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Pansy FBI Liberals

You know, it’s one thing to have typical commie liberals accusing you of counter-productive torture and abuse of prisoners, but then when the FBI decides you are torturing to no effect…

Here is a brief summary of what I observed at GTMO. On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand a foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18 24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the A/C had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room probably well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night…

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Peter, Martyr of San Francisco

Cungagnaq … received the Christian name of Peter when he was baptized into the Orthodox faith. [In 1815] he was captured by Spanish sailors, who took [him] to San Francisco for interrogation. With threats of torture, the Roman Catholic priests in California attempted to force the Aleuts to deny their Orthodox faith and to convert to Roman Catholicism. When the Aleuts refused, the priest had a toe severed from each of Peter’s feet. Peter still refused to renounce his faith and the Spanish priest ordered a group of California Indians to cut off each finger of Peter’s hands, one joint at a time, finally removing both his hands. They eventually disemboweled him, crowning his life with martyrdom.

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Compare and Contrast

New York Times, 2004/12/17

Haiti cannot hope to follow Hawaii into the American union, and even an American territory like Puerto Rico faces resistance in becoming the 51st state. But Ukraine can hope to follow Poland into the European Union. AS we have seen across central and eastern Europe, and now in the Balkans and in Turkey, countries that wish to join the European Union are prepared to make profound changes to their economic, social, legal and political systems in order to qualify. Indeed, in the run-up to accession, the union has intervened extensively in the affairs of candidate states, but it has done so with the consent of their democratically elected governments. This is regime change, European-style.

Here, 2003/7/23

For all the talk of “old Europe” and “new Europe”, the former Soviet Bloc countries are not clamouring to create bilateral trade agreements with the US… they are fighting tooth and nail to join the EU, and so submit their trade relations with non-EU countries to the fiat of Brussels. This yearning for EU membership has produced and is producing massive social and political change across eastern Europe. However, it seems that the US project has stalled at its current borders … For many USians, the sheer idea that Honduras or Nicaragua could one day join the United States (if they met stringent legal and political requirements) is nonsensical, ludicrous, and vaguely repellent. Puerto Rico still languishes in an indeterminate, politically weak state many decades after such harmonization began.

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Bestility

The new Google Suggest uses some tricky Javascript to suggest popular search phrases as you type. However, Google is obviously filtering out as many “rude” words as it can. Typing “p”, for instance, does not return porn (32m results) but instead paris hilton (~6.5m results). Mind you these are almost synonymous. Filtering is never perfect - look at the problems antispam is having coping with all the possible mutant spellings of V|4gr4. Anyway, you can type as many letters as you want but Google will not suggest bestiality (~2m results). However once you get to “besti” the common misspelling bestility (30K results) pops up. However, Google is not yet filtering felching.

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Remarkable for Deer and Goats

The Venerable Bede, on Ireland:

Ireland, in breadth, and for wholesomeness and serenity of climate, far surpasses Britain; for the snow scarcely ever lies there above three days: no man makes hay in the summer for winter’s provision, or builds stables for his beasts of burden. No reptiles are found there, and no snake can live there; for, though often carried thither out of Britain, as soon as the ship comes near the shore, and the scent of the air reaches them, they die. On the contrary, almost all things in the island are good against poison. In short, we have known that when some persons have been bitten by serpents, the scrapings of leaves of books that were brought out of Ireland, being put into water, and given them to drink, have immediately expelled the spreading poison, and assuaged the swelling. The island abounds in milk and honey, nor is there any want of vines, fish, or fowl; and it is remarkable for deer and goats.

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Sent Down

Things have been busy: finals, I lost my wedding ring, and then Microsoft’s pack of lawyers descended and hit me with a takedown notice for this. The ISP shut down my website and implied legal action was forthcoming. Which just reinforces the point of the article even more!

Earlier here.

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Arbeit Macht Frei

Troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned … One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions.

You know, when insurgencies begin to become intractable, one predictable response of an occupier is to instigate a concentration camp strategy. I wonder if the badges will be yellow, with sickles instead of stars…

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Nobody’s Friend


Al Jazeera’s ubiquitous presence at news events in Iraq has some wondering whether the Arabic satellite news network is a willing or even enthusiastic partner in the anti-American campaign being waged by Iraqi insurgents … the U.S.-led coalition says it has documented 34 instances last week alone of Al Jazeera hyping, misreporting or distorting events in Iraq. Media experts say the coalition’s criticism is valid and critics say the network may be fanning the flames of hatred against the United States.


The Al-Jazeera networks recent insult of the Iranian nation was totally unacceptable … rumors [suggest] that the network was established by U.S. and Israeli agents in order to present a bad image of Islam to the world … the actions of the network gradually revealed the fact that Al-Jazeera officials, on the orders of Zionist agents, are trying to divide Islamic countries and tarnish the image of Islam … [Zionists] founded the Al-Jazeera network to tarnish the image of true Islam.

Poor little Al-Jazeera. Hated by both the Western neocon mullahs and the Middle Eastern Islamist mullahs, could it be that this scrappy little channel is performing the classic function of the Fourth Estate: questioning the actions of the Powers That Be and re-presenting political theatre.

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