…this photo is worth a million words on the human cost of the decisions made by one who strives to preserve embryos while seemingly indifferent to the effects of his disastrous choices on those already here.
…holds lessons that we need to learn, although we refuse to even see the warning.
What a fine phrase, “breathtaking inanity“…
It applies to so much more than those pushing the so-called “theory” of intelligent design, the potential nominees for applications of that phrase are as innumerable as the depth of their ingenuousness.
One might almost call it “high treason” against the “liberal tradition” of wide-ranging thought.
Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, commentary, evolution, intelligent design
I’ve been trying to reconcile the recent revelation regarding the authorization given by the President of the United States for the National Security Agency (aka the NSA) to monitor communications by US citizens without warrants, even those authorized by the FISA courts, which are almost notorious in their refusal to deny permissions for wiretaps.
To me this flies in the face of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, regardless of any legal infrastructure of thought built up since the time of the approval of those documents. I regard the original documents and thinking as supreme unless Constitutional Amendments have been approved to over-ride them, and as near as I can tell, none have for the issue at hand.
Regardless of the fundamentals, the usual suspects are presenting their usually supsect arguments, with those on the right-wing attacking the messengers, calling it “high treason” in their typical shallow thinking, regardless of the actual crimes being reported upon, and those on the left-wing attacking the administration, jumping the gun and calling for impeachment before all the facts are in and evaluated.
I have wanted to write something meaningful that would influence this imbroglio, but then I read what was posted recently at Velociworld:
I don’t want to piss on anyone’s parade, but I’ve been having the sinking feeling, for some time now, that the vaunted Blogosphere is a sickly puppy, the runt of the litter with rickets, and scabies.
Hear me out: when the World was relatively small, there was much interaction. Give, take, everyone knew everyone. Maybe didn’t like everyone, but knew them. Now there are Pajama parties with huge fucking budgets, one is In or Out, it is a fucking abortion of a thing.
All of this, I think, is driven by two things: number one: some people think there is money to be made here. Okay. Maybe for a few lucky enough to have enough traffic to generate ad monies. Have at it, folks.
Number two: many bloggers tend to forget they are amateurs. A little traffic, we are Dickens. Bullshit. We are fucking amateurs. This is the minor leagues. Worse. Pony League. No salaries at all here.
That is why this is titled “Post #1759″ because that is the post number that came up when I started writing this.
Even though I feel this recent revelation of how the Bush administration apparently completely skipped the Civics class that I thought we all were required to take in the 9th grade is tremendously important, and how they have no compunction in asserting the power of the executive branch with no oversight despite the principles written into our Constitution over 200 years ago is extremely dangerous, my opinions don’t really matter because I am indeed a fucking amateur in the minor league.
Who will listen to what I have to say on this?
I am doomed to watch as the founding principles of the nation I love are trampled upon and discarded, and all I can do is cry out on a weblog that is read by perhaps 200 people a day, if I am lucky.
My influence? Hell, I would probably give more folks the common cold than change their minds about this issue…
So, here is Post #1759, for what it is worth.
Pennywit, at his (relatively) new effort at a different kind of weblog, Multifaria, has some questions for those who claim there is a “war on Christmas” and are trying to play victim.
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Something of note, Multifaria has the potential to be more interesting and unique than OSM/Pajamas Media has shown to date, despite the millions of dollars the “new subversive media” venture has available.
Technorati Tags: commentary, amber and cruelty, opinion, weblogs
I posted below on a case of abuse of eminent domain in Florida, and I commented on how the governmental system in the United States is beginning to resemble that of China when it comes to property rights. From CNN.com, here is an illustration of the state of affairs in that country:
Government banners hung at the village entrance said, “Following the law is the responsibility and obligation of the people” and “Don’t listen to rumors, don’t let yourself be used.” Another tried to placate local anger, promising, “The people’s government will always support the people of Dongzhou.”
The police shootings Tuesday were the deadliest known clash yet amid growing anger in areas throughout China over government land seizures for construction of power plants, shopping malls and other projects.
