How we betrayed the rule of law for the fool's gold of security

Revelations of Bush-era excesses in the name of national security continue to drip like water upon the stone of public conscience. In our post 9/11 paranoia, we resorted to torture techniques that violated the nation's core principles. We sold our national honor for fool's gold.

People came out of the McCarthy era marveling at how easily fear and paranoia had stampeded us into surrendering principles that are supposed to define us. Mark my words: We will look back on this era the same way. Full Story »

Posted by Dwight Rousu
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Posted by: Posted by Dwight Rousu - Apr 6, 2009 - 12:08 PM PDT
Content Type: Article
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Edited by: Dwight Rousu - Apr 6, 2009 - 12:30 PM PDT

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4.5
by Dwight Rousu - Apr. 6, 2009

Pitts portrays US torture crimes with the added perspective of national paranoia during the Red Scare when logic, decency, and common sense were abandoned by zealots who assumed superior powers to themselves to "save" civilized society via the most uncivilized acts.

What kind of fool is this? Having watched a play of "Crime and Punishment" Saturday, this fool might well be driven by the exceptionalism of ... More »

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4.4
by Tanya J. Maurer - Apr. 10, 2009
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4.1
by Sara Peters - Oct. 21, 2009

To me this article is a cautionary tale. However, it doesn't frighten the reader. The author constructed the article in a creative way. This is clever because the author chooses pop culutre references to help the reader understand the scope of this issue. By doing so the reader can chronologically follow historical mishaps and correlate them with pop icons. To me this is very original. What better way to inform people then disarming them with warm images of television characters. ... More »

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