Letters to the Editor
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Thanks, pow wow
I signed on to Rocky Anderson's letter, too...
and also the petition at the ACLU.
For those interested: http://tinyurl.com/6o4jbw
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Scapehead?
....or spear-goat? Either way, he should be pursued to the end of his life.
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Bumper Sticker!
I purchased a bumper sticker from Common Dreams that says "My America Doesn't Torture."
The general reaction was that people abhored the concept. The concept of me putting such a sign on my car. Their eyes roll and they say "give it up, you can't do anything." They think and feel I am being moronic by my meager protest.
Nobody really cares anyway!
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So let's be explicitly clear as to your meaning --
"Stop being a sissy!
"I am all for "using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists"
"Terrorists are by logical necessity war criminals so if someone wants to lower them head fist into a bucket of shit, "god bless him.
"-- Sandy Yago Sunday, April 13, 2008 02:57 AM"
Torture is by law -- not mere "logical necessity" -- a war crime that cannot be made legal.
So: you want war criminals subjected to war crimes because war crimes are wrong.
Sense you don't make. And I'll bet you believed you did, pseudo-tough guy.
Why aren't you in Iraq putting your loud-mouth on the line? Ah! you realize that your loud mouth is not the same as courage!
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You are right.
As Mullah Nasruddin was passing through a village one day he saw a crowd of villagers gathered near the village center. As Nassrudin approached he heard a heated argument going on. The village elder suddenly threw up his hands in despair and cried out, "Allah, be merciful and send someone to judge this before we come to violence!". Nassrudin walked over and said, "I heard you call out for help in judging your dispute. I am a famous jurist, and always judge righteously and truly as Allah himself would." At that the village elder asked Nassrudin to judge the dispute and Nassrudin agreed saying, "Bring the aggrieved parties before me and let them speak, one after the other."
On hearing this one man jumped forward and said, "I will speak first! That man over there let his donkey get into my vegetable garden and the donkey ruined my garden! He should pay for the damage!" The man spoke until he was exhausted. Nassrudin listened intently until the man was done, held up his hand and said, "You are right!"
At that, the other man jumped up and said, "But Mullah! You have not heard my side of it!" and went on to say how his donkey had been injured and his injury was the greater. When the second man had finally exhausted himself in making his argument, Nassudin held his hand up and said, "You are right!"
With that, the village elder wailed as he jumped up and said, "But Mullah! They cannot both be right!" and Nassruddin held up his hand and said, "You are right!"
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Academia and guilt
I find it odd that Lawrence Summers (former president of Harvard University) could be forced to resign for because of a ridiculous statement about women and science, and yet John Yoo still has a job after giving the green light to torture.
What is so maddening about the argument that John Yoo didn't make the final decision and so shouldn't be held accountable is that those who did make the final decision hide behind Yoo's legal "analysis" in order to escape accountability. Bush himself claimed on Friday that he had legal opinions saying that water torture was OK. So apparantly Bush isn't accountable because he had a legal opinion saying his actions were OK, and Yoo, who wrote that opinion, isn't accountable because he didn't make the actual decision to torture people.
The fact is, they are both guilty. Bush certainly has more moral culpability since he made the decision, but Yoo aided in the execution of that decision, and so he, too, is culpable. The dean must know this. I can only conclude that he either doesn't care about Yoo's actions or doesn't have the courage to stand up to it.
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Summers
Wasn't really forced but he did choose to succumb to the pressure from faculty to resign. And his position was administrative. Actual teaching was not in his job description so he does not benefit from the academic freedom protections accorded an academic with tenure.
Yoo has tenure and is merely an academic. If he was in an administrative position, he might come under more pressure to resign.
Libertarians are the new hippies, just cleaner and richer.
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/dancing_fools.php
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@ 10:00 JNagarya.
You took my thoughts to Book 18. Homer. The Odyssey.
In the back of my mind is a Wa/Po read about Bush's old Texan friend from HUD. He was the youngest of 12 children and "made it big" and came to DC with the thug-team. Disgraced.
The following comment is from Homer....`
`
I was late Spring. Odysseus challenged a "babble nonsense" person to the hay fields, man-to-man in the labors of the fields... out in the meadow, swinging a well-curved scythe to test the strength for work, and there was lots of hay to mow.
Or give us a team of oxen to drive, purebreds, hulking, ruddy beast, both lusty with fodder, pulling power, the loam churning under the plow---
Or if Zeus would bring a battle on out of the blue,
this very day--and give a shield and two spears,
and a helmet to fit the soldiers temples... fight where front ranks clash--
no more mocking the belly of mine, not then.
Enough. Your sick with pride, you brutal fool.
No doubt, count yourself a great powerful man?
You sport with a puny crowd, ill-bred to boot.
Odysseus don't quit - (he goes on and on)
"You odious--ugly rant." Odysseus call it.
I agree with JNagarya. Sad. 'um last a min.
A puny crowd. HUD crimes, etc., Worthless! Odysseus wasn't fond of spineless. "trolls"... wherever. whatever. No virtue. He'd say, "bite the lip." Homer gathered comments from those he respected. The recorded writings preserved for posterity (us) sure tear into the creeps a new YKW? He called people a hobo. grunt. This Place here is a nice hobo-jungle, hip-hop, ragga, and electronic drum-beat, similar era... to learn. The law of the jungle? The GOP can have their inner misery.
Look at the cluster GOP. Hooey.