Tag: America

I guess we will see, eh?

With the co-founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, now behind bars — right where an absurd amount of people think he belongs (take last night, when David Letterman spoke his name in his monologue, it received a chorus of boo’s, only to be equalled a little later by mention of Sarah Palin’s name, which says everything) — and, shockingly, having his bail denied (where’s he seriously going to run to?), context and acceptance of reality have never been more needed.

Fact is, he turned himself in. I wonder if people are asking themselves why that might be? Here’s a thought. Could it be there is no better way for him to demonstrate the power of people’s need to see the truth? As Jesus H Chris so poignantly stated a week ago Monday, “[i]f you are still fool enough to believe this system doesn’t reek like fetid plop, maybe these documents will help you see the light.” Though, personally, I’m not so optimistic people will take the initiative.

It has been said previously, if Assange is arrested or assassinated, the leaks will continue. Meaning WikiLeaks is bigger than any one person. Including Julian Assange.

I guess we will see, eh?

When all is said and done

What could I add to a quote from Robert Fisk’s recent piece The shaming of America about the recent WikiLeaks disclosure of “The Iraq War Logs”? Not a fuck of a lot. So;

The truth, of course, is that if this vast treasury of secret reports had proved that the body count was much lower than trumpeted by the press, that US soldiers never tolerated Iraqi police torture, rarely shot civilians at checkpoints and always brought killer mercenaries to account, US generals would be handing these files out to journalists free of charge on the steps of the Pentagon. They are furious not because secrecy has been breached, or because blood may be spilt, but because they have been caught out telling the lies we always knew they told…

Typical Fisk fashion, pure class!

Accepting Myth as Reality

I just watched Chris Hedges give a talk concerning his new book, The Death of the Liberal Class. And I know I say this much too often to remain relevant anymore, but if you’ve ever taken my advice and actually visited any of the websites I’ve cited here in the past, I assure you this is not the time to start ignoring me. Everyone must witness what was said for themselves.

In short;

We can’t talk about hope until we’ve grasped reality…

Keep in mind, I saw these series of video’s after reading Yves Engler’s piece UN vote reveals what world thinks of Canadian foreign policy this week.

We all, Canadian’s most definitely included, need to swiftly remove our heads, as abruptly as possible, from our collective hind parts and stop accepting myth (a.k.a. illusion) as reality…

Hatred, Intolerance, and Fear

On todays episode of Democracy Now!, in their last segment, Gainesville Muslim Community Organizes Vigils, Teach-Ins to Counter Planned Quran Burning, Moustafa Bayoumi, author of How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America, spoke a bunch of words I wish were in the media much more often than not;

… What we find of late, I think, is a disturbing measure of what it means to be an American. I, in fact, think that it’s also important to place the anti-Muslim sentiment that we see today alongside the kind of anti-immigrant feeling that we see today. So I think if we consider the Arizona initiatives, for example, or just the general pervasive anti-immigrant feeling that you have, directed largely against Latinos and Hispanics in this country, alongside the anti-Muslim sentiment — and I would also put in that same parameter the polling data that we see that sees that President Obama is — 20 percent of the population wants to say that President Obama is a Muslim. I think that that’s actually a thinly disguised way of talking about President Obama’s racial background. It’s a way of saying he’s not like us. And so, rather than using the traditional language, the traditional discourse of race in this country, which is to call him an African American or such [like that abhorrent n-word?], they call him instead a Muslim [and a Socialist], which is a[n unjustly accepted, but no less obvious] way of saying he’s not one of us…

Yesterday’s middle part of The Current — the first half, especially — Persecution, rather effectively sets an absolutely frightening context on the lunacy of the anti-Islamic attitudes plaguing America, specifically, but the world, in general. Exactly why are people so afraid of labelling these (and other) acts of hatred, intolerance, and fear for what they so clearly happen to be? And why is it tolerated?