The New York Times just reported that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be tried in a civilian court. Thank God for small favors. Really, there should have been no question. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the United States who are hellbent on destroying the United States Constitution, even while they claim to love it. And the current occupant of the White House is one of them.

Over the weekend, Glenn Greenwald discussed the Democratic and “liberal” responses to Lindsey Graham’s tweet, “The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to ‘remain silent.'” Although Graham’s tweet is repellent, it goes right along with Obama administration policy over at least the last two years. Greenwald is genuinely confused about how Democrats can support the president when he does it but oppose it when Graham calls for it. To me it is very simple: Democrats trust that Obama would only use such powers in extreme situations. And this is not that bad an assumption as can be seen in this recent news about a civil trial. The problem, of course, is even if we should always trust Obama (and I don’t think we should), eventually, the White House will be occupied by someone more like Bush Jr or Dick Cheney. Giving these powers to Obama is giving them (And more!) to every future decider.

Yesterday, Ari Melber wrote an excellent article for Reuters, Can Tsarnaev Be Ruled an ‘Enemy Combatant’? In it, he discusses three major legal questions that relate to this case. The first question is the title of the article: can this young man be treated as an enemy combatant? Melber says that in general he can’t. The only authority the president has to do this comes from the 11 September 2001 authorization of force. And to use this, the government would have to directly link Tsarnaev to al Qaeda or the Taliban.

I find the entire question offensive, but entirely America. We have defined a new term, “enemy combatant.” This places anyone we like in a no man’s land between civilian (where civil courts are in power) and soldier (where the Geneva Conventions are in power). Thus, we can effectively disregard hundreds of years of habeas corpus, even while we still maintain that the United States is the land of liberty. And what is it exactly that people like Graham and McCain think they get by pretending we are in some kind of traditional global war? It reminds me very much of Jeff Trent in Plan 9 from Outer Space. When told about a bomb we are about to develop that will destroy the universe, he says, “So what if we do develop this Solanite bomb? We’d be even a stronger nation than now!” “Belligerent” and “dangerous” are not synonyms for “strong.”

Melber’s second legal question is whether being an accused terrorist should change what legal rights Tsarnaev is given. (I know: rights are not supposed to be given. Mark that down on the list of lies you were taught in civics.) It is on this question that the Obama administration (with little push back from “liberals”) has been really bad. In 1984, the Supreme Court found that Miranda Rights did not have to be given to a suspect if there was a public safety concern. For example, “Are there any more bombs? Is your apartment booby trapped?” I don’t even understand why the court allowed this exception. Police can ask any questions they want. Miranda only matters when it comes to which statements are admissible in court. I don’t see any reason why these necessary public safety questions need to come up in court. But as Liberal Viewer noted last night, Deval Patrick has said there is no danger, so there really is no justification for the “public safety” exception.

Regardless, this exception has only ever been allowed for a matter of minutes. The longest time ever was 50 minutes. But in 2010, the Obama administration announced that it would seek the legal authority to never give Miranda Rights to terror suspects. And that is Melber’s third legal question. Instead of going to Congress, Obama did what the Bush administration was so good at: make up the rules themselves—which they did in March 2011. The problem, as Melber points out, is that the Obama administration is a lot smarter than the Bush administration. Bush was publicly slapped down by none other than Antonin Scalia. But Obama pushes the envelope and thus gets away with it.

The common reaction is, “So what? They’re just terrorist?” Of course, the point is that they are terror suspects. But that aside, there are important reasons to care, as Ari Melber makes plain:

And that is an important point. Because we like Obama, we need to hold him accountable. Accepting him as “not as bad as Bush” does him a disservice as well as ourselves.

Cool birthdays are not evenly distributed. Some days, it is hard to find anyone to talk about. Look at Friday, for example—and it wasn’t even close to the worst. And then there are days like today that are overflowing with interesting people. Let’s start with Henry Fielding who was born on this day in 1707. He wrote Tom Jones and thus would be the standout guy most days. But alas, not today. Vladimir Lenin was born in 1870. And another notable Russian, novelist Vladimir Nabokov was born in 1899. Charles Mingus was born in 1922. On a normal day, any of these people could win the birthday prize.

The same goes for the living. Glen Campbell is 77 today. Jack Nicholson is 76. John Waters is 67. And Peter Frampton is 63. (Okay, maybe not him.)

