Archive for March, 2006
Victory?
I run across a post today name “Victory for Academic Freedom ” on a blog with the obliging name “Atlas Shrugs ”. After describing the control of the extreme left on American campuses and the unbalanced number of left wing professors in the academia the author announced the good news:
Today, I’m pleased to report that Congress went on record to support legislation containing the Academic Bill of Rights, which will help level the ideological playing field and take the personal politics of liberal professors out of the classroom.
And later she concludes:
Majority Leader Boehner wrote a must-read editorial on the importance of the Academic Bill of Rights which gives the history of the legislation and lays out a strong case for why we need it NOW.
Another very good thing. Very good undeedy.
Now I’m very confuse, how is government legislation limiting someone’s ability to talk is a good thing? Where did you find in Atlas Shrugs that government doing anything beyond securing human rights is a “Victory”?
Well objectivism it definitely isn’t
Save Darfur - Rally to Stop the Genocide
The Save Darfur Coalition organizing a rally in Washington DC at 4/30/06 calling the government to take action to stop the genocide in Darfur.
"The Rally to Stop Genocide" is organized by the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 155 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations. www.savedarfur.org
The rally is part of the "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign to generate one million postcards for delivery to President Bush, who recently pledged to push for additional UN and NATO help to protect the people of Darfur. We applaud the President’s leadership, but the work is far from done. We are urging President Bush to take steps necessary to end the genocide and build a lasting peace.The rally is also the final stop of the "Tour for Darfur: Eyewitness to Genocide," a 21,000 mile photo exhibit and speaking tour of 22 cities in 11 states to raise public awareness about the Darfur crisis. The tour’s featured speaker is Brian Steidle, a former Marine captain and U.S. representative to the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Darfur from September 2004 to February 2005.
Spread the word
A look into hell
The Jewish religious leadership activities to raise awareness to the genocide in Darfur are blessed beginnings. Now it time for organization like AIPAC to use some of its alleged influence to push the administration to live up to its commitment “not on my watch”.
It will be also very important to see the Arabic and Islamic leadership marching and demonstrating, calling for Sudan’s government to stop the massacre.
Link: A look into hell
WASHINGTON - A few years ago, Samantha Power was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for her book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide."
The book is a depressing and worrying one, which reviews the response of the U.S. establishment to incidents of genocide - from the Turks’ slaughter of the Armenians at the start of the previous century through the massacre in Kosovo. It has been frequently argued, Power writes, that U.S. failure to take action against such events stems from a lack of real-time information. "In fact," however, Power writes, "U.S. policymakers knew a great deal about the crimes being perpetrated… But time and again, decent men and women chose to look away."
But such is not the case with Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in the United States, who, along with members of his movement, rabbis and numerous Jewish communities in North America, has chosen to look things straight in the eye. It is a story with which the Israeli public is not familiar. But for the past several months, it has been at the center of the American-Jewish agenda. A few days ago, some 150 rabbis from all streams of Judaism met in New York for a protest to stop the massacre in Darfur. Thousands will travel to Washington at the end of April to participate in a protest rally under the same slogan.
Blog Posts on Google Finance
Rebecca Mackinnon reports on effective way to create public pressure on companies:
When blogging about a company, if you want investors to know, be sure to tag your post with the company’s ticker symbol. I just went back and tagged my most recent post on Yahoo!’s abominable behavior.
Use it while it last…
Fuzzy Principals
It is very disturbing to find out what type of characters the NY Teacher’s Union glorifies
The state’s teachers union has a curious profile up on their Web site, a piece lionizing a guy whose accomplishment seems to have been going on food stamps so he wouldn’t have to sully himself by shopping at Wal-Mart.
Can someone explain these educators that making a stand when someone else needs to pay the bill isn’t so “principled”?
Letter from Elie Wiesel
I received today e-mail from the Jerusalem Post urging readers to take action about Darfur. I copied the e-mail here with the hope that it will get to additional readers.
Dear Friend,
I am haunted by what I know of Darfur.
In Darfur, humankind’s center of suffering today, men, women and children are uprooted, starved, tortured, mutilated, humiliated and massacred — and the whole civilized world knows it. And little or nothing, nothing significant, is being done to stop these massive violations of human rights.
