Now that the U.S. is faced with the Death of Habeas Corpus: Freedom is now a distance memory. I am reminded of some favorite quotations
and
Both from this man
History
Political Deadlines don’t kill anyone
The problem with deadlines, with regards to political issues, is there is no penalty for flying past them with no results. In fact, in most cases it behooves both parties to do just that, zooming past deadlines is part of the process.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if there were penalties? Not that I advocate violence, I wish ill on no one. But what results would happen if when a politician passed the deadline, they would just drop dead.
It sure would be a motivator to agreement! Isn’t that what is being proposed in Northern Ireland? Agree, or go back to killing each other?
Ring Forts and Nuclear Weapons
The wife and I have been exploring Ring Forts in Cork, and I’m of the conclusion that we as a people must spend a majority of our time on this planet being afraid. When I look at the effort that primitive (100BC – 500AD) man and women have spent building ring defenses and fortifications against their neighbors or some other invader. It’s staggering how powerful fear is. Mind you I have often wondered how violent the past times these forts were built in, what terror forced them to expend so much time and energy on their construction.
And I wonder how much was real and how much was the effort by some leadership to condense power and control. What was the frequency of Viking attacks, or land grabbing by neighbors, or worse yet livestock rustling (and you thought this was a cowboy story)
How do you build a defense that will make people feel safe? What does it take to make safety tangible. It was quite apparent that these ring forts were evidence. The efforts of the entire community were applied to their construction, and maintenance.
What makes a community feel safe in the Nuclear age? What tangible artifact can you construct that will make you feel safe? Not much is seems, much of the control for the defense is outside of the control of the community that fears it most. In hands that seem unable to place restraints on their threat and their use AS a threat. In trust that people have for their leadership that such weapons will neither strike them, or cause others to strike at them with such weapons. So while ancient man built forts, forts were made obsolete by better weapons, but made unnecessary as trade made social interactions between people more profitable than war.
But now we have oil, and while we have been trading in oil for ages, we have come to an impasse of a diminishing resource. Much like the cattle thief’s we try and steal what is not ours. We wage war on issues that on the surface make sense, but only mask what we have failed to learn from our past. That our ring forts no longer act as a deterrent to theft. That there is no defense, except social interactions, of cooperation, of diplomacy, of fair trade. Because as sure as one side strikes a blow, there will be a counter-strike. And all reason goes out the window, pandora’s box is open and the only hope is reason.
(originally posted May 2, 2006)
UPDATE: it seems like there is no difference between the past and the present, ring forts still have their purposes Iraqis Plan to Ring Baghdad With Trenches
All hail the the new Emperor
A good article about the fall of the Roman/American Republic in the Twenty-first Century Rome. All hail the new Caesar Augustus Bush.
Catholicism moving back into the Dark Ages
Just when you thought that the Catholic church was becoming modern, they take a turn into the Dark Ages when the Pope sacks astronomer over evolution debate. Religious conservatives everywhere must be rejoicing that truth and knowledge will be suppressed. And you wonder the Catholic Church is loosing members. They would rather defend child molesters in their ranks, than a scientist teaching knowledge.
The constitution does work
Federal Judge Orders End to Warrantless Wiretapping
“It was never the intent of the Framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights,â€
A big load of poppycock on Global Warming
If you want to read BS on Global Warming this is it. The case for neglecting global warming and while it’s obvious he doesn’t know a twit about history, medicine or biology Mr. Boudreaux is chairman of the Department of Economics and doesn’t know anything at all about Economics.
What are we loosing, when terrorist assault air travel
I’ve been thinking too much lately, and I can’t help but think that the use of airplanes in terrorist plots have a deeper significance, or not, you decide.
One element of Islamic reaction is a more or less a conservative reaction that even conservatives in the west can identify. One of the greatest features of the western world is mobility, most dramatically represented by air-travel and airplanes. One of the most active agents in change is mobility. Change in a culture that suppresses individual initiatives and freedoms, in favor of religious dogma and enforced religious rituals would have to resist any mixing of ideas and people, mobility is the enemy. This is exactly the same for both the west and islam. The funny thing is neither side understands this. And reacting to this, or even trying to prevent this mingling of cultures is the one change in the world that neither side can prevent.
