Letter to All Americans About Gun Control from a Dissident Independent (tags)
Guns are an effective form of human violence, which is why they are so often employed in both war and crime. They are dangerous and deadly. Reasons for their existence are not always, or even often, noble. They kill. This is to say we human animals kill—and nowhere more so than for political reasons—such as a nation venturing abroad for purported reasons to exact war against terrorists, etc. (while not ironically understanding that war is terrorism). And yet there is something “more” dangerous than weapons and that is politics itself (that history reminds us over and over again). Guns do “not” exist in a vacuum—they are artifacts built for and by a corrupt species of creature. No government ever—no matter how much naïve trust by blind patriotism exist—should be trusted to the point citizens just hand over their right to defend themselves from those in power. ALL forms of government are corruptible, and so are ALL forms of institution. This government (and especially both major political parties and their lobby cronies), if not thoroughly corrupt, is still too corrupt—including its capacity to violate human rights. Banning of guns (or other Constitutional rights) here in the United States must be understood within these recent radical changes that have happened especially since 9/11. It could be the equivalent of giving Mafia thugs your last weapons.
Preparations for a Hit against Iran: Stopping Israel’s Next War (tags)
"Subjectively, the time could not be more propitious for a concerted international drive to force a transformation in Tel Aviv. Israel’s standing in the world has been vanishing like snow under a hot spring sun, as even President Peres was forced to recognize. Israeli diplomats no longer feel free to travel abroad, fearing that international arrest warrants might be slapped on them as perpetrators of war crimes committed during the Gaza war. As reported in the March 15 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Israeli government has launched a desperate public relations campaign, through a website for “Public Diplomacy and the Diaspora,” aimed at preparing Israelis to project a positive image of their country while travelling abroad. If citizens have to study government-issued brochures handed out at the airport, to learn how to defend the reputation of Israel, then the moral crisis the country has entered is quicksand."
The Holocaust Industry - Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (tags)
This book review -- in the newest issue of Z MAGAZINE (Oct. 2002, Vol. 15, No. 11) is of a book entitled "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering" by Norman Finkelstein. The book was reviewed by Tanweer Akram, an economist. Z is an independent monthly magazine dedicated to resisting injustice, defending against repression, and creating liberty. It sees the racial, gender, class, and political dimensions of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activist efforts for a better future.