Farmers often complain they are paid too little. Some accuse local authorities of stealing compensation money.
Note the middle paragraph, “government land seizures for construction of power plants, shopping malls, and other projects.”
Sound familiar?
Write your representatives, national, state, and local, and inform them that it is the role of government to protect property rights, not to seize property to gain profits for those already rich and powerful.
Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, commentary, eminent domain
Via Boudicca’s Voice comes a reference to how the system of government in the United States is beginning to resemble that of China in terms of ignoring property rights in favor of what is “best for the community.” From Ogre’s Politics & Views:
What a damn nightmare. As many as 6,000 people may become homeless, directly because of direct government action. Why? So some politicians can line their pockets with cash — I kid you not.
The situation, if you’re not aware of it, is that the mayor and government of the “city” of Riviera Beach wants to use eminent domain to kick 6,000 people out of their homes (where most have been for OVER 40 years) so he can give the land to other private individuals — developers who will build an aquarium, condos, a mall, and a yacht club.
While watching, I took some notes. Hannity, when speaking to the mayor, said at least 10 times, “So, you’re going to kick people out of their homes to increase your tax base?” The mayor would not respond. The mayor FINALLY said, in response to that statement, “We will rescue them.” Why? “For the good of the community.”
Welcome to Amerika, 2005. People have no rights at all. If you do not have the right to own property, you simply cannot have any other rights. Free speech? Sorry, you can be arrested for standing in the wrong place, since you cannot own land, so that right is gone.
Freedom of religion? Sorry, if you are in a church the government doesn’t like, they can take it from you and demolish it, because you have no right to own property.
Right to bear arms? Nope. If you cannot own property, government can, quite literally, take anything away from you that you own.
How about the right to be secure in your own property and “their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures?” Nope. If you cannot own property, then this right simply does not apply. The government can just claim that your house is their house, and they can do whatever they like in their own house.
Boudicca’s view carries great weight because she is someone on the scene:
Now, as a person who lives 15 minutes from Riviera Beach… let me give you my 2 cents.
It is not a blighted community. There are parts that are. It is where our ghetto is located. Our crack houses and whores, drug dealers and general all around low life DO live in Riviera Beach. Parts of it.
BUT, there is much about Riviera Beach that is NOT all that. There are those old fashioned Florida concrete block homes, nestled close to the intercoastal. Nothing big and gaudy. Homes that are kept pristine with grown in landscaping.
And those homes… those homes my friends… are the ones the government in Riveira Beach REALLY wants. Forget the subsidized housing, the run down vacant rat shacks that harbor folks that are so strung out their worst fear is the DTs, not the rodents. Forget that.
Those are the EXCUSE. Those are the EXCUSE the government needs to get their hands on the Golden Chalice. Coastal Land that they can build upon… Claim other people’s land as their own, shuffle them off somewhere with a pat on the head saying, ‘See, we’ll look out for you’, moving them into some inner city apartment that has no family memories, no past Christmas dinners or children’s growth measurements on a door frame.
They use the ghetto as the excuse to develop land they have no right to develop.
This is exactly why I am suspicious of the promotion of business interests over the rights of the individual, which is what I perceive is the agenda of the non-religious component of the Republican Party. While I cannot truck with a lot of what the Democratic Party advocates, I find the wholesale invasion of privacy and undermining of fundamental rights undertaken by the Republican Party for reasons related to promoting business interests, along with imposing a morality through government combine to make a double-barreled threat that is far too often overlooked.
In other words, I am not pro-Democratic, I am anti-Republican, until they demonstrate they are NOT a threat to our liberties.
Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, commentary, politics, eminent domain
…of how the right-wing has fellow-travelers just as idiotic as the left-wing loonies.
Godwin’s Law expressed in an image instead of text (screenshot posted in case the blogger actually finds some shred of rationality and sense and removes this idiocy from the site):
So, now that BOTH sides have illustrated beyond all doubt that they contain idiotic lunatics along with people of good faith, instead of focusing on pointing out the morons on the “other side” why don’t we explain why our beliefs are worthy?
