The Authors
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Aug | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | ||
Categories
Articles
- 2008 Colorado Election
- A bible study with the Good Salt
- A True B’Strad
- Denver Urban eXcursion
- Ecclesiastes
- Hazing the Dragon in Singapore
- It’s beginning to feel a lot like the 1930’s
- LOTR
- Men don’t want to talk about it, Women don’t want to hear it
- The Rise and Fall of Hip-Hop
- Why I chose to become a Christan
Bieren Links
Darth B'Strad Links
invot's Links
Index for posts concerning Crime
Dear Girl sitting in front of me eating dates and knitting pt 2 by Bear
5 comments
Ipod shuffle 3 part 1 (Pete can be redeemed in the sencond part) by Dark Poet
2 comments
ADX Florence by Bieren Skidels
6 comments
the blind water from her hands (Great Hormones at Bedtime) by invot
1 comment
The Lament of our Bones (Her body was a sad, sad song) by invot
4 comments
Synesthesia (Shedevil) by invot
9 comments
I’m nothing better than the worst of my habits by invot
0 comments
Sir Mario gets the death penalty by Darth B'strad
0 comments
Racism in a test tube! by Darth B'strad
0 comments
The President gives another great speech by Darth B'strad
2 comments
Dear Girl sitting in front of me eating dates and knitting pt 2
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by Bear.
Categories: Death Penalty, Ethics, Abortion, Constitutional Law, Terrorism, Philosophy, Republicans, Parental Advisory.
Wale is not a delicious meat. You shouldn’t eat it, because most people would consider that cannibalism due to the fact that you’re fucking huge. It’d be like me saying “Yeah, they don’t have laws in Japan about peopling, but I understand because people are delicious.”
Wales are awesome. You’re not.
Fuck you,
Sam
Ipod shuffle 3 part 1 (Pete can be redeemed in the sencond part)
Posted on April 8th, 2009 by Dark Poet.
Categories: Creative Writing, Drugs, Stories.
This story starts “South of the border”. People were “crazy in Love” with this thing, this thing called cocaine. Pete Wingfield is “18, with a Bullet” in a “flight test” for a new Cessna that can carry more of the stuff north of the border. And so, after awhile, this plane Pete Wingfield has “Jump[ed] Around” in enough times to be noticed and NOT cared for. When seeing Pete’s plane, the Border Patrol agent just say , oh, that’s just Pete Wingfield, always taking people up for a ride. Pete Wingfield always delivered “A [uno] Cubano” - Orishas. Pete Wingfield used that bullet, and the Cubano’s “Life [didn’t] go[] on”- 2Pac. Pete Wingfield then got into the business with the Cubano’s business partner; a shrewd Jew (”Hava Nagila” - Harry Belafonte). The Jew wasn’t too upset over his business partner’s demise, and to show he Biltz the Ballroom - Tia Carrere. “California Love”s the stuff, which Pete Wingfield was mainly selling to. In California, the only opposition for the moment is the church (”Track 08″), but “The Devil’s Been Busy” in a major church in San Diego; long story short, San Diego is game for business. The region, too. Cocaine flowed as cash did into the pockets of Pete Wingfield and the Jew. The life was getting faster and faster Pete Wingfield and the Jew. “When [they] Ride” - 2Pac, police would not stop them because they were paid not to. If the policeman did, then they were soon paid not to.
The theme of expansion and growth was always on the mind of Pete, so Pete tried to expand transportation of product to shipping. He was looking into a transport ship that looked “Like a Ship”, but that was the “End of the Line”;
A customs agent got a hold of a whole entire shipment. The customs agent asked the FBI agents in charge of incinerating the stuff to “Handle With Care”. Pete Wingfield was furious, he was on the phone trying to reach the FBI agent in charge. “What’s [His] Phone” - 2pac, number?! Once he found outz where they were going, he had one his best thugs destroy the convoy. The thug said, “I’d die for You” and left. Pete got his boat back, a asked the Jew to “Come Sail Away” while the dust settles. The Jew said he had stuff to do. In a “Wilbury Twist” the shipment of coke was not aboard. Pete Wingfield was mad, but sailing away.
Now, up until now in the story Pete Wingfield was in Mexico testing a new aero plane, being evil as he can. He killed the Cuban, and took his place. Who, perhaps, helped him do such? Well, a man who presently has the “Young Lover Blues”, was “Down In Mexico” with Pete. The guy was a producer of the product, a chemical engineering genius. The guy always asked, “How [pure] Do You Want It”? - 2pac. Unfortunately, Pete was “In The Waiting Line” for product always, and, also, having to keep the product in a “Cool Dry Place” - The Traveling Wilburys. But keep this guy in mind for future reference in the plot of this story in part two.
Pete went back to California, and discovered the Jew was in prison, and murdered in prison. After retribution of death to the Jew’s killers, Pete also found out he had more competition to “Run Tha Streetz”. Pete, Pete’s thugs, and the competition were all “Wanted Dead or Alive”, but that’s what made it exciting.
“It’s like Romeo and Juliet”; California and cocaine. Life started to get really fast by then. If someone wanted cocaine in California, half the time it was the bell of Pete’s dealers that they were ringing (”Ring My Bell” - Anita Ward). Pete and his inner circle of lieutenants were in the fast lane, calling everything with two legs their “Butterfly”. In one case the lady had only one leg, but they wouldn’t remember; they barely remember when “Check Out Time” was at the local hotel when they check in on how business was doing in that sector. Several had “[Gone] Through The Big D” - Mark Chesnutt, and went to “Do it Again”. Life was fast, and money and coke went through their hands fast, too.
A lady named “Clementine” took Pete’s heart, or so he says when every lady passes his way. This one was/is different, though. She’s devout Christian (”Track 02″). Pete said very convinced to his thugs one day, “If I Can’t” have sex with Clementine, then I’m going to mad and go to straight out war with the competition. She still went to a church that still was not corrupting to cocaine, though (”track 05″). Change happened to Pete. He didn’t know what was happening to him. The religious fervor of these people got to him, and the concept of God. “She[ still wasn’t his] baby” - The Traveling Wilburys- even though at times he says to her “You Took My Breath Away”. She still rejected him, and he went to a “Lowdown”. Business ebbed.
When he come out of the “Lowdown”, Pete wasn’t mad at any of the competition (”I Ain’t Mad At Cha” - 2Pac). Not until the “Ruff Ryders”, shot up one of his dealers, and then, an other three more dealers got killed. Pete got “Skandalous”, he got even via the police, FBI, CIA. He observed the “Ruff Ryders”, and took notes of everything. Pete also got notes from Paying some of them, and taking notes from what he knew of his business with them. Pete started to give those notes to the FBI, and money stopped for the “Ruff Ryders”. He gave more notes, cocaine shipments disappeared from ledgers; More notes, “Ruff Ryders” started to drop dead with 9mm bullets in them or surrendered to be put in prison. In prison, Pete’s guys would shank them dead. So the police would confine them to solitary cells. On one occasion, when moving a Ryder from prison to prison a sniper put a bullet through his head.
Police did not really need to put a surveillance teem on the leadership the “Ruff Ryders”, because the news media picked up the stories fast, as if someone was suppling them with info. “All Eyez [were] On [the leader]” -2Pac - of the “Ruff Ryders”, he couldn’t go out of his house with out being followed by the media. Low grade “Ruff Ryders” were arrested for trying to buy weapons to fight, and 90 % of the time arrested for selling coke. Other low graders quit. If a mid grade Ryder got arrested, then five to ten low graders would be arrested just afterwards. Pete dealt the “Dirty World” card to the “Ruff Ryders”, “7 Deadly Sins”.
