PERSON OF THE WEEK - Sep. 17-23, 2006

There were a lot of surprises this week, most of them at the U.N. General Assembly. President Bush, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, and Hugo Chavez all gave very memorable speeches, but none of them earned the Person of the Week award. Instead, it goes to a Thai general who I had never heard of until this Monday. Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin is the Commander in Chief of the Thai Army, and on Monday he staged a coup while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York to give a speech to... you guessed it... the United Nations General Assembly.

Thaksin was involved in a massive corruption scandal, so many Thais were happy to see him bumped off. Grateful citizens gave flowers to Sonthi's troops, but the rest of the world (this blogger included) remains skeptical. Sonthi has pledged to appoint a new Prime Minister within two weeks and return democracy to Thailand, but he has also banned all political party meetings, censored the media, and cancelled next month's national election.

As always, I think that any interference in democracy is a bad thing; and while the Thaksin Government was corrupt, I don't think that installing an oppressive military dictatorship is going to make Thailand a better place. Unfortunately, Thailand is also right next to Burma (Myanmar), home of the world's most repressive military regime, so I worry greatly about how much the mew Thai regime will try to emulate their neighbors (Sonthi visited Burma on Sep. 11).

So, for bringing Thai democracy to a screeching halt, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin is ConservaGlobe's Person of the Week.

Tags: Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand, Thailand Coup, Thai Coup, Siam, Democracy, Person of the Week

Sweden Votes Out Socialists!

I am bouncing off the walls at hearing this great news. Sweden, which Socialists always try to tell me is an example of why their ideology works better than Capitalism, has voted the governing Social Democratic Party out of government and installed a center-right coalition led by the Moderate Party. The Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Goran Persson, have governed the country for 12 consecutive years, but on Sunday they suffered their worst electoral defeat since 1914.

The new governing coalition has said that they will not dismantle Sweden massive welfare state or lower the country's ultra-high taxes, but they do plan on promoting employment over government handouts.

Congratulations to Sweden's new center-right Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt!

Best wishes to the Moderate, Christian Democrat, Center, and Liberal Parties as they take the reigns of government!

Tags: Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt

PERSON OF THE WEEK - Sep. 10-16, 2006

Isn't it amazing how much fuss can be made over one little quote. Honestly, the Pope really didn't really do all that much this week; he didn't say anything particularly grandiose, nor he make any big announcements about Catholic doctrine. Yet, a quote from an obscure 14th century Byzantine emperor buried in one of his speeches somehow caught the attention of the entire Islamic world. I will admit to not having read the whole speech, but I'm starting to get the feeling that his remarks are being blown completely out of proportion. Still, churches in the Middle East are being firebombed, effigies of Benedict are being burned, and a nun in Somalia has been killed - all because the pope had the gall to simply QUOTE somebody who didn't like Islam. Heck, the Vatican has even issued apologized for hurting Muslims' feelings (although they rightly stopped short of disavowing the pope's speech - which I believe had to do with the need for more inter-religious dialogue or something like that), but nobody seems willing to accept the penance.

So, for making the comment that started all of the hoopla, Pope Benedict XVI is ConservaGlobe's person of the week.

I'll end with this: if the Islamic community really wants to show that their religion is not as violent as some people think, then they should accept the pope's apology and start cracking down on the barbarians who are burning churches and killing nuns.

Tags: Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict XVI, Benedict XVI, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Roman Catholic, B16, Vatican, Pope, Religion, Islam, Person of the Week

PERSON OF THE WEEK - September 3-9, 2006

PERSONS OF THE WEEK

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR

AND

BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER GORDON BROWN

COLUMN COMING SOON.

In Memory of Sean Hanley

A few months ago, I found a wonderful project called "2,996". D. Challenger Roe conceived the idea of getting one blogger to honor each of the 2,996 victims of September 11th, and I glady blogger #947 (coincidentally, a grand total of 3,013 blogs signed up). Victims were randomly assigned to blogs, and I was assigned to write a memorial to a man who I have come to think of as a true American hero...

Sean Hanley

Firefighter, Ladder 20

Died September 11th, 2001

Aged 35

I found that a reasonable amount of online text has been written about Mr. Hanley by people who knew and loved him - and anything that I could write would not be half as relevant as what I have already read. So, istead of running the risk of inserting my own opinion by writing my own obituary, I am going to provide links to the several that have already been posted.

PLEASE read these profiles. From my reading, Sean Hanley was a heck of a guy; America lost a great citizen and a great hero when he passed on.

I will say one thing - Sean Hanley had just gotten OFF WORK when he heard that the World Trade Center had been hit. He didn't have to rush to the scene, but he did anyway.

Sean Hanley homepage at Bravest Memorial

Legacy.com article on Sean Hanley

SI Live Article on Sean Hanley

REST IN PEACE

Aussie Radical Rips Croc Hunter

I didn't plan on devoting a lot of time to the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, but this bit of news is so nauseating that I just had to mention it.