What it means to us, the public who have to live in the real world, and not some religious fantasy of a pure ethnic nirvana. Is that all the elements that make our modern world work are under attack in the misbegotten belief that change can be stopped. The one thing the rest of us can do, remove the conservative fanatics on both sides of the equation.
What means is that the West and Islamic moderates will have to eliminate their respective far right fundamentalists from positions of power. And start talking to their opposite number.
Solar Maximum and Global warming
There may be a glimmer of hope, a slim one, and I can’t say for sure. But as we approach Solar Minimum, the effects of global warming are amplified by the increased intensity of solar thermal output. This current minimum is estimated to be 2007. Minimum Sunspots, maximum thermal output. After 2007 the sun spot activity increases to Solar Maximum So there is hope that global warming will slow down after 2007.
More here. Sun’s Output Increasing in Possible Trend Fueling Global Warming
9/11 education lacking in both Islam and the West
The Sunday Times had an interesting article that indicates that a majority of Muslims in the U.K. believe that there was a U.S. conspiracy that led to the attack of 9/11 and that is was not a Muslim attack. But these same people believe that muslims bombing the U.K. on 7th, was a necessary reaction to the U.K. in Iraq. There seams to be a serious conflict in this thinking. Mind you the information from the hearings on 9/11 held in the U.S. were at best suspect. But there is also the same beliefs in the U.S..
Fundamentally the real issue is education, and the lack of any clear information from any of the governments involved combined with the press who have been negligent in investigating and reporting the real truth. Communications seems to be the tool of the war maker. Communicating the facts may be the only way to halt this relentless move by both the Islamic and Christian fanatics towards a war that is meaningless. But in the face of things from both sides of the conflict, transparency is the one thing that neither will allow, a transparency born of honest and direct communications. Both sides believe that manipulation of the media will some how grant them righteousness where none exists.
Truly we are entering a new dark age, where both religions twist the truth to enforce secular control of people by clouding the mind and poisoning communications.
Cuba, and Bush’s Democracy
In a world where Bush calls the U.S. Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper!”. When Bush calls for democracy in Cuba and assumes that any constitution is worthless, doesn’t he just define the Cuban government? Isn’t he wishful that he too, wants to be the autocrat of the world? Emperor George the first? Isn’t it amazing when Rice broadcast dismissed by Cuba is taken with surprise. While the Cubans are hardly free, or in many cases well informed. They are still aware of the nature of Bush regime, and believe they are better off where they are.
The Bush Democratic machine is a sham when they claim to support democracy, then withdraw support when Hamas wins an election, when one democracy, attacks another democracy in the the form of Lebanon vs Israel. When they support Egyptians voting for a one party candidate and call it democracy, but condemn it when the same vote happened for Saddam before they attacked them.
Bush and is followers do not have any concept of democracy, freedom or liberty, and never will. They continue to twist the meaning to one that supports them, and only them in power.
Meaningless words do not make a democracy. A constitution, made of laws which apply to everyone, and a government that is held to those laws which protect the rights of citizens of that country makes a democracy. And when Bush is finally held accountable for those violations of the U.S. Constitution, then we will have democracy.
H.R. 5875 and a hope in Hell
I find this amusing that The Iraq War Powers Repeal Act of 2006, H.R. 5875 essentially is taking George Bush at his word from his “mission accomplished” in May 2003. In an argument I used on this blog along time ago I mentioned that if we had already declared a victory, the GOP and Bush could save face and withdraw. The point is that this war has never been over liberating the Iraqi people, or removing sadam, or WMD’s. If this bill ever gets passed it will be a clear illustration of that fact. Hence it will never get out of house of representatives.
But there is still a hope in hell.
WMD’s boogy man, out of control.
I have always been amazed at the attitude of the the NeoCon far right wing in the United States. When Europe suggests a course of action like the Ceasefire in lebanon, most take it just on face value, a suggestion. When the NeoCon’s make a suggestion they expect immediate action in compliance to that suggestion. And when that suggestion is not heeded, great anger, and self righteous indignation follows. We are a SUPERPOWER we should be listened to and heeded. This is the voice of Olympus speaking.
It’s no wonder that with a belief in their own Godhood that their religions beliefs are also in a God who they believe grants them a divine destiny to lead the world. Unfortunately the god that they worship, is a self deluded composite deity designed by them. They have, like buggy software, designed in many loopholes and insecurities. Personal insecurities. When confronted with reality they resort to sound bites and rhetoric long since debunked. A powerpoint presentation that has lost its point, like blue screens full of cryptic error messages. Just like the cryptic messages from the Oracle, most religions are a mishmash of interpretation by clerics of all religious automatons. The NeoCon beliefs are no different, if there is no Boogy Man, you must create one.
