"Do I Look Suspicious?" The Video

Many have jumped to the conclusion that racism or racial profiling was the motivation for the shooting of Trayvon Martin. It may have been or it may not. The simple truth is that we don't know yet. The only other person there that night, the shooter, denies it and there isn't much else to prove or disprove it yet.

Nonetheless, racial profiling does exist and it is an ugly, dangerous thing especially for those in a group being profiled. There is no question that racial profiling can and too often does lead to harassment of people for no other reason than because of their race, culture or religion.

While I deplore the opportunism of those, particularly the mainstream media who are trying to turn the death of one young black man into a circus, I admire what a group of Howard University students have done in this video to draw attention to this issue.

Watch the video.

While this video is inspired by the death of Trayvon Martin and speaks to the the reality of what many young black men face every day in society, racial profiling is not exclusive to the black community.

Racial profiling is categorization of a group based on generalizations about that group, generalizations and negative stereotypes, rooted in fear and which usually are untrue.

In Tucson, Arizona there was more security than board members for a local school board meeting to discuss the cancellation of a Mexican-American studies program. There was fear of violence propagated by racial profiling and. even 8 and 9 year old Latino children were subjugated to intense security checks before allowed into the 'school' with their parents where the board was meeting. (see video link below)

As a result of terrorism, airline passengers are profiled at security. Those who fit certain profiles are given even more intense scrutiny than the others flying particularly if they are middle eastern or 'look' Muslim. In certain cities, young Asian men are profiled as potential street gang members. 

It wasn't so long ago that those of Italian descent were profiled as being connected to the mob and anyone from the south was probably named Billy-bob and a member of the Klan.

Now, the Department of Homeland Security is attempting to develop a method to predict terrorists and criminal behaviour based on profiling in much the same vein as the Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report.

Racial profiling doesn't help in correctly identifying potential threats to our societies, it perpetuates negative stereotypes about definable groups that only reinforce fear and intolerance and that is fertile ground for the growth of racism. You don't have to take my word for it. The more racial profiling we have in our society, the less safe we feel.

Whether racial profiling was the real motivation behind the shooting of Trayvon Martin, we don't yet know but we do know that thousands of young black men, thousands of Muslims, thousands of Latinos, Asians and countless others are subjected to suspicion, not because of their actions, but because they fit a profile.

Those who want to be leaders in our society do society a grave injustice by perpetuating the myths on which racial profiling is built. The mainstream media, black community leaders including Oprah Winfrey and even the president have the opportunity to change the agenda instead of riding the old agenda of intolerance. Celebrities like Bill Maher and Anderson Cooper trample due process in their rush to judgement and in the process, extend racial profiles. They are failing all of us and the very communities they claim to represent.

I admire the young men who produced this video. Unlike many who purport to be leaders in the black community, they have asked the right question and whether they intended it at the time or not, they asked the right question for all of us who are part of some racial or religious or cultural profile.

Most of them will go on to become professionals. They will become doctors, lawyers, engineers and successful members of the black community, but more importantly, of 'the' community. Maybe, as a result of young men like these and many others from many other communities in our society, there will come a day when we will all simply be part of one profile. We will be profiled as people and our race, our religion, our politics and our culture really won't matter at all.

On that day, we will have become a better society because we will have learned to define ourselves by what unites us rather than defining groups by what sets them apart.

On that day, we will no longer be afraid of each other. We will no longer fear someone simply because they look different than us. It isn't a race, a culture or a religion that is the threat to our society. It is fear and racial profiling is only one more thing that perpetuates that fear.

LINKS


CStiff security at Tucson school angers Latinos
http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/30/stiff-security-at-tucson-school-board-meetings-angers-latinos/

Trayvon Martin: A Tragedy Turned Into An Ugly Circus of Opportunism and Racial Hatred
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/03/i-watched-clip-of-l.html

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

There Ain't No Cure For Stupid - Drunk Sings Queen In Squad Car

Whoever it was that started the rumour that Canadians were among the sanest, most reasonable and responsible people on the planet....well....were wrong. Following his arrest for public intoxication, this fellow treated the arresting officers to an A Capela  version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

It gives a whole new perspective to the patience required to be a designated driver.

I've had moments in my life where the amount of joy juice I consumed exceeded my ability to contain my enthusiasm for life. I even got so loaded once, I brought home the wrong car. I\m not proud of that and to this day still consider it one of the stupidist things I've ever done. But it was a different era and even back then, we could be pretty stupid.

I have never, however, been arrested for public intoxication and if I was, I doubt I would be sitting in the back seat of a squad car singing Bohemian Rhapsody. There are just so many much better songs out there and quite frankly, even though I'm not a big country music fan, I'd probably have bee more inclined to sing this.

If you're going to have a dummy sing to you, it might as well be a real dummy. 

The police tend to get criticized a lot for how they handle things but now you know some of the darker things they have to put up with. It's not all pepper spray and laughter. Sometimes they encounter the dark side of life where danger is replaced by stupidity. Danger they are trained to handle but just as there ain't no cure for stupid, there's no protection from it or training to prepare you for it either. 

Even pepper spray won't work on a living dummy and you're not allowed to shoot 'em, no matter how much you might wish you were.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get More Stupid

In a world filled with great and terrible challenges, there are still those in authority who are so bereft of common sense that it is a wonder they can dress themselves in order to go to work. We're drowning in a sea  of bureaucratic and government stupidity. Some days  I think my head is not only going to explode but it is a signal of the end of civilization as we know it. I thought, however, we had pretty much reached the highest level of stupidity possible and it really couldn't get any worse than it is now......

,,,....but I was wrong.