While the rest of Australia was mourning a national hero, radical feminist Germaine Greer decided to that the best thing to do would be to hurl insults at Irwin. Yesterday, she issued the following grotesque tirade: "The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing ten times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo owners in their turn." That wasn't all she said, but I think you get the point.

When she was asked whether she was out of touch with the rest of Australia, Greer said "I hope I'm out of touch with what idiots are thinking."

Luckily, several prominent Aussie leaders were willing to to respond to Greer's comments. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said, "That is just garbage and it is insensitive, crazy and untrue."

However, my favorite quote came from Labor Party foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd: "I think Germaine Greer should just stick a sock in it." He went on, "You have got a grieving mother, you have got a couple of grieving young kids and a grieving nation and what do you get from Germaine Greer? You get a bucket load of politically correct pap - it's just nonsense."

I might point out the both Premier Beattie and Mr. Rudd are members of the Labor Party, which represents the left wing of Australian politics. Kudos to them for calling a spade a spade; I only wish leftists here in America were so honest.

Tags: Steve Irwin, Croc Hunter, Crocodile Hunter, Australia, Peter Beattie, Kevin Rudd, Germaine Greer

PERSON OF THE WEEK - Aug. 27 - Sep. 3, 2006

Socialist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, lost Mexico's presidential election. Yet, he is now receiving his second Person of the Week award while the winner, conservative Felipe Calderon, has yet to earn one. I'd honestly love to give this award to Calderon, but AMLO just won't go away!

Lopez Obrador won his first Person of the Week when he threatened not to recognize Calderon's victory and thereby established himself as a danger to Mexico's fragile democracy. He wins this week for making good on that threat. As expected, AMLO refused to recognize the Mexican Electoral Tribunal's ruling that Calderon was President elect, and he is actively taking steps to cripple the Mexican government. Last week, his supporters in the Congress prevented outgoing President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address by storming the stage moments before Fox was to begin speaking. Those same legislators are now reportedly planning to use the same method to block Calderon from being sworn into office on December first.

Meanwhile, AMLO himself has announced that he will declare himself President of Mexico and form a parallel government that will attempt to rule the nation from the streets. In addition, Obrador has proposed scrapping the Mexican Constitution for a new one that will cause a "radical transformation" in the country.

So, for proving that he is serious about taking power at any cost, with or without the consent of the Mexican people, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is ConservaGlobe's Person of the Week.

Tags: AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Lopez Obrador, Felipe Calderon, Vicente Fox, PRD, Mexico, News, Politics, World Politics, World News, Current Affairs, Current Events, Person of the Week

In Memoriam: Steve Irwin

Stephen Robert Irwin

"The Crocodile Hunter"

1962 -2006

Rest In Peace

Tags: Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter

PERSON OF THE WEEK - Aug. 20-26, 2006

Okay, the funny thing is that I made the above graphic last Saturday, but I got so busy that I's just now posting it a week later. Anyway, last week's biggest news story was out of this world - literally. After much debate, the International Astronomical Union revoked Pluto's status as a planet. Whether the icy world qualified as a planet had been debated for years, but scientists never put forth an official ruling on the subject. Many bodies similar to Pluto have been discovered in recent years, causing the debate on what makes a planet to heat up, but the scientific community ducked the issue by noting that none of the newly discovered objects were nearly as large as Pluto, and hence were too tiny to merit planet status...That was before Mike Brown made his biggest discovery.

Brown has made a career out of searching for icy worlds at the edge of the solar system. His discovery of a small planetoid called Quaoar got people talking about defining the term planet, but Quaoar was too small to merit serious attention. Then he found Sedna, which not only was larger than Quaoar, but was red in color (unlike all of the other chunks of space ice that have been found). Yet, Sedna was still smaller than Pluto, so there was no serious debate. Then he found 2003 UB313 (nicknamed Xena), which was bigger than Pluto, and the ice finally hit the fan. Was this strange new world the 10th planet? If not, could we justify the inclusion of it's smaller cousin Pluto? The world waited with baited breath for a ruling, and it finally came last week: 2003 UB313 is not a planet, and neither is Pluto. Without Mike Brown, the debate on Pluto could have raged for decades with out a solution. So, by forcing astronomers to finally bite the bullet and define the word "planet", he is ConservaGlobe's Person of the Week.

Note: The author of this blog disagrees wholeheartedly with the decision on Pluto. I realize that it might confuse people if the number of planets has to continually be revised upward, but I do not see that as a valid reason to create an overly stringent definition of a planet (the final definition says that a planet cannot has to clear its orbit, so Pluto is disqualified on a technicality because it crosses Neptune's orbit). In my opinion, the solar system has at least eleven planets - the traditional nine plus 2003 UB313 and Sedna. I count 2003 UB313 because of it's size and Sedna because it red color indicates that may not made of the same material as any other ice cube that we have found. I'm also open to adding Quaoar, the mega-asteroid Ceres, and another BIG block of ice found by Brown - tentatively nicknamed "Santa". Just my thoughts.

Tags: Pluto, Astronomy, 2003 UB313, Xena, Planet, Mike Brown, Person of the Week, Kuiper Belt, Sedna