happy birthday, leo

I thought I'd share this passage from Leo Tolstoy's letter, "To the Working People," today — his birthday according to the Julian calendar — because I find it intriguing and worth reflecting upon:

People fare badly only because they themselves live badly. And there is no more injurious thought for people than that the causes of the wretchedness of their position is not in themselves, but in external conditions. A man or a society of men need but imagine that the evil experienced by them is due to external conditions and to direct their attention and efforts to the change of these external conditions, and the evil will be increased. But a man or a society of men need but sincerely direct their attention to themselves, and in themselves and their lives look for the causes of that evil from which they suffer, in order that these causes may be at once found and destroyed.

I don't know what it is about Russian writers like Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, but I find their works a never-ending source of insight.

This passage, for example, is often paraphrased as:

Everyone thinks to change the world, but nobody thinks to change themselves.

And, while I think that external conditions can affect us as much as internal ones, what I think Tolstoy is saying here is that, subjectively speaking, it all comes down to what we do with those experiences and how we relate to them.

comment of the day

My response to a letter to the editor that appeared in Thursday's edition of the Oregonian was chosen as the comment of the day:

Editor's note: This was among the responses to the recent letter to the editor, "Harsh treatment necessary."

What really scares me about people is the fact that they can justify almost anything, including the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" to extract information.

Many people say that enhanced interrogation techniques like slamming prisoners into walls, threatening them with power drills and mock executions, threatening to murder their family members and waterboarding aren't torture. I think that when it comes to things like waterboarding, however, especially when used in combination with other harsh interrogation methods, it's easy to say that it's not torture when you're not the one undergoing such treatment, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to go through anything like that myself. Nor would I want anyone else to.

I don't have any good arguments to support my opinion besides the fact that I find the intentional infliction of pain and mental anguish deplorable -- especially when it's done in secret, without any kind of transparency or accountability whatsoever, and has the potential to cause irreversible damage -- but I think that's enough.

I can't say for sure, but I'm reasonably certain that being captured, blindfolded, shipped off to a foreign country and then subjected to things like prolonged psychological and physical abuse would mentally scar me for life. Granted, I'm not a hardened terrorist, I'm a rather 'soft' law-abiding citizen of the United States; but even so, I doubt those people will ever be the same after going through such an experience.

I've listened to both sides of the debate, and while I think that proponents of enhanced interrogation techniques make some good points, I simply can't justify treating another human being like that for any reason. For one thing, it's most likely against the law (Title 18, Part I, Chapter 113C of the U.S. Code). And even if it isn't, I don't think it's acceptable, even if lives might theoretically be at stake, and I don't want my government engaging in such activity.

I know that our Founding Fathers weren't perfect, but one of the things I think people like Washington and Adams had right were their views on the treatment of prisoners, which Robert Kennedy details briefly in "America's anti-torture tradition," an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times.

Regardless of the rationale or the particular circumstances involved, the fact that American soldiers and intelligence agents were (and possibly still are) torturing prisoners is one of the reasons I'm afraid of Americans. And I'm American!

2004 cia inspector general report on torture

While the majority of the mainstream media seems to be doing their collective best to ignore what's in this report (CNN's current top story reads "Chris Brown sentenced; prior incidents emerge"), Salon.com takes a serious look at what was done in every Americans' names:

What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report

(Thanks Xoxarle.)

does the 'lockerbie bomber' deserve compassion?

Reflecting on the news that the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 returned home to Libya to die after he was released from a Scottish prison Thursday, I can't say that I'm as outraged as most people seem to be. Call me a 'bleeding-heart liberal,' but I think showing compassion is a good thing.

A friend of mine asked, "The family members of people he killed didn't get to say good-bye to their families, why should he?" That's a good question. Why?

My first thought was that compassion and forgiveness are human emotions we should try to develop more deeply, not bury them away in the back of our minds until they're completely bred out of existence.

