One Man's Opinion

There are real-life situations so ironic or ones that so negate "conventional wisdom", that one couldn't have scripted them better. Take the case of Republican Congressman Michael Grimm, a white, former Marine and FBI agent who is being accused of perjury, obstruction of justice, hiring undocumented workers and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Far from the squeaky-clean hero image of "the proud, the few" and the incorruptible, isn't it? Which goes to show that all that is just propaganda. There is nothing "special" about being a Marine, an FBI or a Secret Service agent. It's just part of the "exceptionalism" bullshit that aims to convince the American people and the rest of the world of the innate superiority of the U.S.

Let's not get carried way by all the hoopla surrounding the canonization of John Paul II. I know he was the darling of the West for his part in bringing down communism in his native Poland and the Soviet bloc. But, lest we forget, he was the head of the Catholic Church for almost 30 years. Which begs the question: What the hell did he do all those years with the pedophile priests, bishops and cardinals? Obviously, he swept the whole thing under the Vatican rugs. In my book, that alone disqualifies him from sainthood.

Time magazine has chosen Beyoncé as its cover for the "100 most influential people in the world" issue. Not only that but also her photo shows her in very provocative -- almost indecent -- attire. Either the magazine is really saying it tongue-in-cheek, or it's an admission of how banal life and the publication have become. I guess this is what happens when you try to cover too much ground. Maybe Time should   cut down its "honor roll" to 50, so it can be more selective and not embarrass itself by catering to the lowbrows in society.

 For what it's worth, another important figure has come out in favor of legalizing marijuana. This time it's retired Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Paul Stevens, the third-longest serving one. Stevens points out that, as with alcohol in the early 20th century, public opinion has shifted considerably, making prohibition increasingly unpopular and irrational, given the science that clarifies the true nature of the effects of marijuana. Little by little, the "conventional wisdom" about marijuana is replaced by a rational approach based on facts and an enlightened view of how to deal with the use of drugs and other controlled substances.

Alan Gross' attorney has been quoted thus: " He was sent to Cuba five times on a government mission, and on a government mission that was blatantly illegal under Cuba law ." As we lawyers like to say: I rest my case.

The new Georgia gun law is the product of troubled minds and spirits, completely alienated from reason and common sense. To pass such a law in 2014 is simply outrageous, and goes to show not only that they are owned by the gun lobby, but also what it is to not have a clue about the true meaning and sensible application of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I mean, guns in bars and churches ? This people have seen too many Westerns...

As much as I love music, conga drums and the like have no place at baseball stadiums. Cuba had it right when it banned those musical instruments as part of the game's "soundtrack." But, bowing to public pressure it has backtracked somewhat, allowing them on a limited basis. As for me, I would have kept the ban. There's more than enough assault on our ears in public places, where loud and inconsiderate people subject the rest of us to their definition of "having fun." Baseball is the spectacle; the Cuban one is good enough not to need these improvised shows in the stands. Sometimes you need a bit of a "dictatorship" to make things right.

Although it should be crystal-clear by now that "military justice" is an oxymoron, the legal proceedings at Guantánamo keep getting worse by any standard, making Kafka's The Trial look like a textbook on criminal procedure. The latest subversion of the rule of law and a fair trial is the tampering of the FBI with a defense witness. As if the government spying on the attorney-client meetings, the searching and copying of the defense emails and the secret monitoring by the CIA -- among other things -- were not enough, now we have the FBI attempting to turn a defense witness into an informant. An American law professor and former military prosecutor has said that, if something like this happened in some other country, the Americans would be saying that it is a "kangaroo process." He's wrong; you don't have to be an American to say it. I'm not, and I'm saying it.

Artists should be judged primarily for their work. Once you star poking around their personal lives, you're bound to be disappointed or dismayed. Unless they get preachy -- which many of them do -- it's really unfair to put them under too strict a scrutiny. Talent does not make a person better; only better-known. We should never idolize anybody just for being talented. This comes to mind with regards to García Márquez and his relationship to Colombia and his hometown of Aracataca. It seems that the much-admired writer was not much-loved by some of his countrymen and fellow townspeople, who feel that he did not do enough for them, given his fame and good fortune. There are conflicting views on the matter, but, as I said, all that is beside the point. After all, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, not for Peace or Good Will.

