"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
Really, does this surprise anyone?
150 former Guantanamo detainees are either “confirmed or suspected of reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities,” according to a new intelligence assessment released by the Director of National Intelligence’s office on Tuesday. In total, 598 detainees have been transferred out of U.S. custody at Guantanamo. 1 out of every 4, or 25 percent, of these former detainees is now considered a confirmed or suspected recidivist by the U.S. government. . . .
The three masked gunmen burst into Asha Muse Ali’s tent at night and grabbed every item of value they could find: $85 in cash, a cell phone and a gold ring.
Then the attackers embarked on a crime that carries a severe social stigma in this conservative Muslim country: They raped Ali and her aunt.
Ali and her family are among almost 60 000 internally displaced people in the central Somali town of Galkayo, where hundreds of families have sought refuge from violence in Mogadishu and in south-central Somalia. But once there, the women risk being raped.
Aid workers say the number of rapes are alarming and that in some cases, they are fuelled by young men watching pornographic videos. . . .
Some camp residents and aid workers blamed some of the sexual assaults on a new prevalence of pornography, which can even be seen on cell phones. The top official in Somalia for the UN refugee agency said he has received reports that youths “first heat up themselves before they go out and hunt down women”.
“It is appaling that the women in the camps are raped by youth gangs with total impunity after watching pornographic films,” Bruno Geddo said.
(Hat-tip: Pepper_10 on Twitter.)
TOP NEWS
Elizabeth Edwards Dies, 61
Felled by return of 2004 breast cancer
Is Tax Compromise A Game-Changer For the Economy?
“Most of this is just averting a drag on growth.”
U.S. To Meet With Israeli, Palestinian Diplomats In Bid To Restart Talks
Push for settlement moratorium abandoned
Julian Assange: David Hicks 2.0?
Already a headache for Gillard’s government
POLITICS
Angry Democrats Rebel Against Obama’s Tax Deal With GOP
Feinstein: “I’m just staggered by the enormity of this package.”
Judge Tosses Lawsuit Bid To Prevent Awlaki Assassination
Traditionalist GOP Congressmen To Lead Committees
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Business Groups Generally Pleased With Tax Compromise
10-Year T-Bill Hits New 5 1/2 High On Tax Deal News
Google Chrome OS Netbooks Coming From Samsung, Acer in 2011
IE 9 Gets Anti-Tracking Privacy Feature
Ten Reasons Apple Needs To Distance Itself From AT&T
SPORTS
Angels Join Teams Trying To Land Cliff Lee
Seven years? Oodles of dollars? It’s all on the table for the stud starter
Redskins Suspend Haynesworth Without Pay For Remainder Of Season
Jeter Stays In Pinstripes: 3 Years, $51 Million
Ryan On Jets’ Blowout Loss: “We Weren’t Up To The Task”
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Life Is $weet For Jessica Simpson
Her fashion line set to break $1 billion retail sales mark soon, one of the most successful of all time
Fat, Overrated Director Whines About Another Airline
Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum Win Big At Country Music Awards
Why Does The Superficial Hate America?
Kathy Griffin bikini pics. Need I say more?
Johnny Depp Just Doesn’t Like Phones
Margaret Cho: “I Support Bristol…It Was Just Gossip”
Sterger Going Public If NFL Doesn’t Discipline Favre
FOREIGNERS
Irish Finance Minister Makes “Down Payment On Future” With Savage Budget
Iran: Uranium Enrichment Halt Not On Table
Digging Continues For 90 Missing After Colombia Mudslides
BLOGS & STUFF
Legal Insurrection: Why The Dems Won’t Walk Out On Obama
American Power: Praying For Elizabeth Edwards Not A PC Issue
Cubachi: Bachmann, DeMint Not On Board With White House Deal Either
Althouse: Does Katrina vanden Heuvel Have A Joe Biden Sock Puppet?
Michelle Malkin: Rejecting The DREAM Act
Happy hump day!
— compiled by Wombat-socho
Borrowing Jimmie Bise’s meme once more, it’s been a heckuva few days, with offline work stacked up like cordwood, various Dad-the-taxi-driver errands to run, etc., and so many trolls and feminists to smack around.
Honestly, I’d ignore those pests, but it’s Holiday Traffic Suckage Season. At this time of year, the potential traffic lost by not blogging every breaking political development is not so great a loss compared to the pleasure provided to regular readers who love to watch me work out on a troll.
Anyway, there’s a backlog of stuff I was thinking of blogging about, but never got around to:
So that’s the roundup. Please hit the tip jar, or you’ll make my children cry.
Apparently the dutiful Joseph Fein was overcome last week by the mind-bending horrors of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos Sixty Minutes, since we were forced to do without his fisking of that alleged news program last week. He’s back this week, though, with a double-header for your reading pleasure!
Defenders of Julian Assange are now “downshifting from Camille Paglia to Three Days of the Condor,” resorting to a conspiracy-theory defense of the WikiLeaker’s First Amendment right to condom-free sex with Swedish socialists:
Here’s how an evidence-free, innuendo-filled personal attack on a rape accuser trespasses the mainstream political debate. On his Twitter feed, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann (162,000 followers) links to a rambling blog post arguing that Anna Ardin, the Swedish feminist who accused Assange of rape, is an anti-Castro activist with connections to CIA front groups. . . .
