Facts, as it turns out, are more stubborn than people. Or their power. Or anything else, for that matter.
But love matters more.
What's the use, really, of stubborn facts, after all, without love enough to do any real good with them?
Not a damn thing. Says the student to his teacher. The man to his wife. The mother to her child. The child in her own heart.
Not a goddamned thing.
The reason I don't trust people in power in any government in any time to get questions of liberty right.
Justice Breyer: First Amendment Probably Doesn't Protect Burning The Koran
Because they get it wrong more often than they get it right.
And then they pass on. And future generations always liberalize. Always. Without exception.
And that is the long established road of progress. No matter Stephen Breyer's or anyone's opinions to the contrary.
Or anyone in power. Or anyone else, for that matter.
No matter how infallible we might otherwise wish we might be.
It never ceases to amaze me how younger generations, for all their often serious and copious faults, so frequently outclass their elders.
Bush Forfeits Heisman
"'It is for these reasons that I have made the difficult decision to forfeit my title as Heisman winner of 2005,' the statement read. 'The persistent media speculation regarding allegations dating back to my years at USC has been both painful and distracting. In no way should the storm around these allegations reflect in any way on the dignity of this award, nor on any other institutions or individuals. Nor should it distract from outstanding performances and hard-earned achievements either in the past, present or future.
'For the rest of my days, I will continue to strive to demonstrate through my actions and words that I was deserving of the confidence placed in me by the Heisman Trophy Trust. I would like to begin in this effort by turning a negative situation into a positive one by working with the Trustees to establish an educational program which will assist student-athletes and their families avoid some of the mistakes that I made. I am determined to view this event as an opportunity to help others and to advance the values and mission of the Heisman Trophy Trust.'"
This is the serious gap between younger and older generations, I'm convinced, right now. A much greater appreciation that mistakes don't make the man. And a focus on moving forward over the ugly, foolish, nasty recrimination that has been so dominant in the media, as of late. And responsible for so much of what is wrong in world, at this point.
For all of their bluster about being grownups, it's a sign of their immaturity, ironically.
And Reggie Bush, here, outclasses them all. Past and all.
A lot of Bush's critics have much to learn from this talented young man, right now. I have serious doubts that they will learn their lessons. But they won't be around, forever, either. And a younger generation, as always, will bring a more forgiving attitude and more real life to this life we live.
And no matter what the news media has to say, Reggie. Fuck 'em. They have their jobs. You have yours. Just keep outclassing them. And let them get things figured out. Or not.
World needs more progress like this young man has to offer. Quite enough of the alternative. Source of the most of the world's fucking up, is the truth.
Nice to know that some people, at least, actually learn their lesson.
The bottom line for humanity.
"It was you, it was me, we've all got the blood on our hands. We only receive what we demand. And if we want hell, then hell's what we'll have."
All Americans say things with which I disagree. Faisal Abdul Rauf is but one of many of them. Though, generally, I must say, I have much more to praise about this man than disapprove. And, in this matter, he is right. Is the bottom line. There is much for America to learn from this very decent imam.
Ground Zero Mosque Imam: "Had I Known This Would Happen We Would Never Have Done This"
This man is right that the central problem in contemporary politics is not of one group against another. It is not right versus left. Or Christian versus Muslim. Or the West versus the rest.
It is all of us finding the courage. To live our values. To be our best selves. And to stare down the radical impulses among us.
And he is right about the stakes.
Radicals of all stripes - terrorists just being one brutal variation - will only be effectively neutralized when moderates find the strength to tell them to fuck off. And that bullying will not be the way of liberal democratic politics. Which is appropriate since bullying is the opposite of liberal democratic politics. For those who actually care about liberty. Or democracy. Or any of those things we pretend to care about. When we're not pretending to be everything we pretend in our lives.
And for those who genuinely care about people. For real. Of which radicals do not count themselves. And neither should they be counted seriously. In matters of right and wrong, that is. Or anything serious, for that matter.
And all radicals - radicals of the right, and those waging this campaign to move this mosque, in particular and all hateful bullies for purposes of religion or national pride; radicals of the left, and those waging the campaign to stop engaging terrorists and violent fanatics with military force, especially, and all hateful bullies for the purposes of envy and equality or any variation of secular causes; radicals of Islam, terrorists, namely, and all of their cowardly supporters; radicals of Christianity; radicals of Zionism; and radicals of every variation - will only stop dominating contemporary liberal democratic politics and it's infinite illiberal bastardizations when honest people - moderates, we call them - step forward and stop letting these assholes dominate.
And the only way to stop letting radical assholes dominate is to take liberal values seriously. Liberal meaning liberty. Freedom. For the not-such-irredeemable-assholes among us.
And to stop letting radicals bully and manipulate those same not-quite-irredeemable assholes into being much bigger assholes than those still small quiet voices, our more honest consciences, might otherwise suggest.
The assholes, in other words, need to be stared down. Real courage must lead. And cowards follow. And not the other way around.
I am tired of watching bullies and cowards dominate. And the only way for that to change is for rest of us cowards to find the courage to challenge them. And to be bigger than our cowardice might otherwise suggest.
Translation: Step up, America. And everyone else, for that matter. Now is your chance.
If you give a shit about anything that really matters, that is.
Jack says it as well. Perhaps he might help you find the courage. Someone needs to. That's for sure. Perhaps it may just be you.
How eminently American to have good and decent Muslims show up their fellow non-Muslim Americans in their faith in our core American values.
Translation: Step up, America. You're gettin' schooled.
Building on Faith
With all due respect to the New York Times and Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man heading up the Cordoba House, I am reposting a substantial portion of this enormously thoughtful piece:
"Cordoba House will be built on the two fundamental commandments common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam: to love the Lord our creator with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength; and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We want to foster a culture of worship authentic to each religious tradition, and also a culture of forging personal bonds across religious traditions.
I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion. (Construction has not even begun yet.) I know there will be interest in our financing, and so we will clearly identify all of our financial backers.
Lost amid the commotion is the good that has come out of the recent discussion. I want to draw attention, specifically, to the open, law-based and tolerant actions that have taken place, and that are particularly striking for Muslims.
President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both spoke out in support of our project. As I traveled overseas, I saw firsthand how their words and actions made a tremendous impact on the Muslim street and on Muslim leaders. It was striking: a Christian president and a Jewish mayor of New York supporting the rights of Muslims. Their statements sent a powerful message about what America stands for, and will be remembered as a milestone in improving American-Muslim relations.
The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith. These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide. This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides. The paradigm of a clash between the West and the Muslim world will continue, as it has in recent decades at terrible cost. It is a paradigm we must shift.
From those who recognize our rights, from grassroots organizers to heads of state, I sense a global desire to build on this positive momentum and to be part of a global movement to heal relations and bring peace. This is an opportunity we must grasp.
I therefore call upon all Americans to rise to this challenge. Let us commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 by pausing to reflect and meditate and tone down the vitriol and rhetoric that serves only to strengthen the radicals and weaken our friends’ belief in our values.
The very word 'islam' comes from a word cognate to shalom, which means peace in Hebrew. The Koran declares in its 36th chapter, regarded by the Prophet Muhammad as the heart of the Koran, in a verse deemed the heart of this chapter, 'Peace is a word spoken from a merciful Lord.'
