Warning Signals Could the Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal Hamper Future Intelligence-Gathering? By Andrew Chang <excerpt> The alleged abuse could be defended as a necessary element of interrogation: Because many of the Iraq prisoners had already been exposed to the brutality of the previous regime, U.S. interrogators had to resort to harsher and more unusual treatment. </excerpt>
[Blunderov] This is so astonishing that I have taken the liberty (if that's the right word) of posting the whole piece. This sort of thing was par for the course in apartheid SA - but America? What happened to the 1st Amendment?
Student Poetry Critical of Bush Leads to Firing of Teacher Agnosticism/Atheism Blog <q> May 20, 2004 Student Poetry Critical of Bush Leads to Firing of Teacher
Does freedom of speech extend to unpopular and critical ideas or does it only apply to those ideas which are approved of by government and military leaders? Most Americans might be forgiven for assuming that the former is the case - but there are some in the government who are determined to disabuse us of such quaint notions. If they are successful, we won't even be able to complain. Bill Hill writes in an editorial for the News-Journal Online about a case in New Mexico where a student's poetry that was critical of the government led to her mother (a teacher) being suspended and her teacher-advisor being fired:
In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel. A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being "un-American" because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its "No child left behind" education policy. The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her job. Bill Nevins [faculty adviser for the poetry club] was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. ... He was later fired by the principal. ... Nevins applied for a teaching post in another school and was offered the job but he can't go to work until Rio Rancho's principal sends the new school Nevins' credentials. The principal has refused to do so, and that adds yet another issue to the lawsuit, which is awaiting a trial date. [T]he principal and the military liaison read a poem of their own as they raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full staff, he applauded the action he'd taken in concert with the military liaison. Then to all students and faculty who did not share his political opinions, the principal shouted: "Shut your faces." ... Posters done by art students were ordered torn down, even though none was termed obscene. Some were satirical, implicating a national policy that had led us into war. Art teachers who refused to rip down the posters on display in their classrooms were not given contracts to return to the school in this current school year. This isn't an issue of obscenity - the poetry and posters in question were not obscene in any way nor are the students accused of creating obscene art. No, the only issue here is politics: students created artwork which conveyed a political message that was critical of the current administration, the administration's policies, and of George W. Bush. Teachers who supervised these students were punished - not just for allowing such things to be created, but also for refusing to censor and/or destroy the art in question.
Think about that: teachers are ordered to destroy student art that is critical of President Bush; when they refuse they lose their jobs - and their ability to get a new job is hindered. I don't know the name of the commissar principal in question here, but his message to the students at New Mexico's largest public school is clear: political dissent will not be tolerated, you do not have a right to express viewpoints that diverge from what the government and the military approve of, and if you try you will be in a lot of trouble.
Why does a public high school have a military liaison in the first place? What is a military liaison doing checking upon the poetry and posters being created by students?? </q>
...frightening post Blunderov! i seriously suspect that if our maniacal bush wins again...it could signify the beginning of the end. a turning point steep and downhill from which we might not return. it's almost amazing to hear stories such as this one and compare them with so much classic literature in which amazingly brazen acts of brainwashing, strongarming, thought-control and censorship lead to disastrous consequences and suffering. one imagines, "how could people just sit by and let this happen?". i guess i have to credit bush's handlers with knowing that people can be pushed WAY more than we imagine, and still they will refuse to voice any protest.
...give someone something to lose, and you can take away all that they stand to gain. (tm)
[Blunderov] This is so astonishing that I have taken the liberty (if that's the right word) of posting the whole piece. This sort of thing was par for the course in apartheid SA - but America? What happened to the 1st Amendment?