For the fall elections in the U.S. we will see if the presentation of the GOP and it’s far right will get it’s tired story rewritten or not. It is not a good sign when the constant reiteration of Weapons of Mass Destruction that often defines the Right has continued to sink in with the voting public and more and more of the mindless in America still believe that WMD’s still exist, and are in the hands of the Hezbollah. How many times can a single item be used? How many times can crying wolf illicit a response before the people stop listening, and ask for the truth.
It’s truly amazing how much the beliefs of the GOP mirror that of another previously overturned regime.
“What luck for the rulers that men do not thinkâ€
“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believedâ€
Adolf Hitler
Israel loses the War on Terror
While there is much debate as to the nature or and motivations on the part of Israel and Hezbollah. There is almost no doubt that Israel has lost this war. It may not be the war on the ground, but they have lost it none the less. It’s the same war George Bush is continuing to loose on behalf of the U.S. and that is the war over the moral high ground. Israel has failed to demonstrate that they are correct, or are responding to this ‘event’ in any way other than a fanatically mindless drunk. Striking out at an enemy that they can not beat, with weapons and methods that only serve to strengthen their enemies. Not unlike what the NeoCons of the Bush regime offer every day. It’s no wonder that the only support for in this Israeli madness is the U.S. Government. Even the British are waking up to this insanity leaving Israel and the U.S. standing alone, again.
The reaction of the Israeli government is over the top, unfocused and banal leaving everyone to wonder what the real motivations really are. Certainly not to rescue a few soldiers who were captured, certainly not to prove that they would go to any length to defend their borders. Something else is at work here, and a worst case, the belief that there is something sinister at work defeats Israel every day that they continue this course of action.
Time for a cease fire, and an end to madness. Or Israel will loose everything, not just this war.
Scholarly lost logic on Hamdan case
Sometimes when you read a long and detailed train of thought from a Scholarly writer often the pure dazzle of the dialog can conceal elements that on first pass seem reasonable. Let me illustrate, this example attempts to defend the creation of a special class of ‘detainees’ as in the case in Guantanamo.
Lost in the equation of U.S. law are elements like, “innocent until proven Guilty” and the right “to face their accusers”. More fundamental is the lack of a vital element, ‘Subject Identification’, ‘Quality and source of Intelligence’, ‘qualification of identified terrorist target.’ and more important “Who is doing the definition and interpretation of the targeted terrorist. “. These are know as ‘Evidence’ and a trial by jury based upon evidence and the rule of law.
And while the “anachronistic laws” that this article seeks to repeal are mentioned, not once is it described why such laws exist in the first place. The laws that this professor Dershowitz would have you repeal are the ones that were put in place to prevent the burning of witches at the stake. They were to qualify the identification of witches and hence terrorists as well. The reduction of anyone to be identified into special classes goes to the heart of U.S. law.
The author goes on;
Anne Fitzgerald of Amnesty recently compared the alleged terrorists being detained by the US and its allies to the “disappeared” in Argentina during the Junta. The comparison is obscene. The disappeared in Argentina were mostly political opponents of the Junta, many of whom were tortured to death and dropped into the ocean from aircraft.
But then he does not defend the fact that ‘terrorist’ is an arbitrary label, and in it’s nature IS political! Anyone can be called a terrorist. With no evidence, how is this any different to what the Argentina government did?
And again about terrorist;
They cannot be held as POWs until the end of the war, because this is a war that will never end.
The real question is one he doesn’t ask, is this a real war? Mind you it’s being advertised as one, but other countries have been targets of terrorists before, and have never classified them as wars like the U.S. has. It wasn’t a war when Timothy McVeigh blew-up the federal building in Oklahoma, it was a terrorist act, but not a war. But further he does not mention the POW in relationship with evidence of a crime, or if they really were terrorist, in his own words ” A few wore ersatz uniforms; most did not. Some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. ” So where is the evidence! This goes to the heart of the supreme court decision on Hamdan, that they cannot be denied a trial!
if Professor Dershowitz is really “America’s leading liberal lawyer” he needs to get his credientials renewed.