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“This will go into the record books for historians and teachers and others who look back to ask, ‘What did we do?'” ~ Bill Moyers.

There’s a documentary waiting to be aired on PBS. It’s called, “Torturing Democracy”, and has been heavily sponsored and advertised by Bill Moyers on his show, “Bill Moyers Journal”. Only last week he asked viewers to look out for it, as it was due for imminent screening.

Well, it isn’t. PBS have back-listed the program until January 2009, using the excuse that “fall schedules are already set”.^[1]

The program is reputed to break fresh ground in the case of America v. human rights. It examines the US torture of enemy combatants, and just who was responsible for making the decisions.

Though the 90 min work is available for viewing online at TorturingDemocracy.org, arming voters in the upcoming election with all the information available for them to make proper decisions should be one of PBS’s major considerations.

One has to ask: has PBS succumbed to Washington’s political pressures?

Below is an email from Sparrow Chat to the local PBS station in central Illinois, regarding the matter. Any reply will be published here.

Dear Sir/Madam

Recently, WILL-TV broadcast an episode of “Bill Moyers Journal”, in which he advised viewers to be aware of a program due to be broadcast on PBS within a few weeks. That program was called, “Torturing Democracy”, a documentary written and produced by Sherry Jones.

There is no listing of this program in your schedules, and I have learned that, with the exception of WNET in New York who are broadcasting the program tonight (October 16th), PBS stations have back-listed this documentary until after a new US president and administration takes office. The excuse given is that of “set programming” – “the fall schedules are already set”. Frankly, it is common knowledge that schedules are frequently revised to take account of important issues, and I expect most Americans would agree there is no more important issue than whether the present US government has been guilty of war crimes.

While I appreciate, as a local station, you may be subject to the whims of PBS, nevertheless they do indicate on their main website that “all scheduling decisions are made locally”.

Perhaps you would inform me whether WILL-TV has plans to schedule this documentary in the near future, and if not, why not? I can then pass that information on to our readers.

Regards

R J Adams
SparrowChat.com

Sparrow Chat readers may wish to make their feelings known to other PBS stations around the country.

^{[1] “PBS Slow to Embrace a Program on Torture” New York Times, October 15th 2008}

Filed under: Public Broadcasting Service

If ever evidence were required to prove US senators basically insane, it would come from Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who for reasons only he is certain of, recently tried to sue God in the Nebraska courts.^[1]

The image is of Ernie Chambers, not God

THIS is God

Apparently, he was attempting to make the point that law suits must be heard, however frivolous they may be. His law suit accused God of:

making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent…[by using] fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like. …[Often causing] calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction. …[And] has manifested neither compassion nor remorse, proclaiming that defendant will laugh [Proverbs 1:26].”

The judge threw the case out of court on the grounds that God was of ‘no fixed abode’ and could not therefore be served with the necessary papers.

Senator Chambers argued that, as God was omniscient, He must be fully aware of the court case against Him.

Chambers is considering an appeal.

^{[1] “Legal case against God dismissed” BBC, October 16th 2008}

Filed under: Sparrow Chat: Chap xvii v.6

Having just slated the American nation for its ridiculous and deadly obsession with firearms, I’m now about to attack them once more over their second favorite deadly pastime.

A British report by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), today states that in 2007, on British roads, 25 fatal, 64 serious, and 259 slight accidents resulted from motorists breaking the law by using cellphones while driving.^[1]

According to research, drivers are four times more likely to crash if they use a cellphone while at the wheel.

Studies of this nature are never conducted in America. Agencies say there’s no evidence cellphone use while driving causes accidents. That’s because the evidence has never been collated. US police officers at the scene of an accident aren’t interested in whether a cellphone was in use at the time. Why should they be? It’s perfectly legal. Drivers are unlikely to say, “Hang on, officer, before you cart me off to hospital, I’ve just got to finish this call to my girlfriend.” Now, are they?

Driving a school bus around our local town allows me a perfect opportunity to observe what’s happening inside other motor vehicles. Believe me, the scenarios can be – and frequently are – horrifying; early morning commuters with a coffee mug in one hand, cellphone pressed to the ear, and a newspaper propped against the steering wheel, while fiddling with the CD changer or SatNav; applying make-up while phoning mom is very common; once, a guy masturbating while on the phone to God knows who….?????

And all at speeds in excess of thirty or forty miles an hour. If these people suddenly whipped out their Glock 38’s and began firing haphazardly, they’d scarcely be more dangerous.

It’s been illegal to use a cellphone in Britain while driving, since 2003. That the reason figures are relatively low. In the US, it boils down to this “freedom” thing again.

Apparently, Americans just love to have the freedom to kill people, whether its with a firearm, or a cellphone.

^{“Software blocks car phone users” BBC, October 14th 2008}

Filed under: Lethal weapons