One Man's Opinion

In an obvious effort to placate those who want crimes against civilians in war zones investigated by outside authorities, the U.S. military has come up with one of those "happy medium" plans. Given the absurdly partial practice of having the branch of service in which the accused serves investigate the crime, the proposal would entrust this matter to a senior commander in the zone but unrelated to the particular branch form where the soldier comes from. Although this appears to be a better procedure, it will still be unacceptable to any fair-minded person. It is still soldiers judging soldiers, and we know how it's going to turn out. Soldiers will go unpunished, for all kinds of reasons, mainly because the military will take care of its own, and no nice American boy is going to go to jail for killing Afghan or Iraqi civilians.

The moneyed interests in Venezuela will not cease until they bring down the present regime. Unable to win the elections -- though they claim to have won the last one -- they now resort to making trouble on the economic front, so that they can prove that the government is to blame for all its difficulties in this regard. Thus, all of a sudden, there are suspicious shortages of basic goods, from meat to toilet paper. Though the government may have made ill-advised decisions on the economy -- which government has not -- there is now proof that, at least, there is hoarding of some products by businessmen and, you can bet your bottom bolívar , other people in the opposition. The police have seized 2,500 rolls of toilet paper, along with 7,000 liters of juice and 400 diapers at a warehouse. This way, they kill two birds with one stone: they get to sell the "scarce" products at a much-higher price, and discredit the government's economic policies. Something tells me that thi

Today marks the 32nd year that Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera has been behind bars in a U.S. prison. He has been incarcerated longer than Mandela or any other political prisoner, for that matter. He was never convicted of harming anyone; only of "seditious conspiracy", a charge used by governments such as the one in South Africa under apartheid and, yes, the U.S., to lock up Puerto Rican  supporters of independence. A measure of the extreme cruelty that López has been subjected to is the fact that he spent 12 of these 32 years in solitary confinement. So, the next time you hear Obama or any of his people talking about human rights, remember Oscar López Rivera.

The news that two U.S. Embassy officials in Caracas were shot at a strip club is interesting, not because -- as American media is quick to point out -- it shows how much crime there is Venezuela, but because it shows how stupidly U.S. officials continue to act abroad. After all that has happened before and after the Colombian affair, these two guys go to a strip club till the wee hours of the morning . Not the kind of place that people that represent a government -- any government -- should go to. Even if they are innocent victims of anything bad that happens, it's embarrassing, to say the least, to find them there. I'm sure that the Embassy code of conduct   forbids going to places of dubious reputation or indecent behavior, that reflect badly on the image of the country they represent. Just like the sex scandals in the U.S. military, these indiscretions by American government officials abroad seem to have a life of their own.

Land ownership has been the root cause of most revolutions and civil unrest throughout history. Too few have owned the land, while too many have had none. Having no land means going hungry and living as serfs, without any hope for the future. This is the story of Latin America, and explains why movements such as the FARC in Colombia have fought for so long. The fact that land reform is the first point that the parties to the Colombian peace talks have agreed on shows just how important this issue is. What's most striking is that the government has agreed to give away public lands to peasants to cultivate them. Which begs the question: Why has it taken it so long for them to do it? One could understand that the government would resist the idea of taking land from the wealthy to give to the poor, but giving poor farmers a plot of public land could have been done decades ago. This is the kind of insensitivity that breeds resentment and, ultimately, armed struggle by the downtrodde

What's with the usually cool -- some would say cold -- Swedes? In a country most known for suicide, all of a sudden, people have gone on a rampage over the death of an old guy who, supposedly, threatened police officers with a machete and got killed by them. Then, all hell has broken loose, and taking a page from the French protest book, the Swedes spend their nights burning cars, a curious practice if there ever was one. Now, what burning Saabs and Volvos has to do with anything is beyond me. The whole world is shocked at the Swedish reaction to a possible case of police brutality or excessive use of force. Even if that were to be the case, five nights of car burning is an excessive response of civil outrage. Especially for a country much admired around the world for its civilized lifestyle.

