Friday, April 28, 2006

A little background: a generalization is "a statement about a class based on an examination of some of its members". So far, so good. Greenwald has certainly noted enough partisanship among bloggers on the right. But that’s not all there is to it, because while it is "based on a finite set of observations and experiences", it also "claims to hold true for the larger set". "Insufficient or nonrepresentative evidence often leads to a hasty generalization." And hasty generalization is a logical fallacy "committed when a person draws a conclusion about a population based on a sample that is not large enough".

Not only is Greenwald’s sample size of bloggers not large enough to draw generalizations about, e.g., "authoritarian cultists", he must ignore the instances in which those bloggers do criticize the administration in order to assign them a psychological profile.

Unfortunately, the result is a subset of generalizations. Stereotype: "A generalization, usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/28/2006 11:36:00 PM | 0 comments

A suggested route for the bypass has it starting at the I-95 exit for the welcome center, running parallel to Route 3 and ending near Riverbend High School.

Hagan supports the idea. He sees it as the final step in a three-pronged effort to improve congestion on Route 3. The first two steps were building Cowan Boulevard and approving a four-lane connector road from Spotsylvania Towne Centre off Route 3 to Harrison Road.

'We're at the last window of opportunity to build an alternative to Route 3,' Hagan said.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/28/2006 11:58:00 AM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/28/2006 11:51:00 AM | 0 comments

What throws Kenney brothers off is that they're not tied into the Democratic party like us Democratic activists are.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/28/2006 11:20:00 AM | 3 comments

Thursday, April 27, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/27/2006 10:32:00 PM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/27/2006 10:25:00 PM | 0 comments

'Having carefully reviewed the Petition for Clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reasons to doubt Mr. Vinson's guilt or to invalidate the sentence recommended by the jury and imposed, and affirmed, by the courts,' Kaine said in a statement.

'Accordingly, I decline to intervene.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/27/2006 06:49:00 PM | 3 comments

Harris Miller really should drop out. This momentum is far too much for him to overcome. The train has left the station.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/27/2006 12:47:00 PM | 8 comments

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/26/2006 07:18:00 AM | 0 comments

(B)efore you rush off to eBay or ESPN.com, consider this: The judge ruled that surfing can be allowed only "as long as those activities do not interfere with a worker's overall performance," as News.com reported. As we read it, that means a boss could conceivably still argue that browsing is an actionable offense for 911 dispatchers, stock traders, security guards or any other jobs that employers say require constant attention.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/26/2006 01:03:00 AM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/26/2006 12:32:00 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/25/2006 11:47:00 AM | 2 comments

'I acted in a way consistent with the American spirit. I also acted to protect the dignity of America and human kind,' she said.

Wang was arraigned in court on Friday and charged with seeking to 'intimidate, coerce, frighten or harass Chinese President Hu Jintao, a foreign official in the performance of his duty.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/25/2006 08:38:00 AM | 2 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/25/2006 12:21:00 AM | 0 comments

Monday, April 24, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/24/2006 11:13:00 AM | 0 comments

By the way, if you agree with the views expressed here-- or hell, even if you don't-- and you don't already have a blog, you should set one up. It's one of the very few ways we have left of countering the single, omnipresent voice emanating from the corporate-owned mass media. Like the Lizardking once said, "They got the guns but we got the numbers."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/24/2006 10:56:00 AM | 1 comments

Sunday, April 23, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/23/2006 09:35:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/23/2006 09:29:00 PM | 6 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/23/2006 03:40:00 PM | 0 comments

A Palestinian suicide bomber blows up a bus, leaving the newly elected Israeli prime minister to puzzle over a response. A missile strike could ease security fears, or prompt more violence. A diplomatic approach might anger Israelis, leading to an assassination plot.

The complex choices facing leaders in the Middle East have long confounded political analysts and policy makers. But two graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University are hoping their video game based on the conflict will help players find solutions - and raise capital for their new company.

But will such a game attract players and investors?

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/23/2006 12:37:00 PM | 1 comments

Saturday, April 22, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/22/2006 10:38:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/22/2006 07:07:00 PM | 2 comments

Friday, April 21, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/21/2006 10:03:00 AM | 0 comments

A California court in San Jose on Thursday is scheduled to hear a case brought by Apple Computer that eventually could answer an unsettled legal question: Should online journalists receive the same rights as traditional reporters?

