Will Tea Baggers and Progressives Find Common Cause?
Many Progressives feel betrayed by the announced escalation. Many have the gut feel it is morally wrong. Others see the needs at home that won't be met.
Many Tea Baggers reflect a strong isolationist theme expressed most articulately by Ron Paul. "Stop meddling in other nations affairs." Forty-nine percent of Americans now agree we have vital issues at home.
"Yankee go home. Your mama is calling you!"
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Every Democracy Makes Choices
The people voted for officials who reflect their values and interests. It looks like the USA will be in Afghanistan a few more years. Our military and CIA fight the Taliban for control of the lucrative heroin trade.
Our leaders have decided to forgo green jobs, proper health care, clean energy, decent schools and rebuilding the infrastructure.
If the population is upset by this state of affairs, they can buy guns and march on Washington. The Tea Baggers do this regularly. They get what they want because they care about their issues.
At West Point a few lonely souls protested the President's obscene policy. Where were the other 320 millions?
In the 1960's much smaller crowds threw the godless Democratic Party out of town tarred and feathered in disgrace.
Dr. Martin Luther King taught us the white power structure was unwilling to give up anything to us. We had to take it.
Our leaders have decided to forgo green jobs, proper health care, clean energy, decent schools and rebuilding the infrastructure.
If the population is upset by this state of affairs, they can buy guns and march on Washington. The Tea Baggers do this regularly. They get what they want because they care about their issues.
At West Point a few lonely souls protested the President's obscene policy. Where were the other 320 millions?
In the 1960's much smaller crowds threw the godless Democratic Party out of town tarred and feathered in disgrace.
Dr. Martin Luther King taught us the white power structure was unwilling to give up anything to us. We had to take it.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Hero Joseph Henry Burgess May Be Better Off Dead
Hero Joseph Henry Burgess May Be Better Off Dead
United by greed and despising the undeserving 99%'ers, the 1%'ers drive home their agenda with well-oiled efficiency. Within a broad range their interests coincide. The 99%'ers bought into a myth that has left them powerless. When Professor Gates became an issue, the left forgot about single payer. The 1% never forgets anything.
Hero Joseph Henry Burgess Better off Dead
The authorities had been searching for John Henry Burgess for nearly 40 years. There were no warrants on him or pending charges. I imagine he fit the profile of loner with no visible means of support. A woman who loved me had described me thusly as she threw me out.
Joseph Henry Burgess managed to elude the detectives searching for him throughout British Columbia and the American West. The reclusive gentleman knew how to live in the wilderness. Apparently, he broke into summer homes to salvage food and clothing. Homeless and jobless, he was living at subsistence levels one step ahead of the Sheriff.
But he was like a ghost. "We never could get fingerprints from any crime entries, because he was pretty careful about leaving any trace of anything behind," Sandoval County, N.M., Sheriff John Paul Trujillo said Wednesday. "We just could never catch up with this guy."
That all changed last Thursday, when Burgess and one of Trujillo's deputies were killed in a violent confrontation inside a darkened mountain cabin during a stakeout set up to catch a serial burglar. McClatchy
It may be significant that Joseph Henry Burgess chose 1969 as the year to drop out. He abandoned the everyday economy credit cards, mortgages, autos and debt. This would have been sufficient to incur the interest of the authorities. They resent anyone who refuses to play the game and makes it hard to find him.
There Are At Least two "fringe" Issues Needed to Save Mr Burgess and the rest of us. Offhand, I can think of two "socialist" measures that might save us. Unemployment is rising and consumer spending is falling. The EFCA can go a long way in solving these pressing problems. Single payer is the only way out of the health care mess.
Without these enactments, the USA will sink into the Third World a Congo with nuclear weapons.
Adultery by Divine Right
I center about Chip Pickering, John Ensign and Mark Sanders. They believe they have been chosen by God to rule by Divine Right. Thus, they operate above the rule of law. The Constitution and the Ten Commandments are for the suckers known as the common people. The arts, entertainment and media exist to hail corporate hegemony. They promote a false view of capitalism where debt replaces capital. Business rules the roost through public relations, economic clout and advertising.
Joseph Henry Burgess had spent most of his life running from the likes of Pickering, Ensign and Sanders.
