Tags: #Bush #US #China #CivilLiberties #2001

This post is from the JMBzine Blog Vault, which means it is a very old blog post that I wrote at a very different time of my life. My views on religion, politics, and many other subjects have drastically changed over the years, so please bear this in mind when reading this post. – I generally do not edit my past writings, except to fix obvious spelling issues, or to fix broken links (most often replacing with links to archive.org). I do add some more recent editorial updates, which are shown in blue and italicized, along with dates.

Thursday, October 25, 2001

5:16 pm

2023 Update: The photo is no longer available in its original location but can be viewed here.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin wear traditional style silk jackets as they walk to an informal meeting at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leader’s summit in Shanghai, China, on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) [more] 2023 Update: Broken link.

5:07 pm

OK, here’s a whole slew of interesting articles icq’d to me from Aaron Young.

From MSNBC:

• First, brand all the children: Cyber-liberties swept away by tidal wave of security concerns – This is an excellent op-ed piece Brock Meeks. I am glad to hear more folks speaking up for civil liberties in our time of retreating from the American vision of freedom and democracy. (2023 Update: Broken link.)
• Worries about a fate worse than anthrax – an op-ed piece by Chris Matthews that discusses how Gen-X’ers are responding to the anthrax scare. (2023 Update: Broken link.)

From Yahoo News:

• The Air War – op-ed piece by Bill O’Reilly on how corporate America is using the tragedy to maximize profits and screw the American people. (2023 Update: Broken link.)
• Help Wanted: NASA to pay $11/hour to stay in bed (2023 Update: Broken link.)

4:01 pm

Back in San Marcos. I had a good trip back home and got to see my Grandpa. It’s hard to tell how much time he has left (maybe hours, maybe weeks), but it does seem like he has a lot more peace than he had before. (Thanks Aaron and everyone else who is praying for him and my family.) (2023 Update: My grandfather would die a few days later.)

No links today from the newspaper, but may post some later today. It does look like a very mixed bag in the situation in Afghanistan. I am very, very glad that thus far Bush is taking a very restrained approach and is doing his best to not hit civilian targets. (very different policy than that which we have in Iraq), but I am concerned that this could be a situation where we ease ourselves into a Vietnam-style war. (Remember Vietnam began with just a few military advisors.)

As a matter of principle, I am opposed to all forms of war, but if we are going to do a war, then I think Bush has done a good job of keeping it controlled. Time will tell.(2023 Update: My optimism was misplaced.)