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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
futhark
Published Letters: 407 Editor's Choice: 24
If you consider the targets of the attacks were the two Democratic Senators (Leahy and Daschle) most likely to oppose or at least delay the passage of the ironically named "Patriot Act" and that the Bacillus anthracis used was a strain unique to the American biological weapons stock, it becomes clear that this was a tool to intimidate Congress into passing the bill quickly without reading it or considering its consequences. And it worked! These attacks were calculated to further panic the public into surrendering their rights and control of the government to the Executive Branch. They were launched by the same group of traitors who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks and have been allowed to run roughshod over all constraints of law and decency for the further empowerment and enrichment of the few at the great expense of the many.
A new 9/11 Commission needs to be convened, not to determine how 19 box-cutter wielding Arabs managed to create so much havoc, but to determine what actually happened and who was responsible, by omission or commission, for this travesty. This new commission must be composed of fearless, rational investigators, willing to ask questions that may embarrass the powerful, and most certainly must not be composed of individuals who serve on corporate boards of directors or who have held high office in government. This needs to be a people's commission free of self-serving prejudice.
Tom Tomorrow, the Republican Party is like the cruise ship that hit a reef in the Mediterranean last week and sank, apparently in part due incompetence or inattention on the part of the captain, who is consequently facing charges. Messieurs Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfelt, and their minions have shown such monumental incompetence over the last 6 years that the Party they head has hit several reefs and is settling in the water. Maybe it can be salvaged, but that operations will take many years. Anyone like McCain who defends their biggest bungle, the Iraq invasion and occupation, or any part of the neocon program can no longer be taken seriously. As has been pointed out, they provide their own ironical satire. Their own illusions have now become their worst enemies, because their actions are woefully misguided in dealing with real problems.
A Democratic sweep of the magnitude of 1936 is in the offing and can only be precluded by the fumbling of Democratic candidates and the promotion of the most unpopular among them by the mainstream media, owned by corporations that have benefited from Bush's policies. Indeed, we see this with the big money going to "moderate" candidates when what the people really want is a total realignment of priorities in Washington, DC. So please, Mr. Tomorrow, let the Republicans slide into their own morass for a while and tell us a little about the hypocrites in the Democratic party, one of whom just may be our next President.
This article took me back to my adolescence, riding in a friend's '59 Buick on back roads at night with the speedometer playing tag with the century mark and the gas gauge almost visibly dropping. But those were the days of 27.9 cent/gallon gasoline and we were immortal. The play against death is thrilling, even when one doesn't really believe that could happen. And we never considered that possibility that we could be the cause of someone else being injured or killed. We were arrogant in the application of a power we had not earned and it had control of us as much as or more than we controlled it.
There are still plenty of people who race down our highways and back roads as if they enjoyed perfect safety and the fuel resources they were expending were nothing less than their birthright as Americans. However, we live in a world were we are increasingly confronted with the consequences of our arrogance: depleted resources, global warming, expanding population spreading out over former farmland.
Yesterday one such oblivious speeder rear-ended and possibly totaled my darling '72 Karmann Ghia coupe. The offender's vehicle, built to higher safety standards, got off with a scratched and slightly dented bumper. There is always a price to be paid for cheap thrills and the arrogantly irresponsible are not always the ones to have to ante up the largest share.
At the end of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" interspersed among the credits are a series of several suggested ways to lessen the impact of humanity on our environment (ride a bike, recycle, etc.). These are all commendable but what is omitted is the most glaringly obvious one, responsible reproduction. As the U.S. population crossed the 300,000,000 mark last year, only passing mention was made in the press. Yet almost all of the serious environmental and social problems we have and are about to face are directly related to the fact that there are so many of us. The average American consumes 4 to 5 times the energy and materials used by the average human on Earth, so in terms of environmental impact, there are 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion Americans, greater than the population of China.
Within my half century plus of life I have seen countless acres of farmland paved over and covered with suburban sprawl. Fewer and fewer children have the opportunity to have direct access to nature on a daily basis. The alienation of youth is exacerbated by their disconnection with nature and the crowding they must endure.
Many of those who come to this country are excellent people, but we really don't need any more, thank you. As petroleum supplies dwindle over the coming decades, our country, along with the rest of the world, is going to be hard pressed to feed the ones already here. We need to seriously start building self-sufficient communities with sustainable economies. The long crisis of the 21st Century has only just begun as the era of cheap energy draws to a close and we should develop strategies for reducing population gradually and humanely. Restricting immigration is one of the most effective methods of accomplishing this.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
