The Purple Koolaid Playtime Show!

Now That's [CENSORED] Up

Fighting The Mediocracy With Media

Also making the rounds is the issue regarding a porn site (nowthatsfuckedup.com) which had been allowing American troops free access to his site in exchange for gory war pictures.

Selected articles and commentary:

Orlando Weekly: "The Most Depraved Site On The Internet"

This blog provides an overview while mercifully blocking out the gory details in the photos. (Viewers can click to see the uncensored versions).

"Some have questioned why we published the photos" (site forum)

Irregular Times [Warning: contains uncensored pictures] The photograph of this corpse is labelled, "What every Iraqi should look like". So much for the pretense that America is liberating Iraq. This soldier ... has identified his enemy quite clearly: He's not there to liberate the Iraqis. He's there to kill them. He wants them all dead.

Google search

Well, it seems that the authorities didn't care too much for this exercise of free speech, which led to the arrest of the webmaster on 300 counts of obscenity in Polk County, Florida. Christopher Wilson, the webmaster, was held on $101,000 bond (later freed on bail). A website, FreeChris.org has been set up in his defense.

We Were Supposed To Be The Good Guys... Right? ...Right?

U.S. Used White Phosphorus In Fallujah

...Not exactly new news, since it had been rumored of their use since the event of the attack. But officials are only now beginning to admit it was for more than just "illumination":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm

[Excerpts:]

"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC - though not against civilians, he said.

The US had earlier said the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - had been used only for illumination.

[...]

White phosphorus is highly flammable and ignites on contact with oxygen. If the substance hits someone's body, it will burn until deprived of oxygen.

Globalsecurity.org, a defence website, says: "Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful... These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears... it could burn right down to the bone."

A spokesman at the UK Ministry of Defence said the use of white phosphorus was permitted in battle in cases where there were no civilians near the target area.

But Professor Paul Rogers, of the University of Bradford's department of peace studies, said white phosphorus could be considered a chemical weapon if deliberately aimed at civilians.

...Now, the "official word" is that the weapons were only used against "enemy combatants". But this Italian documentary suggests otherwise; that the weapons were used indiscriminately, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians. Warning: graphic and disturbing imagery

According to the account given by the American soldiers in the documentary, phosphorus particles can burn through skin -- and continue burning -- in effect, being capable of cooking a person from the inside out. (According to a hazardous materials description, it "...reacts with moisture on body tissue surfaces to form phosphoric acid, which approximates sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acids in corrosive intensity.") For a more graphic and detailed look at some of the photos shown in the video, which supposedly represent the effects upon the human body, click here (WARNING: very graphic). But only if you're really, really curious; otherwise, I wouldn't recommend anyone look at these photos (at least without having a sturdy paper bag handy).

OTOH, war being what it is, there's the possibility that these photos are "disinformation" in that they don't really represent what they claim to be; and, according to some skeptics, they are merely bodies in that have been exposed to the elements for a prolonged period of time. I suppose one would have to be a forensic expert to be able to tell the difference.

Hazardous Materials Description of Phosphorus Pentoxide

A rebuttal to the Italian documentary, with commentary

Camera Iraq.com

Snopes.com discussion on WP weapons

Internet Infidels discussion forum

We're Entitled To It!

The Characters Are Writing Themselves...

Imagine being the novelist who, once having established an underlying theme, sees the story neatly coming together while the characters "write themselves". ...Literally.

This quote comes courtesy Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa (thanks to James Howard Kunstler's blog):

"...Americans are used to going to the gas tank (sic), and when they put that hose in their, uh, tank, and when I do it, I wanna get gas out of it. And when I turn the light switch on, I want the lights to go on, and I don't want somebody to tell me I gotta change my way of living to satisfy them. Because this is America, and this is something we've worked our way into, and the American people are entitled to it, and if we're going improve (sic) our standard of living, you have to consume more energy."

I want the world
I want the whole world
I want to lock it all up in my pocket
It's my bar of chocolate
Give it to me
Now!

Unpatriotic, and Certainly Not "Conservative"...

Patriotism vs. Nationalism Dept. ...

I'm not sure what to make of this mediocrat Ann Coulter. Occasionally she writes something (e.g. "Does My Resume Make Me Look Fat?") that I actually agree with. Too many other times she comes off as a live-action creation of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, trying to say something outrageous for shock value. Except "South Park" is usually more clever while sounding less desperate.

I've also heard it speculated that she's a liberal "plant". Sorry folks, but it just ain't "conservative" to suggest that one of the most basic tenets of the American Constitution is a bad idea.

The party punch bowl's been spiked, fellas. With something toxic. Fortunately not everyone is choosing to drink it.

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``Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leader. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them you're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.'' -- Herman Goering, Hitlers Reich Marshal at the Nuremburg Trials.

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." --Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 1787.

Obviousman might agree...