You know, I have no real objections to shielding airlines from liability for terrorist actions. That makes a certain sense. For this, however, I hope Northwest gets sued out of business. They should never have acceeded to this, even if the other passengers all left the plane.
You wonder what these passengers, the ones who wanted the Arab-Americans thrown off the plane, are going to do with the rest of their lives. Avoid all dark skinned peoples, on the possibility that they might be terrorists? (I suppose in Utah and to some extent in Minnesota, avoiding dark skinned peoples isn't actually all that difficult.) Maybe they'll just avoid the ones with turbans. Or maybe just on planes, trains, and automobiles.
Pat Hogan, public-affairs officer for the Metropolitan Airports Commission Police Department, said officers from his agency were called to assist in removing the men, as they are any time passengers are removed from a flight. Hogan, however, also stressed the decision to remove the men "certainly wasn't ours."
Yeah? So what? I hope you get sued, too, and lose big time. The passengers weren't disruptive, they weren't doing anything wrong, and the request from the pilot and crew was something that should never have been made. And then you questioned them, as if they had done something wrong, instead of being the people who were wronged.
Despite the official posture, it's clear that in terminals and aircraft cabins, certain passengers are being looked over with sharper eyes. At Los Angeles International Airport, a federal official who asked not to be identified said there have been instances in which people of Middle Eastern origin have been bumped from several flights in a row. Some, he said, were permitted to check their bags--thus allowing the luggage to be searched--and reach the entry to the jet way before they were stopped for questioning. "It's pure racial profiling," the official said.
It's also wrong, and, at the moment, quite illegal.
At the moment.
Give Bush his due; he has said, again and again since that day, that we should not turn on Muslims and Arabs in this country. He's gone to mosques, he's had Muslim clerics at the national ceremony of mourning. I don't actually know what else he could do to lead in this matter, how much more clear that part of his message could be.
And nobody is listening to him. Nobody wants to listen to him on this. It's much easier to go along our bigoted way.
@ 01:44 PM CST [Link]
Skates. Roller Skates. In the street.
You know, somehow, I just don't see the right to rollerskate (pardon me, inline skate) down the street in flagrant violation of the law as an important civil right. Call me reactionary, call me a curmudgeon, but I just don't see it.
@ 01:16 PM CST [Link]
Well ... I suppose it's patriotic, kinda, sorta, maybe ... and it doesn't violate the US Code on Flag Etiquette, either. (Though apparently, the newspapers that have printed flags and those people who have put it on t-shirts are in flagrant and direct violation of the code. Who knew?)
@ 01:06 PM CST [Link]
You know, this is fascinating. Either Findlaw or the Cleveland Plain Dealer has the facts wrong, or the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office is speaking out of both sides of its mouth.
The undisputed facts are that Michael Green was accused and convicted of raping a nurse then undergoing treatment for liver cancer. (She later died of the cancer.) He's been in prison for 13 years. The perpetrator of the rape apparently cleaned up with a washcloth and left it behind. (How ... revoltingly fastidious.) The DNA on the washcloth was recently tested, and according to the defense, did not match that of Mr. Green.
The Plain Dealer reports: Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Carmen Marino said the county was reviewing the evidence and was likely to seek its own DNA testing. "It's going to take a couple weeks for us to get our testing done," he said. "We're disposed to do that right now, to make sure all the tests are conducted properly. Until we've arrived at a decision, we will let the jury verdict stand. But both sides are moving as expeditiously as possible to make sure this matter is resolved."
FindLaw reports: Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Carmen Marino said Tuesday he will not challenge the results of the test. "Thirteen years is a long time to spend in prison. If he's innocent, what a tragedy,'' Marino said. Unless new information is obtained that calls into the question the accuracy of the DNA findings, there would be little reason to challenge Green's release, he said.
The Plain Dealer story seems to have appeared later, so I would suspect that is the most current information. Still, you wonder what changed. Why would you say on one day, "Oops. Sorry. Our bad," and the next day you say, "Nope. Don't think so. We want to keep you in prison while we make sure that your lawyers aren't lying to us."
The only thing I can imagine is that they're trying to work out some sort of backroom deal to limit payments. Most of the people who have been freed via DNA evidence have gotten some sort of payment to make up for the lost years -- usually hideously inadequate, but then, when you have nothing at all, inadequate can be better than nothing at all.
