Monday, November 30, 2015
France Uses Sweeping Powers to Curb Climate Protests, but Clashes Erupt - The New York Times
Is this the system of freedom of expression we are fighting to preserve?
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
The Case Against Woodrow Wilson at Princeton - The New York Times
History is seldom written on an entire rock. There is always room for more stone carving.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
US students to get free Birthright trips to Ireland says Diaspora Minister - IrishCentral.com
This sounds like a great idea!
Friday, November 20, 2015
Trump Says He 'Would Certainly Implement' Muslim Database - NBC News
Where are French Jews on the restrictions on Muslims in France and civil liberties in general?
Trump Says He 'Would Certainly Implement' Muslim Database - NBC News
The only rabid dogs I worry about are the two featured here - TRUMP and CARSON. As for the Muslim "list", I'd first start by tracking all Republicans - their every movement. And it would be obligatory. Let's see how that works out, and then we can think about expanding it to other similarly defined groups like real estate moguls and Jews. Ok, fine, move to Episcopalians (I am one) next, and perhaps Irish citizens who are also US citizens (I am one of those, too), and then perhaps we get to Mormons, Muslims, etc. But only then.....
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
US governor urges Government not to use plain tobacco packaging
I wonder if McCRORY claims any Irish roots? I find none in a Google search. Odd.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Syrian refugees not welcome in 27 U.S. states - CNN.com
What a sad reflection of the United States of America today. There was a time when the US said the same to thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. Do we never learn from history? Or do narcissism and xenophobia run in our blood?
Monday, November 16, 2015
SkyMiles
The promo for this on a Delta flight was something like - use your miles to bid on "brag-worthy" experiences. Narcissism anyone?
Cinq questions pour faire le point sur l'enquête après les attentats de Paris
Law enforcement is professional work and we ought all to let professionals get on with their jobs.
US Adds Foreign Students, but Few Americans Study Abroad - ABC News
We should be sending as many students as we possibly can to study overseas. The US needs a population which understands, firsthand, more of the world around our island.
Baltimore Homicide Total Surpasses 300 for the Year - The New York Times
That's roughly twice the number who have died in the Paris attacks and about half the number of total homicides in France in an average year! There are many things very wrong with this "picture".
Governor Seeks to Bar Syrian Refugees From Alabama After French Attack - NBC News
I started to write that I cannot find the words to describe my anger toward the Governor on this issue, but then I quickly realized that that I do have plenty of words to apply to him - but not for mixed company!
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Goal?
I see that French authorities plan to go after radical Imams and other leaders who may be having a bad impact on young people, leading them to commit crimes in the name of the "Islamic State" or something similar. It seems to me that this only adds fuel to the dangerous fire. It's as though we decided to fight crime in general by seeking out those people - parents, teachers, friends? - who are likely to help steer a young person toward crime. Sure, we want to do all of that, but let's not turn this criminal investigation and crime prevention priority into a witch hunt for unpopular ideas or people who are simply inclined to do bad things. We get far too close to the delicate balance of free expression and public order if we do that. Instead of enlarging the investigation and crime-fighting focus of the moment, let's double-down on that - find all those criminally responsible for the atrocities of Friday night and prosecute them to the full extent of the law. After completing that work, we should next double-down on strong law enforcement efforts to detect and thwart crimes in the planning stage. Finally, after all of that is so much better executed, let's reflect carefully on all of the things needed to reduce the likelihood of sacrificing young men and women to such atrocious acts. It's a lot more than trying to silence clerics or others and singling out bad apples for some sort of police harassment.
Think of these as the terrible criminal acts that they were and let's get on with investigation and prosecution while we redouble our efforts to make so many changes needed to reduce the likelihood of developing more people committing similar acts.
Think of these as the terrible criminal acts that they were and let's get on with investigation and prosecution while we redouble our efforts to make so many changes needed to reduce the likelihood of developing more people committing similar acts.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Three Teams of Coordinated Attackers Carried Out Assault on Paris, Officials Say; Hollande Blames ISIS - The New York Times
It seems to me that we still have a whole lot to learn.
Homicides in France
In 2012, according to Wikipedia, France suffered 665 homicides.The number of people killed last night looks to be about 25% of that year's total. (Those who died amount to only about 1% of the yearly number in the US, according to the same source.)
Paris attacks
Make CSI , not WW III;
Crimes, not acts of war
By Terry Maguire[1]
Nice, France – November 14, 2015 – We can be pretty sure this
morning that the deaths last night at several locations in Paris, the capital
of this country, were cold-blooded murders. The images that have been broadcast
and otherwise published leave little doubt.