Student Poetry Critical of Bush Leads to Firing of Teacher Agnosticism/Atheism Blog <q> May 20, 2004 Student Poetry Critical of Bush Leads to Firing of Teacher
Does freedom of speech extend to unpopular and critical ideas or does it only apply to those ideas which are approved of by government and military leaders? Most Americans might be forgiven for assuming that the former is the case - but there are some in the government who are determined to disabuse us of such quaint notions. If they are successful, we won't even be able to complain. Bill Hill writes in an editorial for the News-Journal Online about a case in New Mexico where a student's poetry that was critical of the government led to her mother (a teacher) being suspended and her teacher-advisor being fired:
In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel. A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being "un-American" because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its "No child left behind" education policy. The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her job. Bill Nevins [faculty adviser for the poetry club] was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. ... He was later fired by the principal. ... Nevins applied for a teaching post in another school and was offered the job but he can't go to work until Rio Rancho's principal sends the new school Nevins' credentials. The principal has refused to do so, and that adds yet another issue to the lawsuit, which is awaiting a trial date. [T]he principal and the military liaison read a poem of their own as they raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full staff, he applauded the action he'd taken in concert with the military liaison. Then to all students and faculty who did not share his political opinions, the principal shouted: "Shut your faces." ... Posters done by art students were ordered torn down, even though none was termed obscene. Some were satirical, implicating a national policy that had led us into war. Art teachers who refused to rip down the posters on display in their classrooms were not given contracts to return to the school in this current school year. This isn't an issue of obscenity - the poetry and posters in question were not obscene in any way nor are the students accused of creating obscene art. No, the only issue here is politics: students created artwork which conveyed a political message that was critical of the current administration, the administration's policies, and of George W. Bush. Teachers who supervised these students were punished - not just for allowing such things to be created, but also for refusing to censor and/or destroy the art in question.
Think about that: teachers are ordered to destroy student art that is critical of President Bush; when they refuse they lose their jobs - and their ability to get a new job is hindered. I don't know the name of the commissar principal in question here, but his message to the students at New Mexico's largest public school is clear: political dissent will not be tolerated, you do not have a right to express viewpoints that diverge from what the government and the military approve of, and if you try you will be in a lot of trouble.
Why does a public high school have a military liaison in the first place? What is a military liaison doing checking upon the poetry and posters being created by students?? </q>
...frightening post Blunderov! i seriously suspect that if our maniacal bush wins again...it could signify the beginning of the end. a turning point steep and downhill from which we might not return. it's almost amazing to hear stories such as this one and compare them with so much classic literature in which amazingly brazen acts of brainwashing, strongarming, thought-control and censorship lead to disastrous consequences
and suffering. one imagines, "how could people just sit by and let this happen?". i guess i have to credit bush's handlers with knowing that people
can be pushed WAY more than we imagine, and still they will refuse to voice any protest.
...give someone something to lose, and you can take away all that they stand
to gain. (tm)
[Blunderov] Yes. It seems to me that this is symptomatic of a very real fright pervading the US.
Back in the old RSA apartheid days (it's so nice to be able to say that!)almost anything was OK just as long as it might be construed as fighting communism, however loosely. Any dissent on just about any subject at all was considered either 'communist' or indicative of communist leanings. (Atheism, as I'm sure you can imagine, was not appreciated at all.)
The USA certainly needs inspired leadership ASAP. From what I've read, Kerry does not seem to be that man. Either.
[Blunderov] Back in the old RSA apartheid days (it's so nice to be able to say that!) almost anything was OK just as long as it might be construed as fighting communism, however loosely. Any dissent on just about any subject at all was considered either 'communist' or indicative of communist leanings. (Atheism, as I'm sure you can imagine, was not appreciated at all.)
[rhinoceros] Back in our own dark days here in Greece, I remember a friend was searched for "subversive books" when he went to do his military term and was commented when they found "The Good Soldier Sveik" by Jaroslav Hasek in his stuff. Hasek would have been happy to include this story of military intelligence in the book, like a mirror-in-a-mirror.
[Blunderov] The USA certainly needs inspired leadership ASAP. From what I've read, Kerry does not seem to be that man. Either.
[rhinoceros] That's what I have come to understand too, but at times I think that even the mythical old school Republican isolationist wouldn't be such a bad deal for a while. Then they would be able to tell me "what we do is none of your business" and I would have either to shut up or to mutter something vague about solidarity.
