Take this one crime; then multiply it by hundreds of thousands of deaths engineered directly and indirectly by U.S. policy in the Middle East. Then imagine how each such death would impact on immediate family members and the wider community in the affected country and throughout the Muslim world…

How can the Hitchenses and Harrises still seriously argue that ‘irrational belief in the Koran’ is the real source of motiviation for rage against U.S. imperialism?

Its only my opinion, but even if his estimate is true, you would have to arm hundreds of kids on each of the three thousand campuses across the country to have saved a dozen or so lives lost to a madman once every couple of years. It seems to me that with hundreds of thousands of newly armed college students across the country we are going to have more than a few deaths from accidents and roommate or girlfreind issues that escalate from a heated debate to a gunbattle. College students aren’t exactly known for their sober restraint.

I realize this is a hot button issue with many groups, but I don’t see how any rational thinking individual can honestly believe that putting more guns in the hands of college students is the solution to this sort of on campus violence.

Comments?

I’d be interested in y’all’s opinions.

Small preview:

“Every society has the criminals it deserves.”

Camus, ‘Reflections on the Guillotine’
My sister would have been terrified, the night her junkie boyfriend beat her to death in that filthy motel room. Terrified, and disoriented; she would have been struggling to understand what was happening to her. Beating a human being to death is apparently not an easy thing to do. According to the coroner’s testimony, it took about five minutes for her to die. What was she thinking, in those five minutes? At what point in that five-minute period did she suspect she might die in that squalid room? At what point did she know she would die there, and then?

I would lay awake at night, for months after her death, unable to turn off the endless broken loop playing in my brain that kept repeating these questions. More than answers, I wanted revenge: hard, bloody-fisted revenge, bitter and uncompromising Old Testament revenge. More: I wanted to stand before those in power, point my finger at all the world’s Death Rows, and scream at the top of my lungs “Kill them all, and let God sort them out!” I was slowly going mad with my ache for revenge.

But. But. Revenge is not justice.

During the worst of my dark night of the soul, I came across an old friend who I had not thought about in years, decades: Albert Camus. I found myself re-reading his seminal essay, “Reflections on the Guillotine” (found in the closeout bin of a used bookstore). I read that tired, used old paperback copy until it literally fell apart in my hands. Camus’ demand that one must apply one’s reason to the question of ‘administrative murder’ finally penetrated my grief and my hate. Despite how I feel – indeed, because of how I feel – I am compelled to stand against the death penalty. It is important to discuss why.

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Brilliant. It was the first word that came to mind when I saw the bumper sticker. The vehicle ahead ground slowly through rush-hour traffic. I had time to study it, to think about what the thing meant.

It was yet another variant on the ubiquitous American “yellow ribbon.” Across the front, on a field of yellow, were the words “Support Our Troops.” The ribbon looped back and showed a field of white stars on a blue background, evoking the American flag. The cleverest part of the ribbon was the last section, hanging below the “Support Our Troops” slogan. It was red-and-white striped, intended to carry forward the American flag theme. But a subtle suggestion of a white sunburst joined with the vertical white stripe and overlaid it with a faint horizontal white stripe. It didn’t take me more than a few seconds to realize that this was intended to be a subtle evocation of the Christian cross.

There it was encapsulated, complete, uncut, pure: the symbolic essence of an America that has drifted far from civilization, an America that has grown very, very strange. The America that bumper sticker symbolizes has left behind the world of rational nation-states and slipped off into a sentimental realm of Romanticism.

“Obama emphasizes the connections between people, the networks and the webs of influence. These sorts of links are invisible to some of his rivals, but Obama is a communitarian. He believes you can only make profound political changes if you first change the spirit of the community. In his speeches, he says that if one person stands up, then another will stand up and another and another and you’ll get a nation standing up.

“The key word in any Obama speech is “you.” Other politicians talk about what they will do if elected. Obama talks about what you can do if you join together. Like a community organizer on a national scale, he is trying to move people beyond their cynicism, make them believe in themselves, mobilize their common energies.”

This appears to be a major development in our national history. One of the commentators on MSNBC last evening, a conservative, observed that we haven’t had anyone like Obama since June 6, 1968, the day Robert Kennedy died. At long last, we may have a national leader who can inspire us in the way Kennedy tried to do. The devolution of government into an enterprise for the promotion of self-interest, which began when Nixon was elected, may be about to be turned around. If it happens, we may yet see a restoration of idealism and citizen participation for the common good. It will be harder than it was in the 60s, but to me it is essential to the preservation of any semblance of democracy.

I should also mention that Barack also ignores atheist media sources as well, an interesting trend, ignoring minorities - ironic.

- Tyler Young
Federal Way, Washington

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbrQTGcd9yRqQEuE_5cArsv8kvcwD8VTVOE80

Strike another blow for the good guys.

“Billy Graham represents a basic kind of patriotism in this country – an unquestioning, obeying patriotism, a loyalty to the authority of the President. Billy was always uncritical, unchallenging, unquestioning.” --- Bill Moyers

“I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B and C. Just who do they think they are? --- Barry Goldwater

A power-hungry moral coward. A vicious racist and Jew-baiter. A man with an almost uncanny ability to always be on the wrong side of history. A craven climber and groveller at the feet of power. An “unabashed nationalist and advocate for American empire.” If Cecil Bothwell is right – and he marshals a lot of evidence in support of his thesis – then “America’s most beloved pastor” is all these things, and more. Bothwell gives us the opportunity to see the other side of Billy Graham, the man who was seventh on a recent Gallup poll’s list of the most admired people of the 20th century. Graham is a man with a history, a man who must be called to account. Bothwell lays out his bill of particulars with subtlety and skill. 
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Contact your senator and ask them to support H.R. 2831. It needs to be done in the next 3 days.

H.R. 2831 would allow a woman (or man) to sue the company they work for anytime if the company
is paying them less due to their gender. The current limit is 180 days, so if you discover you were getting f-----d by your bosses 180 days after they start, you have no rights. That is the current law.

H.R. 2831 changes that.

Call the senate NOW!

866-338-1015