The front page of Nice-Matin, the
city’s newspaper, this morning.
Beyond that,
we do not know – with certainty – much more.
This hand-drawn symbol emerged on
onine overnight.
That’s part
of why I think we need to take a quick, but deep, breath, and ask ourselves,
and our governments, whether the response should be to wage war or whether we
need the very best investigations of these presumed crimes in order to bring
the surviving perpetrators to the bar of justice. Some in France, notably
former French President Nicolas SARKOZY, have already concluded that we are at
war with the people he and others feel are responsible for these acts.
The French
government has spoken through its President, Prime Minister and the director of
law enforcement, announcing a vague state of emergency and new border
restrictions, while they also try to calm the understandably frazzled nerves of
so many people in what the French call their five-sided country. Others are
looking to one online posting, purportedly coming from the group known by so many
names including the “Islamic State” claiming responsibility, then assuming at
first blush its authenticity.
Meanwhile, I
sense that many people living in other parts of France, untouched directly by
last night’s incidents, are afraid. And I wondered as I walked the streets of
Nice this morning, what each person was thinking. I saw no one who looked
afraid, but I have no idea what may have been in their heads. That was
particularly true when I passed several veiled women and some men who may very
well have been Muslim. Were they more worried about the glances from the rest
of us than about the attacks?
All of this
comes at a particularly difficult time for France, as French voters prepare to
go to the polls next month to select a group of leaders for regions in France. (Imagine
that the US states were grouped into 5 regions of 10 states each; those are the
“regions” electing leaders here.) The contest for the region in which Nice
finds itself is particularly close and pertinent.
The party of
SARKOZY has picked the Mayor of Nice who is an attractive rags-to-riches, motor
cycle-riding and marathon-running candidate. His toughest opponent is the
attractive granddaughter of the founder of the legendary extreme right party,
called the National Front. It’s as though we are watching a US Republican
candidate run against a Tea Party leader.
Immigration
is a major issue in the campaign and I expect to see both candidates use last
night’s tragedy to convince us voters that he/she is the better qualified to
protect “us” from “them”. The “Liberté, Egalite, Fraternité” mentioned by President OBAMA last
night will get a run for its money in coming weeks. Don’t count on the campaign
to result in talk of the values of diversity, inclusion, or fairness.
In such a
tense environment, I think we need to look at last night as a series of heinous
criminal acts that demand the most professional investigation that French,
foreign and international law enforcement can muster. We have suffered awful acts
by people dead and alive this morning, who need to be found and/or
investigated. Those at large need to be captured. Those who died last night
need to be understood, if we can. And for any and all who may have aided the
assailants in preparing these attacks, we need to find them, too, and subject
them to fair and intense questioning, at a minimum.
This is the
very best way for us all to encourage our governments to act, and the way in
which we can do the most to avoid more atrocities.
If we allow
ourselves to view this as “war”, we risk scaring ourselves to death, and, more
significantly, we risk trampling over the rights and lives of so many so
unnecessarily. Instead, we should be cooperating with law enforcement in their
work, volunteering anything and everything that might be of value to them that
we might have seen or know. A “war” focus for the response will lead us to view
the problem as vaguely “foreign” and large populations of people as the
“enemies”.
I hope that
others will agree with me on this, and that we can do what we should have done
14 years ago when the US suffered such horrific attacks – respond to last
night’s atrocities with the professionalism, fairness, and thoroughness that I
know lies within the criminal justice systems of the French Republic and the
United States of America.
Please don’t
retreat from these values; we will be safer and better if we work to make them
even stronger and more effective in protecting all people from criminal acts.
The French and Nice flags at half-mast
this morning in the Nice Port.
-30-
[1]
Terry Maguire is a Washington, DC lawyer, former newspaper association
executive and international media consultant; he lives in Nice and in Chapel
Hill, and is a US and European citizen.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Carol Doda, Pioneer of Topless Entertainment, Dies at 78 - The New York Times
It's a long story, but met her when I worked as public relations representative at JFK one college summer. Set up a press conference when she and her band arrived!
Monday, November 09, 2015
Obama will not intervene to allow Jonathan Pollard to leave for Israel - The Washington Post
Thank you, Mr President.
Friday, November 06, 2015
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks - The New York Times
Did the German VW people borrow a page from the Chinese book or the other way around?
Monday, November 02, 2015
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