Transitions
On Monday, I turned 40,000 miles on my motorcycle. It'll never be a bike with less than 40,000 miles on it again. I still really like the machine, and expect to get at least another 40,000 miles out of it. Still, I'll never go back.
This morning I had to wait to go to work until the dryer was done. It was a sybaritic pleasure of the first order. It is that irreversible and tangible evidence the Summer of 2006 is really over. It was a terrific Summer, making me look forward to next year all the more. Still, I'll never really go back.
This week w signed a bill giving him authority to torture, ignore habeas corpus, set up military courts in which defendants are stripped of their basic rights. While I'm sure he had his *colonial poodles include verbiage that exonerates him for domestic and war crimes committed before this obscenity was made law. We have surrendered. Given up our principles. Given up the rule of law. Given up liberty for all. Given up fairness.
Instead we have embraced the neo-con vision of a country ruled by the rankest atmosphere of cowardice and discrimination. Other than the obvious looting of our country's wealth, I honestly can't see any motivation for this counter-productive surrendering of the basic principles which once made us admirable. Even if America wakes up, and gets off our collective overfed, undereducated, unproductive, arrogant asses this reign of atrocities will forever be in our history and the fabric of our one-time democratic state. Conceivably, we can return to being a land of the free which embraces courage and honor. Still, we'll never really go back.
*Referring to our senate and house as w's poodles, is for my British friends who see Blair has his nose embedded as deeply in w's nethers as our own lawmakers.
19Oct2006: Added an appropriate YouTube clip. 8 minutes, 30 seconds.
This morning I had to wait to go to work until the dryer was done. It was a sybaritic pleasure of the first order. It is that irreversible and tangible evidence the Summer of 2006 is really over. It was a terrific Summer, making me look forward to next year all the more. Still, I'll never really go back.
This week w signed a bill giving him authority to torture, ignore habeas corpus, set up military courts in which defendants are stripped of their basic rights. While I'm sure he had his *colonial poodles include verbiage that exonerates him for domestic and war crimes committed before this obscenity was made law. We have surrendered. Given up our principles. Given up the rule of law. Given up liberty for all. Given up fairness.
Instead we have embraced the neo-con vision of a country ruled by the rankest atmosphere of cowardice and discrimination. Other than the obvious looting of our country's wealth, I honestly can't see any motivation for this counter-productive surrendering of the basic principles which once made us admirable. Even if America wakes up, and gets off our collective overfed, undereducated, unproductive, arrogant asses this reign of atrocities will forever be in our history and the fabric of our one-time democratic state. Conceivably, we can return to being a land of the free which embraces courage and honor. Still, we'll never really go back.
*Referring to our senate and house as w's poodles, is for my British friends who see Blair has his nose embedded as deeply in w's nethers as our own lawmakers.
19Oct2006: Added an appropriate YouTube clip. 8 minutes, 30 seconds.
4 Comments:
You say it so well. Sad, frightening thing is that most of us don't even notice that democracy's fading - along with international law. We're all too busy choosing the latest video clip or song to download onto our i-pods to worry about the big things...
jj/Just Me: picc.blogspot (can't figure out this new Beta comment thing...)
Well put. Though, and this is even sadder, if you asked Americans what they thought of Habeus Corpus, I doubt that many would even know what it was, let alone that it was stripped from them or that it was a right first put into practice over 700 year's ago.
I really think most Americans would know what Habeas Corpus is (or was), just not the name. Maybe our ignorance knows some bounds. Sadly, the cowardly mindset of enough Americans is such that they do not view this critical right as important.
I've been enjoying YouTube a lot. I had fun watching old clips of Johnny Carson and Marty Feldman last week. Two of my favorite funny men. Back in the day we took Carson for granted, but he was generally extremely quick, kind, and affable. I posted a YouTube of Keith Olbermann talking about our grand step towards autocracy.
I'll agree that they might know the function, but are willing to toss it aside when they deem it a nuisance without full consideration of the potential consequences of doing so.
YouTube can be a gem (as long as the media masters don't ruin it with DMCA complaints). I loved Johnny Carson and used to watch The Tonight Show regularly when he was the host. Some of the people I worked with in the 80s instilled in me an appreciation of his work.
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