The 1%'ers have the true community
Posted by: jbpazz on Jul 26, 2009 2:14 AM
United by greed and despising the undeserving 99%'ers, the 1%'ers drive home their agenda with well-oiled efficiency. Within a broad range their interests coincide. The 99%'ers bought into a myth that has left them powerless. When Professor Gates became an issue, the left forgot about single payer. The 1% never forgets anything.
Surely, Joseph Henry Burgess was over 50 the age of insurability. This limited him to self-employed work as a writer, realtor and other marginal pursuits. The minimum wage jobs on offer do not include health insurance. The 40-hour minimum salary annualized is a little over $15,000. The annual health insurance premium is approximately $13,000.
If he can't be free, John Henry Burgess is better off dead.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Presidential Trip
Bibi and Barack
Barack Obama in the Levant
Wisely, the US leader has been upbeat about his journey to the east, but has not fuelled expectations. The best politician America has produced in the Television Age is not one to tip his hand.
Having publicly demanded that Israel stop building settlements in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank, the President will also ask Arab nations collectively to recognize Israel's existence.
Tying together all the elements of such a speech is no easy proposition, for his worldwide audience — Muslim and non-Muslim — has multiple competing priorities and concerns.
Consider: Lebanese go to the polls just three days after he speaks, Iranians will be preparing for pivotal elections June 12 and both contests pit moderate parties against radical forces. Afghans and Pakistanis are girding for increased U.S. military and political engagement. [Mc Klatchey]
Palestinians and Israelis have conflicting stakes. In the U.S., Republicans will be looking for any window to paint the Democratic president as anti-American, anti-Israel or soft on terrorism.
"It's a very high bar to clear. The expectations are immense," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, the director of the Middle East Democracy and Development Project at the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "No matter how broadly he speaks, what he says will be parsed through the lens of those disagreements."
Obama won't lay out a detailed vision for resolving the Arab-Israeli crisis. "I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," the president said Thursday. "That will require, I think, recognition on both the part of the United States as well as many majority Muslim countries about each other, a better sense of understanding, and I think possibilities to achieve common ground."
Obama would like to rally Muslim countries to join in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program. While many Arab governments also see Iran as a threat, however, the issue divides Muslims, in part because Israel is pressing for military action.
Obama Begins to Be Realistic
Why should Arabs undergo a negotiation process if the President alone can rip concessions from Israel? 74% of Israelis believe that Barack Obama won't gain anything for us. Iran's proxies have attacked us twice in three years. This is why 84% of us believe Iran's nuclear development is unlikely to be peaceful. Turkey and Saudi Arabia agree. Both nations have asked permission to begin nuclear programs. They held still when only Israel had WMD. As Iran approaches nuclear status, they want it too.
When Mr Obama was campaigning, he denounced Bush administration policies. After the Inauguration, we saw Obama carrying on with cosmetic changes to the old policies. Now, we see him shift to a wide range of the Bush agenda. With many of my countrymen, I welcome the awakening of realism in Obama.
Obama has already decided how to deal with Israelis
The President has decided to delay talks about Iran's nukes for two years. This should be enough time for her to develop her own WMD or to buy them. Obama has placed Israeli and Iranian lives in Ahmadinejad's hands. People who enjoy TV accounts of nuclear events will be thrilled.
The President should follow advice to ignore the AIPAC letter. It might offend him. Also, he should ignore the millions of ordinary Israeli and Iranian nationals who don't want to be vaporized. Their deaths might cast a pall on the NBA play-offs.
"Enlightened individuals live in bliss and harmony with all. There is nothing to fear in their minds. There are stories of Yogis who could pet tigers in the jungles of India.
Fear-drenched dualists, at war with the Eternal Enemy, suffer endless daily deaths and agonies, compounded by barbarities perpetrated to try to defeat this enemy, never realizing that this is simply the absurd act of the right hand trying to destroy the left hand, or vice-versa, and wondering why one feels so badly all the time, that is if they recognize their feelings at all. Denial is a big factor in the psychotic mindset.
Where does the Israeli State fall on the scale between enlightened vision and psychotic vision?"
Mac McKinney
The Ways of the Torah are Sweet
After two serious years in Vietnam, the USA went nuts. They were to remain so for forty years. They collapsed on 9/11 into fear and are still mired. Americans sometimes ask me. After 61 years of hostility, seven wars and three Intifadas, how does any Israeli manage a semblance of normal life? The answer is to walk in the ways of the Torah keeping the diversions minimal. I have a picture of my son on the battlefield deeply into his morning prayers.
