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10799. alistairconnor - 3/19/2013 10:03:33 AM Hey folks, did you catch this?
Not exactly current events, but there's no history thread. And some things never change anyway.
BBCAt a July meeting in Nixon's New York apartment, the South Vietnamese ambassador was told Chennault represented Nixon and spoke for the campaign. If any message needed to be passed to the South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, it would come via Chennault. In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris - concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared. Chennault was despatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal. So on the eve of his planned announcement of a halt to the bombing, Johnson learned the South Vietnamese were pulling out. He was also told why. The FBI had bugged the ambassador's phone and a transcripts of Anna Chennault's calls were sent to the White House. In one conversation she tells the ambassador to "just hang on through election". 10800. Wombat - 3/19/2013 5:31:46 PM This has been floating around for a while. Ironic, ultimately, in that Nixon totally shafted the South Vietnamese. 10801. alistairconnor - 3/20/2013 6:19:39 PM You may have seen...
 10802. anomie - 3/27/2013 6:21:28 PM The marriage question seems simple if we think of it as what it really is - a religious sacrament. As such, the government has no business teling people how to practice religion. For all practical purposes (especially since divorce is so common and accessable), the government treats marriage as a contract, sometimes with children as an interested third party. But these are secular concerns and should be enforced without regard to gender. So the government shouldget out of the "marriage" business altogether. Marriage is something people do within their religious context. If the government has an interest in protecting contracts between couples, then it's obvious they should do so equitably without regard to gender, etc.
Gotta believe someone on the court is thinking this way. I can even imagine Scalia agreeing that a rose by any other name is still a "contract" and should be enforced equally. I mean, if the equal protection clause can give us Bush in 2000, it ought to give us this.
10803. judithathome - 3/27/2013 6:39:41 PM i The marriage question seems simple if we think of it as what it really is - a religious sacrament.
I have never once thought of my marriage as a religious sacrament. And millions of others don't think that way, either.
If it were simply a "religious" union, we wouldn't need to register it with the government. 10804. judithathome - 3/27/2013 6:40:27 PM Sorry, the quote should be italicized....I keep forgetting shortcuts don't work here. 10805. anomie - 3/27/2013 7:17:40 PM Judith, you make the point for me. Our society treats marriage as little more than a contract now. It has less and less of its historic religious aspects in the minds of most people. So it's a little hypocritical for folks to be so protective of its traditional religious definition. It's a contract. If the court were deciding the issue on the basis of contract law, I believe it would be settle easily in favor of equal protection. 10806. judithathome - 3/28/2013 6:39:18 PM You're right...but I fear they aren't going to lean that way. 10807. judithathome - 4/1/2013 7:16:16 PM Anyone else worried about Dennis Rodman's new best friend in North Korea? 10808. judithathome - 4/1/2013 9:40:05 PM Dozens Indicted In Atlanta Cheating Scandal
This is depressing. 10809. arkymalarky - 4/1/2013 10:32:18 PM Welcome to the world of high-stakes testing. I'll love watching Michelle Rhee Suffer the same fate one of these days 10810. arkymalarky - 4/4/2013 3:17:13 PM I've decided not to go to yahoo any more. They're getting really out there IMO 10811. anomie - 4/5/2013 2:36:27 AM I don't like their teaser headlines. I just ignore them and check the Daily Mail for all the hot gossip. 10812. arkymalarky - 4/5/2013 3:28:40 AM They started interspersing that With some conservative Whack job Opinion pieces 10813. anomie - 4/5/2013 5:40:14 PM Whack job conservative opinions are everywhere these days. Shame. 10814. arkymalarky - 4/5/2013 5:58:52 PM True, but Yahoo was putting them in at the top With the news headlines 10815. judithathome - 4/8/2013 4:03:00 PM Maggie Thatcher dead at 87. 10816. iiibbb - 4/10/2013 8:33:11 PM What a waste of money. In a time when budgets are tight, should the USDA really go about a re-branding effort? What a waste of taxpayer money.
10817. iiibbb - 4/11/2013 2:08:15 AM apparently the update recended today 10818. judithathome - 4/13/2013 5:55:45 PM This is about the media...I have noticed in the last few days how crudely FOX News is covering the gun debate. Sean Hannity is calling the parents of dead children "fake" and "actors" and Rush Limbaugh is parroting right along with him.
Are these guys so far removed from simple humanity that they ridicule parents who have lost their children?
Mitch McConnel bristled to the point of apoplexy that his wife's ehtnicity was mentioned in a tweet but he has nothing to say to the media about his implied plans to ridicule a woman who's suffered from depression ?
I don't know about y'all but I think this is digusting...it shows a severe lack of empathy AND sympathy and a lack of connection to anything remotely compassionate in their natures.
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