Jack on June 3rd, 2008

I caught a bit of Good Morning America this AM. They featured a story about the seven month ordeal of Amanda Knox, an American student jailed in Italy without charges–apparently on suspicion of complicity in the death of her roommate. GMA painted a grim story, tugging at the heart strings of viewers by interviewing the [...]

Continue reading about Amanda Knox and Guantanamo

Jack on April 19th, 2008

As Earth Day arrives again (okay all you 20-30 year olds, have you even heard of Earth Day–no offense if you are so environmentally conscious, it has not been big news in recent years), an odd couple emerges in a commercial: Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich. Who would of thought? In the ad, the pair [...]

Continue reading about Odd Couple

Let no one accuse the Washington Post editorial and news staff of fraternizing with one another or perhaps even of observing the same world around them. This is especially true when it comes to their respective observations of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.

Continue reading about The Washington Post Says the Surge Is Working AND No It Isn’t

Jack on April 9th, 2008

Perhaps I should have noted it then, but in posting my comment on the passing of Martin Luther King and mentioning my mother’s teaching me about the evils of racism, I missed the fact that she died exactly five years before King. As I came to visit her in the hospital that day in 1963, [...]

Continue reading about Memories of a Mother’s Death

Jack on April 5th, 2008

What bothers me the most about the memos that this bozo (who actually is a law professor at Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley; ugh, boy would I have some serious dialogue in his class) wrote saying essentially that whatever the president decides is OK during a “time of war” is legally OK. Rape, murder, Vlad the [...]

Continue reading about John Yoo and Imperial Presidencies

Jack on April 4th, 2008

Forty years ago today, shots rang out in Memphis, killing the Reverend Martin Luther King. I was in Hawaii that day, on R&R from Vietnam. I returned to my unit in Bearcat, the 9th Infantry Division basecamp 25 miles east of Saigon after the riots had spread across America. Things were not much more wonderful [...]

Continue reading about Martin Luther King

Jack on March 30th, 2008

Hyperbole is a customary part of politics. But calling Bill Richardson a Judas for endorsing Obama is way over the top. Carville defends his commentary in an op ed today  by asserting, essentially, that Richardson fails to show sufficient appreciation for the Clintons making him the man he is today. Firstly, it was Bill, not Hillary that [...]

Continue reading about Carville’s Misplaced Loyalty

Jack on March 28th, 2008

China is not alone in violating human rights. International Olympics Committee and world expectations were that their behavior would improve if the the Olympics came there. It doesn’t seem that way. Just as importantly to me is the fact that not a day goes by that one product or another imported from China must be [...]

Continue reading about Boycott China?

Jack on March 27th, 2008

Are all yellow cars much the same–not only in their color but their essential characteristics of fuel economy, speed, power and quality? What about all Fords or all Toyotas? A closer question, perhaps, at least in terms of resale value and possibly likelihood of need of repair. Do you suppose that someone who looks like [...]

Continue reading about The Fallacy of Representation

About 18 months ago, U.S. troops deaths in Iraq passed the number of civilians dead as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (which had NOTHING to do with either Iraq or Saddam Hussein). Now the U.S. deaths in Iraq exceed 4,000 people, more than 1,000 beyond the number of Americans killed in the 9/11 [...]

Continue reading about Past 4,000 Dead in Iraq–More than 1,000 beyond 9/11