Inspired by Tehanu:
The dollar went down and the President said
“Who’s in charge, now?” I don’t know, take your pick.
A new disease every day and the old ones are coming back
Things are looking kind of gray, like they’re going to black
Don’t turn on the TV, don’t show me the paper
(I) don’t want to know he got kidnapped or why they all raped her
I want to go on vacation `till the pressure lets up
But they keep hijacking airplanes and blowing them up
It’s been a hard day on the planet
How much is it all worth?
It’s getting harder to understand it
Things are tough all over on earth.
It’s hot in December and cold in July
When it rains it pours out of a poisonous sky
In California the body counts keep getting higher
It’s evil out there, man that state is always on fire.
Everyone has a system, but they can’t seem to win
Even Bob Geldorf looks alarmingly thin
I got to get on that shuttle get me out of this place
But there’s gonna be warfare up there in outer space
I’ve got clothes on my back and shoes on my feet
A roof over my head and something to eat
My kids are all healthy and my folks are alive
You know, it’s amazing but sometimes I think I’ll survive
I’ve got all of my fingers and all of my toes
I’m pretty well off I guess, I suppose
So how come I feel bad so much of the time?
A man ain’t an island–John Donne wasn’t lying
It’s business as usual; some things never change
It’s unfair, it’s tough, unkind and it’s strange
We don’t seem to learn; we can’t seem to stop
Maybe some explosions would close up the shop
You know, maybe that would be fine: we would be off the hook
We resolved all our problems, never mind what it took
And it all would be over, finito, the end
Until the survivors started up all over again
-Loudon Wainwright III
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KABUL, Afghanistan (NY Times) Jan. 24, 2008 — An Afghan court in northern Afghanistan sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for distributing an article from the Internet that was considered an insult to the Prophet Muhammad.
The student, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, 23, who also works for a local newspaper, was charged with insulting Muhammad by calling the prophet “a killer and adulterer,” the judge, Shamsurahman Muhmand, said in a telephone interview.
The sentence was denounced as unfair by Mr. Kambakhsh’s family and journalists’ organizations. Mr. Kambakhsh’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, denied that his sibling had committed blasphemy, and said that his brother was not given enough time to prepare his defense and was denied a lawyer. Mr. Kambakhsh has the right of appeal to the regional court and the Supreme Court.
He is being punished for articles written by his brother, said Jean Mackenzie, director of the Institute for Peace and War Reporting in Afghanistan, which has printed some of Mr. Ibrahimi’s articles. Officials from the National Directorate of Security raided Mr. Ibrahimi’s home and seized his computer hard drive the day after his brother was arrested in October, she said. They were most interested in the sources for an article critical of a local militia leader and legislator named Piram Qol, she said.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."The winning of hearts and minds never ends, does it? Our tax dollars at work, creating a free and democratic society in Afghanistan…not.
and pay so little out, why is tuition so high? USAToday
I guess it’s important to keep these universities for the haves and have mores, safely out of reach of the middle class.
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OTTAWA – The Canadian government secretly stopped transferring Afghan detainees to local authorities almost three months ago after seeing evidence of torture, in a bombshell admission by federal lawyers.
The change comes a year after the Conservative government ridiculed its opponents for raising torture allegations and Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused them of being pro-Taliban. But an abrupt policy shift was announced in a letter submitted this week by federal lawyers to Amnesty International as they prepare a Federal Court case against the human-rights organization.
A prisoner told Canadian officials he’d been knocked unconscious, beaten with electrical cables, whipped with a rubber hose, and he told the Canadians where they could find the torture instruments. He then showed them a bruise, and took the Canadians to his prison cell where they found the hose and cable under a chair.
Canada Puts U.S. and Israel on Torture ‘Watch List’
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Vilnai: Israel should stop supplying Gaza with basic necessities
GAZA STRIP (Haaretz) – Israel wants to sever connections with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and cease supplying it with basic necessities in the wake of the border breach, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said on Thursday.
“We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it. So we want to disconnect from it,” Vilnai told Army Radio.
Vilnai said Israel’s effort to disengage from Gaza – which began with the 2005 evacuation of all settlers – “continues in that we want to stop supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water and medicine, so that it would come from another place.”
“We are responsible for it as long as there is no alternative,” Vilnai said. A defense official said Egypt should take over responsibility.
But a top Egyptian official said that Egypt’s border with Gaza would go back to normal, and strongly rejected the idea that Israel might relinquish all responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip
A spokesman for Hamas said Israel was not exempt from responsibility “since the Gaza Strip is still an occupied land”. An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also dismissed the idea, saying it could be aimed at permanently severing Gaza from the West Bank.
Peres: Israel won’t allow starvation in Gaza Strip
President Shimon Peres met with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, telling him that Israel would not allow starvation in the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also participated in the meeting, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The president added that collective punishment of the Gaza civilian population is out of the question in Israel’s eyes, and stressed that Hamas is responsible for the suffering in the Strip.
“As soon as the [Hamas] halts its fire, so will Israel’s operations end,” he said. “We are not targeting the civilian population, but rather criminal terrorists who are trying to harm women and children in Israel.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Bush is pushing one of his torture architects to head a DOJ Dept.
Will there ever be any accountability? (I already know the answer, no need to respond)
The California Supreme Court ruled today that an employer has the right to fire a worker who tests positive for marijuana, even when the employee has a doctor’s recommendation/prescription. There does not need to be any on-the-job use, or showing of poor performance, etc., and the type of job is irrelevant.
The Court argued that the employer has not prevented access to medical marijuana, but has merely refused to employ someone who does access it.
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