The recent videos of police tasering a questioner in Florida raise a couple of questions.
Number one is, how should the bystanders have reacted? They were watching someone be brutalized by police for the crime of exercising his right to free speech. I have heard people say that he was rude, so he deserved to be tasered. Those people clearly do not believe in the Bill of Rights, and will be quite happy in the new police state.
But, what can we do if we object to police brutality? No one wants to get involved if they are going to be tasered or arrested. But what if the entire audience had gotten up and peacefully blocked the doorway, so that the police couldn't have dragged him off to jail?
We need to think about this, because there will be more and more oppression as the economy collapses and people protest.
The other thing is, what about the video phones that were used to document this repression?
My son recently bought a iPhone. It has numerous bells and whistles. It is very technologically advanced- but it doesn't have a video camera on it. Why not? My co-workers have chocolate phones. They are spiffy. No video cameras on them either. Why do the new phones not have what the old phones have? Could it be that the ruling class is cracking down on citizens being able to document and report on events? When we are not totally dependent on the corporate media for our news, it's potentially damaging to the powers that be.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
MTV watching
So I'm watching TV on a Sunday and I watch like 2 weeks of a show "So you think you can dance". It's one of those shows that have dancers competing and getting thrown off one at a time. I actually think that these shows are put on to desensitize viewers to other people's pain and embarrassment while they are being humilated. But that's not my point today.
This one had a number where they danced to a song called "Waiting for the world to get better". And they wore shirts with peace signs on them. And at the end, they flashed a peace sign. I thought, well, that's something you don't see on TV much.
Damn straight. The next show started with mea culpas, and apologies and heartfelt expressions of support for the troops and declarations of respect for our boys in uniform, etc, etc, etc.
We don't need to bother with show trials in America. Americans don't have the attention span for that. Someone clearly called those folks in and tried, judged and sentenced them to recite their patriotic mantras.
One of the judges was British, and he did the whole, "our countries are fighting together" thing. But he expressed a little puzzlement that people could object so strongly to words like, peace, and love, and humility.
Hah! He hasn't been in America long. Expressing desire for peace is a major thought crime, unless it's Christmas time. At Christmas, you can call for a vague peace on earth, but you can't be specific, for pete's sake. Christmas is for worshipping the Prince of Peace, and buying lots of stuff, not actually trying to live in peace , or anything as subversive as that.
This one had a number where they danced to a song called "Waiting for the world to get better". And they wore shirts with peace signs on them. And at the end, they flashed a peace sign. I thought, well, that's something you don't see on TV much.
Damn straight. The next show started with mea culpas, and apologies and heartfelt expressions of support for the troops and declarations of respect for our boys in uniform, etc, etc, etc.
We don't need to bother with show trials in America. Americans don't have the attention span for that. Someone clearly called those folks in and tried, judged and sentenced them to recite their patriotic mantras.
One of the judges was British, and he did the whole, "our countries are fighting together" thing. But he expressed a little puzzlement that people could object so strongly to words like, peace, and love, and humility.
Hah! He hasn't been in America long. Expressing desire for peace is a major thought crime, unless it's Christmas time. At Christmas, you can call for a vague peace on earth, but you can't be specific, for pete's sake. Christmas is for worshipping the Prince of Peace, and buying lots of stuff, not actually trying to live in peace , or anything as subversive as that.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Looting large and small
I've decided that the rest of the world, and not just my personal circle, needs the benefit of my opinions. My friend Dave assures me that there are people out there who care. We will see.
My job just sent me a letter telling me that the Federal Government wants them to take away 1% more a paycheck to my 401K. They are doing it automatically, unless I send a written protest, and I have to renew it every year.
Clearly, the government is trying to funnel more money to their stock market contributors. They tried to get ahold of the billions of Social Security funds, and that didn't work out, so they're now going for the higher hanging fruit. No amount is too small for them to siphon away from the working class to the monied class.
And 47,000,000 uninsured Americans? Normal people see this as a problem of health care. Not the insurance companies. They see 47,000,000 people not paying $12,000/year for insurance. That's a lot of money they're not getting. So when voters call for full health care coverage, their "representatives" show who they really answer to, and vote to force everyone to buy insurance by law. So instead of single payer health care, we get criminalization of inability to afford health insurance.
No amount is too big and no amount is too small for the greedy bloodsuckers of the ruling class.
My job just sent me a letter telling me that the Federal Government wants them to take away 1% more a paycheck to my 401K. They are doing it automatically, unless I send a written protest, and I have to renew it every year.
Clearly, the government is trying to funnel more money to their stock market contributors. They tried to get ahold of the billions of Social Security funds, and that didn't work out, so they're now going for the higher hanging fruit. No amount is too small for them to siphon away from the working class to the monied class.
And 47,000,000 uninsured Americans? Normal people see this as a problem of health care. Not the insurance companies. They see 47,000,000 people not paying $12,000/year for insurance. That's a lot of money they're not getting. So when voters call for full health care coverage, their "representatives" show who they really answer to, and vote to force everyone to buy insurance by law. So instead of single payer health care, we get criminalization of inability to afford health insurance.
No amount is too big and no amount is too small for the greedy bloodsuckers of the ruling class.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)