A fuss about a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King

NPR just reported on a memorial going up to recognize Dr. King's work. Among other things, there is a planned 30-foot statue of him. That's all good.

Some people are upset that the man chosen to sculpt it is Chinese. Not just by descent, but by nationality. Arguments have been made that China's human rights' record is relevant, but I'm not sure I buy that. I smell racism.

Now, I'm just a white boy, a young one, and one who has never had the chance to read much about Dr. King, so feel free to call me various names and insult my intelligence.

But saying that an African American sculptor is more appropriate- I just don't think that's appropriate. I can understand that an African American sculptor would personally feel far more pride than a Chinese national would working on this statue. But that's not what the fuss is about.

In my thinking, why does a statue of Dr. King have to be done by an African American? Doesn't the idea of a white man building the statue of an icon (if not the most significant) of the message that white supremacy is a terrible thing, ring with poetic justice?

Bush press briefing - internal affairs

He naturally brought up his funding request for the Iraq deployment. He's claiming that congress should not be telling the military what to do. The problem is that they are not doing that. The military does not answer to congress- they answer to the president. The president is the one who is constitutionally required to obey congress' demands.

His tired rhetoric about "funding the troops" is bull, not only because it's untruthful, but also because the requested funding is not limited to funding military operations in Iraq, but a myriad of other things. DefenseNews.com reports that the request includes $11.6B of funding for research and development of new weapons, upgrading aircraft fleets. These figures are ignored by the administration's "fact sheet". The administration does mention over $2.25B, marked for various aid programs, such as Darfur and the Palestinian Authority.

What does it mean to you, the tax-payer? Spending $190B this year means the Bush administration is trying to impose a renewal of the existing Iraq War Tax on U.S. taxpayers. Dividing the cost among the current 303 million citizens, means each citizen is being taxed $645.75 this year. Of course when you consider than not everyone pays taxes, this figure goes up slightly. And when multiplied by 3.14 for the average family size, we see that each U.S. family is being taxed $2,027.

In a White House fact sheet on the "generous" 2004 tax refund (sorry- couldn't easily find a more recent one), you find the following: "42 million families with children will receive an average tax cut of $2,067." That's great, except that the U.S. family ends up with an actual refund of $40. I doubt that would really help the economy.

Bush press briefing - external affairs

Bush gave another of his press conferences today.

One of the questions steered him towards South America, and the recent referendum in Venezuela.

He states: "The Venezuelan people rejected one-man rule... They voted for democracy."

I find this strange, since he also seems to think that congress should simply do as he says, rather than be a check and balance to his power; The power of one man.


Another hot topic today is the intelligence report that states that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program several years ago. Bush claims the report is a "warning," stating "The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it." This is the simpleton and demagog's view on analysis. They hear something, understand something- the first thing coming to mind, which is in line with their frame of mind. Then they stick to it.

What I don't understand is why we haven't heard about the analysis' evaluation of why the Iranians stopped the program. Was it a political decision based on the obvious expected American response? Was it because they ran out of money or other resources? Perhaps they required the Uranium fuel they are said to be still enriching. Was it due to technical difficulty?

Come on, people. This may not be rocket science, but it's nuclear physics. Let's try to actually think before coming to a conclusion! What's that? Oh, right. We're talking about- Bush, a man who doesn't care for academics and intelligent thought in general.