“I Love Rock and Roll” was playing at a Ruff Ryder party at a warehouse. In back room, the top guy for the leader was in the process of buying a big quantity of coke from a contact of Pete’s. Outside across the street in another warehouse, FBI were saying “Congratulations” to each other for tracking down this deal, that if busted, will deal a deathblow to the “Ruff Ryders”. Someone was “Sing Sing Sing[ing]” - Louis Prima- in prison. The raid teams and FBI snipers were standing by. “holla at me” for the go signal, the SWAT team leader said to the FBI agent in charge. Long story short, Pete did not have to deal with the Ruff Ryders anymore; they came to a stop at their road (”Winding Road” - Bonnie Somervi).
Money went faster through the hands of Pete and his gang. He bought a house in the middle of his zones of control. Paid Dire Straits to play just one song at the open house party, “Sultans of Swing”. Vacationed and then bought the “Balinese” in Mexico, in “[] The Sea” - “Beyond The Sea” - Bobby Darin, in the Gulf of Mexico.
ADX Florence
Posted on March 15th, 2009 by Bieren Skidels.
Categories: Political, Crime, Local.
No, this isn’t a review of a recent punk album, nor is it the name of an Italian rail line. This is the name of the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado - the only Supermax prison - in fact, it’s usually referred to as “Supermax”. Most of this post will be quotes and links - it’s an experiment in how simply observing or reflecting upon the technical facts or stories about a structure can be emotionally impacting (without even thinking much about the particular humans involved). Here we go:
Of course, here is the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_Florence
“ADX Florence was constructed as a response to an incident that occurred on October 22, 1983, in which two inmates murdered their accompanying guards at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. Relatively lax security procedures allowed each prisoner, while walking down a hall, to turn to the side and approach a particular cell so an accomplice could unlock his handcuffs with a stolen key and provide him with a knife.”
After the murder of the guards, the Marion jail went into “control” lockdown. Basically, every inmate is under permanent 23-hour lockdown. These events led to the design of Supermax. Built in Florence, Colorado - the prison was welcomed as a provider of jobs to a failing economy:
“ADX Florence opened in November 1994. The residents in Florence’s surrounding area, Fremont County, welcomed the prison as a source of employment in a time of economic hardship. At the time, the county was already home to nine existing prisons. However, the lure of between 750 to 900 permanent jobs, in addition to another 1,000 temporary jobs during the prison’s construction, led residents in the area to raise $160,000 to purchase 600 acres (2.4 km2) for the new prison. Hundreds of people attended the groundbreaking construction of ADX Florence, which cost over $60 million.”
Supermax houses the most famous and dangerous prisoners in the United States. It is built around the 23-hour lockdown:
“About 22% of inmates have killed fellow prisoners in other correctional facilities; 35% have attempted to attack other prisoners or officers. As a result, most individuals are kept for at least 23 hours each day in solitary confinement. They are housed in a 7 ft (2.13 m) by 12 ft (3.66 m) room, built behind a steel door and grate. Their free hour is spent exercising alone in a separate concrete chamber. Prisoners seldom see one another, and the inmates’ only direct human interaction is with correctional officers or other prison staff. Visiting from outside the prison is conducted through glass, with each prisoner in a separate chamber. Religious services are broadcast from a small chapel.
Part of the prison is a “stepdown” program, designed to encourage less antisocial behavior and eventually transfer prisoners out of the ADX and back to the Maximum Security population. The program is three years in length each year allowing more freedom and social contact with other inmates. Any violation during the program means participants revert to year one.
Most cells’ furniture is made almost entirely out of poured concrete, including the desk, stool, and bed. Each chamber contains a toilet that shuts off if plugged, a shower that runs on a timer to prevent flooding, and a sink missing a potentially dangerous tap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light, a radio, and a television set that shows recreational, educational and religious programming.[4] These privileges can be taken away as punishment. The 4 in (0.10 m) by 4 ft (1.22 m) windows are designed to prevent the prisoner from knowing his specific location within the complex because he can see only the sky and roof through them. Telecommunication with the outside world is forbidden, and food is hand-delivered by correctional officers.
The prison as a whole contains a multitude of motion detectors and cameras, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, and 12 ft (3.66 m) high razor wire fences. Laser beams, pressure pads, and attack dogs guard the area between the prison walls and razor wire.
Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber, lamented in a series of 2006 letters to a Colorado Springs newspaper that the ADX is meant to “inflict misery and pain.”
Consider, this short list of a few of the prisoners in Supermax:
This list displays prisoners assigned to Florence due to political reasons, along with those assigned because of problems in other facilities.
Name Details Omar Abdel-Rahman Islamic terrorist, nicknamed “The Blind Sheik”; involved in 1993 World Trade Center bombing Anthony Casso Mobster and former underboss of the Lucchese crime family Wadih el-Hage Conspirator in the 1998 United States embassy bombings Matthew F. Hale White supremacist leader; convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal judge Larry Hoover Leader of the Gangster Disciples Nation based in Chicago Jeff Fort Co-founder of the Black P. Stones gang in Chicago, and founder of its El Rukn faction Theodore Kaczynski The “Unabomber” David Lane (deceased) Neo-Nazi leader, involvement in the murder of Alan Berg Juan Matta-Ballesteros Drug trafficker, co-conspirator in the Enrique Camarena case Zacarias Moussaoui Conspirator in the September 11, 2001 attacks Terry Nichols Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Richard Colvin Reid Islamic terrorist, nicknamed the “Shoe Bomber” Eric Robert Rudolph Christian Identity[7] terrorist; 1996 Olympic Park bombing Dwight York Leader of the Nuwaubians; convicted for child molestation, racketeering and financial reporting charges Ramzi Yousef Islamic terrorist, 1993 World Trade Center bombing Timothy McVeigh (deceased) Oklahoma City bombing (executed on June 11, 2001) Kenneth McGriff Drug trafficker and organized crime figure H. Rap Brown Former civil rights activist convicted of murdering a Fulton County, Georgia, deputy Sheriff Thomas Silverstein Convicted of murdering Federal Correctional Officer Merle E. Clutts Luis Felipe Founder of the New York chapter of the Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation Howard Mason Drug trafficker who ordered the murder of police officer Eddie Byrne Barry Mills Leading member of the Aryan Brotherhood Charles Harrelson (deceased) Texan hitman, convicted of murdering federal judge, father of actor Woody Harrelson Jose Padilla Convicted of aiding terrorists Michael Swango American surgeon and serial killer; convicted of 3 fatal poisonings, with many more unproven Mahmud Abouhalima Islamic Mujahideen leader, 1993 World Trade Center bombing implication and conviction Richard Lee McNair Convicted murderer and escape artist Robert Hanssen former senior FBI agent serving life for espionage
Supermax was designed by the DLR group. Go to their website: http://www.dlrgroupjustice.com/
Here you will see a very tasteful flash presentation, opening with birds flying thorugh a jungle scene. It then proudly proclaimes
” listen.Design.deliver.
DLR group unites talent from diverse locations to design places that last with commitment to our clients, the environment, and design excellence.
Celebrate the experiences of everyday living. We design to make the ordinary extrordinary. Connecting personal, social, and commercial relationships.
Foster a lifetime of living. Our design inspires a students mind, body, and spirit to achieve all that is possible and more.”