@ 06:06 PM CST [Link]
Hell hath no fury like pissed off radio programmers, that's all I can say.
Mind, I'm not precisely certain that this is what's happening -- their format can best be described as "country/classic-rock/modern-rock eclectic" ... on a good day. But I'm pretty sure that KPIG Freedom/Santa Cruz/Watsonville CA is making something of a dedicated effort to work their way through some noticeable portion of the Clear Channel Communications banned music list. They haven't said that's what they're doing in the short time I've been listening today, and there's other stuff mixed in so that I can't be absolutely certain ... but there's been a few ... (Clear Channel banned a Barenaked Ladies song? they banned "On Broadway"? They banned "Johnny Angel" and "Mack the Knife"? Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away"? What on earth ... Shelly Fabares is subersive? Barnaked Ladies is a group of rampageously dangerous Canadians? What? That list is so far beyond making sense that it's laughable. To say nothing of pointing out that their stations have some seriously antique playlists.)
@ 03:24 PM CST [Link]
People at some technology companies must be having the most amazingly mixed feelings. On the one hand, many were probably about to lose their jobs, had lost their jobs. On the other ... I can't imagine a more expensive way for someone to have achieved some sort of job security.
@ 12:23 PM CST [Link]
Clear Channel Communications has clearly lost its corporate mind. I mean ... they banned Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World"? What on earth ... they banned Neil Diamond's "America"? NOW? (They banned Cat Stevens' "Peace Train"; actually, I understand banning Cat Stevens generally, although not that particular song. Granted, you have to have an extraordinarily narrow and bigoted worldview to ban Cat Stevens' songs because he became Yusef Islam, but then, it's pretty obvious that Clear Channel has a narrow and bigoted worldview.)
They banned all of Rage Against the Machine. For what? The rage? The machine? What?
@ 01:49 PM CST [Link]
So. Remember Cincinnati this spring? The policeman killing a man over outstanding speeding and parking tickets, the rioting, the spike in crime rate because of depolicing, all that stuff that happened way back in the prehistoric age? The trial of the officer charged with negligent homicide has started. It seems that the officer that shot the man lied to investigators. And lied stupidly, considering that he was on videotape and should have known it.
@ 12:14 PM CST [Link]
Sex or a cow? Sex or a cow? Decisions, decisions!
You know, somehow, the thought utterly fails to keep from crossing the mind that ... the king is apparently required to marry a youthful virgin and the virgin supply was starting to run low, so he had to do something about it! Any good it might have done for the young woman was entirely coincidental. (Although what good it might do is debatable. Can you imagine having to tell your daughter, "No! You can't date that young man! It will cost us a cow if you do!")
I just have this vision of abstinence educators in this country looking at that and thinking, "Hmm .... hmm... maybe ... but where would someone in Los Angeles keep a cow?"
@ 12:03 PM CST [Link]
The Justice Department has drafted legislation allowing the U.S. attorney general to lock up foreigners deemed to be terrorist suspects and order them deported without presenting any evidence. [...] [Ashcroft] said he also has revised internal rules allowing the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to detain suspected illegal immigrants for 48 hours, instead of one day, before deciding whether to charge them. INS rules already allow any person who does not have legal permission to be in the United States to be detained for an unlimited time in "extraordinary circumstances," which Justice officials said would apply to the terrorism probe.
Citing the new powers, the Justice Department said it would continue to hold 75 immigrants arrested in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Previously, the department faced a 24-hour deadline on whether to release detained immigrants or charge them with a crime, or with violating the terms of their visa.
So, let's see ... Denial of the right either to confront your accuser or defend yourself. Revocation of the rules of habeas corpus, which require the state to either charge you or release you within a reasonable amount of time. The INS already detains people currently on "secret" evidence -- neither the defendant, their attorney nor the presiding judges are allowed to see this "evidence" of whatever it is that INS detains people for -- but now we will deport you based on NO evidence whatsoever.
It will be interesting to see if Congress has the courage, in the face of everything, to remember that the Constitution does, in fact, exist. That it exists in its current form as a direct response to what were then perceived as much the same abuses of power.
