“Where there is no eye there is no caste” Rudyard Kipling in his famous novel Kim
The obsession with race in the US is pervasive and never-ending. Watch the debate about Obama and the coded objections (too young, no experience etc), and ask yourself “Would you be prepared to vote for a white male for President.” Concept ridiculous? Never occurred to you?
Like to bet that the Swift Boat “patriots” will try to mix up the Obama with the Osama? Why do Americans put up with this juvenile stuff, and why can’t the Republicans grow up?
My firend Robert, I would bet that it will not be the republicans who end up crucifying young Obama, but the Clintonistas; after all, it did not take long into Clinton’s first term for him (and Hillary) to fire the white house travel staff and many federal prosecutors;
I say this as a libertarian: both major parties in the U.S. are made up of mostly immoral, ruthless characters only interestd in their own power; by the way that opinion also includes Obama.
It has taken me 50 yrs of life and 27 yrs of a legal career to finally put into practice the epicurean philosophy of not getting particularly involved in politics; my life has been much more peaceful since I resolved to stop watching all the talking pols on CNN, Fox News, etc,
You might well be right about Hilary, Mickey. I am no admirer of hers. But I do agree with you that, as an aspiring epicurean, one shouldn’t get exercised about politics. Epicurus avoided them entirely, on the principle that there was nothing he could do about them anyway. To this end I have just posted a comment about not worrying about those things you cannot control. Thank you for very sensibly pulling me up on the subject.
However, there is an issue you might be able to explain. If you are a libertarian, can you explain how it is that libertarians get very exercised about their right to carry guns, smoke pot and allow food msanufacturters to put anybold gunk in their products (to the detriment of health , but when Bush sends Habeas Corpus, hands people over for torture and imprisons people for years without trial, there is hardly a peep out of libertarians. If these detainees could be proved to haver plotted or actually done somerthing against us all, that would be one thing, but so far (I think i am right) they have proved nothing against anyone in held in custody. It seems outrageous and absolutely un-American. The germans under Hitler used to say, “If you haven’t done anything wrong, there is nothing to fear.” the siren song of the end of liberty and democracy!
I am not a member of the US Libertarian party, but from the outside it does seem they are a fractious lot; there are a couple of libertarians who have publicly displayed their dismay at the erosion of our civil liberties; one is talk show host Neal Boortz, boortz.com, and the other is former republican congressman from ga Bob Barr bobbarr.org; in fact Barr just wrote a GREAT editorial in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that specificly deals with the Bush adinistration’s attempt to do away with the writ of habeas corpus.
I was told a story about a Libertarian the other day: this guy apparently made the comment that he would scrap the so-called “War on Drugs”. He was then asked, “What would be your attitude if a drug dealer set up shop, targeted your kids and sold them hard drugs? His reply was, “He would be welcome. But then I would be welcome to take my gun and shoot him dead.”
If this is the attitude of hard-line Libertarians, then I am experiencing a huge wave of nostalgia for the Enlightenment, for rational discussion, for sensible rules and laws to live by, and for common sense!
Meanwhile, I’m delighted to hear about Neal Boortz and Bob Barr, Mickey. Thank you. We can’t go round the world telling all and sundry what a wonderful crowd we are, beacons of democracy and liberty, the greatest country ever in the history of the Universe, criticize China, Russia, Iran etc., and then scrap these basic rights. Habeas Corpus was very hard won 800 years ago. But then history is useless, we learn – you can’t get a job with
history.