The NYC Department of Education has created an entirely new level that I wouldn't have thought possible to achieve. Watch this video while I go outside and walk around the yard a few times to try to teach myself how to breathe again.

Back in the 70's, George Carlin identified seven words you couldn't say on television. Today in this 21st Century of enlightenment, The Department of Education for NYC has come up with fifty words and phrases that are to be cleansed from their schools to protect the delicate sensitivities of the children entrusted to their care and thereby rid the world of disease, pestulance and all other manner of evil.

The complete list is at the end of the post but I will highlight a few, beyond those mentioned in the video, for you now my gentle compadres as we make our way together through this reasoned and sensitive policy.

Be not afraid for I will hold your hand and try to keep you safe and connected to reality as you read on.

Bodily Functions: We will all sleep more peacefully now knowing that the children of NYC no longer have bodily functions. They will not require the use of washroom facilities and as a result the Dept. Of Education will save millions through the elimination of the purchase of toilet paper. Children who have to 'go' will simply be reminded that they have no bodily functions and told to return to their seat.

Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting): According to the DOE, there are two types of computers. No, not Macs and PCs. There are politically correct computers and those which are so dangerous, they shall not be mentioned. The politically incorrect computers are those in the home, the birthplace of all evil in this world. Mention of swimming pools at home will also be banned and thus children will be saved from having to deal with the concept of success. It also makes you wonder how they will ever get their computer 'home'work done.

Death and disease: It makes one wonder how the DOE is going to address an outbreak of a highly communicable disease in it's school system if and when it happens. 

Divorce: The DOE has determined that in this era of single parent families and marriage breakdowns, it is more beneficial to children to ignore the fact that many children unfortunately do come from broken hones than it is to help all children learn to understand and destigmatize it.

Evolution and Dinosaur: Apparently the DOE does not want its children to go into professions like paleontology which is the study of the history of the earth. But then, considering that words like slavery, terrorism and war are also banned, it won't be long before the word history itself is also banned.

Rock and Roll Music: What a wonderful celebration of nostalgia for the '50s when rock & roll was considered the Devil's music. Mention of rap music will also be banned but there is no mention of banning music by Yanni or Michael Bolton which probably should be.

Sex: I'm confused about this one. On the one hand the DOE will ban the word sex in all testing even though it  mandated sex education in its schools in 2011. It makes you wonder how they will teach a curriculum that doesn't allow for the use of the word that labels what they are teaching,

One of my favourites is:

In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge: Clearly there is no room for 'knowledge' in the NYC school system and the fine folks at the DOE won't rest until it is expunged from the curriculum.

When I first stumbled on this article, I thought it was an early April Fool’s joke. It is not.

The NYC School Board is absolutely serious. They want to protect the sensitivities of children by trying to hide simple reality from them and they have decided to call this......... education.

Perhaps we should do away with the words man and woman to fix the gender inequality gap in society and, of course, outlaw the phrase ‘common sense’ so that all future decrees and decisions, no matter how stupid they may be, will be seen as great wisdom shining down on the world from the mountain top.

There is stupidity and then there is abject stupidity. This decision is beyond even abject stupidity.

While the video tries to pin this decision on the Left, the simple fact is that stupidity is not constrained by the political divide. You only have to remember that it was a Republican, who thought colonizing the moon and declaring it a state made sense, to help you remember that stupidity is a virus that doesn’t care how you vote.

I used to think that a society that worried more about how soft its toilet paper was than it did about people sleeping in its streets or abused children was in trouble and I still think that. But it is clear that when a society allows a group of people to become so devoid of even a fundamental level of common sense that it bans words like dancing for fear of offending the sensitivities of some group, it has lost its collective mind. 

Someone needs to remind the NYC Department of Education that the key word in their title is Education. They aren’t the censorship board. Their job is not to try and hide the world from children but rather teach them how to live in a world that is filled with diversity.

Better yet, I think the people of New York City should rise up as one and march to the Department of Education offices where they should drag the members of the board out into the streets, spank them in the public square and then make them write 1000 times, “I will not be stupid anymore.”

Of course, by the time the people of NYC arrive, the word stupid will probably be banned as well. After all, if banning the word homelessness can make it go away, no doubt the same people behind this decision will have no difficulty believing that banning the word stupidity will raise society’s collective IQ overnight.

The 50 Words You Can't Say In NYC Schools

Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological), Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs, Birthday celebrations (and birthdays), Bodily functions, Cancer (and other diseases), Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes), Celebrities, Children dealing with serious issues, Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia), Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting), Crime, Death and disease, Divorce, Evolution, Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes, Gambling involving money, Halloween, Homelessness, Homes with swimming pools, Hunting, Junk food, In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge, Loss of employment, Nuclear weapons, Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling), Parapsychology, Politics, Pornography, Poverty, Rap Music, Religion, Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan), Rock-and-Roll music, Running away, Sex, Slavery, Terrorism, Television and video games (excessive use), Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters), Vermin (rats and roaches), Violence, War and bloodshed, Weapons (guns, knives, etc.), Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Samuel L. Jackson - Blame!

Sometimes, in the midst of a violent storm of accusation and counter accusation, a voice of reason rises above the noise and speaks out to correctly identify the cause. This video by Samuel L. Jackson is exactly that. I stumbled across it by accident but I am glad I did. I believe it cuts to the heart of the cancer that is eating away at our societies. There is more leadership in this short video than the entire careers of people like the Rev. Al Sharpton, President Obama or all of the GOP candidates combined.

Mr. Jackson is speaking to youths drawn to violence, particularly gun violence, but it is a message to all of us. The only way to end the cycle of violence is to end the constant cycle of blame; to stand up and take responsibility for our individual lives and to live them to the best of our abilities.

The world is full of blame now. The Trayvon Martin case is only one more example of that and how quickly reality can spin out of control as the blame is accelerated. People who aren’t even remotely involved in this terrible tragedy are blaming others they don’t know or with whom they interact on social media.

Black leaders who defend due process are called Uncle Toms and blamed for not standing in solidarity with the black community. Others blame poverty, racism, the police, government and the law. It is all about finding someone or something to blame.

We do it with everything now.

When we don’t get our own way, we blame whoever prevented that; our parents, our governments, our neighbours or whoever else won when we lost.

The poor blame the rich for they’re poverty. The rich blame the poor for the poverty in which they live. Students blame the government for the high cost of tuition while the academics who help drive up that cost blame the government for the same thing.

Unions blame management while management blames unions. The left blames the right and the right blames the left and sometimes each other while the Occupy movement blames everyone for everything.

We blame others for our circumstance because we are afraid and feel powerless. It is our fear that makes us angry. It is that anger that drives us to blame others. We teach our children that anger is the correct response to every slight and every hurt.

Bullying is not a virus that one catches, it is learned behavior and our children are learning it from us. We bully and yell and accuse in our desperate search for someone or something to blame and our children are learning only too well from us.

We blame everyone but ourselves for our own failures and the failures within our society.

A society is nothing but a collection of individuals and if each individual is not prepared to accept responsibility for his or her own life, the cycle is perpetuated and the blame continues.

John Kennedy  said once, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Perhaps on a more personal level we should be asking ourselves, “Ask not who is to blame. Ask how do we find the courage to take responsibility to overcome the challenges in our own lives rather than blaming others.”

Unless we break the cycle of blame, we will continue to see anger and the escalating frustration and violence that too often accompany it. Unless we break the cycle of blame, we will never learn to respect each other and to stop the dark things that divide us and too often lead to lives being ruined. We will continue to foster racism, poverty, greed, violence and all the other ugly things that flourish in blaming someone or something rather than uniting to overcome those things.

It takes courage to be take responsibility for your own life. There is no courage in using anger and violence to lash out at others we try to blame. Unless we break the cycle of  blame, we will continue to watch the world we want slip from our hands like water through our fingers and one day, there will be no water left.

Who will be left to blame then?

LINKS
We are not a village.
http://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/03/we-are-not-village.html

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Trayvon Martin - A Tragedy Turned Into An Ugly Circus of Opportunism And Racial Hatred

I watched a clip of L.Z. Granderson and Will Cain, discussing the Trayvon Martin case and I was appalled by what I saw. It shouldn’t matter that two of the participants are black and one was white. Reasonable and intelligent people should be able to discuss serious issues seriously and in a reasonable and intelligent manner. 


That isn’t what happened during this CNN interview. It quickly degenerated into a two on one attack on someone appealing for calm and to let law enforcement complete its investigations before rushing to judgement. That wasn't good enough for the other two who quickly dismissed and demeaned his comments as uniformed in their rush to turn this tragedy into an issue of race.

This discussion exemplifies the incredible trivialization of due process and the arrogant rush to judgement being applied to the Trayvon Martin shooting in the maintstream media, across the Internet and in the streets. Dismiss waiting for the facts, this is racism pure and simple. We don't need facts!

A young man was killed and that, no matter how anyone wants to twist the facts, is a terrible tragedy, all the more so because it was just one more unnecessary violent death in a country with too many violent deaths and that is the real issue.

It has become a cause célèbre and the rush to judgement has once again gripped social media. The usual opportunists have shown up to take full advantage of it. The Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are on hand to call Trayvon a martyr and wave the flag of racism. The New Black Panthers have put out a wanted poster with a $10,000 reward for capturing the shooter despite the fact that he is not fleeing from prosecution and is in contact with law enforcement.

And then there is Spike Lee.

Spike Lee

With what can only be called depraved indifference to the danger it posed to Mr. Zimmerman’s family, |Spike Lee posted online what he thought was Mr. Zimmerman’s home address with an invitation for people to 'reach out and touch him". There is nothing like a celebrity taking advantage of their celebrity to incite violence, especially in this circumstance. The address and phone number Mr. Lee posted were for an elderly couple who have nothing to do with this situation and who are now terrified of what might happen to them. They've fled from their own home thanks to Spike Lee's outrageous and self-righteous bigotry. Mr. Lee, of course, has done nothing to try and correct the dangerous situation he helped create. I wonder if there will be the same hysterical demands for 'justice'  by the mob or by the Rev. Jackson or the Rev. Sharpton against Mr. Lee if anything happens to this elderly couple as a result of his careless indifference.

Daily across social media, there are screams for justice which really are nothing more than screams for a hanging.

The media, in a cynical play to create a story bigger than it already was, published a picture of Trayvon at 12 to make it look like a little boy was shot. Geraldo Rivera went on national television to blame Trayvon’s death on the hoodie he was wearing and even President Obama has jumped in to indicate that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon.

The police have been criticized for not releasing the facts and then for releasing them. A wanted poster for Mr. Zimmerman dead or alive was distributed and isn't that the kind of society we want to build to keep our children safe?

Always looking for an opportunity to make a quick buck, vendors of casual clothing have been hawking hoodies with Trayvon's picture on it and the mob has lined up, cash in hand, to get a souvenir from the circus.

Without very much in the way of hard, cold facts, Mr. Zimmerman has been vilified. He’s been called a racist despite coming from a multi-racial family and having mentored black children with his wife. He has been called a stalker and stands accused by the mob of having ‘gunned down’ Trayvon out of racial hatred or because he is psychotic.

