Panglossian Notes

Well now we know why the US government tortured**

I had noted back in April that Darius Rejali:

in the introduction of his encyclopedic work Torture and Democracy (page 23), says there are three main purposes for government torture:

"to intimidate, to coerce false information, and to gather accurate security information".

Well, now we know for sure what the US government's purpose was in some cases. It was, surprise, to coerce false information.

U.S. District Court Judge Kollar-Kotelly, in her ruling dismissing the US government's case against Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner and one of those scary people being held in the Bush/Obama Caribbean Gulag, noted as Andy Worthington summarizes:

"to put it bluntly, ... the US government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth"

Judge’s Ruling Confirms
Innocent Gitmo Detainee Tortured
To Make False Confessions
Andy Worthington
September 30, 2009
The Public Record

Specifically the Judge:

"moved on to al-Rabiah’s own explanations of how he came to make false confessions, noting that he had stated that, shortly after his arrival at Guantánamo, “a senior [redacted] interrogator came to me and said, ‘There is nothing against you. But there is no innocent person here. So, you should confess to something so you can be charged and sentenced and serve your sentence and then go back to your family and country, because you will not leave this place innocent.” [my emphasis]

as Worthington notes:

This is deeply disturbing, of course, as it indicates that at least one senior interrogator recognized that the Bush administration’s refusal to recognize that there were innocent men at Guantánamo — and it has been clear for many years that hundreds of innocent men were held, who had no connection whatsoever to any form of militancy, let alone terrorism — had set in motion a system in which, whether voluntarily or not, all the innocent men at Guantánamo were expected to make false confessions, either so that they could continue to be labeled as “enemy combatants” on release, to maintain the illusion that Guantánamo was full of “the worst of the worst,” or, as in al-Rabiah’s case, so that they could be tricked and transformed into terrorist sympathizers and facilitators.

Judge’s Ruling Confirms
Innocent Gitmo Detainee Tortured
To Make False Confessions
Andy Worthington
September 30, 2009
The Public Record

Is there anything really left to say?

Yes, EYES FRONT!

__________________________
**(Obama has publicly banned admitting the US government tortures and, to provide cover for his officials, has ordered the process contract out to foreign entities in exchange for future considerations)

Technorati Tags: Torture

Trying to figure out what is the funniest thing I've read or seen in 2 days

Let's see, it could be all the self-rightist claptrap from deeply offend opinionators about Roman Polanski,

This would be pretty high on my list of hilarity. Incidentally none of the opinionators were alleged victims of Mr. Polanski, as far as I can tell, nor members of families of someone who may have been an alleged victim. None, of course, admit to being themselves a perpetrator seeking forgiveness maybe in some strange narcissism opinionated ritual.

Next was part of Jon Stewart's show, last night, where I had the joy of watching the 3 stooges, no that was actually Obama, Brown et Sarkozy (O BS), do their little soft shoe about the Persian Devil's secret evil intents. I'd read the accounts of the stand-up-act but seeing it was believing, I guess. An extremely fine, fine piece of puffed up chicanery. I may not have seen the likes of it before.

I had thought the Pittsburgh 20 member gang hug would be a well orchestrated setpiece of contrived fakery, dancing around economic issues, in between, of course, the usual lavish debauchery of state feasting and drinking, while the local drones either fled town or frolicked in the pepper spray, noise canons and tear gas. But the O BS trio out did themselves. They were a pleasure to watch, such studied seriousness, such mastering of artificiality, such a synchronized delivery of fraud.

It didn't matter that Obama is a side-wheeler or that Brown can't smile or that Sarkozy has a length phobia all three were in unison ignoring their troubling personal flaws. Hands across the Atlantic and all that old bs, et.

Remembering the video clip has given me considerable moments of mirth today and a good things, at that, as I continue to read about the evil threat posed by that damned Persian regime and how they are plotting to destroy the the free universe.

Finally, and I think this maybe be it, the funniest thing I've read or seen in the last couple of days is this: Funding the Afghan Taliban by Jean MacKenzie - GlobalPost

Yeah, I know it's a month old story, I hadn't seen it 'til now, but somehow coming on top of  Ann Jones piece about the phantom Afghanistan army it just made my day and brought tears of laughter to me most of the day. It's just priceless. Hey can you say fiasco, or its that snafu, no it's FUBAR time drinks all around, et.