Here you can see pictures of Supermax: http://www.dlrgroupjustice.com/#/3.12.2/
The following was written by a CNN reporter who visited Supermax:
Bureau of Prisons officials stressed that 95 percent of the Supermax prisoners are the most violent, disruptive and escape-prone inmates from other federal prisons, and they were transferred to ADX to help control those other facilities. At ADX, every prisoner has his own 86-square-foot cell.
Despite the brutal nature and violent history of most of the inmates, not a single major assault against a corrections officer has occurred since the first inmates arrived in 1994.
The one-on-one killers who slashed or strangled other inmates, earning a trip to Supermax, are the inmates one would most worry about. Contact with others comes only after the inmates have adhered to a strict program for group recreation. Two inmate-on-inmate homicides have led to even tighter restrictions.
I was allowed to briefly talk at random to a few of the inmates. One man who identified himself as Jack Stancell of South Carolina told me he’s doing time because, among other things, he’d stabbed somebody and murdered somebody else. He’s been in prison for 33 of his 65 years. He says Supermax is actually better than some places he’s been.
“You get used to it,” he says without emotion.
the blind water from her hands (Great Hormones at Bedtime)
Posted on February 27th, 2009 by invot.
Categories: Orig. Literature, Drugs, Parental Advisory.
“Of all the people I’d expect to see sitting in front of the dollar store…”
My attention shifted to the man standing in front of me. “Why not me?” I said hapharzardly.
“You dissapeared pretty quickly. And now you poof right back to Belgrade. What are you doing back here?”
He really didn’t have the right to be asking me that question. Actually, he didn’t have the right to say anything to me at all, not after all that’s happened. However, the phrase “love thy enemies” stumbled past my mind perfectly in step with my desire to smear this man’s face into the curb. I threw my gaze into the giant sky and replied, “…Bible college.”
He laughed out a white cloud of breath.
“I’m going to be a youth pastor.” I tried to say this as seriously as possible.
“Where is this Bible college?”
“Bozeman.”
“I was going to be a youth pastor too.” It was clear that he didn’t believe me. He continued, “but I dropped out. I decided I’d rather smoke pot.”
“Really now?” I sighed. “Nowadays, I didn’t know it was a decision between one and another.”
“So you still smoke.”
“No.” I gave up trying to sound serious.
“You just haven’t had the chance with all these Bible people around you. That’s why.” I listened to the words I’ve told so many people, including him, time and time again. “You should come over to Rick’s this evening. He’d be happy to see you. We can reconnect, smoke a bowl, and enjoy life.”
“No thanks.” I gave up trying to sound pleasant as well, and watched the traffic intently. The thought of seeing Rick sourly enticed me for a moment, I have to admit. My hands emptied from my pockets and I reached for a pebble lying near my foot. I studied it’s form silently, each second an annoyance for the man who stood in front of me.
“You should be in California where you belong.” He said, to break the silence.
“You should be dead.” I said quietly.
“And you shouldn’t be?”
I looked him in the eye. “You should thank me. If it wasn’t for me you’d be dead right now. You’d be decaying underground instead of harassing people outside of the dollar store. You have no idea…”
“You’re so full of shit, Jared.”
“You and I both, Matt. But I’m not making this story up. There’s no reason for me to.” A car pulled into the parking lot and I forgot what I was saying. After a moment, I sat back down. “Mars hates you, you know.”
“You and Mars both. So what?”
“So, she hates you because she thinks you were the one who stole from us. And I just happen to think that too. You need to be careful, you’re not safe in this town. Especially Bozeman. She wants to see you die.”
Matt smiled. “…so that’s what, eh?” With that he pulled out a cigarette and jokingly offered me one as well. “How do you even know this? You barely knew Mars at all.”
“I know her better than you think.”
“You obviously don’t.”
I thought of all the things I could say to him: all the days her and I spent together, how much I loved her, the chaos and the harmony that was our lives… I thought of how he didn’t deserve to hear any of it.
“Her name is Heather.” I blurted out suddenly.
Now it’s I who observed the silence, waiting for the man standing in front of me to respond. His posture changed, and I recieved the feeling that he suddenly believed what I was saying. At first I think it’s strange, that this random fact, that I could just as well have made up, was what stifled him into silence. But then I realized, he knew her name too. “Heather.” He repeated to himself strangely.
“Her name is Heather.” I said again.
“No.” He muttered. “Her name was Heather.”
“What?”
He attempted a smile but failed. “So you might know Mars, but still not as well as me. If you did, you’d know she died last winter.”
“Fuck you.” I stood up and turned to leave.
“Is that the kind of language they use in Bible College?” He shouted.
Without turning back to face him I replied, “You’re so full of shit, Matt.”
“You and I both, Jared. But I’m not making this story up. There’s no reason for me to.” His voice subsided as he continued. “They found her body in Livingston pass. She just started walking, nobody knows where she was planning on going. The police found her naked, she took all her clothes off as she walked. Nobody knows shy she did that. They say she died of hypothermia.” I observed him through the reflection of the store window as he continued to talk. “After that everyone went into hiding. We stopped selling. The whole town pretty much shut down as far as I’m concerned. She was the reason we all did what we did.”
I didn’t know quite what to say, so I turned to face Matt. His whole body looked crunched up and tired, like he just ran a marathon. There really was no reason, except the way he looked right then, for me to believe a word he said.
“So… she’s dead?” I asked strangely. “For real?”
Matt sighed. “Something you don’t know about me and her…”
“I don’t want to hear it.” I said, and quickly paced away.
The Lament of our Bones (Her body was a sad, sad song)
Posted on February 1st, 2009 by invot.
Categories: Crime, Creative Writing, Drugs.
She wore a thin white dress, fringed at every edge and stained with dirt and rainwater from earlier that day. The white lace was thin enough to show the hue of her skin that lied within it. It wraped around her arms gracefully. gently. -ruffling out across her brittle frame. An array of colorful cotton bracelets rested around her wrists - frayed along their entire peremeter, amplifiying her silent skin and even more silent eyes.
Her long, blond hair was hidden beneath the white hood of a sweater, spilling out here and there onto the square roof tiles that surrounded her, knotted and bustled. Her limbs sprawled from her body in her own trademark fashion as she lied so perfectly before me. I thought that if I touched her she would simply melt into a pile of ash she looked so fragile.
She looked so beautiful.
My long coat wrapped around my legs as I bent over to kiss her lips. The wind was cold and hard but her lips were warm and soft and kissing her made me feel like I could forget the meaning of a cold winter altogether…
…and I felt so timeless because love is timeless. And around her love is all I ever felt.
In her eyes the world lost all it’s value. Her body looked so frail lying there on the rooftop… her lips so warm.
She said she was dreaming. She said that I was a dream. I didn’t know if that should make me smile or not, but I did. I always smiled around her. It’s an unsurpressable urge. “If I woke up, what would I see?” She asked.
“How could you know, unless you did?” I responded gently.
“Would you be there?”
“I hope so.”
“Me too.” Her hair was redirected by the wind as she breathed the words out her mouth. “What do you think that world would be like?”
“Something amazing. If you’re in it.” I said.
“Is this world amazing?”
“You’re in it. Aren’t you?”
“Am I?”
With that my eyes strayed from the lines of her body to the happenings below us. A truck had settled in the allyway behind us -two men leaning aganst it’s side, blowing cigerette smoke into the cold air.
This is the climax we’ve always been hoping for, Mars and I. My hands lifted her body and I smiled as she opened her eyes and rested against me…
…and all I could think was: “this must be what eternity feels like.”
Synesthesia (Shedevil)
Posted on December 8th, 2008 by invot.
Categories: Creative Writing, Drugs.