"Only in America", as boxing promoter Don King used to say. Only, in this case, it has nothing to do with the rags-to-riches stories that King referred to, but with that particular American inventiveness to make a quick buck. A New York city tour bus company had the brilliant idea of offering a three-hour "ghetto" tour of the Bronx. You know, a slumming, wrong-side-of-the-tracks view of the city. The borough political figures demanded and got the tour cancelled. Still, the mere fact that someone would come up with such a concept in the first place shows just how far some shameless people are willing to go to make money.

It was to be expected. The moment Cuba began to open its door just a bit to business interests, especially from foreigners, corruption reared its ugly head. So, the Cuban government has moved very fast to cut it off. In some cases, people or businesses have been ordered out of the country. In other instances, they are being tried quickly and given harsh sentences. Of course, all this seems unorthodox or offensive to our liberal sensibilities. But, maybe if we in other countries had acted promptly and decisively against corruption, there would not be so much of it to go around. So much that it can be exported to places like Cuba.

For most of his career, Jerry Lewis was a brilliant comedian. Later on, he turned into a one-man crusader against muscular dystrophy. But, even brilliant and caring people can be absolutely idiotic with regard to certain things. It's absolutely inconceivable that Lewis, of all people, should hold that women are not funny. As if there was something in nature that prevents females from being humorous. One could think that, at 87, age has something to do with his surprising notion, but the fact that he was 72 when he first stated this publicly suggests that it's not something to be attributed to mental decay. Poor Jerry. So talented and so dumb.

As an attorney, I'm fully aware that there are procedural errors so egregious that they warrant the setting aside of a verdict and the retrial of a defendant. But, there is also the doctrine of the non-prejudicial error, one that, though committed, does not annul a judicial proceeding. Without the benefit of knowing just what the procedural violation was in the Ríos Montt trial in Guatemala, it's impossible to judge if the decision to overturn his conviction is justified. There are, though, disturbing signs that this surprising development may be due to pressures from the powers that be, namely, business and the military, the two elements that, in tandem, have traditionally ruled in Latin America from the far Right. In this case, not only have the come out to protect one of their own, but also to protect others from both groups who could stand trial in the immediate future. In any case, the former dictator will be tried once again. Let's hope that they get it right, and

I suppose that Ghandi must be "turning over in his grave", so to speak. I venture to say that he would be extremely embarrassed, to say the least, by the auction, for thousands of British pounds, of all kinds of personal objects that belonged to him, including a glass microscope slide with a trace of his blood. True, the man was considered a saint by many, and his was indeed a great soul, as the term  Mahatma means. But, to sell these things as if they were religious relics is surely contrary to all the things that the great man stood for. It's, I believe, a desecration of his memory.

A priest is a priest is a priest, at least as it regards pedophilia. By now, the whole world knows that Catholic priests are extremely fond of, at a minimum, fondling boys. But, it now seems that wearing the clerical garb somehow prompts priests of other denominations to engage in the same kind of practice. For example, a couple of retired Anglican priests have been sentenced to jail for loving their little neighbors too much a long time ago. Jesus has been credited with saying: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for such is the kingdom of heaven." Suffer, indeed!

Over the years, Hispanics have "killed" themselves to reach the U.S. by hook or by crook, hoping to find a "better life" for themselves and their children. It now seems that what they do find is an unhealthy lifestyle full of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, all significant killers. A public health study shows that, the longer Latinos stay in the U.S., the worse their health becomes, due mostly to poor eating habits they pick up from the new culture or the fact that they cannot afford to eat better. Also, many have to work long ours or have two jobs, just to make ends meet. Poor nutrition and stress do the trick. The old saying "Be careful what you wish for" is entirely applicable to this situation.