In San Diego, a couple of teachers were suspended for showing the pictures of American Nick Berg being killed by his Muslim captors in Iraq. Oh, the outrage -- that our delicate high schoolers would be subjected to reality.
Far from suspending these teachers, we should give them medals (maybe the ones John Kerry threw away). They have done their students a big favor. They have introduced these soon-to-be-adults to the notion that it is a dangerous world out there.
Kids from this generation are hooked on video games that are so vile, so violent, that military experts worry that young people are deadened to the real effect of killing. With the restart button all the killing in a video game can be undone. Those same figures mowed down by virtual AK 47's come back to life.
Not true in real life. Nick Berg, although he pleaded for his life, was dead, dead, dead. His captors, like the murderers of John the Baptist, had his decapitated head to prove it.
One of the students who heard the audio and saw still pictures, which didn't show the worst of it, said he had no idea such things like this went on in the real world. It is time he learned.
For decades now in many of our school systems, students have been shielded from reality, while a false utopian society was pushed in social studies classes, which feature all of the liberal constructs. Ah yes, the wonderful UN guiding us to enlightened world government where, to paraphrase a just-arrested drunk, "We can all just get along."
The notion that there is a worldwide effort to eradicate Christians and Jews is utter nonsense, concocted by the same feverish minds who dreamed up the worldwide Communist conspiracy. Where are all those documents from Russia that detail the conspiracy? We don't want to deal with ancient irrelevant history.
Guns are to be hated because guns, not people, kill. War is caused by the United States because we steal the world's resources. War can be avoided because the UN is ready, willing and able to bring peace forever more.
There is no need to worry. There is no effort to kill Americans for who we are. Right. Still, just in case we might be tempted to demonstrate our "learned male aggressiveness" and want to defend ourselves, guns should be confiscated -- especially in this country, of course. No need to confiscate them elsewhere.
After all, if we would just ratify the Kyoto treaty and scrap our capitalist free enterprise system, we would no longer be stealing the world's resources so no one would want to kill us any more.
Besides, it doesn't matter. We are all going to die from global warming anyway. Heard of Omaha Beach? Not that place of fame during World War II. No, this is in Omaha, Nebraska where the oceans will at last surround a narrow strip of land. Maybe, just maybe, we could save ourselves if we just adopted Socialism and turned over all governance to those beloved peace-oriented diplomats at the UN.
Peace is so comforting. Just ask those in a nearby cemetery. Freedom is so messy...so unpredictable. You can't always plan the outcome. Besides there are risks involved with freedom and risks are unacceptable in a utopian society. The one value we maintain is equality. Not equality of opportunity, but equality of result. In a Socialist world, risks are unnecessary because without freedom there is no need for such outmoded thinking.
If you doubt that such a utopian society can exist, then you need only look to Cuba, a mere 90 miles from our shores where in our textbooks the Cuban healthcare system is touted as a model for the world. This is the nonsense our youth are being fed.
They are not told that in radical Muslim textbooks, Christians and Jews are called rats and vermin. What do you do with rats and vermin? You set traps for them and then you eradicate them. They are not instructed that there are millions who want to kill us for who we are and what we represent.
With the exception of the invasion of Iraq, the United States has never begun a war. Even there, an average of 20 times per day the Iraqi government was attempting to attack U.S. and British planes over parts of the country we agreed to protect.
We do, however, respond to the attacks of others. The removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan was a response to destruction of the World Trade Center buildings by terrorists on 9/11. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the United States formally entered World War II.
The abject failure of the UN is never discussed in Social Studies. The failure of Socialism and Communism in Russia and the former Soviet bloc nations is not taught. If it is mentioned at all, the suggestion is quite strong that they just didn't do it right.
The real world rarely enters the classroom. The utopian nonsense, which has filled the heads of young people for decades, now leads to a complete misunderstanding of who and what really works.
The audio and pictures of Nick Berg were from the real world. Did they shock and sicken some of the students? It is well if they did. It is time that they learn that there is no restart button. There are people who want to kill us and against whom we should defend ourselves.
