¡Viva Chile!


If you don’t read Spanish, here’s a synopsis (yeah, synopsis. What do I look like? A translator?): some left-wing pro-human rights groups in Chile are attempting a legal maneuver to have Bush subpoenaed for questioning by a judge when Bush shows up for an economic summit in Chile in a few weeks. They allege that Bush, Rumsfeld, etc., are criminally liable for torture and murder in Iraq, citing a legal principle of universal jurisdiction under international treaties to which both Chile and the U.S are signatories.

Interesting, isn’t it, that on the one hand you have a country where people are serious about trying to lock up this criminal for his crimes, while in the U.S., as we speak, the criminal has a very good shot at being re-elected President.

[de El Diario/La Prensa, New York, 27 octubre de 2004:]

Santiago de Chile/EFE — Varios partidos políticos y agrupaciones de izquierda presentaron ayer en Chile una querella contra el presidente de EE.UU., George W. Bush, al que acusan de crímenes de guerra y torturas en Irak.

En la demanda, presentada por los grupos que integran el movimiento Poder Democrático y Social (Podemos), se solicita que “tan pronto pise suelo chileno”, el mandatario estadounidense sea interrogado por un juez de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago.

Bush tiene previsto visitar Chile con ocasión de la Cumbre del Foro de Cooperación Económica de Asia Pacífico (APEC), que se celebrará en Santiago entre el 19 y el 21 de noviembre próximo.

La querella, dijeron los dirigentes del movimiento a los periodistas en el Palacio de los Tribunales, incluye además al vicepresidente de EE.UU., Dick Cheney; al secretario de Estado, Colin Powell; al secretario de Defensa, Donald Rumsfeld, y al ex administrador estadounidense en Irak, Paul Bremer.

Según los dirigentes, la acción judicial “es un acto ético, moral y de dignidad” ante la visita a Chile de George W. Bush.

El movimiento “Podemos” está formado por los partidos Humanista, Comunista, Izquierda Cristiana y el Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), entre otras organizaciones, que llevan una lista de candidatos a las elecciones municipales del próximo domingo.

Uno de los abogados que patrocinan la querella, Juan Enrique Prieto, afirmó que los crímenes cometidos por las autoridades estadounidenses en Irak han infringido el derecho internacional humanitario estipulado en la Convención de Ginebra y en la Convención contra la Tortura.

Agregó que el principio de jurisdicción universal expresado en ambas convenciones, suscritas por Chile y Estado Unidos, asigna competencia a las autoridades de un Estado para perseguir delitos que atenten contra los bienes jurídicos internacionales o supranacionales, independientemente del lugar donde hayan sido cometidos y de la nacionalidad de autores o víctimas.

“Estamos pidiendo un ministro (juez) de fuero y, como diligencia concreta, que se exhorte a objeto de obtener declaración de los imputados y además que en el evento que lleguen al país sean citados a declarar y se dicten las resoluciones que correspondan”, concluyó el abogado Prieto.

El dirigente Lautaro Carmona sostuvo por su parte que la acción legal “representa el sentimiento de un sector muy amplio de la población chilena”.

La Corte de Apelaciones deberá resolver si acoge o no a trámite el escrito y en el primer caso debería designar a uno de sus jueces para que inicie la investigación.

Open Letter to Yankees Fans

Bwa ha ha ha ha HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
That’s about all a proper pro-Red Sox Yankees-hating Mets fan can say at a time like this.
But I’ll continue anyway. Whose your daddy now? Huh? Woohoooo! You wanna talk superstition? Who’s superstitious now? Did you see all those Yankee fans holding up pictures of the Babe, trying to invoke The Curse? Pathetic! Ah hahahahahahaha haaaaaaaa!
Sure, you can route for the Sox to lose the World Series, but even if they do, that’s pretty cold comfort, isn’t it? Tee hee heee. Because the real series is over and you blew it, you fucking blew a 3-0 series lead and made major league baseball history. Imagine that. Go Red Sox, I love you guys!
Gee, I wonder how poor George is feeling today. Are you gonna fire Joe Torre now, George? Will that help?
Bwaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….

Good News: Drug Traffickers Use GPS

I heard on NPR this morning that drug traffickers working in and around Guatemala are using the Global Positioning System to locate points where they drop off and pick up 25-kilogram, bouyant, water-tight packages of cocaine in the ocean. It warms my heart to see another technology, originally developed for inherently evil military purposes, being used for something constructive. All the folks here at Vernon T. Bludgeon Consulting would like to salute our colleagues in the narcotraffic industry and wish them all success.
For let us not forget: the illegal drug trade — and its sine qua non, coercive prohibitionist policies — creates employment, opportunity and prosperity for countless thousands. Not to mention the pleasure that quality product brings to so many recreational users who enjoy drugs, and suffer negligible adverse social and health consequences! Yes my friends, from producer to processor, transporter to wholesaler, retailer to end user, just about everybody wins — including, of course, our thriving correctional-industrial complex. But the prison boom is hardly the only side-benefit of the multiplier effect. Drug dealers and manufacturers with money to burn drive the demand for all manner of consumer and industrial goods and services — think of the high-end tennis shoes favored by many drug retailers, or the precursor chemicals a Colombian processor orders from a German firm, or the speedboats those fellows in Guatemala are using, or the laundering services provided by so many financial institutions ranging from the mom-and-pop remittance agencies to the biggest names in the banking industry.
Of course drug prohibition has negative social impact on a few people, but that’s just the way of capitalism, folks. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs! It’s clear that the benefits of the illegal drug trade and our apparently (but not really) failed policies far outweigh the costs.

Lexical gap: the opposite of jealousy

When I see these ladies together — that would be my daughter and my wife — and see how profoundly they love each other, I feel an emotion for which there is no one word in the English language. The very opposite of jealousy, it’s the satisfaction you experience when you see a relationship flourish between two others.

Cabe mencionar de paso que el español también padece la misma laguna léxica, que no hay ninguna palabra que signifique lo contrario del celos (A mi buen saber y entender (-:)