Monthly Archives: October 2008

[Jaehwan's Note: Jin and William know each other personally, and Jin asked me to post this after she tried several times to contact him but was unable to get a response.  I've looked at William's site and it looks like he used something that she wrote, word-for-word, and didn't attribute it to her.  William and I spoke by phone this morning.  We talked for a good 40 minutes, but it basically concluded by him saying that he needed to "think about it."  I responded that there isn't anything to think about.  Five hours later, after a few more interactions between him and me, the comment is still there.

This is funny: Palin may say that Obama is “pals with terrorists,” but extremists have endorsed MCain on a password-protected website that is closely linked with Al-Qaeda.

I think author Nicholas Kristof hits it spot on:

“From their perspective, a continuation of Bush policies is best for recruiting,” said Professor Nye, adding that Mr. McCain is far more likely to continue those policies.

An American president who keeps troops in Iraq indefinitely, fulminates about Islamic terrorism, inclines toward military solutions and antagonizes other nations is an excellent recruiting tool. In contrast, an African-American president with a Muslim grandfather and a penchant for building bridges rather than blowing them up would give Al Qaeda recruiters fits.

I haven’t had much time for discretionary reading recently, but if I had the time, I’d probably read up on the the Great Depression.  I think the Bush policies have pushed us into an economy that pretty accurately resembles that time, and I think there will be a greater amount of financial pain before the economy gets better.  People have already started to kill themselves for financial reasons, and it’s unfortunately going to get worse.  Our next president, whoever it may be, will have a big job ahead of him.