today during church (while in church) i read a few pieces from ARGUABLY(christopher hitchens’ collection of articles) including one about water boarding and his personal experience with it. I agree with the article’s ultimate point. (And I think that George W. Bush was a sad president; i found him misinformed and uninformed, and totally in over his head. And worst of all, he chose to hide it by acting sure of himself. Arrogance and ignorance are a dangerous combo. A very sad president — but I digress.) The Bush administration’s justification of torture did serious damage to the U.S.’s ability to ever claim the high ground on human rights. The article ends, making the point that once you cross that line (mild? torture; abuse of H-rights) what’s to stop you from getting out the thumb screws… justified by the ticking clock of terrorism. Principles of freedom and a sound philosophy should be adhered to — no matter the situation — even in times of crisis. Justifications to the contrary are bogus, or they reveal flaws in your paradigm??… (?so, consider a correction?).
Meanwhile, the church program was a “ward conference”, so it included an exhaustive (and pathetic) process of obsequious hand-raising to sustain all the (male) officers of the church leadership. I sat next to my dear wife (DW) who luckily was also occupied with her planner (typical church activity for her); and …I didn’t raise my hand once with the crowd, nor did she for most of the sustainings, because we were both too busy reading (in her case writing in her planner).
And thankfully, i only occasionally was interrupted by the speakers’ bad philosophy (I always keep one ear to the speaker, and pause my reading in case anything worthwhile is said).
Another interesting article was the exposition of the generations of suffering due to Agent Orange and other chemicals (mostly AO) … and Kissinger’s role in ordering the eco-destruction, for its criminal wrecklessness, and worse, only because jungles can come back (?) (though chemicals may lurk to do damage also) — and the terrible cost in human suffering from deformities — birth defects — that is occurring in subsequent generations of vietnamese… ; reveals Kissinger’s decision… to not consider the Vietnamese’s value as real (and innocent) human beings….
gotta say… as they say “it’s all fine… unless you’re one of the human beings.”