Of 9-11, Human Rights, and The Role of Government

Last night I was confronted by both, a friend who posited that government has become too intrusive by creating a society dependent upon government to provide for it, and a young lady who called me a liberal and told me that my ideas about government were going to destroy our country.

I've been taught by a wise woman that when ever I'm confronted like that, instead of kicking back, I get to soak in that person's feedback and ask myself to name three ways in which the accusation is true. The nature of this exercises brings clarity, and openness and usually releases me from any tunnel vision that I might be momentarily caught up in.

I let my mind think for a while and rest on the notions of what these two said to me. I think it was an excellent jumping off point to sit back, and get some clarity. . .


Today is September 11th 2009.

Eight years ago terrorists took over several planes flying over the United states. Two planes crashed into the two tallest office towers in Manhattan, NY. Shortly afterward another plane crashed into the headquarters for the US War Department in Washington D.C. Within minutes of that third crash, the United States Air Foce, acting on order of the Vice President, shot down the the 4th plane into a field in Pennsylvania. This was done to avoid the plane hitting a township when the American hostages on board bravely attempted a seemingly unsuccessful coup to regain control of the airship.

We've heard A LOT of rhetoric about perpetrators of these crimes, of their motives, of their ideology, of their backgrounds etc. My personal opinion is that this was a crime against humanity. A crime against the human rights of all of us.

But given the accusations of last night. I had to ask myself WHAT DO I BELIEVE ABOUT GOVERNMENT?

My background is steeped in government. I come from a military family, both of my grandfathers were lifers. Every Ord in my line has worn a uniform since the 1880's, myself included. I worked side by side with several congressmen on both sides of the isle before I ever graduated high school. I went to prep school at the U.S. Air Force Academy. I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Government Admin and International Relations (heavy on the Econ), from one of the most conservative universities in the United States. I hold a degree in Law from one of its most Conservative Law Schools, which is also a constitutional law "powerhouse," I have spent the vast majority of my life connected to and working in government and the DOD. So, I may have something to say on the topic. But what do I believe about government?



I've read the works of the great theorists of the ages, and I've come to the clear conclusion that Government exists to secure the Universal Human Rights of its citizens, and inhabitants.

But what are those universal human rights?

The Americans summed them up as Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness, the French, as liberté, égalité, fraternité, but just where are these nebulous human rights summed up and enumerated?


After World War II, one of my greatest heroes spent most of 1948 chairing a gathering of the world's then established governments to create a world consensus on what are the universal human rights of all people. From their notes, it is evident that the committee was not attempting to beholden humans strictly to positive law, but was seeking to enumerate natural law, and bind governments, via moral pressure and moral mandate, to respecting those principles, laws, and rights that were granted us by our maker. The resultant universal declaration of human rights succinctly summarises them.

Since we seldom actually read those rights, I'm going to include them herein. They are 30 statements on what your rights are as a human. Governments exist solely for the purpose of securing these rights for you and your fellow humans. There are multiple theories a to how that gets to happen, and how much of that labour is your responsibility, but in all cases it is the government's job to defend these rights from any that would infringe upon them, for the sake of all humans under that government's jurisdiction.



And with that here are our basic rights:

Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11
1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including their own, and to return to their country.

Article 14
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17
1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21
1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in their country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27
1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29
1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.



Now I don't know about you, but for me, these simple declarations of my INALIENABLE rights as a human being give me great comfort. They provide a standard to which I can hold my government. To which I can hold myself, to which I can hold my neighbours.

I am a product of the American system. I have been raised with the notion that there is in fact a social contract between governments and their citizens. That the citizens make up the government, and give it the power to conduct the business of the people. That the business of the people, the responsibility of government, is to insure the above rights are not trampled by other people, nor by corporations and businesses, nor by non-governmental organisations, nor by other governments. In turn, citizens have the duty to make sure their rights are not trampled by government. It is a relationship of checks and balances.

. . .And it came to pass that government, in the United States, eschewed its responsibilities in defending these, the people's, rights against those who would infringe upon them. And it came to pass that the infringers used all manner of secret combinations, including but not limited to, corporate shields, religious shields, a host of legal loopholes, and a game of, misinformation/hide-the-ball worthy of praise from the best of first year torts professors.

And so we find ourselves in the land of the free, and home of the brave, with freedom being eroded, and few who seem brave enough to be a stand for our rights, nor dare to wage a war against those that would impinge upon those same rights, which rights were equally endowed within each of us, individually and collectively, by our creator.

At the end of the day, I am a stand for these declarations of human rights, and I live by them, and when they are trampled I fight to restore them and restore the balance that protects them. I do this in in the interest of all of us, because in when it comes to human rights, your interest is also my interest.

Yes President Ahmadinajad There Is A Homo Clause

"DEAR EDITOR: I am a 41 year old head of State for The Islamic Republic of Iran.
"Some of my Politicos and Imam friends say there is no Homo Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it On Al Jazeera it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Homo Claus?

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"The Islamic Republic Of Iran."

President Ahmadinejad, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of an age embracing ignorance, war, and hate. They do not believe except [what] they wish to see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All closed minds, President Ahmadinejad, whether they be men's or children's, yours or Bush’s, are little. In this great universe of ours closed minded man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, President Ahmadinejad, there is a Homo Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to the lives of some, if not yourself included, its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Homo Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Cher, Madonna, Barbara, or Liza. There would be no fabulous clothes then, no poetry, no romance, no Abercrombie, no musical theater, no fabulousness to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, especially in sense and sight. The eternal light with which Homos fill this world, and make it beautiful and fabulous, would be extinguished.

Not believe in Homo Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! Oh, you don’t? Don’t worry girl we’ll take you to Chelsea that’ll make a believer outta anyone!
You got your Government to hire men to watch all the clothing, music, and shoe stores in Tehran to catch Homo Claus, but even they did not see Homo Claus, just the fairies, which they promptly arrested and carted off to sweep under the rug. What did that prove? Nobody sees Homo Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Homo Claus. The most real things in the world are ideas that closed minded men cannot see. Did you ever see fairies dancing in the club? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the numbers of homos there are unseen and unseeable in the world. Yet their impact is seen and felt by all, on the daily.

You may tear apart the night spots, coffee houses, gathering places, safe houses, and block the internet sites to create a veil covering the unseen world which Iran’s Homos live in. But not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, with their guns, prisons, beatings, hangings and persecutions could make your fairies straight. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, fashion, music, open dialogue, acceptance, freedom of assembly, and of movement, can push aside the curtain of ignorance and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory which comes by accepting people for who they are -ACCEPTING PEOPLE FOR WHO THEY ARE. Is such at all possible or real? Ah, President Ahmadinejad, in all this world there is nothing more real and abiding.

No Homo Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever! A thousand years from now, President Ahmadinejad, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make fabulous the world of men.