How it all began kind of alludes me. The strangest dream just fell out of my head, I wake up, and have to ask where I am. Heather is perched on a rock, and at that moment I swore she has angel wings.
“It’s time to go now.” She says. I still don’t know where we are.
There’s a pause as I try to lift myself up from the ground, but my arms flow like curry out in every direction. Giving up, I look at the pine trees surrounding us, moving like Hawaiian dancers. I turn to my side and begin to speak words that look and sound like trumpets: “Are we bad people?” It feels like there’s a pause after that question, but there isn’t.”No. We’re not. What we do, what we teach, is the science and art of bliss. We teach people how to turn on, or how to go out, of their minds. By ‘turn on,’ we mean ‘tune in,’ to get beyond your routine ways of thinking, acting, and experiencing. In order to use your head, you have to go out of your mind. You have to observe. You have to escape.”
“We have to escape.” Says Heather silently. A burst of cold air flies up into her long, blond hair, making it sparkle in the pale light of sunset. “It’s time to leave.”
“Where are we?” I say. “Where are we going to go?”
“That’s the big question, isn’t it?”
From my jacket I pull out a book. “The Power of Now… I want you to read it. It’s good. You’ll like it.” I say, and Heather drops her legs to the ground. She leans over to grab the book with one hand, and leverages her body with her other hand pressing into my forehead.
That moment I remember looking up into the air and seeing absolutely nothing but her and I -in that pose. Right then I feel evil. Right then I know something is wrong.
It’s time to leave.
I’m nothing better than the worst of my habits
Posted on December 5th, 2008 by invot.
Categories: Crime, Psalms.
Fall we may
within a life to lose
and leave decay.
A pride of choral screams,
it sings beyond and breathes for me.
The effect becomes a destination.
Life’s hold is lifted
when the hands of consciousness withdraw.
I did not create it,
I cannot maintain it,
not the way it was meant to be.
Reach that thought so slick on your tongue
often for only a glimpse;
could we have held it
had our senses not been pruned?
Sometimes I can see right through myself
(revealing the unexplainable)
and that’s when I know
in birth we were swallowed whole.
you
and
i
Gather all the wretched hands
that tremble with debts of promise
What can a man do
to lose his knowledge?
To forget the places
where his disgorgement lie?
What rags are all virtue…
and perfection but a thought…
Who am I, and who are you, to adapt to blindness?
to trust in momentum?
to push until made numb?
this is when it hits.
it sings beyond and breathes for me.
The effect becomes a destination.
head is heavy
vision undulates
breaks on the shore
fadeout.
like an old friend
face meets the floor.
say hello like you mean it
’cause you’re a star now, babe
you
and
i
Sir Mario gets the death penalty
Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Death Penalty, Ethics, Law, Judaism, Religon, Christianity.
Colorado does have the death penalty but it is rarely used in this state. Sentenced on Monday, June 16, Sir Mario Owens is now going to join one other inmate on our death row in this state. This from the rocky mountain News:
“We did it, Vivian.”
Those were the first words out of Christine Wolfe’s mouth today after a jury sentenced her daughter’s killer to die by lethal injection.
The all-white jury deliberated six hours in Arapahoe District Court before handing down a unanimous verdict that 23-year-old Sir Mario Owens should die for the 2005 ambush murders of Vivian Wolfe and her fiance, Javad Marshall-Fields, both 22.
Now why did they have to point out that it was an all white jury? See, the news media around our county is first concerned with race. They first ask the question “what’s the race of the guy” instead of asking “did he do it!” But just like a judge in California, they don’t want to see any more black men sitting on death row. That judge let that guy go who proceeded to murder again but that’s ok, we’re making up for our raciest past!
I don’t care! I want to know if he did it or not.
Monica Owens, mother of Sir Mario Owens, said the verdict will be appealed.
But of course it will. It always is!
Vivian Wolfe and Rhonda Marshall-Fields, mother of Javad Marshall-Fields, left a meeting with jurors arm-in-arm following the reading of the verdicts.
“We told them we knew it was a long, difficult trial,” said Rhonda Marshall-Fields about the meeting with the jurors. “But it will never be over for us.”
Christine Wolfe, mother of Vivian Wolfe, said her reaction to the verdict was to whisper the words “We did it, Vivian” to her daughter.
“Javad and Vivian were our angels,” Rhonda Marshall-Fields said.
Both mothers praised the work of prosecutors and said the verdicts restored their faith in the criminal-justice system.
Wouldn’t you want some closure for this family? It’s not that this will bring them back but now they can take comfort in that this man will not harm again.
Wolfe said she would stop at her daughter’s grave in Mount Olivet Cemetery on her route home this evening to repeat her message to her daughter. Vivian Wolfe is buried beside Javad Marshall-Fields. The graves are within walking distance of Christine Wolfe’s home.
Owens was found guilty in May on two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, who had graduated from Colorado State University only weeks before they were killed.
Prosecutors said the deaths were particularly heinous because they were carried out only days before Marshall-Fields was slated to testify against Owens in connection with the death of his friend, Gregory Vann, at an Aurora park.
Owens is serving a life-without-parole sentence in connection with the death of Vann. Members of Vann’s family attended the reading of the verdicts.
“This is not something we celebrate or take great joy in,” said Arapahoe County Assistant District Attorney John Hower, who delivered the final arguments in the penalty phase of the trial on Friday. “But it is a just verdict.”
I don’t take joy ether but this is something that we have to do.
Chambers said questionnaires completed in April by prospective jurors for the trial indicated 90 to 95 percent of them were in favor of the death penalty and said the verdict represented “a community decision.”
Heavy silence hung in the courtroom as Judge Gerald Rafferty read the jury’s verdict forms.
Owens, dressed in red jail fatigues, showed no emotion when the verdict was read. Throughout the two-month trial Owens wore stylish street clothes brought to him by his parents.
What is wrong with this picture? Here you have a man that has murdered two people and you have the Rocky treating him like a victim here. However when you have a greedy business man that steals money you hear the media cry bloody murder and get that guy in life imprisonment. My point is not to defend the greedy man but to point out bad inconstancy in our county. When we go after greedy business executives more harshly than someone who commits murders, what does that say about our society? It says that we as a society are more concerned with the equality of people financially than we are concerned with human life! That’s a harsh road to go down because now it is worse for you to be a corporate executive in our society than it is to be a murderer. Why is that? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with human life in this country? In the attempt to make everyone equal the left has thrown out many of the other values that have made this country great. They have compassion for the African-American community so they want to see less of them on death row. I agree with that but I judge on the basis of if that person has committed the crime or not and not on the basis of their skin color. It just so happens that right now a lot of blacks are committing this crime and thus more of them are being put on death row. The reason for that is our welfare state because government has taken the place of dad in the home of many black families. Why should the dad stick around when the government can just foot the bill for you. This is a trend that has completely destroyed the black community and left it in the state that it’s now in. People may say “ahh, you don’t need a dad in the home, a mother can do just as well!” For you I offer my own life as an example that while there are many single mothers that do a wonderful job there are many children that must have a father in their life in order to make it in life. I would be dead right now if it was not for my fathers influence on me. However, society constantly belittles fathers and keeps on telling us that they are useless. There is something very wrong with this! We need men in this society to stand up for what is right and to punish what is wrong. By killing murderers we are sending a clear message that we take this seriously and if you commit such an act you forfeit your own life.
