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Last updated: Tue, Sep 7, 2004 - 10:56:38 AM |  | There are higher laws than the ledger and the sword. |
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Random RuminationsEpigrams Reason guided by conscience is the defining ideal of civilized humanity. Great nations lead by example, not by force. The tongue of malice is wet with falsehood; the mouth of malice spits lies. Know the past; live the present; plan the future.Miscellaneous Observations You can learn a great deal about a person's character by noting how he laughs — and when. When, in the year 2027, I write my "Manifesto for Mankind" in the form of a logic-loop that obliterates the universe-enslaving CyberHegemonyInc.com, I will compose it on a Macintosh.Political History The close resemblance between ancient Rome and the modern United States is no coincidence. The latter was modeled, 228 years ago, upon the former. No other tradition — not the constitutional monarchy of England, nor the Magna Carta of Charlemagne, nor the democracy of Athens — exerted nearly so much influence upon American political thinkers of the 18th century as the Rome of Gaius Marius.From the eagles on our official seals and Latin mottos on our currency to the rules governing the Senate and the language of our courts, everything we see, hear and touch bears the stamp of old Rome. Political Humor The gang of venal thugs occupying the White House is an infected boil on the right cheek of the American body politic.Politics and SocietyThe prevailing (right-wing) wisdom in America today:
Iraq is a weapon of mass distraction for the venal and totalitarian-leaning Bush administration. Follow the dollars, in the U.S. and abroad, as they pour into the coffers of the administration's cronies in the energy and "defense" industries to see who's really sending our young men and women (our loved ones, please note, not theirs) to fight and die in an area we'd otherwise ignore. A small indication of who actually controls the media: In America today, "liberal" is a dirty word, and "conservative" is not. I stand with the penurious many against the luxurious few. I stand with the powerless citizen against the power-brokering CEO. I stand with the hapless and violated consumer against the rapacious robber-baron of our New Industrial Age. I stand with the dispossessed, and against the greed-possessed. There is an alarming tendency among conservatives, and especially neoconservatives (as recently witnessed by Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's careless remark that "people are fungible"), to view entire populations — whether they be nations, races or even an entire sex — as homogeneous masses of interchangeable units. They apparently do not perceive, or understand the biological axiom, that individual differences enormously outweigh the slight and often misleading statistical disparities that may exist between populations.In their abstract consideration of populations, conservatives seem to lose sight, as well, of the origin of the word "population" itself. It derives from the Latin populus — people. And if there is one thing people are not, it is fungible. I find it ironic, sometimes, that Republicans are working tirelessly to dismantle our republic, while non-Republicans strive equally assiduously to save it from them. There are enemies of America's republic at the helm of our ship of state. And I very much fear they mean to run her aground. I am neither a revolutionist nor strictly an evolutionist. I am a mutationist. I believe society must change profoundly, and soon, if it is to survive. Re-electing and then promptly recalling former California Governor Gray Davis is akin to a pro football team re-signing a coach who has led the team to four straight 8-8 seasons, and then firing him when the team starts 1-2. "Patriotic," unquestioning support of the Bush administration is like loyalty to a passenger jet when there are terrorists at the controls. Either will lead only to tragedy. Valor in the service of evil is not heroism. Thus, our troops in Iraq, however brave, however unwitting of their cause, cannot be accorded the high regard otherwise their due — precisely as was the case with the often lethally proficient forces of Nazi Germany. Let us not forget that tyrants are but childhood bullies grown and armed.Ascribe to them their juvenile counterparts' motivations and undoing weaknesses, and you will not be far off the mark. Writing To be bland is to be forgotten. One must dip one's pen in vitriol from time to time, if one would write indelibly upon the pages of memory.
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