On 6 Nov 2010 at 6:30, Allen Esterson wrote: > On the subject of Guy Fawkes night antics: > > I wonder if the English celebrate by not having fireworks? > > The answer to Marc Carter's tongue-in-cheek question is vividly > illustrated here: > http://tinyurl.com/34vsfx4
This reminds me that I once did attend a Guy Fawkes fireworks celebration, in the coastal city of Swansea in Wales. Perhaps it was because the Welsh have never been too fond of the English and might have had mixed feelings about the failure of the Guy Fawkes plot, or possibly just because the weather was typically South Wales at this time of year, cold and drizzly. But it was not as joyous a celebration as the 4th of July or Canada Day. We all stood around in the dark on a cricket pitch and shivered until the display was over and we could, gratefully, go home. > > On a more serious note, Stephen Black wrote in relation to the way > heretics were treated in seventeenth century England: > >Nowadays, even in America they treat terrorists better than that. I take Allen's point about other countries being more culpable. The Americans are amateurs at it compared to the staggering brutality exhibited by countries such as Iran. At the same time, (some) Canadians are outraged at the torture and prosecution for war crimes of one of its citizens, Omar Khadr, by a U.S. military tribunal. Khadr was only 15 when he committed his alleged crime. US news reports, including the usually thorough NPR, have been decidely one-sided in reporting this contentious case. He did plead guilty but he really had no choice given the high probability that a trial by the military, with a military jury, would have given him a life sentence. They did give him a symbolic 40 years in prison, negated by his plea deal to admit guilt. Whether he really did what he admitted to is an open question, as is the question concerning whether someone whom the UN considers a child soldier should have been prosecuted at all. Wikipedia has a long summary of the case. A shorter and probably more reliable summary is here: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/13/f-omar-khadr.html Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6272 or send a blank email to leave-6272-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