I keep telling you: it's always about money. Especially in the U.S, where money is, as an author put it a long time ago, the "civil religion." It seems that there is a practice among the wealthy to skip standing in line at Disney World by hiring disabled people to pretend that they are part of the family, so that the rich kid and his parents get preferential treatment. This pretense is handsomely rewarded, at about a thousand dollars a day, which has prompted some people to justify the practice, by pointing out that this is a way of helping the disabled. Though that may be the case, you and I know that the well-to-do don't do it for that reason. As usual, they are buying their way around rules or conditions that others have to abide by. Money buys privilege.

We live in extraordinary times. Who would have thought, just a few years ago, that country after country would be legalizing same-sex marriages? Similarly, no one would have predicted that more and more people would be calling for the legalization of marijuana. The Organization of American States, no less, has come out in favor of just that in a study about drug use, especially in Latin America. Reality has a way of asserting itself over prejudice or preconceived notions about what is. One cannot ignore  the facts of life. Morality needs to be tempered by the way people live and what they do, otherwise it becomes irrelevant. Things change, and we must change with them. We live in extraordinary times, indeed.

It's always about money. The American "consultant" who is imprisoned in Cuba for counterrevolutionary activities has been portrayed by the U.S. media as an innocent victim. A man who just went to Cuba to help set up a wider Internet connection or something like that. The American government has turned his case into a cause celebre , insisting that he be set free, pointing not only to his "innocence" but to an alleged ill health. Interestingly enough, all along, he and his wife had sued his company and the U.S. Government for $60 million , claiming that he wasn't made aware of the danger he would face in Cuba. Well, now, after so many years after Fidel came to power and established  a supposedly "totalitarian state", was this man completely unaware of the possibility of ending in jail? Also, he had made five trips to Cuba, which seems like a lot of traveling for just business. Unless he was doing something else. In any case, Mr. Gross, while he

Here's a story to make one less cynical. Jeremy Affeldt, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, realized that there was a mistake in the contract that he was about to sign, and that he would be paid $500,000 more than he had bargained for. Legally, he would be allowed to keep it. But, he knew it was wrong. So, he corrected the error, thus saving his team all that money. In a world in which athletes cheat left and right, it's good to know that there are honest ones who will do the right thing, even if it costs them a lot of money.

North Korea's posturing and threats have taken a backseat to South Korea's political scandals. I suppose that it's only fitting that the sexual harassment by the Korean public official took place in the U.S., so that the Americans have no way of glossing it over to favor its ally. Of course, crude as it is, the groping of a female by the main spokesman of the President of South Korea is the least of her government's problems. On closer inspection, her track record regarding appointments has been dismal, with several of her appointees having resigned for tax evasion and other problems. So, at a time when the U.S. makes much of its support of South Korea as a country in stark contrast to its neighbor to the north, it is embarrassing, to say the least, to have all these things come out. Of course, there's no better place to get into trouble over sex than the U.S., a country that reelected its President after he admitted having oral sex in the Oval Office with an inte

I suppose that it was to be expected that, as the first Latin American Pope, Francisco would pay attention to this part of the world, in recognizing sainthood. Still, he could have waited a bit longer before rushing to canonize fellow Latinos. Then again, maybe these people were worthy a long time ago, and had been excluded by some sort of ethnic prejudice, so he wanted to put right this wrong. Not that the Church has ever been hasty in handling its affairs. As a matter of fact, the 800 martyrs from the 15th century that he made saints shows just how slowly the Vatican wheels turn. For God's sake, those people were beheaded, for refusing to convert to Islam! You would think that something like that would fast-track you to sainthood. Let's hope that, from now on, the Church speeds things up properly in the saint-making department.