It is time young people learn that the reason our Founding Fathers included the Second Amendment to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights was precisely to insure that a relatively free people who wish to defend themselves may do so.
Yes, and they ought to understand that capitalism, especially capitalism as one side of the coin and free enterprise as the other side of the coin, works. In fact, it is really the only system that works. Nick Berg was certainly killed because he was an American. His death probably was insured when his captors learned that he was Jewish.
It is a mean, nasty, dreadful world out there, but one which we have managed to keep at bay, not by the UN, but by our own Constitutional government.
Those teachers who dared acquaint their sheltered and misled underlings about a little part of the real world deserve a promotion and thanks from all of us. If they lose their jobs over this it will demonstrate just how far cultural Marxism (i.e. political correctness) has infiltrated this once great country.
(Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.)
...Joe, in all sincerity, do you think that Berg's beheading was real? as opposed to a faked thing rigged to swell support in the face of the Abu Graib prison fiasco? do you truly think that it was some iraqi terrorists that cut the head off a living man?
In San Diego, a couple of teachers were suspended for showing the pictures of American Nick Berg being killed by his Muslim captors in Iraq. Oh, the outrage -- that our delicate high schoolers would be subjected to reality.
Far from suspending these teachers, we should give them medals (maybe the ones John Kerry threw away). They have done their students a big favor. They have introduced these soon-to-be-adults to the notion that it is a dangerous world out there.
Kids from this generation are hooked on video games that are so vile, so violent, that military experts worry that young people are deadened to the real effect of killing. With the restart button all the killing in a video game can be undone. Those same figures mowed down by virtual AK 47's come back to life.
Not true in real life. Nick Berg, although he pleaded for his life, was dead, dead, dead. His captors, like the murderers of John the Baptist, had his decapitated head to prove it.
One of the students who heard the audio and saw still pictures, which didn't show the worst of it, said he had no idea such things like this went on in the real world. It is time he learned.
For decades now in many of our school systems, students have been shielded from reality, while a false utopian society was pushed in social studies classes, which feature all of the liberal constructs. Ah yes, the wonderful UN guiding us to enlightened world government where, to paraphrase a just-arrested drunk, "We can all just get along."
The notion that there is a worldwide effort to eradicate Christians and Jews is utter nonsense, concocted by the same feverish minds who dreamed up the worldwide Communist conspiracy. Where are all those documents from Russia that detail the conspiracy? We don't want to deal with ancient irrelevant history.
Guns are to be hated because guns, not people, kill. War is caused by the United States because we steal the world's resources. War can be avoided because the UN is ready, willing and able to bring peace forever more.
There is no need to worry. There is no effort to kill Americans for who we are. Right. Still, just in case we might be tempted to demonstrate our "learned male aggressiveness" and want to defend ourselves, guns should be confiscated -- especially in this country, of course. No need to confiscate them elsewhere.
After all, if we would just ratify the Kyoto treaty and scrap our capitalist free enterprise system, we would no longer be stealing the world's resources so no one would want to kill us any more.
Besides, it doesn't matter. We are all going to die from global warming anyway. Heard of Omaha Beach? Not that place of fame during World War II. No, this is in Omaha, Nebraska where the oceans will at last surround a narrow strip of land. Maybe, just maybe, we could save ourselves if we just adopted Socialism and turned over all governance to those beloved peace-oriented diplomats at the UN.
Peace is so comforting. Just ask those in a nearby cemetery. Freedom is so messy...so unpredictable. You can't always plan the outcome. Besides there are risks involved with freedom and risks are unacceptable in a utopian society. The one value we maintain is equality. Not equality of opportunity, but equality of result. In a Socialist world, risks are unnecessary because without freedom there is no need for such outmoded thinking.
If you doubt that such a utopian society can exist, then you need only look to Cuba, a mere 90 miles from our shores where in our textbooks the Cuban healthcare system is touted as a model for the world. This is the nonsense our youth are being fed.
