September 1, 2009
On Torture
How do they do it? People on the left are continuing to decry torture tactics used by the CIA to get information necessary to keep our country safe from attacks being planned by our enemies, who would like to destroy us. Let’s see, the CIA is accused of atrocities like pointing an electric drill at a prisoner, pretending they executed a prisoner in a different room, blowing cigar smoke in their face, threatening to hurt their family, and water boarding (which we also do to our own troops). Despite threatened harm, not a hair on their heads are touched. Prisoners are not physically hurt. Yet the left makes it sound like these prisoners are traumatized so much that they are permanently damaged.
I guess I could believe people on the left sincerely hold beliefs against torture and that their opposition is not a tool to use in their quest to delegitimize conservative leaders’ success in keeping our nation safe. The problem is when these same torture decriers also approve of Fidel Castro. “You can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met.“ declared US Rep Diane Watson (Dem, CA). Other liberals who support Castro are Sean Penn, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner and Steven Spielberg.
I don’t know what Congresswoman Watson et al believe about torture but Fidel Castro has admitted that torture is necessary to “annihilate the enemy”. Unlike CIA torture, Fidel’s torture is physical, and leaves permanent damage to bodies and minds. Armando Valladeres somehow survived 22 years as a political prisoner in Cuba. His crime? Speaking out publicly against the communist revolution. His sentence? Years and years of prison where he and others were forced to live in the greatest heat and the dampest cold without clothes. They were regularly beaten, shot at and sometimes killed; they were thrown into punishment cells, including the dreaded ''drawer cells,'' specially constructed units that make South Vietnam's infamous tiger cages seem like homey quarters. Guards armed with thick twisted electric cables and truncheons beat him as he lay on the floor. The beating felt as if they were branding him with a red-hot branding iron. Then he experienced the most intense, unbearable, and brutal pain of his life. One of the guards had jumped with all his weight on his broken, throbbing leg.'' That treatment was typical. In the punishment cells, prisoners were kept in total darkness. Guards dumped buckets of urine and feces over the prisoners who warded off rats and roaches as they tried to sleep. Fungus grew on Mr. Valladares because he was not allowed to wash off the filth. Sleep was impossible. Guards constantly awoke the men with long poles to insure they got no rest. Illness and disease were a constant. Even at the end, when the authorities were approving his release, Mr. Valladares was held in solitary confinement in a barren room with fluorescent lights turned on 24 hours a day. By then he was partially paralyzed through malnutrition intensified by the lack of medical attention.
Armando Valladares is not alone. Thousands of political opponents to the Castro regime have been killed or imprisoned in extremely poor conditions without trial. If those imprisoned and killed had he not been opponents of Fidel Castro, the international left would have rushed vociferously to his support. Unfortunately for the tortured in Cuba, people on the left who loudly and proudly stand up against “torture” by the US are silent about real torture taking place with the consent of Castro. They even loudly and proudly count Fidel as their friend, someone to teach us how to live and make America a “people’s paradise”. Anti-torture advocates are just as silent when torture takes place against Christians around the world.
Friends on the left, please look at some of the inconsistencies of the positions your side takes. Hypocrisy is not found only in churches.
(Bibliography: “Surviving Castro’s Tortures” Ronald Radosh, New York Times, June 8, 1986; rottentomatoes.com; Capitalism Magazine, July 30, 2000; Cuba Verdad)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sotomayor yes or no
Today I am watching the third day of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She used a famous quotation by Sandra Day O’Connor and said that it couldn’t possibly be true or what she meant to say, just like a statement that she had made several times wasn’t what she meant to say. What if Judge Sandra Day O’Connor meant what she said? Here’s the quote, “I believe that a wise old woman and a wise old man would reach the same conclusion.” Judge Sotomayor said that couldn’t be true because if a wise old man and a wise old woman reached different conclusions you would be calling one unwise. Why couldn’t one have made a wise decision and one made an unwise decision. She apparently believes that there are more than just one wise judgment.
I believe that wisdom is one, as in singular. Proverbs 1:20 even puts wisdom in one body when it says, “Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech” . Her reasoning really points out why I don’t believe she would make a good judge. She doesn’t believe that there is one wisdom that judges should try to reach. She believes that the supreme court has wise people who, shaped by their race, gender, and life experiences will reach different opinions, and that one “wisdom” will win. True wisdom may or may not be found, depending on the make up of the supreme court. This creates a situation where someone could come all the way to the supreme court and not receive justice.
