TRACES OF EVIL

Barack Obama’s central dilemma last week, when he tried to sell a new war to the American public on the eve of the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, was to speak convincingly about the wisdom and effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy over the last decade-plus while at the same time, alas, dropping the bad news that it didn’t work.

Thus: “Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer.”

Hurray! God bless drones and “mission accomplished” and a million Iraqi dead and birth defects in Fallujah. God bless torture. God bless the CIA. But guess what?

“Still we continue to face a terrorist threat. We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm.”

So it’s bombs away again, boys — another trace of evil has popped up in the Middle East — and I find myself at the edge of outrage, the edge of despair, groping for language to counter my own incredulity that the God of War is on the verge of another victory and Planet Earth and human evolution lose again.

43 Million People Kicked Out Of Their Homes

 

 

War, our leaders tell us, is needed to make the world a better place.

Well, maybe not so much for the 43 million people who’ve been driven out of their homes and remain in a precarious state as internally displaced persons (24 million), refugees (12 million), and those struggling to return to their homes.

The U.N.’s figures for the end of 2013 (found here) list Syria as the origin of 9 million such exiles. The cost of escalating the war in Syria is often treated as a financial cost or — in rare cases — as a human cost in injury and death. There is also the human cost of ruining homes, neighborhoods, villages, and cities as places in which to live.

Just ask Colombia which comes in second place following years of war — a place where peace talks are underway and desperately needed with — among other catastrophes — nearly 6 million people deprived of their homes.

Sitting shiva is generally more fun than this

Are you in the mood for a sensitive, thoughtful and beautifully acted film about sibling relationships? Well, you’ll have to wait. The Skeleton Twins doesn’t open till next week.

Meanwhile, we have This Is Where I Leave You, which addresses the same topic with an adolescent sensibility. Unfortunately, the siblings in question are all adults.

The comedy is based on a novel by Jonathan Tropper, who also wrote the screenplay—and that’s part of the problem. A friend of mine refused to see the film because she’d read the book and found it totally lacking in merit.

This helps to explain why director Shawn Levy (A Night at the Museum) fails to mine the tale for familial gold despite being blessed with a top-shelf cast.

Justin Bateman (Arrested Development) plays Judd Altman, who leaves his wife (Abigail Spencer) after finding her in bed with his boss. As luck would have it, he then learns his father has died, and he has to face his extended family while attempting to hide his marital problems.

Hope, Voting and Creating the World You Want to Live In

 

 

We live in a time fraught with bad news. From the toll of violence and poverty to the escalating march of climate change, every week brings temptations to despair. Hope may actually be more beleaguered in the wake of a president who won the office in part by branding himself with it. Many have concluded that political participation has become a futile game.

For myself, I deal with potential despair by finding ways to act. And remembering that the doors to social change are never irrevocably closed, even in unimaginably difficult situations. Think of Nelson Mandela and his compatriots being told they would rot and die on Robben Island. Denied newspapers as a way of isolating them, they’d see a guard discard a newspaper he’d used to wrap his sandwich, and one of the prisoners would retrieve it, smuggle it under their shirt, and in a tiny coded script on toilet paper (the only paper they had), would circulate a story or headline that would give their compatriots courage.

Barbaric Executions

Thousands of Ohioans To Join Call for Global Climate Justice

 

 

Thousands of Ohioans will join the Peoples' Climate March in New York City on September 21. Ohio will send at least eight buses to Peoples' Climate March. The march demands global leadership for creating new energy policies, enforcing corporate investment in green industry, reducing corporate waste and fraud, and ending political intransigence and gridlock to advance Global Climate Justice.

   On September 20, 2014, buses will leave Columbus, Cleveland, Athens, Toledo, and Yellow Springs, Ohio. Send-off events include:

1) Send-off Celebration

September 20, 2014, 8:00 a.m. 

496 S. High Street (43215) in front of the First Watch Restaurant

A bus from Wichita, KS and Oklahoma will be passing through.

Speakers: Samantha Allen (Sierra Club), Harvey Wasserman (Greenpeace), and Paula Brooks (Franklin County Commissioner), and a Wichita, KS organizer/bus rider.

2) September 20, 2014, 10:00 p.m.*

American media is incapable of defending itself

 

The world turned its eye to Ferguson Missouri in August after police shot an unarmed black teenager in front of witnesses. The protests that followed were met with a militarized response, including Pentagon surplus mine-resistant vehicles topped with snipers, tear-gas, assault rifles and policemen in camouflage body armor. There were conflicting claims of force being used by the protestors which proved difficult to verify. During the nine days of turmoil 24 journalists became casualties.

The list of journalists threatened, beaten, gassed, shot with wooden bullets and/or arrested was begun by Runa Sandvik of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Additional research by the Columbus Free Press identified more affected journalists. Although many of the journalists had the support of their publications individually, no American mainstream media outlet took on the issue comprehensively or editorially beyond the support of their own employees or those arrested with them.

Electronic Privacy Information Center Files Lawsuit on Internet Voting Security Reports

 

 

On September 11, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a major beltway advocacy group, filed suit against the Department of Defense (DoD) for withholding records on security testing of electronic voting systems for use by overseas service members. EPIC has requested the security reports in July under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The suit alleges that the DoD had no intention of disclosing the test results as it had publicly promised to do to Congress nearly 2 years previously. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia had affirmed EPIC's status as news media for the purposes of access to information and fee waivers after they won a previous suit against the DoD in 2003.

What to Do About ISIS

 

 

Warning to War Supporters


I know you mean well. I know you think you've found a bargain that nobody else noticed hidden in a back corner of the used car lot. Let me warn you: it's a clunker. Here, I'll list the defects. You can have your own mechanic check them out:


 

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