In These Times

Latest Comments view all 11

• • 27 Jan 06
  • 8:44 pm

  I would suggest that in a civilised society there is NO justification for torture. Period. To acknowledge that it is practiced is frightening. Acknowledging and justifying are just the first couple of steps towards accepting and legitimising the practice. I don't wish to sound alarmist here, but what comes afterwards? Gas chambers? Ovens? No. I'm not being paranoid. The writ of Habeus Corpus is pretty much dead in the U.S. now. If you aren't sure what that implies, I suggest a Google search on "Habeus Corpus and the importance of that writ in the development of several of the worlds' democracies. …

  Posted to Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency

• • 29 Jan 06
  • 10:17 pm

  As the token Canadian here, I'd like to state clearly that I am not trying to get into the U.S. Indeed I've never wanted to move to the U.S. That's not to say that I've never visited your country. I have. I should state that for the most part I even like Americans. You guys are'nt hugely different from us. Your standard of living is about the same as ours. You espouse many of the same ideals. My sense is that a greater percentage of your population will buy whatever your government sells you. To the extent that I get the …

  Posted to Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency

• • 29 Jan 06
  • 10:47 pm

  Well I've been wondering about Shrub (my tongue-in-cheek name for Bush junior) for a while now. I am starting to think that he honestly thinks he is on a mission from God. Correct me if I sound out to lunch on this one, but I'm thinking that he perhaps really believes that these are the "end times" and that armaggedon is approaching fast. In which case he is the president for the job ordained by God. In his mind at least. That could explain his unwillingness to sign onto the Kyoto accord. Why worry about the environment if the end of …

  Posted to Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency

• • 30 Jan 06
  • 12:31 am

  You are correct. Canadian political parties are on the whole more liberal than American political parties. Indeed, our Conservative party might even be considered quite liberal, however, it should be noted that the modern day Conservative party in Canada has many members of what was once known as the Reform party. Reformers are actually fairly right-wing. Many Canucks feel that they are only one short step away from being like American Neo-cons. Stephen Harper (the leader of the Conservatives here) comes from that background. He would like to introduce minimum penalties for things like drug possession. Indeed, he strongly opposes the …

  Posted to Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency

• • 30 Jan 06
  • 12:03 pm

  Good God! It's worse than I thought. I was being too kind. I honestly thought that Cuba beat the U.S. on this one. Thanks for the correction. I now know better. I followed the link you provided and noted Japans' rate with a great deal of interest. I honestly don't know what more to add to this. The numbers speak for themselves. Do the majority of Americans realize what these numbers mean to American society? The implications are almost too frightening to grasp.

  Posted to Jack Bauer and the Ethics of Urgency