Originally posted on facebook on March 23, 2010:
I just watched a documentary on Netflix called "The Camden 28." It tells the story of a group of anti-Vietnam War opponents - including four Roman Catholic priests and a Protestant minister - who broke into the Camden draft board offices in November 1971 in order to destroy draft records. In addition to the five clergymen were 23 other people, mainly but not exclusively drawn from the Catholic leftists that were active at that time in southern New Jersey.
The group was infiltrated by an FBI informant/provocateur who befriended and assisted them in planning and conducting the break-in. The FBI wished to make an example of the Camden group: they believed that the people organizing of the Camden action were also involved in a break-in at the FBI's Media, PA offices, that had exposed and thereby compromised the tactics being employed against anti-war protesters (and had personally embarrassed and pissed-off J. Edgar Hoover). Though the informant had been told by the FBI that the Bureau wanted to head-off the planned break-in, they secretly planned instead to allow it to go forward, ensuring that the protesters would be charged and tried on federal charges. Arrested in the midst of the break-in, each of the co-conspirators faced 47 years in jail.
The ensuing trial was complicated for the before it started by he fact that the main government witness - the informant - had turned against the prosecution, claiming that the FBI had promised him that no one involved would face jail time. Though he personally opposed breaking the law, he felt betrayed by the FBI and submitted an affidavit saying that the prosecution of these people was vindictive and politically-motivated.
During the trial the defendants were permitted to mount a "nullification" defense of sorts, and in addition to the now-defense-oriented informant, one of the witnesses was historian Howard Zinn, who testified that the Pentagon Papers proved the immoral underpinnings of the war. Another witness was the mother of the defendant Robert Good. The judge allowed Mrs. Good, whose elder son had been killed in Vietnam six years earlier, to talk about how her older son's life had been wasted in an unholy cause, and that her younger son only wished to redeem his brother's sacrifice.
It is a remarkable story, made even more remarkable for me personally by the fact that I've lived in New Jersey for 43 years and spent many of those years as a devoted anti-war person, yet I'd never heard of this case before. It was inspiring, and I recommend it to all (I think it may also be available through PBS).
Danny
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Beware of New Constituional Experts Who've Uncovered Diabolical Subversions!
Originally posted on facebook on Tuesday, March 30, 2010
I've noticed a recent spate of newly-minted Constitutional scholars who purport to have uncovered some great subversion of the Constitution that NO ONE ever discovered before. I have a word of advice: you can't simply go to the copy of the US Constitution in the back of your kid's civics text book and become an instant authority on constitutional law. In nearly every case there's a body of legislative and/or case law that surrounds, supports, clarifies, and delimits the basic principles outlined in the text itself.
For example, a person on facebook recently cited Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution to criticize the US Census, saying, “the only information you are empowered to request is the total number of occupants at this address. My ‘name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, telephone number, relationship and housing tenure’ have absolutely nothing to do with apportioning direct taxes or determining the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. Therefore, neither Congress nor the Census Bureau have the constitutional authority to make that information request a component of the enumeration outlined in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3.” This is simply not true, since in addition to directing that the Census be conducted every ten years, Article I, Section 2 Clause 3 adds that it be done, “in such Manner as they [Congress] shall by Law direct.” Congress has subsequently directed that the Census gather additional limited information, and as the power to do so is directly enumerated in the Constitution and given to Congress, it is well within the power of Congress to so direct.
Similarly, a good friend recently posted a video made by a gentleman who claims that there is no legal basis for a federal income tax. This video maker asserts that the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution – which he erroneously maintains is the legal basis the government uses to justify the federal income tax – was never legally approved by three-fourths of the states. Of course, it WAS approved by nearly ALL the states, but EVEN if it hadn’t been, the Sixteenth Amendment has nothing to do with the federal income tax; it specifically involves the assessment of federal taxes on corporations.
Even the citation of the Sixteenth Amendment in this issue is historically inaccurate: the first federal individual income tax was assessed in 1862, and the Sixteenth Amendment was enacted FIFTY years later, in 1913.
In fact, however, the power to levy a federal income tax is based on the specific language of Article I, Section 8, [Powers of Congress] which states: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence (sic) and general welfare of the United States…” Furthermore, Article I, section 8, clause 18 – known as the “Necessary and Proper Clause” – clearly states that, “The Congress shall have Power to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.” And, finally, several Supreme Court rulings have buttressed the power of Congress to levy taxes when and as it sees fit (United States v. Butler, 1936, is only one example).
So, regarding these new Constitutional experts, who are propelled – no doubt – by voices on the right who are willing and able to use any tactic and spread any untruth or misrepresentation to further their goals and ends: I’d counsel a very wary approach.
I've noticed a recent spate of newly-minted Constitutional scholars who purport to have uncovered some great subversion of the Constitution that NO ONE ever discovered before. I have a word of advice: you can't simply go to the copy of the US Constitution in the back of your kid's civics text book and become an instant authority on constitutional law. In nearly every case there's a body of legislative and/or case law that surrounds, supports, clarifies, and delimits the basic principles outlined in the text itself.
