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However I Siena Saints do find fault with her assertion that

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However, I surveys siena college saints do find all saints shows fault with her assertion that this could not happen to our president because Bush's minions protect him from such attacks. I wonder if she has ever watched one of the president's news conferences, where the media spend a great deal of time playing "gotcha" with him without those purported "elites" who "collude to keep our own president in his safe little bubble. " In this country, the president is not immune from ridicule for malapropisms and misstatements, which is much more than I can say for Ahmadinejad under similar circumstances in Iran. Mel WatsonMission Hills--So Brooks thought Bollinger was "prissy" and "infantile" when he admonished Ahmadinejad, but if he had "made those same unvarnished remarks" to President Bush, he'd have practiced "free speech at its best. " Can she not set aside her liberal stance long enough to see the double standard?Lisa MarshallLos Angeles--Thank God for Brooks. An intelligent woman who can see past the political charade and speak to common decency. Every liberal and conservative writer/talk show host I heard supported Bollinger's tirade as a "brave man standing up to the devil. "I watched with horror as he scathingly attacked his invited guest and was shocked that Ahmadinejad did not get up and leave the stage. I take no issue with Bollinger's words -- Ahmadinejad may well be today's Hitler. But I was embarrassed that such an educated man lacked the knowledge and insight to behave appropriately at a supposed "forum for the exchange of ideas. " Ahmadinejad, by staying and offering only a slight rebuke for the tirade, showed himself far more mature than Bollinger. Virginia EllsworthStudio City. Every Sunday I read the military obituaries in The Times.

I look at the haunting photos, some of them in full formal military uniform, some showing the brave men and women on the front and even a few photos of the fallen before they enlisted (most of them high school photos). I often find myself consulting a map of the Middle East and a map of the U. S Siena Saints . to understand where these folks came from and where they died blessed margaret of castello . This is the hardest part of my Sunday. But last Sunday's obituary of Marine Lance Cpl Rogelio A bronze religious statues . Ramirez, 21, of Pasadena, was by far the hardest one I have had to read bronze sculpture Siena Saints - cstv . After spending all those years repairing his life, owning up to and repairing his mistakes, to be killed after just a few months in Iraq -- what a tragedy. What a loss for his family and friends, and for the country as a whole. DoritDowler-GuerreroSilver Lake. Re "Is Harvard really a charity?" Opinion, Oct 1Robert B. Reich overlooks two important points in his analysis of the areas to which wealthy people direct their charitable donations. First, what he describes as "cultural palaces" are venues enjoyed by thousands for whom a visit to Disney Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or an art exhibition offers a welcome respite from the cares of our troubled world.

Sure, there will be a sprinkling of the wealthy in any audience, and we thank them for their contributions siena saints college . But the vast majority will be people who manage their personal funds in such a way as to enable them to enjoy music or other art of their choice. Second, the federal government has rarely fulfilled its duty to preserve our cultural heritage and encourage new artistic ventures bronze statue . A considerable increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts is essential bronze statues . With more dollars in its coffers, that body would be able to distribute its funds as it feels appropriate and, hopefully, regardless of political considerations catherine of siena . The need for donations to support the arts would be reduced, and Reich's proposal to offer tempting tax breaks to donors who contribute at any level to charities benefiting the really needy would then, I'm sure, receive a high degree of approval. John B. WelchNorth Hollywood--It's too bad that Reich believes that charitable contributions to arts and education are "investments in the lifestyles the wealthy already enjoy. " If he visited the websites of many of the institutions he holds up as "art palaces," he would learn how much these institutions invest in educational programs in the local public school system, free ticket days, programming in underserved communities, programs for educators, scholarships, discovery guides and the development of many other resources. While we in the arts may not think of ourselves as "charities," vital financial support from our donors results in art that inspires, nurtures and educates across the socioeconomic spectrum. Terry LeMoncheckExecutive directorPasadena Arts Council--Allowing only a 50% tax deduction for donations to institutions that do not serve the poor might mean that those institutions would receive less.

I attended a private university, which needs private support siena saints blog . If Reich's point is to increase donations to legitimate charities, then more incentive is needed. If a person gives, say, $10,000 to a university, give him the full deduction if he also gives 15% of that to a charity that serves the poor If not, then he gets only 50% as a tax write-off catholic . The 15% kicks in at a minimum amount so small givers can still afford to donate without increasing their total amount catholic church icons . If the public responds, perhaps the percentage could be raised in a few years catholic church saints . The result would be increased donations for charities that need the support. Dave TuttleMission Viejo. THE DISCOVERY of an alleged mass murder of Iraqi civilians by U. S. Marines in Haditha in November and the more recent rape-murder case in Mahmoudiya that led to charges against five men of the 101st Airborne Division stand in stark contrast to the traditional portrait of the behavior of U. S.