It's interesting to see that the external approach -- the war effort, if you will -- for which we need cooperation and guidance from other countries is proceeding at an unexpectedly slow and measured pace. In contrast, the internal approach -- the rules and regulations to prevent this from happening again -- are moving at breakneck speed. It's as if those proposing these changes realize that if they give the public, if they give Congress, the chance to catch its breath and truly realize what they're doing, they have no chance at all to get things through.
If this does go through today -- it's apparently being sent to Congress today -- it will be at least the fourth major legislative package to go through in the past seven days. Congress never moves that fast; it isn't supposed to move that fast. It's called a deliberative body for a reason; let's hope they actually deliberate.
@ 11:29 AM CST [Link]
This is one of the saddest things I can imagine. The need for this is one of the saddest things I can imagine.
@ 11:06 AM CST [Link]
OK, even for the Weekly World News, that's .... different. (Then again, for a publication that can concoct the headline, "Satan Escapes From Hell!", maybe it's not that different, after all.)
And in case you can't read it, the subheading at the bottom of the page says, "I thought she was gay! says stunned ex-Prez". I should think he would be!
Now, now. Just because one is an alien doesn't mean one isn't gay! After all, what do we know about aliens and alien sexuality?
But still ... who knew Hilary was a xenosexual?
@ 11:37 PM CST [Link]
Airport officials Thursday said Middle Eastern-looking travelers would face no special scrutiny as jetliners resumed flights for the first time since this week's deadly hijackings linked to Islamic radicals.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Spero said. "As a Jew, I appreciate the fact that this is a country of liberty. But I think human life is more important than liberty.''
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.
--- Daniel Webster
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
---Benjamin Franklin, 1759 (Franklin B. Historical Review of Pennsylvania. 1759)
If, in this context, human life is more important than liberty, then what's the point of fighting the terrorists? They've already taken that part of us that so infuriated them that they had to fling planes at us.
If we truly feel that life is more important than liberty -- than one of the core concepts of this country -- then they've already won.
@ 03:04 PM CST [Link]
Falwell told The Associated Press that no one from the evangelical community or the White House pressured him to apologize. However, he said a White House representative called him Friday while he was driving to the National Cathedral memorial service in Washington, and told him the president disapproved.
You know, I was wondering why Falwell had apologized; he's not generally terribly concerned about anyone other than his core followers. At least now we understand why he's trying so hard to weasel out of what he said without weaseling out of what he said -- The mas grande conservative Christian de todos unleashed a little mild whoopass on him. (I dare say they probably also said something to Robertson, which would explain why he suddenly turned on Jerry, who must have been just terribly surprised.)
Is it just me, or does this make Bush sound something like Queen Victoria, looking down his nose through his lorgnette, pronouncing, "We are not amused."
The other funny part is where Robertson both attacked Falwell (and I'll bet that was a nasty surprise -- the president and his little pal, all piling on over what they would both normally consider a nondisputable statement) and then said that his remarks were "not fully understood". Let's just review a section of those remarks, shall we? Let's shall.
JERRY FALWELL: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.
OK, what part of that first statement is hard to understand? And if he didn't understand it, how is it that Robertson didn't say, "Well, what do you mean by that, Jerry? Do you mean that some of our fellow Americans helped this horrible event?" or something of that persuasion? Or even, "I'm not sure I understand what you mean." How does "I totally concur" somehow turn into "I didn't fully understand"?
What scumsucking weasels they are.
That said, I do wish people would stop saying that Falwell and/or Robertson are done as a political force with that statement. That's nothing more than wishful thinking, and patently dangerous thinking if it makes the people on Falwell's Enemies List (oh, of course he has one) stop thinking of him as an enemy they need to pay attention to. All the two of them did was to say something stupid at the wrong time. At another time, if he had said, for example, "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - all of them have led to the moral downfall of our country," (in fact, I think he has said that and variations thereof, more than once) ... aside from the specific people he condemned, nobody would have protested. Nobody would even have found it particularly unusual for him to say. There may be some moderate Christians (of which, it is pertinent to note, our president is not one) who will be repulsed by his statements, maybe even a few more conservative ones who will find those remarks at this time to be too much to take. But neither of them is finished -- or even significantly damaged -- as a political force. If Robertson decides to run for president again -- not that he would ever have won -- he will still do well enough in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries to have some power to dictate to the Republican Party platform committees, which is what he really wants; to make certain that the Republican Party stays hard right of center.
