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bunnynico:

Justice is “not a question of philanthropy, but of rights… Hospitality means the right of a stranger not to be treated as an enemy when he arrives in the land of another.  One may refuse to receive him when this can be done without causing his destruction.”

~ Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace

I met this woman recently, an American, who is married to a Mexican man.  She lives here, while he lives in Mexico, and they only get to see each other a few times per year.  For years, he had been trying to obtain residency in the U.S. so he can live with her (legally), and when he finally received the letter from U.S. Immigration granting him residency, the letter essentially said this:

Sir,

Congratulations on our approval for your residency here. Being allowed in the United States of America is an extraordinary privilege, and with that privilege comes an obligation to serve for the freedom that we offer to you.  Before you begin your residency, you will be required to serve two years of your choosing in either Afghanistan or Iraq.  [Choose wisely.]

This man was being drafted.  U.S. citizens aren’t even drafted, but he was because he’s apparently considered not only dispensable, but manipulable.  How disgustingly presumptuous to use marriage as a leverage to send non-citizens seeking U.S. residency off to fight and possibly die in a war that has nothing to do with them.  Mexico is a neutral country to the war, and it prides itself as such, yet evidently our government is not above sending neutral foreigners off to do our dirty work, and when they won’t, refusing to allow them to live here with their spouses.

The man chose to not fight in a war, so he and his wife remain thousands of miles apart.  

Still, it all makes me wonder where these wars (and the U.S.) would be if the draft had been implemented for U.S. citizens, men and women, from the very beginning.  

Words fail me.

hilker:

toomuchawesome:

Is it weird that I expect to lose followers for describing The Dark Knight as underwhelming? I feel like that’s one of those things about which We-Shall-Speak-No-Ill-On-Tumblr, like Obama, Rock Band, and Feminism.

Add J*k*b L*d*w*ick (remember him?) to the list.  Marco unfollowed me after I reblogged a jokey “fuck off, douchebag” post following his tearful departure from t’internet, exiling me from the Radar evermore.