Maszman Speaks!

Op-Ed Colum­nist — Amer­ica the Tar­nished — NYTimes​.com

I’m shocked, I say shocked that Amer­i­can busi­nesses are fir­ing work­ers and cut­ting wages and ben­e­fits for oth­ers because they know no one will dare com­plain. It’s not like I have any per­sonal expe­ri­ence. Nope. [Salon​.com link]

After the CIA sub­jected Abu Zubaida to water­board­ing and other harsh inter­ro­ga­tion meth­ods they got a lot of leads. But other than send­ing peo­ple rac­ing around the globe on a wild goose chase, noth­ing they obtained from tor­ture was of any value at all. In fact, the only infor­ma­tion they ever received that was any use at all came long before water­board­ing was approved.

We sold off what­ever moral supe­ri­or­ity we might have had over al Qaeda and other ter­ror­ists and in return we got noth­ing. Yet there are the Dick Cheney’s who per­sist in their sup­port of tor­ture, choos­ing to ignore the facts because they con­flict with their per­sonal beliefs. That, if noth­ing else, defines the sad eight years of the Bush “pres­i­dency”. We may be able in the com­ing years to make some repairs to our national image but we can never again say “we don’t torture”.

Schiller

Orig­i­nally uploaded by tom­masz

Once a sym­bol of the strength of the German-American com­mu­nity in Rochester, it now sits in a park near the Inner Loop in an indus­trial neigh­bor­hood.

Push

Orig­i­nally uploaded by tom­masz

It was jammed.

Cross­walk

Orig­i­nally uploaded by tom­masz

Clearly, this is not in the cross­walk.