Duty to Warn

Madison's Music: On Reading the First Amendment, a new book by Burt Neuborne, at first appears an unlikely work to serve much purpose today. Who wants to celebrate slave owner James Madison's view of freedom as embodied in a long outdated Constitution in desperate need of updating or rewriting? And who wants to hear it from a former legal director of the ACLU who just signed a petition supporting the hiring of Harold Koh, defender of drone murders and presidential wars of aggression, to teach human rights law at New York University, a petition by a bunch of stuffy corrupted professors countering the moral stand being taken by students?

This is big. A new civil rights era births itself in terrible pain.

Black men die, over and over. I can only hope that peace is the result, serious peace, bigger than new laws, bigger than better trained police — agape peace, you might say, peace that is, in the words of Martin Luther King, “an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return.”

“‘We’re out here, and this is peaceful,’ Bishop Walter S. Thomas, pastor of the New Psalmist Baptist Church, shouted to the crowd. After a pause, they continued, singing ‘This Little Light of Mine.’ Helicopters shined spotlights on the group, the thwack-thwack of their rotors competing with the music.”

Once again, a sci-fi flick is asking the burning question: Is romance possible between man and machine?

In 2013, Her made the prospect seem inviting, especially since the machine was represented by the warm (if disembodied) voice of Scarlett Johansson.

Ex Machina offers a darker look at the same topic. This time around, we can see the machine, a personable and gorgeous robot named Ava (the FX-enhanced Alicia Vikander). But the protagonist meets her under circumstances so threatening that he’s justifiably leery of giving in to the feelings she arouses.   

Writer/director Alex Garland (28 Days Later…) has devised a suspenseful film that keeps the protagonist—not to mention the viewers—guessing until the final moments.

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a young computer geek who has won a contest thrown by his company’s wealthy owner, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). His prize is a visit to Nathan’s secluded estate and the chance to take part in a scientific breakthrough.

“Sir, you are an idiot.”

Wow, an insult wrapped in such old-fashioned politeness. I let the words hover and reach, as I always do, for peace: that is to say, for clarity, connection, common humanity.

Last week I raised the idea of unarmed policing, as practiced in half a dozen countries around the world. I wasn’t calling for immediate gun surrender but, rather, the diversion of human energy away from short-sighted, violent responses to conflict situations — at pretty much every level of society, from interpersonal to geopolitical — and to the complex, courageous, creative task of building a culture of peace.

Being called an idiot for making such a plea is to be expected, of course — it happens all the time, and I relish it because it means my words have reached people on the other side of the great political divide. That’s what building peace is all about.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--Robert Frost

After a speech I gave this past weekend, a young woman asked me whether a failure by the United States to properly surround and intimidate China might result in instability. I explained why I thought the opposite was true. Imagine if China had military bases along the Canadian and Mexican borders with the United States and ships in Bermuda and the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and Vancouver. Would you feel stabilized? Or might you feel something else?

Did you know that Washington keeps 450 nuclear ICBMs on "hair-trigger alert"? Washington thinks that this makes us "safe." The reasoning, if it can be called reason, is that by being able to launch in a few minutes, no one will try to attack the US with nuclear weapons. US missiles are able to get on their way before the enemy's missiles can reach the US to destroy ours.

If this makes you feel safe, you need to read Eric Schlosser's book, Command and Control.

The trouble with hair-triggers is that they make mistaken, accidental, and unauthorized launch more likely. Schlosser provides a history of almost launches that would have brought armageddon to the world.

In Catalyst, a publication of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Elliott Negin tells the story of Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov. Just after midnight in 1983 the Soviet Union's early warning satellite system set off the alarm that five US ICBMs were headed for the Soviet Union.

April 13, 2015, WASHINGTON — On Monday, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia introduced a resolution of disapproval to overrule the FCC's Net Neutrality order. Thirteen other Republican members of Congress joined Collins on the resolution.

Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can review new rules issued by federal agencies. The rules are invalidated if both houses adopt a joint "resolution of disapproval” and it’s signed by the president. Congress has 60 legislative days from the date of the rules' publication in the Federal Register to pass the resolution.

Free Press Action Fund Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement:

"It's bad enough to be creating more profit incentive for war," I told former head of Blackwater Erik Prince, "but you recycle part of the profits as bribes for more war in the form of so-called campaign contributions. You yourself have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to political parties and candidates. The three of you," I said, referring to Prince, another guest, and the host of a television show that had just finished filming and was taking questions from the audience, "you seem to agree that we need either mercenaries or a draft, ignoring the option of not having these wars, which kill so many people, make us less safe, drain the economy, destroy the natural environment, and erode our civil liberties, with no upside. But this systemic pressure has been created for more war. Will you, Erik Prince, commit to not spending war profits on elections?"

Great Jazz Albums
This spring herald's the 50th Anniversary of arguably the greatest Jazz album ever released. I don’t write these words lightly. There are many contenders.
  “Kinda Blue” by Miles Davis (Columbia Records, 1959) hits every short list. Certified as quadruple platinum, it is the best selling Jazz album of all time. “Giant Steps” (Atlantic, 1960) is another challenger. Blistering arpeggios, known as “Sheets of Sound,” rise and fall faster then hummingbirds wings. The title track from “Giant Steps” is the quintessential study piece for Jazz improvisation. Modern enthusiasts claim that the newly discovered “John Coltrane & Thelonious Monk At Carnegie Hall” is equally worthy of consideration. In 1957 a Thanksgiving Jazz benefit was held for the Morningside Community Center in Harlem. Performers included Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. This live recording lay hidden in the Library of Congress till being discovered, restored and finally released by Blue Note Records in 2005.