For example, a person on facebook recently cited Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution to criticize the US Census, saying, “the only information you are empowered to request is the total number of occupants at this address. My ‘name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, telephone number, relationship and housing tenure’ have absolutely nothing to do with apportioning direct taxes or determining the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. Therefore, neither Congress nor the Census Bureau have the constitutional authority to make that information request a component of the enumeration outlined in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3.” This is simply not true, since in addition to directing that the Census be conducted every ten years, Article I, Section 2 Clause 3 adds that it be done, “in such Manner as they [Congress] shall by Law direct.” Congress has subsequently directed that the Census gather additional limited information, and as the power to do so is directly enumerated in the Constitution and given to Congress, it is well within the power of Congress to so direct.
Similarly, a good friend recently posted a video made by a gentleman who claims that there is no legal basis for a federal income tax. This video maker asserts that the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution – which he erroneously maintains is the legal basis the government uses to justify the federal income tax – was never legally approved by three-fourths of the states. Of course, it WAS approved by nearly ALL the states, but EVEN if it hadn’t been, the Sixteenth Amendment has nothing to do with the federal income tax; it specifically involves the assessment of federal taxes on corporations.
Even the citation of the Sixteenth Amendment in this issue is historically inaccurate: the first federal individual income tax was assessed in 1862, and the Sixteenth Amendment was enacted FIFTY years later, in 1913.
In fact, however, the power to levy a federal income tax is based on the specific language of Article I, Section 8, [Powers of Congress] which states: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence (sic) and general welfare of the United States…” Furthermore, Article I, section 8, clause 18 – known as the “Necessary and Proper Clause” – clearly states that, “The Congress shall have Power to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.” And, finally, several Supreme Court rulings have buttressed the power of Congress to levy taxes when and as it sees fit (United States v. Butler, 1936, is only one example).
So, regarding these new Constitutional experts, who are propelled – no doubt – by voices on the right who are willing and able to use any tactic and spread any untruth or misrepresentation to further their goals and ends: I’d counsel a very wary approach.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Subjectivity is underrated
Though we live in a corporeal world that begs us to measure it, it seems that so many of life's most important dimensions are not measurable, such as love, pain, happiness, and fear...just to name a few. We can never objectively quantify any of these things - they only have subjective substance. Should this truth not be central to how we live our lives?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Medea
Last night I dreamed of you mother
There under the trees, loving another.
You couldn’t see me, but I saw
I woke and see you above me
I asked if you still loved me; but
You were as silent as moonlight
Will you still sing me songs of delight,
If I awaken from sleep sad and alone?
And make the light shine into my bed?
My father? Ah he’s your concern, not mine
He is like the sound of the weather
This is my time to be loved and misled
I forget the sorrow that rises from
The silence of stinging regret
And the deceptions of love unrequited.
Or unfulfilled.
There under the trees, loving another.
You couldn’t see me, but I saw
I woke and see you above me
I asked if you still loved me; but
You were as silent as moonlight
Will you still sing me songs of delight,
If I awaken from sleep sad and alone?
And make the light shine into my bed?
My father? Ah he’s your concern, not mine
He is like the sound of the weather
This is my time to be loved and misled
I forget the sorrow that rises from
The silence of stinging regret
And the deceptions of love unrequited.
Or unfulfilled.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Maman's Kiss
We take the shorter way
And see a scudding row
Of low, far off trees
Tonight dinner will be on time
We may take the royal way
More beautiful than light
But more dear, for
That night dinner will be late
The cost? A kiss, not much
But refused, as I gaze out
The azure aurora
Touches the fecund fields
The memory of your kiss
Calls across the lost years
I remember as
My childhood falls away
Princesses and barons lay ahead
I’ll know their nights
Oh – too well
Still, it’s your kiss I’ll recall.
And see a scudding row
Of low, far off trees
Tonight dinner will be on time
We may take the royal way
More beautiful than light
But more dear, for
That night dinner will be late
The cost? A kiss, not much
But refused, as I gaze out
The azure aurora
Touches the fecund fields
The memory of your kiss
Calls across the lost years
I remember as
My childhood falls away
Princesses and barons lay ahead
I’ll know their nights
Oh – too well
Still, it’s your kiss I’ll recall.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Aphrodite abandons Antony
Last night, at midnight
You left me
I heard the low sound
Of your voice
As you went
I opened the window
To call you back
I heard laughter
But saw no one
Only the night
Invisible magic, exquisite
Carnal and sweet
Departing at midnight
My life’s music
You dance away
You left me
I heard the low sound
Of your voice
As you went
I opened the window
To call you back
I heard laughter
But saw no one
Only the night
Invisible magic, exquisite
Carnal and sweet
Departing at midnight
My life’s music
You dance away
A prayer for a death
I pray you stay away
Don’t come to ruin
What I have, what we have built
Tear it down brick by goddamned
You’ll never know the damage
He will follow you, panting
Like a dog on a leash
Leaving behind all that he has
He’s blind, forgetful
A slave to his dreams and his lust
I pray that there will be an accident
Coming for a “visit,” you say
To him you are everything, I am nothing
He’s just blind and dumb enough
Not to see it the way I do.
