Tuesday, June 12, 2007

America's Last Chance

In his June 12, 2007 column, Rich Lowry, speaking of the Bush Administration and the most recent Congresses, says: "A government can't ignore its own laws without creating deep suspicions about its motives." I don't think suspicion is the appropriate response. A government can't ignore its own laws and also maintain its legitimacy. The Bush Administration and the Republicans in the present and last Congress have treated the law of the land as something only to be applied to their opponents and enemies. They have violated the Constitution and/or their oaths to support and defend it. The Bush Administration has violated the Constitution, federal and international law. They are lawless.

The U. S. government in its current behavior is illegitimate. Listen, please, to the words from our Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government... "

We don't need a new Constitution, we need to remove the criminals from office immediately that they violate the law of the land along with all of those in government who obstruct the justice due these people. Ah, but you see, as long as Republicans control or can block the law enforcement mechanisms of the government there will be no justice from within the system.

If Americans do not vote almost all Republicans from office, America will continue to be a criminal enterprise controlled by that party. Electing Democrats and holding them to the same standard is the only possible step before legitimate revolution.

The Criminal Party Has Its Way Again

The Senate was unable to vote no-confidence in the corrupt, warrantless-wiretapping, torturing Attorney General, Alberto "Abu" Gonzales, because all but seven of the Republican Senators said that disapproving of this Administration's behavior as exemplified by Gonzales was just a political stunt. The bottom line is that the Republican Party is mostly an organized criminal gang.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Sam Harris: Strange Sociology, Strangled Truth

As I was reading Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation , I came to a dead stop on page ninety when I read this: "There is, after all, nothing more natural than rape." Now, there is much in Harris' sophomoric, hyperbolic style, which often masquerades as logical argument that I can overlook, the source considered, but this I cannot. If you were going to argue this, you'd have to argue that this act is more natural even than breathing, eating or sleeping. But, of course, Harris doesn't argue this. He asserts it to be true. Which on the most cursory examination, it isn't.

Granted Americans and the world need people willing to confront and dispute the irrational and sometimes lethal beliefs and hypocrisy of fundamentalist Christians, but what they don't need is more lies or more irrational propaganda. That is, they don't need Sam Harris.