Obama's unbelievable hypocrisy

Welsh artist gets grant
to make plaster casts
of women’s bottoms.

The unbelievable hypocrisy of President Barack Obama is more than I can bear. He has come out with a statement that says the U.S. is committed to punishing torturers and helping the victims. And he has listed some countries believed to be offenders. He has vowed to uphold the International rules about torture and said that the U.S. will accept no excuses for torture, no exceptions. Except, of course, when it comes to the U.S. itself and the obvious case of Bush/Cheney torture policy. He continues to oppose a Truth Commission or an Independent Investigator and insist we must look only forward. Apparently his main reason for this is that he does not want to appear vindictive. Got that? He will not prosecute known war criminals because he does not want to appear vindictive. He apparently believes this is in the same universe as someone stealing his basketball or cheating at bridge. THESE ARE WAR CRIMES OF THE FIRST MAGNITUDE! Thousands of people have been killed, both Americans and Iraqis, millions displaced from their homes, who knows how many tortured and even murdered, human misery too immense to be grasped by the human mind, and he’s worried about being seen as vindictive? What kind of person is he? Actually, to claim he doesn’t want to be seen as vindictive is really just a cover story for what is the real reason, politics. To act against Bush/Cheney and their torture machine would be used by some to paint Obama as vindictive, conveniently ignoring the underlying reality of the torture. Torture is illegal and is supposed to be punished under the law. In some sense, in the very nature of law, prosecutions are always vindictive. Obama wants to jettison morality and justice in favor of politics, as he knows that to do what is right in this case will threaten to split the country. The neocons and Republicans will accuse him of being vindictive, of course, as they have abandoned morality and justice long ago in favor of power. Thus from a purely political view Obama is doing what he feels he needs to do, but he must know that what he is doing is just plain wrong in a moral and legal sense. Perhaps he can get away with letting this terrible moment in our history just fade away, and let the obviously guilty go unpunished, but if he does he certainly won’t ever get another vote from me. Of course I would never vote for a Republican, I just won’t vote, and I know there are others who feel much the same way.

I knew it would just be a matter of time before there would be a problem with knives. There is apparently some attempt to change the definition of switchblade knives that would potentially outlaw quite a large number of knives. There have been rules about switchblades which cover only knives that open with a button so they can be operated with one hand. The NRA (who else, of course) is arguing that changing the definition might even apply to Swiss Army Knives (although I don’t see how) and many other knives as well, which would, in their logic, seriously affect hunters. To me this is just another tempest in a (hot) teapot. If you have ever been in stores that specialize in hunting equipment, guns, and knives, you will know that there are usually dozens, sometimes even hundreds of knives of all kinds. Some of these knives are, in fact, hunting knives, useful for skinning and dressing game, and some are various versions of useful pocket knives. But there are also many, many knives that obviously have no purpose whatsoever other than as potential weapons, knives so huge as to be useless for any other purpose, and knives designed obviously for stabbing, ripping, frightening, and whatever. Occasionally you see knives with a handle of brass knuckles. Many of these knives, indeed, probably most of them, are not particularly sharp, are not of very good quality, and are mostly for show. Some of them are engraved and sometimes dedicated to someone like Kit Carson or Daniel Boone or whomever. I understand there are large numbers of people who collect these knives, just as there are people who collect swords. I am certain there is a large element of fantasy involved in the interest and ownership of knives, probably often a carryover from the wooden swords and knives that fascinate children. You do read about occasional stabbings but never with the same emotion as deaths from handguns. Knives do not seem to me to have been (or are) much of a problem. To single out switchblades from this mass of potentially lethal hardware strikes me as absurd. And banning knives in general would obviously be absurd. If banning switchblades makes anyone feel safer, fine, but in the overall context of the universe of knives and knife lovers it is simply rather fruitless, even petty. What would come next, forks?

LKBIQ:
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
James Russell Lowell

TILT:
The Appaloosa is the official horse of the state of Idaho.