How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?"
If there is one document to read in this entire debate, this is the one. For the sake of the New York Times advertising department and a thoughtful understanding of what a powerful stand for American values looks like, I highly recommend reading the remarkably engaging original column.
How ironic that America would become so inflamed about something so resolutely American.
But that is the long history of humanity, isn't it? To aggressively take after that which is our best selves. To bear weakness against our strength.
Perhaps knowing that history might offer a path to genuine progress, after all.
And then George goes and buys me flowers.
The environmental movement in retreat
"In the middle of the 20th century, Americans, impressed by the government's mobilization of society for victory in World War II, were, Mead says, 'intoxicated with social and environmental engineering of all kinds." They had, for example, serene confidence that 'urban renewal' would produce 'model cities.' Back then, environmentalism was skepticism.
It was akin to the dissent of Jane Jacobs, author of the 1961 book 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities.' She argued that ambitious social engineers such as New York's Robert Moses were, by their ten-thumbed interventions in complex organisms such as cities, disrupting social ecosystems. The apotheosis of technocratic experts such as McGeorge Bundy and Robert McNamara gave us 'nation-building' in conjunction with a war of attrition -- the crucial metric supposedly was body counts -- in a Southeast Asian peasant society. Over time, Mead says, 'experts lost their mystique':
'An increasingly skeptical public started to notice that 'experts' weren't angels descending immaculately from heaven bearing infallible revelations from God. They were fallible human beings with mortgages to pay and funds to raise. They disagreed with one another and they colluded with their friends and supporters like everyone else.'
And expertise was annoyingly changeable. Experts said margarine was the healthy alternative to butter -- until they said its trans fats made it harmful.
Environmentalism began as Bambi doing battle with Godzillas, such as the Army Corps of Engineers. Then, says Mead, environmentalism became Godzilla, an advocate of 'a big and simple fix for all that ails us: a global carbon cap. One big problem, one big fix.' Mead continues:
'Never mind that the leading green political strategy (to stop global warming by a treaty that gains unanimous consent among 190-plus countries and is then ratified by 67 votes in a Senate that rejected Kyoto 95 to 0) is and always has been so cluelessly unrealistic as to be clinically insane. The experts decree and we rubes are not to think but to honor and obey.'
The essence of progressivism, of which environmentalism has become an appendage, is the faith that all will be well once we have concentrated enough power in Washington and have concentrated enough Washington power in the executive branch and have concentrated enough 'experts' in that branch. Hence the Environmental Protection Agency proposes to do what the elected representatives of the rubes refuse to do in limiting greenhouse gases. Mead says of today's environmental movement:
'It proposes big economic and social interventions and denies that unintended consequences and new information could vitiate the power of its recommendations. It knows what is good for us, and its knowledge is backed up by the awesome power and majesty of the peer review process. The political, cultural, business and scientific establishments stand firmly behind global warming today -- just as they once stood firmly behind Robert Moses, urban renewal and big dams. They tell us it's a sin to question the consensus, the sign of bad moral character to doubt. Bambi, look in the mirror. You will see Godzilla looking back.'
Mead, who says that he is a skeptic about climate policy rather than climate science, says that the environmental movement has 'become the voice of the establishment, of the tenured, of the technocrats.' This is the wrong thing to be in 'Recovery Summer' while the nation wonders about the whereabouts of the robust recovery the experts forecast."
Perhaps it is time to humble our notions of power. And how it can solve all. Perhaps we are not wholly imcomparable with those who have known how to overpower problems of yore. Perhaps the temptation of pride and power is unremitting. Perhaps honest humility is patient effort.
But perhaps we can learn to tell the difference.
Jeff Jacoby, like George Will, confuses piety, disillusionment, and skepticism with wisdom in his otherwise thoughtfully composed column in today's Boston Globe.
Victims on the road to 'peace'
"But far from opposing a 'peace process’ meant to push Israel into ever-deeper concessions, retreats, and self-endangerment, terrorists — whether affiliated with Hamas or with Fatah — seek to accelerate it. The two Palestinian factions may be at war with each other, but they have always been as one in rejecting Israel’s existence as the sovereign state of the Jewish people. So long as they refuse to budge from that position, Israeli-Palestinian peace is impossible."
It's a tempting and clever interpretation of events. Too clever by half.
There is no hope for peace. If I don't acknowledge what's at stake. What people involved are really pained about. If I can reframe them as whatever I please. To ignore honest concerns.
The Palestinians, you see, by this interpretation, are not peoples angry and embittered about being expelled forcibly by Israelis from their homes and lives when Israel was founded. They are not a people tired and fed up with Israeli occupation and the restrictions and real fears for safety it persistently imposes on their lives. They are not peoples genuinely grieving the loss of lives that have taken place over the course of this long, bloody, foolish history.
The Palestinians, you see, are heartless murderers. All of them. They are systemactically unwilling of humanity, you see. Which justifies all of the rest, you see. And justifies why only military strength can put the thumb firmly on the trigger fingers of those who would otherwise murder innocent Israelis.
It's a tempting interpretation. A clever one. And a thoroughly self-righteous one. That maintains the bloodletting.
One very much similar to the tempting, clever, self-righteous interpretation of Palestinians that Israelis have murdered their way into a Jewish state meant to oppress, occupy, and let the blood of innocent Palestinians who want nothing other than to live their lives in peace.
They are both patently untrue, of course. And involved, sophisticated, and deceptive means of avoiding the responsibility that each party has in the bloodshed and bitterness of the last 100 years in this region.
And people like Jeff Jacoby and George Will make life difficult for those who would unravel that ugly and self-deceptive legacy.
And so they do.
And so would-be statesmen like Benjamin Netanyahu and would-be leaders like Mahmoud Abbas (who has a long journey, to be sure, before he is a responsible leader for the Palestinian peace and a more trustworthy partner for peace) move forward and let the Jeff Jacoby's and George Will's of the world wring their hands and predict failure. Because they were never really committed to a peaceful resolution of this unrelenting human tragedy, in the first place.
And so they weren't. And so they are ignored until they can offer a vision of something other than unflagging war.
Plenty of figures in this tragedy who will die never accepting peace. And so they will. Some of them, those who murder, against their will. And so it goes.
In the meantime, the rest of us have work to do.
There's too many lives at stake to stand around pretending that they can't be saved for good. Because Jeff and George say so.
How refreshing to begin with a more reasonable timeline. And two partners that look to be genuinely committed to peace.
Israelis, Palestinians Agree to Second Round of Talks
"In an early sign of promise, Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged Thursday in a cordial first round of talks to keep meeting at regular intervals, aiming to nail down a framework for overcoming deep disputes and achieving lasting peace within a year."
The genuine commitment is what will either make or break this and every round.
The bottom line in this process has always been:
Either Palestinians and Israelis want peace and are more committed to ending senseless deaths than leveraging for concessions or not.
Sadly, for all the lives lost, this is the only thing that ever mattered anyway. And the only thing most future Palestinians and Israelis will ever really remember.
How tragic all those who have died in the name of that pride. How sad that so many in the West and the Middle East have contributed to those deaths by supporting the leveraging.