That's how.
How Old Is Barack Obama? How Old is His Country?
Whatever answers you give, Israel and I are about 5700 years older. Over the years we have walked the walk and thought the thought a full range of human experience. What's more, we could write our history [the Bible] and read it to our children. There is nothing new under the sun. If an upstart poses a problem, there is a scholar who will get the answer to it from an ancient sage on line.
We dealt with Alexander the Great and we will deal with Barack Obama.
Prosecuting Those Who Torture
Prosecuting Those Who Torture
What is so Difficult about Catching Torturers?
'Serbia: Torture or Therapy? '
by Sinisa Boljanovic, Global Voices
Last week, on May 21, a short film about torture in the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka", located in south-western Serbia, was shown on the web site of the Time (Vreme), a Serbian weekly magazine. The patients of this center are drug addicts and its head is Branislav Peranovic, a Serbian Orthodox priest.
Nearly all Serbian media have shown the horrible scenes from the short film, in which Peranovic is shown beating one of the patients brutally with a spade and with his fists.
Ombudsman of citizens, Sasa Jankovic, is one of the officials who reacted very quickly. According to the Vreme web site, Jankovic said that he had brought criminal charges against nine identified persons from the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka" near Novi Pazar because of quackery and committing assault and battery. Jankovic also said that, according to the video, it was obvious that the patients of the center had been injured very seriously and that could not be a treatment or therapy.
Serbian bloggers reacted to the report very quickly, too, and so did representatives of the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka" and the Serbian Orthodox Church.
What is the Serbian magic for cleaning up a den of torture? It's called community action. The magazine showed the torture film on its web site. The Serbian national media showed it nationally. The Ombudsman quickly brought to nine perpetrators to book. The Rehabilitation Center officials and the Serbian Orthodox Church hastened to help the abused patients. In one week they have ended the horrible story.
Why has it taken six years since the torture at Gitmo first became known? The Americans still haven't got it right. Here's a distinguished panel to discuss the delay.
[[TORTURE1]]
The panel in this first video interacted freely. Unlike American talk shows the panelists disagreed, but with polite respect. Oh, I forgot to mention the show is on the Aljazeera/English network.
In the second installment below we will see the results of the discussion.
[[TORTURE2]]
Well, I hope you weren't too disappointed. It seems that many government Agencies were involved in torture. Apparently, no whistle blowers emerged. The guilty parties have covered this sordid affair with a large national security blanket. Did you expect differently?
You see; our so-called national security conducts CYA activities to keep their nefarious acts from our view. They used torture for their amusement and our entertainment. This is only to delude us to distract us from the real business.
Sadly for them, they assumed I wouldn't find the Serbian story. With it, you know how to imprison your local corrupt officials through grassroots efforts.
To reward you for your kind attention, I present a wonderful interlude from Burma.
Burma VJ
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to Burma’s video journalists who insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country despite risking torture and life in jail. Armed with small handycams they make their undercover reportages, smuggle the material out of the country, have it broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media.
[[BURMAVJ]]
”Joshua”, age 27 and one of the undercover VJs, is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when Buddhist monks in September 2007 lead a massive uprising. Foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over. As government intelligence agents understand the power of the camera, the VJs soon become their prime target. During the turbulent days of September, Joshua finds himself on an emotional rollercoaster between hope and despair, as he frantically tries to keep track of his reporters in the streets while the great uprising unfolds.
With Joshua as the psychological lens, high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state is made tangible to a global audience.
[[BURMA]]
What is so Difficult about Catching Torturers?
'Serbia: Torture or Therapy? '
by Sinisa Boljanovic, Global Voices
Last week, on May 21, a short film about torture in the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka", located in south-western Serbia, was shown on the web site of the Time (Vreme), a Serbian weekly magazine. The patients of this center are drug addicts and its head is Branislav Peranovic, a Serbian Orthodox priest.
Nearly all Serbian media have shown the horrible scenes from the short film, in which Peranovic is shown beating one of the patients brutally with a spade and with his fists.
Ombudsman of citizens, Sasa Jankovic, is one of the officials who reacted very quickly. According to the Vreme web site, Jankovic said that he had brought criminal charges against nine identified persons from the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka" near Novi Pazar because of quackery and committing assault and battery. Jankovic also said that, according to the video, it was obvious that the patients of the center had been injured very seriously and that could not be a treatment or therapy.
