Today is the day that many bloggers who do not usually spend their time writing about human rights issues make the choice to do so. The idea is that by spending this one day writing about human rights, they will reach many people with the issues who don't normally read about them. I only heard about it this morning, but having heard about it, I think it's an amazing idea.
There are many issues I could choose to write about. Ever met a blogger from China on Vox, for instance? My understanding is that Vox is banned there. Freedom of speech is an important issue for me, and it's one of the areas where my country excels. Yes, we do have a strong tradition of protecting free speech.
Then again, I could be more topical. The fact that the government of Myanmar isn't allowing international aid through to its own people is certainly a travesty that is drawing a lot of attention. That fact, however, means that other human rights violations are slipping from our attention while we focus our outrage at the junta in Myanmar.
But I also feel uncomfortable attacking another country's human rights abuses while my own country's recent record is so poor. And yet, there is a perfect topic that combines the two, and that is the exporting of human rights abuses.
Our current administration's stated foreign policy is that they wish to spread freedom and democracy around the world. It's called the Freedom Agenda, and the White House is very proud of it. It's also a complete and total lie that anyone who is familiar at all with the human rights abuses of this administration cannot help but to be insulted by.
We cannot hold people in the U.S. indefinitely without charging them, so we set up a special prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, so we could do so and claim that it's not being done in the U.S. Of course it is U.S. soil, as it is being done on a U.S. military base. Irony is indeed dead if most people don't even blink at the fact that our government criticizes Cuba for its human rights abuses while sending our own war prisoners to an unwelcome base on their own soil so that we can violate their rights more conveniently.
But while the stated foreign policy agenda of the Bush administration is to export democracy and freedom, the actual agenda, as is clear from their actions, is to export human rights abuses. While the White House doesn't have a problem with violating U.S. law on our own soil, such as conducting illegal wiretaps on its own citizens, it's often just inconvenient to do so. They seem to know just how far they can push the line, and having torture camps set up on U.S. soil would be far enough that the Supreme Court would actually do their job and shut them down. So, instead, we let other countries do our dirty work for us.
Secret prisons established in foreign countries to allow the U.S. government to hold terror suspects indefinitely and treat them how they wish without having to deal with any of those pesky human rights laws we have back home. It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's well documented, making it a conspiracy fact, and not a well-kept conspiracy at that.
Our government admits to using torture techniques, won't rule out using them in the future, and still has the unmitigated gall to take the moral high ground in criticizing other country's human rights abuses, claiming that we are spreading democracy and freedom around the world. The insanity of it is maddening. Make no mistake, waterboarding is torture, and is by no means the only torture technique that we know has been used.
Every time our government commits one of these acts, it gives up more of the moral high ground that it so self-righteously thinks it has. We are becoming not the saviors of the world, but its most prominent hypocrites.
What can you do? The administration has made it extremely clear that it doesn't care in the slightest what the American people think.
It's obvious that sending letter won't do a whole lot. Donate to Amnesty International, by all means. And yet, the most effective thing an American citizen can do is elect a new President who doesn't believe in torture. And our current choices?
John McCain supports allowing the President the power to authorize torture.
Hillary Clinton used to support the use of torture, and now doesn't, similar in a way to how she used to support the war, and now doesn't.
Barack Obama has stated unequivocally that he does not support either the use of torture or sending suspects abroad so that other countries can do our torturing for us.
Make your choice accordingly!
We ate at a pan-asian restaurant called Tasia a couple of days ago for lunch. I had szechuan chicken, and Strix had some tofu stir fry, and we both enjoyed our meals. The atmosphere was nice for a quick lunch, and the service was prompt and polite.
I couldn't find the right movie poster, so the one to the left is for an animated feature, not for the new movie with Robert Downey Jr. As most people who have seen this have said, the movie is a very fun ride. Downey's performance made the character compelling, and the high-tech eye candy was a lot of fun.
If swimming is such good exercise, why are walruses so fat?
We listened to the audiobook of this on the way to Missouri. I haven't seen the movie, yet, but since the book focuses on Soviet-era espionage, I'm assuming that a movie version set in modern times will have to be drastically different. Another thing that would have to be different is that I hope that the movie, unlike the book, doesn't spend an entire quarter of its content describing one game of bacarat.
I understand now why the movies are more popular than the books. This book is terrible. James Bond is a misogynistic idiot who, at one point, is fantasizing about a female associate agent, thinking that she's such a proud person that having a sexual relationship with her would "have the sweet tang of rape" every time they sleep together.
She's the only female character in the story, and of course she turns out to be a double agent. Yes, I know it's a spoiler, but the story's already spoiled, so deal with it.
After listening to this book, I've come to the decision that Ian Fleming is not a very good writer, and was possibly not a very good person, either. That, and his mother probably beat him daily with a roulette wheel.
This book would be enjoyed by anyone who wants to learn how to play bacarat or likes men who fantasize about rape.
I spent almost all day yesterday watching Heroes on Mom's DVR, which had all but a couple of the episodes from the last season. Love that show.
Here's me reflected in the shiny plastic dashboard in Strix's PT Cruiser.
I look kind of melted, somewhat like my image in the post two entries back. Little less green, though.
I'm visiting the town I graduated high school in, Springfield, Missouri. The place has changed, as is to be expected after being gone for several years, but not that much. Still home of Bass Pro Shops and the Assemblies of God and - it is reported - cashew chicken.
And yet, coming home seems like it should be momentous, but it's really not.
Big thanks to Queen of Fractal Beauty for being our gracious host in Oklahoma City tonight and introducing Strix and I to Queen of Sheba, a terrific Ethiopian restaurant. Ethiopian is a type of cuisine that you can't get just anywhere, and Strix and I hadn't had any of it since our last visit to the D.C. area seven years ago. For those of you who haven't had it, it's a lot like Indian food in the preparation and seasoning, and it's served with a spongy bread that's used to eat the food in lieu of utensils. The bread is really good, and is a big part of what makes it special, as is the honey wine called tej.
The service was a little spotty, but the food was great, and of course so was the company!
How do you stay in shape?
Several ways, most notably my skeletal system, followed by the presence of skin, and on a more minute scale, the surface membrane tension of my cells.
An artist's rendition of what I would look like without a skeleton. Okay, you got me, that's what I look like now.
I'm in Albuquerque for the night. Night.
Strix and I are busy packing. We're heading out of town tomorrow evening to visit family in Missouri and so Strix can attend her graduation at Missouri State. I both love and hate long drives and vacations.
I love:
- the road
- eating at new restaurants
- sleeping in a room where someone else will change the sheets, etc.
- seeing family and friends
- sleeping in
- quality time with Strix
I hate:
- knowing that every day I'm away from work, my in-box is getting that much deeper
- knowing that we are choosing a cross-country road trip when the gas prices are higher than they've ever been
- leaving my two cats at home with a stranger watching them for us
- the weight I will gain from all of the eating out we're going to do
Okay, more love items than hate items, so I guess I'll go out on a limb and say it's a good thing.
