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Monday, April 26, 2004
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City Settles Police Abuse Case. When the people we pay to protect us abuse their power and harm us, our society is weakened. While most police officers are professionals, a small percentage abuse their position of power to serve their own interests. Not only does... [About Civil Liberties]
In another horrific example, Portland Or. police beat a 71 year old blind woman.
There's a link to the story about the blind woman. Although the city settled her lawsuit, there is no mention of any action being taken against the cops involved. No doubt this is because no action was taken.
5:51:02 PM 
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Shades of Stanley Milgram. PJ Doland links to the disturbing story of a Georgia teacher who resigned after ordering two boys to throw a female classmate out the window. The girl, who'd been arguing with the teacher (after the teacher made "a disparaging remark" about the girl's appearance) sustained neck injuries and several cuts. Most frightening line in the piece:
The two boys later told principal Kenneth Daniels that they threw the girl out the window because they did not want to be written up for disobeying a teacher.
These guys were 14 years old—old enough, one would devoutly hope, to recognize that hurling another person out a window is not OK, even when a teacher says to. [Hit & Run]
Roberts said he has been told that the school board will leave it up to the girl's parents to pursue criminal charges against the teacher. But he said his investigation is ongoing.
In my experience the teachers usually look the other way (or just look on approvingly) while stuff like this happens--I've never heard of a teacher going quite this far before. I would hope that not only the teacher, but also the two boys are charged with assault and battery, and possibly attempted murder (depending on how high the window was).
5:46:37 PM
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Quote of the Day. Confusing monogamy with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other error. George Bernard Shaw [Survival Arts]
While it's probably fair to say it's done some damage, that confusion can't even begin to approach socialism for destruction of the conscience of the human race. Of course we can hardly expect George Bernard Shaw, a socialist, to have commented on that.
1:12:57 PM
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Out of Gas in Iraq. "As far as what's happening over here... first, in Fallujah, the Marines were doing well until they ran out of gas, literally. The real reason the Marines had to start their truce/cease-fire strategy is because the coalition forces are running... [LewRockwell.com Blog]
Another report from a U.S. mercenary in Iraq.
1:07:15 PM
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Ben & Jerry 'Oath to Vote' kicks off, 50K iTunes giveaway. Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's kicked off their Oath to Vote program this week. It's an effort to raise awareness of the importance of voting in this November's US presidential election. The first 50,000 entrants get a free song from the iTunes Music Store, and anyone who enters also gets a chance to win an iMac, an iPod, and a trip to Vermont to Ben & Jerry's headquarters. [MacCentral]
The sign-up form requires that you give them your name, address, email, and phone number. I passed--a 99 cent song isn't worth getting more spam.
11:41:22 AM
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From Empire Notes:
Since Fallujah will not capitulate, apparently, Bush and his advisers decide this weekend whether to bombard the hell out of it. Here's a fascinating quote from the Times article:
"It's clear you can't leave a few thousand insurgents there to terrorize the city and shoot at us," one senior official involved in the discussions said in an interview on Saturday. "The question now is whether there is a way to go in with the most minimal casualties possible."
It should be clear to anyone with basic knowledge of the situation and with no ideological axe to grind who the few thousand people terrorizing the city are. They're the ones that have assaulted it with tanks, AC-130 gunships, F-16's, and snipers, not the ones who have been defending it from assault.
Based on everything that's happened so far, the mindless desire for revenge and for showing military supremacy will triumph and the attack will be launched. As Bush said, "America will never be run out of Iraq by a bunch of thugs and killers." This is the kind of nonsense every colonial army has put out against its opponents -- as Henry Liu points out in the Asia Times, the British general at the battle of Bunker Hill, Thomas Cage, called the American rebels thugs and tax evaders.
10:21:57 AM
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The return of mercenaries to great power politics this last month poses a big, big picture question (free thinking here). Typically, mercenaries -- who were used for almost all wars prior to the 1700's -- appear in large numbers during periods of great transition (we must be seeing that now, but what is the transition?). They were also heavily used to build up the nation-state system we enjoy today. What does it mean iff the greatest power in the world -- by several orders of magnitude -- cannot field enough military force to effectively occupy a relatively small nation?
Here is a question I am trying to answer: is a market-based military solution an effective way to fight terrorism globally?
What is interesting is that based on reports I hear, most of the senior staff at the DoD -- which means it is probably true for the White House too -- doesn't have a clue about what is going on in Iraq in regards to mercenaries. Many don't believe they are even there. [John Robb's Weblog]
My answer to the question: I don't think we can say with certainty, but there's no reason to doubt it. Note that the mercenaries in Iraq are not a market-based military solution, nor are they fighting terrorism. They are employed by the U.S. government as subsitutes for regular soldiers, and they are fighting local guerillas in a defensive role.
6:29:43 AM
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© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/15/2006; 2:01:06 PM.
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