Children when they cannot get their own way, feeling sorry for themselves, pouting and petulant will strike at their parents by tearfully saying, "I am sorry I was ever born." It is a meaningless self-indulgent gesture. One child hears it, sees it on television, catalogs it and saves it for later. Parents do not take it seriously. They are adults and know better. That is not the case with Virginia politicians.
Everyone of the New Dominion types have at one time or another uttered some form of an expression admonishing one not to be judgmental. You could bet the plantation on it. It is standard form and faire from the most vacuous generation, a usually un-judgmental bunch. Not this time. The Virginians bravely stepped forward to be judgmental just this once.
The New Diminutives, from The Old Dominion, have apologized for slavery and threw in the beastly treatment of Indians for good measure. They could have apologized to the pig they ate for breakfast and could have fore sworn to only do grits from now on, but they did not.
It is an idiotic meaningless impossibility for one generation to make an apology for generations before them. It is a misreading and misunderstanding of human history and if you go back one generation you must go back two, three, four and on to the beginning and then on before that. You have to keep going back in time to find the human font of folly and lay the blame. Logic requires it and it is a fools mission.
Have no fear that your state will not get in on it. They will. It will end up in the Republican and Democratic platforms or at a minimum a non-binding sense of the Senate sort of thing. Mule teams will follow behind leading a parade for reparations.
Never mind all that. Must not let facts get in the way of things.
At the end of the day, it will still be the end of the day and there will always be a tomorrow to regret yesterday. Have a nice day.
Maybe they should slit their wrists? Or join a diva at the rehab, or claim to be a lover of Anna Nicole?
ReplyDeleteEither way; WHO THE HELL CARES?
Here's another crying LIBERAL; but much funnier!
ReplyDeleteThe old south is certainly changing and Virginia in some respects is leading the way. First they make the news by passing their "Walmart" must provide healthcare law now this...Stay tuned to find out whether this is purely symbolic or a strategic move to facilitate actual reparations.
ReplyDeleteOr was that Maryland which passed the "Walmart" law?
ReplyDeleteMaryland, Virginia, whatever.
ReplyDeleteI bet most of the insanity for both those states is coming out of the Washington, D.C. area.
Concentrated special interest groups set the agenda.
Lawmakers in Richmond Virginia set precedence Saturday by voting unanimously to apologize publicly and express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.
ReplyDeleteMany sponsors of the measure claimed to have no knowledge of any other state making such a bold claim, even though Missouri lawmakers are considering passing such a measure in the future. The passed measure does not carry the same weight as a law but hold significant symbolic importance. "This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution, " said Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored the resolution in the House of Delegates.
The measure which also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans," was passed the House (96-0) and later cleared the 40 member Senate unanimously. The resolution does not require a signature of approval from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
there was a WAR
ReplyDeleteit was called the civil war
to keep it simple...
the NORTH fought against slavery
the SOUTH fought for slavery...
The NORTH spent treasure & blood to fight this fight and WON.
THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT of the USA (north & south) are PART of the Government that BEAT slavery
NO APOLOGIES NEEDED, however if african americans wish to THANK the USA for freeing them, I'll accept that
WiO said, NO APOLOGIES NEEDED, however if african americans wish to THANK the USA for freeing them, I'll accept that
ReplyDeleteWell put! I suppose 100 years from now the Iraqis will demand reparations from the United States for all the hardships they suffered when we were taking the yoke of Saddam Hussein off their smelly neck.
No need for a thank you, I didn't do shit for 'em.
ReplyDeleteTheir grandfolks may owe my grandfolks a shout out of thanks, but they're all dead, already.
The folk in VA want to regret their forebears actions, so it goes.
The Congress decides not to fund Mr Bush's budget requests, ahh well.
Surfs up.
To bad the VA lawmakers do not take a real action on their guilty feelings.
ReplyDeleteou see, in VA public schools nearly 78% of the White kids entering High School graduate.
While amongst Black kids only 67% graduate. Seems like there is some inequity in results, there in VA.
The lawmakers ought to tackle that disgrace, before they worry about the sins of their great grand parents.
If there is such a thing as collective guilt, then Ms T is right, we should apoligize to the Iraqi, well, at least certain Iraqi
ReplyDeleteFORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (AP) -- A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday ...
...