How hopeful that we may, perhaps, finally let wither the bitter fruits of that sanctimony.
"I didn't come here to make an argument. I came here today to make peace. I didn't come here today to play a blame game where even the winners lose. Everybody loses if there's no peace. I came here to achieve a peace that will bring a lasting benefit to us all. I didn't come here to find excuses or to make them. I came here to find solutions."
Netanyahu: "Our Goal Is To Forge A Secure And Durable Peace Between Israelis And Palestinians"
That's what it looks like to be responsible. A peace agreement will happen when all parties make this commitment. It will not happen with any of us, including those making their observations public, dropping that ball.
Make peace. Stop making excuses. And if you can't, be prepared to not be taken seriously until we get there.
That's what leadership looks like in this region.
Ignore the whining. Commit to peace. Fulfill the agreements to establish security for both Palestinians and Israelis. Build a commitment to peace within populations over time.
And ignore the naysayers. Including the ones killing civilians. And capture or kill those folks, in the meantime.
Everything else is political theater.
Thanks for your opinion to the contrary.
Now we have a peace to establish.
Watching the reactions in the American press - one of the pettier, more self-centered, self-glorifying groups of people I've ever followed in my life - to President Obama's speech on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am so goddamn glad I never went into politics as a profession.
Watching these assholes at work - Rachel Maddow, on the left, Charles Krauthammer, on the right, and all the rest of the assholes I had the misfortune to watch advance their petty, little self-centered agendas - I've definitely come to the conclusion that these dicks do not deserve as much attention or seriousness as they inexplicably get.
I am without doubt, anymore, that these are the last people on earth - outside of terrorists and despots, perhaps - with whom I would ever want to spend any substantial period of time.
The President is not without his flaws. The military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been without error. Nothing is. That's the reality of life we likely most need to come to terms with, today.
But the last people any of us should be listening to for any serious reflection on anything in America, I think, are the assholes who are constantly sharing their opinions on television for a living. They are a small-minded, self-serving class of people, generally, all too proud of their sad, small-minded little opinions. And it's all I can do to hold my stomach listen to them take themselves so seriously when they've done so little of any real import to warrant such seriousness.
You know who else has figured that out?
This guy.
I think he says it better.
You know why those assholes hate nice guys like Jack?
Because he's got their number.
Whether assholes figure it out or not.
You know who's figured out the world like this?
Noone in the national media, that's for sure. Or national politics. Or national anything, really. Certainly not you and me.
Jack is smokin' everyone. And it doesn't even matter if they get it or not.
Unless they want to turn it around, that is.
It is a sad day for Americans when Hosni Mubarak shows up the American press in his commitment to peace.
A Peace Plan Within Our Grasp
Another reminder for why journalists are not statesman. And should not be treated as such.
How America Idol should be. If we were as American as the Swedish, that is. Or at least Amanda Jensen.
This is an American Idol I might tune into.
Talented and touching.
Perhaps there is hope for pop culture, after all.
The Death of Conservatism Was Greatly Exaggerated
A very nice summation of the hubris and folly of the left, as of late. And the vibrant contribution that conservative thought, as much as liberal thought, has to offer our democratic discussion and debate.
Democrats will be paying the price for that hubris soon enough. Just as Republicans did here recently. And so it will go until they learn their lesson. Or don't. And so it will go.
I appreciate fully, now, why I respect the marketplace of ideas more than any one participant. Because the marketplace sorts these things out, eventually. Even sluggishly and less than ideally. Until we get to better ideas.
And it's the surest way to humble the arrogant.
Instant karma's gonna get you. All of us, eventually.
Successful people, like successful ideas, are the products of lessons learned.
And then there's everything else.
In which camp do you belong?
All too much love in the world, so they say.
Far too much love. And not enough pay.
Far too much love and not enough fight.
Far too much bark and not enough bite.
Far too much Jack Johnson and Jesus, I hear.
All too much heart from the all too sincere.
That is the problem with the world, so say they.
Far too much love in the world, these days.
No law even comes close to doing more honest good for people than the message in this song.
The mind behind that message:
Bob Marley.
Remember that the next time you're blaming the marijuana for the problems of the world.
Every man thinks his burden is the heaviest. Every man. Thinks his burden is the heaviest.
You runnin' and you runnin' and you runnin' away.
But you can't run away from yourself.
Make the world a better place. That's what he'd do.
No amount of power will ever have that power.
This dude changes the world even when he's singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
If Washington could only truly only try to change. If only all of us could.
What's wrong with Washington and the world, right now.
Not enough of this. When we're not bullshitting, that is.
Choose differently, if you please. Enjoy the consequences.
Myself, I'll stick with Jack and Ben.
And everyone I love.
After a night with Middle Eastern history and too much beer and too much food, I came to a certain enough conclusion, this morning.
All of the bullshit we tell ourselves. About how we're too good. Too nice. Too decent. Too loving. You know. That bullshit.
What a load of shit. Myself included.
The truth is our egos are gratified more than enough, is the truth. Too much, probably. All of us. We have instant gratification coming out of our asses. No matter where we are on the economic ladder. In America and the West and everywhere where we are fortunate to take a free and strong economy for granted.
The truth is we have enough ego gratification to last us to eternity. And it's not even good for us, is the truth.
The truth is that we don't do nearly enough good in the world, is the fact of the matter.
Least I don't.
So I'm done with pitying myself for not having more ego gratification. More for me. More to make me feel better or more important or more enviable or more whatever.
My life, at this point, is about doing good. As much as possible. As often as possible. And with little attention to what I get out of it, anymore, except insofar as it can make plenty available for me and my family and then go do some more good in the world.
I'm tired of the bullshit, is the truth.
And the answer to the bullshit is not more bullshit. It's to do more real good in the world. And let everyone else get their bullshit figured out. Or not. The end.
Speaking of which. I've got plenty on that particular to do list to last several lifetimes.
About time to get to it.
I've been thinking a lot, today, as I can't help but feel not much but a persistent disappointment with the petty and self-centered squabbling in Washington, these days, about how toxic that city has gotten.
I do wonder if anyone in that town really believes in genuine common cause or common sacrifice or common values or common anything, these days.
If all of it is just one long game of chicken and leveraging and bargaining position?
If any of them actually believe in anything beyond their own egos, these days, given all the sanctimony and hubris strutting itself around like proud principle?
And, if not, do they care that noone outside of Washington feels very much in common with them, either?
Perhaps not. And perhaps they don't really care what consequences all that bullshit and mistrust and rationalization creates for the country.
Perhaps none of us do.
What I do know is that there is noone in Washington that I could follow in good conscience, these days. And all the coercion in lieu of leadership just makes it all the more obvious how bankrupt the thinking and caring about anything other than the enormous egos in that town have become.
And it's not just there. It's everywhere.
What a sad spectacle we have all become.
All in the name of principle. So called. And bargaining position.
It's really kinda lame, when you take a step back from it.
Maybe some beer and chicken wings will cure my Beltway blues.
One thing's for sure.
There no one in that town I look to for leadership on anything that matters in my life anymore.
From here on out, I am the man that I look to for leadership in my life.
