| May 2006
(The Euston group formally launched on May 26 in London. Several members have also written op-eds -- see here -- as part of the roll out. Norman Geras, a government professor at the University of Manchester, has been particularly insightful, including this piece in the Guardian: Within the large "middle" sector of left-liberal opinion opposed to the war there has been, from the start, a differentiating subdivision - between those who opposed the war without being in denial about the considerations on the other side of the argument, and those who precisely have been in denial about them. This latter group extends well beyond the far left. The signs of denial are abundant in the recent public life of the western democracies: in the banners and slogans for that Saturday on February 15 2003, from which one would never have known that Saddam's Iraq was a foul tyranny; in the numbers of those on the left unwilling to allow, many indeed unable to comprehend, why others of us supported a regime-change war; in a constant stream of comment in liberal daily papers and weeklies of the left; in the excommunications issued and more recent calls for apology or recantation; and, most seriously, in the perceptible lack of interest in initiatives of solidarity with the forces in Iraq battling for a democratic transformation of their country, part of a wider lack of enthusiasm for the success of this enterprise given its origins in a war led by George Bush.) Posted on April 17, 2006: Though it hasn't garnered much media attention, there has been an interesting fight brewing within the political Left.
So Much for Compassion: Leftist Trashes NIU After NIU Shooting
Here's one media bias everyone accepts (and expects): showing compassion and sympathy for a community after a horrifying mass murder, such as the killings at Northern Illinois University. The leftist website Alternet proved the exception to the rule, printing a bizarre article by an author named Mark Ames that trashed NIU as a mediocre school for mediocre students, and suggested that the "flat" plains of Middle America could make anyone shoot up a school or a post office. The headline was: Northern Ill. University: Was the Killer Crazy, or the Campus Hopeless? Bracket this massacre as the work of a lunatic on drugs, and you miss the chance to consider the horrors of life in middle America. Ames granted that the killer, Stephen Kazmierczak, was a loser -- if we grade on a curve for the depressing Midwest: "Let's assume he's at least partly right: Kazmierczak probably was a loser, by the standards of Midwestern American winners." Ames trolled the message boards of college students looking for people trashing NIU, which he summarized: "What you find is an enormous amount of anger and regret -- the sort of regret you'd expect from a middle-aged Willy Loman looking back on a wasted life." After Ames circulated several hate-NIU notes, he concluded that perhaps the college in some way earned the massacre with its mediocrity: If you're wondering why Kazmierczak transferred out of NIU to the University of Illinois-Champaign last spring, this might help explain it; if you're wondering, as many bloggers have, why he'd come back and shoot up NIU rather than his current university, these sentiments are at least worth considering.
RSL schedule includes rugged start and finish
The way Garth Lagerwey sees it, the official release of the MLS schedule on Thursday was pretty anticlimactic and not just because the Real Salt Lake general manager has known about it for weeks already. Heading into the 2008 season, RSL knew what teams it would play and how many times, "so the order in which we play them really isn't that meaningful," Lagerwey said. He admits it sounds a bit trite, but that's reality from a competition standpoint. With that said, Lagerwey believes the opening month of the 30-game schedule is a pretty tough one for RSL. After kicking off the season at home on March 29 against Chicago, three of the club's next four games are on the road, including a pair of home openers at Chivas USA on April 5 and at Toronto FC on April 19. "With the new group and new faces, that's going to be one our challenges," Lagerwey said.
Exclusive: Patti Stanger dishes on being 'The Millionaire Matchmaker'
They sign $10,000 affidavits saying that they won't ask for anything financial. We tell the men not to give them cash, not to pay their rent, not to buy them a car. You can buy gifts, jewelry, pretty much anything you want as long as it's out of the goodness of your heart and no one has swayed you or tipped you off to do it. Then the four-to-one rule is the most important rule. Every four times he gives to you, you have to give back at a lesser value. Whether he takes you to dinner, drinks, dancing, whatever -- you have to give back by making him dinner, baking him cookies, something domestic that would be appreciative to him that he can't do for himself or he doesn't want to do for himself. So you just give back at a lesser value. I'll give you an example. I do my boyfriend's taxes every year. I enter it into his computer on his spreadsheets. Now he has two apartment buildings, and he hates to sit at the computer and do this. Every year -- at tax time -- I spend a full day doing this for him. Now that's a way to give back to him. I buy the groceries and he takes us out for dinner. I cook during the week, and he takes us out for dinner during the weekend. So we find a balance.
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