Many of my fellow Christians will say that we are to be caring and compassionate, even to murders. They are right! But that does not mean that we should throw out the standard because we have compassion. We have been ordered by God to kill murders. Every one of the first five books has a commandment to kill murderers. Numbers 35 explains this clearly:
16 “But if someone strikes and kills another person with a piece of iron, it is murder, and the murderer must be executed. 17 Or if someone with a stone in his hand strikes and kills another person, it is murder, and the murderer must be put to death. 18 Or if someone strikes and kills another person with a wooden object, it is murder, and the murderer must be put to death. 19 The victim’s nearest relative is responsible for putting the murderer to death. When they meet, the avenger must put the murderer to death. 20 So if someone hates another person and pushes him or throws a dangerous object at him and he dies, it is murder. 21 Or if someone hates another person and hits him with a fist and he dies, it is murder. In such cases, the avenger must put the murderer to death when they meet.
Jewish laws allowed for accidental killers to go to a certain town and live out the rest of their lives there and no one seeking vengeance can go there and kill someone of that town. Thus you separated out people who have killed out from the regular population and if someone forced to one of thous towns are found outside of the town and are killed it’s not considered murder.
30 “All murderers must be put to death, but only if evidence is presented by more than one witness. No one may be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. 31 Also, you must never accept a ransom payment for the life of someone judged guilty of murder and subject to execution; murderers must always be put to death. 32 And never accept a ransom payment from someone who has fled to a city of refuge, allowing a slayer to return to his property before the death of the high priest. 33 This will ensure that the land where you live will not be polluted, for murder pollutes the land. And no sacrifice except the execution of the murderer can purify the land from murder. 34 You must not defile the land where you live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord, who lives among the people of Israel.”
In Jewish law, eye for eye allowed for plea barrings so that someone could do some monetary compensation for breaking laws but this passage did not allow for plea barrings for murder, they must be put to death and there must be at least two witnesses to the murder for them to be put to death. But, this passage also stresses the point that keeping murders alive defiles the land that you live in and it does because most murders try to break free and also kill other inmates in prison and sometimes they do break free and murder others. Now does this mean that murders are absolutely condemned to hell? Not necessarily, I can not judge if people are going to hell or not. That is a decision that is made by God and no one else can take that away from him. It’s not a worthless pursuit to try to save the soul of murders and we should try but they are to be put to death according to the bible. This is a point that has been stressed to me over the years by my father. He has said to me on several occasions that he loves me but if I do murder someone he will push for me to be put to death. It’s not that he would love me any less than any other parent would but he does expect me to hold to this standard as we should expect everyone else in our society to hold to this standard. This penalty stresses this point and prevents murders from continuing murdering. Another Pragerism goes like this: when you are kind to the cruel then you are cruel to the kind. I hate that we need to do this but we do need to do this! My God have mercy on his soul.
Racism in a test tube!
Posted on June 11th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Ethics, Abortion, Crime, War, Law, Philosophy, education, Race.
Actually Bieren and I had just talked about this article the other day and I just so happened to stumble on it today. Henry Louis Gates Jr. had himself an interview with James Watson who is the father of our understanding of DNA. Here’s what he wrote up at the Root:
James Watson has long assumed a certain special status among American scientists. The molecular biologist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for, as the Swedish Academy put it in its announcement for the prize, “their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.” Watson and his British colleague Crick are remembered popularly for identifying the elegant and unexpected “double helix” three-dimensional structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly known as DNA. Watson’s important contribution to this uncanny discovery was to define how the four nucleotide bases that make up DNA—guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A) and thymine (T)—combine in pairs to form its structure. These base pairs turn out to be the key to both the structure of DNA and its various functions. In other words, Watson identified the language and the code by which we understand and talk about our genetic makeup.I have been among those who have long held Watson in high regard for several reasons. First of all, the discovery of DNA’s three-dimensional structure was counterintuitive; it was an ingenious act of deduction, using models made of cardboard and paste with an exacto knife and a straight edge. How Watson and Crick, working at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, became the first scientists to identify this elusive structure is the stuff of drama, especially when we recall that Watson was just 25 years old when he and Crick published their findings in the journal Nature on April 25, 1953.
Though Watson would tell me during our recent interview that he had a rather low IQ, as proof that IQ tests aren’t really that important, he enrolled at the University of Chicago when he was merely 15 and earned his B.S. in zoology there in 1947 at the age of 19 and a Ph.D. in zoology from Indiana University at age 22. He was 34 when he won the Nobel Prize. Not too shabby for a guy with a “low” IQ.
Watson’s youth and a certain absent-minded professorial quirkiness made him an American hero, the symbol of American enterprise and intelligence. What’s more, unlike Crick, or Einstein, say, Watson was an American born and bred: His discovery, coming at the height of the Cold War, would be hailed as attesting to American genius and the unrivaled potential of the free market system versus communism. The intrigue over allegations that Watson and Crick made unauthorized use of the seminal work on X-ray diffraction by Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant scientist who died before the Nobel Prize committee made its decision, only made Watson’s story all the more titillating.
And Watson—never camera shy or publicity averse—contributed to the power of his own myth first by writing “Molecular Biology of the Gene,” a 1965 textbook that, updated, remains enormously popular today, and, three years later, “The Double Helix,” an account of the dramatic story of his discovery that also contained startling and scandalous revelations of petty tensions, jealousies and rivalries among scientists whom we all had assumed were motivated primarily by the pursuit of truth. Watson’s book did nothing less than deconstruct the myth of the scientist as secular saint, laboring away in a laboratory for knowledge’s sake at the service of mankind. (One scientist summed up Watson’s view of the scientific profession as “with malice toward most and charity toward none.”) But Watson’s account also made his quest to determine the structure of DNA gripping and exciting, one of science’s greatest and most compelling triumphs. Though he was a professor at Harvard University at the time—he taught there from 1956 to 1976—the Harvard University Press refused to publish the book because of its tell-all nature. A commercial press published it instead, it became a best-seller and Watson’s celebrity only grew.
sounds like an interesting guy that that I would like to have a beer with. However he just sank his reputation with one interview:
On Oct. 14, 2007, one of Watson’s former assistants, Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe, wrote an article about him in London’s Sunday Times that quoted him making racist comments about black people by suggesting there are inherent, unalterable biological differences in intelligence between black people and everyone else. The response was swift and impressively devastating. The father of DNA had spoken the unspeakable. Echoing racist remarks that have been used to justify the enslavement and colonization of black people since the Enlightenment (think Hume, Kant, Jefferson, Hegel), Watson’s comments implied that he believed that nature had created a primal distinction in intelligence and innate mental capacity between blacks and whites, which no amount of social intervention could ever change.
He had uttered the unutterable, the most ardent fantasy of white racists (David Duke would wax poetic on his Web site that the truth had at last been revealed, and by no less than the discoverer of the structure of DNA). His words caused a ripple effect of shock, dismay and disgust among those of us who embrace the range of biological diversity and potential within the human community. It was as if one of the smartest white men in the world had confirmed what so many racists believe already: that the gap between blacks and whites in, say, IQ test scores and SAT results has a biological basis and that environmental factors such as centuries of slavery, colonization, Jim Crow segregation and race-based discrimination—all contributing to uneven economic development—don’t amount to a hill of beans. Nature has given us an extra basketball gene, as it were, in lieu of native intelligence.
Watson is no stranger to controversy. Since the heated critical reception to the publication of “The Double Helix” 40 years ago, he has seemed to delight in making, with some regularity, outrageously provocative comments, comments designed at best to disturb the status quo, to shock if not awe both his fellow scientists and the general public. His autobiography, “Avoid Boring People,” published in September 2007, lambastes his fellow scientists as “dinosaurs,” “deadbeats” and “has-beens.” By the time the London Sunday Times article appeared, Watson had been engaged in several controversies over genetic screening, genetic engineering, homosexuality, obesity and the purported relation between skin color and libido.
