The Mental Masturbator

It’s always dangerous to create a class of citizens with no rights. Especially when the definition of said class is an ideological one. Then anyone can be labeled as one of those people, and thus be stripped of their rights.

What will you be labeled as a terrorist for? Criticizing the government, protesting the war, or just acting ‘unusual’? We already have a “terrorist watch list” with over 700,000 names on it. Can all those people really be terrorists?

See, the amazing thing about our criminal justice system is that it’s designed to determine weather people are guilty or innocent of crimes using evidence. Why can’t we use that system for suspected terrorists? The government acts as if human rights are an impediment to keeping us safe and achieving justice. But I ask, how can we be safe, and how can we have justice without basic human rights? Bypassing those rights is a means that’s entirely antithetical to its supposed ends. And it’s dangerous. Basic rights protect you when you’ve fallen. They only come into play when being accused of something by the government, but now they disappear when the government accuses you! It’s madness, they might as well not exist.

There are cracks forming on the ground beneath our feet, let’s hope we don’t fall through them into the land where “innocent until proven guilty” becomes “guilty because we say so.”

Update:

Thanks Reddit for providing an example of this type of injustice:

‘Unusual’ Ferry Passengers Identified These two European business men were under suspicious for “unusual” behavior on a ferry. What constitutes unusual behavior? The FBI doesn’t say. Better be careful you’re not acting “unusual” in America. We don’t like “unusual” people around these parts.

On the eve of what looks to be another indecisive primary, I think it’s time we started giving money to a group that will use it to attack McCain rather than fellow Democrats: the DNC. They have been outraised more than 2-1 by the RNC this year:

According to the latest Federal Election Commission reports filed through the end of March, the RNC had $31 million in cash on hand while the DNC had only $5.3 million. The RNC has raised $36.5 million this year while the DNC has raised $17.7 million. [cbs]

It’s sad, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been raising record amounts of cash, and yet the DNC has seen little advantage from all the enthusiasm. The problem with giving money to either candidate right now is that they will use it to bring the other one down. The DNC, on the other hand, spends it’s money on McCain attack ads and helping congressional Democrats get elected. So rather than spend your cash on our Democratic civil war, how about spending on attacking our mutual enemy? I think all Democrats can agree on attacking McCain so let’s get started already! The DNC needs money, and they will spend it far more constructively (at this point) than either Clinton or Obama. It’s time to pull this country to the left again. So please, start giving to the DNC. And when one of them wins the primary, you can give to the candidate again.

Hillary has been receiving a lot of criticism recently for her gas tax plan.  She was asked to name a single non-political expert who supported her plan.  Here’s her campaign’s response:

“We believe the presidency requires leadership,” said Wolfson. “There are times that a president will take a position that a broad support of quote-unquote experts agree with. And there are times they will take a position that quote-unquote experts do not agree with.”[HuffPo]

I don’t think anyone who refers to experts as “quote-unquote experts” should be making important decisions.  Generally when one’s knowledge of a subject is lacking it’s a good idea to consult a quote-unquote expert.   Hillary is quote-unquote a moron and the thought of her running the country quote-unquote scares me more and more with each passing day.

Here’s a great story that seems to be getting almost no play in the main-stream-media. Apparently all west coast ports were closed today as thousands of dock workers stayed home to protest the war. This is great because it’s a serious protest. This is the kind of protest that gets attention because all the ports on the west coast aren’t functioning today.

Powerful people feel this kind of protest, they feel it in their wallets. If they struck for more than one day it would start to have a serious toll on the country. And frankly, politicians don’t listen to simple peaceful protests. The pre-Iraq-war protest in 2003 was maybe the biggest ever, and it did nothing. We need more people to be brave like these dock workers and then maybe something will actually change in America. Godspeed dock workers, godspeed.

Peace

As always there are spoilers for the episode in this review, don’t read if you haven’t seen it

I enjoyed this episode (I enjoy most BSG episodes) but let’s begin by airing a few grievances.  I didn’t like that there was no attention paid to the Demitrius or Cylon plot lines.  But it looks like next week is going to be all about that so I can deal.  This ep was a mixed bag in my opinion.  Tory continues her decent into  psychosis.  She really thinks she’s perfect, which is a road towards crazy.  If only she could see the dissonance in the Cylon ranks, then she’d see how imperfect they really are.  I guess this means she has no problems with the original attack or the events of New Caprica either, which again is totally nuts.

I also throughly enjoyed Tigh’s visits with Six, and his visions.  I never really thought about it but Six and Ellen look at lot alike.  I think Six must be starting to suspect that Tigh is a Cylon.  I mean if she can feel that they’re close, and suddenly Tigh is visiting her all the time, she ought to be able to put two and two together.

The other thing I liked was Chief’s fight with Adama in the bar.  It really made me uncomfortable to hear him desecrate Cally’s memory like that.  Even if what he said was true, I feel like you just don’t do that to dead people.  There’s something not right about it.  But he’s really losing it now, he has no wife, no job.  There are very few things left that make him Galen Tyrol.  Just his kid, but his kid is a Cylon too, so he’s lost him as well in a way.  I’m curious to see where this leads.

Now onto what I didn’t like.  I’ve always been a big fan of Baltar, mostly becuase he tends to drive the plot significantly.  He, sort of, caused the original attack.  He caused New Caprica.  It’s his fault Boomer shot Adama.  Basically, his deviousness moves things forward.  While that tradition continues, and I like the idea of him preaching monotheism, I just think he makes a lame religious leader.  For example, Six gives a great little speech about how a man who can challenge the Gods must be magnificent and god-like, and he then proceeds to throw a hissy fit.  Nothing magnificent about it.  And all his little speeches suck.  He’s not very profound and I find it hard to believe that people listen to him.  I guess I can swallow it because of how stupid religious people can be, but he could be better.  What is interesting about it is now he’s preaching the “perfect” mantra and Six and Tory both seem to approve.  Twisted things are happening.

Next week’s looks to be a good one.

The inventor of LSD, Albert Hoffman, died this week. RIP my friend, your work has had a profound influence on my life.

“And once again, I find myself standing in a pool of my own vomit.”

Indeed