Eric the Red

I have posted clips of individual speakers at the Sheehan rally at the Memorial Chapel on Campus here at UMCP. I will try to refrain from commentary, leaving it up to the reader to review the clips and make up his or her own mind. I will post the complete hour-plus of audio I have. Please be aware, that each clip is approximately 4M in size.

The Cindy Sheehan rally at the University of Maryland, College Park was sponsored by the Democaracy Collaborative, College Democrats at UMD, Global Communities, UM Votes and the Peace Forum. Sheehan visited the University at the behest of left wing activist and 2006 Maryland Senate hopeful Kevin Zeese. The emcee of the event was UMCP Lionel Bauman Professor of Political Economy Gar Alperovitz. A list of Mr. Alperovitzs publishing can be found on his website.

The first speaker at the event was Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development Shibley Telhami. Mr. Telhami is a modern day Neville Chamberlain, who seems to see two things: the world as-is, and what the world could be. He either fails to see the immense chasm seperating the two, or believes that it can be bridged with words all the time. Well Mr. Telhami, appeasement politics have no credibility in any age, let alone one ruled by cultural rifts that drive people to kill. Near the end of the event, he spoke to OF Jay and stated that the liberation that occured in Afghanistan post-9/11 could have occurred by strictly diplomatic means, making the war there unnecessary. As if a nearly prehistoric religious government will give women western-style rights through democratic means…….Perhaps he, like I’m sure the rest of the hippie brookings morons, fails to remember Col. Qaddaffis declaration that he would do whatever the Americans want, because of what he saw in Iraq. Yes, Mr. Telhami, a stalemated peace a-la-Korea is EXACTLY what we need here….

Mr. Telhami is seated in the middle. Mr. Alperovitz is seated to his left. Ms. Sheehan is speaking. To listen to Mr. Telhamis address, see the Telhami audio file.

The second speaker made me think that this whole thing was just a political campaign ad and recruitment drive. Mr Zeese, who was a spokesman for the Nader campaign in 2004, balsted Republicans and Democrats alike, over everything from an “unjust” economy to the failures of the government in New Orleans and their handling of the situation in Iraq. In a typical leftist fashion, Mr. Zeese fails to point out any solutions to all of these things, besides electing him so he can build a coalition. While he spoke, his minions circulated sign-up sheets thoughout the crowd so they could recruit volunteers.

To listen to Mr. Zeeses address, see the Zeese audio file.

Finally, Ms. Sheehan spoke. She commented on Casey as he was as a child and on his military service. She remarked how he enlisted, was discharged after fulfilling his duty, re-enlisted and was later killed needlessly. Interestingly, Ms. Sheehan stated that her son did not wish to return to Iraq. Why, I wonder, did he re-enlist to begin with? No matter. I had wanted to ask Ms. Sheehan what motivated her to begin her “national tour” to Washington, but she did not take questions.

To listen to Ms. Sheehans speech, see the Sheehan audio file.

My two cents: this event was organized for the political benefit of Mr. Zeese and his left wing agenda. His firebrand political rant-n-recruit efforts makes Ms. Sheehan look like some sort of wind-nut. It is obvious that Ms. Sheehan does no honor to the memory of her son by attacking something he obviously believed in. Her efforts do no honor to her son and even less to all the other men and women who lost their lives in Iraq. Casey served his country, and decided to do so again on his own free will. While it is very regrettable that he was killed, Ms. Sheehan’s message is obscured by the fact that she stands alone in her opinion. Otherwise, there would be over a thousand gold star moms due to the war in Iraq.

And now a message to Ms Sheehan: after attacking the beliefs of your son, and losing the rest of your family for the sake of being a tool for the far-fringe-left, what now?

You may download audio of the entire event here:
MP3 format, approx. 18 M
WMA format, approx. 19 M
Higher quality MP3, approx. 40 M

I have a complete audio clip of Cindy Sheehans speech at the University of Maryland, College Park. I will post it as soon as I get it down to a reasonable size (it is currently over 100 M). I will also post a transcript, pictures and commentary within 24 hours.

I haven’t written anything in a while, so Eric the Red Presents: Not-so-Major Newz in Brief:

In 2002, the University System of Maryland faced unprecedented budget cuts. UMCP President C.D. Mote, Jr. outlined his priorities for preserving the school in his state of the campus address on September 19.

President Mote’s priorities:

• Build the greater research environment.
• Continue to be the choice of the State’s best students.
• Maintain our commitment to a fully diverse campus.
• Maintain the campus momentum.
• Protect the natural beauty and environment of the campus.
• Recruit and retain faculty of extraordinary distinction.
• Share budget reductions by state and non-state sources.

I and my crack investigative team will investigate the extent to which the University has excelled as a research institution. We will also look into the costs to the student body. You see, President Mote advanced the preservation of the image of the university. But image is not substance, and high quality research does not necessarily equate to high quality teaching. Or, maybe it does, the public record will be the judge.

I took these pictures with the camera on my LG VX 7000 on a trip to Chicago during Labor Day weekend.

The moral of this stroy: DON’T use a phone cam for long distance shots. Also, the Windy City was not so windy that day. I feel cheated….

