I have now, officially and certifiably, heard it all.
Torture is nothing more than a policy difference.
Omigosh.
I thought the eight long years of Bush Hell had visited the most wretchedly ludicrous palaver possible on a vulnerable world. Guess not. Guess they had to crown their execrable efforts with the most contemptible canard of all:
Torturing human beings is not wrong, criminal, nor even morally heinous--it's just POLICY.
It defies imagination.
Or even coherent thought.
24 April 2009
09 January 2009
Gaza, Sudan, Northern Ireland, Somalia, Nigeria...
Cry out, Americans! When hatred kills children, there is no justification. Ever.
GENEVA – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
Navi Pillay...[said] an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.
The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house, according to testimony from four witnesses.
On Thursday, the international Red Cross said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach wounded people in the neighborhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area.
GENEVA – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
Navi Pillay...[said] an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.
The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house, according to testimony from four witnesses.
On Thursday, the international Red Cross said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach wounded people in the neighborhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area.
Gaza, Addendum
I was talking with my kids yesterday about the fact that President-Elect Obama does not speak out about the Gaza massacre and they asked why Senator Clinton does not. I opened my mouth to answer as it dawned on me that she cannot now. She works for Obama.
What is that fine political axiom?...Hold your friends close; hold your enemies...
What is that fine political axiom?...Hold your friends close; hold your enemies...
08 January 2009
The True Horror That Is Gaza
699 and 11.
How do those numbers strike you?
They strike me as wildly disparate. Especially when each whole number represents a LIFE.
As our Congress and our president-elect are busy demurring 'weighing in' on these numbers, they're mounting--with the larger one on track to four digits probably before the president-elect can say again that there can only be 'one administration at a time'.
It's this complacency in the face of needless death--children, no less--that I find the most excruciatingly obscene in the dispositions of those who would conduct our country. I have, at last, faced the reality of our lame duck president's barren soul, and our representatives' spineless souls, but I was so hoping for some caring souls to take the helm.
In other words, anyone in a position to speak out against the wholesale slaughter of civilians and children who does not do so is a complete conundrum to me.
Well, I'm not in that position, but I'm going to speak out anyway.
The first part of the equation is that Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for years. While in no way defensible, Hamas' actions have lacked lethality. No such lack can be found in the Israeli answer. As the most heavily-armed helicopters in the world rain death on Gaza, and equally ferocious armed vehicles snuff out any animate square meters of that strip of land, the purveyors of the firestorm claim victimhood and protest their right to protect their land.
Accordingly, 699 Palestinians have died in Gaza. 11 Israeli soldiers have died.
If I could employ an analogy, it might be this: a student gang comes to school each day and behaves badly, really badly. They kick the other students, slam lockers in other students' faces, trip other students, even wave guns in their faces---all with belligerent impunity. Well, the other students have had just about enough of the constant mistreatment. And rightly so.
So they BOMB every last house of this gang's families, plus every last house next to the gang's families' houses, plus every last place of business patronized by the gang's families' members, plus every last house belonging to the business owners. And everything else in between.
Sound about right?
699 and 11.
How do those numbers strike you?
They strike me as wildly disparate. Especially when each whole number represents a LIFE.
As our Congress and our president-elect are busy demurring 'weighing in' on these numbers, they're mounting--with the larger one on track to four digits probably before the president-elect can say again that there can only be 'one administration at a time'.
It's this complacency in the face of needless death--children, no less--that I find the most excruciatingly obscene in the dispositions of those who would conduct our country. I have, at last, faced the reality of our lame duck president's barren soul, and our representatives' spineless souls, but I was so hoping for some caring souls to take the helm.
In other words, anyone in a position to speak out against the wholesale slaughter of civilians and children who does not do so is a complete conundrum to me.
Well, I'm not in that position, but I'm going to speak out anyway.
The first part of the equation is that Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for years. While in no way defensible, Hamas' actions have lacked lethality. No such lack can be found in the Israeli answer. As the most heavily-armed helicopters in the world rain death on Gaza, and equally ferocious armed vehicles snuff out any animate square meters of that strip of land, the purveyors of the firestorm claim victimhood and protest their right to protect their land.
Accordingly, 699 Palestinians have died in Gaza. 11 Israeli soldiers have died.
If I could employ an analogy, it might be this: a student gang comes to school each day and behaves badly, really badly. They kick the other students, slam lockers in other students' faces, trip other students, even wave guns in their faces---all with belligerent impunity. Well, the other students have had just about enough of the constant mistreatment. And rightly so.
So they BOMB every last house of this gang's families, plus every last house next to the gang's families' houses, plus every last place of business patronized by the gang's families' members, plus every last house belonging to the business owners. And everything else in between.