Serbian bloggers reacted to the report very quickly, too, and so did representatives of the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka" and the Serbian Orthodox Church.
What is the Serbian magic for cleaning up a den of torture? It's called community action. The magazine showed the torture film on its web site. The Serbian national media showed it nationally. The Ombudsman quickly brought to nine perpetrators to book. The Rehabilitation Center officials and the Serbian Orthodox Church hastened to help the abused patients. In one week they have ended the horrible story.
Why has it taken six years since the torture at Gitmo first became known? The Americans still haven't got it right. Here's a distinguished panel to discuss the delay.
[[TORTURE1]]
The panel in this first video interacted freely. Unlike American talk shows the panelists disagreed, but with polite respect. Oh, I forgot to mention the show is on the Aljazeera/English network.
In the second installment below we will see the results of the discussion.
[[TORTURE2]]
Well, I hope you weren't too disappointed. It seems that many government Agencies were involved in torture. Apparently, no whistle blowers emerged. The guilty parties have covered this sordid affair with a large national security blanket. Did you expect differently?
You see; our so-called national security conducts CYA activities to keep their nefarious acts from our view. They used torture for their amusement and our entertainment. This is only to delude us to distract us from the real business.
Sadly for them, they assumed I wouldn't find the Serbian story. With it, you know how to imprison your local corrupt officials through grassroots efforts.
To reward you for your kind attention, I present a wonderful interlude from Burma.
Burma VJ
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to Burma’s video journalists who insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country despite risking torture and life in jail. Armed with small handycams they make their undercover reportages, smuggle the material out of the country, have it broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media.
[[BURMAVJ]]
”Joshua”, age 27 and one of the undercover VJs, is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when Buddhist monks in September 2007 lead a massive uprising. Foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over. As government intelligence agents understand the power of the camera, the VJs soon become their prime target. During the turbulent days of September, Joshua finds himself on an emotional rollercoaster between hope and despair, as he frantically tries to keep track of his reporters in the streets while the great uprising unfolds.
With Joshua as the psychological lens, high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state is made tangible to a global audience.
[[BURMA]]
Murder in the Name of Honor
Rana Husseini discusses her campaigning journalism and her new book, Murder in the Name of Honor.
Each year 5,000 girls and women around the world are killed by male relatives as a means of purging a family of shame brought upon it by the behavior of his sister, daughter, wife or mother.
In journalist Rana Husseini’s homeland of Jordan, 25 women are murdered each year and many more spend their life in prison as the authorities have no other way of guaranteeing that their family would not kill them if they are set free.
Common in many traditional societies and in migrant communities in Europe and the United States, honor killings and other punishments are carried out to restore the honor of a family
The so-called crimes that require ‘cleansing’ can range from a suspected affair to refusing to marry a man chosen for her.
Despite the taboo surrounding the issue, the award winning journalist Rana Husseini has been writing about ‘honor killings’ since joining the Jordan Times in 1994. In 1998 she was awarded a Reebok Award for Human Rights and her persistence in covering this issue has brought an otherwise ignored subject into the public arena in Jordan.
The Best of The Black Iris on Honor Killing
By kinziblogs
Nas at The Black Iris has been one of the most persistent male voices calling for change at every level in regard to dishonor killings. He supplied the archived post links, and going back over them, and the comments, was like a little history lesson for me.
If you missed any of these, they are worth going back to:
http://www.black-iris.com/2006/07/29/the-most-dishonorable-crime-in-jordan/
“Other than how detestable I find the very idea of these crimes to be as well as the criminally negligent behavior of our own parliament that refuses to pass or accept legislation to remove the honor crime status in our judicial system, I am constantly surprised at the brutality that some of these people inflict on their own kin. Some honor crimes are basic shootings, which granted does not make them any more or less humane however others, such as this one, use weapons likes axes and literally hack away at their relative, or their own daughter and sister in this case. Some have gone so far as to chop up their bodies into pieces as if this was an episode of the Sopranos and it was just another ‘hit’.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/03/18/verbatim/
“…one would face a longer jail sentence for bouncing a cheque than for killing a woman.”
Jordanian journalist/activist Rana Husseini speaking at a seminar in Doha
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/10/02/more-bad-math/
“Almost two years before the incident, one of the victims filed a lawsuit against the defendant accusing him of sexually assaulting her, court transcripts said.