Having some experience with whipping a situation up into frenzy, the Rev. Jackson warned Trayvon’s parents about a push-back and he was right. The demonization of Trayvon has started.

Stories about Trayvon being suspended from school are published with suggestive innuendo that perhaps there is more behind the suspension than is in the record. Pictures of his tattoos are posted to create an image of a gangbanger with sinister intentions, as if having a tattoo of the name of your girlfriend's mother is sinister. He is being accused of being a drug dealer and violent. Even his most recent tweets on Twitter have been published in a desperate attempt to prove something bad although to me they appear about as banal as you would expect from a teenage boy.

None of this is important. None of it!

What is important is that a young man is dead and instead of waiting for law enforcement to do its work and complete its investigations; too many are too intent on creating a climate where the results of those investigations will no longer matter. Too many are working to polarize us into different camps at precisely the same time we should be united.

Savannah Hardin

In the time since Trayvon was shot, more than 100 children have died at the hands of abusers and hundreds have gone missing. A nine year old girl is dead and her stepmother and grandmother are charged with murder. There are no marches for her, no ongoing television discussions and no social media campaigns for justice for her and others like her.

Likewise there won't be any protest marches or demonstrations in support of the murder of two little boys by their father in February.

Around the same time that Trayvon was shot, a 13 year old white boy  in Kansas City was chased by two black youths to the front door of his house where he was doused with gasoline and set on fire. There are no screams of racism from those screaming racism now. There is no ongoing CNN coverage, no editorials, and no protests in the streets for justice for this young man.

No….we practice selective outrage these days and reserve our condemnation and anger for the glamour causes. 

It isn’t children that are important or even racism. It’s the moment that matters and the moment is the current bandwagon of outrage that we can join and ride.

Social media is a world of hypocrites and the mainstream media have become little more than  biased, opportunistic vultures picking over the bones of whatever story will get them ratings.

The simple truth is that we don’t know what happened that night other than there was a shooting. We don’t know yet what caused the shooting, whether or not Trayvon did or did not assault Mr. Zimmerman or if any of the witnesses who have now come forward support Mr. Zimmerman’s version of events or that of the mob.

With all due respect to Mr. Granderson who is someone from whom I would have expected a more balanced position, we don't know if this tragedy was racially motivated. We might assume it as Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson always do when there are cameras nearby but nobody knows yet and pretending we do is nothing more than arrogant, self-opinion and bigotry paraded as fact.

What we do know is that once the investigation is done, it won’t matter. We’ve done such a good job of undermining our own social values; most won’t believe the findings of the investigation.  Justice isn’t what people are screaming for, it’s revenge and it’s revenge without actually knowing what happened.  We've become so incapable of rational thought we fail to realize that if Mr. Zimmerman is charged without a thorough investigation, he would probably be acquitted and wouldn't that be just hunky dory if he was actually guilty?

At the end of the day, this hysterical rush to judgement has only made a bad situation even worse and I don’t see how any of this will ever make society a safer, better place for anyone, let alone our children. It certainly isn't the kind of society I was hoping to see my grandson grow up in.

LINKS

Spike Lee Tweets Zimmerman's Address - but gets it wrong endangering the safety of an elderly couple.
http://grumpyelder.com/?p=20877

CNN- Trayvon Martin case becoming more complicated as details emerge.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/27/justice/florida-teen-shooting-witnesses/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

QUESTION: Is it right to slap the name of a dead person on shirts and hoodies then sell them to people?
http://dfwalerts.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/is-it-right/

Who speaks for these children?
http://www.blogger.com/publish-confirmation.g?blogID=3913113766829019414&postID=4238096129922938467&timestamp=1332883348805&javascriptEnabled=true

13 year old boy doused with gasoline and set on fire
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2110078/Boy-13-doused-gasoline-set-alight-racially-motivated-attack-Kansas-City.html

Initial police report of the Trayvon Martin Shooting by the first officer on the scene and his sergeant
http://www.sanfordfl.gov/investigation/docs/Twin%20Lakes%20Shooting%20Initial%20Report.pdf

Wanted Dead Or Alive - It is the comments at the bottom that are the most revealing
http://www.drudge.com/news/154938/zimmerman-wanted-dead-alive-poster

Black friend defends Zimmerman
http://www.newsmax.com/US/zimmerman-black-friend-trayvon/2012/03/25/id/433809

There are literally thousands more links online. Simply type into Google a search queery that supports your opinion and you'll have no difficulty finding countless articles and messages to support it. What you won't find are very many facts. They're still being investigated and have yet to be released in their entirety. That won't stop the vilification of both Mr. Zimmerman or Mr. Martin, of course, but then who needs facts? These days it is only opinion that is paraded around as important.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Guest Contributor Old Marine - Sometimes History Needs a Push

I'm pleased to turn the page over to an old friend today, I say old because he calls himself Old Marine although I doubt he's much older than I am and can probably do far more push ups in a single session than I can do in a week.


I wrote yesterday about fear being one of the primary causes of our anger and Old Marine sent along this post which he thought was a good companion piece to what I had written. I agree. I don't always agree with Gunny but I do in this particular case and whether we agree on an issue, he always does his homework. If he quotes a fact....you can take it to the bank as truthful.


It's what I most admire about him. He not only believes in things like truth, duty and honour; he lives them every day. He loves his country and always takes the time to research and consider issues before he reacts or responds. I admire that about him as well. Whether you agree with his opinions or not, you could learn much from his approach to issues......we all could.