Read the whole brutal thing by Michael Moynihan, whose wife is Swedish, but not socialist, and therefore safe from Julian Assange’s penis.
UPDATE: Despite the fact that Olbermann was up to his usual tricks — re-Tweeting crackpot conspiracy theories from Holocaust-denying anti-Semites in order to smear innocent rape victims — we have discovered evidence that, indeed, the accusations against Julian Assange are part of a right-wing plot. Thanks to Kirk James Murphy of Progressive Alaska, we now have a photo of the so-called “Swedish feminist” who is at the center of this international scheme to frame Assange: Continue reading Jill Filipovic and Amanda Marcotte to Denounce Keith Olbermann in 3, 2, 1 . . . →
No, this has nothing to do with Barrett Brown. Rather, the quote is from Mark Stephens, lawyer for Julian Assange, describing his feelings at attempting to get his client off the hook for his not-entirely-consensual hook-ups with two Swedish socialist women.
The same quote would also fairly describe my surprise at finding none other than Amanda Marcotte accusing me of being “pro-rape” in the comments of last night’s post about Assange.
Also, Tommy Christopher condescends to notice me. Not in a good way.
Before we go wading into that troll-infested argument, however, let’s pause to consider a remarkable fact: Interpol is now issuing warrants for men who fail to wear condoms.
Perhaps Julian Assange should convert to Catholicism and ask the Pope to testify on his behalf.
OK, now that I’ve added Catholics to the long list of people who hate me today, let’s just go ahead and offend everyone else: George Bush had it all wrong. Instead of claiming that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, he should have instructed the CIA to gin up evidence that Saddam refused to wear condoms, at which point Amanda Marcotte would have demanded an immediate invasion of Iraq.
The good news: A British judge has denied Julian Assange bail, which means he won’t be free to keep leaking U.S. national security secrets on the Internet.
The bad news: A British judge has denied Julian Assange bail, which means some other poor shmuck will now have to satisfy the twisted carnal cravings of Swedish socialist women.
More good news: The Left is thrust onto the horns of a dilemma, forced to choose between conflicting principles of feminism and anti-Americanism.
More bad news: This has given Naomi Wolf an excuse to write a column.
In such a storm of controversy, by what lights should a conservative steer? Simple enough: Find out what side of the argument Andrew Sullivan has taken, and get on the other side.
A useful reality-check from Greenwald. I have to say the coincidence of these strange sexual charges and the ire of so many governments is extremely convenient, don’t you think? It’s like a movie. And no bail? Assange is on the road to underground hero status.
The old conspiratorial “question the timing” mood, eh? Perhaps this entire plot against Assange has been contrived by that notorious arch-villain, Sarah Palin’s uterus.
Well, Amanda Marcotte is in my comments. You perhaps remember Marcotte as having helped coin the immortal slogan, “Vote for Edwards, Godbag Christofascists!” And you remember how Senator Edwards — so loyal and courageous and committed to True Feminist principles — defended Marcotte. Continue reading ‘I Feel As If I’m in a Surreal Swedish Movie Being Threatened by Bizarre Trolls’ →
by Smitty
COLUMBIA, SC, CAMP MCREADY– At roughly the halfway point of my Abbreviated Introduction to the Army course, along comes the Day That Will Live in Infamy. While in Hawaii in July 2010, my wife and I made some time to get down to Ford Island with the then-brand-new camcorder. One profound aspect of the memorials there is the juxtaposition of the USS Missouri museum with the USS Oklahoma memorial:
From Shaun Schafer:
The surprise raid on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and air bases at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor left 21 ships heavily damaged or sunk. The Oklahoma was one of only three not to return to service.
The other two, the USS Arizona and USS Utah, remain on the floor of the harbor. The Arizona, which has a gleaming white memorial astride it midship, remains a tomb for most of its lost crew. The Utah rests on the harbor floor, largely forgotten.
The Oklahoma wound up hundreds of miles from the harbor, resting in a grave of her own making, in the crushing depths of the Pacific Ocean.
“The way she went down just proves that she had a mind of her own, and was a great lady right to the end,” Goodyear said.
While it’s a great thing that there is no lingering resentment over the Second World War, the neglect of the history bears review.
The rest of the story of BB-37 is the stuff of classical tragedy:
“Sold for scrap, she was en route to the West Coast when she mercifully broke her tow and sank. . .” In the background of the shot of the Oklahoma memorial sits the flip side of the coin, USS Missouri:
Sometimes you’re the hero; other times, the footnote, per the Fickle Finger of Fate. I’ve met a few survivors of brushes with greatness. Most understand that the distance between hero and footnote is measured in tiny units of Fortune. Real heros often don’t take their heroism too seriously, grasping that much of it is pure circumstance. Not infrequently, it’s affixed after the fact by non-participants seeking to organize events.
Should one’s turn come, one hopes that preparation and Destiny drives toward a Missiouri outcome. A reading of the Book of Job, however, instructs that, sometimes, Oklahoma will be the result.
As has been noted:
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
–Job 1:20-21