Intolerance

(First, congratulations to Ned Lamont! I am a supporter of Lamont. This is indeed a referendum on the failed Bush/neo conservative policy of war and more war. Ned came from out of nowhere and quickly caught on. Lots of GOP bigwigs are gulping right now. Excellent and outstanding!)

New laws in primarily Southern and Mid West States are changing the rules of self-defense. article

This change appears to be similar to changes made by the Neo Conservatives in regard to foreign policy. Part of the idea of unilateral action is based on the notion that you invade a country on the suspicion that it may be harboring a danger, read that terrorism, to the US. We heard this line articulated by our leaders on many occasions. The notion "better Baghdad than Boise" as expressed by Rumsfeld is connected to the notion of unilateral action. We bring the fight to them, just in case they are thinking about messing with us. This is an extension of the idea of self-defense to the realm of suspicion being a qualifying reason for action. As we know with Iraq in reality posing absolutely no threat whatsoever to the USA in military terms, the possibility that it is a threat is good enough, and continues to be good enough.

I find this a rather disturbing change. It is more of the Bush doctrine expressed in a multitude of ways. Using this logic, and that would certainly be a generous stretch of the meaning of that term, literally anyone is potentially guilty of anything. I suspect you are a murderer and until you can disprove that to me, you are going to jail or you may need to be killed.

We are witnessing this now as Israel decides that civilians in Lebanon might be terrorist supporters and that "might be" is enough evidence to support massive bombing including the use of white phosphorous and cluster bombs.

So now, more onus is placed on the perpetrator of crime. I now longer need to retreat from the scene of conflict in order to avoid further conflict. I can simply stand my ground and shoot your ass, hopefully before you shoot mine. If I shoot you, that's fine. The threat of violence is enough to get me off the hook.

It appears that walking away from a confrontation, something that is a sign a tremendous maturity, is now not necessary, as long as you have a gun of course. You can be a real man even if your a woman and hold your ground, protect your house, and car because the law extends to your car as well. So be careful out there when you go to beautiful Florida.

Finally, is it just me, but in this light, the students at Kent State who were shot down by National Guardsmen appear to be the aggressor. Something tells me that if there is a large protest demonstration maybe against another illegal and immoral war based completely on fabrication and lies, in that demonstration, I'm betting that we will see someone or some people get shot and legally be responsible for their own death. Perhaps their heirs will be sued bt the State to reclaim shooting fees.

painting by Malevich