Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
If you voted for one of the candidates who pledged to continue the "war" on "terror" (Obama or McCain), then it seems to me that you, good citizen, should be disqualified from discussing anyone else's hypocrisy on the subject of war crimes. Regardless of your preferred candidate's promise to make the trains run on time.
Once hailed by Time magazine as "America's Pastor," California megachurch leader and best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren now finds himself on the defensive. President-elect Barack Obama's selection of Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer has generated intense scrutiny of the pastor's beliefs on social issues, from his vocal support for Proposition 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in California, to his comparison of homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and bestiality.
Warren's defense against charges of intolerance ultimately depends upon his ace card: his heavily publicized crusade against AIDS in Africa. Obama senior adviser David Axelrod cited Warren's work in Africa as one of "the things on which [Obama and Warren] agree" on the Dec. 28 episode of Meet the Press. Warren may be opposed to gay rights and abortion, the thinking goes, but he tells evangelicals it is their God-given duty to battle one of the greatest pandemics in history. What could be wrong with that?
But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of his work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming to those who have attempted to look into it. His Web site contains scant information about the results of his program. However, an investigation into Warren's involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren's allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent's most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is "resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred."
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/118125/condom_burnings_and_anti-gay_witch_hunts:_how_rick_warren_is_undermining_aids_prevention_in_africa/?cID=1101505#c1101505
Then, that makes Obama and his supporters quite complicit in securing what was handed to them by Bush's new and generous executive powers, if they know he will not squander them away to satisfy us-- Three-branches-for-a-reason-types.
Much delusion to go around the bramble "Bush", I'd say.
Now, for that bridge to nowhere that promises conveyance to a less-tyrannical form of governing--I'm hiking it with my delusions in check.
kit bond is not seeking re-election
http://tinyurl.com/9jeert
It's not an original thought to look at all this unlawful or unethical behavior -- torture, illegal wiretapping, war on drugs, Israeli attacks on Palestinians -- through the authoritarian lens of good vs. evil. I think this is even a subject in one of Glenn's books. It is interesting, though disheartening, to see it continuously played out -- one sees it in the world and in Glenn's comment section every day.
The intent of laws is to codify the battle of good vs evil. If good gets caught up in the laws, the laws will be modified and the good shall not be prosecuted. The good make mistakes, but cannot do evil. By definition, their acts are good. War is not war, torture is not torture.
The whole purpose of life for the authoritarian is to determine who is evil and to destroy evil.
The great concession authoritarian's made in the late 1700s was Freedom. But Freedom is not a legal concept. Freedom is the right to be presumed good.
If you are ever against "good," however, especially as represented by America and Christianity, you are evil. Drug-use, socialism, liberal-ness, homosexuality, brown skin, non-Christians, homelessness, anti-war beliefs, etc., are evil. Once you are in the evil camp, it is very difficult to get out. There's no serving your time, there's no forgiveness. (Unless, for some, they become "born-again.")
Finally, there is no evil that can be perpetrated against evil; it's all good.
I'm a total layperson in all things pertaining to law.
However, I think that Stanley Kramer's excellant courtroom drama, made in the early 60's, "Judgement at Nurenburg," brings into a facinating detail, how a civil society "Weimar Germany) over time perverted its own laws that were supposed to protect its citizens, and instead, over time, sacrificed their true spirit, legal intent, and essence.
The result over time was a legal system that left the single individual, a potential pawn in the Nazi state's Frankenstein type experiment in "civilization."
Something like 20 people in ten years.
On Antiwar.com's blog yesterday, Eric Garris posted a link to an application called Livestation that lets you watch public feeds for lots of channels from all over the world. I'm hooked. It is sad how much more honest the international media is when compared to the Zionist cheerleading squad we call the MSM, and comparing the coverage in the US MSM to Al Jazeera.
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/01/07/tv-from-around-the-world-on-your-pc/
Want to see first-hand reporting from Gaza? Al-Jazeera’s team was there before journalists were banned.
Want to watch English-language TV news from Pakistan, India, Iran, Russia, Korea?
Want to watch Hezbollah TV without your provider going to prison?
Want to watch special movie channels, documentary channels, and various specialty channels without paying for them?
A new application called LiveStation allows you to watch thousands of different channels on your PC for free, in very high quality. Stations are being added daily, and users are able to add any stations that offer public feeds. Stations added by users become available to all LiveStation users. A chat function is also available to interact with other viewers.
The download is fast and free, and the program doesn’t appear to be buggy or a memory hog. The video quality is very good, even in full-screen mode.
LiveStation has become my new addiction. I highly recommend downloading the program and giving it a try. It is available for PC, Mac, and Linux.
Download: http://livestation.com/downloads?tracker=home_download
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"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