But the day goes to Immanuel Kant who was born on this day back in 1724. He was an amazing thinker, but I don’t recommend trying to read him. It’s very difficult, painstaking work. You are better off with something like Roger Scruton’s Kant: A Very Short Introduction. After trying to read Kant in high school, I really got started with him by reading Ayn Rand and her obsequious follower Leonard Peikoff. She hated him and dismissed him so much that I knew there must be something to him. And there is. Lots. In fact, Rand’s primary critique that Kant is some kind of relativist who doesn’t believe in absolute reality is nonsense, but so too is Rand’s idea about objective reality. Is your brain starting to hurt? Imagine what fun awaits you!

Happy birthday Immanuel Kant!

Afterword

And there’s this:

I have major problems with Christopher Hitchens. One of the biggest is that he chose to use his incredible intellect for such trivial pursuits. But when he was right about something, I was on his side. And the fact is that he was right about quite a lot. Unfortunately, he used the last ten or so years of his life dedicated to his racist complaint about Islam. But in the following video he attacks Ayn Rand. He starts with a two word response that is all one really needs to say, “The novels.” But he goes on from there. It is fun, but not all that insightful. In particular, when Rand made sense, whatever she was saying was obvious. Her clever thinking (such as it was), she left for her most ridiculous ideas like her constant pronouncement that altruism doesn’t exist.

There is one part of this short clip that bothers me. Hitchen quotes something great from Lillian Hellman. I don’t know why it is, but conservative intellectuals seem to not be able to control themselves from insulting that poor lady even when they are complimenting her. I’m not suggesting that she was some wonderful person. But there is definitely something that gets under their skin. I think it speaks well for Ms. Hellman.

This video parody of Dragnet is very funny with some clever computer effects. But what I think is most interesting about it is the original stuff that sadly very few people in a society can see at the time: how law enforcement is mostly just cultural bias, and in-group and out-group signifying. The original episode is all about the good people symbolized by the cops and the bad people symbolized by the hippies.

It is based on “The LSD Story” episode—which was ironically the first color episode of the show. This is interesting because at the end, the dealer dies of an LSD overdose. In fact, it is not clear that anyone has ever died from an LSD overdose. So much for the stories being true. But that is wholly beside the point. The episode is intended to portray the heroic police officers saving our youths from a life of sin and debauchery. In another time, the story could have been about the demons lurking in the woods waiting to have sex with our daughters and turn them into witches. It is exactly the same thing.

But forget my ranting. Check this video out. It’s a lot of fun, and as I said, funny:

In the complexion of negroes we meet with various shades; but they likewise differ far from other men in all the features of their face. Round cheeks, high cheek bones, a forehead somewhat elevated, a short, broad, flat nose, thick lips, small ears, ugliness, and irregularity of shape, characterize their external appearance. The negro women have the loins greatly depressed, and very large buttocks, which gives the back the shape of a saddle. Vices the most notorious seem to be the portion of this unhappy race: idleness, treachery, revenge, cruelty, impudence, stealing, lying, profanity, debauchery, nastiness, and intemperance, are said to have extinguished the principles of natural law, and to have silenced the reproofs of conscience. They are strangers to every sentiment of compassion, and are an awful example of the corruption of man when left to himself.

—Dobson’s Encyclopaedia, 1798
Entry for “Negro”

Just one more quick note about all the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. I believe that Obama was so quick to call the bombing a terrorist act because, as usual, he’s a wimp. I’m sure he is worried that just like in Benghazi, the right wing will attack him for not calling it a terrorist attack. I’m all for being a wimp when it protects a person. I’ve managed to avoid fights all my adult life by being a wimp. But Obama will not avoid fights this way. If he hadn’t called it a terrorist attack, the right would have attacked him. If he said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be given his Miranda Rights, the right would have attacked him. As it is, he has indicated that Tsarnaev will be tried in our regular court system, so the right is attacking him for that.

Will the president never learn that the right will attack him regardless of what he does?

I have an idea for the president. It’s radical, I know, but here goes: why doesn’t President Obama try to please his base? It is very possible he would actually succeed at that. Trying to please the Republican Party is a fool’s errand. In fact, trying to please the centrist Washington insiders is also a fool’s errand. Did you read Maureen Dowd yesterday? The defeat of the gun bill is apparently Obama’s fault. She’s a great example of how Obama just can’t win with the only people he seems to care about winning with.

