Head-Spinning Political Shit!

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Toughy

laughin.......I know I know.......but in the spirit of community building I thought I would ask...

it does appear she has been drinking

It's funny because every few days I see or read some quote or hear someone on the news espousing this or that position and I think "oh, so THAT is what the death of a republic sounds like". The really sad thing is if we lose our republic, we will have done this to ourselves--slowly, surely, incrementally we have inflicted the many wounds our country is suffering on ourselves. As tempting as it might be to blame the Arabs, or the Muslims, or the Japanese, or the Chinese, or Latinos or the French, this is largely a nightmare of our own making.

No Arab convinced Americans that trial by jury, rights of the accused, right to be informed of your rights, right to face your accusers, or the right of habeus corpus was an inconvenience or stupid or a waste of time and taxpayer money. WE did that. In not remembering WHY the cops have to read you your Miranda rights, we decided that it was just another example of our 'coddling' criminals by telling them that they have the right to remain silent in the face of police questioning.

No Muslim convinced Americans that cruel and inhumane punishment is a sign of barbarism and that torture is both cruel and inhumane.

No Japanese convinced Americans that it would be better to slay a thousand innocents, wrongly accused, than to allow a single guilty man walk free instead of what had traditionally been the idea upheld in this country that better a thousand guilty men walk free than that a single innocent man be killed in the name of justice.

No Chinese convinced Americans that our prisons should be places that would be very recognizable to people in the Soviet Union or should put one in mind of a medieval jail.

No Frenchman convinced Americans that things like public education, prisons or any of a number of other pieces of societal infrastructure would be better provided by corporations.

No, the worst things facing our nation, the things that keep me up at night, are almost all self-inflicted.

Cheers
Aj