tvashtarkatena

This isn't the forum to impart a more complete understanding of the development of 'UEC' status, but, I'll try to put out some crib notes. Unlawful Enemy Combatant status, in the current sense, was wholly a Bush administration invention. Bush took a WWII differentiation between innocents and combatants (necessary when operating in areas populated by civilians) and bastardized it into an excuse to strip a human beings of all of their human rights without due process via misuse of the power of executive order. In addition, there can be no 'implication' that Common Article 3 of the Geneva conventions 'does not apply', as it explicitly prohibits mistreatment, including humiliation, of any captured combatant anywhere, anytime. As a ratified treaty, Article 3 is not a 'guideline', but federal law. As I'm sure you're aware, the Supreme Court has already rejected this 'implication of non-application' argument.

Movements or memes or whatever you'd like to call them are, each and every one, nothing more than an invention by an individual that became popular. History is simply the story of individual humans interacting with each other and the natural world. It's only after the fact that we can begin to carve it into larger, smoother chunks and place it into properly labeled boxes for convenient storage.

Hey, I'm trying to organize my rock collection over here. Is a dirt clod igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary?

The system is not greater than the individual. In many cases, and the Bush presidency is a classic example, the individual creates the system. If we agree that the rule of law is 'a system', and that the Constitution is a central part of that system, then Bush certainly and repeatedly circumvented that system, primarily through Executive Orders. He simply ignored it. He was not 'forced' by any system to do so; they were executed completely at his discretion. (Assuming that we can agree that myth of a 'puppet president' is just another progressive masturbation fantasy). History is full of similar examples. 'Systems' are, by nature, static. They are continually challenged in a dynamic world by the unpredictability of individual action.

If we just took individual humans out of these situations, we could properly pit 'meme' against 'meme' in a purely virtual fashion. So much more intellectually tidy.

Not all the items in the cartoon, but certainly most of them. Anything having to do with raping the Constitution, Iraq, and our national failure re: Katrina can be traced directly back to Bush's actions. Inaction on the part of Congress does nothing to mitigate or spread the blame here. As for the economic stuff, that's more a product of Republican inspired deregulation, cronyism, and the elevation of greed to a virtue. Bush didn't invent it, he just ran with to the best of his abilities. Incredibly, Bush is just now admitting that he 'might' have made some mistakes. Even more incredibly, Cheney still professes that they did the right thing every step of the way. The final blame in all of this rests with the ignorance and apathy of the American voter: those who put these spoiled frat boys in power, and those who failed to prevent them from taking power by either voting for some fringe totalitarian like Nader or by staying home on election day. There are those cynics among us who blame 'the system' for our troubles. Capitalism, American democracy, the two party system, the song and dances vary, but the point is the same. It's not 'individuals' who are to blame, but 'isms'. Um...bullshit. Our system is as good as any. It works to stem totalitarianism, perhaps too late, but what human run system does exactly the right thing without consequences? Individuals ARE to blame for the massive, tragic failures of this administration. Those who made the decisions, those who stood by and let them be made without opposition, and those who voted for all of it. Individuals ARE the system.

Feaux cowboy trying to do a man's job.

Results. As does a lab monkey.

Situation grim. Greenwood Safeway completely out of donuts due to broken water pipe. They offered to frost some bagels for me, but I declined. I feel it's important to clutch onto the veneer of civilization until the bitter end. Long lines at checkout; a sea of blank faces resigned to the frozen death that awaits them. Michelle Obama's ex is telling all, but who could CARE at a time like this?

Human beings as units of production. Not very interesting, and not very new, but there it is. What exactly is it that you produce, Mr. Fairweather?

I threw the severed frozen hand in the freezer. Does anyone know if it's OK to throw it in the Yard Waste bin? Oh, I know gas is down, but does anyone want a Prius? There are plenty of them scattered about, but you might have to chop the frozen corpses out of them before it warms up again.

Itty Bitty Poontitty

The looting has begun. I just saw a man trailing a toilet paper roll with milk running down his leg die in front of a sliding bus. Soon, the shooting. A frozen corpse chunk just shattered the kitchen window. A woman's hand, still clutching the iPhone that couldn't save her, lies still on the cutting board. Worse; it's my veggie and bread cutting board. Oh well, at least I'll have a hole to shoot out of. KIRO advises to stop feeding your pets so that they die before you do. Think about the alternative.

The bodies are piling up like cord wood here. People smothered in their sleep by pets, asphyxiated by camp stoves, struck down by skate skiers. Emotionally, I'm devastated. Hasn't the value of my house suffered enough? The walls are closing in. Can't take it anymore. I'm going out for a drive to see if I can be of help.

Be advised: frozen corpses explode when struck by thundersnow . Wear an appropriate outer layer.

I've been harvesting wallets and iPhones from frozen corpses all morning.

KIRO reports that we'll all be dead by midnight. Commence drinkin and fuckin.

THUNDERSNOW !!!!!

A cyclist who does not also drive a car likely pays no property or business taxes either. He or she is also, possibly, a heavily taxpayer-subsidized student. Ok, he likely pays sales tax on that Big Gulp that he buys down the street from campus. A pittance, really. His parasitic social standing remains. aside from the more than a few unsupportable assumptions here, since when are students 'parasites'? I thought one of the biggest problems in this country was that students were struggling to afford the higher education they need to survive in this minimum wage society, you know, the kind of affordability and subsidies that FW enjoyed when he was a student. I've never heard anyone, ever, before now complain that students are not paying enough taxes. That's so out of touch with what's happening, and what should happen, in this country that, well, you heard it hear first, folks. Perhaps students should also pay for FW's new sidewalk? In addition, I hardly think that a guy who buys beer for his dog should be concerned about which beverages students are consuming these days.

Rock shoes. No, that would be too cruel.

Dude looks like a lady.

Yes, about half an hour after my post. Obviously, CC is not the only resource for finding useful code. You're probably not aware of, never having held a creative job, the common methodology of casting a wide net to catch bits of existing code so as not to re-invent the wheel.

Nice try, but you're anti-bike, given the 'wealth' of past posts you've gifted us on the subject, and everyone here knows it by now. Kind of like your little racism issue. Protest all you want, as you often do a bit too loudly, but your posts speak louder than your follow on denials. You don't represent any semblance of a 'majority' in this country. The 'majority' in the country, particularly give the results of the last election, reject racism of any kind, for example.

Miffed at Bush's final fuck yous? Don't get mad, get even: Close Gitmo

One visit to a European city that has proper, separate bike paths (not painted death & detritus afterthought zones on busy streets) makes this entire argument ridiculous. The traveling experience in those cities is SO much more pleasant...even if you're driving. The first thing you notice is all the old folks on bikes. Then all the young kids. It's wonderful. But hey, screw those little brats. Let'em tussle with the SUVs, eh FW?