Go to Enlightened Cynic and

Go to Enlightened Cynic and read. Follow the links and read. IT'S MANDATORY. Then throw-up and then read some more, if you can stomach it.

From the Omaha World Herald:

WASHINGTON - More than a dozen lawmakers attended a
congressional reception this year honoring the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
where Moon declared himself the Messiah and said his teachings have
helped Hitler and Stalin be "reborn as new persons." At the March 23
ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rep. Danny Davis,
D-Ill., wore white gloves and carried a pillow holding an ornate crown
that was placed on Moon's head. The Korean-born businessman and
religious leader then delivered a long speech saying he was "sent to
Earth . . . to save the world's six billion people. . . . Emperors,
kings and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that
Rev. Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah,
Returning Lord and True Parent." Details of the ceremony - first
reported by Salon.com writer John Gorenfeld - have prompted several
lawmakers to say they were misled or duped by organizers. Their
complaints prompted a Moon-affiliated Web site to remove a video of the
"Crown of Peace" ceremony two days ago, but other Web sites have
preserved photos. Moon, 85, has been controversial. Renowned for
officiating at mass weddings, he received an 18-month prison sentence
in 1982 for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Among the
more than 300 people who attended all or part of the ceremony was Sen.
Mark Dayton, D-Minn., who now says he was honoring a constituent
receiving a peace award and did not know Moon would be there. "We fell
victim to it, we were duped," Dayton spokeswoman Chris Lisi said
Tuesday. Other lawmakers who attended or were listed as hosts felt the
same, she said. "Everyone I talked to was furious," she said.

AHEM.

We don't crown people in this country. I don't care if they're religious leaders, politicians, or scions of political dynasties. WE DON'T HOLD CORONATIONS FOR ANYONE IN A SENATE OFFICE BUILDING.
Congressmen from Illinois are not pages in the Reverend Moon's court.
They do not carry crowns for coronations. He is supposed to be an
elected representative of the people who live in his district. He is not
supposed to be a crown-carrying lackey for a religious nutjob. Most
importantly, however, we do not do these things because The United
States of America is a Republic. Millions of men and women have given
their lives so that we will never have to bow down and be beholden to a
king or someone who is trying to pass themselves off as one. Remember
the "Divine Right of Kings" from grade school history class? That's the
theory that says that God put some random king on some random throne
and that action was the source of his moral authority to lead his
people. We fought a war to tell England that we weren't going to be
beholden to their king any longer. It was called The Revolution and it
was indeed revolutionary for its time. It was the result of this big
idea: that all men are created equal and are capable of governing
themselves. They don't need a king to do it for them. Men and women
died for this ideal. They gave their lives for freedom. And these
congresspeople don't seem to care that this ideal was trampled on. They
just don't care about it. Sure they're "furious." Of course they're
"livid." Of course they feel as if they were "duped." But the simple
fact that not one of them stopped
this coronation from taking place speaks volumes about how little they
think of this ideal upon which our country was founded. It's too far
removed from their petty little squabbles over pork for them to care.
Has Congress no shame? How could they allow something like this to
happen on government property? Property that I paid for. Property that
you paid for. Property that we all paid for. Not only with money, but
with blood. How could they allow something like this to happen in our
country, let alone in A SENATE OFFICE BUILDING? Let me write it again
just in case you didn't get it the first few times I wrote it: WE DO
NOT CROWN ANYONE IN THIS COUNTRY
Oh, I am just livid. Senator Dayton is getting a phone call from this
constituent today. Guaran-fucking-teed.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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H-Hour on Juno Beach. 3rd

H-Hour on Juno Beach.
3rd Canadian Infantry Division lands on Juno. Hindered by the current,
the landing is late.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Do I Have to Kiss

Do I Have to Kiss the Ring Now?

Posted by: Kathy at 01:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The second wave of troops

The second wave of troops lands on Omaha Beach, adding to the
overcrowding and confusion.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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H-Hour on Gold and Sword

H-Hour on Gold and Sword Beaches.
The 50th British Infantry Division land at Gold Beach. At Sword Beach
the 3rd British Infantry division land. Rather than utilizing their
capacity to "swim" inland, DD tanks and Funnies are landed directly
onto the beach at Gold because of delays due to bad weather.
Read more about Hobart̢۪s Funnies.

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Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches

Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches

Posted by: Kathy at 01:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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US Army 2nd Ranger Battalion

US Army 2nd Ranger Battalion begins assault on Pointe-du-Hoc

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Aerial Photo of Pointe-du-Hoc

Aerial Photo of Pointe-du-Hoc

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German radio broadcasts initial report

German radio broadcasts initial report of the landing.