I have changed my mind on occasion when the rationale behind a political position is explained clearly. Just like everyone else, I am not correct 100% of the time, and I am willing to recognize that indisputable fact.
Unfortunately, people prefer to throw rocks instead of doing the hard work of justifying their beliefs to those who don’t “think right”…
Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, right wing blogs, right wing weblogs, right-wing blogs, right-wing weblogs
To the memory of the women and men of the resistance, French and foreign, victims of the German Nazis and of the Vichy Government, tortured by the Gestapo in these buildings.
—
A simple, small plaque on the side of a building in Grenoble, France.
No, I am not invoking Godwin’s Law in the discussion of torture. I am pointing out the historical context of torture, which regimes have used it, which regimes have rejected it.
During the Cold War, anyone who was not a fervently true believing communist had no doubt that the Soviet Union used torture routinely.
The Soviet Union posed a threat not only of the annihilation of dozens to hundreds of cities in the United States, but arguably could have destroyed civilization as we know it.
Yet, we felt no need to publicly “reserve the right to torture” our enemies.
I strongly suspect that despite the capitalist window-dressing that the People’s Republic of China has put on their regime, torture is also a part of their repertoire, and my suspicions are not without some foundation.
Is this the company we want to be aligned with?
During the 1991 Gulf War, Americans were outraged at the broadcast images of downed pilots who had obviously been severely beaten.
Did we say we needed to treat Iraqi prisoners in the same fashion in retaliation?
What is torture? The definition I use is any act perpetrated upon a person in our power that if performed upon one of our troops would create the outrage that is so often displayed when our troops are treated with anything less than respect.
I have read in more than one place that we, the United States, should not state that we will never use torture because it gives our enemies some kind of advantage, knowing that we will treat them well they have no incentive to give information when interrogated. To wit, we need to make them fear us so they will cooperate. Our enemies supposedly have no regard for life, so we should have no regard for them.
The number of different ways this is wrong is staggering, yet reasonable people are presenting this argument that not only should we not say that we will not torture, but that we should torture.
Torture is wrong.
Torture is immoral.
Regardless of the “status” of those in our custody, whether “enemy combatant” or legitimate prisoner of war. The label we apply does not change the fundamental immorality of abusing those in our power. Labels are merely used to dehumanize those we hate to provide some comfort for our consciences. Our enemies dehumanize us, which allows them and their fellow-travelers to perpetrate the inhuman and inhumane acts that comprise their signature.
Do we have to become them to defeat them, when the threat they pose to us and our civilization is far, far less than that from the former Soviet Union?
Every time we torture someone (and yes, “waterboarding” and other acts we have deliberately performed on persons in our control do fit my definition of torture), we lower ourselves another notch towards the level of our enemies.
To put it simply, we are in danger of displaying exactly the immorality and disregard for life that we say are the characteristics of those we label “the terrorists.”
They kill those they think of as their enemies without regard to any other considerations because they have chosen to dehumanize those they oppose. They behead those they regard as their enemies as they would an animal, because they choose not to see them as human.
Now, some are saying we should torture those we regard as our enemies to put fear into them.
I won’t spell out the conclusion for you, but I urge you to move outside your comfort-box of “we are the good-guys” because our nature is shown by our actions, just as we claim that the actions of our enemies shows their nature.
Do the math.
Technorati Tags: amber and cruelty, anti-torture amendment, opinion, terrorism, torture
When I was in graduate school, I spent some time as a teaching assistant. One of the classes I taught was the laboratory session for a basic Physics class that was a requirement for people majoring in Education. I had several interesting experiences while teaching those classes.
I always felt that whoever had put together the series of lab experiments did an outstanding job of overcoming the “first lab session” problem. The lab sessions started the same week as the lectures, occasionally as soon as the same day as the first class session. The goal was to use the lab to reinforce the concepts that had been covered earlier in the lecture, so the first lab was always a difficult problem.