Sometimes – History Needs a Push

Caution to readers, this editorial may offend some, not for language, but because it will hopefully make you think, and as the saying goes, “Thinking hurts”. All remarks and/ or opinions expressed are mine and are not that of Rebuilding Freedom or other administrators. Now, if you are still me, let’s take a journey to the weird side.

A trend began in the late 1960’s, a trend that has developed into an almost overwhelming distrust of the federal government. Now, let’s get this up front, has our government done some under handed things? YES. Has our government lied to the American people? YES. Has distrust been earned, perhaps nurtured it? MAYBE people in and out of the government have nurtured this distrust; if so is there an ulterior motive? Have the American people become so distrustful they will believe anything they hear / see / read on the radio, on  T.V. or on the internet. Has this distrust become so overwhelming that people have suspended / lost commonsense. Unfortunately, for some, I have to say yes and I feel that these people are inadvertently aiding our enemies in bringing on the downfall of America.

I could begin with some of the early examples of the distrust in the government, the JFK assassination, U.F.O’s , 9-11 and many more, but time and space will not allow it. I would like to stay more in the present.

I would like to begin with the current controversy with the current Defense Authorization Act. For some reason, the web and twitter went crazy how Americans will be detained without trial if “suspected” of being


“or part of, al-Qaeda or an associated force that acts in coordination with or pursuant to the direction of al-Qaeda; and (B) to have participated in the course of planning or carrying out an attack or attempted attack against the United States or its coalition partners.”

Now, I fully understand that this could be interpreted as a violation of our Constitution, and people should be outraged if it were,  but it seems that no one on T.V., radio and the Web wants to read any further. 

In the same section for all to see and read, if they have a mind to is the statement,


“The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States and (2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS. The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.” 

Why do people seem to want to omit these particular statements in their postings or discussions? Is there a possibility of abuse, definitely, just as there is a possibility of abuse of the Constitution (Commerce clause as an example), but you have to ask yourself why this statement concerning the Constitution is not mentioned? Is it too inadvertently to further distrust in our government? Is it to gain viewers / listeners / readers? Is it part of an agenda to actually create more distrust in our government? Or an agenda by the administration, the ACLU and Amnesty International  , who are opposed to this bill in order to, I believe, bring prisoners here to American soil for trial? 

I had a friend say to me, “If the ACLU, Administration, Amnesty International is against it, then I’m for it.”  Well, I’m not it that camp; I want to look at it more closely. Something, I feel too many people aren’t willing to do.

Needless to say, following closely on this came “Obama’s Plans to Imprison 500,000 Americans”. Now, this goes into the “FEMA Camps” and the site even gives a “nice”,  if not colorful map about locations of  said camps. A little more on FEMA Camps later. As one reads this “article”, the author cites and builds on the "The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act” of 2007. Strange, the author does not cite any references to this act or even a link where people can read it for themselves. A point to remember, there is nothing done in the Critter corral that does not go into the Federal Record, except security briefings, and even then with the proper clearance they are accessible. Did the writer take the American people for stupid, naïve’ or both? 

Now with a few keystrokes, a search engine we can discover what actually happen to this bill. Like the very simple question, “Did it pass? Was it signed into law?” Was the writer just trying to “make a name for himself” (take a look at the writer’s name) or was it to foster more distrust of the government. Well, I did what any clear thinking person should do. I read, dissected the article and then checked the “status” of the bill. 

To begin with, YES it was introduced in the House in 2007, remember, Obama was a junior senator at the time. Now, here is the most important thing, WHAT happened to this “bill”, seems the author of the article bothered to say, and no one took a few minutes to check it out before spreading the rumor or engaging in fear mongering. This bill went to house committee and passed the house then it DIED! . Now, look at the party who introduced it and remember what party was in control of congress in 2007 and why wasn’t it brought up in the senate? Then ask yourself, how Obama could use a law that wasn’t even passed to violate the people’s rights. Yes, he could attempt to use Executive Orders (EO’s), but hopefully that would be challenged. Why would someone want to develop further distrust in the government? To what purpose?

Speaking of EO’s, which Obama is completely out of control on their use and Congress does nothing, they seem to be the basis of the ever popular FEMA camps fear campaign. as they were during the Bush administration.

The first thing when someone says something about FEMA camps, a person should ask, “Does the government REALLY believe that 500,000 Americans will go peacefully into the night?” If the answer is yes, thenAmerica is in a bigger trouble then I feel we are. Now, let’s use one particular site, where a page titled “American Concentration Camps”.

The page has some interesting photos and video clips, particularly the one at the top of the page. It appears to be a perimeter defense, complete with guard towers, however there is no caption, no information, BUT people will believe that this is a FEMA camp. Why, because the distrust of our government has been so imbedded into people’s minds and sadly, basic commonsense has disappeared. There is also a very interesting video, that uses  the idea of a U.S. Army unit serving as U.N. peacekeepers in Kosovo and later working with allied troops, German and French (who happen to be NATO allies), in Arkansas. People, please stop and think, the U.S. has worked with and trained our ally troops here in Americaand overseas for years, I’ve personally worked with British, Australian, Korean, Japanese and others.  Now, just because the video shows Urban combat training, why the assumption of  the worst, based solely on a video clip(s)?

Now, what about the “Executive Orders associated with FEMA that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:…”

EO 10990 – “allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.” This was signed in February, 1962, At the height of the Cold War. A side note, FEMA was not even around during this period. FEMA was established in 1979 by Carter, another Democrat. This EO was eventually revoked by EO 12196.

EO 10995 – “allows the government to seize and control the communication media.” Again, during the Cold War, it was REVOKED by 11556 in September, 1970.

