~ we have not made the rounds of though the boortz/hannity sites yet, but we are sure that they are as grievously outraged over this as they were over the death of nick berg, because they used the opportunity of his decapitation to display so vociferously their aversion to the needless death of innocents; they would not let something like this pass without demands for the people responsible to be held accountable for this error.

“Associated Press Television News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were children, one of whom was decapitated. The body of a girl who appeared to be less than 5 years of age lay in a white sheet, her legs riddled with wounds and her dress soaked in blood.” -ap

how long does it take to kill 40 people? unless you are using one of those daisy cutters, or unless the wedding you are attacking is being held in a space so confined that every shot hits a mark, one would think that at some point during the assault, the u.s. would have realized that no one was shooting back, or that they were shooting at a bunch of little kids and people in dresses. i guess, though, just like the prison guards, they are ‘following orders’, and we can’t expect them to protest when told to do something fucked up.

~ we raise our tea in toast to all those folks getting hitched in massachusetts today; let’s hope that we don’t have to wait until brown vs. board’s 100th anniversary to celebrate the day that a constitutional amendment protecting the right of all people to marry is ratified.

~ the ‘u scan it’ line at the corporate supermarket is not meant to be some kind of adventure. it is also not intended to give you an opportunity to display your inability to interpret the phrase ‘1 to 15 items’. it is meant for those of us who want to spend as little time as possible amongst the shelves of low-carb pasta and hi-carb snickers; we just ask to purchase our apples, butter beans, and silk, and to leave for homes and lives with little interruption. if playing with the scanner is the best entertainment that can bring you from your nest of doritos, miller lite, and ‘american idol’, or if you think that ’15’ is english for ’50’, then you are not capable of using the ‘u scan it’; you need to go to the line where there is someone to hold your hand.

~ 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.’

~ 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.

~ major media peddlers seem to be telling us that the death of an american solider who turned down millions of football dollars to join the army is somehow more poignant or heartbreaking than the death of hundreds of men and women who were forced to join because of dearth of other economic options. we say that it is not.

~ regarding the pentagon vs. the memory hole [w]: if you are going to be ‘brave’ enough to send americans to their deaths, you should be brave enough to face their images when their remains are returned home.

~ a coffee bean and tea leaf can be seen in the latest ‘spider-man 2’ trailer. there are no coffee bean and tea leaf establishments in new york city.

~ dr. condoleeza rice must have said fifty (50) times that the administration didn’t know the ‘time, or place, when or where’ of the 2001 terrorist attacks. we can assume that everyone already is aware of this; since the attacks were allowed to happen, we must hope that the administration didn’t know about them in advance. however, given this yammering excuse for their past failure, the listener or critic can presume that administration will only take steps to prevent a future catastrophe if the perpetrators provide a complete spreadsheet of the logistics for their future actions.
why are these suits whining that the u.s. citizenry can not expect them to do their jobs unless the enemy, aka those who ‘hate freedom’, takes out an ad in the washington post, along with the marriage and funeral announcements, that declares when they will strike, so the government will have a chance to respond? dr. rice’s crew’s job is not to complain that they don’t know anything; their job is to know these things.
the fundamental question should be, ‘why were you unaware of this threat?’; the answer should not be an angry, ‘because we were unaware of this threat!!’.
yet, we thought that regular americans were crybabies.

also unsettling is today’s allusion to the notion that there are big problems down the road if iran pursues a course of nuclear capability. now, iran is a sovereign nation, albeit one with a corrupt regime, so why is it our business if they choose to build a nuclear arsenal, considering that france and china have their own? the answer given is that iran supports hamas and hizbollah. however, these groups are israel’s concern; in fact, hamas even mentioned recently that they have no plans to target americans. the only bone these guys might have to pick with us is that the u.s. supports israel’s illegal occupation of the west bank.
it wasn’t mentioned in so many words, but israel’s violations of international law are being transmuted into our problems and possible war with a nuclear-powered, fundamentalist iran. all this is in spite of the angry red planet’s boycott of tropical source chocolate.

if any readers want to contribute to the collection for this week’s $689 veterinarian bill; we accept paypal.

~ unless he plans on shooting a bunch of 12 year old kids, are we to assume that when paul bremer promises ‘punishment’ for the culprits who mutilate corpses in fallujah, he is exhibiting a gruesome understanding of april fool’s day?

~ we’ve pointed out a few times that howard dean is no dennis kucinich [w], but watching dean stand there and advise us all to turn over to john kerry was enough to cause us to drop our heads and avert our eyes, lest our stomachs be turned instead. it’s one thing to be practical and to avoid showing any lack of division before the competition, but it is no less disheartening to see someone who held some of your respect eating his words and acting like a company mule. the democrats are apparently asking ‘deaniacs’ to sign a pledge of loyalty to the party, promising that they will routinely devote their support to whoever becomes the nominee, which reminds me of the childish notes we used to sign that promised we would have the front seat on the next car ride – when we were children. meanwhile, ralph nader [w] does not seem to be on any ballots yet.