Peace can never be brought about by violent means.
Justice consists in doing what is fair and right and in accordance with law; proportionality is a key element of just punishment.
Fanatics, whether religious or ideological, care nothing about truth, only about what they believe is The Truth. That is why they are impervious to any rendition of facts, the evidence of the senses, or logic.
It is not rational to seek the answers to current problems in so-called ‘Holy Scriptures’ (whether Torah, Bible or Quran) written thousands of years ago.
Heroes are persons who perform actions beyond the call of duty. Just putting on a military uniform or those of a police officer or firefighter does not make one a hero. Nor does doing what a dangerous job entails make one, ipso facto, a hero.
The debasement of our language goes hand in hand with the corporate media’s abandonment of investigative journalism.
The corporate media’s operating principle in regard to the government nowadays is: See no evil – Hear no evil – Speak no evil.
If American exceptionalism ever existed, then the fabric of our Constitution and adherence to its principles and goals and the rule of law were the crux of any such exceptionalism. Our governments over the past 45 years have done their utmost to destroy that American exceptionalism.
It is universally recognized that the United States-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 was an unnecessary, illegal and immoral war that put the nation, and the world, in further danger.
There were almost 3,000 victims slaughtered by the terrorist attacks on the WTC, the Pentagon, and on the thwarted attack plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. The United States-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted, by conservative estimate, in the deaths of more than 120,000 victims. But, of course, our forces are fighting for peace, justice, democracy and freedom. All those dead are unfortunate but beside the point. What hubris!
Torture is always a crime, despite what former military service dodger and former VP Dick Cheney may say or write in his self-serving book and interviews.
After George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan will one day be seen to have been the second worst president this nation has ever had, replacing Richard Nixon. Mr. Obama is working diligently on being number four, nudging out Bill Clinton, who in turn eclipsed George H. W. Bush, followed by LBJ. Almost all of our present economic and foreign policy imbroglios can be found to have originated or been exacerbated as a result of one or another of these so-called leaders’ policies or lack of forthrightness.
The United States is an imperial power, wrapped in the delusions of de facto abandonment of its ideals, and mocked by the contravention of its own principles, while mouthing what are now mere shibboleths: democracy, freedom, and justice.
The calamitous problems of our democracy can be laid at the feet of both the Democrats and the Republicans – the two wings of the Corporate Party.
To rational people, being opposed to particular policies of the Israeli government does not make one anti-Semitic, just as being opposed to particular policies of the U. S. government does not make one anti-American.
Perhaps one day our government will declare its independence from the State of Israel.
If Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Tom Paine were alive today, they’d be organizing the people against the Powers That Be. I think even John Adams and Hamilton would join the effort.
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(c) Gregory V Driscoll 2011
O'Driscoll's Take on the World 