EO 10997 through 11005 – These cover various functions, again all concerns that the President and the nation had during the height of the Cold War. They were all revoked by EO 11490,October 28, 1969.

I could most likely go through and research all of the EO’s featured on the page, however, I feel I have shown that eleven of the fifteen EO’s mentioned had been established BEFORE FEMA was created, roughly 17 years before, during the height of the Cold War (and those who live through that period remember it well) and there were later revoked.

To get this information, it only took a few keystrokes to check these Executive Orders out. I have to ask, “Why haven’t others? Why are people so quick to believe in the worst of our government? Why do people insist on spreading “rumors” an evoking fear of our government?”

The final “headline” that seemed to make its way around Twitter and the net that I’m going to discuss is “Obama Declare War on Iran (Plans to Attack Iran) Declare Martial Law and Suspend Elections” (I apologize, but I lost the links to this and believe it has been scrubbed), seems funny I believe I heard this before. Like “Bush to AttackIran, Suspend Elections, and Declare Martial Law???” from July, 2008. I guess if it fostered fear and distrust back then, why not use it again?

I can not in good conscience say that we are not in danger, particularly with what has been going on within our country, the world and even the government over the past thirty plus years? However, I will continue to attempt to look for a reason or reasons that people will start and push these various conspiracy theories. I will also look for reasons why some people will continue to believe and spread these theories even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

As to the latter, why people will believe in and continue to spread rumors, there are as a many reasons as there are people, I can list a number of them, but I am conscience of people’s feelings and will not do that.

Now, as to the former, Lenin said, “Sometimes – History needs a push” and I feel that IF enough distrust in the federal government is developed, maybe, just possibly, someone on the very extreme left or right, will take action and attempt to do something about it. How many times has a person seen or read something about a “new” revolution? Not at the ballot box, but in the streets. But please remember this, though our form of government may be flawed, so far it is the best one and does anyone want to take a chance on something else.

Now, who has everything to gain if there is an attempt to change our form of government? The list is fairly long. Is there a person, a group who benefits from the building and fostering of distrust in our government? Please remember what Sun Tzu said, “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” and fear can make even rational people do strange things.

Or it could be as simple as someone wants attention, wants to make money (I see nothing wrong with that, hey that’s the American way) or maybe they are just good storytellers who are counting “there is one born every minute”. Maybe it’s all three. I just wish people, would take the time to think, use some commonsense and most importantly check things out.

What are your thoughts?

Semper Fi,

OM

© 2012 Old Marine / Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Anger Is The Road To Hell & Fear Is It's On-Ramp

"I'm underneath the street light
but the light of joy I know
Scared beyond belief way down in the shadows

And the perverted fear of violence

Chokes a smile on every face

And common sense is ringing out the bell

This ain't no technological breakdown

Oh no, this is the road to Hell..."

                                                    - Chris Rea

I write quite frequently about how polarized we have become as a society. Usually I use politics and government to try and illustrate that polarization but not always. This is one of those ‘not always’ moments.

Around the world, people are angry. There are protests against the other side, whatever the other side may be. We're so angry that we seldom march in support  of something now.

We’re just too angry for that.

We’re angry about the conservative agenda. We’re angry about the left’s constant squandering of our fiscal resources on things we can’t afford. We’re angry about crime and we’re angry about attempts to make crime an issue and the introduction of laws to combat it.

We’re very angry with whoever is the current prime minister, president or premier or governor. It doesn’t matter which side of the political spectrum they represent, left or right, a large part of the population is outraged.

We’re angry with banks and Wall Street. We’re equally as angry with environmentalists, the Occupy movement and protesting students. We’re angry with large corporations and with celebrities. We’re angry about unemployment, the high cost of gas and with striking unions.

We’re so angry when our team loses, we not only protest, we tear up our cities as hockey fans did in Vancouver last year and soccer fans did recently in Greece and Egypt. Protest marches, riots, hate messages and violence have become the preferred means to express our anger. 

Our reaction to everything now is a visceral, knee-jerk response of judgement, outrage and a seething, accusatory anger. We are so angry, we seldom wait for the facts anymore and we do nothing to address the causes of that anger because I believe that we haven’t correctly identified where it comes from.

As any first-year psychology student can tell you, anger is a secondary emotion. It means that the anger inside us is the result of something more fundamental that we're feeling. It is a reaction to something more profound. It could be a reaction to intolerance, to feeling betrayed or any one of dozens of other emotions but I think the primary cause now is fear.

We’re afraid.

Since 9/11 that fear has become omnipresent and while it started with a fear of terrorism it has expanded to a fear of just about everything including our own governments and even each other.

A young black man is shot and we immediately polarize and turn his tragic death into a political circus. The usual national ‘leaders’ speak out, coming down on one side or the other of the issue further dividing us by playing to our fears and our anger.

To what purpose? 

How is our society improved by this? How are we brought together and united to resolve the issues facing our societies or even just to mourn together a tragic loss of life? The simple truth is that we aren’t and it becomes one more moment, frozen in time, where we yell and scream at each other in an attempt to get our opinion heard and our position accepted.

September 11 was a horror that froze all of us in that moment. It happened in the United States but Canadians and people from other countries died when the towers came down. It affected people in countries all over the world. It wasn’t just the message that nowhere was truly safe anymore; it was the brazen magnitude of the attack. It was something beyond our imagining and it had happened. Terrorism was no longer something that happened to others and that we read about in the newspaper. It was here. It was real and it was now.

That day gave us a profound sense of vulnerability and powerlessness that we now hide behind our anger.

