Archive for April, 2009
Playing Partisan Politics with Terrorists and Torture
President Obama won't stop playing hardball politics - even when it endangers national security. (Also see Roger L. Simon: "Tortured by Pelosi.")
A tax on sick people
a href=”http://drwes.blogspot.com/2009/04/ultimate-irony-sick-tax-to-make-health.html”Dr. Wes:/a The ultimate irony: A sick tax to make health care affordable.
Political Extremism Infiltrates the Pentagon
New Defense Department advisor Rosa Brooks is about as far to the left as one can go.
The Logical Fallacies of Appeasing Iran
Pundits are working overtime to convince you that the world can live with nuclear-armed mullahs. But it can't.
Troublemaking Dissenters at Palestinian Solidarity Week
Does showing the face of Hamas to university students represent "hate speech"?
The Soloist: Liberal Sentiment Flapping in the Wind
The Soloist has more American flags than Rocky IV, and each is there to tell us that we should hate Bush and/or America for neglecting the homeless.
Barack Obama’s Pardon, Prostrate, and Plead Foreign Policy
How can we expect Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, or Russia to act responsibly if they believe they have nothing to fear from us?
Abusing Elie Wiesel at Durban II
A member of Ahmadinejad's entourage takes sadistic pleasure in shouting "Zionazi!" at the Holocaust survivor. So much for dialogue with Iran. (At PJTV: "Roger L. Simon & Jon Voight Walk Out on Ahmadinejad.")
I.F. Stone: Soviet Spy
Liberals hit the roof over the espionage revelation about one of their icons — but the evidence is very conclusive.
"When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed…"
I often reflect on why people take their lives for financial or even job-related reasons. While waiting at the doctor’s office yesterday, I read emReader’s Digest /emand came across this quote from April 1930 entitled, a href=”http://www.rd.com/content/printContent.do?contentId=115285KeepThis=trueTB_iframe=trueheight=500width=790modal=true”"On Keeping Perspective:”/abr /br /blockquoteThere is something about the possession of wealth which is not good for the soul, perhaps. It places artificial value upon secondary things. A man losing a million metal tokens will put a revolver to his temple and pull the trigger. But he has lost nothing but money. He has deprived himself of life because misfortune has deprived him of luxuries. br /–Clarence Budington Kelland, The American Magazine /blockquotebr /br /The quote made me think about a href=”http://www.cnbc.com/id/30344311″the recent death of David Kellermann/a, acting chief financial officer of troubled U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac, who may have taken his life (a medical examiner is looking into the death). Often, like the quote above, people think that it is loss of money or perhaps, shame that causes people to kill themselves but it is much more than that: the way that people construe events can lead to a person taking his (usually) or her life.br /br /Kay Redfield Jamison, in her book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375701478?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0375701478″emNight Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide/em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0375701478″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”" style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / makes some good points:br /br /blockquotePsychological pain or stress alone–however great the loss or disappointment, however profound the shame or rejection–is rarely sufficient cause for suicide. Much of the decision to die is in the construing of events, and most minds, who are healthy, do not construe any event as devastating enough to warrant suicide. Stress and pain are relative, highly subjective in their experiencing and evaluation. Indeed, some people thrive on stress and are at sea without it: chaos and emotional upheaval are a comfortable part of their psychological lives….br /br /In short, when people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace…..People seem to be able to bear or tolerate depression as long as there is the belief that things will improve. If that belief cracks or disappears, suicide becomes the option of choice. /blockquotebr /br /Which is why it is so important to get someone who is suicidal help to change their a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition”cognition./a Change in thinking patterns can lead to a change in behavior.
Is That an Anti-Aircraft Gun in Your Pocket?
Mexican authorities misrepresent the weapons they are confiscating from drug cartels.
‘Going Galt’ Got Going Last Summer
How Pelosi, Obama, and Reid began the recession — and then worsened it.
Did We Elect Borat President?
All of these goofy gaffes by the president prove that he's really Sacha Baron Cohen and we're all in his next movie.
Constitutional Law Not One of Sen. Hatch’s Better Subjects
The Utah senator gets an "F" for standing the Constitution on its head. A PJM "exclusive."
Terrorism and Moral Torture
When fear and survival are at stake, it's not clear at all what lines people won’t cross.
Meet the protesters
I interviewed some Tea Party Protesters a href=”http://www.pjtv.com/video/Tea_Party_Coalition_Show/Meet_the_Protesters_w%7C_Glenn_Reynolds_and_Dr_Helen_Smith_-_Part_4_of_10/1729/”on homeschooling /aand their feelings a href=”http://www.pjtv.com/video/Tea_Party_Coalition_Show/Meet_the_Protesters_w%7C_Glenn_Reynolds_and_Dr_Helen_Smith_-_Part_5_of_10/1730/”about the government /alast week that are now up.
‘Anti-Durban II’ Conference Held in New York City
An important gathering at Fordham University to counter the racism and bigotry of the UN meeting in Geneva. (Also see Roger L. Simon: "Arrivederci, Geneva.")
Scared CEOs Hamper Economic Recovery
If you're an executive, your response to forthcoming regulation of yet-to-be-determined complexity will be to hunker down.
Starbucks Boycott Turns Violent
With a founder who is pro-Israel and a symbol of globalization, Starbucks was bound to attract the haters.
Bye Bye, Columbus Day
Brown University is the latest example of political correctness trumping America's heritage.
What’s an Engineer Got That a Banker Doesn’t?
It has always been true that our technology advances at a much faster pace than social progress. Why?
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