About Me
- Freeman
- Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.
6 comments:
... and the Germans want to prosecute Rumsfeld for war crimes. What's next?
Wow. Shown the way by frickin' South Africa. That smarts.
And I heard about how Germany wants to pull out a big can of Nuremberg on Rumsfeld. Can anyone fill me in on this? Not that I don't think old man "back off - it's complicated" Rumsfeld doesn't deserve a major karmic smackdown, but how's it work that Germany has the right to hold him accountable? Were that the case, wouldn't the war crimes have to be perpetrated against...Germans? Really, isn't this one for the UN or the World Court? Or has Rummy been waterboarding unsuspecting Bavarians all this time?
Wow. Shown the way by frickin' South Africa. That smarts.
And I heard about how Germany wants to pull out a big can of Nuremberg on Rumsfeld. Can anyone fill me in on this? Not that I don't think old man "back off - it's complicated" Rumsfeld doesn't deserve a major karmic smackdown, but how's it work that Germany has the right to hold him accountable? Were that the case, wouldn't the war crimes have to be perpetrated against...Germans? Really, isn't this one for the UN or the World Court? Or has Rummy been waterboarding unsuspecting Bavarians all this time?
All I heard (and this was by way of scrumptiously biased cyber-screed on HuffPo), was that an outstanding case re: prisoner abuse in Iraq was halted because the US refuses to recognize the ICC -- but now that Rummy isn't protected by diplomatic immunity, he can be prosecuted as a private citizen. I doubt they'll have much luck, but the first attempt at prosecution caused some major shockwaves in 2004. Who knows? Germany declares "universal jurisdiction" in such matters -- which is curious in its own right. Other defendants include George Tenet, Alberto Gonzales, and David Addington.
A bare bones breakdown isn't hard to find online ...
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1557842,00.html
The South African story is nothing short of spectacular. I haven't been there in years, but last I heard gay clubs in Cape Town were still being anonymously bombed on a semi-regular basis. The gay community still receives a disproportionate amount of blame for SA's world-record HIV infection stats. That they achieved political liberation w/r/t marriage is truly amazing.
South Africa is all well and good, but lets not forget that Gay Marriage was ratified in Canada over 9 months ago. That and legal Nug, don't even need to claim its for medical reasons. So why are we all still paying our taxes in america like a bunch of chumps? Seriously, lets all head north!
Just checked out the Time story. Indictment for war crimes - now that'll put a crimp in your vacation plans. Although I doubt there's a chance in hell the US will ever agree to extradite him, I can imagine the back-room deals going on right now: "C'mon, it's simple - you give us Rumsfeld, and we'll give you Polanski..."
Seriously, though, I'm not totally OK with Germany claiming "universal jurisdiction" over these things. Wasn't too long ago they were claiming "universal jurisdiction" over Alsace-Lorraine, and it was kinda downhill from there...
'Course I'm writing this as a citizen of a country which has lately claimed its own "universal jurisdiction" over whatever it damn well pleases, the irony of which is not lost on me.
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