or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
August 18, 2007
Today In Human Degradation
From CNN:
The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day...A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her.
"I don't have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother," she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself.
This isn't the human degradation part, though. In fact, anyone who'd see these women as somehow shamed really should be punched in the face. Here's the human degradation part, from Cunning Realist:
Wondering about those on the other side of this situation? Here's something called the "International Sex Guide." It features reports from men who have visited prostitutes in various countries. Yes, there's an "Iraq" section. The most recent post, from today, links to the above report and asks "Can someone give us a trip report? thanks!"
Cunning Realist then cites some past posts about Iraq from this site, which are, horrifyingly enough, exactly what you'd expect.
But even that isn't the deepest human degradation involved here. The deepest human degradation is that the State Department briefings from before the war, using Iraqi women as pawns in our propaganda in the most vile way imaginable, are still online. And so's this:
LAURA BUSH: I want the women of Iraq to know how much American women stand with them.
Posted at August 18, 2007 01:12 AM | TrackBack
This is from Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36B04283-E43F-4367-90BB-E6C60CB88F76.htm
I'm wondering, does this come under the heading of REGULAR KARMA or that INSTANT KIND?
Posted by: Mike Meyer at August 18, 2007 10:49 PM WASTELAND OF THE FREE--IRIS DEMENT
We got preachers dealin' in politics and diamond mines
And their speech is growing increasingly unkind
They say they are Christ's disciples
They don't look like Jesus to me
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
We got politicians runnin' races on corporate cash
Now don't tell me they don't turn around and kiss them people's ass
You may call me old fashioned
That don't fit my picture of a true democracy
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
We got CEO's makin' 200 times the workers pay
And they fight like hell against raisin' the minimum wage
If you don't like it mister
They'll ship your job to some Third World country 'cross the sea
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
Living in the wasteland of the free
Where the poor now have become the enemy
Let's blame our problems on the weak ones
Sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
We got kids fighting inner-city wars
And what do we do, we put these little kids behind prison doors
And they say we're the advanced civilization
That sounds like crap to me
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
We got high-school kids wearin' Calvin Klein and Guess
Who cannot pass a fifth grade written test
But if you ask them, they can tell you
The name of every crotch on MTV
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
We kill for oil, then throw a party when we win
Some guy refuses to fight and we call that a sin
He's standing up for what he believes in
That sounds pretty damn American to me
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
While we stand gloating in our greatness
Justice is sinking towards the bottom of the sea
And it feels like I'm living in the wasteland of the free
Living in the wasteland of the free
I'm wondering, does this come under the heading of REGULAR KARMA or that INSTANT KIND?
Posted by: dofus kamas at August 23, 2007 03:35 AM