The clock is running out for the president. He needs to come back to the liberals he was courting all the way through 6 November of last year. Because despite everything, we still like him. And we’re the only ones who ever will as long as he is in power.

Ali Abunima at The Electronic Intifada has written an article that I wish all Americans would read (even though I fear their reaction would be no better than it was to Marc Ambinder’s article), Obama’s Rush to Judgment: Was the Boston Bombing Really a “Terrorist” Act? The basis of his argument is that our definition of “terrorism” requires that the perpetrator being politically motivated. At this point, we don’t have any information indicating that this is the case so we should back off on the talk of terrorism.

There are two comparisons that I think are important. The first is that this could well be just another Columbine. As we now know, that crime was committed by one “clinically sadistic sociopath” who manipulated another who suffered from depression. When all the information comes out about the Tsarnaev brothers, I think we will at least see that dynamic going on. I will be surprised if the older brother didn’t have some “reason” for the attack, but I have a hard time believing it was really about it. Regardless, if it turns out they did the attack for al Qaida or Chechnya of the lack of Russian representation in USA Boxing, then it will be a terrorist attack. Until then, it isn’t.

Abunima as notes that the attack last August on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin is almost never referred to as a terrorist attack. But of course it was. I would go further: a lot of people still bristle at calling the Oklahoma City bombing a terrorist attack. What’s more, no one on the right wants to call abortion clinic bombings and assassinations terrorist attacks. That’s because in America, a “terrorist” is only a Muslim. This is, admittedly, strange. We have long known about terrorist acts in Northern Ireland and Spain. And Timothy McVeigh was executed before 9/11.

I think what is really going on is that Americans see people from the Middle East writ large (so large that India is included) as the enemy. And these people are all assumed to be Muslims (even though most of them aren’t). On Wonk Blog this morning, John Sides wrote about some of his research, Americans Who Distrust Muslims Are Likelier to Back the War on Terror. He started the article by displaying the following tweet from game show host Chuck Woolery who is saying what most Americans think:

Sides went on to present data that shows that Americans find Muslims far more violent and untrustworthy than any other group, including blacks and Latinos (even though the rated them high in these regards too). It is extremely sad to see.

But in this way, I think I might disagree with Abunima’s concern about the tendency of Americans to call anything that Muslims do terrorist. I think the problem is that Americans hate Muslims and are eager to find anything to blame them for. Even still, I’m kind of hopeful. Over time, I think it will be like the LGBT community: as more and more people get to know Muslims, it will be harder to hate them. And it will be the same dynamic: the young and liberal will embrace them first and the old and conservative will be the hold outs.

None of this means we shouldn’t fight back against these unfair stereotypes. And I hate to think about the small scale terrorist attacks that are being perpetrated on American-Muslims right now. Remember, the Sikh Temple was attacked because the white supremacist thought the worshipers were Muslim. And that does make plain the fact that hatred of Muslims is racism pure and simple—unless they also hate all Basques and Northern Irish. That may provide a way forward.

Abunima is right, though: we need to push back on fools like Chuck Woolery who think Muslims are violent. Adam Lanza was a white guy who killed 27; I don’t think it is right to lay that on me just because I’m also white.

John Muir was born this day in 1838. Filmmaker Marcel Camus was born in 1912. Comedic screenwriter Norman Panama was born in 1914. Anthony Quinn in 1915. And American citizen gunned down without due process of law, Anwar al-Aulaqi was born in 1971.

Queen Elizabeth II is 87 today. The great comedian Elaine May is 81. Charles Grodin is 78. Since I mentioned Hitler’s birthday yesterday, I guess I have to mention that James Dobson is 77 day. The great Iggy Pop is 66. Talentless beauty Andie MacDowell is 55. And Robert Smith of The Cure is 54.

But the day belongs to Charlotte Bronte who was born 1816 and died not all that much later. She is, of course, the author of Jane Eyre, a wonderful, if flawed novel. I will always remember the line, “You must be tenacious of life!” (I use it a lot; and it’s opposite!)

Happy birthday Charlotte Bronte!