Memorial Day
This year, I celebrated by watching HBO's Band of Brothers. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
In passing, "On Demand" TV also gets high marks.
Asking the right question is usually more productive than trying to prove the right answer.
If the Dutch reject the EU constitution, I see a potential Plan C. It’s more than an ultimate revenge for the dirty anti-American games Chirac and his pal, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, have played during the War on Terror– for Great Britain and Holland it may make a great deal of economic and political sense.
Several years ago Conrad Black suggested that Great Britain join NAFTA– the North American Free Trade Association. He thought Britain’s liberal economic tradition was a better fit with the US and Canada than with French and German statist economies. (Black wasn’t the first to make the suggestion, but he did so with more of a public splash than earlier advocates.)
The Dutch have an Anglophilic streak and a pro-US bent. (The Dutch put a battalion in Iraq. I met with Dutch officers in Baghdad several times– and was impressed.)
So let’s offer NAFTA membership to Holland and the United Kingdom. If you’re Dutch or British, why be stuck in the floundering lost cause of a Franco-centric Greater Europe? We’ll call it the North Atlantic Free Trade Association. Heck, we don’t even have to change the acronym.
In his veto message, Ehrlich said he is "sympathetic to the needs of mutually dependent couples and [wants] to support compassionate efforts to expedite health-related decisions for Marylanders in need."
He said, however, that the bill's requirement that couples register as life partners "will open the door to undermine the sanctity of traditional marriage."
"How condescending of you," said Ender.
"It's standard anthropological practice," said Miro.
"You're so busy pretending to believe them, that there isn't a chance in the world you could learn anything from them."
For a moment they lagged behind, so that he actually entered the forest alone. Then they ran to catch up with him. "We've devoted our lives to learning about them!" Miro said.
Ender stopped. "Not from them." They were just inside the trees; the spotty light through the leaves made their faces unreadable. But he knew what their faces would tell him. Annoyance, resentment, contempt -- how dare this unqualified stranger question their professional attitude? This is how: "You're cultural supremacists to the core. You'll perform your Questionable Activities to help out the poor little piggies, but there isn't a chance in the world you'll notice when they have something to teach you."
"Like what!" demanded Ouanda. "Like how to murder their greatest benefactor, torture him to death after he saved the lives of dozens of their wives and children?"
"So why do you tolerate it? Why are you here helping them after what they did?"
Miro slipped in between Ouanda and Ender. Protecting her, thought Ender, or else keeping her from revealing her weaknesses. "We're professionals. We understand that cultural differences, which we can't explain…"
"You understand that the piggies are animals, and you no more condemn them for murdering Libo and Pipo than you would condemn a [cow] for chewing up [grass]."
"That's right," said Miro.
Ender smiled. "And that's why you'll never learn anything from them. Because you think of them as animals."
"We think of them as [men]!" said Ouanda, pushing in front of Miro. Obviously she was not interested in being protected.
"You treat them as if they were not responsible for their own actions," said Ender. "[Men] are responsible for what they do."
Decent people don't throw copies of the Koran into the toilet, immerse crosses in urine, or burn American flags. As always, we condemn such behavior in the strongest terms.