"Of all the offspring of time, Error is the most ancient, and is so old and familiar an acquaintance, that Truth, when discovered, comes upon most of us like an intruder, and meets the intruder’s welcome."
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one."
- Charles McCay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
I have no doubts, anymore, that love will save the world. Because the alternatives just cannot be responsible for the mess we have made of it.
Really beginning to appreciate, these days, how much all people, and all kids, live with the insecurity sitting on their hearts of whether they're good enough, smart enough, whatever enough. In school. In church. In life.
The kids and I spent the first week of school just getting to know one another and talking really honestly about this insecurity. About how we all have it. And about how we're valued for just who we are. And about how out of that kind of love for ourselves, we learn to be 100% responsible for ourselves and our lives.
It's a message that clearly resonated. The kids were much better behaved this week than any first week I've ever taught. At any school. Nevertheless at Cap City.
Only one academic task this week. Analyzing a historical document. Being real life historians. It was a blast.
I never cease to be amazed at how the toughest characters always respond better to kindness. That doesn't guarantee a better life. Only better choices can do that. But it's the foundation on which everything else rests.
If you doubt that, you probably have a mom to go thank. Or a dad. Or a grandma or a grandpa. Or someone who loved you. No matter how shitty you turned out:).
Love is more powerful than fear. It just is. Though it appreciates your opinion to the contrary.
The problem with the world, you see, is that we are all just too loving. Too selfless. Too decent. Too good.
I've also got a solid gold bridge in San Fransisco for sale for ya, if anyone's interested.
Bling, bling, motherfuckers.
Back to your regularly scheduled bullshit.
Only a fool, when you take a step back from it all, could think that what's wrong with the world - nations and cultures, religions and ideologies, husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends - is too much love.
Only a damned fool.
And an unoriginal one, at that. Same thought likely passed through the minds of the crowd who crucified Jesus. Even as they hammered those nails through his limbs.
Thank goodness there's plenty of love for all us damned fools.
The plain jane, no-bullshit reason why people have never really trusted politics.
Avi Beker makes an excellent argument about the situation between Lebanon and Israel that illustrates it well and really extends far beyond the Middle East.
Lawfare in the Middle East
"FOR SEVERAL Islamist fighting groups and terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza, the humanitarian principles of the Law of Armed Conflict had become the major source of inspiration and guidance. These methods of legal maneuvers in the battlefield are viewed by Islamists as a critical component in their strategic and tactical planning.
They are well aware that Israel and other Western countries are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it, and they exploit it in a very cynical and brutal fashion.
It is wrong to argue, as many legal experts claim, that existing international law is ill-equipped in dealing with the so-called 'non-state' entities. It is true that traditional Law of Combat was built on the assumption of a conflict between two states which are striving for international legitimacy and would, therefore, abide by some measures of legal restraint. However, existing instruments of international law contain ample references which can cover acts of self defense and measures taken in the war against terrorism. The problem lies only with the politicization and selective interpretation of covenants which follow some more fashionable post-modern trends and are often inclined to glorify acts of terrorism.
It becomes worse when a United Nations voting bloc comprised largely of undemocratic member states continues to dictate international human rights norms and can hijack, against the rules of the Charter, the debates and agenda relating to international peace and security.
A fair reading of Hizbullah’s threats against the civilian population in Israel coupled with its brutal abuse of humanitarian rules can be easily recorded as systematic war crimes in their making. In addition the group continues to violate resolution 1701 of the Security Council which forbids the arming of groups outside the Lebanese Army. Thousands of missiles, rockets and huge ammunition are being smuggled to South Lebanon with the full cooperation of Iran and Syria and the blind eye of the government of Lebanon.
The fallacy and the serious omission by diplomats and legal experts lies in their disregard of the explicit responsibility of each party in armed conflict, including the defender, to protect its civilian population and remove it from military targets. The duty of “distinction” goes both ways and article 51.7 of the Geneva First Protocol emphasizes that while civilians are protected by the principle of distinction, no party can use its civilians as shield for its military objectives. It reads: 'The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations.'
Hizbullah, which is today a full-fledged member in the Lebanese government, can no longer hide behind another distorted interpretation of humanitarian law and claim 'non state' status. It should be emphasized: there are no restrictions in article 51 of the United Nations Charter regarding the exercise of the inherent right of self defense against non-state entities.
Last week’s provocation by the Lebanese Army makes it even more responsible to the Hizbullah violations of humanitarian law and will nullify future claims that Israel violates the principle of proportionality in attacking targets inside Lebanon. When the enemy makes it a clear strategy of using civilian shields in its war effort it is permissible to use a large degree of force against multiplied targets, including infrastructure, as long as the force is intended to remove the continuing risk posed by its rockets.
Lawfare has become a major arena for the delegitimization campaign against Israel. In the past Israel had to incorporate a doctrine of pre-emptive or preventive strikes to compensate for its very narrow margins of defense against variety of threats. While Israel should always maintain its high standards of moral and humanitarian behavior in combat it must tell the world that no army can endanger its soldiers in order to avoid hitting targets which are using civilians as shields. Israel must develop a “lawfare” preemptive strategy which will alert the world on the misuse and the moral collapse of international humanitarian law."
The truth is that this strategy of using the law for whatever purposes one desires is not limited to Hizbollah and terrorists. They certainly use it to more brutal ends, as they do with almost every weapon in their arsenal as they rationalize their power claims.
But the truth is that the law has now and always been a political football for people to rationalize whatever sort of power they desire. Good or ill. That's the reason why liberal thinkers have taught us to be so skeptical of power and claims on it. Because it, and the law as a function of that on-going battle for power, is rationalized for almost any purpose.
That is the foolishness of romanticizing law. Like somehow it has always stood for justice. For what was good and right.
Tell African slaves that. Or Jews during the Holocaust. Or Jesus or Socrates. Or the vast majority of people in our history who were oppressed by religious rule or under empire. Many of whom still are today. All under the cover of the rule of law.
It's laughable, really, to have an honest reading of history be one that validates the law as an anything but a tool used for bad as much as for good. Many of the most serious evils in human history have had the cover of the rule of law.
The Holocaust and Nazi rule. Soviet Communism. Chinese Communism. Religious oppression. Empire and the general principle that might makes right. Slavery. The oppression of women and any dominated group. In fact, our notion of minority groups in Western culture is explicitly a function of the dominant power position of majority groups.
We know this. Deep down. But like slave-owners and Nazis and Communists and popes, we also like our power. The benefits it offers. The status is confers. And the ability, at base, to get our way.
That has always been the appeal of power. The ability to get your way. Even when you're wrong. Might makes right has a long and persistent history. It is one of destruction, tragedy, and gross injustice. It is also the most looming history for almost every organized human society. The rule of law is intended to distinguish from the rule of the jungle. But, in reality, it is and always has been used to cover for the rule of the jungle. Even as it has always claimed to be its alternative. Often it is. And just as often it is used for the very same coveting of power that makes us so rightly skeptical of jungle monarchy.
So the notion that this tragic, ugly legacy that humanity has spent almost all of its civilized existence trying to leave behind would somehow consitute progress is really the most foolish and absurd rationalization of all.
