There’s an interesting little calculator provided on the BBC Website that lets you see where you fit in the history of human population. Wanna know your place in the soon-to-be 7 Billion population of the world? Plug in your birthdate. Here’s me:
— David Innis, from Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Borroughs
— Old American Proverb
Now here’s something I’m really worried about and have been for a long time. Something that makes me more uncomfortable than just about any US Geopolitical or Military action in my lifetime: the expansion of the “Drone War”, particularly the covert version run by the CIA. Link to this excellent article:
The Risks of Obama’s Immoral Drone War
As a longtime student of military history and a proponent of actual armed combat when absolutely necessary, I have a serious problem with the United States feeling that it is perfectly within its rights to run a remote-controlled war in countries where we have no business being. The very thought of someone sitting comfortably at a desk in Langley, VA operating a robot weapon a continent away is something completely appalling. Is it really okay running military and foreign policy like a video game?
The constitutional, not to say moral implications, are staggering in my mind. Where’s the accountability? The transparency? The legality? The following of our constitutionally constructed separation of powers? Killing of American citizens without due process?
Here’s a particularly trenchant paragraph I quote from the article:
Put another way, this single C.I.A. program weakens the separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, and the accountability of America’s leaders to its citizenry. It weakens the separation of powers by diluting Congress’ role in declaring war and shaping foreign policy, as the executive branch operates in any country it sees fit; it weakens the Bill of Rights insofar as it has targeted and will continue to target American citizens for assassination without any due process; and it diminishes the degree to which government is accountable to voters in three ways. 1) It vests substantial power in an opaque bureaucratic agency whose leadership is unaccountable to voters; 2) insofar as it diminishes the Congressional role in foreign policy, it also lessens the people’s influence, especially as exercised through the House of Representatives; 3) by operating in secrecy, it prevents voters from having enough information to judge even the behavior of the president, who has an incentive to hide not just acts that are sensitive for national security reasons, but behavior that would hurt or inconvenience him politically.
The article’s title is a bit provocative and could be construed as being partisan, so let’s be sure to say that the drone programs were begun under President Bush–but they have been radically expanded under “Hope & Change”, Nobel Peace Prize-winning President Obama. Is this really what the morons in Stockholm expected when they jumped the gun and awarded him that prize simply for being elected and not actually doing anything? This is also a perfect example of what folks at the Cato Institute frequently call the “Bush-Obama” years–the political party doesn’t matter at all, it’s the entrenched and over-sized federal government that is breaking all the rules, disregarding constitutionality and radically reshaping the way the US operates.
“But we’re at war!” Or perhaps, “But the terrorists are dangerous and should be taken out”, you might protest.
Bullshit. We’ve gotten completely carried away fighting people in places we have no business being (like Libya–you know, so that our Peace Prize-winning president can parade yet another murdered enemy to the genuflecting press).
If we indeed want to fight, let’s at least be ethical about it by putting boots on the ground and getting after the bad guys, not simply let some CIA agents–trained by playing years of first-person shooters on their PS2s and XBoxes–reduce it to just another game fought during office hours, followed by a nice dinner at home with the family and a beer on the couch in front of the evening news.
As I remember reading in some other online post about this (sorry I can’t recall where), if the US president now has the ability to order the remote-controlled execution of American citizens and others in places like Pakistan or Somalia–why not Chicago? Or Dallas?
No, I’m extremely disturbed by the very idea of remote-controlled warfare…
— Dr. Koichi Kawana
You gotta love the Cato Institute.
Today, Andrew J. Coulson slams the “Jobs Bill”-chunk that Reid-Obama want to shove down America’s throat. I suppose it’s a great idea–if you’re a Teachers’ Union member. For the rest of us, and more importantly our children in need of real education, it’s just another case where we’re being asked to bend over and grab our ankles. It will create no productive jobs and will merely saddle us with more debt. Down we spiral–one great democracy following in the footsteps of the birthplace of democracy…
Read the article because it’s awesome (as usual)–but the picture attached to it which I link below is priceless!
Senator Reid - Greek Tragedy at its finest...
Here’s a reblog from the 15th that I found on Charlie’s Blog. Since it’s “uncopyrighted” I’ve quoted it in its entirety–but excised the gratuitous profanity. I think he makes some excellent points and completely calls it like it is–especially the last paragraph. I’ve bolded some of the bits I particularly liked:
This movement is so…ridiculous. I appreciate their anger, but these folks are clearly a bunch of whiny ass losers looking for their bit of welfare. In short, they are little pigs who came to the trough and are now angry at the big pigs for eating more of the slop. This spontaneous movement has spawned a countermovement on the internet of people ridiculing the 99%. The 53% are the ones who pay federal income tax, and they have started posting their own stories telling these 99% people to suck it up.
My own view of these people is that they are victims of government run amuck. To that extent, they get my sympathy. When I read about an engineering graduate who can’t get a job and has six figure student loan debt, I am not happy about that. When I see a higher ed system addicted to student loans and ever increasing tuition, I think the system is broken. The answer is to end government funding of higher education. This will pop the bubble and return sanity to the system. But the Occupiers don’t see it this way. They want debt forgiveness, a guaranteed job, and a $20 an hour minimum wage. In short, they want a Marxist revolution. Nevermind that these free lunches do not exist.
As things get worse and their numbers grow, the Occupiers will turn violent. There is no such thing as a peaceful Marxist. Tea Parties were peaceful things despite flags of rattlesnakes and people carrying guns on their hips. The reason Tea Parties are peaceful is philosophical. It goes back to the principles of a movement. Tea Party people are sick and tired of being victims of a government that steals from them. Occupiers are pathetic brats that want the government to steal from somebody [on their behalf]. This desire for things that do not belong to them will lead to the sort of unrest you see at the WTO riots, Greece, and the UK. You are going to see stores looted, burning cars, and all the rest.
Occupiers are morally depraved. You are seeing a generation of worthless [morons] playing the passive-aggressive game of victimhood and power. First, they snivel and whine. Then, they loot, pillage, and destroy.
For years, I have wondered why the American Revolution was so much different than the French Revolution. I see why now. It goes back to philosophy. The Americans wanted to keep what belonged to them. The French wanted to take what did not belong to them. That is a crucial distinction.
The absolute last thing we need is more government–they’re the ones who broke everything in the first place. Yet this is precisely what the Occupiers want. That should be more than enough to discredit them.
journey, not destination 