We’ve never been the same since. We have become suspicious of everything and everyone and it has made us angry. It is that anger that is more of a threat to us than any terrorist attack could ever hope to be. It divides us and that division prevents us from not only facing common threats but in achieving the things that once made our societies the envy of those who lived under oppressive regimes.

It is our anger that oppresses us now. We’re oppressed by fears we don’t want to admit and the anger that fear breeds. In the end, it is that anger that will defeat us. It is eroding our values, our principles and our faith in our way of life. 

If that anger continues to grow, those who wanted to destroy us have already won. They won’t have to do any more than they already have; they can just sit back and watch us destroy ourselves out of the anger behind which we hide our fear.

Our democracies were founded in a belief that we could build something better, a New Jerusalem but in our anger, we have strayed onto the road to perdition. If we don't soon find the courage to no longer be afraid, our own anger will do to us what no external threat ever could.

RELATED POSTS

We Are Not A Village

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3913113766829019414&postID=6220530177984908983 

The Lynch Mob Mentality

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3913113766829019414&postID=6338308598967738598 

I Have Seen The Enemy - The Enemy Is Us

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3913113766829019414&postID=320283233588688894 

Are We Good And Mad or Just Sinking Into Madness?

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3913113766829019414&postID=8823966979944581197 

The New Jerusalem

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3913113766829019414&postID=209077442887771137 

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Etch-A-Sketch? - The GOP Candidates Need To Put Away The Toys

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."  1 Corinthians 13:11

Another NDP Leadership ho hum debate

There are two political leadership campaigns happening simultaneously right now; one is in Canada and the other in the United States. You can be forgiven if you were unaware of the race in Canada, even if you are Canadian.  It is for the leadership of the New Democratic Party, Canada’s official opposition to the government and that race has been about as interesting as watching ice cream melt. It will be decided this weekend with all the excitement of a Soledad O’Brien interview on CNN.

The same can’t be said of the GOP campaign to elect a candidate for the impending presidential election in the United States.

The Republican Candidates
prepare for another debate

My goodness but it has had its share of drama, excitement, controversy and…well…confusion. I say confusion because it appears that there are many who have forgotten that the candidates are actually on the same team, including both the candidates and many grass roots Republicans.

Initially, it was a horse-race with some polite, if assertive, exchanges of ideas. Various candidates seemed to be the front-runner for a bit and the early debates did what they were supposed to do. They provided a platform that allowed for comparison of the candidates on a level playing field.

Mitt Romney

 It became clear early on that some of the candidates who have since dropped out probably shouldn’t have been in the race to begin with. Not knowing that Libya is in Africa is one thing but proudly announcing that to all and sundry during a televised debate as Michelle Bachman did is not a game winning strategy. Rick Perry’s oops moment came when he forgot his own three priorities to address upon becoming president.

The primaries themselves were even more interesting and even exciting. Rick Santorum won a primary, then Mitt Romney even Newt Gingrich had his moment or two in the sun and for a short while it seemed like it could be anyone’s race.

Those were fun times weren’t they? Even Democratic pundits got caught up in the hoopla and put on their best suits for their CNN appearances.

Rick Santorum

But now we’re getting down to the short strokes and the writing is pretty much on the wall about who the eventual candidate is going to be.  You would think that might start to rally folks, including the other candidates around the flag for the good of the party but exactly the opposite has happened.

The rhetoric has heated up and is becoming more extreme. Etch-a-sketch props have appeared and every misspoken word is now treated by supporters of this candidate or that as a major policy gaffe. On Twitter, the most rabid supporters of specific GOP candidates attack the others in the race as if they were to the left of Barrack Obama.

You remember President Obama? He’s the guy the GOP want to defeat in the upcoming presidential election. For some reason, many in the Republican party have decided that the best way to achieve that is to not only undermine their own party but their eventual candidate as much as possible before the presidential campaign even begins.

Conservative evangelicals, the Tea Party and the old money bag boys make public pronouncements against the candidates they don’t like rather than simply showing a polite preference for their candidate of choice. It’s war folks and it seems like too many Republicans have seen the enemy and the enemies are…well…the other Republican candidates. Barrack Obama has almost become secondary in this battle.

I am not a politician, thank the Good Lord, but I suspect that the best way to defeat a political opponent probably isn’t found in fielding a final choice from your own party that you have so publicly trashed, he looks anything but presidential.

How can Republicans begin to believe that Americans from all sides of the political spectrum can be expected to have confidence in their final nominee when they have spent the primary season attacking each other’s candidates as if they were Democrats on crack?

This is particularly true of the candidates themselves. Instead of trotting out children’s toys as props to attack some fatuous comment by a Romney staffer as if it actually meant something, why aren’t they putting the party first? I don’t have a crystal ball and don’t know who will win the nomination but as it stands right now, it seems obvious that only Mr. Romney or Mr. Santorum have any real chance.

Isn’t it really time for both Mr. Paul and Mr. Gingrich to show some loyalty to the cause, if not some self-respect and common sense, and step down? Isn’t it time for them to work to rally and unite the party rather than clinging by their fingernails to some desperate, fading hope to assuage their own egos?

I know that won’t make me too popular with their supporters but remember, I don’t have a dog in this race. I’m looking at it from an outsider’s perspective and wondering why the key candidates and their supporters in a political party are less concerned with the overall objective which I thought was to win the White House, than they are with doing whatever they can just to stay in the race.

Ads like these have hurt the GOP the most

Instead, they’re spending obscene amounts of money to beat up each other, money that could be used to carry a united battle to the presidential campaign. They’re providing unbelievable material to the Democrats to use against the eventual Republican nominee and in the end, they will field a candidate so wounded by his own party during the primary, he’ll be limping before the presidential campaign actually begins.