And like every other variation on that theme that has ever polluted the heart of humanity, this one will fall apart just like the rest.
Because everyone wants to exercise power over everyone else, at some point, likely. We are a predatory and aggressive species by nature, after all. Noone would have a problem with the rule of the jungle if they could be its king. That is the fantasy that has always animated power. It's just an instinct that persistently betrays us. Because while most people want to exercise power over others, almost noone wants to have power exercised over them. Not really.
And humans are social animals. Enormously intelligent and creative social animals, at that. Who, unlike hyenas and jackles, and lions and tigers and bears (oh my) find any number of ways to escape and challenge the dominance of competing groups and members.
And their history is one long challenge to the dominance of any one group or individual, each one assuming, foolishly, that they can do just that. Only to be leveled by competitors. Every time. Without exception.
If there are rules that humans actually abide by (and there really are not, for the bulk of human experience, except when they so choose), the one rule that is without exception is that every effort to dominate their fellows is challenged. And, in the long run, successfully. Every single time.
And the rule of law is typically a weapon in this battle. But never a final resolution of that battle. Ever. And that will never change. No matter how much we assert it otherwise.
And every effort that has constituted more genuine progress in human history has been a recognition and attempt to account for this fact of human existence.
In fact, the more we assert it otherwise, the more obvious it becomes how little is actually resolved. And how the effort to use the rule of law, and the force inherent in its use, to resolve differences between people, except when real danger is involved and people must be contained to contain that danger, resolves almost nothing. And is the source of much of the conflict, truth be told.
Which is why the long road of progress in human history is now and always has been a road toward greater and greater respect for conscience and the freedom to exercise it by each individual. Because it is the only path that better resolves such conflicts. And makes clearer the tragic consequences of a history obsessed with power, and the pride that animates it, to coerce the conscience of our friends and neighbors.
Lawfare has another name.
It's called politics.
And it is exactly why so many people distrust this enterprise. And should.
Because it is clear to any objective observer not defending any of the participants just how dishonest and ugly and unworthy of trust that enterprise typically is.
Even as power remains necessary for limited and important purposes. But which important purposes are undermined by the mistrust bred by those who would use power to dominate their neighbors.
Rather than appeal to their consciences.
And the cynicism that often circulates about humanity - that no man can be trusted - is often both a function of and a rationalization of power. Divide and conquer, writ large.
The bottom line for humanity is this.
If we choose not to end that legacy, not to end the endless rationalizations of power, the war of humanity on itself, for no productive purpose whatsoever except to acquire and maintain that power, for good and so very often for ill, it is not because we could not do otherwise. It is not because otherwise is not possible. Or naive. Or destined for chaos. Or any of the excuses given for the coveting of power.
It is because we choose not to do otherwise.
And no amount of deception or self-deception will make that not be so. No matter how much we talk our way around that fact.
And the only way genuinely forward is to face and acknowledge that fact. And the ways that our rationalizations - in the liberal and illiberal world - for power feed one another. And the tragedy they are responsible for. Even as we lack the courage to face that tragedy. And our responsibility in it.
Sadly, at some point, we will only be able to look back on the vast majority of this long history of power and its obsession as pointless and tragic folly. A tragedy of the most dominant and predatory of species on Earth determined to dominate and kill and oppress one another. All in the name of their fear of being dominated and killed and oppressed by the other.
And that legacy will and already has begun to slip away from us long before most of us take to time to reflect on its consequences. Some people may rarely if ever reflect on its consequences. But they will be free to not reflect as much as they will be free to reflect.
And that kind of freedom is the essence of any sort of real progress. Take that to the bank.
Or you could ignore all that bullshit and just get the prettier arrangement from Jack.
I like Jack better, personally.
When you get a second, you might take a moment, give this song a listen.
I'll be singing this to my wife at my wedding, I think. My cousin Luke and I are practicing it, right now.
Sums up a happy life about as well as I've ever heard.
Everything else is gravy.
Only thing that'd make me happier is being the guy who wrote those lyrics. But I'll take being the guy who gets to listen to 'em, just the same.
That's what I want for my kids.
Music they can look up to.
Maybe they might settle for a father of that variety instead. Plenty of road on that journey.
What a great guy to have along for the ride.
Yeah. Problem in Washington, and everywhere, really, is too much thinkin', not enough action.
Too much freedom. Not enough fear. Too much understanding. Not enough whoopass. Too much love. Not enough, "Fuck you, neighbor."
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Lost in Race | ||||
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Michael Moynihan makes plain Beltway celebrity culture and the journalists, activists, and politicians who promote its obsession.
Pretending, all the while, to be above all that. And thus worthy of running the world for the rest of us.
So selfless, makes me wanna cry.
Hollywood Babylon - For Ugly People
"President John F. Kennedy called Washington, D.C., a city 'of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.' This city—the one I reluctantly call home—is indeed inefficient and charmless: The reason for the former should be obvious, though the latter can be blamed on those oleaginous hordes of pompous and self-important politicians, bloggers, and journalists that make D.C. 'Hollywood for ugly people.' (Yes, I am one of these types, but, in my defense, I have a perfectly reasonable understanding of my low-level of influence and importance, and I don't harbor an earnest desire to change the world or score victories for 'my side.' I’ll let the reader decide how physically repulsive I am.)
If you haven’t noticed the recent 'news,' you blissfully missed another week of Beltway navel-gazing, of self-referential media stories, holier-than-thou sermonizing about journalistic ethics, and the usual bipartisan accusations of race-baiting. We have all heard the deeply serious denounce our loathsome celebrity-obsessed media culture, with all of its reporting on Britney, Mel, and Lindsey. Scoff, eye-roll, harrumph—queue the dissident MSNBC anchoring tearing up a Paris Hilton news story on camera, the Solzhenitsyn of the cable news age.
Serious people don’t report on the unserious gossip from Hollywood, though how about the unserious gossip from Ugly Hollywood? Cut to the furrowed brow, finger-wagging panel of experts discussing the firing of Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel, the leaked emails from obnoxious and unfunny liberal journalists, and the outraged discussion on just how a hyperpartisan troglodyte like Andrew Breitbart had snuck into our club. Sure, we bowdlerize quotes and accuse non-racist people of secretly harboring Orval Faubus tendencies, but we do it with élan and a journalism school degree.
So nonsense replaces nonsense, Britney to Breitbart, but it’s the only thing this charming and efficient city is talking about.
First, there was the Journolist leaks, in which members of a listserv inhabited by liberal journalists and academics expressed their desire to see Rush Limbaugh die of a heart attack; to toss their enemies through plate glass windows; to call random conservatives racists; and to rid the country of those 'fucking NASCAR retards.' In other words, a confirmation of preexisting conservative stereotypes about members of the liberal intelligentsia. But was the group of 400 writers—the Learned Elders of the Left—attempting to coordinate news coverage?
Former JournoList members scoff at charges of collusion, that they were members of an all-powerful clique recalibrating White House policy, burying coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and plotting to force Fox News off the air—all from a Google Group. Critics counter that, whether opinion journalists or straight news reporters, the group was attempting to 'organize a media narrative,' to use Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan’s phrase.
