Don’t ever make politicians angry or they might assassinate you, too

By David McElroy · October 1, 2011

I have no sympathy for Anwar al-Aulaqi. From all appearances, this native of New Mexico was a bad guy who was involved in trying to recruit fellow Americans to carry out criminal acts inside the United States. But we’re supposed to be a nation of laws. The U.S. government proved that isn’t the case when it assassinated him this week.

After Barack Obama ordered him killed, government spin masters have gone into overdrive to justify it. Before he was murdered, he was just a radical cleric working to recruit others. Now that he’s dead — and government officials need to justify it — he’s being referred to as the “chief of external operations” for al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. Whoever made that up deserves some sort of prize for spin.

Most politicians were busy praising the Obama administration for al-Aulaqi’s death Friday, because it’s the popular position to take. In quote after quote from politicians talking about how it was a big step forward in the “war on terror,” nobody mentioned the simple and obvious point that the man was a U.S. citizen, deserving of the protections of our laws and Constitution — even though he’s turned against the country.

Ron Paul was one of the few to point out the obvious. This isn’t an act of war. This is a staged assassination of an American citizen who is accused of crimes. This isn’t the way we treat murder suspects. This isn’t the way we treat rape suspects. This isn’t the way the U.S. justice system says it’s legal to treat anyone accused of a crime — until now. And that’s all al-Aulaqi was — an American citizen accused by his government of a crime.

It’s a dangerous step for the U.S. government to assert the right to kill Americans unilaterally. Do you believe everything this government (or any government) says? Are you willing to hand politicians the unilateral authority to be prosecutor, judge and jury over the lives of Americans — possibly including you if someone decides you’re a threat? If this doesn’t alarm you, you’re not thinking it through clearly.

In his statement on the assassination, here’s what Ron Paul said:

“Nobody knows if he ever killed anybody. If the American people accept this blindly and casually…I think that’s sad.”

Americans are going to blindly and casually accept this. It’s going to be the popular thing with most people. It’s sad that most people don’t understand when their own rights are being eroded. This is another case of that.

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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