The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
A general category for things related to our society and how we interact with one another.
“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security…”.
Read morePope John Paul II has died. I’m not Catholic (nor am I one of the many ?former/recovering? Catholics), and I don’t have particularly strong feelings about this particular pope. But seeing the crowd gathered in St Peters Square has caused me to develop some thoughts on the history of the church and John Paul’s place in it.
Read moreThis is of course Holy Week for Christians around the world. I suppose it should be a time of reflection, and I’ve done some thinking about my feelings. I have to be frank, in face of the egregious distortions amd misuse of Jesus and the Christian message, it becomes more and more difficult to hold on to my “religion.”
Read moreSome weeks ago, I came across a very good blog called Bull Moose. I have found some great insights there. Recently, I took issue with the Moose concerning his position on the Terri Schaivo case. I sent him the following email about an article on his attitude, expressed in this article, that Florida law needed to be changed.
Read moreThe following comment was posted on the DailyKos blog in response to a post about the Terri Schaivo case. I found it to be an excellent summary of circus-like attitude that has developed around this whole situation.
Read moreDuring these past few days I have been following the Terri Schiavo case with interest. I was simply dumbfounded by the President making a big show of rushing back to Washington from his vacation in order to sign Congress? bill to overturn the sanctity of marriage (more on that in a minute).
Read moreWithout a doubt, Tom Delay is most likely one of the most corrupt politicians to ever walk the halls of the Capital. I?d been wondering why the Republicans had been going out of their way to protect him, but now the light is dawning.
Read moreChildren held by the U.S. Army at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison included one boy who appeared to be only about 8 years old, the former commander of the prison told investigators, according to a transcript.
Read moreSenators yesterday expressed dismay and outrage over the fact that no senior Pentagon officials have been held accountable in the rampant cases of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Read moreA Feb. 5 memorandum from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeldcounsels support for a plan to transfer hundreds of suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Read moreSpeaking to reporters at the Justice Department Monday, Gonzales defended the administration’s use of “extraordinary rendition,” the practice of sending detainees to foreign countries where they may fear — and then face — even harsher interrogation tactics than the United States might use.
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