@ 11:42 AM CST [Link]
Ours was a good news story as far as crime goes in South Africa -- most people tell me how lucky we were to escape unhurt. [...] A government study reported 27,600 homicides in 1999, giving South Africa a per-capita murder rate eight times worse than that of the United States. [...] The Cape Times newspaper recently ran a story about a gas station owner in the working class suburb of Langa who had been robbed 28 times and shot at 17 times over the past three years. No one was arrested.
South Africa's total population, just for information, is approximately 40 million. By comparison, in 1999, the last year for which final statistics are available, the total number of murders in the United States, population approximately 280 million, is 15,533. Not only is South Africa's murder rate higher, but the raw number is nearly double.
@ 10:49 AM CST [Link]
It appears that Ypsilanti residents will be voting next year on whether to remove discrimination protection for homosexuals from their city charter. Officials Friday verified 728 signatures of 1,162 on a petition calling for a vote to eliminate the charter stipulation. Allegations that some of the signatures were gathered illegally are still being investigated. [...] In 1998, Yulle's group challenged the city's nondiscrimination ordinance. The question was turned down by 56 percent of the voters. That year, the question was whether to strike down the entire ordinance. This time, supporters say the charter amendment would only impact one part, the section based on sexual orientation.
Granted that I'm mildly astonished that Ypsilanti added such a statement to their charter in the first place. I would still expect this emendation to succeed, where simply striking the ordinance is bigotry too blatant for most people to stomach. After all, the ordinance as a whole was only sustained by a 6-percent margin; many will feel fewer qualms about striking just that portion.
And the events of the past week should leave few doubts about the extent of bigotry possible in this country.
@ 01:10 PM CST [Link]
So now they're going for ALL Muslims. How refreshingly non-nationalistic. Don't care if they're Arab-Americans, don't care if they're black Americans; since they're Muslims, they're clearly not really Americans. Right?
The Travis County fire marshal's office is investigating Saturday's incident as a hate crime. Well, DUH. Trying to firebomb someone, even if it didn't work, would seem to be a strong indicator of at least mild dislike, wouldn't you say? Since this particular firebombing didn't work, I wonder how long it will be until they try again? Or until they try something else.
@ 12:58 PM CST [Link]
My. Looks like we may well provoke war between Pakistan and Afghanistan without really having tried all that hard.
From the US point of view, such a war would be, in the short term, a win-win situation. Because Pakistan would have dared to side with the US against another Islamic nation -- although that's not quite what's happening -- the surviving terrorists, if any, would be thoroughly refocused on another target. Such a war would also destabilize the Taliban; after all, if they haven't been able to get rid of their resistance after all these years, the chance that they could stand against Pakistan's army and air force -- which, after all, the United States has armed -- is vanishingly small.
The unintended consequences would be, among other things, thorough destabilization of the military dictatorship in Pakistan. Normally, something the US would appreciate -- at least we're slightly less prone to supporting dictatorships just because they support our policies these days; slightly -- but at the current time, the radicals and members of the Taliban in Pakistan are likely to revolt. And a thoroughly distracted (and possibly radical state) Pakistan is not something we want at the moment.
The other consideration is this: India and Pakistan have engaged in a incredibly protracted and periodically extraordinarily bloody struggle for Kashmir. (The fact that Kashmir wants little or nothing to do with either of them being, of course, completely irrelevant.) If Pakistan is distracted by both external war on the opposing border and internal terrorism ... how likely is it that India will decide to keep her hands off Kashmir at such a time? The US may or may not be able to fight a two-front war -- we haven't had to do it for nearly 60 years, so who knows? -- but Pakistan certainly cannot. And if India moves to take Kashmir, what is the likelihood that Pakistan would simply abandon any war with Afghanistan to protect something they consider far more important? And let us not forget that both India and Pakistan are nuclear states, although, as far as we know, they have shown relatively little inclination to do more than say, "See! We've got the bomb too!" at each other.
