What you need to know:
1. Still alive.
2. Panels and readings went well, and had a really good lunch with Mary Anne Mohanraj, were we talked about writing and stuff.
3. Go Egypt.
4. Dinner involved lots of hot beef jokes.
5. Off soon to the Geek Prom.
And that was my day.
WRT Egypt:
- Doris Plenn’s coda to the Hymn, “How Can I Keep From Singing”
Hope you had a suitably nefarious day.
The hot beef jokes fly
Scalzi hard at work, I see
Should have attended…
Nerd Prom?!? Gadzooks!
Hot beef jokes? Does Krissy know about this?
Go Egypt indeed…and yay for Marxism! ;)
(Reference: http://www.politicususa.com/en/mubarak-fox-america-marxist )
Faith in democracy is now Marxist? Crap on a crutch, Fox News has lost it (more than usual).
Personally, I like Thomas Jefferson’s take on the whole thing.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
“Absolute faith in Democracy” is something that is troubling. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “Marxist”; but that bit of hyperbole is an editorial choice.
Let’s face it: street protests and elections, even “clean” ones, doesn’t a Democracy make. And even if it did you don’t want to put your faith completely in the Democratic system. For a Democracy to work you need a Titanium-strength Bill of Rights protecting the rights of individuals, a decentralized power base, and other things like an independent judiciary, media and a professional military. You need at least enough secularism to have no “official” state religion.Finally you need civil society; and not in the way most people understand it. Egypt has none of these.
Some idiots think
Democracy only good
When their party wins
You left out the post-prom birthday party appearance. I left too early to witness it, but Dawn twittered it. Why yes, I am old & need my sleep. ;P
They’ve got more courage and spirit than most of us armchair quarterbacks. Perhaps we should back the heck down and let them figure it out.
Very happy for Egypt! Just wish it was that easy to remove the idiot currently running the United States (obama)
Oy:
In fact it’s very easy to remove him: It’s called an election. We have them for our president every four years. If you think what the Egyptians just did is easier than a legal, non-controversial, respected presidential election process, you may be an idiot, or at least woefully misinformed, either about presidential elections, recent Egyptian history, or both.
Oy: What John @13 said. It’s how we removed Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and the elder George Bush. And if you think getting rid of Mubarek was easy, remember that it took them almost 30 years to do so.
The lucky children
Still see four years as a long
Time to wait; They’ll learn…
Actually John, Mubarak offered to hold elections in the fall; the Egyptian people just said “no”.
I’m no fan of Mubarak; just trying to get the facts straight.
But, considering our president is in open defiance of the judiciary by carrying out the Healthcare bill I’d say Mr. Obama has wandered into Mubarak territory.
Because a minor spat over the legality of certain aspects of health care reform is comparable to thirty years of dictatorship, suppression of opposing political parties, and twenty years of emergency law.
Please, gain some perspective.
I did say “wandered into”.
By defying the judiciary he has taken on aspects of a dictator.
It is a violation of the constitution.
But you lefties don’t care about that “old document”
Andrew: I shouldn’t bother. You can tell people like that, but you can’t tell ‘em much.
FFS, give it a rest.
Enjoy the fact that the Egyptian people overthrew a bloody tyrant.
It. Is. Not. All. About. You. Get it?
#16: Actually John, Mubarak offered to hold elections in the fall; the Egyptian people just said “no”.
Actually, Scorpius, I believe that the Egyptian people made it clear that they wanted elections; what they “just said no” to was the idea of Mubarak remaining in power until said elections.
Also note that these are not the first elections that Mubarak promised. There have been many in fact, all of them somehow resulting in a >90% victory for him. Why should the Egyptians have trusted him this time?
60 minutes did a very good interview with the google guy involved in the protests. Before the interview I was under the impression that US media was hyping him because every time they mentioned him they mentioned google. So they made him sound more important than he was.
The interview will probably be on their website. It was very good. This guy was basically dissappeared off the streets at the start of the protests. According to him, google helped get him out. How many companies would do that for their employees short of Ross Perot?
I’m still optimistically cautious over the Egyptian Revolution.
But this is interesting.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2011/02/13/bush_program_helped_lay_the_groundwork_in_egypt/?p1=News_links
Basically, Bush helped and Obama hindered Democracy in Egypt.
Something to consider…
“Something to consider…”
Minus your reflexive Obama bashing, yes, since there’s nothing in the article that suggests Obama hindered democracy in Egypt; rather, as the article notes, he allocated funds differently. There’s a quote that says Bush’s efforts did more than Obama’s efforts, but saying one’s president’s efforts did (in one person’s opinion) qualitatively more is not the same as suggesting that the other president hindered things.
Your biases are making you sloppy (again). Do better.
Well, I was only half serious about that hindered comment. But if cuts in the rate of growth of increase in spending on entitlement programs is “Draconian” as this President and his allies allege*, then certainly you can understand my belief that cutting pro-democracy funding nearly in half is “hindering” democracy in that nation.
*It’s just one more proof (that and Obama saying there are “57 states”) that Obama sucks at math.