by Don Hynes
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| Vantage Point | Culture and Politics by Don Hynes |
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"No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing, knowing it to be wrong.
He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and when he sees it is not so,
the prejudice will be gone." - Tom Paine
February 27, 2005 Award Winning Quotes and Notable Articles Quote of the week and Patience of A Saint Award goes to Juan Cole of Informed Comment for continuing to report the obvious to the blind and deaf: "Well, now that Fallujah is liberated (i.e. wrecked and empty), residents of Ramadi are now beginning to flee in fear that they might get equally liberated. It is not clear how much liberation Iraqi cities (or ex-cities) can stand." This week’s What Were You Doing in Ninth Grade Instead of Studying Award goes to Donald Rumsfeld for this bit of acute observation and insight into world history: “The People's Republic of China is a country that we hope and pray enters the civilized world in an orderly way." Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin' won't get China into your arms Rummy. Maybe you should show China that you care, do the things China likes to do, wear your hair just for them. Give it some thought. Don’t want to keep picking on the good Secretary, but here’s Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse weighing in on the latest strategy out of DoD – replacing know it all with we know nothing The I'll Keep Working on It Award goes to junior el prezidente for his startlingly clear grasp on the supposed problems facing social security: “Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red. Okay, better? I'll keep working on it.” Good idea. In a corollary Bob Harris awards the extended familia junior el prezidente: "Chimpy's uncle William H. T. "Bucky" Bush just made half a million bucks cashing in stock options from helping run a defense company that got no-bid contracts which look pretty hinky." Love those family values. With President Bush traveling overseas Vantage Point turns to our correspondent in Amsterdam. Bush’s recent European tour was hopefully greeted by many as a series of meaningless speeches and empty gestures but our reporter in the Netherlands was less flattering: "Over here, the big news is Mr. Bush's visit to Germany. Oh the Germans are pissed. Mr. Bush's photo-op tour took him to Mainz, which did NOT want his visit: it required closing down five of the main streets in town and stopping all traffic on the Rhine River - THE major shipping channel of industrial Europe - for a day, making a huge mess of traffic and commerce. Then, for photo-op purposes, they visited two museums, again having to secure safe swaths through the city. At the first museum, they got an overview of history over the last 5000 years - in ten minutes (ed. 10 up on Rummy). The European media jokingly remarked that his second stop was more reasonable: only three hundred years of history in eight minutes. Who is writing this script? " The sterling Bob Herbert covers the outsourcing of torture through rendition in Thrown to the Wolves. Amnesty International reports on “Iraqi women live in fear, rights reduced, security worse since occupation." Quote of the Week II and this week’s Hey Lighten Up Vantage Point Award from our Austin correspondent goes to Ramana Maharshi “If the mind is happy, not only the body but the whole world will be happy. So you must find out how to become happy yourself. Wanting to reform the world without discovering your true self is like trying to cover the whole world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.” *** |
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