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Wednesday, November 6, 2002
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The Shot Heard Around the World. On Friday October 25, Emory University announced the resignation of professor Michael Bellesiles. Bellesiles' prizewinning book Arming America purported to prove the radical assertion that guns were rare and unimportant in early America and that our 'gun culture' was a later invention grafted on to a bucolic, relatively gun-free country. An instant runaway success, Arming America gathered praise from most newspapers and major reviewers, eventually winning Columbia University's Bancroft Prize for History, and was cited before the 5th Circuit Court of the United States in the 'U.S. v. Emerson' gun control case. [FirearmNews.com]
The article addresses the role of independent, Internet-based scholars--both in debunking Bellesiles, and more generally as an alternative to "politically correct" academic scholars.
8:56:12 PM 
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Business Week. As of October, cable companies are required by law to offer premium channels ala carte. Excellent!
...a federal rule took effect in early October, 2002, that could let savvy cable customers cut their monthly bills in half. And if enough penny-pinching viewers act, cable operators could see margins slashed and their quest to deliver greater free cash flow prolonged. The rule, a provision of the 1992 Cable Act, says cable operators can no longer require subscribers to buy multitier packages of programming to get pay-per-view events and premium channels, such as as HBO, Starz, and Showtime. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
That wouldn't do me any good. Now, I would be happy if I could reduce my cable bill by "giving up" ESPN, MTV, and the dozen or so shopping channels and Spanish language channels that are part of the basic cable package where I live.
2:08:27 PM
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The Forgotten Nation. Tanya Andghuladze and Yuri Maltsev at LewRockwell.com -
The Forgotten Nation - Some history of Chechnya's oppression by
imperialist Russia. [lew]
In Moscow 750 people were held hostage on October 23 though 26. Nearly
50 hostage- takers under the command of Basaev demanded the end of
Russian genocide in Chechnya. The Russian government was given three
days to comply with this demand, but never gave it serious
consideration. Instead it spent these days planning the attack that
was conducted in the early morning of 26th of October. A poisonous gas
was used to incapacitate the hostage-takers inside the building. The
military entered and killed almost all terrorists. The gas
incapacitated hostages as well and killed 118 of them [unofficial
sources say the real figure is more than 200].
...
During the takeover, the hostages were allowed to talk to the
media. One woman called Echo Moskvy (a well-known radio station) was
talking at the moment when the attack started. She said they could
feel the gas in the building and they were trying to protect
themselves by holding wet cloths at the mouth. But so could the
terrorists. Women hostages speaking in Moscow Hospital Number 13 to
RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir correspondent asserted that the terrorists
knew about the gas, could smell it, and did nothing to blow everything
up even though there was plenty of time. The Russian government also
fabricated the information that the terrorists started shooting the
hostages earlier than promised if their demands were not
met. Officials kept saying that terrorists were shooting people and
they had to go in.
The doctors and hostages are forbidden to talk to the Russian press
and say what everyone suspects: this was another action of the Russian
state against its own people in pursuit of political interests.
[End the War on Freedom]
10:18:46 AM
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Juries will not rule on merits of laws. Steve Young at The Argus Leader -
Juries will not rule on merits of laws - The South Dakota
constitution will not be changed to allow criminal defendents to argue
the merit of the law. Only 23% of the voters chose to ratify this
amendment. Sad. Very sad. Note that juries still retain the right to
acquit because the law is bad How jurors decide to vote on the verdict
is nobody's business, but few jurors know this, and most judges
nowadays will lie to them and say they don't. [End the War on Freedom]
Unsurprisingly, lawyers in South Dakota were entirely opposed to the idea (and politicians are generally lawyers).
10:01:41 AM
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Dishonest reporting. Excerpted from an address to the Israel Bonds Gala Dinner, Montreal, Canada, October 30, 2002. Source - CIJR - Canadian... [The news, Uncensored.]
I make the charge that much of the world media who are covering the Arab-Israeli conflict have abandoned the fundamental precepts of honest reporting. They have been taken captive by their own biases, or victimized by their own ignorance. They have adopted Palestinian propaganda as the context for their stories... Thus dishonest reporting has made truth a casualty of the war, causing grievous damage to both Israel and the integrity of the journalistic profession...
The text of a speech on media bias against Israel. It's very good, and although it was made by a Canadian it addresses the bias which also exists in European and American coverage. What it doesn't mention is that the bias is almost entirely limited to leftists. Non-leftist news sources such as Fox News actually do report honestly.
9:26:01 AM
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© Copyright
2005
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
3/9/2005; 2:32:25 PM.
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