about our system is that we have former presidents around, and they can continue to contribute to society. (Or, like George HW Bush, they burn huge amounts of fossil fuels to speed over the waves at high speeds while emitting tremendous noise.) True, we'll probably have W around for a few decades, but we can always change the channel if, by some mis-chance, the media should turn a camera and microphone his way.
These thoughts are prompted by an interview Jimmy Carter gave CNN. True, Carter can be pompous, self-righteous and even patronizing, but he speaks his mind honestly and without ambition, which gives him a moral authority that few other public figures can command. For instance, as he told CNN:
"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights. We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."
When the interviewer, Wolf Blitzer, pointed out that W had denied that we torture people, Carter observed sagely, "But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them."
Carter's not the only one saying such things, but his position gets him on outlets like CNN. That's not to be sneezed at.
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