Beware of certain intellectuals, political pundits, institutions or think tanks. They're nothing more than a cover for espousing discrimination and hate, in the name of research and science. Those who think alike or want their views supported by "data" or the opinion of "experts", then rely on reports and studies conducted by the  supposedly "best and the brightest." This comes to mind now that we know some more about the co-author of a study on immigration reform done by The Heritage Foundation  which favors keeping out people with low IQs and low job skills. That is to say, most Hispanics or Latinos, according to his view. More than that, he claims that these people become a burden to the U.S., to the tune of $6 trillion. The trouble is that these are the same views he had back in 2009, when he wrote his doctoral dissertation at Harvard. So, they are not the product of an unbiased study, but of his own prejudices, passed on as scientific and seri

A big part of the American mythology is the claim that the U.S. Government is squeaky clean in its dealings with its citizenry. In other words, contrary to almost all the rest of the world, Uncle Sam plays fair and does not use its considerable power to oppress the people. Well, not quite. The Internal Revenue Service has admitted targeting conservative political groups for special scrutiny, especially those with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their names. Although they don't admit that it was done for partisan purposes, it's obvious that this is the case. One more thing. In the press conference that they apologized for this, a senior IRS official, in answer to a question, said that she was "not good at math." Wow! Dumb and dumber.

A former attorney for the U.S. State Department, who is in the know of these things, has publicly criticized the way in which the drone program has been handled, especially its secrecy. Although he hasn't gone as far as to condemn the program outright, he has pointed out the lack of clear standards for its application. Significantly, he warns that the American government should "reassure [allies] that we are not applying a standard that we would consider unlawful if espoused to justify the use of drones by, say, China, North Korea or Iran." He is not alone in voicing these concerns about the drone program. Recently, a former lawyer for the Pentagon did the same. Two voices crying in the wilderness, I'm afraid.

Frankly, the U.S. military stupidity in Afghanistan seems to know no bounds. An American soldier has been transferred from his post, after being caught twice throwing rocks at a wall-length picture of Hamid Karzai.  Though not as serious as other incidents, this disrespect by a member of the "allied" armed forces is untenable. It reinforces the idea that Americans have Afghans in very low esteem, if any. If this is how the President of the country is regarded by the supposedly friendly forces, who are there to help and support the Afghan people, one has to wonder how the common citizens are seen by the American army.

Last year, an old nun and two elderly companions gained a surprisingly easy access to what was supposed to be the most secure nuclear facility in the U.S. Their purpose was to call attention to the dangers of nuclear power, especially when used for military weapons. Now, "they are having the book thrown at them", with the possibility of very harsh penalties for their "crimes." The fact is that what they did, at worst, amounted to some misdemeanors that should be punished with a fine. Their real "crime" was exposing the government's lax security and inefficiency in such a delicate matter. They are being punished for embarrassing the almighty U.S. Government. These three American citizens should be hailed as heroes in their country and around the world, for showing up their government for what it is.

It's sheer insanity to be unwilling to reconsider a position, in the face of its tragic consequences. The Kentucky town in which the 5-year-old boy killed his 2-year-old sister with a gun is "up in arms" over the rest of the nation's -- probably the world's -- reaction to the incident. It is inconceivable that people are willing to put their children at risk of death or grave bodily harm, just to maintain a way of life in which firearms are of paramount importance. That there are companies which make guns specifically for kids speaks volumes about how sick a society can be. Although one can understand hunting or shooting for sport, there is no valid reason to put guns in small children's hands.

Isn't it time to call off those air shows in which daredevil pilots put themselves and the public in extreme danger for no good reason? Frequently, they end tragically, as was the case in Spain today. What made this instance particularly absurd is the fact that the plane that crashed killing its pilot was built in the 1950s . Was that plane in such a condition as to make it safe to engage in the kind of stunts that are part of these air shows? One would hardly think so. It's a tragedy that people die for the sake of entertaining others who get a thrill out of these death-defying shows.

It happens to the best of us. Often, trying to be funny, witty or provocative you say something that you immediately regret. The Harvard history professor who said that the great British economist John Maynard Keynes, the most influential of the 20th century, did not care enough about the future effect of his policies because, being homosexual, he had no children made a very stupid remark. Not only was he insensitive in delivering what amounts to a "low blow", but he is factually incorrect on two counts. First, homosexuals have always had children. Second, even people who don't have children care about the future. The professor, of course, has apologized for his thoughtlessness. Which goes to show you that tenure at an Ivy-League college does not preclude you from being stupid.