The defendant was tried at the Criminal Court on molestation charges, but was acquitted one month before the murder.
More recently, the court added, the same victim filed a lawsuit accusing her father of sexual assault and he was subsequently arrested and detained.
The four victims all testified against their father, which angered the defendant so he invited them to dinner to discuss the matter the court said.
During dinner, the defendant tried to convince his sisters to drop charges or change their testimony as their father would otherwise end up in jail for at least 15 years, but they refused.
Instead, one of the victims threatened the defendant that she would file a case against him, which angered him and he drew a gun he was carrying and shot them all, the court said.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/01/08/more-honorable-arithmetic/
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/02/21/honoring-thy-sister/
“The suspect, who was not identified by officials, reportedly stabbed his 26-year-old sister seven times in the stomach on Tuesday, shortly after signing a guarantee that he would not harm his sibling who was in protective custody, the source said. Immediately after the incident, he went to a nearby police station, handed on-duty officers the knife he reportedly used in the incident and informed them that he killed his sister for reasons related to family honor, the source added.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/05/14/a-little-tough-on-honor/
“A court in Jordan has sentenced a 23-year-old man to 10 years in jail for killing his sister. The man was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to give him the chance to repent.
The court heard that he stabbed his sister 14 times and shot her repeatedly after her former husband accused her of having affairs. Jordanians convicted of so called “honor killings” have previously been jailed for as little as six months.
Correspondents say the 10-year sentence underlines the authorities’ determination to stamp out the crime. Amnesty International says that last year 17 women were officially recorded as having been killed in “honor crimes” in Jordan. [source]
They should’ve given him the death sentence. That would’ve gone a long way to underlining the authorities’ determination to stamp out the crime; a long way.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/07/17/how-jordanian-women-can-overcome-honor-crimes/
“I’m not advocating anything here, and let me be clear right off the bat about the degree of cynicism and sarcasm laced within the following lines in case it should be missed by anyone, however, it needs to be addressed in whatever way possible. And frankly, I’m sick of talking about honor crimes in this country and how the law should be changed. So I thought offering practical solutions might help.
Since the legal system isn’t going to be changed any time soon with regards to honor crimes in Jordan, and since honor crimes – and murder for that matter – is going to happen anyways, then I think Jordanian women should kill their husbands, fathers, brothers, fiances, and/or cousins who they believe are a threat to them and on their lives.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/09/23/a-man-is-valued-by-his-sisters-behavior-ruling-on-an-honor-crime/
“With recent debates on the blogosphere about the rule-of-law in Jordan, and how it can be abused by authority figures for the sake of pushing personal values and beliefs on everyone – which is obviously no way to run an objective judicial system – I can’t help but wonder if the same can said here.
Here we have a group of judges who essentially condone the actions of this young man based on their interpretation of local customs and values; justifying his taking of a life for a lesser crime his sister committed. The judges become the perpetrator’s defense team.
Each year 5,000 girls and women around the world are killed by male relatives as a means of purging a family of shame brought upon it by the behavior of his sister, daughter, wife or mother.
In journalist Rana Husseini’s homeland of Jordan, 25 women are murdered each year and many more spend their life in prison as the authorities have no other way of guaranteeing that their family would not kill them if they are set free.
Common in many traditional societies and in migrant communities in Europe and the United States, honor killings and other punishments are carried out to restore the honor of a family
The so-called crimes that require ‘cleansing’ can range from a suspected affair to refusing to marry a man chosen for her.
Despite the taboo surrounding the issue, the award winning journalist Rana Husseini has been writing about ‘honor killings’ since joining the Jordan Times in 1994. In 1998 she was awarded a Reebok Award for Human Rights and her persistence in covering this issue has brought an otherwise ignored subject into the public arena in Jordan.
The Best of The Black Iris on Honor Killing
By kinziblogs
Nas at The Black Iris has been one of the most persistent male voices calling for change at every level in regard to dishonor killings. He supplied the archived post links, and going back over them, and the comments, was like a little history lesson for me.
If you missed any of these, they are worth going back to:
http://www.black-iris.com/2006/07/29/the-most-dishonorable-crime-in-jordan/
“Other than how detestable I find the very idea of these crimes to be as well as the criminally negligent behavior of our own parliament that refuses to pass or accept legislation to remove the honor crime status in our judicial system, I am constantly surprised at the brutality that some of these people inflict on their own kin. Some honor crimes are basic shootings, which granted does not make them any more or less humane however others, such as this one, use weapons likes axes and literally hack away at their relative, or their own daughter and sister in this case. Some have gone so far as to chop up their bodies into pieces as if this was an episode of the Sopranos and it was just another ‘hit’.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/03/18/verbatim/
“…one would face a longer jail sentence for bouncing a cheque than for killing a woman.”
