Tag: Politics

The Same Standard?

What’s with people? You’d think with the debacle of the “War On Terror,” and Iraq specifically, American “Conservative’s” would scrutinize what they have to say a little harder before talking their shit, eh? I know, how dare I.

So it’s been 10 days since WikiLeaks released 76,000 classified Afghan war documents — and yet some 15,000 additional documents have been deliberately withheld, for the very reason they’re being accused of disregarding already, that being security — that describes the war as something other than what the Imperial Propagandist’s wish us to believe. For the record, I think it’s reprehensible! For attempting to hold Barack Obama to his “promise” of transparency? Where does WikiLeaks and its founder and “editor-in-chief,” Julian Assange, get off? Don’t they know the American Government is not responsible to anyone? Least of all its citizens? I mean, fuck, right?

But what’s done is done. And we now have what has been described as a “game changer” by some, but the American Government itself, up ’til last week at least, has labelled it as “nothing new?” Yet their attacks on WikiLeaks and Assange, have increased? All led by the irresponsible Right-Wing Douche-bag’s who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground, on the best of days? Am I missing something? I can’t believe I’m typing this, what happened to the American Government? It wasn’t that long ago where they, while under the rule of George W. Bush, chose a stance and, rather arrogantly, stuck with it all the way into the ground!

I’ve said this before, here goes one more time, is this what hope brought us?

Continue reading The Same Standard?

“Why Resist the G20 in Toronto?”

Today, over at If I Can’t Dance Is It Still My Revolution, A.J. Withers, “a disabled anti-poverty activist living in Toronto,” posted the transcript of a speech given at the recent Toronto vs. the G20 teach-in, Why Resist the G20 in Toronto? In part;

“Disability is NOT the story of an individual tragedy. […] Disability is an identity imposed upon people as a tool of marginalizing people. It is not a biological reality or a scientific definition; it is a political definition. […] In a world without stairs, using a wheelchair would not be considered a disability, it may even be considered an advantage. In a world where everyone knows sign language, Deafness would not be a disability.”

“Capitalism thrives on the notion of individuality, that each of us must support ourselves, that strong communities that operate on the basis of mutual aid and support are not only bad, they are a threat. This is an especially important colonial ideology as it sets out to destroy communities and collectivity and replace them with individualism and capitalist systems.”

“This ideology, however, is a lie. All of us, under capitalism or not, are interdependent. We all rely on each other. However, the ideology of individualism says that certain kinds of relationships are good and others are bad. Those involving financial transactions are good while those without the exchange of collateral is bad, dependency and a drain not only on our economy but our society. It is these types of relationships that many disabled people seek to establish as these collective supports are what many of us need to thrive. So, disabled people pose a threat to capitalism: if interdependence takes hold as a stronger than independence, capitalism as we know it will begin to unravel. This is why disabled people are particularly compromised and targeted by the policies of the G8 specifically as well as the broader G20…”

A lot of what was said wasn’t new to me, some I’ve even written about here (the bit about everyone needing each other’s help, how we’re all “interdependent”), but framing interdependence under the guise of capitalism, and how it is actually contrary to the notion of individuality — capitalism’s whole schtick — is something I’ve never much thought about. Especially in relation to the G8 And G20.

But now I will, seeing how I now much better understand its implications…

Shut Up, Already!

Today, in my inbox, I received my daily ZNet commentary, Tea Parties and Fear of the Future, by Mumia Abu-Jamal. It’s a piece most worthy of your attention, today, given teabagger Rand Paul’s victory in Kentucky’s “Mini-Super Tuesday” Primary yesterday, and subsequent “shit-talk,” last night. Which isn’t worth your time to check out. But Mumia’s piece is. So do check it out…

Things Aren’t Always So Black Or White

So I’ve spent a fair amount of my time recently — the past 6 months seems to be a nice round number — thinking, or better yet, re-thinking how I really feel about a number of things. My approach to ethical veganism and animal rights specifics being most significant.

My previous stance didn’t stray too far from the Francione school of thought;

“[T]o provide a clear statement of an approach to animal rights that (1) requires the abolition of animal exploitation and rejects the regulation of animal exploitation; (2) is based only on animal sentience and no other cognitive characteristic, (3) regards veganism as the moral baseline of the animal rights position; and (4) rejects all violence and promotes activism in the form of creative, non-violent vegan education…”

That said, and recent gaffs aside, I can’t say my views have changed all that much. Meaning I still think much of what I thought, but I’m no longer convinced it’s a “strict,” or, more specifically, such a black or white issue…

Continue reading Things Aren’t Always So Black Or White