[lbo-talk] jail terms for student activists

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Tue Oct 23 13:58:47 PDT 2007


On 23 Oct, 2007, at 14:10 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/13/usdom14388.htm
>> http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0406/
>>
>> <...>
>>
>> Lethal injections look peaceful and painless—which is why California
>> and all but one of the other death penalty states adopted them to
>> replace the more gruesome spectacles of execution by hanging, firing
>> squad, lethal gas, or electrocution.
>
> Ah, didn't you get the message that HRW is one of those racist,
> imperialist organizations?
>

No, I didn't even get the notice on "Yoshie's odious comparison" theme for today, though I checked my email first thing at 8am EDT!


> What's the point of this? You think I don't know that the U.S. is one
> of the world's greatest state-sponsored killers? You think I don't
> know the U.S. jails more people than anyone else on earth? You think
> I don't care?

Of course you do. In the same manner that we are all aware that the Iranian government kills its citizens and we all care about that.

My response was not to point out the U.S is this or that greatest evil, but to point out that these are all things we know and need no pointing out on this list. In fact, I do not believe the US to be the greatest anything -- my opinions are closer to Woj than I would want to admit. Chomsky I think says that the US is the great place in the world. He may be right. I think he is also right in both criticising its actions and simultaneously refusing to launch similar criticisms of other groups, especially those who suffer from the very acts of ours that he criticises. For Iranians, who have to deal with us itching to murder them in the thousands, the Ahmedinijad option may be the best route of survival. So, as "good leftists", we hardly need to repeat what is public fare. At least, that's what I think!

--ravi



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