Today I am very disorganized with my thoughts. I am sick (the cold, not SARS) and I did not get home until late.
Nationalism trumps democracy, even in Ameriraq.
Last night I drove home from Boston (in a light snow shower, very pretty) after visiting several friends. My primitive car only has an AM/FM radio, and my listening choices were few. The public radio station played smooth jazz (which I can't stand.) Several rock stations were broadcasting a Godsmack interview (yuck!) And then there was the FM talk station. Radio is the haven for political stupidity and un-referenced comments. Last night (I wish I knew the name of the radio show) the two hosts were talking about those people detained in the US who came here by illegal mean. The hosts argued that these people, being here illegally, have no rights. Many people probably believe this is true. This is a major fallacy. No matter how they got here or where they are from, they have rights in the US so long as the nation from which they came has an embassy in Washington. The Bush administration is just good at trampling over those rights. (Late last year, Texas (my favorite whipping boy) executed a Mexican citizen without informing that government as per treaty stipulation. The diplomatic fall out may just be too subtle to detect.)
However, there is a larger error in the logic of illegal alien=no rights: the assumption is that you have rights only because of your nationality. This is not true. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which IS PART OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AS ARE ALL TREATIES (THE VIOLATION OF TREATIES BEING A VIOLATION OF THE US CONSTITUTION), provides rights for all regardless of where they are located. Among them:
"Article 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
"Article 8. Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
"Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
"Article 10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
"Article 11. (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
"Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
see also:
http://hrw.org/press/2003/04/us040403.htm
The types of preventative detention practiced by the US are universally illegal, something which we would normally associate with dictatorships.
On Music: I have been listing to the new White Stripes. I am underwhelmed. I really thought that they were a great band. I remember finding the picture disc single for Jolene with its imitation of De Stijl, the Dutch art movement that inspired the Bauhaus movement in architecture and set the tone for twentieth century design. The music was primitive, obviously bluesy, but not in a way that was counterfeit. The new album is weak. All the reviews point in the opposite direction, but the music does not stand up as well. It even sounds like "White Blood Cells II." Granted that one song employs the same chords as Dead Leaves, which I don't mind (how many blues progressions, I-IV-V, turnaround, rhythm changes are there in the world of pop music?). The saving grace: Jack White's wide-eyed boy in love lyrics that can be both innocent and genuine. It has been a long time since I have been a teenager trying to date, but I remember the same sorts of trepidation that are expressed in his lyrics.
BTW, the title of this site come from a song by X, whom I saw play way too many times when I was myself a teen. Was there anyone cooler than Billy Zoom?