First landing wave pinned down on Omaha beach.

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Almost all DD Swimming tanks

Almost all DD Swimming tanks land successfully at Utah.

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H-Hour on Utah and Omaha

H-Hour on Utah and Omaha Beaches.

The 4th and 29th US Infantry Divisions will land at Utah; at Omaha, the 1st US Infantry Division and the 2nd Rangers.

Utah will be taken with relative ease. The troops landing at Omaha will encounter heavy German resistance.

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Higgins Boat Landing

Higgins Boat Landing

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Beachhead Landing (beach unknown)

Beachhead Landing (beach unknown)

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Utah Beach

Utah Beach

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Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

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Sunrise. Aerial bombardment of German

Sunrise.

Aerial bombardment of German fortifications along Utah and Omaha beaches continues, but is not successful.

German 7th Army Headquarters informed of heavy Allied bombardment.

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You have the right website.

You have the right website. There aren't any laptop gnomes in the house
who snuck in under cover of darkness and switched all your bookmarks
around.
This is the new Cake Eater Chronicles. Everything's fine. Do not adjust
your set.
For the rest of you, well, I hope you like it. I do. I find it much
easier on the eyes. A few things, though.
1. Comments policy can be found here.

Ignore it at your peril.

(Side note, I'm SO digging this permalink business. Woohoo!)

2. While we're on the subject of comments, it seems Blogger wants you to log in if you leave one. Which we all know is so
conducive to cooperation. (I wouldn't log in to leave a comment---are
you kidding? Way too much work.) But it does give you the handy-dandy
option of posting anonymously! (Note to the Blogger People: WOW! Way to
invite the trolls in, kids!) If you choose the option to post
anonymously to save yourself the time and hassle of logging in, that's
fine with me...AS LONG AS YOU LEAVE A HANDLE IN THE TEXT SECTION.
That's all I ask. I'm not asking for an email address or a weblink.
Just leave a name to go with the opinion. That's not a whole hell of a
lot in the scheme of things, so please do it. But
the minute someone flames this site anonymously, that's the minute the
comments section goes bye-bye. I have NO way of managing the comments
section without being ham handed about it. Blogger simply just does not
give you this option. I cannot ban anyone, I can't delete posts. I have
two options: I can either turn off the comments on a post per post
basis, or I can yank them altogether. And I have to say, I lean toward
yanking them altogether rather than having to patrol for trolls.
I am sorry about this. I've been reading blogs for a good long while
now and I've seen too many bloggers struggle with their comments
sections to not take the hard line right out of the gate. You've got
the benefit of my doubt---for now.

End lecture.

Enjoy the changes and again---serious kudos to the husband for saving my bacon.

UPDATE It seems, as usual, I didn't explore enough before making
absolutist statements. It turns out that I can delete comments. Woohoo.
Just call me a troll cop!

Posted by: Kathy at 11:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 412 words, total size 2 kb.

You have the right website.

You have the right website. There aren't any laptop gnomes in the house
who snuck in under cover of darkness and switched all your bookmarks
around.
This is the new Cake Eater Chronicles. Everything's fine. Do not adjust
your set.
For the rest of you, well, I hope you like it. I do. I find it much
easier on the eyes. A few things, though.
1. Comments policy can be found here.

Ignore it at your peril.

(Side note, I'm SO digging this permalink business. Woohoo!)

2. While we're on the subject of comments, it seems Blogger wants you to log in if you leave one. Which we all know is so
conducive to cooperation. (I wouldn't log in to leave a comment---are
you kidding? Way too much work.) But it does give you the handy-dandy
option of posting anonymously! (Note to the Blogger People: WOW! Way to
invite the trolls in, kids!) If you choose the option to post
anonymously to save yourself the time and hassle of logging in, that's
fine with me...AS LONG AS YOU LEAVE A HANDLE IN THE TEXT SECTION.
That's all I ask. I'm not asking for an email address or a weblink.
Just leave a name to go with the opinion. That's not a whole hell of a
lot in the scheme of things, so please do it. But
the minute someone flames this site anonymously, that's the minute the
comments section goes bye-bye. I have NO way of managing the comments
section without being ham handed about it. Blogger simply just does not
give you this option. I cannot ban anyone, I can't delete posts. I have
two options: I can either turn off the comments on a post per post
basis, or I can yank them altogether. And I have to say, I lean toward
yanking them altogether rather than having to patrol for trolls.
I am sorry about this. I've been reading blogs for a good long while
now and I've seen too many bloggers struggle with their comments
sections to not take the hard line right out of the gate. You've got
the benefit of my doubt---for now.

