Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government
Thursday, September 10, 2009
To Peace
I know no one pays attention Afghanistan these days. And why should we? A sorrier country of contradictions is hard to find. We attacked them to free the population and bring democracy and womens rights to the tired masses yearning to breath free. And what do we get? 35-40% of aid being routed back to the US and women setting themselves on fire in rising numbers to escape their lives. Good work!
However, this is a silver lining. On Wednesday, a New York Times reporter we didn't know had been kidnapped was rescued after a daring raid by British Commandos! Yay, freedom!
Sadly, the reporter's translator, also kidnapped, did not make it and was killed during the firefight. Hmmm, an Afghani local with higher education who helps an American and is killed in the process. You know who he kind of sounds like? Wellington Yinsen from the 2008 Iron Man movie. The lesson here seems to be, the American is worth saving but the brown man is not. I'm guessing people in Afghanistan are tired of having this message beaten into them time and time again.
The New York Times reporter probably knows this message himself. He had been kidnapped while investigating a bombing by the US that is said to have killed up to 70 Afghani civilians.
Lila Schow Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government http://goodusgov.org/
BUCHANAN: Well, I think white men were 100 percent of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100 percent of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100 percent of people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Probably close to 100 percent of the people who died at Normandy.
This has been a country built basically by white folks in this country who are 90 percent of the entire nation-in 1960, when I was growing up, Rachel-and the other 10 percent were African-American who had been discriminated against. That's why.
The bigger question is why was this asshole allowed to take up so much time on MSNBC (over 10 minutes!) when there are so many other people out there who could enrich the media?
Recently, I got a comment on a year-old post from my good friend, Anonymous. Which is odd, because no one ever comments on this blog. And when they do, it's usually people who've misunderstood sarcasm. In terrible and hilarious ways. So when Anon popped up this morning, I paid attention!
Listen here you clearly dont understand the tragedies of war. Theres no glory in war I know but im a proud american who loves this country and I support the troops all the your so ignorant in liberal anti-government beliefs. Its a war not a peace rally stupid fuck people die. The people protecting your way of life die for you and me to keep us free. You could atleast show some sympathy for them we are liberating an oppressed people from a brutal dictator whats so wrong with that. If you say that Iraq is not our problem your an idiot. The U.S. has been fighting to liberate oppressed people ever since WWII. Go die liberal fuck people like you are a waste of time.
(omg, that post now has four comments! I'm famous!)
Now, no American can ever criticize the military without having an uncomfortable thought spared for Jack Nicholson, the great actor who sacrificed 0 longs years serving in our country's military.
Aye, there's the rub, isn't it. That whole question the 'quality of service you provide' thingy. A republic, defended by a military made up of voluntary serfs who have no civil liberties and no democratic rights in the eyes of our nation. Who am I to question that? Who am I to be ungrateful? Clearly, I am a ignorant, liberal anti gubber (but only anti-Bush, am I right folks or am I right?)
If you step into the street without looking and a stranger saves your life, does that stranger now get to rule what you think and say? What if the stranger pulls you back and there was no danger? Do they get that right then? Since I am far more likely to die in an auto accident than at the hands of a terrorist or foreign government does that mean I don't have the right to criticize auto manufacturers who stand on the wall for me?
Or is it only because I can't understand the tragedies of war that I can't speak?
When my government uses flechettes, phosphorus, drones, DU. When they kill innocent people during the course of their work. When my brothers and sisters come back in flag draped coffins when I needed them to come back and fight the forest fires and floods in my own country? When I protested going to war for false reasons, when I protested a war of vengeance, when I protested the use of murder as a tool of democracy and then continued to criticize those in charge for making the same mistake over and over and over. Is that when I can't speak?
When the people protecting my life are actually endangering it, is that when I must be silent?
Hey, I'm still waiting for our government to liberate the oppressed. As an American citizen is it not my duty to ensure the rights of the people who've given theirs up to defend me? Isn't it my duty to make sure they defend me in a way I agree with and aren't being used as a tool by the government to shape foreign policy? Isn't it my duty to hold them accountable?
Anon wants me to trust my government to make the right choices for me and that's fair, except that my government has consistently chosen not to act in my best interest. It won't even act in the best interest of the soldiers who defend it.
What is it called when a 'patriot' uses anger, offense and self-righteousness as weapons to rob me off my freedoms and liberties?
Lila Schow Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government http://goodusgov.org/
There is a silent, but deadly killer among us. Over 100 people are killed each day. That's 2/state/day based off really horrible generalizing. Yes, I'm talking about flu. Not that fancy swine flu, either, which only kills 5 people a day -- and that's world wide. This is hardcore, straight up influenza. Mostly A and B.
It's safe to say that "swine flu" is causing a pandemic in panic. Even the World Health Organization is involved, raising the terror threat level of SF to 5 (or orange, as it were). Countries are closing borders, pigs are being slaughtered and schools shut down. Here in the United States we demand Cures and Vaccinations.
You know what else kills 100 Americans a day? Heart disease. Scratch that. Heart disease kills 100 people an hour.
There is another pandemic stalking the globe. Malaria. That shit kills close to 3,000 people a day. It would sure be nice to have a vaccine or pills or something for that. Oh wait ...
Marjorie Cohn's article on torture and confessions was posted today at Truthout. And I am shocked. Shocked! I say. Because according to her, even torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah could not get either man to link Saddam with 9-11. Did you get that? We couldn't even get a falseconfessions from torture.
But I thought would could use torture to get any false confession we wanted. Isn't that was the left is always saying? So, what, did the interrogators not know how to do their jobs? Do they need to spend more time practicing?
Take a lesson US government, the next time you want to torture prisoners to gain specific information to support an unpopular cause -- spend a little more time coaching the prisoners with the answers you want. May I suggest cue cards?
Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that food is not the answer in the continent's fight against hunger, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with starving children.
Benedict had never directly addressed food use. He has said that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against hunger. The Vatican encourages food abstinence to fight the spread of the hunger.
"You can't resolve it with the distribution of food," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."
Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope is serious about preventing starvation, he will focus on promoting wide access to food and spreading information on how best to eat it.
"Instead, his opposition to food conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans," said Hodes, director of policy, communication and research for the action campaign.
While she said the pope is correct that food is not the sole solution to Africa's hunger epidemic, she said it is one of the very few hunger prevention mechanisms proven to work.
Even some priests and nuns working with those living with hunger question the church's opposition to food amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.
Benedict's first papal trip to Africa this week will take him to Cameroon and Angola. Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church, though it competes with Islam and evangelical churches.
The solution lay, he said, in a "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship for those who suffer".
Hear that kid? Your suffering from a lack of Catholic 'awakening', not food. Maybe if you had a friend in Jesus, you'd not be in this condition. Ha!
