Race, apologies, and reparations

Remember Fred from Fred on Everything? He's the one who wrote the What's Wrong With Our System article we discussed recently. He trends to sling arrows in a lot of directions and one hit the topic of reparations for slavery:

On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. It's because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess he'll send me a bill, huh?

I feel like saying, 'Let me get this straight, Hank. I'm slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I don't blame you.' I'd like free money too.

Tell you what. I believe in justice. I'll give you a million dollars for every slave I own, and another million for every year you were a slave. Fair enough? But tell me, how many slaves do you suppose I have? In round numbers, I mean...Say to the nearest dozen.

And how long were you a slave?

Oh.

Fred has a lot of interesting articles on his site. Keep in mind that you may find some material offensive to you and Fred describes himself as "looney as tune."

Link to Fred on Everything

More of the same

These clips should tell you a LOT about why we need to get rid of the dead weight in Washington, D.C. this November!

Questions for Sen. Obama

Radley Balko, who had a few questions for Sen. McCain, has a few questions for Sen. Obama. Some of his great questions:

In February, you said you might support vouchers and charter schools if empirical data showed that they improve education (some studies show that they do). Admirably, your position was, "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn." After pressure from the teachers unions, you quickly backed off from that position, stating that your campaign doesn't support vouchers "in any shape or form." What prompted that change? And if it's important that we not "throw up our hands" and "walk away from the public schools," why do you send your own kids to private schools?

You not only supported the latest federal farm bill, you commended it, stating that it "will provide America's hard-working farmers and ranchers with more support and more predictability." Critics have called that $307 billion monstrosity an orgy of earmarks, corporate welfare, and protectionism. It actually increases subsidies to huge agribusinesses in an era of record grain prices — subsidies that are already crushing farmers in the developing world. The New York Times called it "disgraceful." The Wall Street Journal called it a "scam." How does the "change" candidate justify supporting a bill larded with sweetheart deals for big agribusiness when just about everyone not getting a check from the bill opposed it?

You continue to support ethanol subsidies despite the fact that corn-based ethanol is inefficient, environmentally unfriendly, and part of the cause of rising food prices. Even liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls ethanol "[b]ad for the economy, bad for consumers, bad for the planet." Perhaps your support stems from you representing a corn producing state. But is supporting a wasteful policy to win votes "change we can believe in," or is it a good sign that you're just another politician?

Link to A Few Questions for Sen. Obama (via FoxNews.com)

Tuesday's Tech Tip: Replace Adobe Acrobat with Foxit Reader

Do you enjoy the running bloated software that takes forever to load a PDF file? If so, skip this week's Tech Tip. Catch up on older tips instead.

For everyone else, start using the free Foxit Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat. Foxit Reader is a light-weight and fast substitute for Adobe Acrobat.

I like to install Adobe Acrobat and then Foxit Reader, so Foxit Reader is my default PDF viewer. This means I have Acrobat on my system for the (unlikely) event that I have to use it for something, but everything defaults to Foxit Reader.

Did I mention the word free?

Link to Foxit Reader

Who is an American?

NPR's Weekend Edition asked people "Who is an American?" in Philadelphia. It's a great story idea and thought-provoking which dovetails nicely with us here. From the story that accompanies the audio:

Independence Park Ranger Tom Degnen concedes that the United States doesn't always live up to its own ideals. But he says an American is someone who keeps trying anyway.

"It's someone who takes to heart the language in our founding documents," Degnen says. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The nation is founded on those principles. We had a hard time living up to them fully. But there has been that effort, and I think an American in the best sense is conscious of that."

So what do you think? Who is an American?

Link to Who is an American? (via NPR.org, audio link on page)

The Second Coming? Obama 's Trip!

I just found a funny piece of satire from Gerard Baker, the United States editor of the London Times, to be an "enlightening" look at the Obama campaign trip abroad. Here's how it starts out:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

Link to read the whole thing (via the Times Online)

My first Revolution game

I saw my first York Revolution game last night and it was fantastic. I had a great seat, but honestly, I don't think there's a bad seat in the stadium.

Now would be a good time to remind readers of Jeff Johnson's great Revolution Rumblings blog. It's packed with Revolution news, game run-downs and pictures. Revolution fans should have his blog bookmarked.

Regular listeners of Gary's show might've recognized last night's announcer -- Gary's producer, Stu. They kept calling him "Stupendous," which I dislike. I prefer Stutastic, as in "It's Stutastic!"

Link to Revolution Rumblings