But none of those controversies could begin to prepare him for the intensity of the firestorm ignited by the Sunday Times article, which quoted him as saying that “he was inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa,” since “all of our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really”; that “people who have to deal with black employees find that [the belief that everyone is equal] is not true”; and that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.” Five days after the article was published, he profusely apologized in a statement to the press; on Oct. 25, he abruptly retired from his position at Cold Spring Harbor, after 40 years of service there.
That’ll kill the career of anyone and is clearly a very stupid thing to say. However, Gates decided to go interview Watson to see if he can get some clarity on what Watson thinks (and Gates is black). I certainly that is a big thing of Gates to do and I only have praise to give him for doing it.
I thought of that slightly awkward dinner conversation and his gracious gift as I arrived at his offices at Cold Spring Harbor on March 17 for our interview. We talked for well over an hour, with no holds barred.
“Well?” one of my friends asked later. “Is he a racist?”
I don’t think James Watson is a racist. But I do think that he is a racialist—that is, he believes that certain observable traits or forms of behavior among groups of human beings might, indeed, have a biological basis in the code that scientists, eventually, may be able to ascertain, that the “gene” is some mythically neutral space and what it purportedly “measures” or “determines” is independent of environmental factors, variables and influences. The difference, the distinction, between being a racist and a racialist is crucial. James Watson is not the garden-variety racist as he has been caricatured by the press and bloggers, the sort epitomized by David Duke and his ilk, and he seemed genuinely chagrined, embarrassed and remorseful that Duke and other racists had claimed him as their champion, as one of their own, because of his remarks as quoted in the London Sunday Times. And, as we might expect, he apologized profusely for those remarks, contending that he had been misquoted, at worst, and his remarks taken out of context, at best. (I have not been able to determine if the writer who reported the remarks taped them or reconstructed them from notes or memory.)
But I did leave Cold Spring Harbor convinced that Dr. Watson believes that many forms of behavior—such as “Jewish intelligence” (his phrase) and the basketball prowess of black men in the NBA (his example)—could, possibly, be traced to genetic differences among human beings, although no such connection has been made, and will probably never be made on any firm scientific basis, it seems to me. And I have to say that it was ultimately chilling to me when he remarked, with what seemed to me to be monumental naivete, that “if they find genes for all kinds of Jewish intelligence, I don’t think it’s going to affect me in the slightest,” especially when we couple that sort of remark with his passionate belief that “everyone should be judged as individuals. No one should be judged by a term like ‘black.’”
And that’s a belief that I firmly reject. I think that the social behaver of groups has much more do with the victimhood mentality that anything that genes has to do with it. Here’s my post on victimhood but now back to the article:
Yet precisely because of the misuses of science and pseudoscience since the 18th century, which put into place fixed categories of four or five “races” to justify an economic order dependent upon the exploitation of blacks (and other people of color) as cheap sources of labor, starting with slavery and continuing through Jim Crow and beyond, it has never been possible for a person of African descent to function in American society simply and purely as an “individual.” And if the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama has taught him, and us, anything at all, it is that this perhaps ideal state of affairs—to function as an individual and to be judged on your individual merits—still remains a most elusive and somewhat naïve dream.
Watson’s error is that he associates individual genetic differences (which, of course, do in fact exist) with ethnic variation (which is sociocultural and highly malleable). Character traits—abilities and behaviors, such as intelligence or basketball skills, that are popularly attributed to groups and are defined as “genetic”—will, in fact, continue to delimit the freedom of choice and expression of individuals who fall into those “racial” categories, regardless of our individual attainments and achievements. In the end, visions that are racialist may end up doing the same work of those that are racist. This is a lesson Watson has lived, and it is one from which we all might learn.
And that’s right on point with what I think.
Having spent the past three decades studying racist discourse in the West (starting with my Ph.D. dissertation on the Enlightenment), I know that such conclusions—say, about an entity called “Jewish intelligence”—would deleteriously affect me as a black person because it would reinforce stereotypes about Jewish people being genetically superior to us, and that such a conclusion would reinforce stereotypes about black people being inherently less intelligent than other members of the human community. If such differences in intelligence were purported to have a genetic basis, as David Duke proclaimed on his Web site with such naked glee, all of the social intervention in the world could have only so much effect. (Head Start? Why bother, when nature is to blame.) Sooner or later, in a time of increasing economic scarcity, members of these supposedly “different” or “lesser” ethnic groups or genetic populations could very well find their life possibilities limited and perhaps even regulated. Who among us can doubt that this would be true?
Likewise, I worry even more that Dr. Watson confessed to me that “we shouldn’t expect that different persons have equal intelligence, because we don’t know that. And people say that these should be the same [that is, that all human beings, that all members of different “racial” groups, should have the same basic range and potential for development of intelligence genetically]. I think the answer is we don’t know.” And later, he remarked in passing that “we’re not all the same,” by which he meant genetically. Rest assured that in the very near future, some scientist somewhere will claim to have proven this through our genes, and that claim will be deeply problematic for the future development of black people in American society.
I actually don’t put much stock in IQ test. I think you are as smart as your driven to be and also remember that wisdom is different from knowledge and in this society we really lack wisdom. I wish I had a heck of a lot more wisdom but you can also learn to be wise.
As I drove away from Cold Spring Harbor, I realized that my conversation with Dr. Watson only confirmed something I already, with great trepidation, have come to believe: That the last great battle over racism will be fought not over access to a lunch counter, or a hotel room, or to the right to vote, or even the right to occupy the White House; it will be fought in a laboratory, in a test tube, under a microscope, in our genome, on the battleground of our DNA. It is here where we, as a society, will rank and interpret our genetic difference.
And he very well may be right here. This whole conversation is filled with land mines but I will try here to get some clarity on this subject. As I had explained in a prevous post of mine, I believe that there are only two races! NO! Not black and white but rather the decent and the indecent. Also that’s where my post on victimhood that I sited earlier comes in because victimhood is the dominant trait of the indecent while the dominant trait of the decent is self control. In my post on victimhood I am reviewing an article by Dennis Prager and in that article he is talking about the reasons that people do evil. Number two on that list just so happens to be genes:
2. Genes. The contemporary term for devil is “genes.” Just as with the devil, when we observe a person engaging in evil behavior for which we have no rational explanation, we speak of it as coming from the person’s genes.
And here was my response to that idea:
I don’t believe in an evil gene. There are too many examples of evil parents having wonderful kids and vice versa. I think that one is a stretch.
Now, after reading this article it seems that Dr. Watson does believe in genes being the reason that people do evil and I think that this is a dangerous line of thought. As Gates had said in his article this is something that takes away from the American value of freedom and I say that it enforces a sense of victimhood. It says to people they can’t get ahead because of their race and this is the same line of thinking that fed the racism early on in our county’s history. We have to be careful in how we conduct our research here so as to not fall back into the same trap of the past. This sort of thing can lead to a reemergence of lie of the right, that race determines behavior. That’s not true! It’s values that determines behavior and not anything else that you could possibly label any one in a group of people. That leads me back to my post on racism because in that I talked about the defining traits of the decent (being self control) and the indecent (being victimhood). That’s a concept that Viktor Emil Frankl had came up with with his experience in the holocaust and he wrote about in his book Man’s Search for Meaning. I really don’t care all that much about IQ and oddly enough Dr.Watson himself is the proof that it doesn’t matter. With the fact that he has a “low IQ,” he was still able to make a big discovery despite that and forever land his name in the history books. Not bad for a guy who has “low IQ.” His conversation with gates and clarification makes it so that I can’t list him in the race of the indecent but his remarks does give ammunition to them and makes this world just a little bit more dangerous. Now the question is: will we be seduced by this kind of science so that we will go back to the old racial hatreds or continue to not care about race? But even if he is right that still means that we shouldn’t be raciest but to work even harder to mix them. Children of mixed racial backgrounds tend to do very well in our society (and I know from experince). Start combining the “athletic ability” of blacks with the “intellect” of whites and you’ll get better more well rounded people but I still think it’s all BS. Gates my be right that this battle will be fought in a test tube but I think we can fight it in better way: by teaching Americans the good values left to us by our forefathers and pushing people to be better than they are! That’s what the decent do, they fight the battle within them selfs to make them self better and thus they slowly (one battle at a time) make society better.
