22.11.02

VVV

Indian Royalties Case Official Retires A top Interior Department official who a federal judge said deceived him about the agency's failure to reform a trust fund for Native Americans announced his retirement yesterday. Neal A. McCaleb, 67, assistant secretary for Indian affairs, said he was proud of a 35-year track record of trying to build "real and lasting economic opportunities for American Indian people." But McCaleb said that his efforts during the Bush administration were hampered by a long-running class-action lawsuit filed by Indian plaintiffs to secure an accounting of hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties from Native American lands held in trust by the government. The suit began before his appointment to the department. "Unfortunately, the litigation has taken first priority in too many activities, thus distracting attention from the other important goals that could provide more long-term benefits for Indian Country," said McCaleb, who will leave Dec. 31.

Yeah, those darn Indians keep mucking everything up by trying to make the US government keep its promises. I mean, why waste your time trying to reclaim the money the government stole from you when the government could be spending its time doing other things?
posted by Stentor Danielson at 10:59 -- link --

21.11.02

VVV This week's commentary and comic now online: What is the Bush Administration Hiding? and White House Christmas.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 22:00 -- link --

VVV Another year, another survey showing Americans don't know squat about geography. But there are some neat little tidbits behind the main story. Like the fact that more Americans than Europeans from various countries knew about El Niño. Probably because it's in the media over here so often, whereas it doesn't directly impact Europe, so their papers don't carry the story. And Mr. Plessl would be happy to hear that one of the questions with the best scores worldwide is Which continent has the highest percentage of its population infected with HIV?

I wish they gave you the percent who guessed each wrong answer. I want to know how many people thought Mexico was in Australia.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 18:55 -- link --

19.11.02

VVV My commentaries and comics for the Scarlet so far this year are now online.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 23:13 -- link --

18.11.02

VVV It's frustrating to see all our government officials lining up to support things like the Pledge and the "In God We Trust" motto that are blatantly unconstitutional. So it's tempting to hope the Supreme Court will take a case and strike all that nonsense down. But such a thing would be counterproductive, I think, because this country simply isn't ready for the concept of true religious freedom. You can't force a society to change against its will, no matter how just your cause. If the Supreme Court were to overturn the Pledge and motto, I can absolutely guarantee that be the end of that year we'd have a Constitutional Amendment making the US an officially Christian nation forever.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 18:49 -- link --

VVV

Postal Service To Put Up Motto Nationwide Just recently, Frank Williamson was thwarted in his bid to display posters depicting the national motto, "In God We Trust," at Montgomery County post offices. Now, not only will he see the phrase in his local county; it will be placed in all 38,000 post offices across the country. While he initially paid $80 to buy a few posters for his local post offices, the self-supporting U.S. Postal Service will now foot the bill for the national effort. On Friday, Williamson received word from authorities in Washington that the U.S. Postal Service designed its own poster depicting the national motto and would cover the cost to distribute it to every post office in the country.

This is what they're wasting our stamp money on? I'm tempted to start writing anti-motto messages on all the envelopes I send (not that communicating my anger to the mail-sorting lackeys would accomplish anything).
posted by Stentor Danielson at 14:50 -- link --

17.11.02

VVV Penn. Bill To Require Pledge In Schools

I'm glad we'll be teaching our kids that patriotism is a chore that consists mostly of rote recitation of unconstitutional liturgies. Seriously, does this benefit anyone besides the lawmakers that can go feel all self-righteous about how they made a token gesture instead of finding actual solutions to actual problems facing the state?
posted by Stentor Danielson at 15:41 -- link --

VVV

The Loyal Opposition: Lessons From Afghanistan One Herat resident quoted in the report said, "[Afghan warlord] Ismail Khan and his followers ... their hands are bloody. For them, killing a bird is the same as killing a man." Yet when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited with Ismail Khan last spring, he called the warlord "an appealing person.... He’s thoughtful, measured and self-confident."

In many ways, Afghanistan seems to be sliding back to pre-Taliban conditions. And it's likely to get worse as the world turns its attention to Iraq and the early outpouring of aid dries up. And as the Guardian reports, if one of the many attempts to assassinate Hamid Karzai succeeds, the new Afghan government is toast.

The two most important ingredients in breeding terrorism are a failed government and an absolutist rallying cry. Combine this with the possible outpouring of Islamist anti-Americanism as a result of the war on Iraq, and you have a recipe for a return to the Taliban. The Taliban itself is not likely to come back any time soon, as their name is anathema to most everybody. But a conservative Islamic group with an anti-American agenda, and an openness to harboring terrorists, is not out of the question.
posted by Stentor Danielson at 15:28 -- link --