Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Some random thoughts

1) The president speaking at the U.N. brought back bad memories of law school. I can remember both being called on when totally unprepared and mocking my fellows when in a similar situation. Your response--try and BS your way out of it and keep repeating what you do know.

He insulted Lebanon, Syria and Iran. He pretended that Afghanistan and Iraq are "democracies" and created mysterious "moderates" and "reformers" in the Middle East. He created a "a great ideological struggle" out of criminal conduct that has killed fewer Americans than died from lightning strikes during the same period. He lauded elections in SAUDI ARABIA???

Why do I keep hearing my Civil Procedure professor saying "Peter, did you read the case?"

2) It's not torture--it is just hurting people really really bad until they tell us stuff.

3) Nixon was president when I was a teenager, and I could not stand him--I was sent home from school in 1970 for wearing a black arm band after Kent State. I graduated from law school and was married in 1982. Ronald Reagan was president (GACK). I despised every thing Ronald Reagan stood for, from calling Nicaraguan death squads the "moral equivalent of our founding fathers" to Iran-Contra criminality to invading Grenada because we neeeded a win after his Beirut screwup (and to protect the world's strategic supply of nutmeg) to gutting funding for higher education. Despite all that, if Blogger had been available back then, I would have said--no, I don't think so. I never woke up every day thinking about Nixon or Ronald Reagan and wondering if the republic would survive.

But now, I think we have real concerns. T
he Supreme Court opines on a presidential election stating that their opinion doesn't matter beyond that case. We invade the wrong country, we show absolute ignorance of world affairs and New Orleans dies. Bodies pile up in Baghdad--Can we just say that we need to say what we're saying?

No comments: