INCREASING PROBLEM:
Swedes have more and more animal sex
Av Øyvind Ludt og Carin Pettersson 26.01.04 12:24
Animal sex is not illegal in Sweden, and every year between 200 and 300 pets are injured because of sexual assaults.
The estimate was presented by Svenska Veterinärforbundet, the Swedish veterinary organization, and it is now trying to make the authorities and the public more aware of animals suffering. The organization claim the problem has increased during the last couple of years, even if most people are unaware of it.
We have seen an increase since 1999 when child pornography became illegal, said Johan Beck-Friis. It appears, in other words, as there are some people who have replaced children with animals. In both circumstances, it is sex with defenceless individuals.
The injuries inflicted on animals after sexual assaults are of the same character of those children get. Beck-Friis said that the most common injuries are wounds on the sex organs and blisters.
Animal porn. The fact that animal sex is becoming an increasing problem can be indicated by the mere fact that there is an increasing selection of animal porn at video rentals and there an increasingly number of websites with animal pornography is surfacing.
No one knows for sure how many animals that are abused, but a British study from 2001 indicates that every 20th dog or cat that receives treatment at veterinaries, the injuries are not a result of a direct accident, but the animal has been inflicted the injury as a result of a sexual assault.
According to the Swedish paper Expressen, if the same estimate can be used in Sweden that will indicate that 200 to 300 dogs and cats every year are injured as a result of sexual assaults.
Not illegalIn contrast with most other countries, animal sex is not illegal in Sweden. It was decriminalized in 1944 in connection with the decriminalization of homosexual sex.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
NYT Magazine
Unhappy Meals
By MICHAEL POLLAN
Published: January 28, 2007
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long essay, and I confess that I’m tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a few thousand more words. I’ll try to resist but will go ahead and add a couple more details to flesh out the advice. Like: A little meat won’t kill you, though it’s better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat “food.” Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.
Uh-oh. Things are suddenly sounding a little more complicated, aren’t they? Sorry. But that’s how it goes as soon as you try to get to the bottom of the whole vexing question of food and health. Before long, a dense cloud bank of confusion moves in. Sooner or later, everything solid you thought you knew about the links between diet and health gets blown away in the gust of the latest study...
very interesting article-
By MICHAEL POLLAN
Published: January 28, 2007
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long essay, and I confess that I’m tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a few thousand more words. I’ll try to resist but will go ahead and add a couple more details to flesh out the advice. Like: A little meat won’t kill you, though it’s better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat “food.” Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.
Uh-oh. Things are suddenly sounding a little more complicated, aren’t they? Sorry. But that’s how it goes as soon as you try to get to the bottom of the whole vexing question of food and health. Before long, a dense cloud bank of confusion moves in. Sooner or later, everything solid you thought you knew about the links between diet and health gets blown away in the gust of the latest study...
very interesting article-
Democrats Oppose the War ...
... but do they even want us to win?There is an evil, cancerous idea amongst those on the Left™ against the war in Iraq, an idea that conservatives (even those who might oppose the war) don't share. Many liberals want us to lose the war. There are probably several reasons why, but the biggest must be that; if we should win, then their ideological opposition to the war might be delegitimized and President Bush at least partially vindicated.The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters showed that only 51% of Democrats want the President's plan to succeed and 31% of Democrats want it to fail. Better to have us lose, American soldiers dead, and the Country placed in grave danger than to allow us to win a war. David Reinhard at The Oregonian has something to say about this,
THE WAR AT HOME
"Anecdotal evidence, yes, but recently some poll results confirmed this anecdotal evidence. The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters' views was ho-hum in many respects. Bush's approval rating is abysmal, and a solid majority -- 59 percent -- opposes his plan to send more troops to Iraq. But the pollsters probed further and asked respondents if they personally wanted Bush's plan to succeed.The results were astonishing. Overall, 63 percent of those surveyed said they wanted the plan to succeed. But 22 percent did not. (Another 15 percent didn't know.) American men and women are going off to fight, and perhaps die, and more than one out of five voters wants them to fail. Sorry, this tells us more about their cankered souls than about the war itself. Look beneath the overall breakdown and it becomes clear why Democratic lawmakers sat on their hands Tuesday night when Bush talked about the pursuit of victory in Iraq. According to the Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll, only 51 percent of all Democrats want Bush's new plan to succeed. And a full 34 percent of Democrats do not want it to succeed.That's not 34 percent of Democrats who oppose to the plan or think the plan will not succeed. That's 34 percent of Democrats who root for failure. That's the anti-war, anti-victory base that Democrats on Capitol Hill worry about."
