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Tuesday, September 14, 2004 |
Who's for government-run health care?
Slate's William Saletan noticed that the same day Bush accused Kerry of wanting to put "big government in charge" of Americans' health care choices, Bush embraced the approach himself. President Bush on Monday repeated his opposition to allowing seniors to buy U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies as a way to save money, calling it unsafe for consumers. "It's an interesting idea, but remember, my job is to protect you as best I can," Bush told about 500 supporters at a campaign event designed to contrast his views on healthcare... [The Carpetbagger Report]
4:53:28 PM Permalink
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Fiscal Conservative?
Oxymoron: The expansive agenda President Bush laid out at the Republican National Convention was missing a price tag, but administration figures show the total is likely to be well in excess of $3 trillion over a decade. [The Stakeholder]
But don't worry, we don't have to pay for it! It's them awful Democrats who will raise your taxes.
2:06:26 PM Permalink
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Iraq: It's Worse Than You Think
Jeez, read this post from Christopher Allbritton, living in Baghdad, writing for Time magazine, and trying to scrape by, and see how well things are going over there. How do we get out of this mess?
I don’t know if I can really put into words just how bad it is here some days. Yesterday was horrible — just horrible. While most reports show Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra as “no-go” areas, practically the entire Western part of the country is controlled by insurgents, with pockets of U.S. power formed by the garrisons outside the towns. Insurgents move freely throughout the country and the violence continues to grow.
I wish I could point to a solution, but I don’t see one. People continue to email me, telling me to report the “truth” of all the good things that are going on in Iraq. I’m not seeing a one. A buddy of mine is stationed here and they’re fixing up a park on a major street. Gen. Chiarelli was very proud of this accomplishment, and he stressed this to me when I interviewed him for the TIME story. But Baghdadis couldn’t care less. They don’t want city beautification projects; they want electricity, clean water and, most of all, an end to the violence.
...In the context of all this, reporting on a half-assed refurbished school or two seems a bit childish and naive, the equivalent of telling a happy story to comfort a scared child. Anyone who asks me to tell the “real” story of Iraq — implying all the bad things are just media hype — should refer to this post. I just told you the real story: What was once a hell wrought by Saddam is now one of America’s making.
As he also states, this isn't he fault of American soldiers who are doubtless doing the best they can. They've been put in a nearly impossible situation by the mendacity of the so-called leaders of this country. And how does this situation in Iraq help us in the war on terror? It doesn't of course; quite the contrary.
2:05:26 PM Permalink
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MacSQL - 3.0.1
SQL database management tool [VersionTracker: Mac OS X]
A potentially useful database tool, totally ruined by a small SQL window that displays only 4 lines of text! How can you write non-trivial SQL in 4 lines? They do give you a bigger window for their Query maker, but anyone who has written any SQL at all can type it faster than use a GUI. What might be a good product is made useless, at least for me.
2:04:05 PM Permalink
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BBEdit 8
Daring Fireball has a great piece this week on the new version of BBEdit. I've been using it a bit, though I haven't yet paid the upgrade charge. It looks just fantastic, and this article is a great summary of its features.
2:03:25 PM Permalink
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Baby Doom
About the Kinsey Institute study that reportedly found having children lowers the IQ of both parents. [New Urban Legends]
It just makes you talk like an idiot.
10:45:23 AM Permalink
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The End of Faith
Sam Harris' The End of Faith arrived yesterday. I've only gotten about 35 pages into the thing, but so far virtually every paragraph is a gem, making me want to grab someone and say, "listen to this." It's really great that someone is coming out and saying this stuff, and I hope lots of people read it. As I have said, people of faith tend ot argue that it is not faith itself but man's baser nature that inspires such violence. But I take it to be self-evident that ordinary people cannot be moved to burn genial old scholars alive for blaspheming the Koran, or celebrate the violent deaths of their children, unless they believe some improbable things about the nature of the universe. Because most religions offer no valid mechanism by which their core beliefs can be tested and revised, each new generation of believers is condemned to inherit the superstitions and tribal hatreds of its predecessors. If we would speak of the baseness of our natures, our willingness to live, kil, and die on account of propositions for which we have no evidence should be among the first topics of discussion.
9:04:57 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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