Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Julian Assange and Misdirection (Updated)

Posted

Back in December 2010, I wrote a piece defending Julian Assange and Wikileaks.org. I’m still no fan of Assange or his organization, but the fact remains that a media outlet can publish whatever information is delivered to it. The only real exception is when a legitimate government has prohibited the publication of certain information for its own national security reasons, but those laws only apply in the countries that passed them. A country cannot arbitrarily extend its laws to people in other countries.

Let’s turn this around a bit. Imagine that a Nigerian army officer is unhappy with his country’s military policies, and he decides to send me an email here on Off on a Tangent with a bunch of classified Nigerian military information. I have the right, as a U.S. based media outlet, to go ahead and publish that information. Perhaps its publication is a violation of Nigerian law, but I’m not Nigerian, I don’t live in Nigeria, and my web site isn’t hosted in Nigeria. Nigerian laws simply don’t apply to me. The Nigerian government’s only recourse in this case would be to find the rat in its army ranks and punish him in accordance with Nigerian law, which is binding on him (but not me). A good argument can be made that Off on a Tangent shouldn’t publish any country’s military secrets, but that is a moral argument, not a legal one.

So when it comes to Assange’s publication of U.S. military secrets on WikiLeaks, a Switzerland-based web site, it is quite clear that U.S. law does not apply. The servers are in Switzerland, and Assange himself is Australian and has never resided in the U.S. A strong moral argument can be made that Assange is putting lives at risk by publishing what he does on WikiLeaks, but it would appear that he committed no crime in publishing what he did. U.S. laws don’t apply to an Australian in Switzerland any more than Nigerian laws apply to, say, a Frenchman in Canada. The real criminal is the U.S. soldier who provided those secret documents to WikiLeaks, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who will likely stand trial for his crimes in September.

Assange, however, has been accused of sexual assault by two women in Sweden. The Swedish government has been trying to get their hands on him so a trial can proceed, but he has (inexplicably) been granted political asylum by the government of Ecuador, and he is now holed-up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, U.K. On Sunday, he made a speech from a balcony at the embassy in which he urged the United States to end its ‘witch hunt’ and condemned the imprisonment of Manning. I agree that the U.S. should end its WikiLeaks witch hunt . . . but Manning should indeed stand trial for his crimes, since he actually is bound by U.S. law and appears to have broken it. But what does any of this have to do with two Swedish women accusing Assange of sexual assault?

Assange is engaged in a campaign of misdirection. He’s standing on an Ecuadorian embassy balcony blathering about WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, but that has nothing to do with the actual reason he faces extradition to Sweden . . . sexual assault. Go to Sweden, Mr. Assange, and face the music.

Update, August 20, 2012, 11:50 a.m.: This article originally stated that Assange has been accused of sexual assualt by two Swiss women and faces extradition to Switzerland. This is incorrect. Assange has been accused by two Swedish women and faces extradition to Sweden. The article has been corrected. I apologize for the error.

Ed. Note, September 1, 2017: This article was published on August 19, 2012. On August 22, 2013, one of its subjects—Bradley Manning—announced that he would begin identifying as female under the name Chelsea Manning. The original names and pronouns have been left in place because they were appropriate at the time. Any future references to Manning will abide by the Tangent Style Guide guidance on names and gender pronouns.

Election Special Coverage on Home Page

Posted

I’m continuing my ramp-up for the Off on a Tangent coverage of the 2012 presidential election, which will be quite a bit more comprehensive than it has been in previous years. In addition to the standalone election site, which will be the place to be for live blogging and election results on November 6, I’ve also just launched a new election home page widget. The new election widget replaces the three-column ‘features’ area that I launched with Website 23, which is exactly the kind of thing that I promised in the launch announcement.

The election widget contains an independent Off on a Tangent projection of where the presidential election stands today, a space for my official endorsements, and links to the last five political posts on the site. The independent projection will be updated periodically as we move toward the election in November. The formal Off on a Tangent endorsements will come out in mid-to-late September like usual.

I’m planning to continue making improvements as we move toward November, so please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in the Off on a Tangent coverage of the 2012 presidential election.

The Silver Line and ‘Big Success’

Posted

Here in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, one of the largest ongoing construction projects is the effort to extend MetroRail to Washington Dulles International Airport—the so-called ‘Silver Line.’ The project is decades overdue, and will eventually connect to a disintegrating rail system managed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The project itself is being managed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) which, like WMATA, operates with virtually no oversight and has a history of botching projects and running them far over-budget.

The highlights of the Silver Line project so far include massive, unjustifiable, and continuing toll increases on the MWAA-operated Dulles Toll Road (ostensibly to pay for Silver Line construction), an inexplicable decision to run above-ground rails through the densely occupied Tysons Corner area where it would be worth the extra cost to go underground (since it would cause less traffic disruption and rebuilding), an equally inexplicable decision to dig a more expensive tunnel near the airport where it would not be worth the extra cost, a conflict with the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) over pier support safety, violations of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s right to work laws, and a long line of budget conflicts with the Town of Herndon, Loudoun County, and the Commonwealth.

When faced with all this madness, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (R)—notable for now being the only Republican in President Barack Obama’s (D) cabinet—described the Silver Line as being a model for big success and compared it to the Panama Canal, Hoover Dam, and the interstate highway system.