The President gives another great speech
Posted on May 19th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Crime, War, Law, Terrorism, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Economics.
Laura and I are delighted to be in Egypt, and we bring the warm wishes of the American people. We’re proud of our long friendship with your citizens. We respect your remarkable history. And we’re humbled to walk in the ancient land of pharaohs, where a great civilization took root and wrote some of the first chapters in the epic story of humanity.
America is a much younger nation, but we’ve made our mark by advancing ideals as old as the pyramids. Those ideals of liberty and justice have sparked a revolution across much of the world. This hopeful movement made its way to places where dictators once reigned and peaceful democracies seemed unimaginable: places like Chile and Indonesia and Poland and the Philippines and South Korea. These nations have different histories and different traditions. Yet each made the same democratic transition, and they did it on their own terms. In these countries, millions every year are rising from poverty. Women are realizing overdue opportunities. And people of faith are finding the blessing of worshiping God in peace.
All these changes took place in the second half of the 20th century. I strongly believe that if leaders like those of you in this room act with vision and resolve, the first half of 21st century can be the time when similar advances reach the Middle East. This region is home to energetic people, a powerful spirit of enterprise, and tremendous resources. It is capable of a very bright future — a future in which the Middle East is a place of innovation and discovery, driven by free men and women.
In recent years, we’ve seen hopeful beginnings toward this vision. Turkey, a nation with a majority Muslim population, is a prosperous modern democracy. Afghanistan under the leadership of President Karzai is overcoming the Taliban and building a free society. Iraq under the leadership of Prime Minister Maliki is establishing a multi-ethnic democracy. We have seen the stirrings of reform from Morocco and Algeria to Jordan and the Gulf States. And isolation from the outside world is being overcome by the most democratic of innovations: the cell phone and the Internet. America appreciates the challenges facing the Middle East. Yet the light of liberty is beginning to shine.
There is much to do to build on this momentum. From diversifying your economies, to investing in your people, to extending the reach of freedom, nations across the region have an opportunity to move forward with bold and confident reforms — and lead the Middle East to its rightful place as a center of progress and achievement.
Taking your place as a center of progress and achievement requires economic reform. This is a time of strength for many of your nations’ economies. Since 2004, economic growth in the region has averaged more than 5 percent. Trade has expanded significantly. Technology has advanced rapidly. Foreign investment has increased dramatically. And unemployment rates have decreased in many nations. Egypt, for example, has posted strong economic growth, developed some of the world’s fastest growing telecommunications companies, and made major investments that will boost tourism and trade. In order for this economic progress to result in permanent prosperity and an Egypt that reaches its full potential, however, economic reform must be accompanied by political reform. And I continue to hope that Egypt can lead the region in political reform.
This is also a time to prepare for the economic changes ahead. Rising price of oil has brought great wealth to some in this region, but the supply of oil is limited, and nations like mine are aggressively developing alternatives to oil. Over time, as the world becomes less dependent on oil, nations in the Middle East will have to build more diverse and more dynamic economies.
Your greatest asset in this quest is the entrepreneurial spirit of your people. The best way to take advantage of that spirit is to make reforms that unleash individual creativity and innovation. Your economies will be more vibrant when citizens who dream of starting their own companies can do so quickly, without high regulatory and registration costs. Your economies will be more dynamic when property rights are protected and risk-taking is encouraged — not punished — by law. Your economies will be more resilient when you adopt modern agricultural techniques that make farmers more productive and the food supply more secure. And your economies will have greater long-term prosperity when taxes are low and all your citizens know that their innovation and hard work will be rewarded.
One of the most powerful drivers of economic growth is free trade. So nations in this region would benefit greatly from breaking down barriers to trade with each other. And America will continue working to open up trade at every level. In recent years, the United States has completed free trade agreements with Jordan, Oman, Morocco, and Bahrain. America will continue to negotiate bilateral free trade agreements in the region. We strongly supported Saudi Arabia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and we will continue to support nations making the reforms necessary to join the institutions of a global economy. To break down trade barriers and ignite economic growth around the world, we will work tirelessly for a successful outcome to the Doha Round this year.
As we seek to open new markets abroad, America will keep our markets open at home. There are voices in my country that urge America to adopt measures that would isolate us from the global economy. I firmly reject these calls for protectionism. We will continue to welcome foreign investment and trade. And the United States of America will stay open for business.
Taking your place as a center of progress and achievement requires investing in your people. Some analysts believe the Middle East and North Africa will need to create up to 100 million new jobs over the next 10 to 15 years just to keep up with population growth. The key to realizing this goal is an educated workforce.
This starts early on, with primary schools that teach basic skills, such as reading and math, rather than indoctrinating children with ideologies of hatred. An educated workforce also requires good high schools and universities, where students are exposed to a variety of ideas, learn to think for themselves, and develop the capacity to innovate. Not long ago the region marked a hopeful milestone in higher education. In our meeting yesterday, President Karzai told me he recently handed out diplomas to university graduates, including 300 degrees in medicine, and a hundred degrees in engineering, and a lot of degrees to lawyers, and many of the recipients were women. (Applause.)
People of the Middle East can count on the United States to be a strong partner in improving your educational systems. We are sponsoring training programs for teachers and administrators in nations like Jordan and Morocco and Lebanon. We sponsored English language programs where students can go for intensive language instruction. We have translated more than 80 children’s books into Arabic. And we have developed new online curricula for students from kindergarten through high school.
It is also in America’s interest to continue welcoming aspiring young adults from this region for higher education to the United States. There were understandable concerns about student visas after 9/11. My administration has worked hard to improve the visa process. And I’m pleased to report that we are issuing a growing numbers of student visas to young people from the Middle East. And that’s the way it should be. And we’ll continue to work to expand educational exchanges, because we benefit from the contribution of foreign students who study in America because we’re proud to train the world’s leaders of tomorrow and because we know there is no better antidote to the propaganda of our enemies than firsthand experience with life in the United States of America.
Building powerful economies also requires expanding the role of women in society. This is a matter of morality and of basic math. No nation that cuts off half its population from opportunities will be as productive or prosperous as it could be. Women are a formidable force, as I have seen in my own family — (laughter and applause) — and my own administration. (Applause.) As the nations of the Middle East open up their laws and their societies to women, they are learning the same thing.
I applaud Egypt. Egypt is a model for the development of professional women. In Afghanistan, girls who were once denied even a basic education are now going to school, and a whole generation of Afghans will grow up with the intellectual tools to lead their nation toward prosperity. In Iraq and Kuwait, women are joining political parties and running campaigns and serving in public office. In some Gulf States, women entrepreneurs are making a living and a name for themselves in the business world.