... but do they even want us to win?There is an evil, cancerous idea amongst those on the Left™ against the war in Iraq, an idea that conservatives (even those who might oppose the war) don't share. Many liberals want us to lose the war. There are probably several reasons why, but the biggest must be that; if we should win, then their ideological opposition to the war might be delegitimized and President Bush at least partially vindicated.The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters showed that only 51% of Democrats want the President's plan to succeed and 31% of Democrats want it to fail. Better to have us lose, American soldiers dead, and the Country placed in grave danger than to allow us to win a war. David Reinhard at The Oregonian has something to say about this,
THE WAR AT HOME
"Anecdotal evidence, yes, but recently some poll results confirmed this anecdotal evidence. The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters' views was ho-hum in many respects. Bush's approval rating is abysmal, and a solid majority -- 59 percent -- opposes his plan to send more troops to Iraq. But the pollsters probed further and asked respondents if they personally wanted Bush's plan to succeed.The results were astonishing. Overall, 63 percent of those surveyed said they wanted the plan to succeed. But 22 percent did not. (Another 15 percent didn't know.) American men and women are going off to fight, and perhaps die, and more than one out of five voters wants them to fail. Sorry, this tells us more about their cankered souls than about the war itself. Look beneath the overall breakdown and it becomes clear why Democratic lawmakers sat on their hands Tuesday night when Bush talked about the pursuit of victory in Iraq. According to the Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll, only 51 percent of all Democrats want Bush's new plan to succeed. And a full 34 percent of Democrats do not want it to succeed.That's not 34 percent of Democrats who oppose to the plan or think the plan will not succeed. That's 34 percent of Democrats who root for failure. That's the anti-war, anti-victory base that Democrats on Capitol Hill worry about."
Bernard Lewis: Muslims "About to Take over Europe"
Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis doesn’t have a hopeful outlook on Europe: Muslims ‘about to take over Europe’.
Unless, of course, you think that sounds hopeful.
Islam could soon be the dominant force in a Europe which, in the name of political correctness, has abdicated the battle for cultural and religious control, Prof. Bernard Lewis, the world-renowned Middle Eastern and Islamic scholar, said on Sunday.
The Muslims “seem to be about to take over Europe,” Lewis said at a special briefing with the editorial staff of The Jerusalem Post. Asked what this meant for the continent’s Jews, he responded, “The outlook for the Jewish communities of Europe is dim.” Soon, he warned, the only pertinent question regarding Europe’s future would be, “Will it be an Islamized Europe or Europeanized Islam?” The growing sway of Islam in Europe was of particular concern given the rising support within the Islamic world for extremist and terrorist movements, said Lewis.
Lewis, whose numerous books include the recent What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, and The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, would set no timetable for this drastic shift in Europe, instead focusing on the process, which he said would be assisted by “immigration and democracy.” Instead of fighting the threat, he elaborated, Europeans had given up.
“Europeans are losing their own loyalties and their own self-confidence,” he said. “They have no respect for their own culture.” Europeans had “surrendered” on every issue with regard to Islam in a mood of “self-abasement,” “political correctness” and “multi-culturalism,” said Lewis, who was born in London to middle-class Jewish parents but has long lived in the United States.
The threat of extremist Islam goes far beyond Europe, Lewis stressed, turning to the potential impact of Iran going nuclear under its current regime.
Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis doesn’t have a hopeful outlook on Europe: Muslims ‘about to take over Europe’.
Unless, of course, you think that sounds hopeful.
Islam could soon be the dominant force in a Europe which, in the name of political correctness, has abdicated the battle for cultural and religious control, Prof. Bernard Lewis, the world-renowned Middle Eastern and Islamic scholar, said on Sunday.
