How We Punish Determines Who We Are

A concept I have not found discussed anywhere in the wake of the "bin Laden" execution, except here at Salon by Glenn Greenwald.

The reason? Only about 14 percent of you give a damn.

If the US Navy Seals were sent to take no prisoners, how are we any different than bin Laden?

"Narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it."

The Terrorists Have Won Because They've Already Imposed Authoritarianism

Leftist Glenn Greenwald seems happy John "Don't Touch My Junk" Tyner is a reader and gets off a couple of good lines at the government and the media at Salon.com here:

[G]overnment officials run to the nearest media outlet ... and anonymously scream "TERRORISM." No evidence is needed; the anonymity precludes all accountability; fear levels are quickly ratcheted up; and everything the Government wants to do then becomes justifiable in its name. That's the frightened, authoritarian society we've allowed ourselves to become. ... [J]ournalists ... dutifully disseminate whatever fear-mongering claims their anonymous government friends tell them to write . . . .

It's a recurring phenomenon that left and right in America often agree on a few things, because they are not nihilists and actually believe in something, unlike many self-identifying Democrats and Republicans. But I digress.

Greenwald is worth reading.