|
ianspeir
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Ian
Country: United States
State: Oklahoma
Birthday: 3/5/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: coffee. economics. tax. missions. conservative philosophy. law. a good book.
Expertise: mathematics, economics
Occupation: Student
Industry: Law
Message: message me
Member Since:
9/28/2004
|
|
|  | Currently Watching
The Wedding Singer
By Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Christine Taylor, Allen Covert, Matthew Glave, Ellen Albertini Dow, Angela Featherstone, Alexis Arquette, Christina Pickles, Jodi Thelen, Frank Sivero, Patrick McTavish, Gemini Barnett, Teddy Castellucci, Randy Razz, John Vana, Billy Idol, Kevin Nealon, Marnie Schneider, Carmen Filpi
see related |
I am sitting on my couch, my wisdom teeth having been extracted less than 2 hours ago. It's pretty awful, but painkilling drugs offer that "walking on air" feeling. I'll never regain my wisdom, but hopefully sanity will soon be restored. | | |
| The Washington Post publishes a free, shorter, easy-read newspaper each morning called Express for commuters on Washington, DC's Metrorail. In the back few pages of the paper is the "Blog Log" section, a cross-section of short blog posts that the blog editor, Dan Caccavaro by name, reads and considers noteworthy. His commentary this morning on a particular blog, however, was horribly misleading and calls into question both his intelligence and objectivity. The piece "Peace Gets God Angry" quotes from RepublicOfT.com: "These are the people meeting with the White House on Middle East policy? There are two possibilities here: Either the Bush administration is humoring the likes of CUFI and Apostolic Congress, or the inmates are running the asylum."
Caccavaro's commentary then explains: "Republicoft.com is scared by meetings of Bush officials and 'Christians United for Israel,' which supports war in the Middle East for biblical reasons" [my emphasis]. This is, of couse, a gross misrepresentation of what CUFI stands for and believes. I put in a call to Mr. Caccavaro this morning, but received his voicemail. Updates to follow. | | |
|
 |
The Jerusalem Post reports today on an interview with Pat Robertson during his three-day trip to Israel's northern border. The interview is worth a read. Notably, Robertson initially dodged questions that could have gotten him considerably more press: |
How would you explain what is happening here within a religious framework?
It is self-defense [by Israel], which is cause for just war. Israel is the spear against what you would call the Islam-o-fascism that is threatening all of the free loving people of the western world. There is no question that Hizbullah is the proxy for the Iranians.
Is there a message from God that is being played out here? Do you put it in those terms?
The Jews are God's chosen people. Israel is a special nation that has a special place in God's heart. He will defend this nation. So Evangelical Christians stand with Israel. That is one of the reasons I am here.
Buried in the third page, however, Robertson notes:
There was a prophet Ezekiel in the time of the Bible who wrote that in the last days there would be an invasion of Israel by a coalition that would include Iran, Russia, Turkey and the Sudan and Libya.
I was curious about this statement, as I know Ezekiel is quite vague on some of these terms. Does anyone know how Robertson makes this interpretation?
Interestingly, Robertson's stance on Iran differs from Hagee's. Said Robertson, when asked whether the U.S. should go to war with Iran, "No. I think the Iranian people favor the US. What ought to happen is some movement to cause a popular uprising against [the rulers of the] country.... If the United States went to war, then that hatred would be turned against us. The vast majority of Iranians are under 30 years old and they think that America is great. So why would we go to war with them?" Hagee, on the other hand, as he recounts in his book Jerusalem Countdown, believes the only way to deal with Iran is with preemptive war.
The Ember | | |
| For those of my friends who don't follow the blogs, this story is literally exploding today and yesterday: Reuters admits to doctored photos. See Drudge Report for headlines. A Lebanese "stringer" for Reuters by the name of Adnan Hajj has been complicit in outright propaganda, doctoring photographs of the Hezbullah-Israeli conflict to dramatize Israel's role and inflame Muslim passions.
 
Note the use of Photoshop's "clone" tool to create extra smoke, as well as Rusty Shackelford's revealing the cut-and-paste of numerous buildings.
Follow this story here, here, and here. Like RatherGate, the bloggers are out in full force, exposing ReuterGate.
Don't be reutered, folks!
 | | |
| The New York Times today reported on a young man named Alfred Sirleaf, Liberia's one and only "chlogger" (a term I coin to describe his "blogging" in real time with real chalk).
This is yet another great example of the "new media" and what Tom Friedman calls a "flat world." Sirleaf is effectively diminishing the monopoly on news and commentary from Liberia's news elites and empowering the commoner with relevant information. And profit is not his motive; his commitment is to an informed citizenry. May he spark an information revolution on the dark continent. | | |
|
