More Wasteful Prosecution

A Fairfax County man has pleaded guilty to the felony of bigamy.  This is another example of an old law that is still being prosecuted, wasting tax dollars where they need'nt be wasted. 

 

Whether or not you feel bigamy (having more than one wife at a time) is wrong, that doesn't mean it should be illegal, and even if it should be illegal, should someone really be sent to jail for it?  All this is is a form of adultery, which I think most would agree while immoral is not illegal. 

 

Instead of wasting thousands of dollars with judges and jail cells, why not just make the guy pay some type of restitution to his "victims?" 

Fascism Wins

While the death of one pioneer of liberty (see below) cannot take away our liberties, one law can.  And it has.  The USA PATRIOT Act was renewed by the senate by a huge vote.  Suffice it to say, I recommend voting against any senator who voted for this piece of legislation when his term comes up.

 

The act's name actually stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism."  The "appropriate tools" refer to (still) illegal wire taps, surveillance, record gathering, etc, that goes against the principles of the US Constitution.  Hitler could not have come up with a better law to quickly turn a country into a police state.  Actually, he did come up with the Reichstag Fire Decree, which does very similar things to the Patriot Act. 

 

Anyway, there are two schools of thought. 

 

Some believe that this is a good act because it allows us to go after terrorists, who cares if we lose civil liberties and our national identity as long as we are alive.  To those people, I say: Go to New Zealand, they are very neutral, very safe, you will be welcomed there, get the fuck out of my country because I DO NOT WANT YOU HERE.

 

The other school of thought can be represented by those who feel that "those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither" which was a principle of our Founding Fathers (particularly the man on the $100 bill, and believe me, he knew about terrorism and security). 

Harry Browne

Harry Browne, Libertarian Candidate for President in 1996 and 2000 died today, may he rest in peace.

Goats

First, read this article.

Now, I pose a question to all you ACLU people out there. Which of the following is the liberal viewpoint:

1. The goat's civil rights were violated
2. The man has the right to free expression (i.e. screwing the goat)

Which side do you liberals take?

2 Good Movies

Below are reviews of two movies made about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda: Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April.  I recommend both of them.  For those of you unfamiliar with the events, Rwanda has two "classes" of people, the Tutsi and the Hutu.  These terms were basically given to them by the Belgians during colonialism.  The Hutu outnumber the Tutsi by a considerable margin, and when the Belgians were in power, they installed all Tutsis as leaders.  When they left, they made the Hutu leaders, and the Hutu resented what had happened to them during the last several decades.  In the early 90s this resentment built up so much that in April of 1994, after peace talks failed and the president of Rwanda died, the Hutus began killing all of the Tutsis and their supporters.  A radio station, RTLM, played a large role in the genocide through propoganda and even helped organize some attacks on civilians.  By July, a Tutsi resistance force was able to claim most of the country, but not before a million people had died.  During this time, western nations and organizations, including the UN and the USA did practically nothing to stop the genocide.  A famous scene from one of the movies shows real footage of a US State Department official being questioned on the matter.  She says that they are aware of "acts of genocide" occuring.  The reporter asks how many acts of genocide does it take to make genocide, to which the politics of Africa creep in.  Now, for the reviews:

 

Hotel Rwanda, based upon true events in that country during the 1994 genocide.  Good movie and supposedly very accurate, but accuracy or not, it seemed very hollywood-like.  First off, the main two characters are played by stars Don Cheadle and Nick Nolte. Without giving too much of the story away HR shows us how the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines saved over 1200 tutsis and moderate hutus from almost certain death by bribing those in authority and using his connections in the military.  His wife is a tutsi and his children are considered half-breeds, so part of his determination is to save them, but he goes beyond just that, and overall its a good movie.

 

Another movie documenting the genocide in Rwanda is Sometimes in April, which I consider to be much better--though much darker--than Hotel Rwanda.  This movie does not have any big name stars in it, and it was actually made by HBO.  Similarly to HR, the main character of the story is a hutu who is married to a tutsi.  He attempts to save his family by getting them out of the country, but unlike HR, he finds much less success and much more death.  This movie is much more graphic in depicting the treatment of the victims and really giving you the feel of what it was like to be in Rwanda for those several months.