It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. This morning, we learn that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez gave an order to allow American soldiers to abuse prisoners at Abu Ghraib whenever they wanted, using a list of techniques, even when prisoners were not suspected of any crime. Where, oh where, did Sanchez get this list? Why, he got it from the prison at Guantanamo. Where, oh where, did the people in charge of prisoners at Guantanamo get the list? Why, they got it from the Bush Administration. Few bad apples, my orchard! The decision to use torture came from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of that rotten crew. Return to the Irregular Times Main Page
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