Social Justice News, 9-29-06
Hello all,
It’s been some kind of week. I’d like to describe it better, but I’d rather not use the appropriate adjectives with this audience. Come over to my house sometime when I’m dealing with (yet another) weed infestation in my flower beds, and you’ll get an earful. There’s been a little bit of good news this week and an awful lot of bad news. I only send out some of the news on this newsletter; some of the things I read are enough to drive a person to drinking. (Assuming one didn’t all ready have enough problems!)
The Scariest Thing Bush Has Done (yet): Okay, I am not an alarmist. It may be easy to piss me off, but it is not easy to scare me. Hey, I grew up on the streets –it takes a lot to scare a street kid. But this detainee bill scares the s*** out of me. Why? It’s not just the inexcusable violations of the human rights of alien detainees. Oh no; this bill allows Americans to be held as enemy combatants. What counts as an enemy combatant? Providing material support or succor to the ‘enemy’, whomever that is this month. Someone can be declared an enemy combatant by being found on the battlefield, a military tribunal, or any other commission the president appoints to do so. Oh yes, and such military combatants have no legal recourse to challenge their detainment or the conditions thereof, and they can be held indefinitely without trial. What counts as material support or succor? Hmm, good question. It’s not really defined. How about an American Muslim who unwittingly gives money to a charity later found to have connections with ‘terrorist groups’ (whatever the definition of that is on that particular month). How about someone who opposes the war? How about someone who speaks out against the president? Someone who belongs to anti-war groups? Someone who supports liberal causes? Someone who doesn’t like what the President had for breakfast this morning? How about the cook who made that breakfast, for the reason that the president didn’t like it? How about non-Christians? Gays? Jews? Muslims? Democrats? Remember, they have built all those ‘terrorist detention centers’ inside our borders, and done so publicly. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? It was in a newsletter some months back, or you can do a search on Halliburton Detention Camps.) Oh yeah, and Congress just approved the building of a fence along both the Mexican and Canadian borders.
Many disaster preparation experts advocate keeping a ‘grab and go’ back in your car and/or your closet in case you have to evacuate because of a natural disaster, a chemical spill, etc. Maybe we need to start keeping them in case of fascism as well! (Unlikely? Hmm, if you had told me three years ago that we would elect a 3 year old for a President who couldn’t form complete sentences, threw temper tantrums on live television, and invaded any country that disagreed with him, I would have said that was unlikely too. And that you were smoking something besides.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6165621
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/26/1415250
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/150254
Middle Class Families Worse Off Than Ever: Evidence is mounting that the growing gap between rich and poor has gotten so bad its now eroding the middle class.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/28/news/economy/middle_class.reut/index.htm?postversion=2006092816
Gay Rights Movement From Hell Itself: Hate was everywhere at this ‘Value Voters’ Summit, but especially from this guy, who wants the gays mad at him, utters the word faggots more times than I’ve ever heard it in one place, and thinks the ‘anti-Christ’ will be gay. (BTW, the Book of Revelations never talks about an ‘anti-Christ, and the Jesus who comes back in that book is a warrior who wears a blood-soaked robe and slaughters indiscriminately. Gee, that sounds like the Prince of Peace to me!)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/26/anti-gay-summit/
Cost Benefit Analysis Applied to Global Warming: Hmm, okay, so even if 20% of the world’s species die off, parts of the planet become a desert, coastal cities around the globe get inundated, millions (possibly billions) of people die, global warming may actually be a good thing –because some rich people will get richer and rich nations will get richer. Golly gee whiz, bring on the climate change!
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19918608.htm
Iranian Female Space Tourist An Inspiration: I couldn’t normally find a way to morally justify spending $20 million on what amounts to a personal vacation, but when it inspires many women and girls to follow their dreams and provides them hope, especially in a repressive country like Iran, that’s another matter.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060926_ap_iran_ansari.html
40 Years for a 16 year old: Okay let me get this straight: the COO of Enron swindles millions of people out of billions of dollars, puts many –including children and seniors –into the poorhouse, almost single-handedly takes down our entire economy, and all he gets is a lousy 6 years in prison, while a teenager can smuggle cocaine and get 40 years? Yeah, that’s justice all right!
http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_4388154
The Effort to Outlaw Birth Control: Look out ladies. First they want to outlaw abortion, and then take away birth control. Apparently they think birth control is not only abortion in and of itself, but that it causes more abortions, and it harms relationships between men and women. Hmm, I thought it was accidental pregnancies that did all of that. My bad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609240334sep24,1,3423926.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/09/contraception_the_next_big_tar.php
Website of the week: A website on energy. http://www.energybulletin.net/
UU Joke of the Week: UU's are basically good people, who, for the most part, try to live by the 10 suggestions.
Have a good weekend everybody.