Let's get one thing straight. The right to protest against the government is not absolute, that is to say, people cannot protest anywhere, anytime and anyway they choose to. Constitutional liberties and rights can be subject to reasonable limitations, as to where, when, how and for how long one can exercise them. A government that does so is not a dictatorship or a fascist State. There is a very disturbing trend all around the world. People take to the streets to protest about anything and everything. Even if one were to assume that all those protests are justified, there comes a point in which they become untenable. There can be no true democracy if governments are continually challenged and defied by citizens who engage in disrupting daily life significantly. Elections will mean nothing, if an upset citizenry demands a change of government every few months because prices are too high or there is some other difficulty. Once that precedent is established, there will be no end to...

Berlusconi's sentence to community service is laughable and a shame on Italian justice, which has bent over backwards to favor him personally and politically. This is the kind of decision that calls into question the judicial system as an impartial and independent forum. At a time when cases such as the Amanda Knox trial for murder has been portrayed so negatively, this one will be held up as an example of how unreliable the Italian court system is, part of a State and political system that is in complete disarray.

The awarding of a Pulitzer Prize for journalism to two newspapers for publishing the "Snowden papers" and following up on that story is certainly a hard slap on the face of the Obama administration. The Pulitzer people are to be commended for recognizing this work, given the U.S. government's persecution of Snowden and anybody connected to him or his work. It keeps getting harder for the American government to hold that Snowden is a criminal and a traitor that deserves to be put to death or incarcerated for life.

From the very start, I have asked myself two things about the Pistorius case. First, why would a burglar be in the bathroom and move around so much as to awake the people in the house? Second, didn't Pistorius notice that his girlfriend wasn't in bed beside him before he went to check on the bathroom? It doesn't make any sense. The only credible explanation is that he murdered her.

Guantánamo has always been an example of U.S. imperialism, and since 2001, another chapter of its aggression and disregard for the rule of law and international law in particular. The detention camp has violated every rule in the book of human rights. Now, we find out that in Guantánamo there is a secret inner sanctum in which 15 prisoners are held in conditions that are worse than those in the rest of the camp. The place is barely acknowledged officially, and there is no accountability for what goes on there. It is a "black hole" for those human beings. Given this situation, why anybody would listen to the Americans lecture them on human rights is beyond me.

It's an old story that keeps repeating itself. The U.S. supports fascist and right-wing governments and groups in other countries, and when they fall, it gives them asylum or, at least, "aid and comfort." Invariably, these people have committed horrendous crimes against their own, but the American government pays no mind because, quite frankly, it is an accomplice or accessory to all that murder and torture. The latest case is that of the Salvadoran general who has been living in Florida for the last 24 years after having been involved in, among other things, the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Now, when he's 81, an Immigration court has ordered his deportation, but the case will be appealed, and by the time it's finally resolved, he might very well be dead, so nothing will come of it. This way, the U.S. pretends to do "justice", while it has very little practical effect.

The French have finally recognized that having employees or contractors constantly connected on-line to their employers is really abusive, given the fact that they have no real rest and quality time to spend with their families. So, labor and management are coming together on a voluntary basis to guarantee that employees and consultants have eleven consecutive hours during which they don't have to answer the phone, e-mails or text messages from work. The fact that this is news shows how far we have all gone down the path of worker exploitation under the pretense of being more competitive.

Jimmy Carter has always been a different kind of American; that is to say that he has never been afraid to point out his country's mistakes and shortcomings, rejecting the "my country, right or wrong" mentality. In a recent interview he has called the U.S. "the No.1 warmonger on earth", backing it up with the fact that, since 1945, it has been almost constantly at war, and in 30 countries it has initiated the conflict. If more Americans had such a clear sense of what their country has done and keeps doing all around the globe, the world would be a better place.

