Showing posts with label Drug War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drug War. Show all posts

6/6/07

How to end the War

Nicholas Von Hoffman writes an essay in defense of the "fringe candidates" regarding the presidential debates and in doing so rightly pokes a big hole in the Democrats excuses of giving Bush $100 billion for the war.

The mainstreamers were rattling on to the effect that, of course, they are against the war; they just do not have enough votes to pass a law ending it.Then Kucinich was given the microphone for a moment and said that Congress can stop the war whenever it wants, not by passing a law the President will veto but by not passing any war appropriations bill at all. Just do nothing and Mr. Bush will have no money for the war and the troops come home.

This may sound obvious, but the major candidates and most of the media, almost always let the Democrats "we-don't-have-the-votes" excuse go unchallenged.

There is historical precedent for this type of media charade. By in large, the media has a done better job of distorting the truth during and leading up to war, than telling it. Media critic Norman Solomon's book chronicling such behavior, War Made Easy, has recently been adapted into a film, and is worth checking out. He makes the point that by the time the bulk of the media does turn on a war it is almost always years after the public does,--and even when they do, they still perpetuate the empty platitudes and deceitful logic that keeps us in combat.

4/25/07

Hitchens on Drugs and God

It turns out Christopher Hitchens is not always spewing forth absurd misinformation regarding Iraq. Today he makes the case for the legalization of all drugs, and, in a few weeks he has a book coming out called: God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Despite the fact that Hitchens has seemingly gone mad in recent years, I look forward to reading his book on God--which may give his "temporary neocon allies" some discomfort. I can only assume, however, he will somehow use his atheism to justify the War in Iraq an other wars against Muslims. This is one element of the secular community that I do not see eye-to-eye with. For example, I think Sam Harris is fascinating and agree with him on the folly of religion, but he uses his atheism to justify some insane platforms, such as his declaration in the Washington Times that "We are at war with Islam." His passive support for torture is also disturbing.