Jordanian journalist/activist Rana Husseini speaking at a seminar in Doha
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/10/02/more-bad-math/
“Almost two years before the incident, one of the victims filed a lawsuit against the defendant accusing him of sexually assaulting her, court transcripts said.
The defendant was tried at the Criminal Court on molestation charges, but was acquitted one month before the murder.
More recently, the court added, the same victim filed a lawsuit accusing her father of sexual assault and he was subsequently arrested and detained.
The four victims all testified against their father, which angered the defendant so he invited them to dinner to discuss the matter the court said.
During dinner, the defendant tried to convince his sisters to drop charges or change their testimony as their father would otherwise end up in jail for at least 15 years, but they refused.
Instead, one of the victims threatened the defendant that she would file a case against him, which angered him and he drew a gun he was carrying and shot them all, the court said.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/01/08/more-honorable-arithmetic/
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/02/21/honoring-thy-sister/
“The suspect, who was not identified by officials, reportedly stabbed his 26-year-old sister seven times in the stomach on Tuesday, shortly after signing a guarantee that he would not harm his sibling who was in protective custody, the source said. Immediately after the incident, he went to a nearby police station, handed on-duty officers the knife he reportedly used in the incident and informed them that he killed his sister for reasons related to family honor, the source added.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/05/14/a-little-tough-on-honor/
“A court in Jordan has sentenced a 23-year-old man to 10 years in jail for killing his sister. The man was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to give him the chance to repent.
The court heard that he stabbed his sister 14 times and shot her repeatedly after her former husband accused her of having affairs. Jordanians convicted of so called “honor killings” have previously been jailed for as little as six months.
Correspondents say the 10-year sentence underlines the authorities’ determination to stamp out the crime. Amnesty International says that last year 17 women were officially recorded as having been killed in “honor crimes” in Jordan. [source]
They should’ve given him the death sentence. That would’ve gone a long way to underlining the authorities’ determination to stamp out the crime; a long way.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/07/17/how-jordanian-women-can-overcome-honor-crimes/
“I’m not advocating anything here, and let me be clear right off the bat about the degree of cynicism and sarcasm laced within the following lines in case it should be missed by anyone, however, it needs to be addressed in whatever way possible. And frankly, I’m sick of talking about honor crimes in this country and how the law should be changed. So I thought offering practical solutions might help.
Since the legal system isn’t going to be changed any time soon with regards to honor crimes in Jordan, and since honor crimes – and murder for that matter – is going to happen anyways, then I think Jordanian women should kill their husbands, fathers, brothers, fiances, and/or cousins who they believe are a threat to them and on their lives.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/09/23/a-man-is-valued-by-his-sisters-behavior-ruling-on-an-honor-crime/
“With recent debates on the blogosphere about the rule-of-law in Jordan, and how it can be abused by authority figures for the sake of pushing personal values and beliefs on everyone – which is obviously no way to run an objective judicial system – I can’t help but wonder if the same can said here.
Here we have a group of judges who essentially condone the actions of this young man based on their interpretation of local customs and values; justifying his taking of a life for a lesser crime his sister committed. The judges become the perpetrator’s defense team.
Tiananmen Square: Free Speech Crushed
Tiananmen Square Government Crushes Hope for Free Speech
Twenty years on, it's easy to find the exact spot where a young man in a white shirt, clutching a plastic carrier bag, stood in front of a growling tank on Chang An Avenue in the centre of Beijing.
Pictures went around the world of him talking - arguing? - with the driver. But today it's impossible to find out what happened to him.
In 1989, hundreds of protesters were eager to talk on camera about their desire for a more just society and their hope for change.
Eager to advance economically in the twentieth century, the Chinese leadership had recognized they had to educate the people. The danger was the workers would at once have the tools to think for themselves. Most of them were able to see through the silliness that was Communism.
The leaders called the dissidents the "dregs of society," but they could not defeat their ideas. They had to outmuscle them.
Here's how they did it on June 4, 1989.