Seems like a strange way to try and win. It’s sort of like having tryouts for quarterback but beating them up so badly during those tryouts, they’re too bashed up to play the game on Friday night.

I think, in the end, the Republicans have not only lost sight of the objective but of just how much with which they had to work. Gas prices are out of control, there are issues with SOPA, PIPA and how the current president tends to overlook constitutional niceties like Congressional approval for military action. There is a $15 trillion deficit which is far from capped and an economy that is as fragile and delicate as centuries-old French lace.

More important, there is a confidence deficit as more and more Americans, like citizens in democracies all over the world, are increasingly losing faith in those who would lead them and in their governments.

Those are real issues and worth addressing. The GOP Primaries were a perfect opportunity to focus on those issues while presenting alternative ideas for addressing them from which Republicans could have chosen rather than simply providing reasons not to vote for the other candidate.

Instead as usual, the real issue has once again become winning at all costs and in the end, when politicians and their supporters confuse winning with actually having ideas, we all lose.

The Etch-A-Sketch moment was cute but in the end, it will come back to haunt the GOP. It isn’t just Mr. Santorum who has access to one and you can be damn sure one will pop up in the Democratic presidential campaign. It’s unfortunate that the GOP Presidential Candidates couldn’t go back and turn the campaign upside down and give it a shake to erase some things but then politics, like life, is never as easy as an Etch-A-Sketch.

It is even more unfortunate that political candidates always look for the easy way, usually the trashy way to win rather than having the same confidence in their ideas they expect the rest of us to have in them.

Unfortunately, the only winner right now seems to be seems to be Ohio Art, the manufacturer's of Etch-A-Sketch. Their sales have doubled since the Etch-A-Sketch was used as a political prop and you have to believe that President Obama was one of those who picked one up.

LINKS

Etch-A-Sketch Sales double since GOP used it to trash each other - CNN

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t2#/video/bestoftv/2012/03/23/qmb-etch-a-sketch-stocks.cnn 

Romney and birth control - CNN

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/19/romney-cant-escape-birth-control-questions-in-illinois/ 

Republican candidates in one word - Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-republican-presidential-candidates-in-one-word/2012/03/23/gIQA5nWCWS_blog.html 

 © 2012 Maggie's Bear

all rights reserved

The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others

Layin' Pipe - President Obama Expedites "Part" Of Keystone

"I'm layin' pipe all night long. Layin' pipe. I'm workin' so hard"
                       - David Wilcox, Canadian singer/songwriter

Well, isn't that special! After first giving Canadian oil the middle finger wave, President Obama announced in Oklahoma that he was personally accelerating approval of 'part' of the Keystone Pipeline which would transport oil from Canada's oil sands to Texas.

The original decision to delay a decision until after the election was clearly influenced by environmentalists who were opposed to the pipeline and the president was loathe to throw away votes from such a vocal group. Who knew how many they might influence to vote against his reelection if his administration approved the pipeline?

But then a bad thing happened. Gas prices skyrocketed at the pumps.

Oops!

Clearly that wasn't a vote-getter so a new strategy was needed, one that showed the President was "on the case" but that wouldn't jeoporadize his position with the anti-Oil Sands activists.

And that is when he came up with this solution, a solution that only a politician could announce with a straight face and expect the world to accept as real and decisive leadership. The president would ensure that his administration would expedite approval of the bottom half of the pipeline, (the part that connects Oklahoma to Texas) but would delay a decision on the rest of the pipeline (the part that actually connects to where the oil is) until after the election.

That's like considering a new interstate with a bridge at the end but only actually proceeding to build the bridge. We have one of those in Quebec, Canada actually. An overpass out in the middle of a field. Years ago the Quebec government contemplated a new highway which required an overpass at one point. They proceeded to build the overpass but never approved the highway and so there it sits, a massive concrete and steel  lawn ornament in the middle of nowhere.

Now President Obama proposes to do the same thing.

The thing is that these mega-projects require absolute commitment or no commitment at all. You can't be a little bit pregnant as my dad used to say. You either are or you aren't. While I am a supporter of the Keystone Pipeline and think it is good for both Canada and the United States, I think it is absurd to approve building a small portion of it but delay a decision on the rest..

What's the point?

But then, this is politics not leadership and that is the point. Leadership has vision and focus. It builds consensus around issues and moves a nation forward. Politics blows like a leaf in the wind and decisions are made based on the latest polls or threats to reelection.

I'm not picking on President Obama. He isn't the messiah that some have tried to portray him to be, he's just a politician and like any politician, he is opportunistic, unfocused and visionless. We have more than our fair share of those up here in the Great White North and to be honest, I haven't seen or heard anything coming from the Republican presidential candidates that sounds any better.

And that's a shame.

We are countries desperate for real leadership. We are starving for long-term vision and desperate for politicians who can see beyond the next election, the next budget or the next news conference.

Remember that election promise about changing the way things were done, Mr. President? Here's the sad truth. Just as there is no way to get oil to your refineries in Texas without actually connecting to where the oil is, you can't honour your commitment to change by being the same as those you replaced.

We are also countries facing serious issues like energy distribution and while I'm not an engineer, I suspect that building a pipeline that has no guarantee of actually connecting to any oil supply doesn't offer much hope.

Neither does the thinking behind this decision. You can't be a little bit pregnant Mr. President. You either are or you aren't. True leaders, like expectant mothers, understand that.

 © 2012 Maggie's Bear

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The content of this article is the sole property of Maggie's Bear but a link to it may be shared by those who think it may be of interest to others