--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "pencimen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Sorry, but does anyone remember the red scare, McCarthyism, the > > missile gap, air raid drills in schools, backyard nuclear shelters, > > the Sputnik gap, "We Will Bury You", the domino theory, managed > > decline, etc.????? > > Yet throughout that period human rights advanced, transparency > improved and the power of the executive declined.
Which period is that? The "red scare" goes back before World War II, and I don't know anyone who would argue that the power of the executive declined under FDR. I also have a hard time arguing that the power of the executive declined under Kennedy/LBJ for that matter. As for human rights, how about Japanese internment, the Tuskegee Experiment, etc. > > And I might point out that while some Muslim clerics may have been > > unfairly denied boarding onto a flight yesterday, we haven't exactly > > evicted all Muslims from their homes and sent them to concentration > > camps either. Yes, but it is *our* generation that is "driven > > almost insane." > > It is our generation that has sanctioned torture, a practice we would > have attributed to insanity in the past. I for one am deeply ashamed. This is where language can be imprecise. Torture can mean a number of things, such as cutting off digits. We're not sanctioning that. We are sanctioning certain practices, which many reasonable people consider to be torture - but which does not seem to be universally recognized as torture. But again, doesn't our generation look back on Japanese internment and attribute *that* to insanity? Don't many people in our generation also look back on the fire-bombing of Dresden, Sherman's March to the Sea, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, chlorine gas use in World War I, and even the whole Spanish-American War and attribute *those* to insanity as well? There's no question that we are walking right up to the line, and a decently strong case that we are crossing that line, but I'm not sure that any previous generation has hestitated to walk right up to the line and occasionally cross it in times of threat either. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
