Global
Not only that, there are roughly the same number of women's
breasts on this planet as people. How can it be obscene to see something
that half the human race actually have two of, and the other half were
intimately acquainted with for the first part of their life, and at least
wanted to be for the rest of it? And as for the "what about the children?"
argument: the younger you are, the MORE wholesome and legitimate a
relationship you have with a woman's breast!
It just goes to show what insane priorities we have as a culture.
This was at a football game, where grown men bash their bodies against each
other with enough force to dislocate shoulders, break bones, and ruin knees
for life; happens all the time. No one objects to movies where psychotic
murderers and occult horrors and slime-dripping aliens torture innocent
people, disembowel them, eat their faces, and lay eggs in their remains. We
see heads explode, alien offspring erupt from body cavities, and mortar
fire spread body parts to the four winds.
Although I agree with the underlying sentiment of Patrick's letter, I
don't think it's feasible. If the U.N. was going to isolate by force every
country that has a conflict with it's neighbors or an internal group, the
planet would be riddled with isolated nations, which seems to me to be a
strange activity for a group called The United Nations.
Actually, it wouldn't, because the U.N. has neither the power nor the
mandate to do so.
However, I do agree that pressure must be put on both parties to adhere to
U.N. resolutions, not simply to condemn the Palestinians but frown on the
Israelis. And I agree that third-party intervention or arbitration is
probably the best chance for success, since both cultures have such a "you
give in first" attitude historically. I also think that the U.N. should
make it clear that they favor the Rabin approach (and those who tried to
follow suit) to peace between these peoples, NOT the Sharon approach, which
is a recipe for unending hostility.
But Bush is not merely the worst president in recent memory. He's the worst
in all US history. And he's won the distinction not on a weakness or two, but
in at least nine separate categories, giving him a triple trifecta.
It's a record unmatched by any previous president.
Let's count the ways:
TRIFECTA ONE: Economy, Environment, Education
Economy:
Until now, Herbert Hoover has been the president most closely associated with
economic disaster. He presided over the 1929 stock crash, and choked while
the economy collapsed around him.
Bush did not preside over the 2000 Nasdaq crash. But he's turned the biggest
federal surplus into history's biggest deficit, which a nervous
global banking community sees as a potential weapon of mass fiscal destruction.
Bush has lost more jobs than Hoover. A top Bush advisor has called
outsourcing "just a new way of doing international trade."
There can be only one solution to the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis -- Forced intervention and separation.
The framework and mandated legal basis for peace between Palestine and Israel already exists: International law in the form of United Nations Security Council Resolutions, backed by a host of UN General Assembly Resolutions, addressing specific elements and issues between the parties, that spell out in detail what is required of each side. The singular problem remains getting both sides to cease the hostilities and accept what is required of each as detailed in these UN resolutions. And there is a method in place to do just that, force -- equally and without prejudice -- both sides to comply fully with international law; thereby providing peace, security and economic opportunity for both sides living side-by-side in peaceful coexistence and within the expanded Middle East region.
I wish I had the ear of the DNC. They're going about this Bush military
issue the wrong way. Why wait for Rove & Co. to find a couple true
believers to lie about having served with Bush? Why try to prove a
negative? They should:
1. Find people to establish where Bush WAS at that time. He had to be
working on that campaign. He might have been attending meetings, appearing
at benefit dinners, dating, partying, whatever. ANYTHING they establish as
to his whereabouts and any good time he might have been having while he was
SUPPOSED to be on a military base, during wartime, keeping in a state of
readiness (e.g. drug & alcohol free at the very least) would be a good
example of his lack of responsibility & patriotism, and his elitist
attitude that the rules don't apply to rich, powerful people like the Bushes.
And if anyone argues that Reservists don't have to be in a state of
readiness, point out how many have been sent to war by HIS administration.
During a Feb. 4 interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered” program, Nader had this to say when asked about an editorial in The Nation urging him not to run this year: “It’s a marvelous demonstration by liberals, if you will, of censorship. Now mind you, running for political office is every American’s right. Running for political office means free speech exercise, it means exercising the right of petition, the right of assembly. And so when they say ‘Do not run,’ they’re not just challenging and rebutting; they’re crossing that line into censorship, which is completely unacceptable.”
News anchor Melissa Block followed up: “Wouldn’t censorship, though, be if anyone were physically preventing you from running? They’re not saying that you can’t run; they’re asking you not to. They’re asking you to make that decision for what they consider to be the greater good of the country.”
Now, there are two schools of reaction to this tawdry, slimy little spy episode: It was illegal, immoral and wrong, and Katharine Gun should get a medal for exposing it. Or, some are shocked, shocked to hear of spying at the U.N., where it is apparently only slightly less common than dirt.
Well, if it wasn't much of a secret to begin with, why is this woman going to prison for telling the truth? Give her a medal anyway.