Zinnia Jones on Bradley Manning

I had never been to Zinnia Jones' blog at FTB (FreeThoughtBlogs) until yesterday. This woman can write! (FYI, Zinnia Jones seems to be her blogging name. Her posts use the byline Lauren McNamara. Same person.)

Here's the thing: she had to testify at Bradley Manning's trial. Apparently they had several internet conversations before Manning sent the packet to WikiLeaks. By way of background: she's trans, and we've heard that Manning was moving in that direction. I only mention this because it comes up in her long post about the experience of testifying at Manning's trial. It's great. Grab a cup of coffee and read it. Here's an excerpt:

It’s easy to forget that at the center of all this furor is one person – a person like us, who thinks like us and feels like us and hurts like us. Having seen Manning in that room, I can never forget this. Before, he was just a name to me, one of thousands that have crossed my screen. But Bradley Manning is not, and never will be, just a name.

In that room, I saw a person who was in more trouble than I had ever seen another person be in, someone who had suffered and was still suffering the full wrath of an enraged, unforgiving American government. And that scared me, and I wanted to help him, to do anything I could to get him out of there, and I couldn’t. And that hurts beyond any words.

I'm going to put Zinnia Jones' blog on my list of sites to visit daily. Amazing post.

The evils of the Vatican

In a story in the NYT about the trial of the pope's butler, I found this:

During the testimony, the lawyer Arru complained about the conditions under which Gabriele spent his first 20 days in detention, saying the cell was so small he couldn't stretch out his arms and that lights were kept on 24 hours a day. 

Such sweet, good souls over there at the Vatican. They decided torture was the best option for Paolo Gabriele, the butler who believed that the Holy Ghost was directing his actions. I wonder if god the father, in his infinite mercy, helped the pope make the decision to torture Paolo. But wait, there's more.

The trial is being conducted according to the Vatican's criminal code, which is adapted from the 19th-century Italian code.

The court reporter doesn't take down verbatim quotes, but rather records reconstructed summaries dictated to her by the court president, Dalla Torre.

On several occasions, Dalla Torre truncated the responses or, with the help of the notary and the prosecutor, reconstrued them, occasionally attributing to Gabriele and other witnesses words they didn't necessarily utter, or leaving out parts of their testimony altogether. For example, the recorded summary of Gabriele's plea didn't include that he loved the pope as a son would.

Sounds like a fair trial, huh?

The pope is not attending the festivities, as I understand it. He's probably sitting in his rooms, missing the ministrations of his former butler. I imagine he sighs as he recalls how Paolo used to help him slip into his camisole. Oh, for the good old days!

How Norway is handling the Breivik trial

I think this is a story everyone should read. It's an AP report about the way Norway is treating Anders Behring Breivik's trial. He's the rightwing loon who killed all those kids. It's such a departure from the way things are done in our own wildly Christian country, where anger and hatred are the norm.

Note that Norway, by some estimates, is 70% atheist. This is how rational people handle things. It's reassuring to know that some people, somewhere, are reasonable. Judging by our ignorant-git US of A standards, you'd never know this sort of behavior was possible.

AP, by the way, totally missed the boat on this story. They say this:

The subdued atmosphere during the trial of a right-wing fanatic who confessed to slaughtering 77 people on July 22 reflects Norway's almost self-punishing efforts to avoid feelings of vengeance against the unrepentant gunman.

Indeed. Different from your way of doing things, so therefore "self-punishing", eh? They're doing exactly the right thing.