The whole tedious debate misses one interesting point. While commenters have noted blogger Spencer Ackerman’s sleazy suggestion that liberals start labeling random Republicans 'racist'—pick a conservative, like 'Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists'—few noticed the obsession with accusing opponents not of being misguided or wrong, but motivated by racial animus and Nazi-like hatreds. But more on this in a minute.
The other media-centric obsession was a selectively edited video released by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, suggesting that a black employee of the Department of Agriculture discriminated against white farmers while working for the Obama administration. A terrified White House forced the employee, Shirley Sherrod, to resign, thus seeming to confirm the charge that the administration had purged the USDA of a dangerous racist, the Angela Davis of the farm lobby.
When the unexpurgated video was released, Sherrod was vindicated, offered an apology from President Barack Obama, the NAACP, Bill O’Reilly, and dozens of others quick to believe the racism charge, and offered her job back. In other words, Sherrod was slimed and maligned because someone falsely accused her of being a racist. But then again, Sherrod, who CNN’s David Gergen compared to Nelson Mandela, doesn’t subscribe to the ghastly views of Karl Rove and Fred Barnes.
Most members of the media, both liberal and conservative, expressed outrage over Sherrod’s sacking and the unfair media coverage that followed. Keith Olbermann denounced the 'political guillotine' of Fox News and Breitbart, and the conservative desire to 'convict the benevolent as racist.' It was important, Olbermann maintained, to remember that facts matter and that hyperbolic bloggers who end up treating their quarry like Danton should be humiliated. And if you thought these pleas for level-headedness, for the media to tone down the rhetoric, were sincere, the MSNBC host employed another analogy from French history, comparing Sherrod to Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the French military officer famously sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in an anti-Semitic frame up.
Even Sherrod, having just observed the consequences of sloppily charging people with racism, told CNN that Breitbart 'knew what effect [the video] would have on the conservative, racist people he's dealing with.' And as the scripted media introspection and the rehearsed 'conversations' about race were inaugurated by those who already knew the answers, blogger and former Journolist member Matt Yglesias was falsely accusing libertarian economist Arnold Kling of racism—the second time Kling has had to endure the toxic charge. But Kling, unlike Sherrod, is an enemy.
If all this counted as a teachable moment, it is unclear who the students were...
...This whole 'debate,' if we can charitably call it that, is a mess of straw men, hypocrisy, stupidity, and reflexive defenses of one’s own tribe. It has nothing to do with fairness, journalistic ethics, or the immorality of dragging the reputations of innocents through the mud in an attempt at scoring political points."
Thank God these folks run things. I really have no clue how America would manage without them.
Can you imagine if these folks were not in charge? Or aspiring to be so?
What a mess that world would be.
A Great Recession. Illegal immigration. Gay marriage. Unhealthy health habits. News coverage flush with agenda.
What would the world come to, you wonder?
Refer madness, I think.
Thank God these wise people stand between us and refer madness.
What a cruel, petty, self-absorbed world that would be.
For those who are still convinced that our problem in the world is that we are just too damned nice.
Too much love. That's our problem, you see.
Just make sure to tell that to this man on your way out.
Now that that's settled.
Just something to chew on, for those rooting for withdrawal.
Taliban denounce Kabul meeting as sign of failure
"The Taliban denounced this week's international conference on Afghanistan's future, saying the 'vague and terrible agenda' shows that the U.S. and its allies intend to abandon the country and blame their ultimate defeat on the Afghan government."
Sometimes courage needs a reminder. Even from the biggest cowards around.
My mom just sent me this. It's been that kinda summer in my family. Couldn't ask for a better family. It's broken. But it's mine. And they taught me a lot about love this season.
Do my best to return the favor.
A dose of humility from Washington
Be nice if values like humility, honesty and compassion were practiced in our nation's capitol. In any capitol. By anyone, really.
But they are often not our first choice. They are often what we choose after we have as much failure as we need.
May we have as much failure as we need.
"At the same time, one problem with political discourse in our age is that in the heat of debate, we too easily suspend a disinterested search for the truth and advance a more narrow, partisan aim. That leads to hypocrisy and double standards.
Very few of us are completely free of such things. We view the world through a tinted lens. But we ought to at least aspire to intellectual integrity and uphold as models those who embody it."
Be nice, one day, when this is the norm. And not the exception.
Until that day, Lord Acton has the last word.
And that will be true until the rest of us get honest with ourselves. And then, perhaps, with everyone else.
The problem with the world, you see, is too many folks like this guy.
And Jesus.
Too much Jesus and Jack Johnson in the world.
Remember that the next time your tryin' to figure the world out, kids.
It makes more sense the less you think about it.
Bein' in charge means never havin' to say you're sorry, according to Victor's logic, here. Even when its warranted.
The Danger of Moral Equivalence, or Why(Even a Few) Words Matter
All too clever. That way you can have all the power and use it however you want without any apologies.
That's the way it's supposed to be. Just ask all those dead Jews in Germany. Or Russians under Stalin. Or Chinese under Mao.
The danger of moral equivalence, indeed.
Victor Davis Hanson. Making excuses for assholes since the dawn of assholes.
If you take a step back from most politics, today. In America and all over the world. The clearer it becomes. Living and dying by the sword, and such.
And I think the one thing that most disappoints me, most, today, with the ugliness and mean-spiritedness that has taken the world by storm. And left a wake of reaping from all that sowing.
Is that our pride is, often, so strong that we would rather die by that sword than just choose another.
Some people, that is.
Most people just don't know what to do to make it better, is the truth.
And everyone is afraid that if they were to lay down their sword, then only destruction is in store for them.
And so the justifications for the whole dance of insanity goes.
Why any of us would invest ourselves in this mess of politics and power like it has more honesty to it than it does, I will never know.
Perhaps we shouldn't.
Perhaps that's the most important lesson of all from politics. And power. How rarely, if that, it makes us better.
At anything at all.
Stocks skid on renewed fears of global slowdown
Which is exactly why fiscal and economic policy, like individual investments, should be based on their merits and not on the propaganda.
The stimulus and Keynesian economics failed. They were a well-meaning effort to jumpstart the economy and to help people by funding programs that are government sponsored. But it failed. And will continue to fail until we deal with the underlying issues of what government can be trusted to care for more effectively and what matters need to be addressed by peoples' free consciences.
And that will not get unravelled until we choose better policies. Namely ones that affirm more genuinely liberal commitments. And more genuinely liberal economics. And freedom, more broadly.
And if you don't believe that. Keep at it. And keep living with the consequences.
Because the most awesome and undeniable fact of bullshit as policy is that it keeps dragging everyone down until we face up.
And no amount of spin and propaganda will ever be able to make that go away. Ever. No matter how much we cry otherwise.
The chickens are coming home to roost. But someone needs to tell Malcolm that radical isn't on the menu tonight.
No matter how spin your way around it.
Who's to say
What's impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread its wings
There's no stopping curiosity
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
I don't want this feeling to go away
Who's to say
I can't do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren't always just what they seem
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste
Well it all keeps spinning spinning round and round and
Upside down
Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found
I don't want this feeling to go away
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Is this how it's supposed to be
Is this how it's supposed to be
Annoying how adorable and happy he is, isn't it?
