Tue, 2 September 2014
One notable result of the slaying of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, comes from the deeply troubling ambiguity of the circumstances of that death. The plain truth is we don't know what the plain truth is. Not for sure. The context of police mistreatment of the community does not tell us. The context of Michael Brown's character does not tell us. The frustration that comes with a lack of knowledge has provided some momentum to an already existing movement to provide police officers with body cameras and to insist on their use. |
Fri, 25 July 2014
The anger that reacts against injustice is often what impels us along the arc of the moral universe. It is part of what bends that arc toward justice. If not channeled, it becomes the violence itself. So, yeah, if my family was victimized, I would want to kill those responsible. Personally. Slow, torturous death would not be a flaw, it would be a feature. I wouldn't want to be deterred by process, or by appeals, or by the microscopic possibility that I might have the wrong guy. I would likely be the one who wants to pull the switch. I can see myself as the one who hopes the killer suffers at least as much as his victim. Two hours to die? Good. The same would be true if a victim of murder was from a family down the street. The same might even be true if the family was in the same courtroom while I deliberated guilt or innocence. |
Tue, 15 July 2014
Al Qaeda had never had any force to speak of in Iraq. There were scattered outposts in largely deserted areas not controlled by Saddam Hussein's forces. But after the invasion, al Qaeda began to develop a presence. It wasn't much, but it was more than the zero that had been in Sunni areas before. And it was growing. So the Bush/Cheney administration went for the spin cycle. The increase in al Qaeda influence was actually a good thing. We were attracting terrorists to fight us in Iraq. But that meant they were sidetracked from coming to America. Iraq was flypaper. Terrorists were flies. Every attack on our troops in Iraq meant less danger in the suburbs of Peoria. |