In his column Don’t Get Weak: Random thoughts on the passing scene, Thomas Sowell lets us know what’s on his mind: the desirability of a military coup:
When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.
May 3rd, 2007
American ally Egypt, has sentenced Al-Jazeera reporter Huwaida Taha Mitwalli
to six months in prison on charges of “possessing and giving false pictures about the internal situation in Egypt that could undermine the dignity of the country” in connection with an Al-Jazeera documentary she made about torture in Egypt. The court also fined her 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US$3,518). An Egyptian national, Taha is currently free on bail in Qatar, pending appeal.
Human Rights Watch has more background on the case:
Husain `Abd al-Ghani, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Cairo, told reporters the videotapes showed documentary reenactments of torture in Egyptian detention facilities. The arrest follows public outcry over a series of videotapes apparently depicting prisoner abuse in Egyptian detention facilities, including one tape showing a Cairo microbus driver being raped in police custody.
May 3rd, 2007
As Congress backs down from putting a limit on the war, John Edwards airs ad calling on them to stand firm:
Juan Cole says this is bad politics:
It is satisfying to say so, but it probably isn’t good political tactics. When Newt Gingrich played politics with the budget under Clinton and even shut down DC, it was Congress that took the hit in the polls. Just being obstreperous isn’t very attractive.
But what kind of politics is caving in, with unenforceable “benchmarks” that all know are jokes?
After all, the Congressional bill, which funded the butchery for 18 more months, was an extreme compromise to begin with.
May 3rd, 2007
Yet another group is suffering from exposure to the toxic environment that is Iraq post-occupation:
U.S. diplomats returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder
U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with the same debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.
Larry Brown, the State Department’s director of medical services, said that as early as this month the department will e-mail questionnaires to employees who have been posted in Iraq.
Most diplomats spend little time outside the (relatively) safe Green Zone. If life in the Green Zone for a brief while leads to PTSD, it is virtually impossible to even imagine the mental health status of Iraqis, with no escape from worry, fear, and chaos.
1 comment May 3rd, 2007
Thoroughly believable:
Vatican calls verbal attack on Pope “terrorism”
ROME (Reuters) – The Vatican’s official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of “terrorism” for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.
In an unusually strongly worded editorial, L’Osservatore Romano said a presenter of a televised May Day rock concert, which is sponsored by Italy’s labor unions, had launched “vile attacks” on Pope Benedict in front of an “excitable crowd”.
“This, too, is terrorism. It’s terrorism to launch attacks on the Church,” it said. “It’s terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man.”
And what was this “terrorism?”
“The Pope says he doesn’t believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved,” he said.
He also criticized the Church for refusing to give a Catholic funeral to Piergiorgio Welby, a man who campaigned for euthanasia as he lay paralyzed with muscular dystrophy. He died in December after a doctor agreed to unplug his respirator.
“I can’t stand the fact that the Vatican refused a funeral for Welby but that wasn’t the case for (Chilean dictator Augusto) Pinochet or (Spanish dictator Francisco) Franco,” he said between musical acts at the open-air concert.
Calling someone a “terrorist” in today’s culture is a call for their destruction. The Catholic Church, in recovery from its decades long conspiracy to protect pedophiles, is now acting as a purveyor of hate speech.
1 comment May 3rd, 2007
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