Sucks to be you, apparently.
Never fear. Plenty o' Jack to go around.
McChrystal Told the Truth
A very nice description of the suckerpunch that Stan McChrystal just took. I say let 'em lose the war, Stan. Let all those people die and those Afghanis be reenslaved by those Islamist thugs.
And when Democrats and the press say that it was unwinnable, or it was Bush's fault, or they didn't take their meds that morning, or whatever bullshit excuse they have for losing this war, we'll all call bullshit.
Because you were right, Stan. And Joe Biden was wrong. It wasn't that the war wasn't winnable. It clearly wasn't that Afghanis didn't want our help. They were the loudest voices backing you up.
It was that Democrats and various non-military folks didn't have the courage to fight it. And didn't really give a shit, in the first place.
And so they don't. But we won't let them forget that, either. Ever.
Amazing and sad how much Washington runs on ego.
The Runaway General
I like Stanley McChrystal is the truth. And Joe Biden is half-baked in most of his ideas about just about everything, these days. Remember dividing Iraq into 3 ethnic conclaves? Right. And you wonder where people get their notions of American imperialism.
But the bigger story, here, is the fact of Washington that everyone's just gotten used to, at this point, apparently. Which is how much ego runs things in this city.
You would think that a city that experienced as much failure as D.C. would be humbler. But, humility, apparently, is for the weak. As is anything more honest in this world.
I do hope we maintain a commitment in Afghanistan as long as Afghanis feel like they need our help. We did start this war, after all. And we still have a certain terrorist and his minions, in this region, that need tracking down.
But it would be refreshing if something as grave and serious as war, with so many peoples' lives on the line, could be engaged with less ego and more humble, honest, serious attention to the matter at hand and a genuine commitment to accomplish the mission successfully. On everyone's part. McChrystal's ego is hardly unique in Washington. The Administration. Congress. The press and activists, especially, whose egos seem to know no bounds.
Be nice to have an America where everyone pitches in to do the heavy lifting. Or maybe we've given up on that idea. Or whatever millionth excuse we have for why we can't face up to just how foolish and dysfunctional Washington has become.
Wave of the future, folks. Progress never looked so promising.
I find myself wondering, often, most days, whatever invested my heart in people and politics, at all, these days, given the stubborn mess that this stubbornest, messiest of all human affairs has become in America and in the world. FUBAR. As wiser minds than me refer to it.
Jack says it better than me. So I'll let him speak.
I care, is the truth. I really tire watching innocent people die and live in fear and under the thumb of whomever with no other real options. Because of the stubborn power obsession of various partisans. All for very little real purpose, by my lights, tragically.
Politics is the strangest of all enterprises, I think. Because it's the one enterprise where it's participants all assert certainty when they can't possibly know it. Often, no matter the consequences. And they do so all in contradiction, no less. All around the cynical notion that if they deny it long enough, they can access the power that will make everything in the world right again.
Watching what often looks like an impossible tangle of pride and sanctimony and failure, and the curious and nonsensical blame-shifting posing as honest responsibility. The same folks strangely wagging fingers at the world to take responsibililty for their lives. I get a little weary, is the truth.
Like most folks, I really don't have much other choice that to let it all wash over. And live a life I love. Do work I love. Settle down. Make a family. And pay these folks as little mind as possible, I suppose, anymore.
I'm convinced that Jack's musical effort to make peace with the tragedies that various stubborn partisans of a million stripes have made commonplace in the world is about all most people can do, sadly. In a world that will not face its failures honestly.
I do honestly hope, one day, that this will change. That people will get more honest about how far down a road of senseless failure and tragedy we've come. And, though most folks don't see it, the contributions that most of us make to the rationalization of the worst tragedies and abuses in the world, now and as long as homo sapien has roamed the earth. How frequently and reliably our aggressive, predatory natures betray us. And how that includes those who pride themselves as civilized as much as those who claim no such aspiration.
But, alas, I am older and more tired of this game posing as something more honest, today, than I was in my youth. Not less hopeful, necessarily. Just making peace with it. And with the fact that all of us need as much time as we need to face failures and learn the lessons (for those who will learn them, at all) as we need. Including those who would deny that to others.
And the most serious limitation I have in my life to face, in front of me, is the limits of persuading folks to take a humbler, more genuinely open-hearted, open-minded, honest route, if they don't wanna.
If they don't wanna, they don't wanna, is the truth. I wonder, often, if Hobbes and Shakespeare and most folks in an older Europe felt something similar watching Protestants and Catholics playing a very similar, more brutal version of the same tragic game. Or anywhere partisans maintained such an irrational obsession with power. Or people maintained the impulse to aggression to beat whatever problem into submission since the predation of the earliest hominids and homo sapiens.
It's been one of the harder limitations in life for me to face. For someone whose confidence seems boundless, I'm sure, to most of my friends and family.
It's been so difficult because the stakes are so large. And accepting the world as the dysfunctional, aggressive mess that it is just seems unacceptable to me, as it would, I'm sure, for anyone who honestly cares about people. Who doesn't want to see them die, needlessly. Or live in fear. Or be bullied. By anyone.
But there's only so much I can do, as it turns out, to turn that tide. And accepting that is one of the more unexpected turns in my life till this point, is the truth.
When various folks, partisans of any stripe - strong-arming for whichever position they have convinced themselves of, today (often contrary to the very same position that they had convinced themselves of, in another time, and asserted the same need to strong-arm on its behalf, then as now; from someone who's changed his mind, plenty, in my own life as much as me seeing it in the world) - say that there is nothing that anyone else can do about it, if they have the power, there's a grain of truth to that. Absent choosing differently in the future.
That's the cynical calculation of power that has animated its use and abuse since the beginning of civilization. And likely before. And perhaps for as long as humans have a space on this little world.
It's so funny.
Jack's song captures it so sweetly and so well. That we can never know. No matter how much we pretend otherwise. But you wouldn't know it talking politics with most folks, strangely. Certainly not with its most active participants. Especially it's most brutal. But, really, all of us, when most folks are honest.
What I do know, more than anything else, at this point in my life, that this propensity, to want to have it all figured out and to be willing to fight to the death, metaphorically, and, all too tragically, literally, for most of our long tragic history, for that purpose (excepting when that is literally necessarily, obviously) makes a mess of life almost everywhere for almost everyone without exception.
Hence the call to moderation. By Aeschylus and Aristotle. And so many of the wisest minds who have watched this repetition of human folly and tragedy unfold time and time again.
And, sadly, our perpetual propensity to ignore that wisdom. Or, more often, I'm finding, manipulating it. For whatever purposes people see fit for themselves.
It's really hard, is the truth, to you watch all of that, if you care about the people it's happening to, and you have to face the fact that there really is only so much you can do to help.
It weighs on my heart like a heavy burden that is impossible to lift on my own, is the truth. But which so many cannot, will not, see past their own sad, foolish, often counterproductive sanctimony to consider otherwise.
So I'm making my peace with it, tonight. Trying at least. I've been working on it for a couple weeks, now, is the truth. Until folks are willing to consider something more humble and open-hearted.
Perhaps a little lovemaking might be in order. Perhaps some music would set the mood.
