Today in the NY Times there are 6 letters, 4 of which are from detainee lawyers who have personally traveled to Guantanamo recently.

All of the letters absolutely demolish the prosecutor's claim of a clean, happy prison. One letter states that his client attempted suicide because death would be preferable to being held at the prison.

None of them have any good words to say about the editorial, and all of them rebut soundly the arguments that the prosecutor states.

If we take these letters at face value, the NY Times has just been held starkly and harshly accountable for it's extremely biased op-ed piece.

All I can say is "thank god for the Internet", because they would never have been published so quickly had it not been for the e-mail option for publication, if ever.

We would not have been so quickly validated on our own opinions.

Sometimes the freedom of the press is just too much for a propaganda machine.

Instead of cross the earth without the dead Albatross about our neck be hung. I hope bamage barnicle in never offended at me. And those Preposterous beneficial insects would bite Abraham Lincoln and William T. as he eats grits, sulfides bacon strips, and basil omelettes with Karen M. and Dessert Son. huh.

I'm not sure how the Mind withstands the barrage and does not grow weary, heavy, and bored from seagull and barnacles. No. Never a dull moment. My mind drift to this: I share.

ARGUMENT: The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner in 7-parts. 1798. How strange things befell the Ancyent (correct spelling back then) Marinere before he came back to his own Country.

In the mountains on a breezy night, if you close your eyes tight, a sensation can consume you as if you are lost at sea. Part 1-thoughts from Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.

"By the long grey beard and glittering eye,

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

...feast is set: May'st hear the merry din."

...And he hold hands...listens like a three years' child:

He cannot choose but hear; And thus spoke on that ancient man,

I shot the Albatross!

Part 2- The fair breezes blew, and white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into the silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down

'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break the silence of the sea! All in hot copper sky. the bloody sun, at noon. Right above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ! That ever this should be!

Yea slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout the death fires danced at night;

The water, like like a witch's (properly spelled) oils,

Burnt green, and blue, and white. And some dreams assured were Of the Spirit that plagued us so; Nine fathom deep he had followed us from the land of mist and snow.

And every tongue, through utter drought, was withered at the root; We could not speak, no more than if We had been choked with soot. Ah! well-a-day! What evil looks had I from the young!

Last line from Part 2- Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung.

_______

Often I imagine we are all shipmates in sore distress and would throw the whole guilt for our troubles on the ancient Mariner; in a sign of hanging the dead sea bird 'round his neck. I remember Dessert Son going off for rest and bless him for not lugging the Albatross computer round his neck as he walked the seashore. I hope Igirl is okay. Today is a one of those dodge-dance Tao-Tap-shooting..."Dance!"....as the doj's gunslingers make dust. They such bad shots and shoot ya's in the left calf? I hope not. My contraption acts half-broken. Who?

____

apologies to Coleridge. It is a loaded gun to me. I sat with my three year old grandaughter at a pond when a breeze and ripples sparkled in the sun. She ask, "Who put those lights there?" and "It feels like we are moving." Who put the sun up there? Who taught the bird to tweet? Who put the bright colored ring around that duck? Hope this banter is a okay ramble.

Eat multi-colored Swiss chard!

Sometimes the freedom of the press is just too much for a propaganda machine.-- FMHilton

All of the letters absolutely demolish the prosecutor's claim of a clean, happy prison. One letter states that his client attempted suicide because death would be preferable to being held at the prison.

They also listed as heinous torture having a beard shaved and being forced to pray in their underwear. Oh, the inhumanity...

None of them have any good words to say about the editorial, and all of them rebut soundly the arguments that the prosecutor states.

Right, because I say so.

We would not have been so quickly validated on our own opinions.

Translation: Because I'm liberal and therefore morally superior.
All this reminds me of the sage wisdom of years gone by... don't do the crime, if you can't do the time. But as always... IOKIYAD. They don't go to prison, or even resign for that matter.

Ahhhhhhhh, yes.

The old "Sodomy Broom". Works every time! What manly men these are.

You say that you do not believe that governments will abuse the power it has. -- bucky1

That's not what I said. What's more, I believe you know that it's not. To assert that it was seems just the teeniest bit self-serving, don't you think?

There's definitely a tendency on the part of certain kinds of people to seek power for reasons which have nothing to do with forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, or securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. It's also true that people who are in positions of power have a well-documented tendency to view their own convenience with more solicitude than that of others.

Which is, as better minds than mine have put it, why governments are instituted among men, and why the principle of powers which are both complimentary and countervailing were enshrined in our Constitution.

To prevent that Constitution or any similar political constitution from being usurped requires that succeeding generations understand it, value it, and are willing to expend some effort to see that its provisions are honored not in the breach, but in the observance.

In this or that way, we've been remiss from the very beginning, as you take such pleasure in pointing out. That doesn't absolve you from describing -- at least in broad strokes -- what mechanism you believe might better serve us, not if you want to have a real debate, that is.

-- William Timberman

I did not try to put words in your mouth and I am a little confused about your position. Let me tell you why through a very short history of a southern boy.

I spent years in the 'small government' camp thinking much like Thomas Jefferson would think, or at least what I imagined he would think, on this or that issue. When you boil the role of government down to the basics, its job is to protect its own citizens from aggression, both foreign and domestic.

Since I grew up in the 60s, I knew that our government often failed in its job of protection of 'rights' or fairness or just plain human decency. By the 80s I could see (South America/Reagan among other things) that our own government was a band of armed thugs dressed up in pretty uniforms. Naturally, I asked why.

Why does my government, often called the best that has ever existed, do these horrible things over and over? Can we not find 'good men and women' to run this thing and do the right thing? There must be examples of governments past or present that show how it should be done.

William, I found no examples of a 'city on the hill' and I looked hard. About that time, I started reading the political writings of Rothbard. It was his contention that governments will always grow in power until they abused their own citizens in uncountable ways. So what was his answer? No government at all! I thought that was just impossible. As time went on I saw that government was the problem and that voluntary cooperation among free and knowledgeable people is the correct route.

Most people that I know would describe themselves as 'liberal' and answer my question to you with some time frame in American History when there was a 'golden time' and we just need to return to that. I figured that you had some 'perfect government' in mind. I am glad to hear you have moved past that stage.

So, what is to be done? For me, the only thing possible living in an empire is to work toward returning to the original republican form of representative democracy. As this post is already too long, I will stop here.

What part of Anarcho-capitalism would your care to know about, if any? Keep in mind that I do not play the part of an Evangelist on TV, nor in real life. I get along just fine with my liberal friends who hope that a simple change of party will cure all of our many ills.

The below url is to a short q&a to a few of your questions; which one makes you say 'no, no, no' the most?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/long/long11.html