We’re All Enemy Combatants, Now
I haven’t written anything on the Torture Bill moving it’s way through Congress because of the simple fact that I shouldn’t have to state explicitly that I think torture is a bad idea. No one should. But that’s the level we’ve sunk to. So: for the record, I think torture is wrong, worthless, undemocratic and evil. I believe that the democratic freedoms upon which the US Constitution is based are Universal, Inalienable and apply to everyone, even those who wish to do us harm. Freedom is free. All you have to do is take it. And you can either take it for yourself or give it up for the illusion of safety. But if you give up your very real and tangible freedoms for a snuff of pixie dust in the form of a promise of safety than, as my hero, Ben Franklin said, you deserve neither.
Wil Wheaton elaborates on this sentiment:
What the House did yesterday, the Senate looks to do today, and the President will surely enact as soon as possible, is a direct assault on American values, and contrary to everything our country stands for. Though cynically and cowardly enacted as a purely political tool during an election, those who supported this bill do not speak for me, do not act in my name, and do not reflect my values.
Torture is not an American value. Torture is a totalitarian, sadistic value. Suspending access to courts and the right to face your accuser is not what Americans do. It is what tyrannical dictators and despots do, not a democratic republic like the one I was brought up in and love. Time and again, torture has proved unreliable to prevent or solve crimes, and it reduces our country to the level of the very terrorists we are supposedly fighting.
I believe in the right to a speedy and fair trial for everyone, even the most repugnant of defendants. No, especially for the most repugnant of defendants, because if we, as a society, can’t guarantee the most hideously accused among us that right, what is it worth to the rest of us?
George Bush and his enablers in the congress — Democrat and Republican — has done more damage to our country, and our once impeccable moral standing in the world than all the terrorists combined. President Bush and his Republican allies in congress like to say that “they hate us for our freedom,” but President Bush and his Republican allies in congress have spent the last five years working very hard to take that freedom away from the people they supposedly work for, and vest that power in something they call the Unitary Executive. If the Democrats won’t stand up to stop torture, what will they stand up for? If Congress won’t do its constitutional duty now, then when?
I don’t know when they will stand up, but if it isn’t soon than perhaps they deserve to loose their precious jobs and we’ll vote for some other party, as yet to be formed.
Update 11:09 PM:
As usual, the Onion puts things in perspective. You’ll cry laughing. Then you’ll just cry.
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:27 am
Hello Keith and all,
The time has arrived to think outside of the box, or else…
I know that many have chosen to write me off as some sort of a quack over the last three years. Now that this country and world have sunk to new lows and many of the things I’ve warned about have occurred, perhaps fewer will be so quick to scoff at things they don’t understand. Neither religious followers nor secularists have been 100% correct and most have been dead wrong about much. Perhaps now more will seek true wisdom and cooperate for the good of all before the Bush-Cheney-Vatican cabal revives the dark ages and puts you all in theological torture camps. Remember that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Understanding and fixing the failings of politics and democracy for the benefit of everyone, everywhere
Politics is little more than greed, arrogance, falsehood, hero-worship, and injustice taken to extremes and organized into teams (nations, parties, interest groups, etc). It is the struggle for your group, hero, and viewpoint so you can profit at the expense of others. This forces others to do the same in self-defense, causing an endless loop, downward spiral, and no-gain effect. When money, religion, and politics are intermingled, they form a true inescapable trap or bottomless pit. It is the opposite of compassion, cooperation, justice, and wisdom and causes you to expend dramatically more effort, time, and resources than necessary to achieve lesser results than are possible when you simply cooperate and have compassion, empathy, and charity for each other. Harmony and cooperation are on the perfect path, while politics, religion and money are ignorance, strong lies, strong delusion, and utter folly.
The primary, though hidden, purpose of politics is to effectively divide and conquer populations who support and participate in these great delusions. Politics serves to dramatically slow and confound progress towards common and common-sense goals that most people want to achieve. This is one of the reasons why major problems persist for centuries. When people finally cooperate to solve problems for the good of all, problems will finally be solved and stay solved. On the other hand, participating in and supporting politics causes problems to persist and even to reappear later, though they were apparently solved previously. Because of the ability of those who also control money and religion to reverse past progress and prevent true cooperation, politics is a great deception and a trap and the opposite of truth, wisdom, and justice.
There is no true freedom nor freewill in the presence of such pervasive and institutionalized deception and exploitation. People have struggled for millennia trying to form working societies based on these three great follies. Those efforts always eventually fail because the inherent injustice and deception at the root of these concepts always leads to chaos and destruction. How long must it take before verifiable wisdom is finally valued over such long-term and self-evident folly? How much longer will it take for good people to grow tired of such obvious lies and turn away from deceptive leaders and their deceptions?
Remember the saying:
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing.”
We are all trapped in a web of deception woven with money, religion, and politics. The great evils that bedevil us all will never cease until humanity finally awakens, shakes off these strong delusions, and forges a …new path… to the future.
…Read More…
…and here…
Here is Wisdom!!
Peace…
October 4th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Well, New Age spam. That’s something different.