Ronp's Comments (20)

“Thanks Ms. Huffington for a really informative and delightful, buckets of metaphors and all.

Outside of the WSJ, I wonder how Mr. Murdoch came to the conclusion that News Corp. would really benefit from restricting the free flow of information. It's so zero-sum game of these folks who while speaking with forked tongues, one moment would have you believe that financial markets should be left alone to natural forces and the next that information to be preserved must be controlled.

I guess this is another example of "Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor!"”

“Great article... Thanks so much for bringing him to our attention.”

“No affirmative action does not require Caucasian males to suffer racial discrimination without compensation; only equality on a competitive playing field. It does means the end of over 300 years of preferential treatment (privilege) and associated compensation just because one is Caucasian and male. The real problem is having to compete for real when you're the product of a legacy where it wasn't necessary before.

The sadder story though is while we're sitting here talking about race without really talking about race, we're only inhibiting our individual and collective abilities to compete in global marketplaces, which BTW aren't going to wait for us to get our act together.”

“Living next to and eating with black families makes you no expert on race issues. Your comment about not sleeping together, keeping culture and sin speaks volumes about human progress of the perspective you're representing.

Which of the many Dr. Gates speeches which can easily be found on the Internet made your skin crawl?

A little research (Expository Writing 101) might come in handy and lend credibility to your accusations if true. Dr. Gates bio can be found at http://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/faculty/henry_louis_gates_jr/index.html#bio . You'll find his "learned scholar" masters and doctorate degree's are in English Literature from Cambridge University and B.A. summa cum laude in History from Yale.

Should we believe you demonstrated a passive and compliant response the last time someone walked into your house ordering you about, unless he/she had a gun pointing at you? I'm curious, where do you stand regarding second amendment debates?

Your sympathy, Civil War, paying dearly and history books comments appear to be interesting contradictions. Who are the "we" the civil war cost so much for? What history books are you talking about and what sympathies are you referring to?

One last point, since details are important. "Well... I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts. What's been reported though is that the guy forget his keys..." Check your facts before launching grenades!”

“IMHO of the many problems with education in America at all levels the most significant is the lack of enough teachers with a developed ability like President Obama and Ms. Deavere-Smith to cajole and motivate us to push the envelope of progress forward. Unfortunately as we continue to be spectators and as Ms. Deavere-Smith points out iteratively retreat to those safe places when presented with tinderbox issues, we are so sadly limiting America's ability to compete in the global marketplace of ideas.”

“Two questions to defeufeldt:

1. Did you read the commentary or was your response a knee jerk reaction?
2. Do you know who Anna Deavere-Smith is or the context of her commentary relative to her professional life's work?”

“Ware is a one block street in Cambridge Ma., bounded by Broadway and Harvard, congested with academic multi-story apartments and containing just two two-story colonial residences on the entire block. Both are owned by the university and one of which is occupied by Dr. Gates. The current mobile data terminals in the Cambridge (like Princeton and New Haven) police department cars, gives them quick access to the state's photo driver license database easily searchable by address.

Maybe it's the 2008 Presidential election anesthesia wearing off and folks settling back into their comfortable stereotypical suits along with fading thoughts of empathy and perspective. Maybe after all these years and protests the Cambridge Police Department forgot to screen or properly train some of it's personnel on professionalism in a university town. Somehow it doesn't add up.

Dr. Gates, unfortunately the ancestors didn't reach out and grab you in time or perhaps this was that time for our pent up rage to come rushing forward; permitting yet once again another opportunity for the rest of us to see that much work is still to be done...

Dr. Gates, may you find peace and more wisdom from this experience.”

“Thank you as well Rev. Wallis for that very useful perspective.

VHammon my biggest surprise this past week was the scale of deference within the media and political communities. Watching them tip-toe on their opinionated (disguised at news) political grand stands without so much as a clue that collaboration of multiple perspectives indeed result in a cultural resonance that does accelerate society positively forward.

What I saw from the Republican Senators beyond the stuck on self-reference was a great deal of insecurity and desperation. Senator Sessions knew he was missing something, though his inability to believe other perspectives equal to his own do exist, points more to lack of faith in his own worldview than any of the misplaced and unsubstantiated accusations directed at Judge Sotomayor. Looks very much like the same patterns, which give us religious intolerance, sexism, xenophobia and so on.... A tongue and cheek proof of my point suggests a very simple passive test for Senator Sessions. While scanning him with a thermographic imager, just mention one phrase to him.

