Beside Myself

Is it possible that things could be so overwhelming that we just don't know what to do? Is it possible that we clung wholeheartedly to the presents and vacation and family and football and weather and everything else at the end of the year just so that we didn't have to think about what was going on in the world?

More than possible I think.

Seems like we've all got a severe case of SEP syndrome. Like if we don't look at things they will just go away and we won't have to think about them anymore. Its just too much.

Should we recap, just a little, in case you've been watching the mine rescue?

Everyone remembers earlier this year we had enemy combatants, and that we were moving them from country to country, to prisons set up outside the law of the US and not really covered by the Geneva Convention by presidential edict. Slowly but sure ly this comes out little by little and the denials and stories keep pace with each other, and every time someone opens their mouth all you can be sure of is that you aren't hearing the whole story.

The next chapter of this lovely story was that potentially US contractor or foreign allies were possibly involved with torturing prisoners to facilitate interrogation.

Haven't they seen the "Chain of Command" Next Gen episode?

Whether they did or not, whether they are or not, the reluctance of the administration to rule it out is sad. And I don't think sad in a "You can't handle the truth!" kind of way, more in a "if we're up to that then they've already won" kind of way. The fine print, that they finally gave in and allowed the legislation, but only after they redefine the words torture and cruel and inhumane is sad. I gather now if you look those items up in the official government glossary it says that torture involves rewarding answers with ice cream - certainly they don't do that, well then, its ok to say we don't torture.

ugh.

Then, almost as if to keep one from thinking of the first instance, we have the next revelation. The NSA has been doing warrantless wiretaps. Of course, more fine print, they are all calls involving overseas parties.

Besides, warrantless searches only jam you up if you plan to use them in court.

What did Sam's call girl friend Laurie say? "You're the good guys, you don't do this."

Yes we do.

The other shoe? This past week, while driving from one end of the country to the other, searching for NPR in the comprehensive radio coverage of Rush that is Ohio, I happened to hear a story that discussed how the administration was fighting language that would make it more difficult for the United States to employ foreign contractors that participate in human trafficking.

Come again?

We are suddenly having difficulty specifying that slavery is bad?

Just how embarrassing does this shit have to get before we take some collective action against the leaders of this administration? We're well beyond even the original very real charges of the Starr Investigation. This is no blue dress. I don't want to be partisan here because I think this is "the Dark Side" here, not politics - but COME ON ALREADY!

Torture? Warrantless Searches? Slavery?

Changing the dictionary doesn't make the behavior formerly known as torture ok.
Just cuz you're not going to charge someone doesn't make privacy invasion ok.
The only thing I think that could darken the national historical shame over slavery would be to not stand up and state clearly for the rest of history that all slavery in any context is wrong.

Who are we?

Listen. I am SURE, positive, I don't have all the facts here. And I am SURE, positive, that there are mitigating circumstances that make all of these things seem like good ideas to those people calling the shots. But if even an inkling of this stuff is for real, we are off the reservation.

There ought to be a law. Crap, that might not be enough.