They are not told that in radical Muslim textbooks, Christians and Jews are called rats and vermin. What do you do with rats and vermin? You set traps for them and then you eradicate them. They are not instructed that there are millions who want to kill us for who we are and what we represent.
With the exception of the invasion of Iraq, the United States has never begun a war. Even there, an average of 20 times per day the Iraqi government was attempting to attack U.S. and British planes over parts of the country we agreed to protect.
We do, however, respond to the attacks of others. The removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan was a response to destruction of the World Trade Center buildings by terrorists on 9/11. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the United States formally entered World War II.
The abject failure of the UN is never discussed in Social Studies. The failure of Socialism and Communism in Russia and the former Soviet bloc nations is not taught. If it is mentioned at all, the suggestion is quite strong that they just didn't do it right.
The real world rarely enters the classroom. The utopian nonsense, which has filled the heads of young people for decades, now leads to a complete misunderstanding of who and what really works.
The audio and pictures of Nick Berg were from the real world. Did they shock and sicken some of the students? It is well if they did. It is time that they learn that there is no restart button. There are people who want to kill us and against whom we should defend ourselves.
It is time young people learn that the reason our Founding Fathers included the Second Amendment to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights was precisely to insure that a relatively free people who wish to defend themselves may do so.
Yes, and they ought to understand that capitalism, especially capitalism as one side of the coin and free enterprise as the other side of the coin, works. In fact, it is really the only system that works. Nick Berg was certainly killed because he was an American. His death probably was insured when his captors learned that he was Jewish.
It is a mean, nasty, dreadful world out there, but one which we have managed to keep at bay, not by the UN, but by our own Constitutional government.
Those teachers who dared acquaint their sheltered and misled underlings about a little part of the real world deserve a promotion and thanks from all of us. If they lose their jobs over this it will demonstrate just how far cultural Marxism (i.e. political correctness) has infiltrated this once great country.
(Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.)
I'd like his blood checked for heroin or some other major depressant/narcotic/tranquilizer. After their disastrous propaganda experience while attempting to ritually slaughter an Italian who, once he realized he was to be murdered rather than held for ransom, fucked up their program by trying to remove the bag over his head while shouting, "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!", forcing them to shoot him in the head rather than haggle it off at the neck. I'm quite sure that they didn't want any more heroics or histrionics to disturb or disrupt their message of the cowed and resigned infidel westerner passively accepting his divinely sanctioned fate... And, yes, Radical Muslim terrorists have been beheading from time immemorial. Witness the videotaped beheading of reporter Daniel Pearl, performed using the same theatrical script, and without any Abu Ghraib excuse (or even its possibility, as this was before the US moved into Iraq). In fact, it is interesting to note that, except for the few throwoff lines about Abu Ghraib, that most of the video rant was, like in the Daniel Pearl video, that the beheading was an object lesson in how to deal with captured infidels for the Greater Glory of Allah, punctuated by their joyous ululations of "Allahu Ackbar!" , as the knife sawed through. Remember, he was captured two weeks before the Abu Ghraib pictures surfaced, so they could not have prompted such a capture.
In San Diego, a couple of teachers were suspended for showing the pictures of American Nick Berg being killed by his Muslim captors in Iraq. Oh, the outrage -- that our delicate high schoolers would be subjected to reality.
Far from suspending these teachers, we should give them medals (maybe the ones John Kerry threw away). They have done their students a big favor. They have introduced these soon-to-be-adults to the notion that it is a dangerous world out there. <snip>
[rhinoceros] Showing raw violence to the students is a legit opinion, although many psychologists might argue against it and others might argue against the specifics of the incident. I guess most students had already seen it on the net anyway. No big deal here.
The cheap jab to Kerry alerts the reader that the author actually wants to get at something else, but other than this, no big deal. Soon, however, the author guides us to what he means by reality. Don't miss what follows!!!
<snip> For decades now in many of our school systems, students have been shielded from reality, while a false utopian society was pushed in social studies classes, which feature all of the liberal constructs. Ah yes, the wonderful UN guiding us to enlightened world government where, to paraphrase a just-arrested drunk, "We can all just get along."
