STRANGELAND.NET

Have you ever had somebody come to your house and wear out their welcome, but somehow not figure out that you have grown tired of their presence and want them to leave? Maybe they decided to start trying to clean your house, moving furniture and throwing things out without asking for your opinion. Perhaps they keep interrupting polite conversations with uninvited suggestions on how you “should” be living your life. Possibly they keep spoiling your children with money or toys, giving your pet food it shouldn’t eat, or sneaking whiskey to your alcoholic wife. How ever it is that they do it, they become annoying to you and possibly destructive to the peace and happiness of your home, but they just won’t leave, or they won’t stop coming over. Don’t you just hate those people?

Well in the world’s opinion we are those people. We show up in other countries around the world with the best of intentions, trying to do what we think is right. The only problem is that somewhere along the way we forgot to ask people if they still actually wanted our help. The perception is that our assistance whether it be through business, charity, or investment is offered as a superior providing to a lesser instead of as a sharing of resources among peers.

This arrogance that the world perceives is very real; when any nation publicly disagrees with our actions we become defensive and aggressive. In the run up to the Iraq war there were opinion makers who were saying that nations like France and Germany owed us for bailing them out of WWII and defending them from communism, and were being ungrateful for having now for disagreeing with us. Our government is the world leader in giving out aid to less developed nations, but we add strings to that aid to coerce those nations into adopting various rules and laws that conform to our desire for western culture to spread. This arrogance that we portray in our speech and in our actions is one of the reasons that anti-Americanism is spreading.

Interestingly enough the people addressing this image problem that our nation has are business leaders. Business for Diplomatic Action was formed in the past few years because spreading anti-Americanism is bad for business. It is pretty self evident logic that if people around the world hate America and Americans then they will be less inclined to buy products from American companies.

But we are resistant to the changes that are being suggested by the people who have to deal with the citizens of other countries and the anti-American sentiments that exist there. We as a people are comfortable with being arrogant, we are comfortable with feeling superior, because we are the only remaining superpower and we are the preeminent economic power in the world. And I am sure that other super powers of the past felt similarly to us when they sat upon they top of the heap, but where are those powers now? History dictates that great nations rise and fall, we have been rising for a good long time, do we want to be thought of poorly by our neighbors in the future when we trip on the top of the hill and tumble down? And all we have to do as a people is ask the rest of the world if they actually want our help, and show a little humility at the gifts that our nation is able to provide.

code_archaeologist Uncategorized

As many of you know, I live in Durham, North Carolina. Normally the claim to fame of this small city is either the Duke University Basketball Team or the fact that Bull Durham was filmed here. As I’m sure everyone is aware, the Duke Lacrosse team and their possible involvement in a brutal rape has brought a different sort of spotlight to the city. Up to this point, I didn’t feel a need to say anything about it. After all, there’s enough hysteria and allegations running around without me adding into the mix. Listening to WPTF on the way into work this morning, however, and hearing snippets of the rally at North Carolina Central University (the school attended by the woman raped) yesterday changed my mind a bit. I’m not going to say that members of the Duke Lacrosse team did what they’re accused of nor am I could going to say that the woman wasn’t really raped. I’m not a police investigator nor am I Mike Nifong, the DA in Durham. Therefore I’m not going to make a call on the merits of the case, as it were. Instead, I really think the hysteria that’s building on this needs to have a stick poked at it.

Let’s start first with what sparked my desire to expound on this matter this morning. During the recording of the “rally” I heard yesterday, one of the students at NCCU asked Nifong why something wasn’t done about the Duke Lacrosse team before given that they had “documented” prior run-ins with the law. Now if you just listed to this, you might be thinking that members of the Lacrosse team had been brought into court in something rivalling the rape charge in the past. I went and double-checked an article in the News and Observer (http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/422787.html) to make sure I was able to speak truthfully to this. So, what run ins have 15 of the 47 Lacrosse players (and there is no mention as to whether the three who supposedly did this are in that 15) had with the law?

• Underage Alcohol Possession
• Open Container violation
• Loud Noise
• Public Urination

Every one of those items is a misdemeanor. Each of those is something for which police around the country cite college students every year. Yes, I know of the research showing a link between alcohol and date rape, but a citation for underage alcohol possession does not make someone a rapist. The fact that there are members of the community that are wanting to hold up these run-ins with the police as signs that the Duke Lacrosse team is guilty make me wonder what’s gotten into them.

This moves me to the next item of hysteria I’m seeing. Everyone (including the Press in a lot of cases) has taken to a using a rather broad stroke generalization when it comes to this. By the victim’s own report, it was three members of the Lacrosse team that did this. Three out of forty-seven. Yet everywhere you look, you see ‘the Duke Lacrosse team.’ The implication given by this is that the entire team was responsible for this. I’ve even stopped seeing the qualification that the sole black member of the Lacrosse team has already been ruled out as a suspect. Now I am willing to recognize that there may be complicity from other members of the lacrosse team, especially given the closing of ranks that has been done by the team, but I also would like to see others recognize that this may not be the case.