Breath of fresh air, today. And a nice reminder that most folks in the American press and political class are really out of their leagues when it comes to the study of power.
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” ~ Charles de Montesquieu
Or the more apt sentiment, right now.
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
Or my particular favorite.
"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivaly of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise." ~ Mark Twain
Or you could follow the assholes driving this country into a serious shithole.
Don't trip over yourself takin' your pick.
'Shame on you': BP exec pilloried by lawmakers
What for? It's an accident, for God's sakes. I suppose we should shame our kids for shittin' in their diapers. Would make as much sense.
The arrogance of the left, right now, like too many of their right-wing counterparts, is stinky and putrid. Which is what elections are for. Which is why they're losing them. And why they'll keep losing them. No matter what excuses they make for their sorry-ass activism. Which has clearly made this situation, like Katrina, more problematic than it ever was originally.
I don't care how arrogant the left gets. Disdainful? Is that the term John Stewart used?
Stewart Calls Joe Barton A 'Disdainful Asshole'
These guys have a point. So does John Stewart, if you watch that video. About the effort to compensate people hurt by this mess. Just noone - left, right, or otherwise - is listening to one another, anymore.
Good example for the kids, there, I suppose.
And the more I watch, the more I really just don't trust any of them all. Which is apparently how most Americans feel about the same folks, if the polls mean anything. And, at this point in the game, it means I'm voting against the assholes doing all the strong-arming. And give two shits about what they have to say about jack shit.
That's called counterproductive, by the way, if you're keeping count. While you're pretending that everything's going hunky-dory. It's also called failure. And seriously mucking everything up, in the meantime. All so folks don't have to ever acknowledge that they might be wrong about any damn thing.
It doesn't matter to me, anymore, if assholes can't get the picture, is the truth. It's just time for them to take some much needed time off.
If there is one article I have read in the last year that demonstrates the arrogance of the current period, this is the one.
Ultraorthodox Jews protest school ruling
These parents are jailed because they want to choose which schools their daughters go to. They choose not to send their daughters to an integrated school because they are concerned about the temptations of the modern world (a legitimate concern, even if I disagree with their fears of the modern world).
And this journalist rationalizes their jail sentences as "the ultra-Orthodox minority's refusal to accept the authority of the state" and the "extent the ultra-Orthodox live by their own rules, some of them archaic, while wielding disproportionate power in the modern state of Israel."
It didn't even occur to him that they might have a legitimate concern. And that, more importantly, those children are not his, nor the state's. They are people in their own right. And the responsibility, primarily, of those parents. And jailing parents who want to choose where their daughters go to school is nothing remotely close to anything resembling progress.
Where one educates one's children is among the most intimate and important choices a parent can make. And jailing parents for taking that choice seriously, even when you disagree with the choice, when it is a matter of conscience, as it so clearly is here, is repugnant.
This case is also, sadly, a lesson for social conservatives, like these Jews, who are, tragically, reaping what they sow, as well. If there is any argument for why religious conservatives should back off from efforts to coerce the consciences of others - gay marriage comes immediately to mind - this is the one. Because the other alternative is living with the consequences.
Coercing conscience is not progress. It is the long road of tragedy that has animated the great bulk of human history. What far too many are doing in the liberal democratic world, today (nevertheless the illiberal world) is trying to turn the clock backward. And cynically pretending that with enough force, no one can do anything about it anyway.
This was and is the rationale for Naziism, Communism, Islamism, imperialism, and every serious abuse of power that has ever reared its ugly head in this sad, strange, foolish little world.
It was also what got 70 million killed in WWII. 16 million in WWI.
One thing's for sure. This ain't forward.
This is backward. No bullshitting around it.
No matter who is pulling the strings.
And no matter how we bullshit otherwise.
A sign of just how far we've gone off the rails.
"'It was not my intention for anyone to be threatened but they do and I have to take responsibility and I do,' said embattled teacher Catherine Ariemma.
The Dahlonega history appeared on Good Day Xtra Tuesday morning to address a controversial incident that has placed her at the center of a media firestorm.
Ariemma was placed on administrative leave after allowing for students to wear mock Ku Klux Klan outfits as part of a high school history class project. Ariemma says the costumed students were taking part in a reenactment about the history of racism. Some black students in the lunchroom became upset when they saw the students walking through the cafeteria in the outfits.
Ariemma says she was escorting the students [sic] wearing sheets and didn't realize lunch was in session.
'That was the mistake, in that there were a lot of students in there who were not going to hear that this was a class project, so they saw something and took it out of context, and of course they had no way of knowing-- they had no way of knowing,' said Ariemma."
The person being villified, here, is the one person talking any real sense.
Why?
Because she's thinking. When the whole world is reacting. Constantly.
And confusing it with making any damn sense, at all.
The one market where journalists would scream bloody murder if the government intervened.
Please, Don't Save Us
Least something's still free in America. 'Less you count Betty White and that love muffin.
You know what would really impress me with the President and this whole oil spill, right now?
Obama fried in oil
If he came on televison, leaned against the lecturn, and said something along these lines:
"Howdy folks. My fellow Americans. And all the rest of you scoundrels out there, too.
I don't know if you've heard about this situation we got with oil and the Gulf of Mexico, and all that, right now. But it's a God awful mess, as you may have heard. And I reckoned I might come by and share a few thoughts with you folks about what's happening and what folks are doin' about it.
There's, essentially, two groups of people, right now, you understand, working on cleaning up this mess. BP. Which has really been fixin' on pluggin' this hole pretty much non-stop, since it bust. And me and my people. Who are doin' everything we can to help the folks doin' the fixin'.
Everybody else, for the most part, is engaged in a whole other activity all-together.
It's called bitchin'. You may have heard of it.
Most of these folks are bitchin' about something for which they have about zero plans to actually doing anything that might resemble heavy lifting. But constantly moanin' about how slow the muscle-bound folks are heavin' up the bar.
It's gotten a bit ridiculous, these days, is the truth. On most things. Not just this mess. Because not only are these good, decent Americans not really helping matters. They're kinda in the way, is the truth. Because they're just makin' it that much harder for folks actually doin' the work to concentrate on doing their job. And they could use all the mental energy they could get their hands on, these days, as you can imagine.
So my suggestion for folks is this:
Chill the fuck out. Go watch some Karate Kid.
Let folks doing the heavy lifting do the job. If you have some decent, solid suggestions for things that might do some actual good, send 'em our way. They might come in handy. But, if not. Maybe think about takin' a chill pill and either get out of the way. Or get used to being ignored. Either one will do just fine. But getting out of the way or actually doin' some tangible good, might work better for everyone involved. Including you. And all those delicious gulf shrimpies everyone's concerned about. And anyone who might actually give a hoot about getting things turned around.
Thanks for your attention, folks. And make sure not to kill the suspense and go tellin' me if that kid wins or not, this time around. I'll check it out at the drive-in soon 'nuf. Though I'm pretty sure the kid pulls it out in the end."
But that would be far too sensible for these times, obviously.
So, in lieu of something more sensible, I'm gonna follow some World Cup and hope it all doesn't come crashin' down in the end. The world, that is. I never know how this thing ends. Suspense is killin' me.
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