The Muslims “seem to be about to take over Europe,” Lewis said at a special briefing with the editorial staff of The Jerusalem Post. Asked what this meant for the continent’s Jews, he responded, “The outlook for the Jewish communities of Europe is dim.” Soon, he warned, the only pertinent question regarding Europe’s future would be, “Will it be an Islamized Europe or Europeanized Islam?” The growing sway of Islam in Europe was of particular concern given the rising support within the Islamic world for extremist and terrorist movements, said Lewis.
Lewis, whose numerous books include the recent What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, and The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, would set no timetable for this drastic shift in Europe, instead focusing on the process, which he said would be assisted by “immigration and democracy.” Instead of fighting the threat, he elaborated, Europeans had given up.
“Europeans are losing their own loyalties and their own self-confidence,” he said. “They have no respect for their own culture.” Europeans had “surrendered” on every issue with regard to Islam in a mood of “self-abasement,” “political correctness” and “multi-culturalism,” said Lewis, who was born in London to middle-class Jewish parents but has long lived in the United States.
The threat of extremist Islam goes far beyond Europe, Lewis stressed, turning to the potential impact of Iran going nuclear under its current regime.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Who gonna sex Mutumbo tonight?
FeatureMutombo Still Doing Big Things
Former Hoya Leads by Example
By Jamie LeaderHoya Staff Writer Friday, January 26, 2007
When Dikembe Mutombo (FLL ’91) rose to receive the praise and applause of President Bush and Congress on Wednesday, those who have not followed his career may have been taken aback that a 7-foot-2 professional basketball player would be in the audience at a State of the Union address. But to Mutombo’s teammates, coaches, opponents and loyal fans, this most recent recognition is just another fitting piece of praise for a man who has done so much more off the court than he ever has on it.
Mutombo has made a living playing tenacious defense and swatting shots, but when he came to Georgetown in 1987, basketball wasn’t even in his plans. Mutombo received a USAID scholarship to become a doctor so that he could return to his native Congo and help his people. The only sport Mutombo had played in his native land was soccer, but things changed quickly when Head Coach John Thompson Jr. spied Mutombo in a pick-up game.
“He said, ‘Son, I want you on my team.’ I said, ‘Man, this big man is going to be my coach,’” Mutombo recalls. “I was kind of scared of him in the beginning.”
Thompson took Mutombo’s raw talent and used it to mold him into one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history.
“John Thompson, he taught me so much about defense and what defense can do in my life and my game to make me one of the great defensive player that ever played this game,” Mutombo says.
While Mutombo was forced to switch majors and abandon his dream of becoming a doctor, he has no regrets about joining the team. “I don’t have a regret from playing college basketball,” Mutombo says. “I got a chance to help my family — there is not much I can regret.”
Thanks to an average of 15 points and 12 rebounds per game in the 1990-91 season, Mutombo was an all-American honorable mention as a senior. He graduated with a double major from the College and was taken by the Denver Nuggets with the fourth overall pick in the ’91 draft. Sixteen seasons, four defensive player of the year awards and over 3,000 blocked shots later, Mutombo is still using the tenacity he learned on the Hilltop to propel the Rockets’ defense while all-Star Center Yao Ming is sidelined with an injury.
At 40 years old, “Deke” is still effective under the basket. In Yao’s stead, Mutombo has posted an astonishing 13.8 boards in the month of January.
So when Mutombo offers advice in his deep, raspy voice, his teammates listen. Chuck Hayes, a young defensive specialist who splits time with Mutombo at center, praises the big man’s locker room sage counsel. “Experience, leadership and he keeps the guys focused,” Hayes says. “We can learn so much from him.”
From the looming post player to the diminutive guard, it seems every Rocket has something positive to say about the NBA’s eldest statesman.
“When he [is] on your team in the game you know you can get real aggressive and block some shots,” point guard Rafer Alston says.
While Mutombo’s career on the court has been impressive enough to likely join Thompson and other Georgetown greats in the Basketball Hall of Fame, in many ways it has been a footnote to the work he has done in the community.