[[TIANANMEN]]
Our Right to be Free from Fear
Bob Chen, Global Voices
Blogger Lan Xiaohuan （兰小欢）, in his post ‘Bitter Smile', reflects on how a nation permeated with fear has muzzled people's voice. Lamenting that the cost to claim the rights of a citizen is getting higher today, he also lampooned the infusing fear that crushes people's courage and love, concluding that Chinese have never really stood up without fear.
The western journalists ask. "When will you stand up?"
I was angry with their question, ‘Damn it, we have never really stood up before. We have always been crawling on the ground so why can't we just stand up occasionally to take a break? We submit to humiliation to our countrymen at home so that we have to hold our heads high to you foreigners. Or we will be suffocated by our simmering fury!'
So, if we adults have to bend over on the ground with humiliation, how would we educate our children about ‘courage' and ‘love'? What we can do is but to tell them fairy tales about courage and love when they are children, and at the time they are going to make it real, we will shout, ‘ No! Stay low!'
Maybe next time when I am back to China, I should visit the Tiananmen Square to talk with the dead bodies lying there, ‘Look, how much have they scared you!'.
The blocked sites include Twitter, Flickr and Microsoft’s Hotmail, according to the Telegraph. FoxNews added The Huffington Post, Life Journal and the MSN Spaces blogging tool to the list. BBC viewers in China also saw their screens black out when the news service broadcast stories about the anniversary, and foreign news crews have been barred from filming in the square. Readers of the Financial Times and Economist magazine found stories about Tiananmen ripped from their pages. Authorities also plan to begin cracking down on unapproved internet cafes, according to reports from state media.
The blocked sites are just a few among thousands that China’s censors have targeted since the beginning of last year.
The martyrs of Tiananmen Square were neither the "dregs of society" or revolutionaries. They didn't want to overthrow the government. They stood and died for First Amendment rights. They still wait.
Twenty years on, it's easy to find the exact spot where a young man in a white shirt, clutching a plastic carrier bag, stood in front of a growling tank on Chang An Avenue in the centre of Beijing.
Pictures went around the world of him talking - arguing? - with the driver. But today it's impossible to find out what happened to him.
In 1989, hundreds of protesters were eager to talk on camera about their desire for a more just society and their hope for change.
Eager to advance economically in the twentieth century, the Chinese leadership had recognized they had to educate the people. The danger was the workers would at once have the tools to think for themselves. Most of them were able to see through the silliness that was Communism.
The leaders called the dissidents the "dregs of society," but they could not defeat their ideas. They had to outmuscle them.
Here's how they did it on June 4, 1989.
[[TIANANMEN]]
Our Right to be Free from Fear
Bob Chen, Global Voices
Blogger Lan Xiaohuan （兰小欢）, in his post ‘Bitter Smile', reflects on how a nation permeated with fear has muzzled people's voice. Lamenting that the cost to claim the rights of a citizen is getting higher today, he also lampooned the infusing fear that crushes people's courage and love, concluding that Chinese have never really stood up without fear.
The western journalists ask. "When will you stand up?"
I was angry with their question, ‘Damn it, we have never really stood up before. We have always been crawling on the ground so why can't we just stand up occasionally to take a break? We submit to humiliation to our countrymen at home so that we have to hold our heads high to you foreigners. Or we will be suffocated by our simmering fury!'
So, if we adults have to bend over on the ground with humiliation, how would we educate our children about ‘courage' and ‘love'? What we can do is but to tell them fairy tales about courage and love when they are children, and at the time they are going to make it real, we will shout, ‘ No! Stay low!'
Maybe next time when I am back to China, I should visit the Tiananmen Square to talk with the dead bodies lying there, ‘Look, how much have they scared you!'.
The blocked sites include Twitter, Flickr and Microsoft’s Hotmail, according to the Telegraph. FoxNews added The Huffington Post, Life Journal and the MSN Spaces blogging tool to the list. BBC viewers in China also saw their screens black out when the news service broadcast stories about the anniversary, and foreign news crews have been barred from filming in the square. Readers of the Financial Times and Economist magazine found stories about Tiananmen ripped from their pages. Authorities also plan to begin cracking down on unapproved internet cafes, according to reports from state media.
The blocked sites are just a few among thousands that China’s censors have targeted since the beginning of last year.
The martyrs of Tiananmen Square were neither the "dregs of society" or revolutionaries. They didn't want to overthrow the government. They stood and died for First Amendment rights. They still wait.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
