From Paul Campos, via Paul O’Neil
I’m quite sure I could beat LeBron James in a game of one on one
basketball. The game merely needs to feature two special rules: It
lasts until I score, and as soon as I score I win. Such a game might
last several hours, or even a week or two, and James would probably
score hundreds and possibly thousands of points before my ultimate
victory, but eventually I’m going to find a way to put the ball in the
basket.Our national government and almost all of the
establishment media have decided to play a similar game, which could be
called Terrorball. The first two rules of Terrorball are:(1) The game lasts until there are no longer any terrorists, and;
(2) If terrorists manage to ever kill or injure or seriously frighten any Americans, they win.
Heide Hinrichs, from The Expected Obedience of Your Thoughts
Campos continued:
The typical Congressional subcommittee chairman or cable news anchor or
syndicated columnist can’t really imagine not being able to afford to
take his child to a doctor, or being wrongly convicted of a crime, but
he is quite capable of imagining being on a Paris to New York flight
that’s blown out of the sky. And while it’s true the risk he faces of
suffering this fate are very close to zero, they are not, as they are
for a poor person, literally zero.
Kris Martin, Mandi VIII (Note the absence of the snakes, and yet the figures writhe.)
Campos:
Terrorball, then, is an
elaborate political game that seems irrational on its face – after all,
it’s certain that more than 2.4 million Americans will die this year,
and fairly likely that not even one of those deaths will be caused by
terrorism — but which features its own peculiar logic. That logic
reflects the anxieties of those who have created its rules, and serves
the interests of both terrorists and those who profit from exploiting
the fear of terrorism.
And now this, via:
U.S. President Barack Obama has announced he would suspend the transfer of Guantánamo prisoners to Yemen, where an Al Qaeda-linked group is said to have planned a failed attack on a U.S. airliner.
Around half the 198 remaining Guantánamo prisoners are Yemeni nationals and, according to the latest data available, less than 40 have already been cleared for release.
In a statement, the Center for Constitutional Rights said: “Dozens of men from Yemen who have been cleared for release after extensive [government] scrutiny are about to be left in limbo once more due to politics, not facts. Halting [their] repatriation is unconscionable.”
In other words, dozens of Yemeni men are going to continue their prison stay not because of what they have done but because there is a threat that someone in their number might do something in the future, inflamed, no doubt, by being detained by us without trial and tortured for years.
Lacking evidence to bring them to trial, we must release them, no matter how unsavory their future actions. If we imprison people for crimes they may commit, we have become what we fear. This is not what “Yes We Can” was supposed to mean.
Look around the world baby it can’t be denied
Why are we always on the wrong side. (via)
I despair of my country.
Don’t give up on Obama. That’s the problem with the left. It gives up. Pressure, object and remind him of his promises, but do not give up. He is not George Bush.
Keep the faith.