The notion that there is a worldwide effort to eradicate Christians and Jews is utter nonsense, concocted by the same feverish minds who dreamed up the worldwide Communist conspiracy. Where are all those documents from Russia that detail the conspiracy? We don't want to deal with ancient irrelevant history. <snip>
[rhinoceros] The author is trying to be sarcastic. Apparently, his reality does include "a worldwide effort to eradicate Christians and Jews" *and* it used to include "a worldwide communist conspiracy". These "realities" are so obvious to him that he uses them as negatives in his sarcasm, to show how blind to the ugly reality we have become. Surely he thinks that the students should hear all about it. There is more:
<snip> Guns are to be hated because guns, not people, kill. War is caused by the United States because we steal the world's resources. War can be avoided because the UN is ready, willing and able to bring peace forever more.
There is no need to worry. There is no effort to kill Americans for who we are. Right. Still, just in case we might be tempted to demonstrate our "learned male aggressiveness" and want to defend ourselves, guns should be confiscated -- especially in this country, of course. No need to confiscate them elsewhere. <snip>
[rhinoceros] The author continues his attempt at sarcasm. The guns argument alone is a legit topic of discussion and I won't touch it here. The feigned insults which the author throws at himself are also legit topics of discussions.
Remember, however, that all these things are part of a discussion where the author has already presented us his ugly reality of "a worldwide effort to eradicate Christians and Jews" and "a worldwide communist conspiracy" and guess what the guns "especially in this country" are needed for.
<snip> After all, if we would just ratify the Kyoto treaty and scrap our capitalist free enterprise system, we would no longer be stealing the world's resources so no one would want to kill us any more.
Besides, it doesn't matter. We are all going to die from global warming anyway. Heard of Omaha Beach? Not that place of fame during World War II. No, this is in Omaha, Nebraska where the oceans will at last surround a narrow strip of land. Maybe, just maybe, we could save ourselves if we just adopted Socialism and turned over all governance to those beloved peace-oriented diplomats at the UN.
Peace is so comforting. Just ask those in a nearby cemetery. Freedom is so messy...so unpredictable. You can't always plan the outcome. Besides there are risks involved with freedom and risks are unacceptable in a utopian society. The one value we maintain is equality. Not equality of opportunity, but equality of result. In a Socialist world, risks are unnecessary because without freedom there is no need for such outmoded thinking. <big snip>
[rhinoceros] Here the author is in a free rant mode of irrelevancies. Just panic and enjoy.
<snip> The audio and pictures of Nick Berg were from the real world. Did they shock and sicken some of the students? It is well if they did. It is time that they learn that there is no restart button. There are people who want to kill us and against whom we should defend ourselves.
It is time young people learn that the reason our Founding Fathers included the Second Amendment to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights was precisely to insure that a relatively free people who wish to defend themselves may do so. <snip>
[rhinoceros] What can I say? "Did you see Berg's beheading? You are in danger! Get a gun, as our founding fathers provided."
<snip> Yes, and they ought to understand that capitalism, especially capitalism as one side of the coin and free enterprise as the other side of the coin, works. In fact, it is really the only system that works. Nick Berg was certainly killed because he was an American. His death probably was insured when his captors learned that he was Jewish. <snip>
[rhinoceros] Capitalism one side of the coin and free enterprise the other one? George? Is it you?
<snip> (Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.) <snip>
[rhinoceros] A chairman and CEO? I have to see this.
<quote> Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture? Or will we continue the long slide into the cultural and moral decay of political correctness? <end quote>
[rhinoceros] Return to "our traditional Judeo-Christian, Western culture". Figures.
There was very little blood coming from the head. That body was long dead. Anyone who says otherwise is just a dumbass. --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
....well, he disappeared a couple weeks prior...held by whom cannot be ascertained. and although narcotics might slow down a heart beat significantly....it wont do more than cut it down 20%-30%?...so why is there no blood? recent medical experts have repeatedly remarked that severing the corodid artery would result in blood spraying up to 7 ft in the air...and all over peoples hands, clothes etc. and what of the bizarre chubbiness of the militants? the accent claims?