Apple claims they should not. Its lawyers say in court documents that Web scribes are not "legitimate members of the press" when they reveal details about forthcoming products that the company would prefer to keep confidential.

That argument has drawn stiff opposition from bloggers and traditional journalists. But it did seem to be sufficient to convince Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James P. Kleinberg, who ruled in March 2005 that Apple's attempt to subpoena the electronic records of an Apple news site could proceed.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/21/2006 09:48:00 AM | 2 comments

The apocryphal Gospel of Judas does not essentially alter the established tradition. It merely shifts the moral accent from blame to praise. In doing so, however, it despoils the story of its profound personal ambiguity and the emotional intensity.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/21/2006 08:44:00 AM | 1 comments

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, has sent a letter to Governor Tim Kaine on behalf of the Vatican, to request that Dexter Lee Vinson's death sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde and Richmond Bishop Francis DiLorenzo are making this request as well.

Dexter Lee Vinson appeals the denial of his federal habeas petition, in which he sought relief from a death sentence. We granted a certificate of appealability on three issues: (1) whether the district court erred in failing to hold an evidentiary hearing on Vinson’s claim that his trial counsel operated under an unconstitutional conflict of interest; (2) whether Vinson was denied effective assistance of counsel; and (3) whether the state failed to disclose material exculpatory evidence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court’s denial of habeas relief.

Vinson’s conflict of interest claim arises from the undisputed fact that during his trial, Vinson’s "second chair" counsel, Tanya Lomax, was suing Vinson’s lead counsel, John Underwood, for employment discrimination that had allegedly occurred during Lomax’s employment at the Portsmouth Public Defender’s Office. Vinson contends that the separate employment litigation between Lomax and Underwood adversely affected his representation in two ways: first, Lomax suffered health problems resulting from the stress of the litigation; and second, the way Underwood and Lomax divided the work and responsibilities of his case into distinct guilt and sentencing phases left Lomax inadequately supervised by Underwood.

...

Rather than relying on evidence not "reasonably available" to him "at the time of the state proceeding," Vinson instead "point[s] to evidence" that he clearly "knew about" at the time of his trial. Prior to trial Lomax informed Vinson of the facts giving rise to the asserted conflict, and Vinson consented to representation by "conflicted" counsel. In a sworn, written waiver, Vinson explicitly stated that "[w]ith full knowledge and understanding of Attorney Lomax’s complaint and disclosure, I freely and voluntarily give my consent to have Attorney Lomax continue to represent me in the above-styled matter." In Vinson’s presence, defense counsel then presented Vinson’s waiver to the trial court. In light of this waiver, it is plain that the facts of the alleged conflict between Lomax and Underwood were not only available to Vinson, but were specifically presented to him for his consideration and consent. His voluntary, knowing, and informed decision to continue with Lomax as his counsel precludes any argument that a factor external to the defense caused the procedural default. Vinson thus does not depend on facts that could not have been previously discovered, and he cannot establish cause to overcome the procedural bar.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/20/2006 04:31:00 PM | 10 comments

Norment's outburst may indicate that the cracks in the Senate's facade are deeper than I thought. If Norment and his pro-tax colleagues were winning the argument, I doubt whether he would have made notice of the Bolling op-ed at all, let alone wag his finger at the LTG from the Senate floor.

There is also the rather amusing conceit in this exchange that because the Senate has decided something, Bolling has no right to say a word in opposition. Like a good house elf, Bolling should simply smile politely, say his lines and get off the stage. I find it refreshing -- and essential -- that he remains an advocate for his positions.

Here's hoping he does even more in the future.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/20/2006 10:44:00 AM | 1 comments

During the first three months of 2006, ridership was down an average of 4.2 percent compared with the first three months of 2005.

Last year, from July through November, trains were late on the Fredericksburg line 30 percent-40 percent of the time. Then the service had its first derailment in January, which shut down service for the rest of the day. Passengers already in Washington were brought home on buses.

...

VRE knows there is a connection between the dip in passengers and delays, spokesman Mark Roeber said.

