Political ploy

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Nov 182006
 

Headline: Seeking re-election, incumbent Dutch government promises to ban burqa

The Dutch government said it would outlaw the head-to-toe burqa worn by some Muslim women and other face-concealing apparel in public places, marking this once-tolerant nation’s latest about-face on questions of culture and assimilation in Europe. …
The opposition Labor Party called the announcement a political ploy.

Well, yes, of course it’s a political ploy. That’s the purpose of having governments “of the people” — to do political ploys.

Some definitions:

Political (adj) Exercising or seeking power in the government or public affairs of a state, municipality, etc.; of, pertaining to, or involving the state or its government; having a definite policy or system of government.
Ploy (n) a maneuver or stratagem, as in conversation, to gain the advantage

Spam, socialism, and net neutrality

 Free markets, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Nov 172006
 

Network World reports on huge increases in the amount of spam over the past several weeks: What’s with all this spam?

Researchers and IT managers are confirming security vendors’ claims that spam levels have spiked in the past month – some say by as much as 80 % — and show no signs of decreasing.

“There are enormous amounts of spam; it’s shot up like crazy since the beginning of October,” says John Levine…

This spam problem is an example of why socialism doesn’t work. Continue reading »

Top ten theocrat organizations

 Bash the Messenger  No Responses »
Nov 062006
 

The media campaign to use the Ted Haggard scandal against Bush gives the impression that the National Association of Evangelicals is such an influential organization. But the NAE didn’t even make the Top Ten list of right-wing theocrat organizations at publiceye.org

And from this article at The Christian Post, it sounds like the NAE’S 30 million members don’t contribute enough money for it to have its own staff. Ted Haggard was running the organization out of his own church’s collection plate.

While trying to find out about this organization, I did learn that several years ago the National Council of Churches had a budget in the range of $70 million. But although it’s questionable whether there is another religious body as engaged in partisan politics as the NCC, I haven’t seen it on anyone’s list of theocrat organizations, either. Funny how that works.

Who ever heard of Ted Haggard?

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Nov 042006
 

Reuters, the political activist organization, put out an article with the headline:
“Evangelical America hit by gay sex scandal.”
The lead paragraph went like this:
“America’s evangelical movement grappled on Friday with a high-profile gay sex scandal that evoked torrid affairs of the past and embarrassed the politically active cause days before nationwide elections.”
One wonders how Reuters could possibly have known this.  Did they do a poll of American evangelicals?  For that matter, did they even research the question of whether American evangelicals had even heard of Ted Haggard before the current media frenzy began? Continue reading »

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