Sunday, April 30, 2006

Sorry, but the US has to violate your rights to protect them...

If I've ever seen a cynical, hypocritical, inhuman argument, it is this one by the bushbaby playpen: that they just can't release those people that have been held in Guantánamo without charges, lawyers, judicial review, trials for nearly five years because their home countries might treat them badly. I think I'd rather take my chances....
See this NY Times article for the complete information. What follows is just a short bit from the beginning...

U.S. Says It Fears Detainee Abuse in Repatriation
By Tim
Golden
Published: April 30, 2006, NYT
A long-running effort by the Bush administration to send home many of the terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been stymied in part because of concern among United States officials that the prisoners may not be treated humanely by their own governments, officials said. Administration officials have said they hope eventually to transfer or release many of the roughly 490 suspects now held at Guantánamo. As of February, military officials said, the Pentagon was ready to repatriate more than 150 of the detainees once arrangements could be made with their home countries. But those arrangements have been more difficult to broker than officials in Washington anticipated or have previously acknowledged, raising questions about how quickly the administration can meet its goal of scaling back detention operations at Guantánamo. "The Pentagon has no plans to release any detainees in the immediate future," said a Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon of the Navy. He said the negotiations with foreign governments "have proven to be a complex, time-consuming and difficult process."
The military has so far sent home 267 detainees from Guantánamo after finding that they had no further intelligence value and either posed no long-term security threat or would reliably be imprisoned or monitored by their own governments. Most of those who remain are considered more dangerous militants; many also come from nations with poor human rights records and ineffective justice systems.
But Washington's insistence on humane treatment for the detainees in their native countries comes after years in which Guantánamo has been assailed as a symbol of American abuse and hypocrisy — a fact not lost on the governments with which the United States is now negotiating.
That can hardly be topped. It's a lot like the playpen's policy with its own citizens: Deny rights to prevent terrorists from destroying the system of democratic rights they're supposedly protecting/fighting against. Who's on which side????

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Bin Laden can count me as his enemy !

Bin Laden Says West Is Waging War Against Islam - New York Times:
"April 24, 2006
Bin Laden Says West Is Waging War Against Islam
By
MICHAEL SLACKMAN
CAIRO, April 23 - Osama bin Laden denounced what he called a 'Zionist-crusaders war on Islam' in an audiotape broadcast Sunday, pointing to the isolation of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, talk of a Western peacekeeping force in Sudan and Muslim outrage over Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad as new evidence of a clash of civilizations.
His voice sounding strong and combative, Mr. bin Laden implied that killing American civilians was justified, beseeched Muslims to fight any Sudan peacekeeping force and called for the creators of the offensive cartoons to be turned over to Al Qaeda for punishment.
The audiotape, broadcast by Al Jazeera and deemed authentic by American intelligence officials and terrorism experts, was Mr. bin Laden's second in three months and the first in which he has raised Sudan as a possible new battleground where Muslims should go to fight. The tape appeared intended not only to re-establish his role as a sort of supreme guide for Al Qaeda, but also to inform his enemies that he is acutely aware of current news events that reflect violent confrontation between Islam and the West.
While Al Qaeda had previously criticized Hamas leaders for participating in Palestinian elections, Mr. bin Laden sought to tap into the wide public support among Arabs for Hamas, which Israel, the United States and the European Union regard as a terrorist organization."

Yes, I am in favor of the caricatures and even more mockery of his and all other so-called "prophets" -- because if you can't laugh about them, you can only cry about the horrors they cause ! And I am against a terror regime of Hamas in Palestine : Peace is necessary there and normal cohabitation with neighboring countries, not attacks and questioning of their right to existence ! And I'm in favor of saving the hungering people in Darfur without having them take refuge in some religious shadows on the walls of some new caves!
And yes, I'm American and not at all in favor of the playpen, the bushbaby, al qaida, or bin laden --- two covens with two all-too-similar "chieftains" in them. I am in favor of human rights, civil rights, justice, freedom ..... And I value the right of all to express their thoughts. Now that the man who wants to have so many of us killed has expressed his, this is mine!

Congratulations to the Empire State Building !


A wonderful 75th birthday ! Best wishes from this former New Yorker, now Berliner !
And use this link to the official website to get a lot of information on New York City's tall lady.
Photo from The New York Times, courtesy of David MayNew York, N.Y

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Brandenburg Spring - Bike Trip [part 2]


The flowers up close - under the giant birch trees whose leaves still lie dry beneath these tiny white blossoms, the mass of which smell as sweet as honeysuckle with the breeze in your direction.

Brandenburg Spring - Bike Trip [part 1]


Just some proof that Spring has come to the forests of Brandenburg ! A wonderful view on a bike trip from Angermunde to Templin

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Possibly an antidote to the playpen....


Chicora Court Chicks chase the chiseler out of the country! And cherish the chirping of birds!
The countess reigns; the cheats check out; the country focuses on a tiny complex; the world arches out from the interwoven stitches .... and a picture emerges.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Der mitleidige Christ

Nietzsche - Morgenröthe

80. —Der mitleidige Christ.—
Die Kehrseite des christlichen Mitleidens am Leiden des Nächsten ist die tiefe Beargwöhnung aller Freude des Nächsten, seiner Freude an Allem, was er will und kann.

From me, no further commentary or additions necessary....

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Give Popetown a Chance !


After British religious fundamentalists (of the Catholic variety) managed to prevent the satire /caricature cartoon series from being broadcast on BBC (which produced it), MTV in Germany has announced it will begin airing the 9 episode series on May 3!
Thanks for showing we can make fun of what is essentially funny, were it not so intolerant itself (i.e. religion).
Now, however, the German catholic fundamentalists (the Bishops) are up in arms and attempting to block the MTV broadcast. The still from the series here shows what they probably would like to do to anyone showing or watching the series!
Out of the shadows and into the light!
This is a link to the TRAILER for the comedy cartoon.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Cheers for the Chicks of Chicora Court !!!

I know their countess, I know their court, I know (or have at least met) several of those roosting chicks, appreciate their chatter, cherish their cheekiness, and hope soon to tell you more about them here! Stay tuned....
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Which chick is champion of obscurity?
Which is confounder of the devious?
Which is controller of continuity?
Which is catastrophically contagious?
Which is chucklingly childish?
And who can possibly match the chides of the reigning Countess?

Monday, April 3, 2006

Even in Berlin... Spring is on the way !!



And just a couple of pics to prove it, just taken, just now, in the garden....