{"id":6154,"date":"2004-05-06T08:16:25","date_gmt":"2004-05-06T15:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/05\/06\/shameful-comments.html"},"modified":"2004-05-06T08:16:25","modified_gmt":"2004-05-06T15:16:25","slug":"shameful_commen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/06\/shameful_commen.html","title":{"rendered":"Shameful comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

While there’s been some overheated partisan rhetoric over the Abu Ghraib scandal from Administration’s critics, the fact of the matter is what happened was undisputably wrong.<\/p>\n

Which is why when Rush Limbaugh comes out with crapola like this<\/a>, it only feeds further into the partisanizing of the matter (which is the last thing we need):<\/p>\n

Folks, these torture pictures with the women torturers, I mean Marv Albert looking at those pictures would say, “Hey, that doesn’t look so bad.” You know, if you really look at these pictures, I mean I don’t know if it’s just me but it looks like anything you’d see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe you can get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean this is something you can see at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City: the Movie. I mean, it’s just me.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, yes, it’s just you, Rush.<\/p>\n

Later on<\/a>, he starts taking it seriously again, but instead defends <\/i>it. <\/p>\n

All right, so you got these women, and they’re torturing — those pictures showed up 60 Minutes and the best we can determine these pictures were taken by the soldiers that were there. That’s what we found out. Now, I’ll bet you, there’s a possibility, I don’t know, but there’s a possibility that what’s happening here that this is not torture; this is part of interrogation that is to come later. This is humiliation. This is the kind of humiliation and embarrassment that is taken place to soften people up for the interrogation which happens next. This is a war, Tiffany.<\/p>\n

Yeesh. And even if it’s being done in conjuction with interrogation — so what? Does that mean it’s not torture? Do the ends justify the means? Not that folks who are to be interrogated cannot or should not be “softened up,” but there are legitimate and reasonable ways to do so. <\/p>\n

Beyond which, the frickin’ photo gallery sure makes it look like the perpetrators were enjoying the whole thing. Which makes the justification a hell of a lot more dubious.<\/p>\n

Eventually, though, Rush gets back to his — well, “ludicrous” is being generous — dismissal of the affair:<\/p>\n

Now, as to my original point that these torture photos, that you can see this on stage at a Britney Spears or Madonna concert any day of the week, I stand by it.<\/p>\n

Hey, Rush, guess what? Those folks you see rolling around and simulating sex on stage at a Madonna concert? They’re paid <\/i>to do that. Really. Nobody’s (literally) holding a gun to their head. They volunteered<\/i>. It’s a job<\/i>. You know — entertainment<\/i>, something you should certainly know something about.<\/p>\n

If someone gets paid for being a subject of medical research, I think that’s pretty different from experimenting on a a prisoner, don’t you? If you were ever to do any time for your drug abuse and ended suffering the unwanted attentions of Big Bubba whilst in the clink, would you think it nothing worth worrying about because, well, hey, one can buy movies <\/i>showing people having anal sex, so where’s the need for outrage?<\/p>\n

Again, I say, yeesh<\/i>. And, disgusting<\/i>.<\/p>\n

(via Totten<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there’s been some overheated partisan rhetoric over the Abu Ghraib scandal from Administration’s critics, the fact of the matter is what happened was undisputably wrong. Which is why when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":669,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/04\/the_deconstruct.html","url_meta":{"origin":6154,"position":0},"title":"The Deconstruction of Blogging","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Sep-01 10:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"So a man walks into a blog ... 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