Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
— John Lennon Continue reading
Hearts and Minds stands out as a seminal documentary work, regardless of subject. Michael Moore cites Hearts and Minds as the one movie that inspired him to become a film maker, calling it “not only the best documentary I have ever seen, it may be the best movie ever.”
Even though I mention in a note on Kevin’s page that his incarceration was the straw that broke the camel’s back, viewing such a powerful a movie as Hearts and Minds causes a mind of conscience to cut off all support for tyrannical government. Continue reading
Excerpted by the Coffee Coaster 4/16/12
Full 4.6.12 column in The Guardian here
In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time. This horror show ruling joins two recent horror show laws: the NDAA, which lets anyone be arrested forever at any time, and HR 347, the “trespass bill”, which gives you a 10-year sentence for protesting anywhere near someone with secret service protection. These criminalizations of being human follow, of course, the mini-uprising of the Occupy movement. Bagram airbase was used by the US to detain its ‘high-value’ targets during the ‘war on terror’ and is still Afghanistan’s main military prison. Photograph: Dar Yasin/AP Continue reading
Excerpted from Common Dreams column (the article is so good I could not resist the urge to copy and convey under the Coffee Coaster beachhead—though with reference to the full source, but admittedly more than fair use might dictate—a good share of it):
The whole thing is regrettable, really. Shocking, truth to tell. And so sad, I’m sure, for those people, those blanket-wearing, beard-growing, false-god-worshiping, probably-related-to-terrorists, citizens of Afghanistan whose wives and children and babies were gunned down in their beds, shot, murdered, slaughtered, and then burned by one of America’s finest Sunday morning. But hey, what are ya gonna do? These things happen. Continue reading