I took the following picture with my camera phone a matter of minutes ago while walking from the Stamp Student Union to a meeting with some friends at Glenn L. Martin Hall. The banner was hanging from the Hornbake Library:

This is a perfect example of the sheer stupidity of modern liberalism. Everything and everyone must be labeled, categorized, cross-categorized and filed in the proper drawer: by age range, sex, race, religion, specific country of origin and physical handicapp (if any). There are no “American Indians”, its “Native Americans”. It isn’t enough to be recognized as Hispanic, you have to be Hispanic from El Salvador. Or, most accurately, “black-Jewish-El Salvadoran-womyn-in a wheelchair”….I mean “physical mobility impaired-El Salvadoran womyn of African origin practicing the Jewish faith”. Of course, the only ones that are remotely human are the Aryans right (emphasis on sarcasm)?

Well folks, I want my fair share of labeling and filing. From this point forward, I demand that the government recognize every possible combination of races and national origins so that each and every individual can feel extra special.

Are we promoting a subculture of nationalism within our own nation, where we will derive our strength not from our common goals and needs, but our ethnic and religious differences? That sounds more like weakness to me…

Gold-star mom Cindy Sheehan will visit the University on September 27. I will attend and comment on the event. I am particularly curious about Ms. Sheehan’s critical “views” regarding the war in Iraq.

An engineering friend forwarded me a rather amusing email he received last spring. Engineers are apparently required to take a class in product re-deisgn (ENME 371), where they work in groups to test and improve a product donated by a company.

The product in question was a sander developed by Black & Decker. One of the things student teams were told to do was to take original parts, and “hack” them into new ones to fit the improvement found by the team. Trouble was, the students were not given replacement parts to repair their sanders at the end of the semester.

My friend received an email on the issue, the relavant section is quoted below:

“You are responsible to have a sander in working condition without any modifications.
If you cannot fix your sander or it simply does not work, your team will have to buy a new one. Please email your respective teaching fellow AND Dr. Thamire if this is the case. You will also be responsible in paying for any missing supplies that were in your kits. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.”

Now let me remind you of a few things:

• Students were required to break down the sander for testing and analysis.
• Students were required to mod the original components to produce an “improved” design.
• Students were then required to repair the sander to working order without replacement parts because of an error of the instructor.
• Students were told they would be required to pick up the bill for their dysfunctional sander in order to receive their final grade.

Now I am just itching to sign up for this class, so I can pay for poor planning and total mis-management by the instructors, aren’t you?

The following pictures are from a May cruise to Maine aboard the American Eagle. They were taken with a Sony DSC P52.

Day 1:

The mast, with its life preserver and crew members in the background.

This lighthouse and the breakwater that is is perched upon were finished after the local port went out of service.

The American Eagle has several small dinghys. This one was the largest.

If confirmed as the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge Roberts will play an instrumental role in defining the scope of law for the next 30 – 40 years. During this period, SCOTUS is likely to consider questions of personal privacy with what will undoubtedly be an escalating war on terror, abortion rights, civil rights, gay marriage and property rights.

While Roberts received a “well-qualified” rating by the American Bar Association, his reviews from NGOs were less than stellar. The National Organization for Women refers to Judge Roberts as ”an outrage to women”. MoveOn.org refers to him as a “right wing corporate lawyer and ideologue”. The NARAL condemned Roberts for refusing to answer key questions about his ability to protect fundamental rights such as privacy. NARAL further asserts that Roberts will not guarantee his support for a woman’s right to choose. The NAACP “strongly opposes” Roberts due to his affirmative action record while the ACLU believes Roberts record raises serious concerns about his commitment to the First Amendment, gender equality and habeas corpus, among others.

How unfortunate then, that they failed to find justification for the sort of theatrics that blocked the nomination of Robert Bork.

During the Trial of Judge Roberts, many thorny issues were raised. Among them:

John Roberts attended Harvard Law, not the Hogwarts school. How can Senate dems expect him to discuss his rulings on cases he has not heard, unless they expect him to whip out a crystal ball or deal a deck of tarot cards? More likely, the dems are fishing for a “smoking gun” with which to motivate the ultra-leftist base, which they increasingly depend on.

A list of Democratic cons to the idea of Chief Justice Roberts lists a lack of compassion. My question is, to what extent does heart overrule law? If a squatter is illegally occupying my property, and I take the matter to court, should the judge over rule my property rights because of a touchy-feely connection to the less fortunate. Take the case of the Hmong in Wisconsin? Six hunters were killed and 3 more were injured in a gun battle with a Hmong refugee who was trespassing on their property. Shots were exchanged when the Hmong was confronted. Should he be released, even though he murdered 6 men, because our game and property laws are out of step with those in his native Laos? As an arbiter of the law, a Supreme Court justice must consider the law and the facts of a case, not his personal “feelings”. An equitable justice system cannot exist if it is clouded by emotion.

Under Justice Burger, Supreme Court legislated a largely unlimited right to an abortion from an alleged right to privacy. While I do not agree that a right to privacy is guaranteed by the Constitution, I do agree that privacy is generally protected. Unlike many liberals, I believe that a right to privacy does not translate into “a right to choose”. The first choice a woman makes is to spread her legs. The second choice she makes is not to use any other form of birth control on the market. Amusingly, Roe from Roe v. Wade currently opposes abortion in the most cases. To read more about “choicers”, who undoubtedly view abortion as a right of passage for women of all ages, visit Jessica’s blog.

The bottom line

John Roberts is an extremely well-qualified candidate who deserves to occupy the top seat in the highest court in the nation.

Editor’s note: ETR supports abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.