jpers36's blog
Posted at 6:54pm on Jan. 11, 2008 The Top Five Reasons Redstaters Think Ron Paul Is Crazy
By jpers36
No one (on RedState at least) is calling HWMNBN crazy for his positions on constitutionalism, federalism, limited government, or domestic policy; yet those are the positions that his supporters are rushing to defend here. They're completely missing the point.
For future reference, guys, here are
The Top Five Reasons Redstaters Think Ron Paul Is Crazy
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Posted at 4:36pm on Dec. 7, 2007 Is Robin Weirauch running an online whisper campaign against Bob Latta?
By jpers36
After reading this blog post attacking Bob Latta, I wandered over to Bob Latta's Wikipedia entry, and I noticed something interesting in the edit history. Check this out: a series of defamatory edits highlighting everything from a Club for Growth non-endorsement, to investments in oil companies, to a supposed connection to Coingate.
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Posted at 10:29am on Aug. 29, 2007 Al-Sadr suspending activities, will work to "rehabilitate" the organization
By jpers36
See the AP report on Yahoo! here.
"We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," [Sheik Hazim] al-Araji said, reading from a statement by al-Sadr.
In Najaf, al-Sadr's spokesman said the order also means the Mahdi Army will no longer launch attacks against U.S. and other coalition forces.
"It also includes suspending the taking up of arms against occupiers as well as others," Ahmed al-Shaibani told reporters.
Read the whole thing.
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Posted at 3:19pm on Jul. 18, 2007 AP finds the upside to Lieberman (ID-CT)
By jpers36
Check out the AP report on the failed cloture motion. After admitting that the vote "was a sound defeat for Democrats", the article goes on to put a positive spin on the situation, highlighting the possible fracturing of Republican resolve:
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Posted at 11:23am on May 4, 2007 Republican Debate #1
By jpers36
My impressions of the ten candidates, based on last night's debate and sorted roughly from best to worst.
Romney: Great communicator. Shored up some of his waffling issues, but not completely. His answer on faith in office veered too close to relativism for me. Looked a little robotic when Matthews pressed him on pro-life and he repeated what he'd just said almost exactly. Surprised he didn't raise his hand on the evolution question.
Brownback: Good debater. Had the single best answer in the whole debate when he picked up Romney's faith in office response and ran with it, talking about how faith should be a positive quality in office-holders. His three-state/one-nation Iraq plan sounds like a good idea to me, though I know some of you have issues with it.
McCain: THE Iraq war candidate now. Most forceful out of all the candidates. Had a really wierd smile at the end of a war question early on, though, that really confused me. I wish he weren't so bad on freedom of speech issues.
The rest below the fold.
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Posted at 3:57pm on Dec. 27, 2006 If you think the AP's bad. . .
By jpers36
Here are AP's quotes from their article regarding Saddam's latest letter to Iraqis, titled "Facing gallows, Saddam offers 'sacrifice' for Iraq":
"Here I offer myself in sacrifice. If God almighty wishes, it (my soul) will take me where he orders to be with the martyrs," Saddam said in the hand-written letter obtained from his defense lawyers in Jordan after it was posted on a Web site.
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Posted at 11:15am on Oct. 15, 2004 Political Civility
By jpers36
Go check out this post by college friend Lara, a quick rant about the lack of civility in political conversation recently.
For me, it's not so much the yelling, the anger, the passion. If you can get passionate about this country's electoral process, that's a lot better than being apathetic about it :). What does bother me a lot -- and I come across it both online and in person, although luckily most of my friends are good about it -- is when someone can't understand the brute fact that the person on the other side of the political spectrum may be as intelligent and well-informed as you are. The next time I hear "They're too stupid to be allowed the right to vote", "You simply haven't looked into all the facts", "He just isn't old enough yet to have the right perspective on things", "Bush is a moron", "Kerry is an empty suit", the conversation is over. Done. And you've lost, no matter whether you're agreeing or disagreeing with me.
Read on . . .
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Posted at 7:41pm on Sep. 27, 2004 "Violence Never Solves Anything"
By jpers36
I read Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein, something like ten or more years ago (which would have made me twelve at the most). I just read it again this weekend. I didn't realize it at the time, but the book influenced my thoughts on war more than any other except the Bible itself, and maybe The Lord of the Rings. Hmm . . . what does it say when you trace back so much of your thought process to works of fiction? I don't mean the Bible, of course, but Tolkien, Lewis, Heinlein, Roddenberry, Card, Schulz, L'Engle, even Franklin Dixon, who was himself fictional. None of you may ever know the extent to which my adult life has been directed by Bill Watterson.
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