I also have a problem with Judge Sotomayor’s schizophrenia. I do not think that she is mentally ill. I am talking about her saying several times that “a wise latina woman would reach a better conclusion than white men.” In the hearings she has said that her clear statement was misunderstood or that she said it poorly, backing away from what she said. The statements she made then and the statements she’s making now are not compatible, except in her head. I don’t think shifting positions or beliefs are a good characteristic for a judge.
Oh for people with wisdom to make our laws and interpret them. Proverbs 1 goes on to warn of the calamity that comes from not listening to wisdom. “Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, …they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” (v. 29,31). It is so important to vote for leaders that seek wisdom.
I believe that wisdom is one, as in singular. Proverbs 1:20 even puts wisdom in one body when it says, “Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech” . Her reasoning really points out why I don’t believe she would make a good judge. She doesn’t believe that there is one wisdom that judges should try to reach. She believes that the supreme court has wise people who, shaped by their race, gender, and life experiences will reach different opinions, and that one “wisdom” will win. True wisdom may or may not be found, depending on the make up of the supreme court. This creates a situation where someone could come all the way to the supreme court and not receive justice.
I also have a problem with Judge Sotomayor’s schizophrenia. I do not think that she is mentally ill. I am talking about her saying several times that “a wise latina woman would reach a better conclusion than white men.” In the hearings she has said that her clear statement was misunderstood or that she said it poorly, backing away from what she said. The statements she made then and the statements she’s making now are not compatible, except in her head. I don’t think shifting positions or beliefs are a good characteristic for a judge.
Oh for people with wisdom to make our laws and interpret them. Proverbs 1 goes on to warn of the calamity that comes from not listening to wisdom. “Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, …they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” (v. 29,31). It is so important to vote for leaders that seek wisdom.
Sotomayor yes or no
Today I am watching the third day of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She used a famous quotation by Sandra Day O’Connor and said that it couldn’t possibly be true or what she meant to say, just like a statement that she had made several times wasn’t what she meant to say. What if Judge Sandra Day O’Connor meant what she said? Here’s the quote, “I believe that a wise old woman and a wise old man would reach the same conclusion.” Judge Sotomayor said that couldn’t be true because if a wise old man and a wise old woman reached different conclusions you would be calling one unwise. Why couldn’t one have made a wise decision and one made an unwise decision. She apparently believes that there are more than just one wise judgment.
I believe that wisdom is one, as in singular. Proverbs 1:20 even puts wisdom in one body when it says, “Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech” . Her reasoning really points out why I don’t believe she would make a good judge. She doesn’t believe that there is one wisdom that judges should try to reach. She believes that the supreme court has wise people who, shaped by their race, gender, and life experiences will reach different opinions, and that one “wisdom” will win. True wisdom may or may not be found, depending on the make up of the supreme court. This creates a situation where someone could come all the way to the supreme court and not receive justice.
I also have a problem with Judge Sotomayor’s schizophrenia. I do not think that she is mentally ill. I am talking about her saying several times that “a wise Latina woman would reach a better conclusion than white men.” In the hearings she has said that her clear statement was misunderstood or that she said it poorly, backing away from what she said. The statements she made then and the statements she’s making now are not compatible, except in her head. I don’t think shifting positions or beliefs are a good characteristic for a judge.
Oh for people with wisdom to make our laws and interpret them. Proverbs 1 goes on to warn of the calamity that comes from not listening to wisdom. “Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, …they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” (v. 29,31). It is so important to vote for leaders that seek wisdom.
I believe that wisdom is one, as in singular. Proverbs 1:20 even puts wisdom in one body when it says, “Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech” . Her reasoning really points out why I don’t believe she would make a good judge. She doesn’t believe that there is one wisdom that judges should try to reach. She believes that the supreme court has wise people who, shaped by their race, gender, and life experiences will reach different opinions, and that one “wisdom” will win. True wisdom may or may not be found, depending on the make up of the supreme court. This creates a situation where someone could come all the way to the supreme court and not receive justice.
I also have a problem with Judge Sotomayor’s schizophrenia. I do not think that she is mentally ill. I am talking about her saying several times that “a wise Latina woman would reach a better conclusion than white men.” In the hearings she has said that her clear statement was misunderstood or that she said it poorly, backing away from what she said. The statements she made then and the statements she’s making now are not compatible, except in her head. I don’t think shifting positions or beliefs are a good characteristic for a judge.
Oh for people with wisdom to make our laws and interpret them. Proverbs 1 goes on to warn of the calamity that comes from not listening to wisdom. “Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, …they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” (v. 29,31). It is so important to vote for leaders that seek wisdom.
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