I wrote about it early in July. We had barely gone past half of the year and the death toll had already risen. Of a special group of people particularly, who are the musicians, writers and entertainers. The year has been exceptionally cruel to them, both here and abroad. At the time I wrote it, [...]
If there’s one thing I don’t mind us copying, or imitating, or aping America, it’s in drawing attention to the proliferation of guns in this country. It’s in our Congress bestirring itself to pass laws regulating gun ownership. It’s in our executive branch leading the way toward enforcing gun control.
On the face of it, the Supreme Court decision to ban the airing of the Maguindanao massacre trial seems reasonable. “While this court recognizes the freedom of the press and the right to public information…. the rights of the direct parties should not be forgotten. In a clash among these competing interests and in terms of the values the Constitution recognizes, jurisprudence makes it clear that the balance should always be weighed in favor of the accused. Live TV has no place in a criminal trial.”
My own experience, or ordeal, with smoking is this: I began smoking when I was 17. I took my first puff of cigarettes a year earlier and went into a violent fit of coughing. A year later, I was inhaling the smoke, sucking it with a fury, and liking it.
It’s interesting to look at the differences in political cultures between the United States and us as seen in our elections.
Someone told me that the rains last week were the worst she had ever experienced. “Ondoy” might have been more ferocious and left Metro Manila in shambles, but at least it just came and went. The rains lingered too long. Having them slushing on your roof without pause for several days can give you the sensation of being cooped up.
By the time the impeachment trial resumed last Monday, interest in it was at an all-time low. The only ones who still seemed preoccupied with it were partisans from both camps who kept contributing to Globe’s and Smart’s coffers by regaling the world with their opinions in text messages. As the general public went, there was no excitement, there was no anticipation, there was no debate. Some didn’t even know it was still there.
Sen. Joker Arroyo does not believe Conrad de Quiros’ claim that he “worked for the Left underground throughout martial law.”
Conrad De Quiros was a mole of the communists in the Marcos dictatorship. The most successful mole in the history of spy craft. So secret none of his handlers exists to testify to his, shall we say, “molecular” activity on behalf of the Left and contra the dictatorship in whose ranks he was formally enrolled and legally paid for work.
Conrad de Quiros wrote that “it’s Joker’s comments about what happened during Erap’s impeachment that take[s) the cake... [His] ingratitude to the thing that swept [him] to power. x x x, Why can’t we afford another demonstration of People Power, full or partial, if it came to that…” And so on and so forth. (Inquirer, 1/2/12)
The positive part of it is the persistence of memory. It’s admirable how Americans refuse to let the more than 3,000 who perished in the attacks at the Twin Towers 10 years ago this Sunday go the route of the forgotten dead. Their lives have been chronicled in tributes, in documentaries that have appeared on [...]
Should P-Noy keep at it, he may yet become the Great Communicator in these parts the way Ronald Reagan was in the United States in the 1980s. With the difference that Reagan didn’t write his speeches – Peggy Noonan did, which also shows the worth of a brilliant speechwriter for a brilliant speaker – P-Noy [...]