"There's only so much people can take before they're like, 'OK, I've got to try something else,'" Roeber said.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/20/2006 10:34:00 AM | 0 comments

When Wu was indicted in November along with another man, Yi Qing Chen, they became the first people charged under a 2004 U.S. law forbidding the import of aircraft-destroying missile systems into the United States, officials said.

Wu, who also admitted to trafficking methamphetamine, counterfeit bills, cigarettes and Ecstasy tablets into the United States, made a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of reducing a possible 25-year prison term.

The indictment identifies the missiles as the QW-2 shoulder-fired type used by the Chinese military since the late 1990s. According to court papers, the undercover FBI agent was told the missiles would be shipped from China to Cambodia and then to the United States with the help of bribed officials.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/20/2006 12:22:00 AM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/20/2006 12:14:00 AM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/20/2006 12:11:00 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Having documented people's inadequacies, the behaviouralists now want to save them. The iconoclasts are becoming paternalists?but of a distinctive kind. Two of them, Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, describe their approach as "libertarian paternalism", which, they insist, is not an oxymoron. Their critics, such as Edward Glaeser, of Harvard University, call it "soft paternalism". Whatever the label, their approach is cannier and stealthier than the heavy-handed paternalism liberals reject. Their aim is not the "nanny state", a scold and killjoy forcing its charges to eat their vegetables and take their medicine. Instead they offer a vision of what you might call the "avuncular state", worldly-wise, offering a nudge in the right direction, perhaps pulling strings on your behalf without your even noticing.

Should liberals object to schemes of this kind? Perhaps not. By helping people to make forward-looking decisions for themselves that they cannot easily renege on later, they enlarge their freedom, making it possible for them to do things they otherwise could not do. Giving Ulysses the rope with which to lash himself to the mast adds to his choices.

But Glen Whitman, of California State University, has doubts. In an engaging tract for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank, he wonders why governments should always favour the long-sighted self over its near-sighted alter ego. The immediate pleasures of gambling, drinking and idleness are real; so too are the costs of suppressing them. “In contrast to the obese and the profligate, whose short-run selves constantly trump their long-run selves, we might point to the misers [and] workaholics for whom the reverse appears to be true,” he writes.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/18/2006 09:28:00 PM | 6 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/18/2006 09:28:00 AM | 2 comments

Friday, April 14, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/14/2006 05:15:00 PM | 0 comments

"On May 1, people shouldn't buy anything from the interminable list of American businesses in Mexico," reads another. "That means no Dunkin' Donuts, no McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, Sears, Krispy Kreme or Wal-Mart."

For some it's a way to express anti-U.S. sentiment, while others see it as part of a cross-border, Mexican-power lobby.

In some cases, advocates incorrectly identified firms as American -- Sears stores in Mexico, for example, have been owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim since 1997.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/14/2006 11:30:00 AM | 1 comments

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Archbishop Comastri, in this year's meditations, was no less contemporary in looking at the sins and divisions that, he said, add weight to the cross Christ must bear.

But he also drew from Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est ('God is Love') to remind those who follow the Stations of the Cross that Christ's death and resurrection are the supreme sign of God's love and his desire to forgive.

'In his death, Jesus filled death itself with love; he filled it with the presence of God,' the archbishop wrote in the introduction.

He asked participants at the Colosseum to join in praying that God would break the chains that keep people from helping one another and showing concern for one another.

'Our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society's incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness,' the archbishop wrote.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/13/2006 02:59:00 PM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/13/2006 02:17:00 PM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/13/2006 11:43:00 AM | 8 comments

U2 frontman Bono said of the song 'Helter Skelter,' 'This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back.' It's time for us to do the same thing. 'This is a great political philospher the Democrats stole from American history. We're stealing him back.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/13/2006 11:19:00 AM | 7 comments

Supervisor Chris Yakabouski, who argued Tuesday night for an even lower tax rate, doesn't think there's much cause for crying.

'It's very interesting to hear, and very perplexing, that certain people think $8 million more this year than last year is a cut,' he said yesterday.
Yakabouski, a Republican who signed a pledge not to raise taxes, said the bulk of residents want the line held on taxes.

