J. Speer-Williams
February 8, 2010
Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) was perhaps the most accomplished actress of her generation. It was Ms. Barrymore who said, “You grow up the day you have the first real laugh – at yourself.”
Do you remember your first real laugh at yourself? Mine came when I was about 30.5 years old. You see, I belong to the “Late Bloomer” generation. Anyway, my proof of maturing came after reading the great Gary Allen’s, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy,” and finally realizing there was no substantial difference, in practice, between the democratic and republican political parties.
My laugh at myself was less of a side-splitter, and more of a panic. Had I been lost in a cloud of systematic propagation disseminated by the highly paid proselytizers of the corporate media, who had constantly convinced me of the validity of the “Left/Right paradigm”?
What a joke! And the joke was on me. Today, it’s a joke on practically every registered voter in America, especially on the Baby Boomers, who are largely more occluded than those of my Late Bloomer generation.
And while there is no great differences between our two major political parties, there are – at least – two distinct classes of people. Human motivation can be easily seen by separating the basic dynamic of mankind into two great divides: There are those who serve themselves at the expense of others – the Takers; and those who serve themselves by helping others – the Helpers.
The top echelons of the US government has long been largely composed of republican and democratic Takers. And, Takers with the power of the federal government behind them can take far more from us than nasty neighbors can.
Takers come in all sizes and assortments, with varying abilities and aptitudes to take what is not rightfully theirs from others. The most cunning Takers naturally gravitate to where they can most easily take the most, which is into high-level governmental positions.
And if such democratic and republican Takers could become satiated with their vast sums of money, fame, adulation, and all the gratuitous and perverted sex they could possibly bear, our national plight might not be so severe; but sadly, those of both political parties are not so easily sated.
Part of the psychopathy of these bipartisan Takers is strange, in deed: The more they take, the more they are driven to take, until the grief and agony of others so excites the Takers, that it exceeds their ecstasy from sexual culmination, their love of money, or their lust for power. In fact, advanced Takers must see or know of the suffering of others, or the Takers become obviously quite mad to all observers, when usually their madness is cleverly hidden.
To the psychopathic democratic and republican politicians and bureaucrats in government taking your job, your savings, your home, all too soon become passe, and not fulfilling enough to the psychopathic mind, especially if you are still, somehow, happy.
Ultimately, Takers compulsively degrade themselves until only the severe suffering of others, that comes from physical abuse and torture, will satiate them; thus we have a very fast growing wave of physical abuse from the police constabulary sweeping America, and a seriously expanding pandemic of torture taking place in many of the US military bases around the world.
And while there is absolutely no excuse for police abuse at home, the Takers tell us they must torture human beings abroad in order to gain the intelligence data that will keep America safe; while the truth is Americans will never be safe with psychopathic Takers in charge of our country.
The English, 17th century philosopher John Locke wrote, “As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil which they set out to destroy.”
Presidential candidate Barack Obama touted through out his campaign on how his good would eradicate the evils of the preceding eight years of a republican administration. But once he gained the presidency, democrat Obama refused to investigate the torture crimes of the preceding Bush administration, or to even release a series of photographs depicting outrageous US tortures of thousands of Iraqis, that had been stuffed into the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. These photographs show scenes of Iraqi men, women, and children being raped and sodomized by US soldiers. Eye witnesses told of not only seeing such things as strangulation, but brutal beatings, and the cramming of lit cigarettes into the ear canals of defenseless prisoners.
I’ve seen some of these photos, but could not look at them for very long. Even Harper’s Magazine writer Scott Horton states he “has obtained specific corroboration from a highly credible senior military officer with firsthand knowledge, of the suppressed photos,” which is surely the very tip of a hell we cannot even imagine.
Keep in mind, that the above tortures were photographed, or took place in front of witnesses; but, there seems to be a number of secret prisons where special torture techniques are carried out by the CIA, without any witnesses allowed, as reported by the Washington Post.
And by special order of President Bush, and not repealed by President Obama, the CIA does not have to reveal to anyone who these prisoners are, or what happens to them behind the solid and impenetrable walls of over 100 US prisons around the world. Not satisfied with torturing detainees, American officials seem to also want to leave relatives of the “detainees” in a constant state of misery, wondering what happened to their loved ones.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, the US Army, since March of 2003, has imprisoned about 2,400 children in Iraq, alone. Some of these children were as young as ten years old when they were taken captive, without charges or trials, all in violation of the Coalition Provisional Authority memorandum on criminal procedures.
Married Iraqi men are segregated from their wives in prison, and children from their parents, unless children are being tortured in front of mothers and fathers. Do these tortured children know of complicated terrorist plots that can be tortured out of them? No, the rational – or justification – for torturing children – is the parents will break down and tell what they know about terrorists plots, in order to stop the torturing of their children. If the parents know nothing, are such children tortured endlessly, until the parents divine something to tell? And, I suppose that imprisoned children without parents are simply tortured for good measure.
Amnesty Human Rights Watch, and all other oversight agencies, have even been denied permission to see these children or to know where they are imprisoned in Iraq.
In an article entitled “US and Allies Torture Children in Iraqi Prisons,” Sherwood Ross writes, “Iraqi lawyer, Sahar Yasiri, representing the Federation of Prisoners and Political Prisoners, said in a published interview there are more than 400,000 detainees in Iraq being held in 36 prisons and camps, and that 95 percent of the 10,000 women among them have been raped.” “Children,” he said, “suffer from torture, rape [and] starvation, and do not know why they have been arrested.” He added, “The children have been victims of random arrests, not based on any legal text.”
Still there are some Americans who do not think we torture human beings. But even former President Jimmy Carter has confirmed that we are torturing detainees.
“I don’t think it, I know it,” snapped Carter to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s inane question, “What makes you think we torture …”.
Full article HERE