Arthur Davis 2010!”

“I usually don't resort to this, but couldn't resist in this case. If a tree falls in the Tongass Rainforest and all the laborers are on unemployment, will it make a sound, or better yet will Sarah Palin become enlightened?”

“Obviously context is not your strong suit. Nothing in my comment either explicitly or implicitly referred to the terms pursuit or guarantees. Secondly, the phrase comes from the Declaration of Independence. After reading some of your other comments in this thread, I've noticed what appears to be a pattern (i.e. attempting to link lack of individual responsibility as an excuse for corporate greed). Hopefully it's not an intentional tactic of yours.

The context of my comment had more to do with our self enslavement to greed and dogma accelerating us into a self-destructive downward spiral and how a fresh perspective of you vs. me offers hope.

Your responses remind me how enlightening it is to see the ones/party whom lay claim to the Christian religion to bolster their abortion and homosexual political policies suddenly forget that foundational passage in Matthew ("I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.") when it comes to healthcare in this country.”

“Here we go again, sitting around ever more consumed by the capitalism vs. socialism dogma of this "me" generation. Simply put, around 45 million people in the US are currently without any health-care coverage and millions more with inadequate coverage; thus it's irrelevant how good or better healthcare is for the rest of the country compared to anyone else. The debates whether about free lunches or markets are all developed from a perspective of our individual greed, both destructive over the long course.

We (the US) have a moral and ethical dilemma, which continues to significantly compromise our integrity, leadership and ability to live in peace on this planet.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It makes a huge difference when you interpret the above with a you perspective instead of I.”

“Senator,

I agree with your basic sentiments regarding the Internet as a pathway towards democracy. As others have already written, you can expect serious pushback from the national security folks who haven't figured out how to fully utilize existing constitutional tools to maintain a free and open society, here in the USA.

The problem in China, Iran, N. Korea, etc. is not companies like Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Microsoft. caving into these repressive regimes with their filtering tools, which by the way are by-passed as quick as they're deployed. Equally repressive legislation against these companies would be ineffective and only allow small start-ups to grab their market share, which I expect the conservative and moderate blocks would not support. The problem is ACCESS. If you control the access paths to the end user, it doesn't matter what software or filters are upstream; they can just turn it off. Iran in specific geographical areas and at particular times just turned the cell phone towers off, since they have control of them.

IMHO, one way to turn this around is to provide incentives for affordable access to technologies, which are not controlled by solely local governments; for example access to the Internet via satellite network technologies. Integrating the ability to reach the Internet via satellites through cell/smart phones would by-pass the only effective choke point these countries have. Jamming satellite transmissions across large geographical areas is extremely costly and can easily be thwarted by a mobile population.”

“Each time the conversation of healthcare comes up, I ponder the thought of a society which openly allows and condones 45-50 million (15%) of its citizens to remain without any health insurance and millions of others to lack adequate coverage while it debates for generations issues of free markets vs. socialism.
Amiss all this pain and suffering this same society continues to globally boast the benefits derived from its compassionate Judeo-Christian foundations. Sounds like something from a really morbid science fiction movie.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
How is not having a public option in the United States of America ever a serious consideration? Makes me want to puke!”

“This has been nagging at me for the past month. So, last week I re-opened my copy of Karen DeYoung's 2006 "Soldier - The Life of Colin Powell," and thumbed directly to chapter 17, which I had outlined and vividly remembered my initial and subsequent shock and dismay over the content in those pages. Described in incredible detail is the secrecy and manuvering of the Bush administration regarding the rights of the detainees, which took place during the months right after September 11.

It appears from my reading that Dick Cheney is attempting to use as a defense conversations and legal opinions, which he and Rumsfeld purposefully steered around the State Department regarding the status of the detainees and whether the Geneva Convention applied to them. Details of a Powell forced NSC meeting to reconsider a decision by the President based on John Yoo's supposedly draft memo interpretation.

quoting from pg. 370 - Powell prepared his own memo for the meeting, outlining the liabilities of publicly dismissing Geneva, and sent it to both Gonzales and Rice. Not only was it legally indefensible, he wrote "it will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice... and undermine the protections of the law of war for our troops, both in this specific conflict and in general." Since U.S. forces had already been ordered to treat prisoners according to Geneva "principles," why refuse to invoke the conventions in the first place?”

“I really wouldn't do justice by paraphrasing or summarizing this, thus from the last page of Karen DeYoung's book "Soldier - The Life Of Colin Powell"
The September 11 attacks and the White House's willingness to exploit public fear as a political strategy had effectively eliminated any chance that he (Colin Powell) would wield primary influence over foreign policy. The balance had tipped decisively toward the neoconservative vision of the world and the use of military force to achieve it. Outnumbered, outmaneuvered and unwilling to change his tactics, Powell was left to push and pull at the margins.
Asked whether a different National Security Council, under more deft and decisive leadership, would have made a difference, Powell shrugged. "I don't know," he said curtly. "Probably not." Why not? "Cheney."”

“Like Howard Beal, Rush fully understands that his job is solely entertainment. I for one would be very interested to see if the results of a serious demographic analysis of Rush Limbaugh listeners are consistent with those depicted in the 1980's movie "Network," where less than 3 percent read books and less than 15 percent read newspapers.

Education - America's most critical national security issue and democracy's most important value!”

“Whether Mr. Burris is the right choice though he appears qualified remains to be seen. I'm deeply concerned by the apparent disregard of one of America's most sacred precepts; the presumption of innocence. If Gov. Blogojevich is physically or mentally incapable of carrying out the daily duties required of a governor would be one thing, but care is in order lest we may get what we wish for.

Members of the US Senate posturing in the press to prevent Mr. Burris from being seated is equally confusing. Is the Senate an "old boys club" mocking our professed democracy by self anointed gatekeeping? Remember Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

We just completed an exhaustive presidential election cycle characterized by a massive character assassination strategy to politically destroy the Democratic candidate via a nauseating and repetitive guilt by association campaign. In spite of it all now that Barack Obama will be President Obama, are we throwing stones? How is it that the oppressed are so quick to use the tools of oppression against enemies perceived or real?

Indeed these are strange times we live in!

I believe the accusations against Gov. Blogojevich should proceed through the courts and his appointment of Mr. Burris be judged separately and on the merits of his qualifications. If the state of Illinois wishes to mandate elections in similar situations henceforth, then change the constitution - legally. Finally shine a bright light on internal US Senate behaviors that threaten the will of the states and people.”

“I really appreciated your essay's voice of thought out and reasoned journalism in a time where academically dishonest snippet journalism has become the norm. As a geographically detached (NJ) Internet follower of Trinity UCC I have since Monday been internally buffeted by a continuing roller coaster of emotions between depression and extreme anger. Gratefully Rev. Moss focused today's services on the theme of "God's Love," which helped buffer the force of those emotional waves and put them into a different perspective. In his Pastoral remarks he reminded us (a) that church is community, (b) that church is family, (b) that God is demanding we as a family seek to remain whole through love and (c) that divine love does not ask family to choose between family members. That's why I love Trinity.

That's also why I continue to support unashamedly and unapologetically Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Sen. Barack Obama. Hopefully reasoned minds for survival sake will continue to discuss this most important topic; as race still matters.”

“IMHO these hirings are part of a strategic initiative by Rupert Murdock to dilute all messages from the liberal camps by spreading as wide as possible conservative media targets. Their goal is to give optimize the probability of the Republican party retaining the white house in November. Instead of responding as expected the liberal media may want to focus it's efforts just on Rupert Murdock and John McCain. Don't let Rupert Murdock take a breath without it being reported, analyzed and compared with an apocalyptic future resulting from a republican white house. At the same time, organizations like moveon.org should identify all the Murdock empire advertisers, make them public and let other organizations suggest massive economic boycotts, which a dispirited cohort of young people might be justly motivated for.”

“If you have time to read or comment in these blogs or comment sections, then you have the time to use your own GOD given brain to research for yourself the context of the very edited sound bites disseminated by the ABC and FOX media outlets.

The sort of judgments and assertions I have seen regarding Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Sen. Barack Obama without any credible and cursory research by the writers indicate extremely shallow and lazy levels of intellectual thought along with unacceptable, irresponsible and shoddy journalism; the results of which surely and severely limit the capacity of a society yearning to be a true democratic republic of informed citizens.

Trinity United Church of Christ makes available for download or streaming its recent and complete services, including the Christmas 2007 day service via its web site http://www.tucc.org/home.htmm).”