A squeal of tires
The BANG of the impact
I was in an accident once
Thank God I wasn’t hurt, but
But the sound…how loud it was
There will be carnage
Innocents hurt or maimed
I should be ashamed
But I pray for that accident
I’m sorry for the others, but not for you
He will forsake me for you
The promises he made
And I have taught him
About love and trust and need
He always forgets important things
With me he is reliable
With you he’ll be set free
With me he is dependable
With you he will soar – too close to the sun
Without me he is nothing
I hope you never come here
To ruin all my dreams
And take this good man from me
Who was a diamond in the rough?
He was yours, but now he’s mine
Don’t come to ruin
What I have, what we have built
Tear it down brick by goddamned
You’ll never know the damage
He will follow you, panting
Like a dog on a leash
Leaving behind all that he has
He’s blind, forgetful
A slave to his dreams and his lust
I pray that there will be an accident
Coming for a “visit,” you say
To him you are everything, I am nothing
He’s just blind and dumb enough
Not to see it the way I do.
A squeal of tires
The BANG of the impact
I was in an accident once
Thank God I wasn’t hurt, but
But the sound…how loud it was
There will be carnage
Innocents hurt or maimed
I should be ashamed
But I pray for that accident
I’m sorry for the others, but not for you
He will forsake me for you
The promises he made
And I have taught him
About love and trust and need
He always forgets important things
With me he is reliable
With you he’ll be set free
With me he is dependable
With you he will soar – too close to the sun
Without me he is nothing
I hope you never come here
To ruin all my dreams
And take this good man from me
Who was a diamond in the rough?
He was yours, but now he’s mine
31 Hickory Street
The street I lived on
Was broad and crowned.
But tree-lined, like an allee;
Frozen, unremembered
At the wanton end
Of a town called America.
Broad, maybe even grand
But truncated, almost stubby
Ragged at the blind end
Like a sentence cut short;
Or an arm partly lost
To a moment of carelessness.
With the shirt sleeve folded
Over the elbow and pinned,
There’s a story in that fold
To be sure; but who can tell
Who still knows it?
Who knows these things?
Was broad and crowned.
But tree-lined, like an allee;
Frozen, unremembered
At the wanton end
Of a town called America.
Broad, maybe even grand
But truncated, almost stubby
Ragged at the blind end
Like a sentence cut short;
Or an arm partly lost
To a moment of carelessness.
With the shirt sleeve folded
Over the elbow and pinned,
There’s a story in that fold
To be sure; but who can tell
Who still knows it?
Who knows these things?
Monday, January 4, 2010
Deleted iPod Playlists Named for Mary
I just deleted two iPod playlists that I'd named for her - more two years after the last time we talked - and I had an actual, full-blown anxiety attack after doing it.
New Years Hope
What I hope for in the coming year couldn't possibly be reduced to a few sharp words or a couple of cogent proposals. What I hope for is unimaginably unlikely, so wondrous and joyous, so carnal and all-encompassing as to be beyond words. Here's to the unhoped for - here's to the unexpected person who will truly belie...ve - who will honestly agree with me - that I am worthwhile.
When you told me . . . those little white lies
Soon after we moved in together she was showing me how to use the clothes dryer (it had been hers). I did know pretty well how to use a dryer, so I took the lint screen out and found it completely packed with lint. I asked - sort of without thinking, "Don't you clean the lint screen regularly?" She said "Oh, yes, of course I do!"
It was such a silly little thing, but a darkness touched my heart because I knew in that moment what she'd just said was a purposeful lie; in fact it was the first lie she had ever told me. It wouldn't be the last.
"But all of that is in the past," you might accurately say. True. But every time I do laundry, and slide out the lint screen, I am reminded of that tiny lie, four years ago, and then my skin heats up and my breath catches, because I know I will - without fail - remember all the gigantic things that have gone wrong since then.
Can the breakup of a relationship cause PTSD? Can a lint screen be a PTSD trigger?
It was such a silly little thing, but a darkness touched my heart because I knew in that moment what she'd just said was a purposeful lie; in fact it was the first lie she had ever told me. It wouldn't be the last.
"But all of that is in the past," you might accurately say. True. But every time I do laundry, and slide out the lint screen, I am reminded of that tiny lie, four years ago, and then my skin heats up and my breath catches, because I know I will - without fail - remember all the gigantic things that have gone wrong since then.
Can the breakup of a relationship cause PTSD? Can a lint screen be a PTSD trigger?
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