Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #61

Posted on February 28, 2007 in Roundup

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
Abraham Lincoln

A Counterpunch article by Sarah Olson brings up a contradiction inherent in our forces supposedly fighting for freedom: I was one of two journalists subpoenaed to testify in Lt. Watada’s court-martial. I objected on the grounds that members of the military must be free to speak with journalists without fear of retribution or censure. That so few critical voices in the military are given an ongoing platform in the media contributes to an inaccurate view of the Iraq War and erroneous ideas about how to ameliorate the problems. Supporting the troops requires that we listen to what they have to say.

If our troops are not free to speak, then what kind of respect for freedom are they going to have? The military’s clamping down on what soldiers can or can’t say directly impairs the First Amendment. There is nothing in the Constitution that says that you lose your rights when you sign up for the armed forces.

And yet, for the sake of “discipline”, the United States government regularly denies its soldiers these essential rights. Lt. Wahada is just one voice who has been subjected to court martial for exercising his rights. Limiting these rights turns soldiers into paid slaves. I share Olson’s view on this: supporting our troops (as opposed to supporting the war) demands that we listen to them, that they be free. There can be no house divided of citizen versus soldier. We are all citizens.

• Yes, It is True: Is Sanford Seymour a hero? He testified that it is true that Jose Padilla spent his interment without light or a timepiece. That alone confirms that torture was employed, another indication that the military lives by a different set of guidelines than the citizens who it is supposed to protect. Let’s see if Seymour is made to pay for telling the truth. In related news, Human Rights Watch has named 39 people secretly held by the CIA as terrorism suspects. (Here’s a Smoking Gun report on Padilla. The government doesn’t think he is suffering from a mental disorder, but can we trust them?)
• Scuttlebutt: In the wake of an assasination attempt on Dick Cheney, some are asking “Have we lost in Afghanistan?” With two wars running, what are we doing trying to start a third?
• Is it Just Elitism?: Prince Charles went on record against McDonald’s. During a tour of a diabetes centre in the United Arab Emirates the prince asked a nutritionist: “Have you got anywhere with McDonald’s, have you tried getting it banned? That’s the key.” A spokeswoman for Clarence House, who was travelling with the prince and Duchess of Cornwall on their 10-day trip, said Prince Charles was simply promoting healthy eating and the “importance of a balanced diet, especially for children” You can bet that McDonald’s didn’t like it, but food activists were enthralled. It’s been a bad week for Big Fat.
• Don’t Fly a Kite: Al Jazeera reported that 11 people died in an annual kite-flying contest in Pakistan. Not all at once but in separate incidents: Five of those who died on Sunday were hit by stray bullets, including a six-year-school boy who was struck in the head near his home in the city’s Mazang area, Bano said. He also said that a 16-year-old girl and a school boy, 12, died after their throats were slashed by metal kite strings in separate incidents. Two people were electrocuted while they tried to recover kites tangled in overhead power cables. A 13-year-old boy fell to his death from the roof of his home as he tried to catch a stray kite, and a 35-year-old woman fell off the roof of her home trying to stop her son from running after a stray kite. What do bullets have to do with kites?
• Too Many Elephants: South Africa has an elephant problem. So what do they do? Knock them off or give them contraceptives so they won’t become knocked up? The latter is sure to anger conservatives so it must be the first option. It’s the GOP’s way.
• Choice Website: Advice for a Nonraptured World
• Choice Article: God’s word, plus static, on Calvary Satellite Network
• The Sound of Strings: Classical music was the fastest growing genre last year. Some industry observers, notably Wired editor Chris Anderson (a boss and friend of mine), opined that classical’s rise was due mostly to increasing online sales—in other words, yet another validation of the Long Tail, his theory that the Internet will help niche media find bigger audiences. Since brick-and-mortar music stores have largely shrunk or mothballed their classical sections, Anderson wrote, fans have turned to the Web, where they’ve discovered a cornucopia of previously hard-to-find albums. Now, could someone rerelease the wonderful film version of Bizet’s Carmen? At more than $300 a pop, I can’t afford it.

If you find any articles worthy of mention in these roundups, send the URL to gazissax at best dot com. And feel free to comment!