Who is guilty? Those who commit these crimes. But to the question, "Who is responsible?" we are compelled to say: "Aren’t we all?"
We can no longer stand idly by.
Click here today to send a postcard urging President Bush to take action.
As a Jew, and a survivor, I do not compare any events to the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet how can anyone, anywhere who sees the loss of life in Darfur, the systematic deportation, the killing of a people, not feel outraged? How can anyone who remembers other genocides – Cambodia, Rwanda, the Holocaust, the former Yugoslavia – remain silent?
If we neglect the suffering victims of Darfur, their plight will be our fault – and, perhaps, our guilt.
That is why we must act today.
Won’t you make your voice heard?
Click here to sign a postcard urging President Bush to take action.
All are entitled to live with dignity and hope. All are entitled to live without fear and pain.
For the victims of Darfur, we must intervene.
Thank you,
Elie Wiesel
I’m not Impressed
Finally after three years of not only doing anything to stop an “Arabic Sister State” from conducting genocide, but blocking any attempt to actual action by the UN, Arab leaders decided to take action.
They didn’t decide to send troops to stop the atrocities; they didn’t decide to apply any effective pressure on Sudan’s government to stop its criminal policy. The Arab Leaders decide to support with Money the African Union military force in Sudan.
While on sound like a nice move, I’m not impressed. It is time that Arabic leadership will realize that the damage protecting genocide is more dangerous than fighting it. It is time from the Arab world to take action and to join the modern world by actually acting to stop the murders in Sudan, not by taking action to reduce the international pressure.
Link: Arab leaders reach AU Darfur troops deal
Arab leaders reached a summit deal to provide funding for cash-strapped African Union troops in Sudan’s Darfur region amid international pressure to accept the dispatch of a UN force.
The move came after Sudan pressed fellow members of the Arab League to reject plans for the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, where war, disease and famine have cost up to 300,000 lives in three years.
Miscrosoft, are you up to the Challange?
Microsoft is facing a serious decision: is it going after the short term revenue or its betting for the long term. It might be reasonable, if you accepting the assumption that the future will not include a dominant operating system like windows, to gamble on the short term. Gamble for the long term is also very risky, you always know how you are getting into a war but only rarely how it will end up.
However if Microsoft will not accept the EU ultimatum, and will declare that the only one to decide if vista is a good product as its offer are the consumer can very interesting. If Microsoft believes that they are offering the best product they shouldn’t give up. I am not sure that the European public will supports decision to prevent them from using the new version of Windows.
It wasn’t tested, but Microsoft with its pile of money can take the risk. Let the consumers decide not the bureaucrats. If the product isn’t worth the battle, maybe it isn’t worth selling?
Link: EU Warns Microsoft Over Vista
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top antitrust regulator has sent a letter to Microsoft Corp., warning the company that it won’t be allowed to sell its new Windows Vista operating system in Europe if it comes prepackaged with certain features.
"We expect that Microsoft will design Vista in a way which is in line with the European competition laws," Neelie Kroes, the EU’s antitrust commissioner, said in an interview. "It would be rather stupid to design something that is not."
Admitting a Mistake is not a Mistake
Rough Type is one of my favorite’s blogs. Nick Carr’s writing is a display of independent thinking and often in the opposite direction of the hype. Today I discover another reason why I like reading Carr’s blog: admitting a mistake without excuses and out in the open.
In a post today Carr quoted a survey that claims that IT is being considered as the highest corporate risk:
Information technology is the single biggest source of risk for companies today, according to a survey of top executives in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
But when a comment indicates that the survey methodology is rather problematic Mr. Carr’s, almost immediate, response was:
Joe, Thanks. That’s what I get for not reading the appendix. You’re right - the statistics are basically meaningless. It’s an anecdotal study. Mea culpa. Nick
(You’d think, by the way, that a major global insurance company might show a little care in throwing statistics around in public.)
Air Pollution 2.0
The refineries in Haifa joined the Web 2.0 revolution with pastel colors (the round corners were their before); It will be nice if the cloud above the refineries would be a tag cloud and not smoke…
(via N.Z.B )