Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Heckler on It’s the stupidity about the economy
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/24
- ANTI on Goldman Sachs ‘apology’ hollow
- Phinatic on It’s the stupidity about the economy
- ANTI on Open thread 11/24
- Phantom on Goldman Sachs ‘apology’ hollow
- gster on Goldman Sachs ‘apology’ hollow
- Phantom on Huckabee felt costs of campaign
- Phantom on Huckabee felt costs of campaign
- GMC70 on Open thread 11/24
Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted May 5, 2007 at 1:04 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
- Permalink
- Comments RSS
- Both comments and trackbacks are closed
69 Comments
More of the good news from Iraq:
“Iraq is hemorrhaging doctors as violence racks the nation. To stem the flow, the Iraqi government has recently taken a cue from Saddam Hussein: Medical schools are once again forbidden to issue diplomas and transcripts to new graduates.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050402359.html?hpid=topnews?hpid=topnews
Good morning all.
XXX
My hopes and prayers go out to the people of Greensburg this morning. Thank goodness for the fact that Doppler radar allowed the tornado sirens to be blaring for 20 minutes before it hit.
I pass by Greensburg several times a week. I have the school account there.
I know Greensburg and people there. I stop at the Kwick Shop regularly to get gas and stuff. I was there just this past Thursday. I have eaten at the Lunch Box.
I can just visualize what it looks now. Some of the footage this morning and the accounts last night (I was up till 1:00am watching this) from the storm spotters talking about the damages to specific buildings and I know exactly what building he is talking about.
I hope the people of Greensburg can put their lives back together.
Hey Capn…here is something to be REALLY PROUD of your beloved Democratic Party:
Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent “Trust Fund” and put it into theGeneral fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democraticallycontrolled House and Senate.
Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.
Q: Which Political Party started taxing SocialSecurity annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the “tie-breaking” deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.
Q: Which Political Party decided to start givingannuity payments to immigrants?
A: Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!
Then, after doing all this, the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!
Rap, since when do we use the writings of others without identifying it as a quote? Doesn’t that make you a plagiarist?
The email that you “lifted” (copy and paste) was floating around in ‘05. Too bad you didn’t do a little research.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/sschanges.asp
Now you look stupid. Or dishonest. Maybe both. I know…Snopes is a Liberal website, right?
Actually, raptor, taxing a part of the Social Security payments received makes sense, in that such puts these on a similar footing with private retirement plan benefits. As we know, for those not self-employed, there are two sources of contributions to social security; a total of 7.65% of gross wages (6.2% FICA, 1.45% Medicare) is deducted from the employee’s wages; a matching contribution is made by the employer, deductible by the employer, and not taxed to the employee. Thus, why should not a part of the social security benefit be taxable, as pensions funded solely by the employer are fully taxable. Similarly, IRA (non-Roth) distributions are fully taxable to the employee, as s/he received a deduction therefore, and the earnings thereon accrued tax-free. For self-employed individuals, I would point to the deduction for one-half the Self Employment tax as an “above the line” adjustment to gross income that has been a part of the law for a number of years. Again, given the deduction, why should not a part of the benefit be subject to income taxation upon receipt?
BTW, raptor, I’ll need to do a search, but the taxation of a part of social security benefits was, IIRC, a part of the reforms to “save social security” adopted during the second Reagan administration.
raptor, actually the taxation of up to one-half the amount received in social security benefits became effective in 1984, during the first Reagan Administration, contrary to my recollection. This is still the general rule, although under certain circumstances, up to 85% of the benefits received may be subject to income taxation.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6524/is_n2_56/ai_14381958
Damn….normally I check such things. My error on that one…going to go beat my head on the wall a few times…
Thanks to all for smacking down Raptor without me even seeing the post.
For one thing, I wouldn’t say that I “love” the Democratic party.
They have some appeasers in their ranks like Leiberman. Also, they way they allowed themselves to get railroaded into voting for Bush’s war showed a lack of conviction on the Democrats in Congress.
But compared to Worst-President-Ever and his pack of “me-too-ers,” yes, the Democratic party is far superior.
By the way, Rap, you forgot one little thing in your lie-filled Social security rant: who brought us Social security against the screaming opposition?
And with a single Act, eliminated poverty among the elderly from 40 percent to under 10 percent?
The Democratic party.
Rap–I appreciate the fact that you can admit when you’re wrong though . . .
I’ve been wrong on more than one occasion and I think I usually own up to it.
Now if you could get some of your right-wing colleagues to do the same, we might actually be able to learn something from each other once in awhile.
Raptor is to be commended: He’s the first Rightist I’ve ever observed to admit an error.