armed forces abroad. Since the time of our own revolution, we have been taught to expect such savage behavior from the inheritors of Attila and Tamerlane, be they Barbary pirates or Nazi Germans -- but not from the armies of democratic nations, the philosophical descendants of ancient Greece and Rome. The citizen-soldiers sent into the field by the United States or any other Western popular government are expected, by virtue of not so long ago having been free civilians themselves, to be more empathetic with the plight of the noncombatants with whom they come into contact . Siena Saints tickets Certainly, brutal incidents like the My Lai massacre or the Abu Ghraib scandal occur from time to time, but they are widely viewed as cultural aberrations. This interpretation, however, is as simplistic as it is misleading catholic church st . All too often the armies of modern democracies have tolerated and even initiated outrages against civilians, in manners uneasily close to those of their totalitarian and terrorist enemies catholic female saints . Israeli troops are currently demonstrating this fact in their response to the Hezbollah rocket offensive -- a response most of the world community, according to recent polls, believes is taking an unacceptably disproportionate toll on Lebanese civilians . And there have been times when democratic leaders have been even more open about their brutal intentions: Speaking of the Allied bombing campaign during World War II that culminated in that consummate act of state terrorism, the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, Winston Churchill flatly stated that the objective was "to make the enemy burn and bleed in every way. "Any examination of why this record of behavior on the part of democracies exists -- and why it has been so carefully distorted -- requires a look back over thousands of years of military history, as well as a willingness to dispense with long-cherished but false historical narratives Siena Saints . Many of the ancient cultures that provided the philosophical inspiration for the modern West in general, and especially for our founders -- the Roman republic most particularly -- believed in allowing their troops to enslave, rape and impoverish enemy civilians as a matter of reward and routine . The romantic narrative of chivalric medieval knights, in which noble warriors supposedly rallied their followers to champion the helpless against exploitation, is similarly mythical, created late in the medieval game to conceal the ruthlessness with which those knights and their troops preyed upon merchants and peasants -- a situation that became so ugly and anarchic that, late in the 11th century, Pope Urban II was forced to devise the ingeniously enduring scheme of dispatching murderous, plundering European nobles and their followers to the Holy Land to defend Jerusalem against Islam. When we hear of such conflicts as the "Peasants' Revolt" in Europe during the early 16th century, we don't tend to think of hideous massacres of civilians by their formerly oppressed equals, but such in fact occurred. And the phrase "wars of religious liberation" does not suggest that those seeking the right to worship as they pleased would commit the same sins as did the often-brutal Catholic Church from which they wished to separate, yet they did. All this confusion and bloodshed meant that by the early to mid-17th century, Europe was one massive battlefield, with few if any leaders who could really claim to have the interests of noncombatants at heart. Systematic relief for civilians from such ravages finally began to take shape near the end of the Thirty Years' War in the mid-1600s; but it was not budding democracy that supplied it, nor lofty philosophers seeking to define what constituted "just war. " When real reform occurred, it came from some of the most reactionary leaders and rulers of the era. During the English Civil War (1642-49), for instance, Puritan rebel officers led by that country's future and only military dictator, Oliver Cromwell, discovered that keeping an army under control vis-a-vis civilians had a pragmatic as well as a moral side: It tended to gain the local population's loyalty far faster and more effectively than either threats or long philosophical and political harangues. Through such simple steps as the strict use of distinctive uniforms (to discourage soldiers from the popular practice of deserting once armed and creating civil mayhem) and the institution of public and severe punishment for anyone caught molesting noncombatants in any way, Cromwell's "New Model Army" solidified popular support more than any other military unit in the war. At about the same time, perceptive continental monarchs and generals also began to turn toward the reform of war and the disciplining of troops as a pragmatic, rather than moral, consideration Siena Saints - cstv . The greatest of these, ultimately, was Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, who became notorious for imposing disciplinary regulations on his soldiers that were almost inhuman but that turned his minor kingdom into one of the most consistently victorious and, finally, powerful nations on the continent -- and himself into one of the most popular monarchs of the 18th century. By the end of Frederick's reign, the way forward to the real and generally accepted reform of war's negative effect on civilians seemed clear and feasible: "limited war," in which professional armies -- distinctly uniformed, highly disciplined and tightly controlled -- fought each other according to strict rules of engagement. But this enlightened progress was soon slowed and then stopped by a pesky new philosophical and political movement: liberal democracy. Why should democracy, which gave common people a voice in the conduct of their nation's affairs, interfere with military developments that were increasingly offering protection to those same common people? Precisely because democracy called for the involvement of all citizens in every aspect of national life -- including war.