Putin’s Russia, Egypt’s Morsi, the list is endless. Not even America was immune to this, but at least it’s been more than 200 years since the Alien and Sedition Acts for the USA. Not so elsewhere in the world, as the case of an Egyptian TV host, Bassem Youssef, who dares challenge the self-proclaimed voices of authority. Many people believe their view is the only right one, but when those who ardently believe in this gain power, everyone else suffers, as they will wield the sword mercilessly.
Category: history (Page 2 of 4)
With mere hours left remaining in 2012, news sites everywhere are reporting a fiscal cliff deal. You can bet the farm thus deal includes massive tax increases and zero spending cuts. And those new taxes? Why, the will go to new programs, of course. Like junkies on smack, politicians think only about the short term. They can always print more money, or quit tomorrow, right?
A little-known effort by the US government killed 10,000 people during Prohibition, when they poisoned industrial alcohol to prevent people from converting it into drinking alcohol.
This sounds almost too horrifying to be true, but is just one of many examples of humanitarians with guillotines. And the power of the State behind them.
That seems to be the consensus after astronomers discover planets orbiting Tau Ceti, only 12 light years away from Earth. One of those might lie within the habitable zone. I just hope they don’t name it Tau Ceti 5. Maybe Alphanor?
Slavery might be as old as mankind, and even in the 21st century this abhorrent practice exists. When there are free markets and humans can move freely to find job opportunities, then maybe slavery will vanish.
New company called Golden Spike wants to land people on the moon. Details still forthcoming.
In an episode of the TV show Bewitched, George Washing is transported from the 18th century to the 20th, and runs afoul of the law when he speaks to people in a park, for not having a permit. After the recent Occupy protests, cities are now cracking down on the right to protest in the US.
Across California and the nation, Occupy protests have prompted cities to tighten restrictions on protesters and behavior in public space in ways that opponents say threaten free speech and worsen conditions for homeless people.
Governments now regulate with new vigor where protesters may stand and walk and what they can carry. Protest permits are harder to get and penalties are steeper. Camping is banned from Los Angeles parks by a new, tougher ordinance. Philadelphia and Houston tightened restrictions on feeding people in public.
It seems like the US is becoming more and more like Putin’s Russia, or worse, as police make up their law on the spot. As George Washington said in Bewitched, quoting Thomas Jefferson, “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” A further Jefferson quote appeared in the show as well, from the Declaration of Independence, “all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
From the BBC, a report about the systematic and brutal crackdown on any dissent in Putin’s Russia. This isn’t just about the band Pussy Riot, but anyone who protests organizes protests. And Putin’s response? Mockery and further arrests. The people arrested? “Almost all of them appear to be rank-and-file activists or ordinary protesters.” At least the Gulags are gone… Oh, wait, not so fast!
Long article at National Geographic about Tibetans setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule.
A distressingly all too true perspective on Thomas Jefferson and his thought on slavery. Perhaps early in his life Jefferson was somewhat more open, but failed to live up to his own ideals.