Moving along, we come to the next member of the hysteria circus: Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. As many saw yesterday, the DNA results came back from the State Crime Lab and showed no matches to any of the forty-six Duke Lacrosse team members that were tested (the one black member of the team wasn’t tested as the victim has stated all three of her attackers were white). As was expected, the lawyers for the Duke Lacrosse team members made sure this got spread far and wide. Nifong, however, has stated that he’s going to continue on in this case, claiming that there is no DNA evidence recovered in 75-80% of rape cases and convictions are still gathered. One has to wonder how he plans to manage this in this case, however, given the large ‘reasonable doubt’ this is going to cast over the entire situation given the wealth of DNA evidence recovered from the victim. One thing that’s not being noted in the press outside of the local area is the reason why Nifong is feeling the need to push this against the current public front runner even though he just hit a huge roadblock on that investigation path. That reason? Mike Nifong is up for re-election this year for his DA post. Already one of his opponents has started the ‘there’s a cover-up’ charges to increase his stock in the election. Therefore Nifong has to continue dogging this case and chasing down his current front runner for an indictment.

The possible peak to Hysteria Hill in this case–or just another ramping up on it–is bound to come on Sunday. One of the kings of racial hysteria will be in town in support of the victim and the black community of Durham. Rev. Al Sharpton will be attending a rally in Durham this Sunday, and I’m sure he’ll work his usual magic to push things to new level of frothing hysteria. I cannot remember any incidents in recent history where Sharpton has called for calm in a meaningful fashion. Instead, he’s shown up at smoldering fire with a gasoline tanker in tow. I’m split at the moment between wanting to watch the train wreck that he’s going to cause and being truly worried about what he could spark.

In the end, the case is still being investigated. I see no reason to doubt that the victim was raped. I can even say that I see no reason not to believe that she was raped at the party as it’s entirely possible (and likely) that more than just the lacrosse team was present. What I’m tired of, however, is everyone wanting to jump to conclusions and play the race/class card in this situation. Yes, the victim is black and those accused are white. Yes, the victim is a poor woman working her way through school and the accused are going to a $43,000 per year university paid for, generally, by Mommy and Daddy. Being Rich and White, however, does not make them inherently guilty just as being Poor and Black doesn’t make her infallable. I understand the community in Durham wanting to punish those who did this. I completely agree. However, I want to make sure the right people are punished for it, not just someone who ‘fits a description.’ In this day and age, the odds of a lynch mob getting the right person are slim and none–even when that lynch mob is simpyl one in spirit if not action.

stranger Uncategorized

Tom Delay may be on his way out but the mechanisms that he built to give the Republicans unassailable control of both houses of Congress are still in place. The most notable Delay creation is the K Street Project. In the mid and late 90’s Delay along with Republican strategist Grover Norquist began calling in lobbyists and threatening them to contribute more money to Republican members of the House than Democratic or be frozen out of the legislative process.

As the lobbying groups began giving more money to Republicans and less to Democrats, Delay upped the ante and demanded that they hire aides to Republican House members. Sometimes Delay went as far as to refuse known Democratic lobbyists access to any Republicans at all to coerce more of the lobbying groups to hire more Republicans. The effect of this was a rapid shift in the relationship between lobbyists and the Congress. The lobbyists began spending more and more money on Republican gifts and donations, but also the Republicans in Congress began allowing the lobbyists to write entire bills of legislation to be brought to the House floor.

All three of the candidates for Delay’s vacated House Majority Leader seat swore to abolish the mechanisms created by the K Street Project and strengthen the ethics rules which had also bee relaxed under Delay’s watch. So far John Boehner has made no substantive attempts to use his new influence to see that anything is done. All of the amendments that would remove the tools of House-Lobbyist influence peddling such as budget earmarks, lobbyist funded travel, and strong-arm tactics on the floor have been removed in committee. Rules that would give the ethics committee teeth and the ability to actually take action against questionable members of the House are not even being considered.

There has been celebration by some of Tom Delay’s resignation, and claims that this is the end of corruption in the House. But that is not even close to the case, the machine of corruption that Tom Delay built in the House is still present, and those with the power to shut it down are trying to throw up smoke screens to hide their inaction. Like a bunch of alcoholics, drunk on money, the Republicans are worried about losing everything in November, but they are unwilling to quit the dirty money cold turkey. The question is are we going to act as enablers to their drunken revel or step in and intervene before they destroy themselves and everything around them.

code_archaeologist Uncategorized