Category: Uncategorized

Academia, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Religion, Society, Uncategorized

Collateral Damage of the Police

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

This past week Professor Turley had two posts regarding the innocent victim of a police shooting: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/17/florida-police-pound-on-wrong-door-looking-for-suspect-without-identifying-themselves-thenves-then-shoot-and-kill-innocent-man-who-answers-the-door-with-weapon/#comments  and http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/20/report-police-allegedly-increased-suspects-alleged-crime-after-shooting-third-person/#more-51907  These can fairly be called the latest installments of an ongoing series that details deaths and injuries sustained by people who are the victims of policing errors. There were a fair number of comments all lamenting yet another example of careless police work, in tandem with a propensity to shoot first and hope for the best. After awhile the comments petered out because this instance is but one of many that have been publicized by Professor Turley. He tries to focus attention on what seems to be blatant disregard for the rights of individual citizens. After all, what does one say after expressing their outrage at egregious behavior and impotently raging against the expected ensuing cover-ups? Emotionally, I personally feel horror and outrage when something like this happens and I desire justice in the form of stiff punishment for the avoidable errors that took an innocent life. Yet this occurs time and again as outrage simmers and yet another story captures our attention. It seems that nothing is ever really done with the macro-cosmic problem, even when on the individual level, though very occasionally, the people responsible are held to account. When I thought about the issue of police killing the wrong person it occurred to me that this is not something that has recently developed in our country, or indeed the rest of the world. In fact it seems to me that such occurrences represent a norm of human history that stems from how the entire concept of policing first came about. Policing had its origins in protecting wealth, property and the status quo of autocratic authority.  Continue reading “Collateral Damage of the Police” →

Academia, Religion, Society, Uncategorized

A Meditation on Ritual

 

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

For many years in the late 60’s and through the 70’s a group of twenty five friends and co-workers would camp for a weekend on an island in the middle of Long Lake, in the Adirondack mountains. At the time these were the people who were closest to me, even more so than my family. The island we camped on in the middle of this magnificent lake was as beautiful and tranquil as you might imagine it to be. You could only reach it by boat and the isolation added to the feeling of peace that settled over us when we were there. An old mansion had once stood on a rise looking out at the Lake. All that remained of it was a huge fireplace and chimney. We would cook large dinners as twilight descended. As we ate our meals more wood was piled on the cooking fire until it was a large blazing bonfire and we would get high, talk, gaze into the fire’s ever changing shapes and play/sing music as night descended, sharing the communion and the warmth of our interrelationship.

As I recall those long weekends four decades past, I recognize that we were taking part in a ritual as old as the beginnings of human society. The sharing of a communal meal, the comfort of close companionship, primitive music and a roaring fire keeping away the terrors of the night. These earliest of human rituals developed the beginnings of that which we call society. Ritual as I define it is a combination of repetitive actions, rites and procedures performed by two or more individuals that provides comforting feeling and a sense of shared togetherness. The behaviors tap into the most universal of human archetypes and thus are easily recognized as reassuring by participants and by groups. I’m using my own definition here because if you Google “ritual defined” you will get a multiplicity of definitions, all with some precision, that in the end make the explanation of ritual more complex than it should be, hence my own hubris in creating my own definition.

As millennia passed the communal campfire developed into a complex mixture of ritual that bonded people together and like the earliest ones provide the comfort of safety in a fear ridden world. My generation of hipsters abjured the rituals we inherited, even as we created rituals of our own. It is a fact of humanity’s existence within society’s that communal rituals are needed to bond us together and that the breakdown of some of the binding rituals of American society, have separated us and have made our lives more chaotic and less personally meaningful. Let me explain what I perceive. Continue reading “A Meditation on Ritual” →

Academia, Media, Politics, Religion, Society, Uncategorized

Mythology and the New Feudalism

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

I am a regular subscriber to the website WhoWhatWhy written by investigative journalist Russ Baker.  Recently he ran a response by one of his readers, Dave Parker, to a video Russ posted of Nick Hanuer, a billionaire venture capitalist  who gave a talk at TED, which is an acronym for the non-profit, Technology, Entertainment and Design, TED holds conferences around the world on business/societal issues that relate to its theme. In his talk Mr. Hanuer dispelled the idea that the Rich create wealth and instead said it was really the middle-classes that drove the economy. He disparaged the idea that it is the entrepreneurs who are the “job creators”. Although the talk was well received by the conference attendees,    TED curiously chose not to publicize it as it usually does with other such talks. Perhaps their decision was because Mr. Hanuer’s thesis goes against the current widely accepted mythology regarding job creation and  entrepreneurship. Here is a video of his talk:

In his comment on this video, Dave Parker used the writings of Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell was:

“an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience.” 

