Comments Posted By Brainster
Displaying 21 To 30 Of 64 Comments
DID THE FBI ALLOW OSAMA TO ESCAPE THE US AFTER 9/11?
Rick, I suspect that the FBI agent was doing a little grandstanding to express his displeasure at helping the bin Laden family and the Saudis leave. Osama was not on the flight.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 21.06.2007 @ 10:52
A LAZY FRIDAY AFTERNOON MILLENNIAL INTERLUDE
Gawain's Ghost, your list is certainly of better people than mine or Rick's but the question is one of influence. Marx has had much, much more influence on the world than did Hayek; the good news is that has probably ended.
I picked Napoleon because he's the central figure in Europe for the last 250 years, and because his military strategies had lasting influence around the world. He's effectively the father of Realpolitique as much as Metternich was.
I'm a huge fan of Shakespeare, but he's not somebody who changed the world. You could make a better argument for Harriet Beecher Stowe (or Tom Paine). Ditto with Darwin; an important building block of knowledge but would anything in the world be significantly different today if he'd not existed? That's why I left Bell off my list--his invention changed the world dramatically, moreso than almost anybody out there other than Gutenberg, but... we all know that if Bell hadn't done it Elisha Gray would have two hours later, because that was the difference in time between the patent applications. Hard to argue that he's crucial then.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 21.07.2006 @ 20:42
My friend who suggested this stopped by this afternoon and the two others that he came up with that I had to agree with were Gutenberg and Luther. Madison is certainly close; he might be near the top of the list of my second ten.
Locke is crucial though; he's underappreciated because his thinking has so permeated our lives that what he says seems like nothing more than common sense. But it was fairly radical for its time.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 21.07.2006 @ 18:20
So there's not just a pony under all that manure, but a unicorn?
Comment Posted By Brainster On 20.06.2006 @ 08:57
VENGENCE IS THE LORDS: JUSTICE IS OURS IN MOUSSAOUI CASE
Here's an odd thought. Could it be that the decision in this case, while rejecting the death penalty for Moussaoui, makes an excellent argument for the death penalty in general? After all, if the jurors in the first trial of anybody connected with 9-11 refused to impose the death penalty, isn't that a strong indication that capital punishment isn't imposed lightly?
Comment Posted By Brainster On 4.05.2006 @ 10:35
WHAT'S WRONG WITH UNITED 93? JUST ASK DANA
If Gore had been president the only difference is that he would have been reading "My Pet Goat Learns About Global Warming" to the children.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 29.04.2006 @ 16:29
Just got back and posted my review. Thought the film was superb, although there were some jarring bits. Did we really need to see the bloody hand after they attacked the first hijacker? That's cliched.
Plus they had Beamer saying the Our Father, not the 23rd Psalm.
I actually felt the first half of the film was just distanced enough to avoid overloading us; the second half was overwhelming.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 29.04.2006 @ 16:21
WHY I STILL LOVE THE POST AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
LOL! Reality at the HuffNPuff?
Rick, the one signal benefit of this whole hullaballoo is that it's gotten the left to be downright appreciative of the CIA. I'm sure that's just a convenient conversion on their part, but let's all save some of these "the CIA’s ability to gather valuable information in the Mid East" (sic) comments; they're sure to prove useful in the future.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 9.04.2006 @ 13:19
IT'S TIME: MEDALS OF HONOR FOR THE PASSENGERS OF FLIGHT #93
They have putzed around on this long enough. Considering that the Capitol building was considered the most likely target for Flight 93, one would think that even the self-absorbed members of Congress would have taken care of this by now.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 4.04.2006 @ 17:12
DREAMS AND MYTHS: HOLLYWOOD AND 9/11
Rick,the Son of Sam was David Berkowitz.
Comment Posted By Brainster On 4.04.2006 @ 10:32
