Tag: international
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How Do You Solve a Problem Like Haiti?
photo credit: United Nations Development Programme These days everybody wants to help the poor people of Haiti – and that’s obviously a good thing but when I think about Haiti it makes me wonder what the proper course of action is for outside nations to help that struggling country. I’m not talking about the proper…
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A Tale of Two Vice Presidents
photo credit: BlatantNews.com Once upon a time there was a young president who had campaigned on a platform of using the military more conservatively than his predecessor (who happened to be in the other party). During the campaign he had chosen a more experienced man as his running mate in an effort to soothe those…
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Put the Shoe on the Other Foot
photo credit: Doug20022 I’m beginning to conclude that we should never make a political decision without first reversing our perspective of the decision and seeing how it looks. For example, on health care there is a lot of focus on what this will look like for those who want insurance but can’t get it. Only…
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Facts From Honduras
One month after Manuel Zalaya was sent into exile we are hearing very little news on the situation. The crisis in Honduras is still not resolved however and now Roberto Micheletti, the interim President, is expressing his views in the Wall Streett Journal. The views that he shares sound like he is very much on…
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An Inside View on the Honduran Situation
It’s always nice to have my positions validated by someone with more inside information than I have. I just learned that Tegucigalpa Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has taken the same position as I have expressed on every point of the situation in Honduras. (You have to read my posts and my comments afterwards to see…
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The Monroe Doctrine
I remember learning about The Monroe Doctrine in history classes – mostly about the interpretation of it called Manifest Destiny. I found it enlightening to review some background surrounding this speech to Congress. In Wikipedia the doctrine is summed up like so: President Monroe claimed the United States of America, although only a fledgling nation…
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News on the Honduran Coup
When I first heard about the military coup in Honduras I noticed some reference to the extra-constitutional activities of the ousted president and the attempts by their legislative and judicial branches to check his actions. Soon however I noticed a shift in the news coverage as a party line began to develop. First Hugo Chavez…
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International Hazing/Initiation
Yesterday there was a very short story on NPR that caught my attention. Apparently a number of Chinese military ships came very close to an unarmed American military ship in international waters. Close was specified to be under 20 feet at one point which is very close in nautical terms. The suggestion by the reporter…
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The Other Side of the Sentiment
As I was walking to the bus stop this morning I saw an image attached to the garage door of one of my neighbors. I’ve heard/seen that sentiment before, but with all my thinking about the flag and the meaning of patriotism lately it struck me differently. I appreciate the sentiment that we are not…
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Patriot Day
I appreciate the idea of Patriot Day as a way to mark our modern “day of infamy.” It is unfortunate that the event has been used so effectively to manipulate our politics. Once upon a time, America represented more to the world than simply a big bully who was allowed, because of might and wealth,…