The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote.


To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
--Thomas Paine

San Diego Reporter Attacked While Covering Story

(San Diego, CA) A television reporter was bitten, beaten, and gouged as he and his cameraman - who captured the attack on video - tried to cover a story on an alleged real estate scam.

Reporter John Mattes of San Diego's Fox 6 News received cracked ribs, facial lacerations, and bite wounds during Tuesday's confrontation with the couple, who were identified by authorities as Assad "Sam" Suleiman and his wife, Rosa Amelia Barraza.

Fox 6 News has video clips of the original attack, as well as additional clips about other threats that Sulieman has made.

What I think is most shocking is the behavior of Sulieman and Narraza, who seemed completely unconcerned that their violent acts were caught on camera. Both exhibited an inability to refrain from striking the reporter and the cameraman; one can just imagine what they might have done had there not been a camera rolling.

Caution: the video is graphic, and not Springer-esque in the sort of mock rage that sometimes passes for out-of-control antagonism.

The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote.

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
--Kahlil Gibran

On Approaching Storms

(Toledo, OH) When a storm looms on the horizon a person can often sense what is coming. Rumbling thunder in the distance causes the ground to vibrate, and winds will shift direction prior to a storm.

There is a moment just before a storm when the air is completely still, when a falling leaf encounters no countervailing breeze.

Then winds shift again away from the center of the storm as rain and lightning become the dominant features of the environment.


Winds are changing in the world, and my hunch is that powerful storms are in store for humankind. There is a current - though temporary - stillness in global politics that will likely be the calm before our metaphorical megastorm.

Perhaps pessimistic forecasters - I would be in that group - are overestimating the intensity of the gathering storm clouds.

But perhaps again the storm will be worse than expected. In that case, one might be well advised to prepare for foul weather, or even the storm of the century.

The $39 Experiment

I am passing along a link to a fun website designed by a man named Tom Locke.

The concept behind the site is simple: pick 100 companies to which he would send a letter asking for free merchandise. In Locke's words:

The way I looked at it, if I took $39 and went to buy groceries, I wouldn't be able to get all that much. On the flipside, if I took $39 to a casino and lost it all, I wouldn't be all that upset. With that said, I decided I was going to try something — I was going to take my roll of stamps and send 100 letters to 100 different companies, asking for free stuff. I figured that I couldn't do any worse than blowing the $39 at a casino, and who knows... maybe a few of these places would actually send me something good.

Locke has done rather well for himself so far, as his initial $39 investment has turned into $272.39 worth of merchandise, coupons, and gift certificates.

Locke's letters to the companies are quite humorous, and his attempts to goad the non-participating companies into a charitable donation are also worth reading.

Rapid Rhetoric: DAPIFER

This is an irregular feature - both in frequency and oddness - dedicated to a word I came across that I have never previously used.

dapifer - n. the bearer of meat to a table; chief steward.

The word dapifer is of Latin origin, combining the words daps ("a feast" or "a banquet") and ferre ("to bear" or "to exhibit"). Typically the main meat dish would be presented by the most important of servants, noting both the steward's position in a royal or noble household and that the main dish was being served.

OTA Links

(Toledo, OH) As a member of the Open Trackback Alliance, I highlight sites and posts that I found to be noteworthy.

Follow this link to learn more about the project, which was developed by Samantha Burns.

Other interesting OTA blogs I visited this week: TMH's Bacon Bits, the unusual Quietly Making Noise, the wretched hive of scum and villainy at Pirate's Cove, Canadian-style politics at Grandinite, the good fun at 7 Deadly Sins, and my must-visit, thrice-daily trips to Liberal Common Sense and Glass City Jungle.

The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
--Abraham Lincoln

On Presidential Rhetoric, the Iraq War, and the Role of History

Left: President George W. Bush

Yesterday's address to the nation by President George W. Bush represented, in some ways, nothing more than the sort of stale clichés we have come to expect from the administration: "war on terror," "if you harbor terrorists, you're as guilty as the terrorists," "defeat the terrorists," plus a timely reminder of September 11.

Not present in the speech, of course, were any references to "weapons of mass destruction" or other discredited elements of presidential rhetoric. Yet the speech was noteworthy in its succinct encapsulation of current White House thinking on the Iraq war.

As a historian I was struck by his references to history as an agent of change:

We did not ask for this war, but we're answering history's call with confidence -- and we will prevail.

While this phrase might be dismissed as a rhetorical flourish, there were other passages that bore the same stamp of a teleological view of history:

Yet we can be confident of the outcome, because America will not waver -- and because the direction of history leads toward freedom.

Yet the President seems wholly unaware of the role of the United States in shaping the history of the Middle East. Were it not for the CIA-led overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 - and our subsequent, unwavering support of brutal dictator Mohammad Reza Pahlavi - the world might never have witnesssed the 1979 Iranian revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power.