It’s been some kind of week. I’d like to describe it better, but I’d rather not use the appropriate adjectives with this audience. Come over to my house sometime when I’m dealing with (yet another) weed infestation in my flower beds, and you’ll get an earful. There’s been a little bit of good news this week and an awful lot of bad news. I only send out some of the news on this newsletter; some of the things I read are enough to drive a person to drinking. (Assuming one didn’t all ready have enough problems!)
The Scariest Thing Bush Has Done (yet): Okay, I am not an alarmist. It may be easy to piss me off, but it is not easy to scare me. Hey, I grew up on the streets –it takes a lot to scare a street kid. But this detainee bill scares the s*** out of me. Why? It’s not just the inexcusable violations of the human rights of alien detainees. Oh no; this bill allows Americans to be held as enemy combatants. What counts as an enemy combatant? Providing material support or succor to the ‘enemy’, whomever that is this month. Someone can be declared an enemy combatant by being found on the battlefield, a military tribunal, or any other commission the president appoints to do so. Oh yes, and such military combatants have no legal recourse to challenge their detainment or the conditions thereof, and they can be held indefinitely without trial. What counts as material support or succor? Hmm, good question. It’s not really defined. How about an American Muslim who unwittingly gives money to a charity later found to have connections with ‘terrorist groups’ (whatever the definition of that is on that particular month). How about someone who opposes the war? How about someone who speaks out against the president? Someone who belongs to anti-war groups? Someone who supports liberal causes? Someone who doesn’t like what the President had for breakfast this morning? How about the cook who made that breakfast, for the reason that the president didn’t like it? How about non-Christians? Gays? Jews? Muslims? Democrats? Remember, they have built all those ‘terrorist detention centers’ inside our borders, and done so publicly. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? It was in a newsletter some months back, or you can do a search on Halliburton Detention Camps.) Oh yeah, and Congress just approved the building of a fence along both the Mexican and Canadian borders.
Many disaster preparation experts advocate keeping a ‘grab and go’ back in your car and/or your closet in case you have to evacuate because of a natural disaster, a chemical spill, etc. Maybe we need to start keeping them in case of fascism as well! (Unlikely? Hmm, if you had told me three years ago that we would elect a 3 year old for a President who couldn’t form complete sentences, threw temper tantrums on live television, and invaded any country that disagreed with him, I would have said that was unlikely too. And that you were smoking something besides.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6165621
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/26/1415250
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/150254
Middle Class Families Worse Off Than Ever: Evidence is mounting that the growing gap between rich and poor has gotten so bad its now eroding the middle class.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/28/news/economy/middle_class.reut/index.htm?postversion=2006092816
Gay Rights Movement From Hell Itself: Hate was everywhere at this ‘Value Voters’ Summit, but especially from this guy, who wants the gays mad at him, utters the word faggots more times than I’ve ever heard it in one place, and thinks the ‘anti-Christ’ will be gay. (BTW, the Book of Revelations never talks about an ‘anti-Christ, and the Jesus who comes back in that book is a warrior who wears a blood-soaked robe and slaughters indiscriminately. Gee, that sounds like the Prince of Peace to me!)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/26/anti-gay-summit/
Cost Benefit Analysis Applied to Global Warming: Hmm, okay, so even if 20% of the world’s species die off, parts of the planet become a desert, coastal cities around the globe get inundated, millions (possibly billions) of people die, global warming may actually be a good thing –because some rich people will get richer and rich nations will get richer. Golly gee whiz, bring on the climate change!
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19918608.htm
Iranian Female Space Tourist An Inspiration: I couldn’t normally find a way to morally justify spending $20 million on what amounts to a personal vacation, but when it inspires many women and girls to follow their dreams and provides them hope, especially in a repressive country like Iran, that’s another matter.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060926_ap_iran_ansari.html
40 Years for a 16 year old: Okay let me get this straight: the COO of Enron swindles millions of people out of billions of dollars, puts many –including children and seniors –into the poorhouse, almost single-handedly takes down our entire economy, and all he gets is a lousy 6 years in prison, while a teenager can smuggle cocaine and get 40 years? Yeah, that’s justice all right!
http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_4388154
The Effort to Outlaw Birth Control: Look out ladies. First they want to outlaw abortion, and then take away birth control. Apparently they think birth control is not only abortion in and of itself, but that it causes more abortions, and it harms relationships between men and women. Hmm, I thought it was accidental pregnancies that did all of that. My bad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609240334sep24,1,3423926.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/09/contraception_the_next_big_tar.php
Website of the week: A website on energy. http://www.energybulletin.net/
UU Joke of the Week: UU's are basically good people, who, for the most part, try to live by the 10 suggestions.
Have a good weekend everybody.
posted by RAS at 9/29/2006 10:23:00 AM
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