Sound about right?
699 and 11.
06 January 2009
Just Imagine a World Where....
...children being killed by bombs dropped by Apache helicopters is more important than stopping a duly-appointed senator from sitting down in Congress...
...soldiers dying endlessly in an endless conflict of obscene origin is more important than fighting to appoint someone wholly ill-equipped but well-named to Congress...
...keeping families in their homes is more important than voting billions of dollars to the evictors...
...teaching civics in schools is more important than omitting its existence because we aren't supposed to know the laws and rules that are being stomped upon...
...the right to one's civil liberties is more important than a daily diet of fearing terrorists...
...respecting the earth is more important than filling the coffers...
...helping people is more important than helping corporations...
...[I invite you to add your own wish for the world we all deserve]...
...soldiers dying endlessly in an endless conflict of obscene origin is more important than fighting to appoint someone wholly ill-equipped but well-named to Congress...
...keeping families in their homes is more important than voting billions of dollars to the evictors...
...teaching civics in schools is more important than omitting its existence because we aren't supposed to know the laws and rules that are being stomped upon...
...the right to one's civil liberties is more important than a daily diet of fearing terrorists...
...respecting the earth is more important than filling the coffers...
...helping people is more important than helping corporations...
...[I invite you to add your own wish for the world we all deserve]...
04 January 2009
Of Blogs, Blogging and Blogojevich...Oh, and I'M BACK!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a task left long undone becomes next to impossible to tackle! I've left my blog for so long I'm beyond rusty. And Dorothy with her oilcan is nowhere in sight. So I'll just have to crank back into gear on my own power here. If you hear a whack, whir, wheeze, whine, sputter, splat, squirt, scrape, clink, clank, clunk, clatter, crash, bang, beep, buzz, ring, rip, roar, retch, twang, toot, tinkle, thud, pop, plop, plunk, pow, snort, snuk, sniff, smack, screech, splash, squish, squeek, jingle, rattle, squeel, boing, honk, hoot, hack, belch...it's just me, stretching my blog limbs again.*
*With thanks to Jane Austin and Todd Rundgren, from whom I stole the opening and closing of the paragraph.
So how are you all in blogville nowadays? Nowadays filled with Gaza, Iraq and Mumbai; cool ash, foreclosures and inaugurations; Warrens, Blagojeviches and Kennedys? Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have taken up the blog reins again quite so fast...
Naw. I'll jump in. But just in the shallow end.
I understand the democrats are planning to unceremoniously oust the honorable Mr. Roland Burris from the Senate before he gets to put a crease in his trousers.
Right.
And so we're off and running into 2009 with the exact same attitude toward THE LAW that defined 2008. Just what is the difficulty the dems have with following laws, rules and directives? Here are a few that come to mind:
*The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is covered by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. And it should cover Blogojevich in his present pickle, if I'm not mistaken.
*When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. This is from the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. And it should speak to Blagojevich's duties, again, if I'm not mistaken.
*Did I mention 'Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty'? This is broached in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the legal codes of untold numbers of the nations of the world.
But it's evidently not included in our majority leader's vocabulary. Just this morn I listened to him declare Blagojevich guilty of contemptuous crimes, thereby nullifying that governor's rights and duties of office.
Right.
I guess we can just dispense with that whole indictment, plea and jury business.
*With thanks to Jane Austin and Todd Rundgren, from whom I stole the opening and closing of the paragraph.
So how are you all in blogville nowadays? Nowadays filled with Gaza, Iraq and Mumbai; cool ash, foreclosures and inaugurations; Warrens, Blagojeviches and Kennedys? Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have taken up the blog reins again quite so fast...
Naw. I'll jump in. But just in the shallow end.
I understand the democrats are planning to unceremoniously oust the honorable Mr. Roland Burris from the Senate before he gets to put a crease in his trousers.
Right.
And so we're off and running into 2009 with the exact same attitude toward THE LAW that defined 2008. Just what is the difficulty the dems have with following laws, rules and directives? Here are a few that come to mind:
*The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is covered by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. And it should cover Blogojevich in his present pickle, if I'm not mistaken.
*When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. This is from the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. And it should speak to Blagojevich's duties, again, if I'm not mistaken.
*Did I mention 'Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty'? This is broached in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the legal codes of untold numbers of the nations of the world.
But it's evidently not included in our majority leader's vocabulary. Just this morn I listened to him declare Blagojevich guilty of contemptuous crimes, thereby nullifying that governor's rights and duties of office.
Right.
I guess we can just dispense with that whole indictment, plea and jury business.
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