In the first lab the only equipment we used were meter-sticks (yes, we used metric) and rubber balls. The students would drop the ball from different heights and measure how far they bounced back up. They were then to plot the results, with the drop height on the x-axis of a graph and the bounce height on the y-axis. To get technical, the drop height was the independent variable, and the bounce height was the dependent variable. To complete the lab the students had to predict how high the ball would bounce from a given height, and they were to call me to observe their verification of their hypothesis.
In other words, they made a series of observations, analyzed the data, and made a prediction about the future based upon the data and the trend they saw in the data. The fundamental lesson was the scientific method along with a powerful example of the predictive power arising from the scientific method.
Technology arises out of this predictive power of science. My job is in the semiconductor industry, performing research on new structures and materials to make transistors, the switches that are the heart of computers, smaller and faster. We rely on science to predict how materials and structures will behave, and the behavior must be reproducible, otherwise, nothing would work.
Science says nothing of things that cannot be measured because in those cases predictions are impossible.
Put simply and straightforward, science does not refute God in any of the many forms humanity has chosen to conceive the inconceivable.
This is why the attitude of fundamentalist Christians towards the theory of evolution baffles me.
Science merely seeks to explain how things occur.
Science does not try to explain why.
Science does not refute God.
Yet, many who claim to follow God try to destroy science, despite the myriad benefits of technology arising from science that they enjoy every day.
Perhaps one day I will understand, but today I do not.
Neither science nor those who practice it are perfect. No theory explains everything, and the universe is too complex to predict every event to perfect precision.
This is not a failure of science, this shows the limitations inherent in how things work.
A model complex enough to exactly simulate the universe and make predictions with perfect accuracy would be as large as the universe itself.
Those advocating “intelligent design” insist upon this perfection, otherwise, science in their eyes is inadequate according to the “refutations” they try to present, even though they do not impose this same requirement upon themselves.
Science and faith can coexist. True science does not repudiate faith, and true faith does not repudiate science.
Far too many try to replace science with faith when they do not overlap.
Are their beliefs so frail that they must destroy anything they perceive is not in perfect alignment?
Technorati Tags: evolution, intelligent design, science, science & technology, science and technology
My post “Devaluing our honor by cheapening torture” which I cross-posted at The Moderate Voice has been accused of being “destructive rhetoric” by the first two commenters there.
Sadly, it appears that the tendency of viewing the world exclusively through the lens of one’s own preferences is dominant in human behavior regardless of political leaning or personal circumstance.
Is torture an “American value”?
I say it is not.
Explain to me how it might be legitimate and in accordance with our traditional values, and I will discuss it with you.
Accuse me of engaging in “extreme rhetoric” on one of the very few topics I hold dear with extreme passion, and I will dismiss your comments as coming from someone who is not willing to remove their distorting lenses to see the world in a different way.
Take off your lenses that allow you to only see things that fit in your comfort-box. The world is cold and cruel, much less comfortable, and if all you can see are things that you agree with or oppose, no grey zones and nothing that makes you think and reconsider your beliefs, you have given up what makes us different from the animals, the power of thought.
If the best you can do is accuse me of engaging in rhetoric when I demand that we stand for principles of honor and morality that are a key part of our history as a nation, I must question what your standards of those principles are.
We as a nation can do better, because we have done better.
We felt no need to use torture when fighting Nazis or the Japanese in World War II.
We fought the entire Cold War without legally endorsing torture, despite the fact that the Soviet Union armed with thousands of nuclear bombs and ICBMs to deliver them were an undeniable existential threat to the United States and the world as a whole.
The enemies we fight now have nowhere close to that level of destructive power of the Soviets or even the fascists we fought 60 years ago.
Many have said that we are now engaged in a conflict against the same evil as in World War II and the Cold War, just in a different form.
Why do we now need to use the tactics of the enemy when we did not before although we more directly threatened with wide-scale destruction that threatened our very existence.
Perhaps the evil has not changed, but it appears more than possible we have strayed from our path that we claimed is honorable and moral.
Think about it.
Technorati Tags: anti-torture amendment, blogs, commentary, conservatives, opinion, right wing, right wing politics, right-wing, right-wing politics, torture, War on Terror, weblogs