End lecture.

Enjoy the changes and again---serious kudos to the husband for saving my bacon.

UPDATE It seems, as usual, I didn't explore enough before making
absolutist statements. It turns out that I can delete comments. Woohoo.
Just call me a troll cop!

Posted by: Kathy at 11:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 412 words, total size 2 kb.

Antecedents of RealismLike utopianism in

Antecedents of RealismLike utopianism in international relations
theory, realism has its intellectual roots in older political
philosophy of the West and in the writings of non-Western ancient
authors such as Mencius and the Legalists in China and Kautilya in
India, as well as Thucydides wrote: “What made war inevitable was the
growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.”
His conception of the importance of power, together with the propensity
of states to form competing alliances, places Thucydides well within
the realist school. Just as Thucydides had developed an understanding
of state behavior from his observation of relations between Athens and
Sparta, Machiavelli analyzed interstate relations in the Italian system
of the sixteenth century. Machiavelli is clearly linked to realist
theory by his emphasis on the ruler̢۪s need to adopt moral standards
different from those of the individual in order to ensure the state̢۪s
survival, his concern with power, his assumption that politics is
characterized by a clash of interests, and his pessimistic view of
human nature.
Thomas Hobbes, like Machiavelli, viewed power as crucial in human
behavior: Man has a “perpetual and restless desire of power after
power that ceaseth only in death.” Hobbes believed that “covenants,
without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at
all.” Without a strong sovereign, chaos and violence follow: “If
there be no power erected, or not great enough for own security; man
will and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art for caution
against all other men.”
Like other modern realists, Hobbes concerned himself with the
underlying forces of politics and with the nature of power in political
relationships. Although Hobbes believed that a strong sovereign was
mandatory for maintaining order within the political system, he saw
little prospect for fundamentally changing human behavior or the
environment. In his emphasis on strong political institutions for
managing power and preventing conflict, Hobbes paradoxically was closer
to proponents of world government or, to be more precise, world empire
to realists who stress a balance of power among major political groups.
Hobbes regarded the latter condition as analogous to an anarchical
state of nature, but he doubted the possibility of establishing a world
empire. Hegel, more than any other political philosopher, elevated the
position of the state. Although realist writers are usually by no means
Hegelian, Hegel̢۪s belief that the state̢۪s highest duty lies in its
own preservation is found in realist theory. Hegel reasoned that
“since states are related to one another as autonomous entities and
so as political wills on which the validity of treaties depends, and
since the particular will of the whole is in content a will for its own
welfare it follows that welfare is the highest aim governing the
relation of one state to another.” Moreover, Hegel held that the
state has an “individual totality” that develops according to its
own laws. The state has objective reality; that is, it exists apart
from its citizens. Hegel held that the state has moral standards
different from and superior to the individual---a theme that is found
in many realist writings. Among the antecedents of realist theory is
the work of Max Weber, whose writings dealt extensively not only with
the nature of politics and the state, but also with power as central to
politics. Although the richness of Weber̢۪s political thought cannot
be encompassed in a short analysis, suffice it to suggest that, with
respect to realist theory, may of the formulations contained in his
work shaped subsequent generations of writing and scholarship. For
Weber as for later realists, the principal characteristic of politics
is the struggle for power. The power element of political life is
especially evident at the international level because “every
political structure naturally prefers to have weak rather than strong
neighbors. Furthermore, as every big political community is a potential
aspirant to prestige, it is also a potential threat to all of its
neighbors; hence, the big political community, simply because it is big
and strong, is latently and constantly endangered.” Among the
dimensions of politics as a struggle for power, moreover, is that of
economics. In Weber̢۪s thought, economic policy stands in a
subordinate relationship to politics inasmuch as the “power political
interests of nations” encompass an economic struggle for existence.
Among the concerns of realists with which Weber before them was
preoccupied is the ethical problem of intention versus consequences, or
what is also termed the absolute ethic of conviction and the ethic of
responsibility. To adhere to an absolute ethic is to take actions in
keeping with that ethic without regard for their consequences. However,
according to Weber, leaders in an imperfect world confront the need to
behave by a political ethic in which the achievement of “good” may
make the necessary the utilization of less than morally acceptable
means. For Weber the ethic of conviction cannot be separated from an
understanding of the consequences of such action, which in turn gives
concrete meaning to an ethic of responsibility. In contemporary realist
thought the meaning of the ethic of responsibility comes forth in the
notion that each political action must be judged on specific merits
rather than in accordance with some abstract, universal standard. {â€Â¦}
- Contending Theories of International Relations. James Dougherty and Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 895 words, total size 6 kb.

