Well I’m posting this from 30,000 feet. Ah technology.
:)
Author Archives: scottsoapbox
Whoopi Goldberg: ‘It Wasn’t Rape-Rape’ Just Rape.
“She still seems to be suggesting that there are different levels of forcing someone to have sexual intercourse without their consent, that some rapes are better than others. What a dangerous and foolish thing to say.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The actress Whoopi Goldberg has coined the stupidest term in the whole furore over Roman Polanski’s arrest in Zurich for having sexual intercourse with a minor.
Speaking on television show The View, Goldberg said “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”
“Rape-rape?” As opposed to just ‘rape’? Goldberg was trying to pin down the exact crime Polanski was charged with but she still seems to be suggesting that there are different levels of forcing someone to have sexual intercourse without their consent, that some rapes are better than others. What a dangerous and foolish thing to say.
Goldberg also said: “We’re a different kind of society. We see things differently. The world sees 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds in the rest of Europe… not everybody agrees with the way we see things…”
Polanski’s 13-year-old victim was intoxicated by champagne and a Quaalude before he took pictures of her naked. Then, despite her alleged resistance, the 44-year-old had sexual intercourse with her. Despite Polanski’s mastery at film making, let’s not pretend that we see this as anything but despicable and utterly wrong. Even in Europe. – UK Telegraph
Are Consumers Using (evil) Capitalism to fight Government Motors?
Tom Blumer has a interesting perspective on the sharp decline – 42% and 45% – of GM and Chrysler.
Reviewing September’s detailed sales results in the car business carried at the Wall Street Journal, three things stick out immediately:
* The awful performance at General Motors — down 45% from September 2008.
* Chrysler’s even worse performance — down “only” 42% from September 2008, but a mind-boggling 61% from September 2007 (62,197 in 2009, 156,799 in 2007)
* Ford’s tiny decline of only 6% from a year ago, despite the end of the Cash For Clunkers program in August.No other major maker had a year-over-year September decline that was even half of that seen at GM or Chrysler.
Yet the press, while beginning to acknowledge serious problems at the companies, both of which were first bailed out by the government and then taken through government-orchestrated, contract law-violating, UAW-favoring bankruptcies (GM discussed here, Chrysler here), still will not entertain the possibility, despite the evidence, that consumers are shunning them because of their bailed-out status and their heavy-handed tactics in bankruptcy. – newsbusters.org
Obama’s Olympics: Epic Fail
If only we had elected someone that would make the world like us again… someone that could talk to even our enemies and get them to see things our way… oh well at least he’s historic: first major world leader to not get the Olympics after a personal pitch.
President Obama’s failure to grab gold in his personal quest to send the 2016 Olympics to Chicago was a stunning setback for a president who has enjoyed a pop star reception abroad.
But Obama’s stumble may cost him more than the $1.2 million of taxpayer money to make the overnight dash from Washington to Copenhagen.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama risked their political capital and the prestige of the presidency on an enormous Olympic campaign that resulted in an early exit for Chicago and the top prize going to Rio de Janeiro.
After returning to Washington, Obama said he wished he had come back with better news on the Olympics but congratulated Brazil and thanked everyone who worked on Chicago’s bid.
“I’m proud I was able to come in and help make the case in person,” he said from the White House. “I believe it’s always a worthwhile endeavor to promote and boost the United States of America and invite the world to see what we’re all about.”
But critics immediately decried Obama’s visit to Copenhagen, the first time a U.S. president made such an in-person appeal.
“It demeans the office,” said GOP consultant Brad Blakeman, a former Bush administration official. “For the president to be reduced to the effect of the Billy Mays pitchman for the United States to get the Olympics for his home city of Chicago is just not something that presidents do.”
Blakeman said Obama spent more time wooing International Olympic Committee officials than he did in his meeting with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, before returning to Washington.
“His priorities are screwed up and the American people are seeing that this president just doesn’t get the effects and importance of governing,” Blakeman told FOX News.
Instead of making a personal appearance, Blakeman said Obama should have sent a delegation led by the first lady and the mayor of Chicago. – FoxNews
One Really Big Tree
Photographer Nick Nichols spent a year planning the nearly impossible: a top-to-bottom photograph of a 300-foot-tall redwood tree, now the centerpiece of the October issue of National Geographic Magazine.