...you know what im saying. how do you discount the various arguments made against the validity of the beheading? -- im sure youve heard them all. what do you say to the contrary? i'm not 100% certain that it was faked...but at this point i am about 85% certain. and the fact that not one major news network has broadcast any mention of this possibility makes me even more suspicious.
I'd like his blood checked for heroin or some other major depressant/narcotic/tranquilizer. After their disastrous propaganda experience while attempting to ritually slaughter an Italian who, once he realized he was to be murdered rather than held for ransom, fucked up their program by trying to remove the bag over his head while shouting, "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!", forcing them to shoot him in the head rather than haggle it off at the neck. I'm quite sure that they didn't want any more heroics or histrionics to disturb or disrupt their message of the cowed and resigned infidel westerner passively accepting his divinely sanctioned fate... And, yes, Radical Muslim terrorists have been beheading from time immemorial. Witness the videotaped beheading of reporter Daniel Pearl, performed using the same theatrical script, and without any Abu Ghraib excuse (or even its possibility, as this was before the US moved into Iraq). In fact, it is interesting to note that, except for the few throwoff lines about Abu Ghraib, that most of the video rant was, like in the Daniel Pearl video, that the beheading was an object lesson in how to deal with captured infidels for the Greater Glory of Allah, punctuated by their joyous ululations of "Allahu Ackbar!" , as the knife sawed through. Remember, he was captured two weeks before the Abu Ghraib pictures surfaced, so they could not have prompted such a capture.
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...Joe, are you pretending to actually not understand what im getting at??? obviously he was beheaded. the notion i am going for is that he was already dead when beheaded...and it most likely was NOT the enemy crazies who did it. i would nominate our own people with orders coming from far far above. regardless of who did it and why, it seems a near certainty that he was already dead and that someone was faking it for some agenda. i could almost smell bush's cheap cologne (most likely Drakkar Noir) whilst watching the video over and over.
[blunderov]: "The USA certainly needs inspired leadership ASAP. From what I've read, Kerry does not seem to be that man. Either."
...my pet theory is that if you envision the populace like this:
x X xx XX OO OOO OOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOOO OOOOOO OOO O o o
: with the top spot representing the truly wise, self-doubting intellectuals who are honest with themselves and caring of others and their rights(even if they are in contrast to their own)
and the bulk of "O's" representing the standard stupid public...with all other letters representing the groups in between...the leaders usually come from the top "O" lines because they are capabably of communicating to the idiot masses....whereas the truly wise "x" will actually be seen as evil heretics or even 'stupid' by the masses due to the huge gulf between them. as a result the best leader we can expect to be accepted by the ignorant voting masses will be essentially the lowest common denominator...an incidental casualty of democracy i suppose =-(
...frightening post Blunderov! i seriously suspect that if our maniacal bush wins again...it could signify the beginning of the end. a turning point steep and downhill from which we might not return. it's almost amazing to hear stories such as this one and compare them with so much classic literature in which amazingly brazen acts of brainwashing, strongarming, thought-control and censorship lead to disastrous consequences
and suffering. one imagines, "how could people just sit by and let this happen?". i guess i have to credit bush's handlers with knowing that people
can be pushed WAY more than we imagine, and still they will refuse to voice any protest.
...give someone something to lose, and you can take away all that they stand
to gain. (tm)
[Blunderov] Yes. It seems to me that this is symptomatic of a very real fright pervading the US.
Back in the old RSA apartheid days (it's so nice to be able to say that!)almost anything was OK just as long as it might be construed as fighting communism, however loosely. Any dissent on just about any subject at all was considered either 'communist' or indicative of communist leanings. (Atheism, as I'm sure you can imagine, was not appreciated at all.)
The USA certainly needs inspired leadership ASAP. From what I've read, Kerry does not seem to be that man. Either.
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