Text of the e-mail I sent to Senator Grassley

Dear Senator Grassley,

I have noted your support of the recent senate bill allowing the President expanded authority in the interrogations and detention of alleged enemy combatants.

This bill is an abomination, and utterly antithetical to the right of all persons accused of crimes the right to due process. As this is one of the foundational values of The United States of America, and an erstwhile pillar of our worldwide moral authority, I can no longer, in good conscience, support you in any of your campaigns for any public office, and will transfer my active support to your opponents.

Well, I messed up a little on the first sentence of the second paragraph. I was, and am still, hot under the collar. I have read commentators who support this travesty of a law ad nauseam, and still have no idea what could induce anyone to believe that this is a reasonable or moral act.

For a great perspective on the debate, go here.

9/11 AD

In 410 A.D., the German king Alaric sacked the city of Rome. Although it was no longer the capitol of the empire, the city held a special political significance from Spain to the Russian steppes and Iran. Saint Augustine of Hippo describes the world's reaction:

[N]ations in the east were bewailing your catastrophe... the greatest cities in the farthest parts of the earth were keeping days of public grief and mourning...

I had arrived in Germany for a year at the University of Dortmund barely a week before the attacks. Dortmund is a medium sized city in the Ruhrgebeit, Germany's "Rust Belt." It has a large Muslim immigrant population, North Africans, Turks and Persians seemed to predominate. I saw no triumphalism from these people; rather, some went out of their way to come over to this english-speaking group, soberly drinking shock away, and inquire, sometimes timidly, "Are you americans? We're so sorry."

Two days later, i caught the train to Aachen, Charlemagne's medieval capitol. The square was filled with flowers and candles, and the guestbook of one of the medieval churches was filled with condolences and prayers for America. Although America was not perfect in the eyes of the world, we had, for a time, the sympathy and support of the world, due to the magnitude of the crime commited by a small band of fanatics. If only our national leaders had risen to the occasion.

Fast forward to 2003:

[Y]ou were... behaving in a much more crazy fashion than before. It was just this corruption, this moral disease, this overthrow of all integrity and decency... You seek security not for the peace of your country but for your own impunity in debauchery. Prosperity depraved you; and adversity could not reform you... You have learned no salutary lession from calamity; you have become the most wretched, and you remain the most worthless, of mankind.

-City of God, I, 33

I realize that some who might read this will believe this places me in the "blame America first" crowd. If that's what your thinking, you need to shut off that wretched reflex and realize that a true friend will tell you when you're acting in a pointlessly stupid, self-destructive manner, rather than keep silent for the sake of your feelings.

This post inspired by Confederate Yankee.

The Fix is In?

Ah, I see that my revised first post and second post have finally made it. I'm not sure what kept them so long.

Via TPM:

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi?

"That's not going to happen," snaps the president of the United States, leaning across his desk in his airborne office. He had been saying that he hoped to revisit Social Security reform next year, when he "will be able to drain the politics out of the issue," and I rudely interrupted by noting the polls predicting Ms. Pelosi's ascension.

"I just don't believe it," the president insists. "I believe the Republicans will end up being -- running the House and the Senate. And the reason why I believe it is because when our candidates go out and talk about the strength of this economy, people will say their tax cuts worked, their plan worked. . . . And secondly, that this is a group of people that understand the stakes of the world in which we live and are willing to help this unity government in Iraq succeed for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and that we are steadfast in our belief in the capacity of liberty to bring peace."

When I first read this, I thought of Bush's strange certainty that he would win Florida in 2000, just after all the major networks called the state for Gore.

First Post, pt. II

When Logic and Proportion have fallen softly dead,
And the White Knight's talking backwards,
and the Red Queen's "off with her head,"...

- Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit

Just in case you were wondering.

First Post

Well, I've resisted getting a blog as long as I could. But the long Iowa summer days are winding down to autumn, and I've nothing but time and benadryl to help me through the harvest season.

I suppose it would be good form to introduce myself to my putative legions of readers, so here goes (Facts listed in no particular order):

I'm a former US Marine, at exile here in the heartland. I've been stationed in Japan, and studied in Germany. I recently graduated from the University of Iowa with a BA in Geoscience, to the great relief of my parents. (Now, they tell me, if only you could find a job!)

My interests are broad; science, history, psychology and philosophy top the list. I'll read almost anything, other than a supermarket tabloid.

As the title of my blog should indicate, I have an analytical personality and am interested in advancing realistic and rational solutions to the many problems which plague humanity; but I've chosen a URL which indicates my awareness of the impossibility of perfection, and the existence of irreconcilable dilemmas.

In short, I'm a moderate optimist who believes in eternal struggles. Hope that's not too cryptic.

When Logic and Proportion have fallen softly dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards,
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"

-Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit