Eulogy's Fourm
Eulogy
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With JD taking a break from his thread, I wanted to make another for people to come together and have a place to debate or learn something. I'm not making this solely a political thread but posts that interest me and hopefully some of you. With that, I am starting with a political story. Many presidential hopefuls have started entering the political arena, so I will start with a story from the Christan Science Monitor.
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That question comes up because the metaphorical starting gun has been fired, and 2016 candidates are jostling for position as they announce theyre off and running. Ted Cruz was first on March 23, followed by Rand Paul on April 7. Hillary Rodham Clinton declared her candidacy on Sunday in a video that featured lots of voters. Marco Rubio followed on Monday with a Miami speech.
But lets get real: All of these people have been running for president for some time. Theyve been courting donors, wooing party officials, and vetting staff. Theyve spent days and days strategizing with consultants and approving position papers. Theyre not beginning new campaigns. Theyre continuing existing ones.
Given that, why pretend theyre starting a political journey they actually began at some point in 2014? Many voters if not most know otherwise. Thus announcements risk feeding a general sense that official stuff doesnt reflect whats really happening in campaigns.
The gap between formal statements and informal realities perhaps strains credibility with citizens, writes Marquette assistant professor Julia Azari today in an interesting post on the substance of announcements at the Mischiefs of Faction political science blog. Thats likely true. And in the long run, no candidate won a nomination due to the effort put into their official announcement. Just ask President (not!) Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor whose 2012 campaign rollout was an elaborate affair that involved a stroll across a New Jersey field with the Statue of Liberty in the background, and lots of flags.
It was a flop. His campaign deteriorated from there.
Still, official campaign announcements are a ritual, and like all rituals, they have strange powers derived from history and usage.
For one thing, theyre a way for candidates to announce their general themes, in media circumstances over which they have almost complete control. Whether those themes are useful or not, or fit the candidate, will be told in coming months. Thats what will help swing the campaign. But consider Texas Senator Cruz: He announced with a speech at conservative Liberty University in Virginia, not in his home state. As Matt Bai of Yahoo News points out, that means Cruz intends to run on ideological conservative values.
Thats probably the path that best suits both his temperament and the political reality, writes Mr. Bai.
Mrs. Clinton did not even appear in her announcement video until near its end. The voters quickly profiled in the bulk of the film announce that the former secretary of State intends to try and portray herself as the champion of the average person. Will that work for her? Well sure get a chance to see.
Presidential campaign announcements also have practical effects. Theyre like pushing a button, in terms of campaign finance law. Official candidates have to abide by donor limits for contributions to their campaign accounts. Theyre not supposed to coordinate any longer with super PACs that support them. And so on.
They force candidates and their supporters to focus. With the game truly on, media scrutiny of every move will only increase. That makes the consequences of a subsequent misstep greater.
But their most useful attribute, for candidates, may be a simple one: attention. For one day at least, all eyes of the political world are on them. Its like a birthday, or a wedding, or an anniversary celebration. Youre the star.
And the next day normal life reemerges.
