Is murder the new torture?

I've been reading about the history of torture, including John T. Parry's new book "Understanding Torture: Law, Violence, and Political Identity." Parry gives a history of torture in Europe and the United States through the twentieth century, establishing its pervasiveness, and the repetitiveness of the excuses and legalistic machinations used to allow it. Parry sees torture as an absolutely normal activity in our society, but an activity that at least until now was always treated as an aberration, no matter how systemic. Parry even tries to suggest at times that torture is required, necessary, or "essential" for western democracies.

Seek urologic care elsewhere!

The good Samaritan

Mind if I join you?

Meet Alex White Plume

Alex is the former Tribal President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. He lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota.

Alex bears the remarkable distinction of being the only person in the United States to successfully farm and complete a legal hemp crop within the borders of the USA since 1968. comment

I had the rare & unique opportunity to meet Alex while visiting the Indian Nations of the Pine Ridge Reservation last September. He graciously allowed me to photograph him, and some of his hemp plants while there.


Alex White Plume in front of some of his hemp crop.


The hemp that Alex grows is NOT the kind that gets you high. It is a mutated form of hemp that is THC FREE! This is confirmed by independent USDA laboratory testing done at the request of the DEA.

Blessed are the settlement makers

You say you want a revolution...

In the months leading up to the most recent protest in Washington, D.C. against the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, activists and writers such as Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson have called for shutting down business-as-usual in the capital city. Comment

But on March 20, instead of a hundred thousand or even tens of thousands of protesters, it was evident from first-hand observation that the event drew, at most, a few thousand people.

Far from disrupting business-as-usual, the anti-war protest---which took place on a Saturday--seemed to blend in with the flow of tourists and locals enjoying the warm, sunny weather in our nation's capital. On that weekend, far more prominent in mainstream news was the health-care reform showdown in Congress and the immigration reform rally which drew more than 200,000 people to the National Mall.

But some of the ordinary protesters who did show up advocate revolution or other ways of intensifying resistance against what they regard as imperialism and militarism.

The lobby vs. America: on Netanyahu’s lies and the spineless politicians

As I listened to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address an animated crowed of supporters on March 22, I felt physically sick. The man has already displayed time and again a complete lack of moral sense or ethical framework in his words and actions. In his recent arguments, he once again twisted history, manipulated facts and fabricated his own selective, self-interested and highly questionable narrative. Netanyahu, a colonialist from a faraway land, also had the audacity to convince himself and a few others that he had legal, moral and historic rights over my land. While I am the son of a Palestinian family rooted in Palestine since time immemorial, Netanyahu is the son of an immigrant from Lithuania. While he giddily robs more Palestinian land in Jerusalem, I live in exile.

Defacto state

Part of the dilemma in Palestine is that the more the “peace” process is delayed, moving nowhere, the more Israel gains in the way of confiscated and settled land. There are two basic solutions: either a one state solution (whether bi-national or otherwise); or a two state solution with Palestine existing on some remnant of land left over from Israeli settlement. A recent combination of events/ideas has left me wondering if the one state solution is perhaps the only remaining solution if not the de facto situation now.

Christian Peacemakers

I recently attended a local presentation of Christian Peacemakers (CPT) on their experiences in Hebron in Palestine. The main presenter Johann Funk is a Mennonite who has been to Hebron several times recently. The CPT ideal as presented on their website is a powerful statement of intent:

CPT embraces the vision of unarmed intervention waged by committed peacemakers ready to risk injury and death in bold attempts to transform lethal conflict through the nonviolent power of God’s truth and love.

Globalization and the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

The most recent anti-war protest in Washington D.C. felt like a festival or a big concert, at least for a while, as I basked in the emotional warmth of the crowd and the physical warmth of that sunny Saturday. But then Joe Lombardo, a member of the National Assembly, a network of anti-war groups, gave a speech that linked globalization with the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Whether or not his amplified voice was heard by anyone across the street in the White House, what he said killed the buzz I had from cycling amidst national icons. For better or worse, Lombardo's speech diminished my springtime-induced optimism. Comment

“ The flight of US industry from US shores to find cheaper resources and labor with no unions and no environmental, or health, or safety regulations –a process known as globalization—has required new military thinking. To protect US corporate interests abroad we now have our military in over 135 countries with close to 800 permanent foreign military bases. Our now globalized economy will mean permanent war as US corporate-controlled government seeks to protect US corporate interests abroad.

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