I’m with Door King.
Way to go, Rap!
I am stunned, sickened, and completely disheartened by the news about the young Kurdish girl who was stoned to death by a group of men, including members of her family. She was in love with a boy from another religion, plain and simple.She was drug from her home and stoned to death in a dirt street. It took 30 minutes of stoning to kill her.These are not actions of rational loving human beings; they are actions of ignorant hateful followers of misguided religion.Let me pose a rhetorical question? Was Saddam Hussein a product of Iraq culture or did Saddam create this culture?I think Saddam knew exactly what was needed to control the nation. How could any peace loving, democratic, person or party expect to ever lead this Iraq Nation in the new millenium? They don’t understand love. They don’t understand human nature. They don’t want to grow beyond their own little piece of hell they have created.Saddam is gone and our troops are dying to keep the Sunnis and Shias from killing each other.If we pull out – the next brutal dictator will eventually rise to the surface, no fault of Bush, other than Bush was very ignorant of Iraq and should have never gone in.If we stay, more of the same. Killing, killing, killing.Our nation mourns for 32 students killed at Virginia Tech. Does Iraq mourn for the little girl who was stoned to death? I don’t think they get it?Get this – it is more shameful to the little girls father that she was in love with a boy from another religion. More shameful than his letting his daughter be stoned to death.How exactly are we going to bring any peace and rationality to a country that practices this shit.India clips off the clitoris of their young girls. Iraq stones them to death. India too. It’s called honor killing. The family keeps its honor by killing their own children.Hmmm…I cannot think of anything more dishonoring than a parent not protecting their child.Sick. I say we pull out and never look back.If the world were to react to this young girls death I think the world’s opinion of our being in Iraq would change and maybe we could get some help.I am sad.
There ways are not our ways, we will never change their culture. What the hell are we doing over there?
“There ways are not our ways, we will never change their culture. What the hell are we doing over there?”———-
Are you so sure?
We changed Japanese culture dramatically. Didn’t we?
GS, how many troops did we have in Japan for how long to accomplish those results?
And as I recall, we dropped a couple of atom bombs to get their attention.
Am back..(totally chagrined and dragging tail between legs) with another (confirmed!) news report that is repulsive. Not political at all this time. There are police reports trickling in of scam artists already at work trying to get credit card information to “help the Greensburg tornado victims”.
How low can some people sink?
XXX,
The firebombing of almost every major metropolitan and manufacturing center in Japan did far more damage and killed far more people than the nuclear attacks.
By the time of the Japanese surrender, the people were starving, their manufacturing base was shattered, and their Navy and merchant fleet were at the bottom of the Pacific.
I’ve said it several times on this thread: If the US wants the same outcome in Iraq as the outcomes in post-WW2 Germany and Japan, the American people must be prepared to completely crush the existing society.
Pray that our leaders never succumb to that kind of insanity.
“I’ve said it several times on this thread”
I meant to say “several times on various threads…”
I have been for crushing them for years. If we had crushed them 20 years ago, just think how sweet life would be today.
raptor – I think the part about being able to collect SS annuity without paying in a dime is another urban myth.
For basic social security coverage, there needs to be ten consecutive quarters of earnings, IIRC.
BTW, Ben, how did the clean up go? I’ve been “office bound” today.
“And as I recall, we dropped a couple of atom bombs to get their attention.”———-
I recall the same, and while I don’t advocate turning the Middle East to a sheet of glass – as a country, after WWII, we promised ourselves never to allow another threat to world security to get that far.
I’m not going to second guess the integrity of Truman’s move, but Japan went from a sworn enemy, bent on destruction of the civilized West, to an industrialized ally of the United States.
I can’t imagine the world would be as good as it is today, had that not happened.
We played footsies with radical Islam for decades, while they struck outside our borders, not paying them much heed until we were hit by the worst of their kind in 2001.
The only way to defeat an insurgency is genocide.
Think about that.
To defeat the Natives Americans, the white people had to virtually exterminate the Indians.
Unless America is prepared to exterminate the Iraqis, the insurgency will eventually drive our forces out. Think back to the Soviets and Afghanistan – it took ten years but the Soviets were eventually forced out.
Art,
Germany lost almost two million civilians in WW2 (only 160,000 of which were German Jews killed in the Holocaust); Japan lost 750,000.
In both nations, there were millions of homeless refugees. Starvation and disease approached levels seen in third-world nations.
The dead, injured and homeless represented human suffering on a previously unimaginable scale.
Is this what you want to see happen in Iraq? Seriously?
Are you so sure?
