"Senate OKs detainee interrogation bill"

Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!!

"In this new era of threats, where the stark and sober reality is that America must confront international terrorists committed to the destruction of our way of life, this bill is absolutely necessary," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

A bit of a paradox, don't you think? I mean, to protect a way of life by utterly changing it... A bit like building your own sandcastle and then stomping on it yourself so that the bullies on the beach can't.

Not that i'm saying that the American "way of life" is as illusory as a sandcastle, but it definitely has always had its cracks. That's where weed and bushes dig their roots into... and then end up making the walls crumble to pieces.

The particular crack i'm referring to are America's double standards, which more than a crack has become a canyon that plagues not only America, but... well, i was gonna say the whole developed world, but in fact, it plagues the whole of humanity. The reason why fingers are more easily pointed towards the 'first world' is because from the perspective of a 'third worlder', it seems that the developed nations have it in their hands to change things... Which in reality maybe they don't, any longer. Or maybe not so easily.

The double standards i'm talking about are those high and mighty humanitarian and environmental principles that let us point to that ignorant and miserable part of the world that is without them, those principles that draw clear limits within which all business must operate... while in the first world. However, if first world business goes to the third world (as it must, for the level of prosperity lived in the first world to be maintained), then it may do as it pleases. In fact, it MUST be able to do as it pleases, otherwise profits are not high enough.

Things have come to such a head that nowadays first world nations are indeed in deep... cra(cks)p. On the one hand, their citizens are becoming more and more educated, and they are demanding their governments to really live up to those beautiful principles. On the other hand, if a nation wants to pass laws demanding that multinational companies based on its soil conduct business only with those countries that demonstrate a certain level of internal justice and whatever the opposite of corruption is... well, then those companies will pick up their skirts and scamper away to that blessedly miserable, ignorant and --most importantly-- cheap part of the world: you can kiss goodbye those billions in tax revenues. I mean, businesses are doing it already, what with all those bloody chimney filters people want them to spend money on, and the high tithes exacted from them every year ("Democracy can be so feudal, it's disgraceful!" as my uncle Scrooge used to say). In any case, if you're in a public office and want yourself or your party to be re-elected, this is not a pretty picture. Ignore it for as long as you can, or try to keep people disinformed, or make deals with the companies under the table.

So you see: crumbling, crumbling. And terrorism is just that little extra, shitty, dirty bit of weight that gives us even less time to really fix the old place...

It all comes down to that old sigh: if we could really live up to our principles!