Reading this interesting article in Forward about the potential consequences of bombing Iran's nuclear facilities (presuming we even know where they are) I am struck once again by the right's willingness to violate important taboos. (Some of you may not find this surprising considering their rather shocking public obsession with bestiality, but this goes beyond their usual bedroom hypocrisy.)
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First, they declare that the taboo against wars of agression, formed in the blood of more than 70 million dead people in the 20th century's two world wars, is out. Not even a second glance at that taboo. They simply repackage it as "pre-emptive" war, changing the previous definition of troops gathering on the border to somebody some day might want to attack us so we must attack them first.
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The Criminal-in-Chief, his minions in Congress, and the bought and paid for 'news media' are doing their damndest to desensitize us to their crimes. They want us to come to the point where they'll drop a nuke on someplace in Iran 'intelligence' tells them is a WMD site, and we'll all just shrug our shoulders, just as we did when they invaded Iraq.
We've set up camps in Eastern European nations for the sole purpose of torturing human beings, many innocent. We have secret courts in Guantanamo and American citizens are detained for years without charges filed. Shades of Hitler and Stalin but we just shrug our shoulders.
Once was a time when an American could say, 'no, my country would never do that', and be reasonably certain he was justified. Not saying we're angels, but Americans generally did the right thing. An allegation of torture (especially torture of innocents) would shock us all and we'd demand Congress get to the bottom of it. Now, as long as it doesn't confront our sheltered lives, we don't much give a shit.
We've given up a boatload of civil rights, enough so we should all be outraged, yet we just shrug and continue on, business as usual. Thirty-odd percent of us still support the people who are committing these crimes, willing to go along with whatever the government tells them.
'Be afraid', the regime says. 'There's a terrorist under every rock', they warn. And the chickenshits among us nod their heads and relinquish the last little bit of control they do have. 'They're keepin' us safe', the sheep say as they kiss of the last of their self-respect, of their dignity, goodbye in some sort of sacrifice to the Oracle of Fear.
Maybe it would be good for the United States to have its knees cut out. Something on the order of the Great Depression (something caused by this government's counterparts of that age) might be in order to make Americans realize how much we've lost, and to give us a taste of how others in the world have to struggle for the basic necessities. We've become too comfortable and the criminals of the Republican Party know it, and they're using it.
They know that as long as our comfort level can be reasonably maintained, we will allow them to do whatever they please. Had the debacle in New Orleans not happened (or FEMA's response been trouble-free) and had gas prices not steadily risen, do you think the Chimp would be looking at poll numbers as low as he's getting lately? He'd probably still be up around 60%.
Katrina showed us that the government doesn't give a shit about the average guy and the gas prices highlight the close relationship between the White House and the energy sector. These two events have done more to open people's eyes than any Downing Street Memos or Fitzgerald investigation or Cindy Sheehan or Richard Clarke or Joe Wilson or The Generals, or anyone else. Know why? Because these events intrude on our comfort zones.
All you comfortable people better get off your collective ass come November and run these bastids out, because once the takeover is complete, comfort will be something you harken back to, like the Good Old Days.
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