Midweek finished.
Feb. 23rd, 2006 02:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptCouple more days to the break - have an assignment or two to think about over the break, but enjoying ourselves for the most part. That is, excepting for certain almost punctuated outbursts of WTF that come from reading the internet's pages about things done or not done. Like the judiciary dismissing a lawsuit against the government for holding a Canadian in Syria, where he claims he was tortured, without charging him, and only releasing him several days afterward. The justification is that the investigation might reveal state secrets and/or damage diplomatic relations if it turns out that Canadian officials were complicit in the deportation and torture. The accountability aspect that Arar's lawyers are hammering on is a legitimate argument - if anything that might look bad can be dismissed because of "national security concerns", then the judiciary's helping the government cover up and possibly lie about what it did. Hell, someone could make a case that this is an obstruction of the right to ask for a redress of wrongs and make it a constitutional matter. I don't think it would do anything, since we've seen how much the administration actually cares about the constitution and it's provisions.
Another government question for us all: If people can't pay their heating bills, it's bad. So what do you do if the United States arm of a foreign government's state-run oil company offers to sell oil at a reduced rate for those poor people so that they can pay and have heating? Well, if you're in Delaware, you call the thing "obnoxious" and several other unkind words and launch an investigation into the company, claiming to be "part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy". Said government? Venezuela. Makes a bit more sense now? Good. I very much like the assumption that Venezuela is somehow trying to embarass the U.S. government with this. Well, they've embarrassed themselves plenty over different stuff than this, and you know what... they probably should be embarrassed at their unwillingness to help people stay warm enough to stay alive. Maybe there should be a new rap about "George Bush doesn't care about poor people" or something.
Anyway, must get to bed, class later today and all that.
Another government question for us all: If people can't pay their heating bills, it's bad. So what do you do if the United States arm of a foreign government's state-run oil company offers to sell oil at a reduced rate for those poor people so that they can pay and have heating? Well, if you're in Delaware, you call the thing "obnoxious" and several other unkind words and launch an investigation into the company, claiming to be "part of an unfriendly government's increasingly belligerent and hostile foreign policy". Said government? Venezuela. Makes a bit more sense now? Good. I very much like the assumption that Venezuela is somehow trying to embarass the U.S. government with this. Well, they've embarrassed themselves plenty over different stuff than this, and you know what... they probably should be embarrassed at their unwillingness to help people stay warm enough to stay alive. Maybe there should be a new rap about "George Bush doesn't care about poor people" or something.
Anyway, must get to bed, class later today and all that.