It's funny that, when public officials are caught red-handed, they invariably resign, saying that they do, not because they have done anything wrong, but to eliminate the " distraction " they are causing from the really important issues of the day. This is exactly what the British Culture Secretary has done and said, when confronted with overcharging for expenditures. The woman apologized in 32 seconds flat, which must be a new world record in insincerity. Just five years ago, there was a similar scandal in Parliament, so this one is the more astounding in its temerity. Maybe the now former Secretary was "distracted" when the previous scandal happened.

The revelations about the Zunzuneo program in Cuba have been most unfortunate for Alan Gross, who claims to be just an honest businessman with no ties to the U.S. government. For some reason, USAID has decided to leave him high and dry in a Cuban jail. If someone still believed that Gross was an innocent bystander, this news about the Twitter-like program to destabilize the Cuban government has done him in. One more thing. People in Gross' corner have claimed from the start that he is in very poor health, and thus should be set free. But, if you look at the 2012 photo in today's New York Times he doesn't  appear to be in poor health at all. He's all smiles, even. Odd, isn't it?

Not to be outdone by General Motors in the poor workmanship department and its cover up, Ford has recalled close to 435,000 vehicles manufactured between 2001 and 2004, and 2013 and 2014  for faulty parts. "Buy American!" Yeah, right...

"Bureaucratic issue" indeed! That's the way the U.S. State Department has dismissed the fact that it's unable to find or complete the files on $6 billion in contracts, one third of which are contracts for operations in Iraq. This should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention. Ever since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq started, there have been reports of all sorts of corruption, mismanagement and wasteful spending by the U.S. and its contractors. There are plenty of people in the private sector who have cashed-in in the business of "reconstructing" what the U.S. destroyed in its bombardment and invasion. War may be hell, as General Sherman said, but it's a damn good business...especially when the accounting is so bad.

First, it was the German bishop; now, it's the American Archbishop in Atlanta. Both of them living in luxury homes; the American will sell his mansion for $2.2 million . If the German was fired by the Pope, the "writing is on the wall" for the American. Let's hope that this is not a new trend in the Catholic Church's hierarchy. The Church doesn't need any more scandals right now.

Will the U.S. never learn? Four years and $1.3 million later, they had to admit defeat. You can't topple the Cuban government with Zunzuneo, a Twitter-like program. Cuba is different from those other countries in which people have used the social media to organize protests to bring down the government. The CIA, the State Department and the rest of the American government have tried every trick in the book, and then some, to subvert the Cuban regime, to no avail. With exceptions, of course, the people of Cuba stand firmly behind the Revolution, and no passing fancy is going to woo them into playing into the hands of the American Mafia that once turned their country into a brothel and a casino.

It should be clear by now that the U.S. armed forces are subject to acute stress, given the fact that they are constantly being deployed, often more than once, to combat situations. Many of them either go "ballistic" over there and do all sorts of crazy things, or they come back as "ticking bombs." The recent Fort Hood tragedy is just one more episode of a chronicle of deaths foretold. As long as the U.S. keeps invading and occupying other countries that are not going to take it lying down, we'd better get used to these kind of killings on a regular basis. Instead of the usual "our thoughts and prayers" go to the families of the deceased, Obama would do well to think and pray more deeply about his foreign policy and the use of the military in wars of aggression.

Remember the song "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun"? Well, there's a new twist to that. First, it was the French who recently were cautioned to stay indoors, due to a severe smog condition. Now, it's the British who have been warned about going out, due to the unhealthy air caused by pollution made worse by the Sahara dust. Environmental groups have pointed out that Britain has not done enough to curtail pollution, which is the main culprit of the current situation. The planet is striking back for all we have done to it.

The U.S. Congress is currently holding hearings on General Motors' outrageous behavior in withholding information about a major defect in the ignition of its Chevrolet Cobalt and other cars for 10 years , which has resulted in 13 deaths . The company knew about it, did nothing to fix it and told no one. Except that the U.S. government knew that there was something wrong with these cars, given the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received hundreds of consumer complaints through the years, and did nothing about it. Corporate greed and government disinterest combined to harm an unsuspecting public.