The President seemed to directly contradict the pejorative ramblings of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, noting that "many" of those who express dissent about Iraq "are sincere and patriotic." He took issue with a Pentagon report issued last week, however, that noted a sharp increase in sectarian violence; the President insisted that "commanders and diplomats on the ground believe that Iraq has not descended into a civil war."

The current raison d’être for the war in Iraq seems to be summed up in this passage:

First, we're staying on the offense against the terrorists, fighting them overseas so we do not have to face them here at home.

This rhetoric has been used in the past, but has begun to appear with great frequency in many statements issued by the White House over the past few months. The phrase is curious, because it sounds almost apologetic, as if to say: "Well, we screwed up, but at least the war is not being fought on US soil."

This is a deceptive statement, because the war against terror is being fought on US soil, as well as on the soil of every sovereign nation. One cannot pick up a newspaper or watch a televised news program without seeing daily references to terror acts or investigations of terrorists around the globe.

As if to strengthen this dubious philosophy by repeating it, the President coninued:

If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities.

Again, we will continue to face terrorism in our cities irrespective of whether or not we fight a war in Iraq; as long as there are violent political actors who disagree with American policy, there will be terrorists. Terrorism is not an action that was created in - or is exclusive to - the Middle East, and claims that this is a tactic unique to "radical Islam" are facetious. One could make a strong case that the Aliied firebombing of cities such as Dresden during World War II was among the most egregious uses of terror against civilains in modern history.

The President mentioned that " we recently launched a major new campaign to end the security crisis in Baghdad," although he declined to give specifics of the "encouraging" signs that he sees. Unfortunately, the President's rosy view of the situation in Baghdad does not mirror reality, as more than 39,000 Sunni and Shiite Iraqi Arab families have fled to Kurdistan because of concerns about security in other regions.

Choosing a different course than that advocated by the White House, argued the President, will only guarantee that "our children will face a region dominated by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons." This statement ignores the fact that there are already states that possess nuclear weapons in the region - Israel, Pakistan, and India - and that none of these states is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (I am exlcuding Russia and China from this discussion, even though the two nations each have a global nuclear reach). While the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran might change the balance of power in the Middle East, the President and his operatives regularly deceive the American public about the uniqueness of Iran's nuclear aims.

If the President were serious about reducing the threat from nuclear weapons, he would not have engaged in a unilateral agreement with India that undermines decades of work in reducing the likelihood of nuclear war. The purpose of this speech, though, had more to do with domestic political considerations than any lofty ideals such as nuclear non-proliferation, and we are once again reminded that this administration is woefully inept in its grasp of history, contemporary geopolitics, and even the art of rhetoric.

Remnants of Ernesto

Left: Radar image courtesy of Intellicast.com

(Toledo, OH) We don't often get hurricanes in Toledo, or even pieces of storms that were once hurricanes. My children have expressed excitement that Toledo would be "hit" by the storm once known as Hurricane Ernesto.

The first signs that a change in weather was afoot occurred yesterday, as cool gusts began to blow from the southeast and east. It is the rare storm that hits the western Lake Erie region from these directions, and many who have lived here can remember cyclonic blizzards that roared at times from the lake.

For me it was a bit confusing to watch clouds rolling from the east into the sunset last night as I attended the thumping that St. Francis received at the hands of Birmingham Brother Rice. I am someone who subconsciously uses the heavens to orient himself, and I felt as though the world were inverted.

I do thank Ernesto for the refreshingly cool weather the storm has brought us, as I am a fan of the sixty-degree days and chilly nights. To me there is no substitute for a brisk breeze passing through the house as I get ready to fall asleep.

The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote.

The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
--Bruce Springsteen

Locked-Out Toledo Blade Workers Call for Boycott

Left: Locked-out workers picket the Toledo Blade

(Toledo, OH) I drove past the Blade building on a trip downtown this morning and stopped to chat with some picketing workers. The newspaper has locked out members of five of its eight unions, and has engaged in a sophisticated media campaign against its employees.

The Blade has taken the unusual step of engaging the services of retired local news anchor Jeff Heitz to narrate a series of commercials attacking its own unions over the past few months. Interestingly, Blade spokesperson Luann Sharp described the decision by union leaders to call for a boycott of the paper - after being locked out - as "escalation."

Hmmm.

In the opinion of this pundit, the word "escalation" might be better used to describe the actions of a paper that locks out its workers, or which negatively targets them in an advertising campaign, but I digress.

Left: Security officer with video camera monitoring activity outside of the Blade building.

Also visible this morning, though uninterested in conversation, was a uniformed security agent. In his possession was a video camera, and I am now the subject of several minutes of raw security footage.

The individual pictured videotaped my vehicle as I illegally parked on a side street and as I drove away. Some might consider this to be a subtle form of intimidation, but I prefer to think that the security man is instead putting together a YouTube production.