Mutombo’s $29 million hospital, named after his mother, Biamba Marie Mutombo, and mentioned in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, will open in the Democratic Republic of Congo a month from now. Thanks to Mutombo, it is the country’s first modern facility constructed in decades.
“God asks us, ‘What is our purpose in this planet?’
“It is to make a difference for the next generation to come,” Mutombo says. “To make a difference, not just for my generation but for my children’s and my grandchildren’s.” Countless organizations have praised Mutombo for his work in the community. Another famous Georgetown alum, former President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68), presented his fellow Hoya with a Presidential Service Award in 1999.
Mutombo says his strong emphasis on community service was inspired by the Jesuit ideals that drew him to the Hilltop.
“To get the opportunity to get to be on the same campus as Jesuit teachers, it kind of helped me a lot,” Mutombo says. “It helped me go out and do what I do, helping those that don’t have what I have.”
Mutombo still follows his alma mater’s basketball team as well as one could expect from an in-season basketball player with two young children and a hospital opening in Africa. He has even challenged current Hoyas to off-season pick-up games.
While Mutombo denies having a favorite player on the team, he does admit that he may have a slight preference for “the young man that is wearing my uniform.” That young man, junior center Roy Hibbert, is developing quite the reputation for his shot-blocking abilities. Mutombo believes that Hibbert’s opportunity to develop for four years gives him the chance “maybe to be better than me.”
“His ability to block shots, I think that will make his name and be known and take it to the next level.,” Mutombo says.
Mutombo stays connected to the Georgetown community so that his children can one day follow in their father’s footsteps at Georgetown.
“I try to take them to the Georgetown campus every year,” he says.
A legend at Georgetown for reputedly exclaiming, “Who wants to sex Mutombo?” the big man has kept his sense of humor over the years, and his teammates appreciate his jokes almost as much as his rebounds.
After praising Mutombo’s leadership, Houston’s Hayes is quick to add, “He keeps it a little lighter in the locker room because he’s a big jokester.”
In the Rockets’ locker room before a recent game, teammates joke about who would win in a one-on-one match up between Mt. Mutombo and the monstrous Ming.
“If Deke put his elbow pads on, Yao might have a chance,” Alston jokes, referring to Mutombo’s history of elbowing opponents while grabbing rebounds. “But if Deke doesn’t put on his elbow pads,Yao doesn’t have a chance.”
Hearing this, the jumbo Mutombo leans back in his oversized chair and bellows with laughter.
Mutombo grows serious when a reporter asks him about how his career seems to be drawing to a close.
“I am not done, man, Mutombo is not finished,” he says. “Atlanta thought I was finished, the 76ers thought I was finished. It is hard to kill the snake until you take the head off.”
— Benji Barron contributed to this report.
Former Hoya Leads by Example
By Jamie LeaderHoya Staff Writer Friday, January 26, 2007
When Dikembe Mutombo (FLL ’91) rose to receive the praise and applause of President Bush and Congress on Wednesday, those who have not followed his career may have been taken aback that a 7-foot-2 professional basketball player would be in the audience at a State of the Union address. But to Mutombo’s teammates, coaches, opponents and loyal fans, this most recent recognition is just another fitting piece of praise for a man who has done so much more off the court than he ever has on it.
Mutombo has made a living playing tenacious defense and swatting shots, but when he came to Georgetown in 1987, basketball wasn’t even in his plans. Mutombo received a USAID scholarship to become a doctor so that he could return to his native Congo and help his people. The only sport Mutombo had played in his native land was soccer, but things changed quickly when Head Coach John Thompson Jr. spied Mutombo in a pick-up game.
“He said, ‘Son, I want you on my team.’ I said, ‘Man, this big man is going to be my coach,’” Mutombo recalls. “I was kind of scared of him in the beginning.”
Thompson took Mutombo’s raw talent and used it to mold him into one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history.
“John Thompson, he taught me so much about defense and what defense can do in my life and my game to make me one of the great defensive player that ever played this game,” Mutombo says.