My reading Dave’s article was the type of moment where you can imagine me slapping my head and exclaiming: “Damn, why didn’t I think of that”. Indeed, I’ve read all of Campbell’s books and seen all of his famed PBS series of interviews, done with Bill Moyers. What follows is my jumping off from Mr. Parker’s excellent comments and any credit for what I’m writing here goes to him for his perception. In applying Campbell to Mr. Hanuer’s comments, Dave solidified a concept for me that’s been playing in my head for years about the 1%’s need to increase the disparity between themselves and everyone else . The Rich are trying to create a new kind of feudalism where Lordships are won not on battlefields, but in corporate boardrooms. The rest of us need to be impoverished because without serfs to worship them, having everything ultimately becomes boring. Some of the 1% no doubt are less ego-driven and have empathy for those not on their level, but even they are beneficiaries of a mythology in creation. I believe that this mythology is the result of a campaign waged since the supporters of Barry Goldwater went down to an inglorious defeat.  Continue reading “Mythology and the New Feudalism” →

Uncategorized

Rick Scott’s Little List

By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger

         If someday it should happen that a victim must be found

          I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list

          of society offenders who might well be underground,

          who never would be missed, who never would be missed.

     W.S. Gilbert, The Mikado

The current legal battle between Florida governor Rick Scott and the Justice Department over the purging of voter rolls is only one of many examples of efforts undertaken in recent years to tighten registration requirements and restrict voting eligibility.  The 2011 Florida legislative session produced no fewer than 80 amendments to election laws, including mandatory photo identification, the reduction of early voting from two weeks to one and a 48 hour deadline for submission of completed forms by voter registration groups.  Gov. Scott also reversed his Republican predecessor’s efforts to simplify restoration of civil rights for persons convicted of non-violent felonies by imposing an arbitrary five year waiting period following completion of a convict’s sentence.

The professed purpose of these efforts is to protect the sanctity of the voting booth.  A U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee report published in 2005 warned that “voter fraud continues to plague our nation’s federal elections, diluting and cancelling out the lawful votes of the vast majority of Americans.”  The report cited no studies or statistical evidence to support such a terrifying conclusion, but no matter.  Gov. Scott insists that his motives are pure, that he is driven solely by a desire to preserve the integrity of the electoral process.  And what fair-minded person can argue with that?

But no political leader has ever acknowledged less than noble objectives.  Therefore, it is always necessary to go behind the public statements. How serious a problem is voter fraud?  What are the opinions of rank and file members of the constituencies pushing for new laws?  When the governor’s actions are examined under these lenses, the conclusion is inescapable that the overriding concern is not electoral, but political. Continue reading “Rick Scott’s Little List” →

Academia, International, Media, Military, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

Missing the Point When the Point is Obvious

Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger

“There were 154 suicides among active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year, according to a recent report from the Associated Press, a number that is 50 percent higher than the number of U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan over that time period. It is the highest rate in 10 years of war.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/panetta-calls-rise-in-military-suicide-troubling-and-tragic/2012/06/22/gJQAnQSPvV_blog.html

The above quote was taken from an article in yesterday’s Washington Post. The article was about a statement made by Defense Secretary Leo Panetta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Panetta speaking to a Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs annual conference on suicide prevention in the military.

“Panetta called suicide in the military “perhaps the most frustrating challenge” he has faced since becoming secretary of defense last year.

 There are no easy answers, but that is no damn reason for not finding the answer to the problem of suicide,” Panetta told attendees at the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs annual conference on suicide prevention in the military.

 The conference heard Thursday from a panel of family members who spoke of what they said was the military services’ failure to provide appropriate and timely mental health care to service members who had sought help.”

 “The stories told by the family panel members run counter to the prevailing wisdom that the biggest hurdle in trying to prevent suicide in the military is the stigma associated with seeking help, noted Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a military family group that organized the panel.

 “We were hearing about folks who said, ‘I want to get help, I want to be better, I have a lot to live for,’ but were not getting that help,” Carroll said.

