Via Politico, AP defies common decency for the Greater Good (hat tip – Blackfive):
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”
The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.
The AP reported in a story that it decided to make the image public anyway because it “conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.”
Sarah Palin today picked up a widely heard theme on the right, using the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller to call attention to the murder of an army recruiter in Arkansas, allegedly by a self-styled Islamic militant:
The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media’s hands yesterday — both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.
William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.
Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death
Yes its true, my admittedly lackluster post yesterday about the Tea Parties brought me a new fan. Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon decided my lowly post was more worthy than any of the dozens or hundreds out there.
Let’s be honest, my blog is at best a D List wanna be. I don’t have a huge hoard of loyal readers, just a few who get something from my writing.
I’m OK with that, though I admit that someday when the day job is less of a priority, I hope to make a much larger impact.
So it is always gratifying when one of the more popular blogs sits up and takes notice. I recall a few occasions when Kos and other lefties have taken umbrage at something I said.
But generally, I expect that when I am being snarky and in depth on a hot issue. I did not expect that on the Tea Parties. In my blog yesterday I deliberately took a position that avoided the issues and just celebrated the Tea Parties for what they were: wonderful exercises in free speech, assembly and petitioning the Government. I noted that even the liberal mockery was something to celebrate as it was proof that they had an impact.
The US Homeland Security Department, under fire for saying US forces returning from the Iraq and Afghan wars were potential right-wing extremist recruits, said Wednesday it honors US veterans.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to douse anger among conservatives and veterans groups like the American Legion over a report from her department warning of a rising threat of right-wing extremism.
“We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not — nor will we ever — monitor ideology or political beliefs,” Napolitano said in a statement amid charges that the department had done just that.
Which, in fact, they have.
American Legion chief David Rehbein on Tuesday blasted the report as “incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased” and took special aim at its warning that returning veterans having difficulties reintegrating society could be recruited by right-wing groups for possible terrorist attacks.
I am amazed at the idiocy around using taxation to control behavior. Cigarette taxes are the most obvious ’sin’ tax of course, but the reality is that such sin taxes create a convenient source of revenue for governments. They can take a behavior or habit and attach a tax to it, justified with some presentation of serving the greater good, when in reality it is governmental greed. Consider the billions generated in Federal, State and local tobacco taxes. Assuming that the stated intention of all these authorities, to fund smoking cessation programs, actually succeeds, the government would suddenly find a rich source of revenue dried up and gone. Put simply, if people actually quit smoking completely, the result would be devastated economies all over the nation. Think they want you to quit? Think again.
Why do you think they will not just ban production and sale of tobacco?
So here comes New York, fresh and energized after its trans fat ban, to offer us the next round of nannyism.
The subject of William Ayers has been one of great debate, with a lot of diverse opinions weighing in.
To some, he will always be a traitor. An unrepentant terrorist and rebel who formally declared war on his country, who bombed his own country, who lead an organization whose activities caused at least three deaths and many injuries.
I personally admit that I am sympathetic to this view. His group targeted police and military, and as one analyst noted in 2003, only sheer incompetence kept them from killing more.
I take personally violent attacks on police and Military. Likewise, I take exception to the fact that his apologies and regrets are heavily nuanced and in reality he has never fully recanted his traitorous activities.
The penalty for treason is death, yet he is lauded as a pillar of his community. I find it distasteful. This is again the abandonment of consequences.
But there are those who feel his years offer atonement. The submit he deserves recognition for the life he lead after his violent activities. They showcase his accomplishments and laud his as a role model in his community.
If you connect the dots between racism, sexism and democrats you end up with one word:
Hijacked.
In both cases we had serious social issues. We had serious social revolution. We had real change and social enlightenment.
And we ended up with both issues being hijacked by the democrat party for political gain, with many of the advances and changes being lost in the betrayal.
In both cases equality and empowerment were traded for victim hood and entitlement.
I am no social expert on either topic. But I can speak to change because I have seen change.
I have seen peoples attitudes shift and their determination to be fair and to ignore race and sex.
But I have also seen opportunists. People who stir the flames of distrust to gain power and prestige.
I have seen racism and sexism offered as default explanations to imaginary problems.
I have seen white males herded into an atavistic corner, and told they are racists and sexists and that they can never change because of institutional discrimination and white male privilege.
The democrats have reached a severe point of desperation in the presidential race as they face something they cannot understand, and find to be anathema: A woman who is feminist, successful, and unapologetically conservative.
The democrats would have you believe that conservative men are unibrowed atavistic chauvinists who want their women barefoot and pregnant. They likewise consider conservative women to be ignorant slaves to their religion and men, and when one pops up that is strong willed, yet not subservient to the liberal agenda and dogma, they freak out, and begin to attack them for the very things that they claim to respect: Women who are independent to their own ideals, dependent on no one and willing to fight for their beliefs.
The attacks on Palin are by far some of the sexist and most ridiculous attacks I can recall, and in their own way, they are a massive compliment to Ms Palin’s qualifications. The democrats know she is not only capable and qualified, but that she brings a sense of life to the campaign that has never been seen.
Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.
This year, America doesn’t deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.
For we have sinned.
We have failed to pay attention. We’ve settled for lame excuses. We’ve spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago.
The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner.
The America they founded should never imprison people for years without charge or hearing.
The America they founded should never ship prisoners to foreign lands, knowing their new jailers might torture them.
Such abuses once were committed by the arrogant crowns of Europe, spawning rebellion.
Today, our nation does such things in the name of our safety. Petrified, unwilling to take the risks that love of liberty demands, we close our eyes.
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