We changed Japanese culture dramatically. Didn’t we?Posted by: GSheridan | May 05, 2007 at 12:11 PM
No, we did not. JAPAN changed Japanese culture dramatically.
I don’t mean this in the “only Iraqis can change Iraq” way that Sam Brownback means, although it’s true that real change must always come from “inside.”
Study some Japanese history. The old men who invaded China in 1931 were the 4th generation removed from the birth of the Empire of Japan. The empire itself was a reaction to the Western culture due to trade with the West. Hirihito’s syncreticism represented Japan’s last gasp at holdng onto its “old ways.” When the old men, the 4th generation, lost WWII, it was a very natural step for Japanese culture to adopt enough Western culture to fit in.
There is no 4th generation of Sunni and Shi’ia tribes of Iraq, though. There is no “last generation” clinging to Islam with its youngest generation open to Western culture (as Japan was in 1945-7). The forces ripping Iraq apart right now never participated in the Age of Reason (neither did Japan, but it had 4 generations to catch up). JAPAN changed Japanese culture, yeah, but not overnight. It took 4 generations to do what you apparently assume took a handful of years.
To make Iraq “work” we’ve got to babysit them through THEIR 4 generations — or longer.
There is no way to compare Japan c.a. 1945 to Iraq c.a. 2003. No way.
This is the part that Augustus Stupidus does not understand.
It took 4 generations for Japan to catch up, and we STILL had to nuke the island to bring them around.
Twice.
The oldest generation, the one in power in 1931, fought HARD to hold on to their “old ways.”
Tom,”The firebombing of almost every major metropolitan and manufacturing center in Japan did far more damage and killed far more people than the nuclear attacks.”
Of course you’re right and Japanese have a mortal fear of fire now.
I had opportunity to work with Japanese police; some old enough to remember WWII. They tell that even with the fire bombing they were prepared to continue the war “to the last man”. The atom bombs got their attention and scared the bejesus out of them.
As I’ve stated on this blog several times, I’m not against the judicious use of a couple of tactical nukes in Iraq….just to show we’re not kidding around. The rest of the world would hate us? As opposed to the love they have for us now….
XXX,
I’m stunned. Who the hell would we “judiciously use” tactical nukes against? The insurgents have no standing army, no military-industrial complex, no centralized command-and-control, no military bases or strategic airfields. Iraq has tens of thousands of angry Iraqis who A) want their country back and B) hate their neighbors. Are you going to nuke Baghdad neighborhoods? Perhaps a mosque or two?
If we assume that nuclear strikes on Japan were the tipping point, the point at which Japan decided to surrender its old ways and adopt the ways of its enemy (ie, surrender unconditionally), then to make nukes work in this situation we’d have to nuke Islam.
That’s the problem, obviously. It’s related to the problem of state-sponsored terrorism and terrorism not sponsored by a state, but it’s not exactly parallel.
We’d have to find a way to nuke rogue elements of a religion. The only way to do that, seems to me, would be to nuke Saudi Arabia (the Wahabis), Iran (Shi’ia nutcases), Indonesia, Sudan, and…well, you get the picture. We’d have to drop nukes all around the world. Which could be a tad problematic from a “tell me again who the good guys are?” point of view.
It goes back to what we should have learned from Nam, there is no true military solution to fighting a guerilla war, unless you become as callous as the guerillas, and kill whom ever just to make your point.
VT – cleanup went well. I commented over on the other thread.
I am curious – has there ever been in modern times a successful defeat of an indigenous guerrilla insurgency? By modern, I mean in the 20th century?
“No, we did not. JAPAN changed Japanese culture dramatically.
I don’t mean this in the “only Iraqis can change Iraq” way that Sam Brownback means, although it’s true that real change must always come from “inside.”"——–
That’s a nice thought, and while it is (technically) true – the course of action taken by Japan was NOT their first choice.
Until we dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki – they were still sticking to their guns. Even after the surrender, some of the officers fell upon their swords – literally – rather than live a surrender.
After that – they DID change. As a direct result of the restriction WE put into place.
I’m not sure if you are indicating that Arabs are not that bright, or that they are more stubborn – or what, but the evidence shows that we PRESSURED Japan into change. Two A-bombs speak volumes.
I don’t know why some think that wouldn’t have a chance to work the same way in the Middle East.
“I am curious – has there ever been in modern times a successful defeat of an indigenous guerrilla insurgency? By modern, I mean in the 20th century?”————–
Polish insurgency against Germany.
Bolshevik insurgents in Russia – put down by the Communists.
“I don’t know why some think that wouldn’t have a chance to work the same way in the Middle East.”
Who would you drop a nuke on?
