Archive for January, 2013
Thoughts on Lance Armstrong
Tuesday, January 15th, 2013
A lot of the discussion about Lance Armstrong is about ends justifying means, whether he deserves any credit for the LIVESTRONG Foundation, and so on. Most commentators want to paint him either black or white. Like most of life, it’s just not that simple:
- Armstrong is a seriously flawed person who has done dishonest and vicious things – he should be held accountable legally, financially, socially, and morally.
- Armstrong started a worthwhile foundation, raised a lot of money for a very good cause, and gave hope to a lot of people – his contributions should be recognized and appreciated.
The second does not justify the first; the first does not invalidate the second. He did wrong; he did right. Me too. The difference between us is that his worst was worse than mine and his best was better than mine.
Shame on you, Lance Armstrong. And thanks.
Posted in Culture, Sports | 1 Comment »
European Union’s Embrace of the USSR
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
The European Union celebrates the USSR and, presumably, its slaughter of 30 million people over three generations of hideous evil. One can only assume that the swastika is missing from this poster only because Hitler failed to show proper respect for Stalin and Soviet communism. This is the Euro-socialism Obama and his progressive cronies in Congress and the courts so admire.
From Daniel Hannan’s blog at the Telegraph (U.K.):
For three generations, the badge of the Soviet revolution meant poverty, slavery, torture and death. It adorned the caps of the chekas who came in the night. It opened and closed the propaganda films which hid the famines. It advertised the people’s courts where victims of purges and show-trials were condemned. It fluttered over the re-education camps and the gulags. For hundreds of millions of Europeans, it was a symbol of foreign occupation. Hungary, Lithuania and Moldova have banned its use, and various former communist countries want it to be treated in the same way as Nazi insignia.
According to religion and culture webzine “People of Shambala”, the image first appeared in a textbook published by the EU:
This image also appeared in Arts and Visual Communications by Sladjana Zunic, Sladjana Bajic, Anke Gardasevic and Helichrysum Vukicevic, an EU textbook published in 2010. However, while the communist hammer and sickle appears alongside religious emblems, in this version the Islamic crescent and star is at the pinnacle of the main image. This has subsequently been replaced by the communist sign.
Their cover blown, the EU removed the offending poster from its headquarters after the Lithuanian ambassador complained. Why would the Lithuanian ambassador complain? I’m sure EU bureaucrats wondered the same thing. Maybe because “In Lithuania, which fought a bitter guerilla war against Soviet invaders from 1944 to 1952, it is illegal to display the hammer and sickle or to deny Soviet atrocities.”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »