Day: June 17, 2005

Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don’t point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?

Via AP: The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops agree to a five-year extension on their policy banning sexually abusive priests from church work. The report goes on to say that it was an “overwhelming vote”. Was it unanimous?

Michelle over at ASM.

I couldn’t agree more.

Doing what Liberals do best, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is now blaming the media for misrepresenting his ‘Nazi’ statements made recently on the senate floor.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says right-wing media misrepresented comments he made about abuse of terror suspects, which he compared to Nazi abuses.

Durbin late Tuesday read what he said was an e-mail message from an FBI agent regarding alleged prisoner abuse. Durbin said if it didn’t identify the source of the information “you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime.”

Several high-ranking Republicans responded Thursday. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said, “The danger the loose comments such as that, comparison which have no basis in fact or history, could do harm to the men and women” in the U.S. military. Warner called for an apology.

Durbin did not, however, back down. Saying he wasn’t criticizing service personnel, he blamed the right-wing media for taking his words out of context. He said abusive treatment of prisoners was something most likely in “repressive regimes” than the United States.

When the heat is on, blame the right wing conspiracy. It didn’t work for Hillary and it won’t work for you Dick. Your comments are in the record Senator, so it’s a little late for you to be claiming that you didn’t say what you did in fact say.

Exhibit One – The New York Times coverage (registration required) of Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) comments comparing American servicemen and women to Nazis is buried deep inside their ‘Washington’ section and is brief, at best.

Exhibit Two – The New York Times coverage (registration required) of recent poll data suggesting that support for the president has tumbled across the board in recent months is splashed across the front page. This story includes two full pages of in-depth coverage.

Typical.

If you sent a tsunami relief donation to OxFam thinking you would be helping a family recover from the disaster, think again. You just might have helped the relief organization pay a tax.

British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work. Paperwork had kept the 25 four-wheel drive vehicles idle in the capital, Colombo, for a month. The Sri Lankan government told the BBC News website the aid had been duty-free until the end of April but was now needed to prevent ”market distortions”. Sri Lankan customs had charged $5,000 a day while the vehicles were processed.

It’s stories like this that cause people to have second thoughts about giving ANYTHING to charity. You’ll never be sure that your hard earned money will really help the people who need it most. More often than not, your donation will end up paying a CEO’s salary or wind up in the coffers of a government agency somewhere.