 “In his address Friday morning, Panetta said that it is the responsibility of leaders from non-commissioned officers on up to ensure that troops showing signs of stress be “aggressively” encouraged to seek help. “We have to make clear we will not tolerate actions that belittle, that haze individuals, particularly those who seek help,” he said. Panetta said concerns about access to behavioral health care prompted his decision earlier this month to order a service-wide review of mental health diagnoses. The action followed an Army investigation into concerns that some soldiers had their diagnoses reversed because of the costs of caring for them. “

Let me be fair and say that I have no doubt as to the sincerity of Secretary Panetta in wanting to deal with this issue and I approve of all efforts to get treatment both psychologically and emotionally to provide our troops with all the assistance they need. However, as much effort as is put into solving this problem by the powers that be, the essential issue is that war is horrible and our country has now engaged in two wars that have lasted almost a decade. Beyond that, as these wars have worn on it has become increasingly obvious to all concerned that there was no need to fight them in the first place. Our troops are not stupid and I believe despite the great efforts to indoctrinate them with purpose, they recognize the futility of their efforts. If I’m correct then how does a rational human being connect the constant dangers and bloody revulsion they must feel, with the reality of their service? Continue reading “Missing the Point When the Point is Obvious” →

Uncategorized

Barton’s Revisionist Jefferson Exposed

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Religious Right faux-historian David Barton’s new book, The Jefferson Lies, is an attempt to portray the third President as an orthodox Christian. Barton has a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University. Two professors, Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter, from Grove City, a private Christian institution north of Pittsburgh, have written an e-book, Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President, wherein they expose Barton’s revisionism. Continue reading “Barton’s Revisionist Jefferson Exposed” →

Academia, Free Speech, Society, Uncategorized

“Dirty” Is in the Mind of the Beholder: Children’s Picture Book Banned from Elementary Libraries in Pennsylvania School District

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Some people have no sense of humor. Some people find obscenity where there is none. Case in point: Earlier this year, parents of a kindergarten student in the Annville-Cleona School District made a complaint about The Dirty Cowboy, a humorous picture book that their child brought home from the school library. The parents felt that Adam Rex’s illustrations of the cowboy’s partial nudity in the book were “pornographic” and wanted it banned.  In April, the school board agreed with the parents and voted unanimously to remove the book from school libraries in the district.

Note: Before the school board’s vote, the district’s book review committee voted 5-1 to remove the book, with Cleona librarian Anita Mentzer voting against it. Other committee members included Annville-Cleona Superintendent Steven Houser, the assistant superintendent, the technology director, and Cleona Elementary’s principal. (School Library Journal)

There were protests against the banning of The Dirty Cowboy by free-speech organizations and an online petition in favor of repealing the ban that was signed by more than 300 people. The National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression sent a letter to the district asking that the book be returned to school library shelves.

Continue reading ““Dirty” Is in the Mind of the Beholder: Children’s Picture Book Banned from Elementary Libraries in Pennsylvania School District” →

Uncategorized

Not So Noble: Bookstore Chain Apologizes For Kicking Out Elderly Man From Children’s Book Section As Suspected Pedophile

The bookstore chain Barnes and Noble issued a rather belated apology to Dr. Omar Amin, 73, of Scottsdale, after he was thrown out of a children’s book section in Arizona. He was told that men are not allowed to be in the children’s section unless they are accompanied by a minor. That’s right. He was told that as a man he was viewed as a danger if reading alone in the section.

Continue reading “Not So Noble: Bookstore Chain Apologizes For Kicking Out Elderly Man From Children’s Book Section As Suspected Pedophile” →

Uncategorized

The Freedom To Harm Ourselves: Mayor Bloomberg and The Case Against Cola

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ignited a firestorm on this blog and elsewhere for his proposal to ban all but 16 ounce containers of sodas, energy drinks, sweetened iced teas and other sugary beverages in restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas and food carts (they will still be available in supermarkets and bodegas). Wondering why he’d make a proposal that could not possibly help him politically and was likely to draw the ire of Big Soda, I did a little research. Here is the abbreviated case against cola:

Uncategorized

Marital Discord

By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.”     Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

The year 1648 saw the publication of Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts, a compilation of laws enacted by the colony’s General Court.  The preface reminds us that “there is no humane law that tendeth to common good . . . but the same is mediately a law of God.”  The list of capital offenses included adultery, idolatry, blasphemy, sodomy and witchcraft, with appropriate references to Leviticus, Deuteronomy and other books of the Bible.

