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Monday, May 24, 2004 |
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The Abu Ghraib Obsession
"Today's press," writes Michael Barone, "works to put the worst possible face on the war" in Iraq. Is this an exaggeration? We'd have to say not. Consider the press's obsession with the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Sure, it's a big and important story, but as others have pointed out, it's far from the only story in Iraq. Why, for example, did it get so much more coverage than the murder by terrorists of American civilian Nick Berg?
We suppose one could argue that point. But the surest sign that the journalistic obsession with Abu Ghraib has gotten out of hand is the way news stories on unrelated topics ritually invoke it. Today's New York Times has a good-news story, about an enemy defeat in Karbala. The article explains that "the retreat came at a time when the American military was being forced to defend itself in light of the prison scandal at Abu Ghraib." As if Times readers wouldn't already have heard about this.
It gets worse. Here are the first three paragraphs of a May 17 Associated Press dispatch:
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on Monday praised a Supreme Court justice of a half-century ago for his commitment to "intellectual integrity" as chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials of accused war criminals.
Rehnquist made his remarks at the annual meeting of the American Law Institute, two days before the court-martial of Army Spc. Jeremy Sivits, the first soldier to stand trial for allegations of abuse of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
Justice Robert Jackson accepted President Truman's invitation in 1945 to prosecute 22 German defendants accused of charges that included conducting harmful medical experiments on humans. Many of the Nazi defendants argued they were following orders from their superiors.
What in the world does the Sivits court-martial have to do with the Nuremberg trials? Well, both were legal proceedings, and both took place in the Northern Hemisphere, but that's about it. Yet not only does the AP's delightfully named reporter Hope Yen feel obliged to cite Abu Ghraib; she does so before she even mentions Justice Jackson, the subject of her article.
These Abu Ghraib non sequiturs are reminiscent of the way John Kerry constantly mentions his service in Vietnam, even when talking about things that have nothing to do with his service in Vietnam. "I served in Vietnam" is the one thing Kerry wants to make sure everyone knows about him. "Our soldiers abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib" is the one thing our press corps wants everyone to know about America.
from Wall Street Journal
4:29:24 PM 
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Spaceport to Rise in California's Mojave Desert.
"The Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) is expected next month to certify that the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center as a non-federal spaceport to handle horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft.
As such, Mojave Airport can offer a range of launch and landing services making it a hub for high-flying craft intended to help spark public space travel. The Mojave Airport is located approximately 100 miles north of Los Angeles, in southeastern Kern County, along the western edge of the Mojave Desert.
The site is already home port for several enterprising suborbital space projects."
from Planenews Aviation News Portal
2:21:02 PM
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Letter From Fallujah
"I will close with something that was on my mind this morning when I punished myself by watching CBS news. I saw the anchor come on and just before he spoke, I told my rack mate "Lets see what the opening line is going to be...." Sure enough before he said anything else, he said "It just keeps getting worse and worse...." Yes, he was talking about Iraq. Honest to God we laughed at him. I'm not kidding. It is getting to the point where the Marines are getting past their anger at the talking heads and are laughing. To really get a rise out of them, requires a retired military officer who betrays his oath and stokes the fear mongering."
from The Indepundit
2:00:12 PM
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GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
"Do you know what this tells me? It doesn't matter how much the liberal media may be in control. It does not matter who gives the speeches, or who has the power and influence. People have more common sense than to fall for much of the anti-Bush hogwash, and it showed quite distinctively at the Hofstra commencement. The louder the liberal rabble gets, the more frantic they become. The more frantic these people are, the more likely they are to make wild, speculative, overreaching and ridiculous statements that embarrass them in front of an audience with half a mind to think for themselves."
from The SmarterCop
12:48:36 PM
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"I do not think I can persuade such intellectuals to understand that their lives and ways of life are in serious danger and that self-defense is crucial; that there is nothing we can do that will "appease" Islamist rage (sacrifice Israel, retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan, veil our women, allow Arab honor killings to be carried out in both Eurabia and North America).
It is clear: The terrorists have embarked on a program to kill all non-Muslim infidels--it's precisely what al-Zarquawi said on the video before he be-headed Nicholas Berg--and the danger coming our way is even greater from Muslim Indonesia."
from FrontPageMagazine.com
12:43:08 PM
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BREAKING: Ted Kennedy Hurt in Mountain Bike Spill
(2004-05-24) -- U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy today suffered minor injuries when the mountain bike he was riding slid on a patch of loose stones and crashed near the end of a 17-mile ride at the Kennedy family compound in Massachusetts.