I don’t know why some think that wouldn’t have a chance to work the same way in the Middle East.Posted by: GSheridan | May 05, 2007 at 04:37 PM
You’re wrong. You don’t understand why Japan changed.
Why was there no insurgency in Japan? Were the Japanese afraid the US would drop another A-bomb?
No. There was no insurgency because Japan was READY to change.
Iraq isn’t.
It’s that simple.
Bull hockey, Pedant. Are you implying that Japan would have changed had they been the VICTORS in WWII???
“Who would you drop a nuke on?”——–
I already stated I didn’t WANT to drop a nuke, I was asking why PRESSURE would not work in Iraq as it had in Japan.
I didn’t specify what kind of pressure.
Bull hockey, Pedant. Are you implying that Japan would have changed had they been the VICTORS in WWII???Posted by: GSheridan | May 05, 2007 at 05:02 PM
Depends. With Germany defeated and democratic forces in control of Europe and the US?
Yeah, they’d have probably changed.
You should read more.
“Yeah, they’d have probably changed.
You should read more.”———–
And you should quit second guessing world powers.
LOL
Hey, you asked the question, why wouldn’t nukes work in Iraq.
If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
Your prior sentence was to the effect that two nukes changed them.
How would you pressure the Iraqis?
If that son-of-a-bitch interrupts the Kentucky Derby coverage ONE MORE GOD DAMNED TIME I am going to drive down to the station and jam his mike so far up that he’ll have to call his proctologist for assistance.
WS – I would pressure as we are now. But I would step it up.
Pedant – no I didn’t ask why the ‘nukes’ wouldn’t work in Iraq. Go back and read. I asked why the pressure wouldn’t work. the bombs were only one type of pressure.
WS – I hope the son-of-a-bitch you’re talking about isn’t a weatherman.
Because if it is – get your priorities straight.
I asked why the pressure wouldn’t work. the bombs were only one type of pressure.Posted by: GSheridan | May 05, 2007 at 05:13 PM
Change has to come from within. Men don’t like to be told what to do.
Plus the Shi’ia have no context in secular law. For them, Allah is the law. Man’s law is subservient.
Pressure’s fine, but unlike the Japanese the Iraqis don’t appear ready to change yet (evidence: US deaths at the hands of insurgents).
They interrupted the START of the race to tell us that there was another warning in Western Kansas. That could have easily been bannered across the bottom of the screen. The so-called weatherman didn’t need face time to tell us that.
They do not need to interrupt coverage every three minutes as they have for the last hour.
It’s Kansas. We know what to do. We can recognize a watch, a warning and a siren.
We are not idiots.
It’s too bad that they “weatherman” has to get his mug on TV every few minutes.
My priorities are straight – the sirens in Greenburg went off twenty minutes BEFORE the tornado hit. Those that were spared owe it to the sirens, not some camera hog on television.
Watch the coverage – all he is doing is showing off his toys.
Couldn’t agree more, WS.
I’ll watch the radar (thank god for the internets), but I never watch the weather. If a weatherman comes on during a storm, I change the channel.
If you’re a native Kansan and you’ve spent any time at all outdoors, then watching weather on TV is an exercise in wasting time.
Where is my golf tournament?I don’t ask for much.
They just interrupted the REPLAY of the race. Now, I have to confess that I was born in Kentucky and I watch the Derby every year with great pride. I can appreciate the weather coverage, but to constantly interrupt only minimizes whatever message there may be. You can only cry wolf so many times before people tune you out.
It’s a bit like the terrorism alerts.
Each station, has their own peculiar name for their weather radar system.
They can’t just say, “Radar.” “They’ve gotta say, Channel 12, Super Doppler Radar, or some such unnecessary verbage. Do they get paid extra, for mentioning the station name and/or the system used?
It’s common, on all three local channels, to the point that it’s absurd! It’s RADAR!! Leave it at that!
The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have hastened the end of the war by several months, but there is no convincing evidence those attacks are what led Japan to be a democratic nation. If true, then why didn’t it take nuclear attacks on German cities to remake that society?
No, it’s not the nukes that “remade” those societies. It was the complete and total subjugation of the civilian populations. It was the total destruction of every major population center and almost every bit of civilian infrastructure. Dams, power generators, civilian neighborhoods, schools, food production – all were bombed and burned into rubble, and then burned and bombed some more.
Without a single nuclear weapon being used in Germany, they suffered a 10% loss of their population. There were millions of homeless refugees, and starvation and disease were widespread.
Is that the kind of war GSheridan, XXX, and Art Vandalay are advocating we wage against Islamic nations? Is that the kind of nation we want to become?
