. What Edwards needs to do is make his case strongly rather than spouting the standard line.
I say the poor should put up their own candidates for public office if they want any changes made! I mean the rich have to dig into their pockets for a say in the system so why should the homeless and jobless get a free ride? It happens all the time in history – the poor are victimized by the system so the wealthy who benefit from the status quo peacefully step aside and make changes so they get less power and economic benefit and they give it to others out of the generosity of their hearts. Yeah, that Edwards – what a selfish demegogue. Isn’t he a member of the populari party anyway?
The reason that Edwards’ hypocrisy is pointed out is because for decades, the Democratic party has fostered the (mostly) false notion that the wealthy class gets wealthy on the backs of the poor. If he were simply advocating policies to increase opportunities for more economic security and upward mobility of the lower classes, then his mulimillion dollar mansion wouldn’t be a sign of hypocrisy. But because the Democratic mantra has been that the poor get poorer because of accrual of wealth by the priveleged few, Edwards deserves the criticism. It’s also telling that Marc Daniels used the example of Benjamin Franklin and pointed out that Franklin bequeathed his wealth to Philadelphia. OK, so as soon as Edwards does the same, then I’ll agree that this comparison is apt.
For a rich person to champion the poor is not hypocritical. But Edward’s “Two America’s” populism and repeated Walmart bashing seems pretty hypocritical in light of missteps like this.
So the wealthy don’t make money off the labor of others? They just make their wealth which magically appears? Interesting view of economics…no one has to have his labor undervalued in order to produce a profit for another who acctually engaged in no labor whatsoever to produce the commercial product. The more the undervalue the greater the profit = the more the wealth. Hence the wealthy make their profit off of stealing the labor of the poor. And then writing laws and history books to legitamize and sanction their theft as a valuable contribution to our civilization.
Eural:
“to produce a profit for another who acctually engaged in no labor whatsoever to produce the commercial product.”
Ah, management isn’t labor at all, huh? And of course capital investment doesn’t contribute anything at all, right? I’m not saying that capitalism is perfect by any means, but it beats any alternative that’s ever been tried IMO. Sorry, but if the project managers weren’t working their butts off, the construction laborers wouldn’t just show up and all work like little ant colonies to get the building constructed. Ditto for any other industry you want to examine. I don’t deny that some people profit unfairly and that exploitation doesn’t take place, but taking the extreme view that the wealthy haven’t earned their wealth in many cases is ridiculous.
And besides: my point was that if you take the view that you are articulating, how can you possibly then not criticize Edwards hypocrisy for being part of the wealthy class while his rhetoric condemns people like himself?