While Mutombo was forced to switch majors and abandon his dream of becoming a doctor, he has no regrets about joining the team. “I don’t have a regret from playing college basketball,” Mutombo says. “I got a chance to help my family — there is not much I can regret.”
Thanks to an average of 15 points and 12 rebounds per game in the 1990-91 season, Mutombo was an all-American honorable mention as a senior. He graduated with a double major from the College and was taken by the Denver Nuggets with the fourth overall pick in the ’91 draft. Sixteen seasons, four defensive player of the year awards and over 3,000 blocked shots later, Mutombo is still using the tenacity he learned on the Hilltop to propel the Rockets’ defense while all-Star Center Yao Ming is sidelined with an injury.
At 40 years old, “Deke” is still effective under the basket. In Yao’s stead, Mutombo has posted an astonishing 13.8 boards in the month of January.
So when Mutombo offers advice in his deep, raspy voice, his teammates listen. Chuck Hayes, a young defensive specialist who splits time with Mutombo at center, praises the big man’s locker room sage counsel. “Experience, leadership and he keeps the guys focused,” Hayes says. “We can learn so much from him.”
From the looming post player to the diminutive guard, it seems every Rocket has something positive to say about the NBA’s eldest statesman.
“When he [is] on your team in the game you know you can get real aggressive and block some shots,” point guard Rafer Alston says.
While Mutombo’s career on the court has been impressive enough to likely join Thompson and other Georgetown greats in the Basketball Hall of Fame, in many ways it has been a footnote to the work he has done in the community.
Mutombo’s $29 million hospital, named after his mother, Biamba Marie Mutombo, and mentioned in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, will open in the Democratic Republic of Congo a month from now. Thanks to Mutombo, it is the country’s first modern facility constructed in decades.
“God asks us, ‘What is our purpose in this planet?’
“It is to make a difference for the next generation to come,” Mutombo says. “To make a difference, not just for my generation but for my children’s and my grandchildren’s.” Countless organizations have praised Mutombo for his work in the community. Another famous Georgetown alum, former President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68), presented his fellow Hoya with a Presidential Service Award in 1999.
Mutombo says his strong emphasis on community service was inspired by the Jesuit ideals that drew him to the Hilltop.
“To get the opportunity to get to be on the same campus as Jesuit teachers, it kind of helped me a lot,” Mutombo says. “It helped me go out and do what I do, helping those that don’t have what I have.”
Mutombo still follows his alma mater’s basketball team as well as one could expect from an in-season basketball player with two young children and a hospital opening in Africa. He has even challenged current Hoyas to off-season pick-up games.
While Mutombo denies having a favorite player on the team, he does admit that he may have a slight preference for “the young man that is wearing my uniform.” That young man, junior center Roy Hibbert, is developing quite the reputation for his shot-blocking abilities. Mutombo believes that Hibbert’s opportunity to develop for four years gives him the chance “maybe to be better than me.”
“His ability to block shots, I think that will make his name and be known and take it to the next level.,” Mutombo says.
Mutombo stays connected to the Georgetown community so that his children can one day follow in their father’s footsteps at Georgetown.
“I try to take them to the Georgetown campus every year,” he says.
A legend at Georgetown for reputedly exclaiming, “Who wants to sex Mutombo?” the big man has kept his sense of humor over the years, and his teammates appreciate his jokes almost as much as his rebounds.
After praising Mutombo’s leadership, Houston’s Hayes is quick to add, “He keeps it a little lighter in the locker room because he’s a big jokester.”
In the Rockets’ locker room before a recent game, teammates joke about who would win in a one-on-one match up between Mt. Mutombo and the monstrous Ming.
“If Deke put his elbow pads on, Yao might have a chance,” Alston jokes, referring to Mutombo’s history of elbowing opponents while grabbing rebounds. “But if Deke doesn’t put on his elbow pads,Yao doesn’t have a chance.”
Hearing this, the jumbo Mutombo leans back in his oversized chair and bellows with laughter.
Mutombo grows serious when a reporter asks him about how his career seems to be drawing to a close.
“I am not done, man, Mutombo is not finished,” he says. “Atlanta thought I was finished, the 76ers thought I was finished. It is hard to kill the snake until you take the head off.”
