a point of failed hermenuetics

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the criticism is partisan, and that it is settled law that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners are not protected by the Geneva Conventions. "Now, I hate to ruin a good story for the President's political opponents. But there is one important problem with this criticism: Judge Gonzales is right," Cornyn said in remarks prepared for his introduction of Gonzales.

so the problem is in the sematically orientation then, eh? "it is settled law" says whom. this floppying right wing senator? i don't think there is anything settled about it. the simplest example suffices to show how erroneous this conclusion is. Assume that enemy forces capture US soldiers that are operating on clandestine missions. These must by the Senator's fine "settled law" be determined to be prisoners not protected by the Geneva Conventions and therefore are subject to torture. Alas the texas yoyo would never ever suggest this were true. So in his own hypocrisy he has nullified his own "settled law". how stupid can our legislature become?

If our current leaders regain their senses and abandon their foolish policies, there are too many other threats to the planet's survival. Jared Diamond, author of the new book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," wrote recently in The New York Times that there are five main factors to how societies collapse - "the damage that people have inflicted on their environment; climate change; enemies; changes in friendly trading partners; and the society's political, economic and social responses to these shifts."

If the developed world fails to make the changes that could forestall the sort of environmental collapse that many scientists believe is coming, wars over scarce resources such as food, water and energy seem inevitable. Diamond's book chronicles the fates of dozens of failed societies over the centuries. He believes the common thread for failure, besides not taking environmental change seriously, is that "the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions" and is unwilling "to re-examine long-held core values."

Elites rarely suffer in war. It's the lower classes that do the fighting and dying. Elites do not worry about the limits of nature, because they know they have the wealth to insulate themselves from the consequences.

But if we fail to deal with the problems that are of our own making - nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation, economic inequality - the day will come when these ills will fuel a cataclyism of war and destruction that will engulf the world. Ultimately, there won't be enough money in the world to protect anyone from this nightmare scenario.

i have been making this point for a long time now. we are living in a time and space when the elites must pay to be protected. at some point those they pay must make choices regarding the reliability of their associates, eventually getting down to who stands on the gate outside the compounds and secure zones--who takes the shots and risks for those inside... they will never be stupid enough nor paid enough, over the long haul, to guarantee the safety of those inside...