In an attempt to share some of the spotlight with the Democrats, McCain gave a sort of "Back to the Future" speech where he looked forward the the changes his Presidency would like to accomplish by 2013. I will try to give this some more in depth analysis soon, but it seems to be at least a novel idea. Politicians usually try to prevent giving out any specific goals or ideas for fear that it would turn away some of their potential voters, and its refreshing to hear someone outline something a bit more tangible than "improve the economy" or "get more jobs". Among the things listed were a reduced military presence in Iraq by 2013, a tax-reform and potential "flat-tax", as well as others. Stay tuned for more info on the speech and on McCain next week.
The Catholic Church announced that it is OK for Catholics to believe in aliens. To summarily dismiss the possibility would be to "set limits on the creative liberty of God." according to Rev. Jose Funes, who is the director of the Vatican Observatory. I agree wholeheartedly with the premise, and I believe that too often people love to set their limits on God (hello, creationists!), I wonder if the official permission of the Vatican was needed. Were there really that many Catholics afraid to believe in the possibility of extraterrestrials because it might be a sin?
President Bush, trying to fulfill as many cliché's as possible before his Presidency ends, is on his official peace-in-the-middle-east tour. Well, sorta. The President is in Israel for the 60th anniversary of the country's independence, and during his visit he hopes, as always, to promote the idea of peace. While giving a speech, it seems that he might have likened Sen. Obama to those that would try to appease Hitler. Although he never mentioned Obama, or Hitler for that matter, it was implied that he meant both. Or did some people just interpret it that way? Either way, the President it getting accused of taking advantage of Israel's independence celebrations in order to play partisan politics.
On the heels of the Myanmar cyclone disaster, China had a massive earthquake from which it is still recovering. As of today the Chinese were still finding survivors in the rubble. The consensus is that the Chinese government is dealing with the disaster incredibly well. It should be interesting to see what sort of discussion comes of this in the future, comparing the Chinese response to the American response during Katrina.
7 comments:
1. I think that McCain is in a pretty unique position right now. He is almost running as a guaranteed one-termer, so he is freed up to make bold moves and predictions. Whether they work or not if he is still going strong in four years I think that he will be happy. It could put him in a ver y powerful position if he uses it well.
2. Of course Catholics need permission from the Vatican, don't you understand how Catholicism works? Interesting to see the Church get very progressive on this subject...but not moving so much on some many other large issues.
3. When I first heard the quote I thought he could have been talking about Carter. He was pretty vague and left a lot to the imagination.
4. All true. Even a communist country that does not seem to care about individuals or the "common" people has done a better job than we did with Katrina.
I demand posts on Saturdays/Sundays!
I might start doing some. I might start leaning to 2 smaller posts a day instead of one essay type, but I'm not sure.
comparing china's response to this recent disaster and ours in katrina is actually a really interesting concept. for whatever reason, it strikes me as odd that the communist government would be more motivated to impress its people with a prompt and powerful response than the democratically elected one.
China's response (so i have read and heard) is turning heads for many reasons. The media coverage has been virtually unrestricted, allowing the rest of the nation to connect with the demolished areas emotionally, with the government as the middle man. Perhaps its a calculated response to garner favor with the Chinese people. perhaps its a sort of coming out party to the international stage, putting the governments ability to adapt and be flexible on display. either way, they seem to be doing everything possible to help their citizens... no matter what the underlying reasons for doing so are.
Apologies for the long comment but one other interesting note. In the past, the Chinese governments attempts to control media coverage had the affect of politicizing even natural disasters. (covering up an earthquake or flood implies a reason for covering it up... ie negligence or whatever else). They were criticized on both fronts... for blocking media coverage as well as politicizing unpolitical issues. In this case, their allowance of full media coverage seems in itself a political statement, seeing as its such a different approach than they typically take. But in this case, the political consequences of the governments openness will likely be a major positive in the eyes of all who are witnessing it.
No need to apologize for long comments, I encourage people to post, if nothing else, it lets me know what they're reading.
I think that Chinese response is more noticeable with the contrast of the Burmese response, which mirrors more closely what people had come to expect from China and totalitarian regimes in general. I think it's still too soon to do a hard comparison of China vs New Orleans though, I assume that in general the reports will become more critical as we gain some distance from the actual tragedy, as no one wants to be seen as kicking people while they're down.
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