Had Archie Brown Jr. committed a hit-and-run, he and a 15-year-old boy likely would still be alive. But Brown stopped his van after it struck and killed a 2-year-old Sunday evening on Milwaukee's near northwest side. News update: Mayor Tom Barrett calls shooting an "assassination." Moments later, Brown was shot and killed at the scene of the accident. And the boy was fatally wounded. Three people are dead and, in the case of the 15-year-old, it's unclear why. Police reported in a news release that the 2-year-old ran into the street at 5:10 p.m. in the 4600 block of N. 48th St., which is next to Wahl Park. The release said the driver of the van, a 41-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the scene, that the teen later died in surgery, and that investigators were working to develop a suspect. Archie Brown Sr., 68, of Milwaukee spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the scene. Moments after speaking with investigators, he confirmed that the driver of the van was his son, Archie Brown Jr., also of Milwaukee. The elder Brown said police showed him a photograph of his son and that his son had been shot in the head. He said police told him the 2-year-old was a girl. Brown said his son was the father of four daughters, including one who is 6 months old. Brown made a phone call after speaking with investigators and said: "My son's just been murdered." However, he remained calm. "If I am a man of God and I believe in the Bible, nothing happens without a reason. What the reason is, I don't know," he told the Journal Sentinel. Brown said he is retired, but preaches on the streets and goes by the name of Prophet Brown. Brown described his son as an entrepreneur, buying, remodeling and renting out houses and other residences. "That's terrible. My son has gone to eternity," Brown said. How the 15-year-old was involved whether he was in the van, was a bystander or was connected in some other way is unclear. Brown said a young man was with his son in the van, but that he saw him being interviewed by police and that he was not injured in the shooting. Riles Rilley, a half brother of Archie Brown Jr., said at the scene that Brown was also a co-owner of the Seven West nightclub. "Just a good person all around. Never had any enemies. Always looking to do the right thing," he said. Rilley said he first heard about the incident while playing kickball at Beckum Park. People started seeing reports on social media, then he started receiving texts from friends and family indicating that Brown was involved. "You wait for the text to come back and say he's OK. First, they don't know. Then they say, he didn't make it."
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
If you're in the wrong part of town, leaving your car can get you killed quickly
"I've got a great cigar collection - it's actually not a collection, because that would imply I wasn't going to smoke ever last one of 'em." - Ron White
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama told Congress on Tuesday that he plans to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, clearing away the main obstacle to restoring diplomatic relations and reopening embassies after more than half a century of enmity.
Obama's decision comes on the heels of a Western Hemisphere summit in Panama where Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro sat down on Saturday for the first meeting of its kind between U.S. and Cuban leaders in nearly 60 years.
Cuba's communist government had demanded removal from the U.S. blacklist to move forward on efforts to normalize relations between the two former Cold War foes. Obama ordered a review of Cuba's presence on the list after he and Castro announced a diplomatic breakthrough on Dec. 17.
"After a careful review of Cuba's record, which was informed by the intelligence community, as well as assurances provided by the Cuban government, the Secretary of State concluded that Cuba met the conditions for rescinding its designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism," the White House said in a statement.
Congress has 45 days to consider Obama's decision before it takes effect, and lawmakers are extremely unlikely to block the move.
There had been some expectations that Obama would announce his intention to remove the terrorism designation and move forward on restoring diplomatic relations at the summit.
But U.S. officials held off and privately made clear that they sought to time the move as leverage in broader normalization negotiations.
Cuba's removal from the list will remove certain economic sanctions on the island, but the broader U.S. embargo on Cuba will remain in place because only Congress can end it.
"We will continue to have differences with the Cuban government, but our concerns over a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions fall outside the criteria that is relevant to whether to rescind Cuba's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism," the White House said.
Washington placed Cuba on the list in 1982, citing then-President Fidel Castro's training and arming of communist rebels in Africa and Latin America. But Cuba's presence on the list has been questioned in recent years.
In his report to Congress, Obama certified that "the government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period," and "has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future."
Secretary of State John Kerry said "circumstances have changed since 1982," when Cuba was listed "because of its efforts to promote armed revolution by forces in Latin America. Our hemisphere, and the world, look very different today than they did 33 years ago."
Tell me, what are "college benefits?" Did I get "college benefits" at the state school I attended? Why will I be paying for my "college benefits" until January 2020 at interest rates higher than the current 30 year mortgage rate? Doesn't really sound like much of a benefit at all, but rather something I'm trapped in. And to think, even if I couldn't make enough money to pay the loans off I can't declare bankruptcy.
Tell me, why is it that a simple bachelors degree at a state school could cost me anywhere from 20k to 80k in the U.S. when I could go to Europe and get it for free?
Tell me, why was my generation essentially told that we would need to go to college to be employable and to make any money when college is so outrageously expensive that a large portion of my generation is in debilitating amounts of debt?
1.2 TRILLION dollars in student debt in the U.S. seems pretty outrageous doesn't it?
I mean, if I could do something to cut the cost of my education in half, I'd probably be willing to do it. Now, tell me why is education so damn expensive in this country? Is it a privilege or is it something everyone should have access to regardless of background or ability to afford it? Is it worth putting yourself in financial hardship for 10 years after graduation? Tell me more about these benefits you speak of...