We, no, they did it, They've finally almost mastered a perfect perpetual war thingy. In effect we pay assassins to kill us then claim we are some kind of military missionaries so that funders at home keep the funds rolling in so more can be whacked. I can't stop laughing, it's perfect in its simplicity.

Some choice quotes from the piece and you can't start laughing until you've gone to GobalPost and read the whole article, it's a killer (And once you've finished that one read this one, though, because it is in the American Conservative, it isn't that funny,et.).

"... very high-level negotiations take place between the Taliban and major contractors, according to sources close to the process. A shadowy office in Kabul houses the Taliban contracts officer, who examines proposals and negotiates with organizational hierarchies for a percentage. He will not speak to, or even meet with, a journalist, but sources who have spoken with him and who have seen documents say that the process is quite professional.

...

One Afghan contractor, speaking privately, told friends of one project he was overseeing in the volatile south. The province cannot be mentioned, nor the particular project.
“I was building a bridge,” he said, one evening over drinks. “The local Taliban commander called and said ‘don’t build a bridge there, we’ll have to blow it up.’ I asked him to let me finish the bridge, collect the money — then they could blow it up whenever they wanted. We agreed, and I completed my project.”

...

In Farah province, local officials report that the Taliban are taking up to 40 percent of the money coming in for the National Solidarity Program, one of the country’s most successful community reconstruction projects, which has dispensed hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the country over the past six years. Many Afghans see little wrong in the militants getting their fair share of foreign assistance. “This is international money," said one young Kabul resident. “They are not taking it from the people, they are taking it from their enemy.”

Technorati Tags: Sarcasm, Shenanigans, Shmucks, Snafu's?

Roman Polanski & Bernhard Schlink

Just two links, both to Bernhard Schlink, downunder:

First, in conversation with Ramona Koval specifically about reaction to The Reader - I see some similarities between it and Mr. Polanski just now.

Then Schlink's keynote address at the Melbourne Writers Festival this past August: Title, On Forgiveness And Reconciliation stemming, I think, from his recent short collection of essays called Guilt About the Past. Below is a short introduction. The full address is here for any that maybe interested:

In Indiana you better have very good eye-sight if you go to the drug store or don't forget that magnifying glass

You need it. Yes you really, really do need it to be able to read those very tiny lists of ingredients on the side of cold medicines.

Can't see them, forgot your glasses you say. You're going to jail you crazed drug freak.

You're violated Indiana law 35-48-4-14.7.

You purchased more than 3.0 grams of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine within 7 days.

Quit sniffling, blow your nose. No you can't have anymore drugs you fiend:

"When Sally Harpold bought cold medicine for her family back in March, she never dreamed that four months later she would end up in handcuffs.

Now, Harpold is trying to clear her name of criminal charges, and she is speaking out in hopes that a law will change so others won’t endure the same embarrassment she still is facing.

“This is a very traumatic experience,” Harpold said.

Harpold is a grandmother of triplets who bought one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband at a Rockville pharmacy. Less than seven days later, she bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her adult daughter at a Clinton pharmacy, thereby purchasing 3.6 grams total of pseudoephedrine in a week’s time.

Those two purchases put her in violation of Indiana law 35-48-4-14.7, which restricts the sale of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, or PSE, products to no more than 3.0 grams within any seven-day period.

Wabash Valley woman didn’t realize
second cold medicine purchase violated drug laws
Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star
September 03, 2009

Technorati Tags: Amusing

Everyone knows Windows is awful. Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it. OK, OK:

My morning smile in a fog shrouded capital with its own Apple store since July, finally:

"I admit it: I'm a bigot. A hopeless bigot at that: I know my particular prejudice is absurd, but I just can't control it. It's Apple. I don't like Apple products. And the better-designed and more ubiquitous they become, the more I dislike them. I blame the customers. Awful people. Awful. Stop showing me your iPhone. Stop stroking your Macbook. Stop telling me to get one.

Seriously, stop it. I don't care if Mac stuff is better. I don't care if Mac stuff is cool. I don't care if every Mac product comes equipped a magic button on the side that causes it to piddle gold coins and resurrect the dead and make holographic unicorns dance inside your head. I'm not buying one, so shut up and go home. Go back to your house. I know, you've got an iHouse. The walls are brushed aluminum. There's a glowing Apple logo on the roof. And you love it there. You absolute MONSTER.

more ...

And even more, a description, in which a wonderful new word is coined,"shitasmia", of Windows new video advertisements:

"It's so terrible, it induces an entirely new emotion: a blend of vertigo, disgust, anger and embarrassment which I like to call "shitasmia". It not only creates this emotion: it defines it. It's the most shitasmic cultural artefact in history. Watch it for yourself.

Oops another Canadian thingy, luckily for the insane segment of the states it's not related to our single payer system of healthcare

"Toronto researchers have developed a portable device they say will accurately diagnose prostate cancer in 30 minutes.

The microchip technology, created by a pair of University of Toronto scientists, will be able to determine the severity of the tumours through a simple urine sample and produce quick diagnosis with no need for painful biopsies.

Gadget can diagnose prostate cancer in 30 minutes
Joseph Hall & Megan Ogilvie
Toronto Star
September 27, 2009

Beautiful disturbing pictures of ice fields collapsing

(via CrookedTimber)

Nunavut bad memories

Our Supreme Court, in the North part of North America, decided today not to hear a case of an Inuit who had killed a mountie down in Dorset.

I guess that should be up, 'cause I'm down here now, but I'm sometimes still use to thinking of myself up there above Dorset and Kimmirut in Iqaluit.

That was an awful time for some in Iqaluit when Constable Seewald was killed. People I was drinking with, then, knew the woman Constable who had dragged him from the scene and held him as he died, shot in the stomach. She was very upset at the Cadet Hall memorial for him. As I said an awful time for some.

The dead Constable had gone North to finish out his time in the RCMP, 'til retirement, so his killing had sort of a double hit - a guy who liked the place but thought it would be a gentle drift to ... .

We knew, he knew, his killer which is why he wasn't wearing his body vest and he thought he could solve a typical Northern family - f$%k*&^ - dispute by chit-chatting. Constable Seewald must have been an ordinary optimist trusting in the usual good nature of the bloody North. For him, I'm sorry it wasn't there that night.

Ah the North, mostly only good things but some awful stuff, eh. It's the only place I've been where I've had to deal with staff being murdered, committing suicide and some being physically abused regularly, the result of some of the latter stuff was just funny at times, people wearing swimming masks - the other one got the goggles- to hide black eyes the morning after.

Likely I'd lead a protected life before I went, yeah that's it.

A very clever assessment of the bizillon Afghanistan assessments inflicted on the poor souls who have to actually be in the gd place. The rest of us don't give a sweet gd.

From today's Globe:

Technorati Tags: Sarcasm

Two good and interesting notes on healthcare

There are two interesting notes on health care up at Lapman's Quarterly. The first by Warren Breckman sets some of the nonsense strait about our Canadian system and provides a nice short history of how we got started on the road to a provincially run national system.

I particularly like it when ranters against sense can be laugh at whether they are dead or alive.

"When healthcare reform became a vital issue in the Democratic presidential nomination race in 1992, the Canadian model was essentially swept out of the debate by comments from Senator Paul Tsongas (D-Mass.). Having suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the early 1980s, Tsongas frequently claimed that in Canada’s single-payer universal system, he would not have survived. Never mind that the bone marrow transplant that saved his life in 1986 was also available in Canada at that time. Indeed, research that led to bone marrow transplants had been pioneered at a Toronto hospital decades earlier. And never mind that, sadly, the lymphoma claimed Tsongas’s life in 1997. His remarks went essentially unchallenged, and the Canadian model was long off the table by the time Bill Clinton attempted to introduce healthcare reform in his first hundred days.

more

Canadian Rules
Warren Breckman
Roundtable
September 16, 2009

The second is by Lewis Lapham and is the droll preamble to the 2009 Fall edition of his great post-retirement activity the Lapman's Quarterly. I love the opening line as well as the rest of the essay:

"President Barack Obama during his first months in office seldom has missed a chance to liken the country’s healthcare system to an unburied corpse, which, if left lying around in the sun by the 111th Congress, threatens to foul the sweet summer air of the American dream.

more

The God in the Machine
Lewis Laphman
Laphman's Quarterly
Fall, 2009

Technorati Tags: Healthcare