— Benji Barron contributed to this report.
Born Today
It's the birthday of writer and politician Thomas Paine, born in Thetford, England (1737). With his anonymously published pamphlet "Common Sense," in 1776, he helped start the American Revolution, even though he'd only been living in America for a little more than a year.
Thomas Paine said, "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine said, "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Kerry-Kyoto Bullshit
Here’s John Kerry speaking while sitting just a few feet away from Mohammad Khatami, the former President of the Iranian terror state.
Kerry was asked about whether the U.S. government had failed to adequately engage Iran's government before the election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Kerry said the Bush administration has failed in addressing a number of foreign policy issues.
"When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don't advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy," Kerry said.
"So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East, in the world, really. I've never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today."
Kerry criticized what he called the "unfortunate habit" of Americans to see the world "exclusively through an American lens."
The Bush administration walked away from Kyoto? Methinks the Senator is revising history:
On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized (although it had been fully negotiated, and a penultimate draft was finished), the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95-0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98), which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or “would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States”. On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the protocol. Both Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman indicated that the protocol would not be acted upon in the Senate until there was participation by the developing nations. The Clinton Administration never submitted the protocol to the Senate for ratification. . . .
The current President, George W. Bush, has indicated that he does not intend to submit the treaty for ratification, not because he does not support the Kyoto principles, but because of the exemption granted to China (the world’s second largest emitter of carbon dioxide). Bush also opposes the treaty because of the strain he believes the treaty would put on the economy; he emphasizes the uncertainties which he asserts are present in the climate change issue.
It was a unanimous Senate (with five abstainers) as well as the Clinton administration who walked away from Kyoto. The current administration walked away from Kyoto as well, but for the same reasons as the Clinton administration. Kerry himself, in fact, voted for the Byrd-Hagel Resolution to keep us out of Kyoto. Yet here he is now, a decade later, dishonestly accusing the current administration of isolating this country from the world on an issue like Kyoto that Kerry himself opposed for the very same reasons the Bush administration opposes it.
Why should we believe anything that comes out of this guy’s mouth? It’s bad enough that he’s sitting next to one of America’s enemies bad mouthing his own country, but he’s flat-out lying in what he’s saying as well.
Kerry was asked about whether the U.S. government had failed to adequately engage Iran's government before the election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Kerry said the Bush administration has failed in addressing a number of foreign policy issues.
"When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don't advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy," Kerry said.
"So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East, in the world, really. I've never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today."
Kerry criticized what he called the "unfortunate habit" of Americans to see the world "exclusively through an American lens."
The Bush administration walked away from Kyoto? Methinks the Senator is revising history:
On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized (although it had been fully negotiated, and a penultimate draft was finished), the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95-0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98), which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or “would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States”. On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the protocol. Both Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman indicated that the protocol would not be acted upon in the Senate until there was participation by the developing nations. The Clinton Administration never submitted the protocol to the Senate for ratification. . . .
The current President, George W. Bush, has indicated that he does not intend to submit the treaty for ratification, not because he does not support the Kyoto principles, but because of the exemption granted to China (the world’s second largest emitter of carbon dioxide). Bush also opposes the treaty because of the strain he believes the treaty would put on the economy; he emphasizes the uncertainties which he asserts are present in the climate change issue.
It was a unanimous Senate (with five abstainers) as well as the Clinton administration who walked away from Kyoto. The current administration walked away from Kyoto as well, but for the same reasons as the Clinton administration. Kerry himself, in fact, voted for the Byrd-Hagel Resolution to keep us out of Kyoto. Yet here he is now, a decade later, dishonestly accusing the current administration of isolating this country from the world on an issue like Kyoto that Kerry himself opposed for the very same reasons the Bush administration opposes it.
Why should we believe anything that comes out of this guy’s mouth? It’s bad enough that he’s sitting next to one of America’s enemies bad mouthing his own country, but he’s flat-out lying in what he’s saying as well.
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On Francisco Franco
On Francisco Franco written by Charles Few Americans know much about Francisco Franco, leader of the winning side in the Spanish C...
