Double Birds

Here's a couple essays on Bin Laden that illustrate the good points that often come from the left. First, from Michael Moore : "Some believe that this was a "war" we were in with al Qaeda - and you don't do trials during war. It's thinking like this that makes me fear that, while bin Laden may be dead, he may have "won" the bigger battle. Let's be clear: There is no "war with al Qaeda." Wars are between nations. Al Qaeda was an organization of fanatics who committed crimes. That we elevated them to nation status - they loved it! It was great for their recruiting drive. We did exactly what bin Laden said he wanted us to do: Give up our freedoms (like the freedom to be assumed innocent until proven guilty), engage our military in Muslim countries so that we will be hated by Muslims, and wipe ourselves out financially in doing so. Done, done and done, Osama. You had our number. You somehow knew we would eagerly give up our constitutional ...

The Aztecs tore the hearts out of human victims to appease the sun god . The victims were treated with the utmost respect before their deaths, like royalty. Their sacrifice was honored by the populace, who believed the priests and rulers who said that murdering their loved ones kept society free from destruction. The murder of innocents did not prop up the sun. Rather, it propped up the ruling regime, and kept the populace in a reverent gratitude for the courage of the leaders in sacrificing the people's children. We are told the same pack of lies. Our sons are sent to die in wars against a threat as real as the sun god. We are supposed to thank our leaders for sacrificing our children to protect us from imaginary destruction. In the pagan ritual of war, our leaders claim a mighty priesthood indeed. The ability to consecrate human sacrifice unto the most-high God, a sacrifice that preserves our liberty and safety. The fires of Moloch devour our children still. Ironically, w...

CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday. In a late-night appearance in the East Room of the Imperial Palace, Lord Vader declared that “justice has been done” as he disclosed that agents of the Imperial Army and stormtroopers of the 501st Legion had finally cornered Kenobi, one of the leaders of the Jedi rebellion, who had eluded the Empire for nearly two decades. Imperial officials said Kenobi resisted and was cut down by Lord Vader’s own lightsaber. He was later dumped out of an airlock. The news touched off an extraordinary outpouring of emotion as crowds gathered in the Senate District and outside the Imperial Palace, waving imperial flags, cheering, shouting, laughing and chanting, “Hail to the Emperor! Hail Lord Vader!” In the alien protection zone, crowds sang “The Ten Thousand Year E...

Congress thinks they can tell you what to eat. Most notorious is the federal  war on raw milk , recently culminating in state troopers arresting an Amish guy for selling unpasteurized milk. Your customs are strange, English. A bill, passed by the Senate, is in the works that would be the equivalent of the PATRIOT Act for food . This may seem like a good idea, in light of recent microbial outbreaks.  But these regulations are often lobbied for by the very industries they supposedly regulate?   Why ?  Because bigger industries can, in effect, outlaw smaller competitors, and use the law to put them out of business. Keeping America safe. A small farmer, for example, could afford a cow, but not pasteurization equipment.  I might be willing to risk drinking raw milk to support my local community, but the government says I'm not smart enough to make that decision myself. Well, the little guy is fighting back. Sedgwick, a small town in Maine, has passed a l...

On  Democracy Now!  this morning,  The Nation 's Jeremy Scahill explains that Osama bin Laden's killing in Pakistan yesterday is not necessarily a cause for celebration : the United States used the man who launched the September 11 attacks on America as a reason to "declare war on the world," Scahill says. In response to September 11, "Iraq was invaded, a country that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, nothing to do with bin Laden. The United States created an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq by invading it, made Iran a far more influential force in Iraq than it ever would have been. We have given a grand motivation to people around the world that want to do harm to Americans in our killing of civilians, our waging of war against countries that have no connection to Al Qaeda and by staying in these countries long after the mission was accomplished ... This is a somber day, when we should be remembering all of the victims: the three thousand who died in the United S...

Bin Laden's body was dumped into the ocean. Kind of a weird way to handle the situation, isn't it?  Why kill him?  Why not interrogate him?  Isn't he the big bad mastermind behind Al Qaeda? With Bin Laden dead, the government will inevitably find another boogeyman to scare us into continuing perpetual war. Already the hawks are drooling over Pakistan .  Even  Jon Stewart  chimed along blaming Pakistan for hiding terrorist #1.  Weaker accusations have been used to justify war, surely these will help assuage any sentiments against the secretive and undeclared war we already wage in Pakistan . Michael Rozeff  asks more interesting questions. Noam Chomsky chides American ignorance on Bin Laden.