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement.
Cortez, of Barstow, California, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.
...
Earlier Thursday, tears rolled down Cortez's face as he apologized for the rape and murders. He said he could not explain why he took part.
"I still don't have an answer," Cortez told the judge. "I don't know why. I wish I hadn't. The lives of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for all of the pain and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family."
...
On Wednesday, Cortez described raping the girl in her family's home in Mahmoudiya last March, along with Spc. James Barker, 24. Barker pleaded guilty in November to rape and murder and was sentenced to 90 years in military prison.
Cortez said this week that former private Steven D. Green raped the girl in front of him; shot her father, mother and sister; and then shot her in the head. He also testified that the soldiers attempted to burn the girl's body; burned their own clothes; and threw the murder weapon, an AK-47, into a canal in an attempt to dispose of the evidence.
Cortez was found not guilty of more serious charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy to premeditated murder.
Pfcs. Jesse Spielman, 22, and Bryan Howard, 19, await courts-martial. Green, who is accused of being the ringleader but was discharged from the military before being charged, will be prosecuted in a federal court in Kentucky.
I mean if there anyone that deserves an apology ...
But maybe Ms T is right, it was for their own good, ungrateful bastards.
It's all about money and power.
ReplyDeleteThese are the initial steps toward achieving both. The old system with its good 'ol boys must be discredited. When the populace is sufficiently "dumbed down" only the lies will be remembered and taught.
"All hail the liberal new order."
Allow me to simplify things further for the simpletons who are our masters:
ReplyDeleteLook in the mirror, think of your father, then your grandfather and do your begats in reverse. Go back two hundred thousand generations and apologize for one and all.
I hope you feel better.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Associated Press) -- Can a state commit genocide? Should an entire nation _ not just its presidents, generals, and soldiers _ be held responsible for humanity's worst crime?
ReplyDeleteIn one of the most momentous cases in its 60 years, the U.N.'s highest court will deliver its judgment Monday on Bosnia's demand to make Serbia accountable for the slaughter, terrorizing, rape and displacement of Bosnian Muslims in the early 1990s.
If it rules for Bosnia, the International Court of Justice could open the way for compensation amounting to billions of dollars from Serbia, the successor state of Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia, although specific claims would be addressed only later.
It also would be a permanent stain on Serbia in the eyes of history, regardless of any effort by Belgrade to distance itself from the brutality of those years.
Reflecting the complexities, the 16 judges have deliberated for 10 months since hearing final arguments. Officials at the World Court, as it is informally known, say reading out the summary of the judgment is likely to take three hours.
The court was created after World War II to adjudicate disputes among U.N. members, most often over borders or treaty violations. Its decisions are binding, without appeal, and enforceable by the Security Council.
The Bosnia case touches deep nationalist chords and arouses strong emotions. Among survivors expected to stand vigil outside the baroque Peace Palace while the decision is read are women from Srebrenica where some 8,000 men were killed in July 1995,
The ruling comes 14 years after Bosnia first approached the court during the chaos of Yugoslavia's bloody disintegration. The political landscape has since changed dramatically, with both Bosnia and Serbia separately seeking European Union membership.
"This will be a very significant judgment, both from the perspective of the aftermath of the conflict and for international law generally," said Andre Nollkaemper, director of the Amsterdam Center for International Law at the University of Amsterdam.
Other courts already have ruled that acts of genocide occurred during the Bosnian war, when more than 100,000 people were killed in a Bosnian Serb campaign that gave the world the phrase "ethnic cleansing."
Two Bosnian Serb officers have been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Gen. Radislav Krstic is serving a 35-year prison term for aiding and abetting genocide, and Col. Vidoje Blagojevic is appealing his 18-year sentence for complicity in genocide.
Milosevic died last year in his prison cell in the final weeks of his 4-year-long genocide trial. Two other Bosnian Serbs accused of orchestrating atrocities, Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, remain at large, and critics accuse Serbia to this day of harboring Mladic.
But the World Court case, entirely separate from the tribunal's deliberations, is not about individuals. Bosnia says the Serbian state itself must accept blame.
It argues that Serbia's nationalist ideology incited genocidal hatred, its financial and military aid to the Bosnian Serbs gave them the tools for genocide, and Yugoslav army officers actively participated in driving out Muslims.
