“Steve Chapman: Tea Party convention celebrates Sarah Palin's big ... - Washington Examiner” plus 3 more |
- Steve Chapman: Tea Party convention celebrates Sarah Palin's big ... - Washington Examiner
- Sony Ericsson launches Vivaz pro, now with more QWERTY - engadget
- That was THEN, this is NOW - Boston Globe
- Funcom's Secret World is Anti-Grind - Escapist Magazine
| Steve Chapman: Tea Party convention celebrates Sarah Palin's big ... - Washington Examiner Posted: 14 Feb 2010 05:38 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The tea party movement started as a welcome protest against the alarming growth of federal spending and federal control. It had a strong anti-statist flavor, or seemed to. But judging from the applause for Sarah Palin at its convention, the movement's suspicion of government power is exceeded only by its worship of government power. Her keynote address at last week's gathering in Nashville may have been the curtain raiser on a 2012 presidential campaign. "I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country," she told Fox News when asked about that option. I'm glad it was she and not I who first used the word "absurd" in relation to a possible Palin bid for the White House. Because if her speech made anything clear, it's that the shallow, ill-informed, truth-twisting demagogue seen in the 2008 presidential campaign is all she is and all she wants to be. When it comes to economic affairs, the tea partiers agree that — as Palin put it — "the government that governs least, governs best." When it comes to war and national security, however, her audience apparently thinks there is no such thing as too much government. The conventioneers applauded when Palin denounced Obama for his approach to the war on terrorists. Why? Because he lets himself be too confined by the annoying limits imposed by the Constitution. "To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law," she declares. Is her point that Obama is allergic to the use of military power or can't bear to fulfill his responsibility as head of the armed forces? That would come as a surprise to Iraqis, who have seen Obama stick to President Bush's timetable for withdrawal. It would come as a surprise to Afghans, who have seen him embark on a massive buildup of U.S. troops in their country. It would come as a surprise to Pakistanis, who have seen an increase in U.S. drone missile attacks on their soil. Palin accuses Obama of "reaching out to hostile regimes" and "apologizing for America," with pitiful results: nuclear tests in North Korea, repression in Iran. What she doesn't mention — though, to be entirely fair, she may not know it — is that the first North Korean nuclear test came in 2006 and that before Obama arrived, the mullahs in Tehran did not rule with a gentle, loving hand. Her chief gripe, though, is that federal agents read the alleged Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, his Miranda rights shortly after his arrest, at which point, she claims, he "lawyered up and invoked our U.S. constitutional right to remain silent." Not for long, he didn't. The FBI says Abdulmutallab provided a wealth of useful information under questioning after he got a lawyer. For that matter, as FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said last week, he is still being interrogated. But facts have never been Palin's strong suit. Nor do they matter, because what infuriates her is the mere idea that constitutional protections would apply to "a terrorist who hates our Constitution and tries to destroy our Constitution." This is not some bizarre paradox. Lots of people who despise our Constitution — Nazis, communists, Klansmen, Alaska secessionists — enjoy its protections. Does she think the Bill of Rights should apply only to people who share her views? That would not leave much of the document she and the tea partiers claim to revere. Besides, Obama didn't invent the heretical notion of accepting limits on the government's latitude with jihadists. The Bush administration turned hundreds of terrorism cases over to the federal courts, without audible complaint from the right. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution extends even to accused foreign terrorists held at Guantanamo. The advantage of having a former law professor in the Oval Office is that he doesn't have to be tutored in such elementary realities. But Palin evinces a bitter resentment of any information that contradicts her blind faith in a benevolent, all-powerful security regime. She's more than willing to trade liberty for safety. That went over conspicuously well in Nashville, where tea partiers cheered a leader who places excessive trust in government, disdains constitutional freedoms and promotes a cult of personality. So remind me: What is it they don't like about Barack Obama? Examiner Columnist Steve Chapman is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Sony Ericsson launches Vivaz pro, now with more QWERTY - engadget Posted: 14 Feb 2010 12:40 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ pro supports UMTS HSPA 900/2100 and GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS HSPA 850/1900/2100 and GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900. Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ pro will be available in selected markets from Q2 in the colours Black and White. Sony Ericsson is also unveiling the Hi-Fi Stereo Headset MH710. Enjoy best-in-class clear audio while on the move and handle music and calls with just one touch. Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ pro Music Web Voice Messaging Design Entertainment Organiser Location-based services Connectivity Preloaded applications Screen Accessories Facts Availability and versions Colour Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| That was THEN, this is NOW - Boston Globe Posted: 14 Feb 2010 02:21 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. What she found: In the early 20th century, children were considered miniaturized adults, of sorts - not equipped to take on all family responsibilities, but able to perform substantial tasks like cleaning, preparing meals, planning menus, and grocery shopping. Some were even given the responsibility of balancing family checkbooks (a terror-inducing notion, no doubt, for some contemporary parents). Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Funcom's Secret World is Anti-Grind - Escapist Magazine Posted: 14 Feb 2010 01:23 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The Secret World will reportedly have a unique gameplay style that excludes massive amounts of grinding. Funcom has been ramping up the PR for its upcoming MMORPG The Secret World lately, which from the very beginning has been billed as something that would stand out from the current MMOG crowd. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Funcom's Ragnar Tornquist, producer and director for the game, has revealed that grinding may be mostly absent in The Secret World. The concept of grinding, repeatedly killing the same set of enemies over and over for experience and/or loot, is now an MMOG staple, though it is found in other games such as Dragon Quest. Everquest has it, World of Warcraft has it, and if you name nearly any other MMOG it probably requires grinding for some form of character advancement. Tornquist says that Funcom is creating its own unique RPG and combat systems for The Secret World, and that it will play very differently from the company's previous release Age of Conan. Based on the fact that Tornquist often plays many characters in other MMOGs up to level 20 or 30 and then gets bored, he wanted to make The Secret World "fun from the get-go." "You don't have to spend 100 hours grinding to be able to join everybody else and actually play the game," he reveals. "The philosophy is you sit down and you play. You have cool powers, cool weapons, and cool monsters from the very beginning ... If you manage to get a bunch of abilities and powers for your character, you can join a team with some people who have been playing it for months and years, and still have fun playing together with those guys." This kind of philosopy is "central" to The Secret World, according to Tornquist. Casual players should be able to excel at a gameplay element "pretty quickly." Not that loot and equipment won't be important, as the game is still "item-heavy," but Funcom is at least attempting to remove some of the pain inflicted by other grind-heavy titles. Everything about The Secret World, from its unique setting to its now hopefully different gameplay style, has been pretty appealing. Regardless, all of this is still PR or developer talk, so we'll have to wait for direct impressions to see if Funcom can pull it off. (Via: VG247) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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