Random Link Dump

Wan Yanhai released: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061127/hl_afp/healthaidschinarights_061127061946

An article from SFgate.com on gay life in rural China. I wonder how it compares to gay life in Idaho.

Some needs to teach the Brits how to apologize.

Collateral Damage, Terrorism, Laws of War

Just something that has been bouncing around in my head for a while. What is moral difference between targeting civilians and engaging in military actions that you know with a high degree of certainty will result in civilian injuries and death? Shouldn’t the principle be “do no harm”, not “don’t say you’re going to harm”? Here are some articles I dug up on the web:

“Collateral Damage is Murder” by Michael Boldin

“Terrorism and Response: A Moral Inquiry into the Killing of Noncombatants” by Camillo C. Bica, Ph.D.

“Reflections on Kant and Moral Equivalence” by Michael Neumann

If any anyone knows of other writings on this subject, legal or otherwise, please let me know!

Random Links

The New York Times notices that not all gay folks are into the marriage thing. A lot of straight people aren’t either.

I’m usually predisposed to keeping essential services public, but in this case, things should be kept private.

Gay Panic & the Middle East Conflict

Another crazy week. Tuesday was a panel discussion at the LGBT Center surrounding the execution of two youth in Iran a year ago. Yesterday I went to meeting of folks trying to organize a response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. Today, a protest in the pouring rain outside the US Mission. It’s all been a blur…one of those weeks when events in the world pull you along, leaving little room for reflection. Then I came across this article in the San Jose Mercury about a group of prosecutors trying to stop the use of the “Gay Panic” defense and an idea crystallized: The claim of fear by the powerful serves to justify violence against the weak.  This claim of fear transforms active violence into reactive “self-defense.” The homophobe uses “gay panic” to justify gay bashing. The Israeli government and its US and British backers use fear of terrorism to justify the invasion of Gaza and the seige of Lebanon. NYPD officers use fear to justify their killing of an unarmed African immigrant in the Bronx.

How do bury the notion that one person’s peace of mind is worth the lives of hundreds or thousands of others? How do we cut through this false logic of fear that enables Empire?

A Right to Death

Here's something I would like to see all those ivory-tower human rights theorists investigate. Instead of a right to life (which we all know nobody really enjoys anyway) how about a fundamental human right to death with dignity. Hunh? A right to death? What I mean is that every human being should have the right to choose the manner and time of their death. This would prohibit the death penalty, allow the terminally ill to end their suffering, as well as allow those facing life-threatening situations (such as starvation due to poverty, or civilian victims of warfare) to make a challenge based on human rights principles. I believe a right to death with dignity is a more much substantive, really much more about the quality of life, that the empty right that the right to life is.