'The overall majority of the county should take comfort in the fact that we have a Board of Supervisors--at least six members--that is concerned about the citizens' ability to fund government services,' he said.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/13/2006 10:59:00 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

The first question we might ask as we unpack the metaphor "the Dictatorship of Relativism" is "Who are the members of the junta who govern this dictatorship?" As one who is called to Holy Orders, and thus to refrain even from the appearance of offering partisan political comments, it would be best for me to refrain from naming the key players. However, we all know that the mass media are generally accomplices to those who govern the Dictatorship of Relativism; they are generally not innocent bystanders or detached journalists who report in an objective way - willing cooperators in this dictatorship are also those who live their lives according to polling results, frequently sponsored by the mass media.

We might also ask "What are the principal enforcement mechanisms of the Dictatorship of Relativism, what weapons are contained in the arsenal of these dictators?" The first is inconsistency in civil law and practice, inconsistency being just another instance of relativism. This inconsistency is especially neuralgic because the civil law is our teacher. We have the very same individuals protesting against warrantless surveillance of possible terrorists' activities, and then in the northwest, affirming warrantless surveillance of people's garbage containers to ensure that no recyclables are to be found. On the one hand warrantless surveillance with regard to possible terrorism is politically incorrect while warrantless surveillance of personal garbage is politically correct. The polls determine what is politically correct and thus the same people find themselves caught in a clear inconsistency in the context of a culture which never even thinks to question it. Polls rarely divulge information which reaches beyond the trivial and transitory but truth is neither trivial nor transitory. Those who claim otherwise promote the Dictatorship of Relativism.

In closing, let me say that we must reclaim the proper use of language if we are to combat the dictatorship of relativism. Instead of hearing "pro-choice" all over the place, we need to promote the use of "natural law" all over the place or better some equivalent, that is a more catchy sound-bite. Some of you might well be gifted to articulate that sound-bite. We need to insist that the existence of God, the dignity of every human being, and the definition of marriage are not catholic curiosities that we are trying to force on the rest of the world, but the dictates of reason - of the natural law itself. Language has been used to lead us into the Dictatorship of Relativism, the dogma of hedonism, and the culture of death. But Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead and the Church is alive with the truth of Christ and the truth of the natural law. Let us live with joy and with hope, proclaiming the truth of Christ with love for all, but especially for our time and our culture, proclaiming with love and a smile the truth of the natural law.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/12/2006 05:23:00 PM | 0 comments

A supposedly conservative party has expanded the federal government to historic and frightening proportions both in size and in monetary terms (not to mention incompetency, but I digress). They have passed unconstitutional bill after unconstitutional bill, all the while pledging to uphold the Constitution every 2 or 6 years that they are re-elected. The "Contract With America: Renewed" proposed budget from the Republican Study Committee has had no endorsement from the RNC and hardly any mention by our "conservative" politicians. I can go on and on. I haven't even touched the ideas and proposals trumpeted by the liberals; the actions of our "conservatives" are sickening enough. I am disgusted, apathetic, and fed up. This isn"t a Republic. This isn't a representative democracy. Statesmen that the Founding Fathers would be proud to know, such as Senator Tom Coburn, Representative Mike Pence, and many others, are marginalized and ridiculed by our "Republicans." Our nation, our society, and our national government are going downhill quickly, currently at the hands of the "conservative" party.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/12/2006 11:11:00 AM | 1 comments

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/11/2006 08:52:00 PM | 1 comments

In that project, the SUV-sized upper stage that will take the equipment from Earth orbit to the moon will then crash into a crater near the moon's south pole. A follow-on craft will then be able to analyze the material as it flies through the debris.

Mission managers said they would look for water, water vapor and hydrogen, among other elements and minerals.

The crash should create a 17-foot-deep crater and a plume of debris that reaches more than 30 miles high.

Amateur astronomers should be able to watch the material rise, officials said.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/11/2006 05:09:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/11/2006 11:44:00 AM | 8 comments

Monday, April 10, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/10/2006 06:42:00 PM | 5 comments

Sunday, April 09, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/09/2006 07:32:00 PM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/09/2006 01:39:00 AM | 13 comments

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Public universities do not exist, and should not exist, for taking the very smartest 18-year-olds in the state and making them smarter still. Doing this takes the individuals who have had the greatest opportunities in life and gives them more opportunities still. It increases the divide between the haves and the have-nots. The purpose of public higher education should be to lift up everybody. In a utilitarian sense, it’s far better to take the diamonds in the rough—smart kids who had the misfortune to be born into a poor family in an underfunded school district—and allow them to better themselves and, in turn, enrich their families and communities. I think it is good and right that we recognize that universities serve a much larger purpose than merely stuffing facts into kids’ heads. We should strive to create a rich and varied community for them to occupy for their time in college.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/08/2006 11:31:00 PM | 3 comments

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rarely the subject of public controversy, is facing an emerging credibility crisis on the emotional issue of whether old-style vaccines containing a mercury preservative caused autism in thousands of children.