This shows good economic understanding on the part of the president. Why do people keep on saying he’s stupid?
Taking your place as a center of progress and achievement requires extending the reach of freedom. Expanding freedom is vital to turning temporary wealth into lasting prosperity. Free societies stimulate competition in the marketplace. Free societies give people access to information they need to make informed and responsible decisions. And free societies give citizens the rule of law, which exposes corruption and builds confidence in the future.
Freedom is also the basis for a democratic system of government, which is the only fair and just ordering of society and the only way to guarantee the God-given rights of all people. Democracies do not take the same shape; they develop at different speeds and in different ways, and they reflect the unique cultures and traditions of their people. There are skeptics about democracy in this part of the world, I understand that. But as more people in the Middle East gain firsthand experience from freedom, many of the arguments against democracy are being discredited.
For example, some say that democracy is a Western value that America seeks to impose on unwilling citizens. This is a condescending form of moral relativism. The truth is that freedom is a universal right — the Almighty’s gift to every man, woman, and child on the face of Earth. And as we’ve seen time and time again, when people are allowed to make a choice between freedom and the alternative, they choose freedom. In Afghanistan, 8 million people defied the terrorist threats to vote for a democratic President. In Iraq, 12 million people waved ink-stained fingers to celebrate the first democratic election in decades. And in a recent survey of the Muslim world, there was overwhelming support for one of the central tenets of democracy, freedom of speech: 99 percent in Lebanon, 94 percent here in Egypt, and 92 percent in Iran.
There are people who claim that democracy is incompatible with Islam. But the truth is that democracies, by definition, make a place for people of religious belief. America is one of the most — is one of the world’s leading democracies, and we’re also one of the most religious nations in the world. More than three-quarters of our citizens believe in a higher power. Millions worship every week and pray every day. And they do so without fear of reprisal from the state. In our democracy, we would never punish a person for owning a Koran. We would never issue a death sentence to someone for converting to Islam. Democracy does not threaten Islam or any religion. Democracy is the only system of government that guarantees their protection.
Some say any state that holds an election is a democracy. But true democracy requires vigorous political parties allowed to engage in free and lively debate. True democracy requires the establishment of civic institutions that ensure an election’s legitimacy and hold leaders accountable. And true democracy requires competitive elections in which opposition candidates are allowed to campaign without fear or intimidation.
Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail. America is deeply concerned about the plight of political prisoners in this region, as well as democratic activists who are intimidated or repressed, newspapers and civil society organizations that are shut down, and dissidents whose voices are stifled. The time has come for nations across the Middle East to abandon these practices, and treat their people with dignity and the respect they deserve. I call on all nations to release their prisoners of conscience, open up their political debate, and trust their people to chart their future. (Applause.)
The vision I have outlined today is shared by many in this region — but unfortunately, there are some spoilers who stand in the way. Terrorist organizations and their state sponsors know they cannot survive in a free society, so they create chaos and take innocent lives in an effort to stop democracy from taking root. They are on the wrong side in a great ideological struggle — and every nation committed to freedom and progress in the Middle East must stand together to defeat them.
We must stand with the Palestinian people, who have suffered for decades and earned the right to be a homeland of their own — have a homeland of their own. I strongly support a two-state solution — a democratic Palestine based on law and justice that will live with peace and security alongside a democrat Israel. I believe that the Palestinian people will build a thriving democracy in which entrepreneurs pursue their dreams, and families own their homes in lively communities, and young people grow up with hope in the future.
Last year at Annapolis, we made a hopeful beginning toward a peace negotiation that will outline what this nation of Palestine will look like — a contiguous state where Palestinians live in prosperity and dignity. A peace agreement is in the Palestinians’ interests, it is in Israel’s interests, it is in Arab states’ interests, and it is in the world’s interests. And I firmly believe that with leadership and courage, we can reach that peace agreement this year. (Applause.)
This is a demanding task. It requires action on all sides. Palestinians must fight terror and continue to build the institutions of a free and peaceful society. Israel must make tough sacrifices for peace and ease the restrictions on the Palestinians. Arab states, especially oil-rich nations, must seize this opportunity to invest aggressively in the Palestinian people and to move past their old resentments against Israel. And all nations in the region must stand together in confronting Hamas, which is attempting to undermine efforts at peace with acts of terror and violence.
We must stand with the people of Lebanon in their struggle to build a sovereign and independent democracy. This means opposing Hezbollah terrorists, funded by Iran, who recently revealed their true intentions by taking up arms against the Lebanese people. It is now clearer than ever that Hezbollah militias are the enemy of a free Lebanon — and all nations, especially neighbors in the region, have an interest to help the Lebanese people prevail. (Applause.)
We must stand with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and other nations in the region fighting against al Qaeda and other extremists. Bin Laden and his followers have made clear that anyone who does not share their extremist ideology is fit for murder. That means every government in the Middle East is a target of al Qaeda. And America is a target too. And together, we will confront and we will defeat this threat to civilization.
We must stand with the good and decent people of Iran and Syria, who deserve so much better than the life they have today. Every peaceful nation in the region has an interest in stopping these nations from supporting terrorism. And every peaceful nation in the region has an interest in opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. To allow the world’s leading sponsor of terror to gain the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. (Applause.)
The changes I have discussed today will not come easily — change never does. But the reform movement in the Middle East has a powerful engine: demographics. Sixty percent of the population is under 30 years old. Many of these young people surf the web, own cell phones, have satellite televisions. They have access to unprecedented amounts of information. They see what freedom has brought to millions of others and contrast that to what they have at home.
Today, I have a message for these young people: Some tell — some will tell you change is impossible, but history has a way of surprising us, and change can happen more quickly than we expect. In the past century, one concept has transcended borders, cultures, and languages. In Arabic, “hurriyya” — in English, “freedom.” Across the world, the call for freedom lives in our hearts, endures in our prayers, and joins humanity as one.
I know these are trying times, but the future is in your hands — and freedom and peace are within your grasp. Just imagine what this region could look like in 60 years. The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserve — a democratic state that is governed by law, respects human rights, and rejects terror. Israel will be celebrating its 120 anniversary as one of the world’s great democracies — a secure and flourishing homeland for the Jewish people.
Again he outlines that freedom is the way to defeat the Jihadist.
From Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad to Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy and tourism and trade. Iran and Syria will be peaceful nations, where today’s oppression is a distant memory and people are free to speak their minds and develop their talents. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists’ vision and the injustice of their cause.
This vision is the same one I outlined in my address to the Israeli Knesset. Yet it’s not a Jewish vision or a Muslim vision, not an American vision or an Arab vision. It is a universal vision, based on the timeless principles of dignity and tolerance and justice — and it unites all who yearn for freedom and peace in this ancient land.
Realizing this vision will not be easy. It will take time, and sacrifice, and resolve. Yet there is no doubt in my mind that you are up to the challenge — and with your ingenuity and your enterprise and your courage, this historic vision for the Middle East will be realized. May God be with you on the journey, and the United States of America always will be at your side.
Despite the fact that many people hate him, I still believe that President Gorge W. Bush will later be regarded as one of the best presidents we have had in some time. He has made some massively bad decisions in his presidency but he has made the right decisions that have keep us safe for the last 7 years. This speech shows that he is a visionary president who see a time that there will be peace in the middle east but it is a peace that will take time to come to pass. Now that a new generation is starting to take hold of this county, it’s time that we start to work hard and fight hard to keep this great nation intact. Given enough time and had work we can make the Jihadist movement in this world a thing of the past. It will be hard but for the sake of our children, we must do it.