~ we don’t think we can stand another hourly report with some senator making excuses for why the hundreds of other ‘disgusting’ images of prison abuse should be kept secret. just for fun, we scripted these lines, pondering whether a more straight forward answer might be forthcoming:

‘we have evidence of the united states engaged in criminal activity. after much deliberation, we thought it best to keep the evidence from the rest of the world, lest we suffer repercussions for our criminal actions.’

such a precedent would be useful in other hypothetical circumstances:

‘i have evidence in my apartment of the illegal downloading of movies. after much deliberation, i thought it best to keep the evidence from the m.p.a.a., lest i get in trouble.’

~ we have doubts that anyone is reading both the lines on this page and the new york post, but anyone who has crossed this threshold would have noticed the unrestrained glee with which they have ‘reported’ the killing in iraq of nick berg of philadelphia. the enthusiasm of a recent editorial that calls for the ‘total annihilation’ of the ‘thugs’ reminds us of a pornographic comic we once perused at the 1986 atlanta fantasy fair in which a police detective is depicted masturbating moments before shooting a serial killer in the head.

as the ny post has undoubtedly spent the last couple of weeks confused as to how to turn into flag waving headlines the stories of america’s abuse, rape, and murder of its prisoners, they seem to welcome this chance offered by the taped beheading of a an american to clean the slate – to put all that boring, mucky abuse scandal behind us. americans’ attention spans are limited, and the post understands that most people are incapable of maintaining thoughts on both the premeditated, systemic abuse by the american military upon thousands of iraqi detainees (70-90% of whom had been mistakenly arrested) and on insurgents who are so twisted as to think the spectacle killing of a free lance american is a legitimate method of defending their homeland, race, religion, or something.

the angry red planet knows that some people are able to hold two or more thoughts at one time, that the universe is too complex for tabloid format, that sometimes you have to eat limas for breakfast; those are for whom we are here.

~ how many americans today had to watch their cassettes of prince’s ‘dirty mind’ be destroyed on the trial run of their new tape deck? the answer is probably the same number that swallowed hard a lunch too unnatural to be named.

~ while we can appreciate the feelings of rumsfeld’s hecklers and others who call for his resignation/firing, we don’t see who would be served by this course of action. if he was fired, it would look like the administration was ‘doing something’ in response to the human rights violations that are occurring under its command; if we want opinion to continue to turn against the bush administration, it would be best if he continues to do nothing about this debacle. besides, if rumsfeld is ousted, it isn’t like the new secretary of defense would be an amazing bleeding heart; chances are absolute that the next guy/girl also would be despicable. maybe a chant of ‘castrate rumsfeld’ would serve better.

~ we have used eudora for five (5) years; should we switch to thunderbird?

~ also, we have to disagree with g.w.bush, j.lieberman, and d.rumsfeld that the sadistic behaviour of soldiers like l.england does not reflect the true nature of americans. from where did these morons arise? in what environment were they reared? the answer is america, the same one that produces a mother who beats to death her children on god’s command or ‘powder puff’ football girls who deliver concussions to their classmates. fishing on craigslist will inform one that america’s core values are sadism and brutality; perhaps we can be thankful that we follow a social contract that, by and large, keeps this localized brutality in check, but let us not pat ourselves on the back just because we can point to pictures of some fool and declare that we are heroes only when compared to villains.

according to the policy detailed yesterday, we have scraped the ‘United States Marine Corps’ sticker from the rear window of our company truck.

we have been enjoying bblean [w]. Back during version .41, we tried bb4win [w], but at the time our enthusiasm was not great. almost two years makes a big difference.

~ like any liberal who wants to preempt the accusations of a lack of patriotism, we have tried to follow the advice of ‘hate the war, honor the warriors’, or similar homily, that is usually displayed somewhere along the line of the peace marches. we understood that the economic conditions which some men and women face make a job in the military unfortunately seem to be a reasonable option. we understood that the job, while unpleasant, was a necessary feature of the nation. we understood that the injustice of the war that they fight is not always clear to those who place their faith in an administration rather than a nation.

waking to a photograph of west virginian woman in a u.s. uniform holding a naked prisoner on a leash has completely cleansed us of this seemingly dichotomous policy. taking a look at the policy that we follow for the police [+, that is to say, all things being equal, we harbor distrust and animosity towards all officers, until evidence to the contrary arises. henceforth, we shall have unswerving skepticism and contempt for anyone at every level and job of the military; rather than giving any one the benefit of the doubt, it is best to assume the worst, until it is proven to be otherwise by individual cases.

whereas we previously might have nodded approvingly to the banner, ‘support our troops; bring them home’, we now demand that the first phrase be excised from the slogan.

~ we have no problems with the fact that disney is refusing allow its miramax stepchild to distribute michael moore’s [w] new film, ‘fahrenheit 911’, as it will relieve us, when we do see it, from paying any money into disney’s coffers. if the film was distributed by disney, we would have to find some avenue for viewing it for free; that road would likely lead down bittorrent [w] and arrive with a letter in our mailbox [w], and you can be sure as shit that we would never take that route.

~ due to excessive spam, we have recently blackholed any email not sent to a specific angryredplanet.org address. if you have been sending mail to an old address or something you made up, like ‘proust@angry…’, your mail has been getting trashed without anyone looking at it. if you have sent a missive and have been futilely awaiting a response, you can use our contact form, instant messaging, or an address that you have gotten directly from us within the past two weeks; otherwise, it will disappear unseen into /dev/null.