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
We still have relations with and give millions of dollars in foreign aid to known sponsors of terrorism like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Syria, Oman, Qatar and Pakistan.
We still have diplomatic relations with countries with horrible human rights records like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, China, Russia, Mexico and Turkey.
We still have diplomatic relations with nations like Algeria, Tunasia, Guatemala, Libya, and Honduras where high crime rates, government corruption, and general anarchy have forced thousands of their citizens to flee to other countries.
Considering our long-standing relations with these nations, why should we single Cuba out?
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Now for another story that I thought was interesting. In Africa, tools have been discovered that are 3.3 million years old; 500,000 years older than humans. I find it amazing when these kinds of discoveries are made. Trying to think about who made these tools, what kind of lives they lead, and how hard it must have been to develop and create these tools.
Scientists working in East Africa say they've unearthed the oldest stone tools ever found. They were apparently made 500,000 years before the human lineage evolved.
A team led by Sonia Harmand from Stony Brook University in New York found the tools in Kenya, near Lake Turkana. It's an area that's yielded numerous fossils and tools from early humans.
These newly discovered tools have been reliably dated to 3.3 million years ago, according to scientists who've reviewed the research. That's 700,000 years older than the previous record for the oldest stone tools ever found.
That's remarkable because it's well before the human genus, ****, emerged 2.8 million years ago. So clearly these early humans didn't make these tools. The team presumes they were made by an early ancestor of humans, probably a member of a genus called Australopithecus. The famous ape-like creature known as Lucy was from that genus and first appeared in Africa about four million years ago.
Leading stone tool experts who've seen the tools say they have the markings of a process called "knapping." Knapping a piece of stone produces flakes that can have sharp edges and are useful for working with plants, nuts or meat. These flakes can be distinguished from naturally occurring pieces of rock. Knapping also leaves characteristic marks on the rock from which the flakes are chipped.
Richard Potts, head of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution, has examined the tools. He tells NPR they're a "mixed bag," with some quite crude and others a little more sophisticated. Potts says they're not as advanced as most early human-made tools, but "there's no doubt it's purposeful" tool-making. And it's more sophisticated than the kind of tool-making that chimpanzees do, he adds, such as shaping sticks to probe for termites in their underground mounds.
Scientists who study stone tools say it's premature to say that these tools led to the evolution of the first humans, commonly known as **** habilis, or "handy man" as they are sometimes called. The gap between these tools and the previous oldest known is so long 700,000 years suggests that whomever made these newly discovered tools could have died with the knowledge, and stone tools were "reinvented" again hundreds of thousands of years later.
The discovery was announced at a meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in San Francisco this week. It was first described in the journal Science.
We really know so little about how our paleolithic ancestors lived. All we really have are mostly incomplete skeletons and sometimes tools found nearby. I mean, it's entirely possibly that early hominids even before Australopithecus made and used tools, but we just have never found them. It's also a bit arrogant to say that just because these early hominids had smaller skulls and hadn't totally evolved to become free-standing means that they weren't intelligent. We really don't know.
However, it's totally wrong to say that tools led to evolution of the first humans. Assuming that you believe in natural selection rather than intelligent design, tools don't lead to evolution--mutations in genes that produce lifeforms with advantages for survival in local environments cause evolution. Hominids who used tools probably were also "smarter" in other ways that gave them a survival advantage, but perhaps those advantages had more to do developing better strategies for fending off lion attacks than simply running away than with using tools. We just don't know.
The one thing I do believe is that every hominid lineage produced a small number of "geniuses" who were the first to figure out how to do things--like creating tools or brewing beer or planting and harvesting crops or sewing hides into clothes--and then these "investors" passed this information (much like memes) on to other populations who began adapting these same innovations. I wonder whether the hominid line is the only one species capable of producing individuals with ulltra-high degrees of intelligence. Might there be genius dolphins or whales or apes or chimpanzees out there?
Actually the story has resurfaced and is "new again". "http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6440"