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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
Top 10 Worst People of the Year: Part 2
5th Place: Warren Jeffs
The zealot mastermind behind the rape of hundreds of adolescents produced one of the most reprehensible happenings of the year. As leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jeffs orchestrated the brainwashing of hundreds of men, women and children by declaring himself a prophet and enforcing a severely misogynistic way of life.
One may question the custom of monogamy, but preaching doctrine predicated on fear and abuse so a bunch of old guys can fulfill their perverse fantasies about sex with 15-year-old girls is one of the biggest atrocities committed toward women since the witch trials.
Granted,
this incident is on a much smaller scale and “femicide” wasn’t
committed, but both the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the Salem witch
trials were facilitated by the guise of God.
After the raid of the compound in April of this year, it’s plain to see
that women were reluctant to leave in fear of the repercussions they
would face.
All a woman in the polygamy sect has known for her entire life is to
act as she is told, even if it means becoming her grandfather’s tenth
wife.
It is truly one of the saddest stories of mistreatment in some time.
4th Place: George W. Bush
President Bush’s ranking on this incredibly subjective list will invoke
one of two responses: (A) “4th place? The worst president ever is
currently in office and he doesn’t crack the top three?” or (B) “Of
course you would include the sitting president in your contrived list;
anyone can take a stab at George W. Bush.”
I’ll respond to the latter response of the neo-cons first.
The mere fact that even the most uninformed Joe can make a blanket
statement about something Bush has or hasn’t done and still be pretty
accurate is bad in and of itself.
But seriously, can you not include the guy who is indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people?
It’s nearly impossible to note one redeeming action of this 8-year
administration – that is unless you classify incompetence itself as a
redeeming action, for there has been plenty of that.
Historians will look back at the war in Iraq as one of the biggest
military blunders in the last century. It’s just sad that it has taken
so long for Americans to notice.
Of course the public’s ignorance is certainly not wholly their fault,
for that guilt rests partially on the soldiers of the mainstream media
that didn’t ask the necessary questions.
Everyone was so scared out of their minds that no one thought to say,
“Mr. Powell, I see the drawings of where the weapons of mass
destruction are located, but is there any way you can produce a
satellite photo or some quantitative evidence?”
As far as the 4th place ranking goes, there are some other abominations
that deserve some light shed on them, and – in all honesty – I did it
to spite the readers who think I am partial to beating up only
conservatives.
Believe me when I say I show no fixed favoritism or unwavering support
for one political party. I’m with Bill Maher when I say, one party has
it wrong and one has it really wrong.
3rd Place: Robert Mugabe
The long-time Zimbabwe president is a tyrant whose actions have gone
hardly unnoticed by the United States, which happens to be in the
business of overthrowing tyrants.
Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe since 1980 and has been recently
accused of delaying his loss in the latest national election, raising
question over an attempt to rig the democratic process – a feat he has
been accused for in the past.
Mugabe has had a storied history of nationalism, which he uses to justify his corruption, economic disasters and homophobia.
During the height of his campaign against homosexuality, Mugabe made the act punishable by a decade in prison.
After kicking white farmers off of their land in favor of native and
government ownership, Zimbabwe has yielded a terrible agricultural
output, causing a shortage of resources and a currency rendered
worthless.
However President Mugabe isn’t feeling the pain, as he has lined his pockets with profits from Congolese mining efforts.
Although the opposition party to Mugabe has claimed victory in the
general elections that took place over a month ago, it appears that a
run-off is expected to be handed down from the government, that is,
unless the United Nations actually decides to start doing its job (I
mean seriously, why does it take so long for the United Nations to
respond to conflicts in Africa? I’m pretty sure peacekeeping is the
organization’s primary function).
2nd Place: Joseph Kony
Kony is a case of another corrupt leader in Africa. But he is one who trumps Mugabe in the most grotesque forms imaginable.
As head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Kony has unleashed a
violent war in effort of creating a government built on the principles
of the Christian Bible and Ten Commandments.
The irony in his motive is somewhat farcical, but the results are anything but.
Kony has been arming children – who haven’t yet hit puberty – with automatic weapons to fight in his army.
The LRA has been accused of abducting young girls and raping them –
values that aren’t traditionally in line with the Ten Commandments
(even though rape is a relevant omission on the list).
Like the aforementioned Jeffs, Kony claims to have a direct line to
heaven as well, using this theocratic power to persuade his soldiers to
rape and kill.
Possibly the most disturbing part is that Sudan is aiding and
financially supporting the LRA in the conflict – the same Sudan that
houses the War in Darfur.
Why is it that Sadaam Hussein had to be overthrown and these African
leaders, who are accused of committing some, if not more, of the
egregious acts committed by the former Iraqi dictator, are not?
Which brings me to my Worst Person of the Year.
1st Place: John McCain
It is one thing to start a war that hardly anyone, in retrospect,
believes was a good idea, but it’s another thing to continue a
misguided strategy into over a decade-long disaster.
This is the same reason why Richard Nixon will always be more to blame than Lyndon Johnson.
Nixon got to see someone else make a huge blunder and then decided to stay the course in Vietnam.
Critics say, “It’s not that easy. You can’t just get up and leave.”
By that rationale, they’re saying that we must live with our struggling
economy and misappropriated tax dollars until the region is stable.
They also argue that it’s for our own safety that we are over there and
leaving early would mean chaos for the United States in the future.
Chaos might be in the future, but I doubt it’s coming from Iraq or Iran.
Nearly all of our military resources are now deployed overseas in the
desert. If any domestic emergency occurred, our National Guard would be
short-armed and understaffed. We cannot effectively defend our own
nation when all of our troops are asked to regulate violence amidst
urban warfare with the only support coming from an insubstantial Iraqi
government.
So after thinking about it, yeah, I’d say pulling out would be a
worthwhile action – especially since Congress didn’t declare war, much
less an endless war.
McCain’s scathing criticism of Barack Obama for wanting to negotiate with unstable foreign leaders is absolutely ridiculous.
By that logic does McCain think if the United States doesn’t agree with
the tactics of another country then we should shut down all
communication and continue to threaten with annihilation?
What if we started solving debacles in our everyday lives like that?
Instead of discussing a problem you had with someone, you threatened to hit him or her with a Louisville Slugger.
And then, at the moment when he or she isn’t expecting, you take a post-HGH Barry Bonds-type slug at your enemy.
As your target ducks and avoids the massive blow, you find out that
preemptively swinging wildly with a bat is a bit like fighting
terrorism with military occupation: it’s only going to rally the
opposition.
That policy hasn’t worked, so I’d say it’s about time to exhibit some
of the diplomacy that some past presidents valued so highly.
Not withstanding his flip-flop on the Bush tax cuts, in which his
previous stance of nay earned him the nickname “Maverick,” McCain’s
foreign policy itself is as imprudent inasmuch as it is a continuation
of the inanity of the past regime.
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