Read more . . .

Relics: Body and Soul

Posted

Relic of St. Maximilian Kolbe

Christianity, properly practiced, is a faith rooted in both spiritual and physical things. We recognize the fundamental truth that, as human beings, we are both body and spirit, flesh and soul. These days it is trendy to attempt to divorce the two. The materialist sees the world as only matter, and rejects the notion of a soul, spirits, and even God himself. At the other extreme, many modern spiritualists (of various stripes) see matter as inherently flawed or illusory, and seek a higher plane of ‘true,’ transcendental spirituality.

But I am not merely a body, nor am I merely a soul. I am both. And as Christians, we believe that while these two elements of ourselves separate in death, they will be reunited once more at the end of time—the ‘resurrection of the body’ professed in our most ancient creeds.

Many of our beliefs reflect this body/soul duality. This is especially evident in the Sacraments, each of which are composed of physical and spiritual elements. Baptism is a spiritual seal, but is expressed with water and words. Confession is a spiritual cleansing, but we have to state our sins aloud and receive a verbal absolution. Body and soul. Flesh and spirit.

The veneration of the saints follows this same pattern. Part of the veneration of the saints is learning about their lives, following their good examples as faithful, dedicated Christians, and engaging with them through prayer. But in addition to these spiritual elements, we also have physical relics of the saints. They are not ‘good luck charms’ or false idols, but conduits through which God chooses to work in the world.

We know from Holy Scripture that God works miracles through the bodies and property of his most faithful followers. Our Jewish forebears record in 2 Kings 13:20-21 that a man was brought back to life after coming in contact with Elisha’s bones. In the New Testament era, we see in Acts 19:11-12 that the apostle Paul’s “handkerchiefs and aprons” were brought to the sick and they were healed. God works through his saints during their earthly lives, and continues to work through them even in their deaths. This was recognized in the early Christian church, which venerated martyrs and saints from the very beginning.

In Catholic tradition, we recognize three classes of relics. First-class relics are any items directly associated with Christ’s life (e.g., pieces of the true cross), or the physical remains of a saint (e.g., bone fragments, hair). Second-class relics are items that a saint wore or used regularly (e.g., a cloak, a crucifix, a book). A third-class relic is an object that has been touched to a first or second class relic, which makes it possible for millions of Catholics to have their own relics for private veneration and prayer. The photograph above is of a first-class relic of my own Confirmation saint, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast day happens to be today. It is a small piece of hair from his head. This relic was part of an exposition of sacred relics that visited my parish last month, and I was able to touch my own Saint Maximilian medal to it, which makes it a third-class relic.

The physical act of touching one of my belongings to a small piece of Saint Maximilian Kolbe’s body means nothing, if you are a materialist or a spiritualist. To the materialist, anything and everything Maximilian Kolbe was terminated when he died, there is no God to keep his spirit alive, and my medal underwent no discernible change. To the spiritualist, you can unite yourself directly with any spirit you wish, and physical objects would only get in the way of a true transcendental bond. But for us Catholics, recognizing that humanity is both body and soul united, the best spiritual bonds are those forged in a physical action.

Romney Selects Paul Ryan for VP

Posted

Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, announced this morning via his campaign smartphone application that he has selected Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) as his vice presidential running mate.

Ryan was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1998, and has served as the chair of the House Budget Committee since the Republican Party gained the house majority in the 2010 elections. In that role, he has been responsible for crafting Republican budget proposals to counter those proposed by President Barack Obama (D). Although neither party has brought forth any reasonable proposal to rein in deficit spending or move decisively toward a balanced budget, the Ryan budget plans are notable for being the only ones in recent history that even attempt to address the projected bankruptcy of Medicaid and Medicare.

This selection is likely intended to do two things for the Romney campaign:

First, Wisconsin is a ‘swing state’ that went for Obama in 2008, but could potentially move to the Republican column. Although the state tends to be center-left on social issues, it also tends to value fiscal responsibility and recently rejected a well-funded Democratic effort to recall Governor Scott Walker (R) over his deficit-busting policies. The state has voted Democratic over the last decade in-part because Democratic candidates that followed President Bill Clinton (D) have promised fiscal responsibility, while President George W. Bush (R) seemed to prefer an irrational policy of record-setting deficit spending. But the people of Wisconsin have proven that they are happy to vote for a fiscal-responsibility Republican like Walker or Ryan. Now that Obama has moved the Democrats firmly back into the fiscal irresponsibility column, setting his own record deficits far worse than anything Bush ever did, the Romney/Ryan ticket could lead to a Wisconsin reversal.

Second, fiscal-responsibility Republicans have not been particularly ‘fired up’ about the Romney campaign. Romney—who served as governor of a particularly left-wing state—has a record that seems more in-line with big-government Republican presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, or George W. Bush. Ryan provides an important counterweight with a record of supporting limited government and rational budgets. This may increase involvement among fiscal-responsibility Republicans. He also provides an important counterweight to the argument that Republicans are not proposing any real solutions; Ryan is one of the only congressmen (from either party) who has bothered to craft a real, written budget of any kind in the last four years—let alone a budget that actually attempts to solve our spending problem.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.