Tag Archives: iran

Don't Be Fooled By the Fear-Mongering

The Republican Party’s best hope for winning elections ever since we invaded Iraq in 2003 is to make a certain segment of malleable voters too afraid to pick a candidate OTHER than them. It is going to be a long, long, election season, and this will not even come close to being the last you hear about it:

McCain criticizes Obama over Iran comments

McCain’s camp is counting on people hearing buzz words like “reckless” and “inexperience” and “terrorism” as a means of planting doubt about any possible course other than guns-blazing and unconditional deference to the United States. There was another very successful international superpower in world history that operated the same way– The Roman Empire. They’re not around anymore, but…

When sifting through these stories, it’s important to get all the details and sift down to the facts of the respective arguments. When Obama says he’s willing to meet with the leaders of Iran, he’s not saying that Iran is awesome, or even that they’re no threat. He’s saying that the American President should have the courage to look the leader of an adversarial nation in the face and say, “let’s settle our differences peacefully.”

It’s not going to be easy to keep standing up in the face of the constant GOP beat-down on this issue. They will do everything they possibly can to make it seem crazy, illogical, and impossible to support Obama’s position on foreign affairs.  I feel like if you really think it through, it’s easy to see that Obama is looking to be more inclusive of all nations, while remaining vigilant as to the risks.  McCain, meanwhile, is more vested in the infallibility of the United States, and conducting diplomacy through the barrel of a gun.

Quiet (Good) Friday

I finally have a couple moments to breathe today.

It’s been a really hectic week of work, just due to the volume of processing that had to be accomplished. I feel bad that I haven’t really been inclined to blog even when I get home, in part cuz I’ve missed the news for most of the week…

What *can* I tell you?

I thought the end of the business with Iran and the British sailors was pretty interesting. I don’t think anyone can really fool themselves into believing that anything Iran does right now won’t have some effect on the international response to their nuclear program. Personally, I can’t imagine why any nation’s leader with half a brain would want to get into a pissing contest with G-Dub– just give us 21 more months, and it’ll all be over, everyone will be able to relax and stop sleeping with an ICBM under their pillow.

Well, except for Israel, of course.

In sports, the Brewers 2-1 start to the season is nothing to sneeze at. They can’t win every game all season, but hell– if they win twice as many as they lose all season, that will make them… (ponders the math)… 108-54. They’ll never win that many games. They could get sort of close to that and still be unbelievably awesome. I’ve been saying to people, “less than 90 wins will be disappointing.” I’m going to stick by that. It’s only 9 more victories .500 ball, and should be totally do-able for this group.

The only two things that have been troubling to me so far this year:
1. Carlos Villanueva’s shaky first appearance of the season (I think he’ll be OK in the long run)
2. Jose Capellan’s crybaby attitude

Note that both items relate to pitching, which is the most important thing to this club– they’re still very young, and are going to be prone to streakiness at the plate. They need consistency somewhere, and there are a lot of dollars invested in the pitching staff.

Last sports comment of the day: If you want to believe for a second that the Bucks are NOT trying their damnedest to tank the season while appearing to not tank the season, then please follow this link to some listings for a lovely condominium development I’ve recently invested in down in the Mississippi delta.

I went off a couple weeks ago about the integrity of my profession, to the confusion of some and the disinterest of others. If you are at all interested in what has become the hottest news item in financial aid departments across the country, check out this article from Inside Higher Ed on some new info that’s being turned up. I still think that the vast majority of my colleagues are ethical and honorable people. It’s this 1% or less that are (A) making the rest of us ill, and (B) going to cause some changes in the way we do business. Just a matter of time… Until then, my hope is that the students don’t suffer more confusion or stress than they already have.

I’ll be in Madison this evening (Friday) and then the Milwaukee area for the duration of the weekend. Plan accordingly.

Have a happy Easter!