I’m having a little trouble figuring out whether or not this article is serious.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Justice No Longer Denied
A federal judge has ruled that Linda Tripp can go forward with her lawsuit against the Pentagon for violation of the Privacy Act. The Bush Administration (which seems curiously indifferent to the predations on the law and Constitution by its predecessor) had sought to have the case dismissed.
Kenneth Bacon, the Pentagon official who leaked Tripp’s personnel record to a reporter friendly to the Administration (probably at the behest of the Clinton White House), suffered virtually no consequences for his law breaking.
They Weren’t Dynamite–They Were Just Leberwurst
Apparently, the Berlin father who dressed his daughter up as an Islamakazi to help Israel celebrate its founding is going to have to answer to German authorities.
I don’t think that Germany has a first amendment–I’m not sure what, if any, protections they have for freedom of expression. If he’s charged, it will apparently be for “condoning acts of violence.” That seems kind of mild and generic to me under the circumstances–it seems to ignore the fact that he’s teaching this child the virtues of killing herself and others.
If he were in this country, I’d sic Child Protective Services on him for child endangerment. If he thinks that German police are rough, wait until he runs into some American social workers…
They Weren’t Dynamite–They Were Just Leberwurst
Apparently, the Berlin father who dressed his daughter up as an Islamakazi to help Israel celebrate its founding is going to have to answer to German authorities.
I don’t think that Germany has a first amendment–I’m not sure what, if any, protections they have for freedom of expression. If he’s charged, it will apparently be for “condoning acts of violence.” That seems kind of mild and generic to me under the circumstances–it seems to ignore the fact that he’s teaching this child the virtues of killing herself and others.
If he were in this country, I’d sic Child Protective Services on him for child endangerment. If he thinks that German police are rough, wait until he runs into some American social workers…
They Weren’t Dynamite–They Were Just Leberwurst
Apparently, the Berlin father who dressed his daughter up as an Islamakazi to help Israel celebrate its founding is going to have to answer to German authorities.
I don’t think that Germany has a first amendment–I’m not sure what, if any, protections they have for freedom of expression. If he’s charged, it will apparently be for “condoning acts of violence.” That seems kind of mild and generic to me under the circumstances–it seems to ignore the fact that he’s teaching this child the virtues of killing herself and others.
If he were in this country, I’d sic Child Protective Services on him for child endangerment. If he thinks that German police are rough, wait until he runs into some American social workers…
A Waste Of Talent
John McWhorter and others have described how many of the things that hold blacks back in America are a function of their own cultural attitudes, in which studiousness or scholarship are derided, or even ostracized, as “acting white.”
This phenomenon carries through all the way to college, in which many talented people are channeled into “African-American Studies” (just as many innocent women are cheated of a true education in “Women’s Studies” departments), rather than into something that offers prospects for professions and productive endeavors beyond being African-American Studies professors.
I ran across this very good article in the Village Voice that deals with the specific issues of black scientists involved with NASA and astronomy, and how they’re often denigrated and discouraged by their own community. I highly recommend it.
But less obvious is that NASA’s move injects life into color-blind disciplines that black scientists say have been eclipsed within their own community by more overtly Afrocentric pursuits. Some top students lifted their faces from difficult physics textbooks only to receive what amounted to a slap from a black hand.
One example: Two African American undergraduate students on the Harvard University wrestling team were walking from the gym. The younger one, a kid from the Bronx named Neil, complained that his astrophysics courses weren’t leaving him time to sleep. The banter stopped as abruptly as their footfalls.
“Blacks in America do not have the luxury of your intellectual talents being spent on astrophysics,” declared the elder student, waving his hand in front of Neil’s chest. That indictment, recounted in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s autobiography, The Sky Is Not the Limit, rings fresh in him today, though he’s an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, where he also teaches classes for the CUNY program.
No, obviously what blacks in America need are more Cornel Wests, not people who discover, and impart real knowledge.
Our Friends In Riyadh
A Saudi official helpfully explains to Congress and the White house that suicide bombers are not terrorists.
One wonders just how disconnected from reality they are. Unfortunately, there’s little coming out of the Bush Administration to dissuade them from their delusions that they can continue this game without dire consequences.
Linux Cracking The Desktop Market?
Scalping Bill Gates
Version 2.0 of the Apache web server has been released. It reportedly performs as well as Microsoft IIS, and without the security problems.
Be afraid, Redmond.
Guess He’s Angling For A Longer Sentence
A terrorist suspect on trial in Germany told the court officials that “they were all Jews.”