I am interested in watching the weather reports, I keep it on during storms, and anyone who bitches is extremely selfish. Just because it’s not affecting YOU means nothing.
Art, I am also saddened. But as far as Saddam’s culture, it was one of the more PROGRESSIVE Islamic nations and they were moving away from that kind of thing. As far as repressiveness of women, in relation to their neighbors, they weren’t terrible.
I’m disgusted at the human rights violations in the countries we support. Just think of the abuse and neglect you support when you buy Chinese products, or BatTam.
“and anyone who bitches is extremely selfish.”
So why bother to have ANY programing on? Why even pretend to cover anythig else? Why not just shut everything down so you all can watch the weathermen? Some of us know how to check the weather and how to take precautions. We don’t need some wannabe pretty boy from KSN telling us the check the batteries on our flashlights.
Some people cower in their beds, afraid of everything.
Some of us choose to live our lives and deal with danger when it is real – not until.
This is a big state – it is not necessary shutdown everything because there is a thunderstorm somewhere.
By the way, AFTER the race was over, KSN “found” the time to run seven consecutive minutes of commercials without interruption.
The Kentucky Derby lasted less than two minutes.
If they can run seven minutes of commercials, they certainly could find the time for the most important horse race in America and one of the country’s greatest sporting events.
Just because the danger is not in your area doesn’t mean that people aren’t affected by it. Do you realize there is a lapse in time from when it touches down to when you hear it?
The news station covers almost the whole state. So get over it.Seriously. Those people’s lives take precedent. This is one of my biggest pet peeves when people complain about weather coverage. People DIED last night over this.
The sirens went off in Greensburg TWENTY minutes before the storm hit. Those that were spared were spared because of the sirens, not the news coverage. They could have ran a banner along the bottom of the screen. They cry wolf so often that no one pays attention to them anymore.
After the race, they had plenty of time for COMMERCIALS, so obviously pulic service had nothing to do with their coverage. They just wanted to show off.
You can damn well better believe that folks would have been burning down the station if they had pulled that stunt during Lost, Grey’s Anatomy or American Idol.
Peoples lives are saved by the sirens – not wannabe’s on KSN.
It’s too bad that they don’t give as much coverage to our dead and wounded in Iraq as they do to a thunderstorm.
Not everyone is in direct proximity to sirens, you can BARELY hear them from my house. Especially in the night while you’re sleeping. And what about my grandfather who is deaf?
Stop it. They ‘cry wolf’ because the one time they don’t will be the one time we have another Hoisington. Remember the outcry about no warning there? But yet the weatherspotters were out there and were the first responders in that town.
I love Gray’s Anatomy and you darn sure will never hear me complain about weather cutting into that.
And listening to those weatherspotters are INVALUABLE. I was weatherspotting once and I had to ARGUE with dispatch about the rotation in a supercell. I kept telling them that the storm was backbuilding and the rotation was to the south of my location, but they kept telling me it was to the north. THEIR radars don’t always tell the whole story.
And another time, I was listening to my radio, and I listened to them discuss for a full ten minutes an ON THE GROUND TORNADO before it ever came across on the TV.
WS – you’re so friggin’ arrogant.
At least 9 people died last night and all you can think about is sitting in front of the TV, beer in one hand, candy bar in the other, and watching a race.
For all the folks in the path of these storms – they might just like to have a little ‘head’s up.’
I live in the country. We have no access to sirens, the TV is our only source of warning.
Much of Kansas is populated with farms in every square mile.
Do we deserve to get hit by a tornado because you want to watch entertainment?
And when I DID live in town – we could rarely hear the sirens if a storm was overhead.
So if it was so important to interrupt coverage of the Kentucky Derby, why did they “find” the time for uninterrupted commercials after it was over?
KSN ran non-stop commercials for cars, payday loans, banks and siding from 5:17 to 5:23.
I guess the weather coverage wasn’t so important then.
I have no problem with legitimate coverage of weather emergencies, but these local stations take it way too far.
Like I said, they cry wolf so often that hardly anyone pays attention to them anymore.
As for those that cannot hear etc, the banner along the bottom of the screen would help. They couldn’t have heard the yahoo from KSN anyway.
I don’t eat candy.
LOl you and I are gonna agree today huh GS?
It’s too bad you are so anti-feminist, you’d have gotten a lot out of our conference today. Was excellent.
Sigh. I haven’t seen a commercial on this station in ages. I don’t know what was up with KSN. I try not to watch KSN much anymore.
Couldn’t you watch it on ESPN?
No.
“Do we deserve to get hit by a tornado because you want to watch entertainment?”
I hardly think my watching sports on TV is going to cause you to get hit by a tornado.
Besides, only the good die young.