Antecedents of RealismLike utopianism in

Antecedents of RealismLike utopianism in international relations
theory, realism has its intellectual roots in older political
philosophy of the West and in the writings of non-Western ancient
authors such as Mencius and the Legalists in China and Kautilya in
India, as well as Thucydides wrote: “What made war inevitable was the
growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.”
His conception of the importance of power, together with the propensity
of states to form competing alliances, places Thucydides well within
the realist school. Just as Thucydides had developed an understanding
of state behavior from his observation of relations between Athens and
Sparta, Machiavelli analyzed interstate relations in the Italian system
of the sixteenth century. Machiavelli is clearly linked to realist
theory by his emphasis on the ruler̢۪s need to adopt moral standards
different from those of the individual in order to ensure the state̢۪s
survival, his concern with power, his assumption that politics is
characterized by a clash of interests, and his pessimistic view of
human nature.
Thomas Hobbes, like Machiavelli, viewed power as crucial in human
behavior: Man has a “perpetual and restless desire of power after
power that ceaseth only in death.” Hobbes believed that “covenants,
without the sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at
all.” Without a strong sovereign, chaos and violence follow: “If
there be no power erected, or not great enough for own security; man
will and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art for caution
against all other men.”
Like other modern realists, Hobbes concerned himself with the
underlying forces of politics and with the nature of power in political
relationships. Although Hobbes believed that a strong sovereign was
mandatory for maintaining order within the political system, he saw
little prospect for fundamentally changing human behavior or the
environment. In his emphasis on strong political institutions for
managing power and preventing conflict, Hobbes paradoxically was closer
to proponents of world government or, to be more precise, world empire
to realists who stress a balance of power among major political groups.
Hobbes regarded the latter condition as analogous to an anarchical
state of nature, but he doubted the possibility of establishing a world
empire. Hegel, more than any other political philosopher, elevated the
position of the state. Although realist writers are usually by no means
Hegelian, Hegel̢۪s belief that the state̢۪s highest duty lies in its
own preservation is found in realist theory. Hegel reasoned that
“since states are related to one another as autonomous entities and
so as political wills on which the validity of treaties depends, and
since the particular will of the whole is in content a will for its own
welfare it follows that welfare is the highest aim governing the
relation of one state to another.” Moreover, Hegel held that the
state has an “individual totality” that develops according to its
own laws. The state has objective reality; that is, it exists apart
from its citizens. Hegel held that the state has moral standards
different from and superior to the individual---a theme that is found
in many realist writings. Among the antecedents of realist theory is
the work of Max Weber, whose writings dealt extensively not only with
the nature of politics and the state, but also with power as central to
politics. Although the richness of Weber̢۪s political thought cannot
be encompassed in a short analysis, suffice it to suggest that, with
respect to realist theory, may of the formulations contained in his
work shaped subsequent generations of writing and scholarship. For
Weber as for later realists, the principal characteristic of politics
is the struggle for power. The power element of political life is
especially evident at the international level because “every
political structure naturally prefers to have weak rather than strong
neighbors. Furthermore, as every big political community is a potential
aspirant to prestige, it is also a potential threat to all of its
neighbors; hence, the big political community, simply because it is big
and strong, is latently and constantly endangered.” Among the
dimensions of politics as a struggle for power, moreover, is that of
economics. In Weber̢۪s thought, economic policy stands in a
subordinate relationship to politics inasmuch as the “power political
interests of nations” encompass an economic struggle for existence.
Among the concerns of realists with which Weber before them was
preoccupied is the ethical problem of intention versus consequences, or
what is also termed the absolute ethic of conviction and the ethic of
responsibility. To adhere to an absolute ethic is to take actions in
keeping with that ethic without regard for their consequences. However,
according to Weber, leaders in an imperfect world confront the need to
behave by a political ethic in which the achievement of “good” may
make the necessary the utilization of less than morally acceptable
means. For Weber the ethic of conviction cannot be separated from an
understanding of the consequences of such action, which in turn gives
concrete meaning to an ethic of responsibility. In contemporary realist
thought the meaning of the ethic of responsibility comes forth in the
notion that each political action must be judged on specific merits
rather than in accordance with some abstract, universal standard. {â€Â¦}
- Contending Theories of International Relations. James Dougherty and Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 895 words, total size 6 kb.