"It is the accumulation of solitary crimes _ the dreadful repetition of evil acts _ that emerges finally, clearly, as the super crime of genocide," Bosnia's U.S. advocate, Thomas Franck, told the judges last year.
Serbia says it's not that simple. Genocide, by definition, requires the clear intent to wipe out an ethnic or racial group, in whole or in part, in specific territories _ and Serbia says it never waged such a systematic campaign.
"A pattern of 'ordinary crimes' cannot be simply transformed into the crime of genocide," argued Sasa Obradovic, summing up Serbia's case last May. Rather, it must be "a specific crime, with a specific mental element."
Another problem is whether the court even has jurisdiction in the matter. Legal experts note that previous Bosnia-related cases have produced contradictory rulings.
If the judges do claim jurisdiction, they must resolve a critical question _ whether the Bosnian Serbs were under Serb government control. That issue might have been resolved had the Milosevic trial reached its conclusion. But it was stopped when he died, and the massive amounts of evidence it heard are legally worthless.
The Yugoslav tribunal "has not been successful in establishing a proven link between the paramilitaries who did the killing and the government in Belgrade," said Johannes Houwink ten Cate, a historian at the Netherlands War Documentation Center and a professor of genocide studies.
By contrast, he said, the Nuremberg trial of Nazi war criminals found a clear chain of command to the Holocaust.
The Bosnia-Serbia dispute is not a criminal case, and the standards of proof are looser than "beyond a reasonable doubt" required for a criminal conviction. To hold Serbia liable, it is enough that a majority of judges finds a "balance of probabilities."
NAIROBI, Kenya (Associated Press) -- Pirates hijacked a cargo ship delivering U.N. food aid to northeastern Somalia on Sunday _ at least the third time since 2005 that a vessel contracted to the United Nations has been hijacked off the country's dangerous coast.
ReplyDeleteThe ship, MV Rozen, had just dropped off more than 1,800 tons of food aid in the semiautonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia when the pirates struck, said Stephanie Savariaud, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Program.
It was not immediately known if any of the 12 crew members aboard _ six from Sri Lanka and six from Kenya _ were injured in the attack.
"We know it has been hijacked by pirates but we do not know how many pirates there are," Savariaud said. "We are very concerned about the safety of the crew."
The religious & cultural background of these African Slavers ...
ReplyDeleteChristian or Mohammedan ?
...Mahdi commanders boast that they could wipe out the other sect and gain total control over Baghdad if the US left. "We control most of Baghdad, our main enemy is the Americans," said Fadhel. Then he paused for a second and continued: "Also we can't trust the other Shia factions. Imam Ali says 'God please protect me against my friends and I will take care of my enemies."
ReplyDelete- Posted by 2164th at 1/27/2007 02:37:00 AM
...Will Sadr's militias be able to "lie low" if they want to respond to this?
- Sat Feb 03, 01:19:00 PM EST
Feb 25, 2007
al-Sadr: Baghdad security plan is doomed
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
...Many Shiites believe that bombings have continued because the Shiite-led government bowed to American pressure and persuaded the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to take his Mahdi Army fighters off the streets.
Iraqi officials have reported a sharp drop in sectarian reprisal killings in the capital since the operation began. Al-Sadr's Mahdi militia has been blamed for many of those deaths, and the decline could be because many of their fighters are lying low.
Mahdi Army - Come out, come out wherever you are?
Well, the call, elijah, should be for the US Army to stop the attacks on the Shia civilians, not for a hunt for Shia Militias that are maintaining the Government's call for a cease fire.
ReplyDeleteWhen that was explained to Ms Rice, she was speachless, or so the Iraqi present reported.
"... It is all very exotic. And now the British public is about to be thrust into the heart of the row. Tony Blair has been discreetly waging a campaign since last autumn to secure the missile-interceptor site for Britain, The Economist has learned. The prime minister has led the lobbying in person, apparently convinced that missile-defence technology—long derided in polite European circles as an expensive “Star Wars” fantasy—now works. Mr Blair believes that hosting the interceptors will make Britain as well as America more secure.
ReplyDeleteWith his time in office coming to an end this summer, Mr Blair is understood to have involved Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer and his probable successor, in the campaign. He needs allies: domestic reaction will be stormy before any missile is placed in a British silo. ..."