Politics

“There’s a hell of a lot of suffering and ‘injustice’ in the world, but no one besides Muslim Arabs (and non-Arab Muslims they’ve recruited) seem to be responding in this way.” Ah, Steven (original). Shining Path, Aum Shinrikyo, FARC, the Basque terrorist groups, Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Tigers of Tamil, 17 November, and of course our own homegrown militia groups. Oh yeah. And I heard there was some kind of terrorist group operating out of Ireland these days. ...

Phil Carter notes new rules for military tribunals (original) (PDF), including a right of review, and does a far better job of analyzing them than I would. So go read him (original).

Hey, look: more right-wing cop-killers (original). But remember, it’s the left which is the problem. Arthur Bixby is just another exception. Edit: I’m going to expand on this, because I jotted it off a bit too quickly. If you look at Bixby’s history (original), you’ve got a pretty iconoclastic guy who doesn’t respect the legitimacy of the United States government. The problem is the violence. The other problem is the strange alternative government people like Bixby make up. Being an anarchist is one thing; inventing new rules and expecting people to live under them is another. ...

Truth is, I don’t much care what Dean supporters will do if he loses the primaries (original). I think Dean’s veiled threats are pretty childish; they’re also stupid. He’s not gonna tell his supporters to stay home, and the vast majority of them will vote for the Democratic nominee anyhow. I also agree with Atrios on this one, in that the real question is what happens to Dean’s campaign machine. In the ideal Democratic Party world, he keeps running it on behalf of the primary victor. In our world, he probably tunes it down and keeps it humming so as to keep himself well-positioned for 2008/2012, unless of course he gets the VP nod, which is what he’s angling for when he makes threats about taking his toys and going home. ...

Speaking of God, may I point out that it is just pathetic that the National Parks Service is putting creationist texts on sale in the Grand Canyon park bookstore? Not to mention the rest of the fundamentalist ideology-mongering revealed in this article. Edit: there’s been a bit of backpedalling. Unclear how much.

I try to stay away from entries entitled “ Dave Winer has gone barking mad,” but from time to time I suspect I just won’t be able to avoid it. Background: Dave got miffed (original) because Lawrence Lessig’s big speech included an exhortation to get off your butts and do something about the political arena. Dave, to be perfectly fair, is in fact fairly active in a scattershot kind of a way. He also deserves applause for his rejection of patents, although he couldn’t have actually patented everything he thinks he could. ...

Above the main door of the Cambridge City Hall is a stone bearing these words: God has given Commandments unto Men. From these Commandments Men have framed Laws by which to be governed. It is honorable and praiseworthy to faithfully serve the people by helping to administer these Laws. If the Laws are not enforced, the People are not well governed. The asserted motivation behind Roy Moore’s monument to the 10 Commandments (original) was acknowledgement of the law’s moral foundation: namely, the Commandments inscribed on his monument, which are certainly the Commandments referenced in the inscription above. ...

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the government may not hold Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant (original). Padilla is an American citizen. This will wind up going to the Supreme Court, I imagine.

Saith Dor: “Yeah, maybe Al Queda had a training camp in Iraq somewhere, at some point. There are militia training camps in Idaho. Does that mean that the US government sponsored the Oklahoma City bombing?”

Good news (original), without question. Doesn’t make people on US soil a whole lot safer, but it may make a difference for soldiers in Iraq, and it’s excellent news for the Iraqi people. I could speculate all day on the possible effects of this. “Aha, now the attacks on American troops will slow down.” “Aha, now the Iraqis won’t feel the need for US protection and will demonstrate against the occupation.” “Aha, there will be a major boom in Saddam bobblehead dolls.” I don’t have any idea what will happen, though, so I’m not going to try and say something authoritative and convincing. I’ll just be happy the guy’s caught. ...