@ 11:11 AM CST [Link]
Rumble of the Millennium... In the message he sent to his notify list, Omar said this had a point. I'm not entirely sure what the point is ... but it's definitely interesting. (If it weren't for the fact that Falwell and his little Falwellistas scare the peep out of me, I'd find some way to send him the URL. Just to watch him go all apoplectic.)
@ 10:41 AM CST [Link]
A few things that my fellow Americans have come up with to distract the FBI and entertain themselves. Because, of course, after recent events, they have nothing to do. And of course, my fellow Americans have nothing better to do with themselves.
Mesa police have notified FBI officials who investigate hate crimes about a shooting Saturday that killed a gas station owner who was an immigrant from India [...] The 49-year-old Balbir Singh Sodhi died after a man in a truck shot him and fled. Police say the suspect then drove to a second gas station and then a house, where he fired repeatedly but didn't hit anyone. Sodhi's relatives and employers of a clerk at the second gas station say they think the men were targeted because they looked Middle Eastern. Neighbors of the home that was shot at say a family of Afghani descent lives there.
Dallas police and the FBI are investigating whether the shooting death of a Pakistani grocer in Pleasant Grove was out of anger at Muslims for Tuesday's terrorist attacks. Police have been unable to determine a motive for the Saturday night slaying of 46-year-old Waqar Hasan at Mom's Grocery. There is no evidence of robbery or a struggle, said homicide Sgt. Larry Lewis. Nothing was out of place.
How many more will there be, one wonders. How much innocent blood will be enough?
Tammie Ismail, 25, of Bridgeview said her 12-year-old brother is having trouble sleeping. Her mother tells him he has done nothing wrong, that he is a sweet little boy--but no, he had better not go out and play today. The crisis has led some to turn closer to Islam, even as they pray at home for fear of going to the mosque. They have been cursed at or intimidated or heard about such things. Ahmad's children, ages 10, 8 and 6, grew upset, she said, when they saw a sign not far from the family's home in suburban Burbank. It read: "We are going to kill Arabs." [...] At a grocery store with his mother on Wednesday, Gheith said he was deeply upset when a small girl pointed to his mother in her traditional Muslim dress and asked, "Mommy, is she going to kill us?"
So this is what we are come to. Terrifying children. At least we're ecumenical about it; we're terrifying all children -- white, black, Muslim or Arab.
On Friday, Dearborn police said three men in Taylor were being investigated for allegedly saying they were going to go to Dearborn and "kill all the Arabs." The men may be skinheads, said Dearborn Police Chief Gregory Guibord. Also, a bomb threat was phoned in Friday to Fordson High School, which has a large number Arab-American students, but it was not credible, Guibord said.
Police across Long Island said they have stepped up patrols of "potential problem areas” during the past week and urged residents to help out by reporting any unusual activity. One such tip led to the arrest yesterday of Daryn Riccardo, 29, of 479 18th St., West Babylon, who made two pipe bombs in a scheme to "get an Arab,” police said. [...] Suffolk police also arrested a 15-year-old Farmingville boy Saturday after he allegedly made several harassing phone calls to a 7-Eleven store. The youth, who police have not identified, threatened to blow up the store with a pipe bomb and made reference to the owner being Hindu, saying he should leave the country.
Speaking in Arabic, Achou said through an interpreter that agents had entered Azmath's and Khan's apartment by going out her window, onto a fire escape, and into their window. She said she believed that Azmath and Khan were from India. Neighbors said the FBI took five men into custody and confiscated a computer and a full plastic garbage bag with unknown contents as helicopters hovered over the building. Some onlookers chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as the men were taken into custody, they said.
We are willing to find enemies everywhere-—most tragically, even among ourselves. All week, in a journey through two major cities and dozens of towns, I did not see one woman in a Muslim headscarf. It pains me that American women are hiding in their homes. One young Muslim acquaintance told me that she gave up wearing her scarf during the Persian Gulf War, because students on her school bus taunted her and tried to pull it from her head. She is one of more than 6 million Muslims in the United States, and like half of them, she was born here. An American Muslim today is twice as likely to be African American as Arab. These people are us, not them, and they shouldn't have to cower in their own country.
@ 10:47 PM CST [Link]
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!