...

A full-page ad scheduled to run in today's editions of USA Today, the nation's largest circulation newspaper, accuses the CDC of "causing an epidemic of autism" by recommending that children receive a series of vaccines that until 2001 contained thimerosal.

The ad, placed by various advocacy groups, quotes environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as saying: "It's time for the CDC to come clean with the American public."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/08/2006 01:37:00 AM | 3 comments

Friday, April 07, 2006

In a program that also included remarks by President George W. Bush, the Vatican's representative in Washington and the priest who is supervising the reconstruction of Catholic schools in New Orleans, Bishop Morlino's keynote address warned about the 'dictatorship of relativism' and described what he said are the 'members of the junta' and the enforcement mechanisms they employ in maintaining that dictatorship.

He said the mass media and 'those who pander to polls' keep society focused on relativism. They employ inconsistency between civil laws and practices and the use of language which hides the true meaning of certain activities to keep people from applying the moral standards of natural law to everyday life, he said.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/07/2006 07:38:00 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 06, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/06/2006 11:55:00 PM | 3 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/06/2006 11:42:00 PM | 0 comments

Doctrines of the Cainites

1. Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.

2. I have also made a collection of their writings in which they advocate the abolition of the doings of Hystera. Moreover, they call this Hystera the creator of heaven and earth. They also hold, like Carpocrates, that men cannot be saved until they have gone through all kinds of experience. An angel, they maintain, attends them in every one of their sinful and abominable actions, and urges them to venture on audacity and incur pollution. Whatever may be the nature of the action, they declare that they do it in the name of the angel, saying, "O thou angel, I use thy work; O thou power, I accomplish thy operation !" And they maintain that this is "perfect knowledge," without shrinking to rush into such actions as it is not lawful even to name.

3. It was necessary clearly to prove, that, as their very opinions and regulations exhibit them, those who are of the school of Valentinus derive their origin from such mothers, fathers, and ancestors, and also to bring forward their doctrines, with the hope that perchance some of them, exercising repentance and returning to the only Creator, and God the Former of the universe, may obtain salvation, and that others may not henceforth be drown away by their wicked, although plausible, persuasions, imagining that they will obtain from them the knowledge of some greater and more sublime mysteries. But let them rather, learning to good effect from us the wicked tenets of these men, look with contempt upon their doctrines, while at the same time they pity those who, still cleaving to these miserable and baseless fables, have reached such a pitch of arrogance as to reckon themselves superior to all others on account of such knowledge, or, as it should rather be called, ignorance. They have now been fully exposed; and simply to exhibit their sentiments, is to obtain a victory over them.

4. Wherefore I have laboured to bring forward, and make clearly manifest, the utterly ill-conditioned carcase of this miserable little fox. For there will not now be need of many words to overturn their system of doctrine, when it has been made manifest to all. It is as when, on a beast hiding itself in a wood, and by rushing forth from it is in the habit of destroying multitudes, one who beats round the wood and thoroughly explores it, so as to compel the animal to break cover, does not strive to capture it, seeing that it is truly a ferocious beast; but those present can then watch and avoid its assaults, and can cast darts at it from all sides, and wound it, and finally slay that destructive brute. So, in our case, since we have brought their hidden mysteries, which they keep in silence among themselves, to the light, it will not now be necessary to use many words in destroying their system of opinions. For it is now in thy power, and in the power of all thy associates, to familiarize yourselves with what has been said, to overthrow their wicked and undigested doctrines, and to set forth doctrines agreeable to the truth. Since then the case is so, I shall, according to promise, and as my ability serves, labour to overthrow them, by refuting them all in the following book. Even to give an account of them is a tedious affair, as thou seest. But I shall furnish means for overthrowing them, by meeting all their opinions in the order in which they have been described, that I may not only expose the wild beast to view, but may inflict wounds upon it from every side.

You might be wondering, about now, why a document written in Coptic and discovered in Egypt in the 4th century is attributed to a man who hanged himself in another country a few centuries earlier. Good question. Australian newspapers have anticipated such questions; they point out that the work might actually have been written in 187 AD. All perfectly clear now?

The 'Gospel of Judas,' we are told, offers a sympathetic portrayal of the apostle who betrayed Jesus. If the document is authentic, then Judas is that rarest of men: a criminal who says he's not guilty.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/06/2006 10:53:00 PM | 1 comments

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/05/2006 10:54:00 PM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/05/2006 08:33:00 AM | 1 comments

While under enemy fire on the island of Okinawa, Doss carried 75 wounded soldiers to the edge of a 400-foot cliff and lowered them to safety, according to his citation.

During a later attack, he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. According to the citation, as he was being carried to safety, he saw a more critically injured man and crawled off his stretcher, directing the medics to help the other wounded man.

"He wanted to serve. He just didn't want to kill anybody," said a veteran who attended the service, Fred Headrick, 85. "Most all of them (Medal of Honor recipients) received their medal for killing someone. He received his by saving lives."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/05/2006 08:03:00 AM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/05/2006 07:55:00 AM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/05/2006 03:50:00 AM | 4 comments

Monday, April 03, 2006

'I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress,' DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. 'I'm very much at peace with it.' He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. 'This had become a referendum on me,' he said. 'So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/03/2006 11:13:00 PM | 3 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/03/2006 10:09:00 PM | 0 comments

Is there a rule that a blog needs to be horribly dry, scholarly, and free of gossip? I'm not accusing any blog of exhibiting these qualities. In fact, I enjoy almost all of the VA politics blogs. I have about 60 on my RSS feeder. They're all unique in character. Some incorporate humor and some prefer wonkery. Some convey occasional anger. Some (including this one) occasionally go overboard. We're only human, and none of us have editors.

My question: is a 50 comment free-for-all debate any less valuable (and insightful) than a detailed post containing thoughtful policy analysis? They are both examples of political participation that didn't exist just a few years ago. The former involves dozens of citizens displaying passion for the local political process (my God, when was the last time so many people focused on state and local politics?). The latter involves a citizen journalist putting their serious opinion into the public square for debate. Who is to say which is more important or relevant?

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/03/2006 07:26:00 PM | 2 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/03/2006 02:48:00 PM | 0 comments

The survey asked about Webb's negatives - "would you be more or less likely to vote for him if you knew he worked in the Regan administration?" - but it likewise asked about Miller's negatives. My friend, a follower of politics and a one-time campaign treasurer, perceived no difference in the strength or tone of the negatives that would indicate that either Webb or Miller was being slandered. The entire call featured a battery of questions, lasting well over twenty minutes.

...

Push polls are rare. They're generally used immediately before the election, and they're used by desperate campaigns. Spotting one is like seeing a UFO; sure, people think they see them, but they're probably wrong. Smart people err on the side of sanity and claim only that they witnessed something unusual, and leave it at that.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/03/2006 01:17:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/03/2006 01:26:00 AM | 2 comments

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Ronald Hilton estimates that, over the 24 years of Saddam Hussein's rule, about 600,000 people were killed by the Iraqi government. Now, maybe I ain't all that good at cipherin', but by my math, if you assume that Saddam Hussein was in power for 24 years (8,646 days, including leap years), and 600,000 people were executed during that time, you come up with an average of 69.4 people a day executed by Saddam Hussein's regime. That doesn't, by the way, include the 1,000,000 or so Iraqis who died during Mr. Hussein's wars of aggression agsint Iraq or Kuwait. That's just executions.

So, Mr. Steele's argument, essentially, is that Iraqis were better off when they had a tranquil public life with 70 people being bumped off by their own government every day, than they are now with 13 people dying in sectarian violence each day. Nevermind that, at the current rate, it will take 126 years for the daily death toll in Iraq to equal the death toll under Saddam Hussein. It just feels really unsafe.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/02/2006 01:01:00 PM | 2 comments

Saturday, April 01, 2006

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/01/2006 08:11:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 4/01/2006 01:23:00 PM | 6 comments

JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General?

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