Symbols Versus Deeds: Or, Who Gives a Damn About a Lapel Pin?
What is more important, the symbol of a country, or the substance of its meaning? If a leader wears flag pins on his lapel on a daily basis, but then votes to curtail civil liberties, authorizes torture, and acts in such a way as to diminish America's stature in the world and drive America's allies away from her...is he really patriotic? Or what of a leader who declines to wear such a pin on a regular basis, but works every day to protect the Constitution, and to bring honor to America's reputation abroad...is that person unpatriotic?
A flag is not America, nor is it patriotism, any more than a wooden cross is Christianity, or a Star of David is Judaism. These are symbols of deeper meanings. If you honor the symbol, obsess over its constant display, but violate the underlying substantive principles that give that symbol meaning, what is the point of your actions? If I wear a cross on a neckless around my neck, but I go out into the world hating my fellow man, disregarding the poor, and failing to turn the other cheek...have I enhanced the worth of the cross, or decreased it? You cannot increase the potency or value of a symbol by worshipping the symbol while undermining its purpose.
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Breaking, from the General Accounting Office:The United States Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. See PDF No comprehensive plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in the FATA has been developed, as stipulated by the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism (2003), called for by an independent commission (2004), and mandated by congressional legislation (2007). Furthermore, Congress created the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in 2004 specifically to develop comprehensive plans to combat terrorism. However, neither the National Security Council (NSC), NCTC, nor other executive branch departments have developed a comprehensive plan that includes all elements of national power—diplomatic, military, intelligence, development assistance, economic, and law enforcement support—called for by the various national security strategies and Congress [...] al Qaeda’s central leadership, based in the border area of Pakistan, is and will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the United States… al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place [...] al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place, including the identification, training, and positioning of Western operatives for an attack. It stated that al Qaeda is most likely using the FATA to plot terrorist attacks against political, economic, and infrastructure targets in America “designed to produce mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the population."So then you're saying that, nearly seven years into the so-called "war on terror," Al Qaeda has regrouped, found safe haven, and is planning attacks on Americans, and we have literally no strategy to combat it?
There's a germ of a news story here. It has almost nothing to do with William Ayers, granted, but surely it's good for the final two minutes of some local broadcast in Fresno.
Read rest hereConnecting the Dots, Feminist Style (Or, what does the technology we consume have to do with the horrific murders, rapes, almost slavery conditions in Juarez, Mexico; The Congo, and some of the women affected by Pornography)By Anxious Black Woman
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Rape and Mutilation Warning in this particular post!!!Well, the
Corporate Rapists list convinced me to go the route of purchasing a new MAC, since they have yet to be named as a company doing business with corporations specializing in trading in conflict materials like coltan from the Congo. So, I hope this purchase represents a new commitment in being a political consumer.
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So, what does it mean to connect the dots with regards to women's positions in the global information age?
1. MAQUILADORAS IN JUAREZ - Not long ago, I read a profound essay by Coco Fusco (digital and performance artist - visit her Virtual Laboratory), "At Your Service: Latin Women in the Global Information Network," included in her book, The Bodies That Were Not Ours (2001). In this essay, she urged that we not get caught up in the optimistic and ecstatic rhetoric extolling the virtues of our fast-paced, hi-tech digital world. For, with all the wonders and excitement of new media toys like powerbooks, wii, blackberrys, the latest cell phone models, etc., somewhere in this hi-tech industry is an underbelly where some subaltern group was being silenced and erased from participating in this hi-tech world of ours. She made a direct connection (like other digital artists, including Praba Pilar and Prema Murthy) between our digitized world and the assembly lines where our computers and TV sets were being assembled in factories like maquiladoras, located in places like Juarez, Mexico's border city, which is a stone's throw away from El Paso, Texas. Juarez is now a city soaked in the blood of young women and girls - many of whom worked in the maquiladoras, many of whom probably did assemble parts of the computers from which we're either writing or reading blogs. Earlier this year, reports still emerged about young girls disappearing from the streets of Juarez, and we are now, I'm sure, beyond the 400 estimated as either having disappeared or found murdered. Many of the girls, who were found, appeared to have been raped and mutilated (many of their nipples bitten off or their vaginas completely torn apart).
Read the rest at: Connecting the Dots, Feminist Style
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<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/15/193346/679/921/496402:>McCain does 180 degree turn on mortage company bailouts</a>