Another reason was that a 2007 review of his case raised the prospect that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. It's a tragedy that so many people were killed in such a horrible fashion, but, in my eyes, condemning a potentially innocent man to die in prison isn't any better or more just.

In addition to this, Scotland has a long-standing policy in place which, according to Oliver Smith, dictates that, "if you have a terminal illness and have three months or less to live then you will be released from prison on compassionate grounds. This applies to all convicts in Scotland, regardless of their age, their gender, religion, crime or any other factor."

Nevertheless, most people I've talked to about this issue generally agree that al-Megrahi should rot in jail until he dies in the event that he's actually guilty. That might be what's best, but at the same time, I can't help but hope that humanity as a whole is eventually able to move beyond an eye-for-an-eye model of justice and morality.

I understand that the idea of having compassion for a murderer is difficult to fathom, and I know that many will probably find the very thought distasteful, but I happen to agree with Scotland’s policy of releasing terminally ill prisoners in the spirit compassion. Just because a person commits a cruel act doesn’t mean that society should act equally as cruel.

It also makes me wonder if there was as much outrage when Pres. Nixon reduced the sentence of William Calley — the only person who was ever convicted in connection with the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai — from a life sentence to three years house arrest.

On a related side note, my girlfriend said:

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's only been 8 years since he's been in prison--after getting a life sentence. And the people who had loved ones who were killed due to his actions? And what if they're using him to secure more oil? Is he really just a scapegoat, when he was convicted at the beginning? This issue isn't black and white to me. And I'm not sure they're really showing compassion, even if that's what they say.

If he was released in exchange for economic opportunities (e.g., in order to secure more oil), I think that sure tells you a lot about the nature of the capitalist system.

reading about health care makes me sick (wah-wah)

From CNN:

"We have the best health care system in the world," Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told "Fox News Sunday." "We need to expand it. We do not need to destroy it."

Hm, that's interesting. According to the World Health Organization, France has the best overall health care system in the world, excelling in 4 areas: (1) universal coverage, (2) responsive health care providers, (3) freedom of choice and (4) overall health and longevity of the population.

Another interesting fact from National Public Radio is that a study published last year in the U.S. journal Health Affairs found that in Spain [ranked 7th best in the world by the WHO], there are a third fewer deaths caused by delayed access to health care than in the United States [ranked 37th]. (Not only that, but Spain's constitution guarantees the right to universal health care and requires the state to provide it. What a novel idea.)

I'm curious to know what criteria Sen. Shelby bases his expert opinion on.

If that wasn't bad enough, I read in the Oregonian last week that the White House appears ready to "abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of a new government-run insurance program as part of an overhaul of the U.S. health care system." Caving in yet again? WTF?

In addition, Xoxarle on freeratio.org points out that "the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] estimates that the reform bill ... will only bring 16 million into the fold over the next 10 years, which is less than a third of those currently without coverage" for only 1 to 1.5 trillion dollars!

So, as Xoxarle puts it, our tax dollars will go to "preserving and expanding the current unsustainable for-profit model, and as a side benefit, will increase the deficit at the same time." Great!

Honestly, the Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House, what the hell are they waiting for? People probably think I'm crazy for voting for Nader, but I bet that he wouldn't let things like name calling and death threats from right-wing extremists stop him from pushing single-payer health care with a vengeance.

He might be a bit of a nutter, but just reading about what's going on with health care reform, it's hard to argue with him when he says that "the whole liberal-progressive constituency is going nowhere."

today in history

Today marks, among other things, the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's absorption into the Union as the 50th state—which, until the 1890s, was recognized as an independent sovereign state by Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and, last but not least, the United States. That was, of course, before the imperialistic overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893.

Today also marks the 69th anniversary of Leon Trotsky's death, who eventually succumbed to his injuries after being attacked by a Stalinist assassin, Ramon Mercader, a.k.a. Frank Johnson, while in exile in Mexico.

alienation

Just like a seed that’s separated from its own fruit
I sell myself for someone else’s gain
My wounded heart’s bleeding out its last drops of love
For a world that remains empty of salvation