Month: April 2005

It seems like every day there is something new to be outraged about. It’s very tiring, trying to keep track of all the things that are just wrong, let alone trying to do something about it. The scandal of the day is greeted by many people with a sigh, followed by “Well, that figures. Tell me something else.” Another obstacle is set in the path of Getting Stuff Done, let alone Getting Ahead and our inner cynic just says to keep going. We are desensitizing to the various manufactured problems.

I call this condition “outrage fatigue.”

This administration has already given us a Medicare Drug Benefit that has caused the price of medicine to go up and provides corporate welfare to a select group of wealthy, profitable corporations. They have given us a bankruptcy “reform” that makes it harder for ordinary people to get on with their lives, oh, and provides corporate welfare to a select group of wealthy, profitable corporations. They would like to give us a Social Security “Reform” that will gut the system, slash benefits, and provide corporate “opportunities” to a select group of wealthy, profitable corporations. And even now the President is getting ready to unveil an energy proposal that, while he admits it won’t reduce the price of gasoline (no, he has to go begging foreign princes for that), won’t increase efficiency (despite the fact that increased CAFE standards would save more oil than would ever come out of ANWR), but it will provide corporate welfare to some of the most wealthy, profitable corporations on earth.

President Bush has nominated — and gotten approved — an Attorney General who called the Geneva Conventions “quaint” and a Secretary of State who may or may not have “respect for the truth.” He did not manage to get an easily bought adulterer who hires illegal aliens as the Secretary of Homeland Security. As for making a bully who thinks the UN does not exist our Ambassador to the UN, the Committee is still out on that one. And remember, folks, even though a Republican is the one who stood up and said no, it’s the Democrats fault.

And this brings me to Justice Sunday and the Nuclear Option — oh wait, somebody did a poll and decided that people don’t like the term “nuclear option,” so we should use “Constitutional Option” (even though the Constitution has nothing to do with it) and blame the Democrats for coining the term “nuclear option” (even though Republican Senator Trent Lott came up with it).

For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with this brouhaha, here is the short version. President Bush nominated a bunch of judges last year. Ten of them were rejected for a variety of reasons, including not having a license to practice law, being bought and paid for by special interests, or just plain being nutcases. Here’s one that claims “that people of faith were embroiled in a ‘war’ against secular humanists who threatened to divorce America from its religious roots….” I’ll get back to that attitude in a minute, but let me finish the story. So President Bush resubmitted 7 of these people as nominees, and they are having a tough time. The Democrats are threatening a filibuster — keep talking and talking until somebody is willing to take an idea off the table just to make it stop. That seems harsh, but it is a way to protect us from majority whim. Senate Majority Leader “Dr.” Bill Frist, who famously diagnosed Terri Schaivo based on a videotape, is now threatening to take away the right to filibuster and force “a straight up or down vote” on these nominees. In support of this, he staged an event last weekend called “Justice Sunday” wherein a taped message was run at a variety of churches, with the idea that Christians would support this erosion of minority rights. This is being supported by megatelevangelist James Dobson.

They want to make this into an Us-Against-Them Christianity-Vs-Evil thing, when it is really about things like competence. It is insulting to you, insulting to me, insulting to the Lord that their Churches represent. How dare these people be outraged about judicial nominees and not outraged that a gay male prostitute had seemingly limitless access to the White House. How dare they forget that Article VI Clause 3 of the Constitution says “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” How dare they forget how the Pilgrims and many other groups of people left their homelands to practice their religions without Government interference. How dare they forget that we have tried theocracy on this continent, and found it lacking.

Oh, and how dare the churches that ran this message forget the obligations inherent to their tax-exempt status.

We can’t have any of that reading on an airplane!

Apparently there is at least one TSA agent who believes there is a limit to the number of books you can bring on an airplane. (Thanks to BoingBoing) Inasmuch as these screeners have the authority to make their own judgments about what might be prohibited items, he is right because he says so. But in what way is it potentially “dangerous” to have more than two books in your carry-on? How could you use a third or fourth book as a weapon?

And what exactly is to stop anybody from buying as many books as they can carry at the newsstand on the other side of the security checkpoint?

Seriously, most people are not going to begin a vacation looking to finish out a dozen books. But what about traveling salespeople, who must carry catalogs and literature about their products? He can’t check that because he has to keep track of it; he has to know where it is and that it will really arrive at his destination. What about people returning from conventions or other events where they receive or even buy books and book-like materials? Sure would be a pain to pick up the latest edition of, oh I don’t know, “Procedures for Primary Care Physicians” at the big AMA convention only to have it confiscated by the TSA. What about students looking to catch up on some studying when they go home for Spring Break? And how do they define a book?

I think most of us would be a little more tolerant of this type of behavior if the TSA were doing a good job, but they aren’t. Even conservatives are unimpressed. The British press reports “Gaping holes” in US Security, including but not limited to thousands of unauthorized airport workers (dozens of whom were illegal aliens), ignored risks at smaller airports, airport workers who cause security breaches, and a soon to be missed deadline for baggage screening.

Nope, we are too busy worrying about how many books you have in your bag.

In closing, kudos to Howard Dean for standing up and saying what most Americans think: “The issue is: Are we going to live in a theocracy where the highest powers tell us what to do? Or are we going to be allowed to consult our own high powers when we make very difficult decisions?”

It would have been easy to miss this news item today. The United States military has freed 2 Iraqi women, a 60 year old and her adult daughter. A Lt. Col. Clifford Kent denies that they were hostages intended to force family members to turn themselves in. Please pay no attention the note left in the family home reading “Be a man Muhammad Mukhlif and give yourself up and then we will release your sisters. Otherwise they will spend a long time in detention.” Also please pay no attention to the phone number on the note that, when a Reuter’s reporter dialed it, was answered by American soldiers. Kent added that Americans don’t take hostages or “blackmail” people into surrendering. Bull! American forces have been doing that kind of nonsense for 2 years, and it’s still an outrage. Amnesty International points out that such tactics are against international law.

So the next time there are new casualties in Iraq, the next time there is news of an insurgent attack, the next time you are told they “hate us for our freedoms” or the freedoms we are supposedly bringing the region, remember this. This story is not likely to be an isolated incident. Maybe it isn’t our freedoms they hate after all.

Don’t get me wrong, there is some good news coming out of Iraq — including getting a new President — but that is despite American actions, not because of them.