When told about the incident, Senate colleague John Forbes Kerry expressed his "grief and prayers for Teddy, his bicycle and the entire eastern seaboard."
"His injuries remind me of my own three Purple Hearts earned during the Vietnam war," Mr. Kerry added.
from ScrappleFace
They didn't finish the story so I will do it for them...........
Both Kennedy and Kerry blamed the Bush administration for the spill. Kennedy was overheard to say "If there was a Democratic administration in charge, all the loose stones in the country would have been swept up by the government. We would create work programs for the unemployed who would be paid $30 an hour to sweep the entire country. This is just another example of the total inattention to serious domestic problems ignored by the warmongering Bush administration."
12:37:29 PM
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Yes Nukes
"I believe that most sensible, thinking people understand that nuclear energy, in spite of aberrations like Chernobyl, is still one of the safest and most productive forms of energy available. The trust in nukes fell drastically in this country after the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. The plain fact is that TMI caused no traceable hazards to the environment and no cancer or radiation-related deaths or illnesses could be traced back to the incident. Instead, the industry was practically ruined by both the misunderstanding of the accident and the coincidental release of the movie The China Syndrome the same week. Apparently, since the American public believed in the scientific knowhow of Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and director James Bridges, the hue and cry went out to stop the nuclear energy industry from moving forward."
from Attaboy
9:50:50 AM
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Racism
"Ah yes, racism. I have yet again been accused of being a racist by certain visitors. It appears that my discussion about whether or not to use a nuclear threat on Mecca has caused quite a stir.
Why is it that their hatred of Jews, Christians, and Americans is tolerated as "legitimate anger", but my absolute fury at them for it is not? I have yet to see swarms of Leftists running around on Arab web sites screaming about how they should stop hating Jews, Christians, and Americans. I've never seen it because it doesn't exist. It's a myth that Leftists care as much about anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Westernism as much as they care about anti-Arabism and anti-Islamic sentiments. The fact is that they don't care and they are lying little fucking hypocrites for saying that they do. I've never seen comments from the Left which would ever suggest otherwise."
from Shining full plate and a good broadsword
9:31:43 AM
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Bush to Declare 'End of Major Self-Loathing Operations'
"In a televised address to the nation tonight, U.S. President George W. Bush plans to declare, for all Americans, "the end of major self-loathing operations."
"Standing before a banner that reads "Mission Renewed," the president will say "It's time for America to snap out of its navel-gazing trance and to take up the banner of liberty and justice again."
from ScrappleFace
9:27:06 AM
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Berkeley Intifada
"Anti-Semitism is not part of the average Berkeley student's thinking, but it exists in certain departments," said theater arts professor Mel Gordon, who was involved in an altercation with student supporters of Palestine in 2001. "It's an obnoxious Berkeley tradition, bringing political agendas into the classroom. And since Berkeley always wants everything in the world to be about Berkeley, Berkeley wants the Israel-Palestine conflict to be about Berkeley."
from frontpagemag.com
I disagree. I believe Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americaism is a part of every Berkeley student's thinking. Otherwise why would they attend Berkeley?
8:38:28 AM
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Baldilocks makes some good points about the big difference between US and THEM!
"Why do they hate us? They hate us for our freedom. It is this fact that must be hammered home again and again, rhetorically. Most of us will figure it out, one way or another. I fear that it will take *that other* way for a good portion of us to get it, however.
I wonder if this incident will make Ms. Ciccone appreciate the country of her birth a bit more. Time will tell."
No! Liberals like Madonna never blame the true cause of terrorism. It's too easy to just blame Bush for everything.
8:28:48 AM
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9/11 Families Ungrateful, Rude
"Enough of the obsession with these families. We didn't obsess over Pearl Harbor's victims, and we managed to win that war. If we want to win this one, we'd better stop hoping to recapture our victimized image for the satisfaction of leftists abroad and start focusing on killing as many of the Islamofascists that we can find. Let the uberpolitical 9/11 families exercise the franchise, just like any othe American, but otherwise their message has exceeded its expiration date." [Captain's Quarters]
8:01:44 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Lopsided Poopdeck.
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