And while the Puritan colonists were committed to their religious freedom, they firmly rejected the idea of freedom of religion, with its implication of doctrinal indifferentism.  Banishment was the prescibed penalty for heresy, as carefully defined.  Anabaptists and others opposed to infant baptism were likewise subject to banishment.  A special section prohibited “those of the Jesuiticall Order” and ecclesiastics “ordained by the authoritie of the Pope” from even stepping foot in the colony, with death the penalty for repeat offenders.  (In perhaps the earliest recorded example of compassionate conservatism, however, Jesuits who washed ashore through “ship-wrack or other accident” were permitted to remain until the departure of the next available ship.)

Yet despite the strongly theocratic foundation of their laws, the Puritans reserved to civil authority the solemnization of the most important relationship: marriage. Continue reading “Marital Discord” →

Uncategorized

How about Some Government Propaganda for the People Paid for by the People Being Propagandized?

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Investigative journalist Michael Hastings recently broke a story on BuzzFeed about an amendment that is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill. The amendment would “legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences.” Hasting reported that the amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon. He says the “tweak” to the bill would “neutralize” two other acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—which were passed in order “to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.” Rep. Mark Thornberry (R, Texas) and Rep. Adam Smith (D, Washington) are co-sponsors of the bipartisan amendment.

Hastings says that “the new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public.” One Pentagon official who is concerned about the amendment told Hastings, “It removes the protection for Americans. It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.” The official added that there are “senior public affairs” officers in the Department of Defense who would like to “get rid” of the Smith-Mundt Act “and other restrictions because it prevents information activities designed to prop up unpopular policies—like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Continue reading “How about Some Government Propaganda for the People Paid for by the People Being Propagandized?” →

Constitutional Law, Military, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

Democracy Without Dissent: Obama Issues Draconian Executive Order To Silence Opponents Of Yemen’s Leader

President Obama has issued an alarming executive order that would allow the government to crackdown of U.S. citizens and other individuals who “indirectly” oppose U.S.-backed Yemeni President, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Hadi was the right-hand man to the prior  dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh and won an “election” composed only of himself.  We, of course, immediately embraced Hadi and the Obama Administration is now threatening anyone who opposes him, including our own citizens. The Administration appears delighted that, while opponents are not welcomed in the country, American drones are.

Continue reading “Democracy Without Dissent: Obama Issues Draconian Executive Order To Silence Opponents Of Yemen’s Leader” →

Courts, Criminal law, Politics, Society, Uncategorized

Trayvon Martin Prosecutor Accused of Overcharging and Being Party To “Institutional Racism”

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Angela Corey has become a minor legal celebrity for her tough-minded prosecution of the Trayvon Martin murder case.  Her toughness has also drawn the ire of U.S. House member Corrine Brown in a racially charged case in Jacksonville. The case involves Marissa Alexander who was charged under Florida’s “10-20-life” law which mandates progressively tough penalties for violent felonies when firearms are involved.

Continue reading “Trayvon Martin Prosecutor Accused of Overcharging and Being Party To “Institutional Racism”” →

Congress, Politics, Uncategorized

Going Postal in Washington, D. C.: The USPS, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, Union Busting, and Paving the Road to Privatization

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Here are some questions for you:

– Do you know how the United States Postal Service (USPS) is funded?

– Do you know why the USPS is having such serious financial problems?

– Would the closing of more than 200 postal processing centers and more than 3,000 post offices across this country, eliminating Saturday mail delivery, and cutting more than 100,000 postal jobs be the best way to save the USPS?

– Would slowing down mail delivery help the USPS to take in more revenue?

– What would happen to rural communities if their post offices were closed?

– What do you know about the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006?

– Have you heard about H.R. 1351?

Yes, the USPS is experiencing serious financial problems. I’ve heard on the news and read in the papers that drastic measures must be undertaken in order to save this great American institution. I think that it’s important to understand the causes of those problems and to know what could happen to the US Postal Service unless Congress solves them without severely impacting the institution and the services it provides to Americans.

Continue reading “Going Postal in Washington, D. C.: The USPS, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, Union Busting, and Paving the Road to Privatization” →