Posts Tagged ‘Washington Post’

Civil War Myths

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Nothing steams me more than when people re-write history for their own nefarious purposes. Sure, much of history is subjective, and it generally is written by the victors, but some things are just flat-out truths. Facts are facts.

That’s why I enjoyed this Washington Post article: “Five myths about why the South seceded.”

Because as we get closer to April and the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter we’re going to see more of this revisionist bullshit.

TSA Screenings Illegal

Monday, November 29th, 2010

I haven’t talked much about my thoughts on the new Transportation Security Agency (TSA) screenings, but this Washington Post article pretty much sums it up: “Why the TSA pat-downs and body scans are unconstitutional.”

Key quote:

In a 2006 opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, then-Judge Samuel Alito stressed that screening procedures must be both “minimally intrusive” and “effective” – in other words, they must be “well-tailored to protect personal privacy,” and they must deliver on their promise of discovering serious threats. Alito upheld the practices at an airport checkpoint where passengers were first screened with walk-through magnetometers and then, if they set off an alarm, with hand-held wands. He wrote that airport searches are reasonable if they escalate “in invasiveness only after a lower level of screening disclose[s] a reason to conduct a more probing search.”

While technically not in the Constitution, the Supreme Court has found interstate travel to be “a right so elementary was conceived from the beginning to be a necessary concomitant of the stronger Union the Constitution created. In any event, freedom to travel throughout the United States has long been recognized as a basic right under the Constitution.” (United States v. Guest (1966)

I can’t wait until someone tries this in court.

Death in Dubai

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Tragic, and avoidable: “Fellow competitor blames heat, safety lapses in death of swimmer Fran Crippen“.

Key quote:

An American swimmer blamed the blazing heat, unusually warm surf and lack of medical and safety personnel on the course for the death of former University of Virginia swimmer Fran Crippen, 26, in an open-water race Saturday in the United Arab Emirates.

Unfortunately, that sounds all too much like the Dubai I know …

BP Photoshop Exercise

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Did you see the story earlier this week about how BP has faked photos of their command center? It’s been all over the blogs as well as some articles in the press, like this Washington Post piece: “Altered BP photo comes into question.”

Anyway, I took it upon myself this morning to Photoshop a few more screens for BP. Hope they like them:

Milbank on Reform

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Dana Milbank has a good column in last Sunday’s Washington Post: “Health reform and the specter of Alf Landon.”

Landon, you might recall, ran against FDR in 1936’s presidential election – the most lopsided election in the history of the United States in terms of electoral votes (I don’t want to spoil it, but FDR creamed him).

Additionally the 1936 presidential election, you might recall, was the one in which Maine lost its place as the bellwether presidential elections.

For the hundred years prior Maine had almost consistently predicted the Presidential winner. See, back then our statewide elections were in September. In the presidential election years we oftentimes voted in the governor or senators from the party that would go on to win the presidential election. The political wisdom of the time became “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

Then 1936 happened.

Only Maine and Vermont voted for Landon.

Thus the phrase jokingly became “As goes Maine, so goes Vermont.”

Anyway, check out Milbank’s article.