Rep. Shays clarifies

Via kobold, Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT) explains the real reason why Abu Ghraib was wrong:

[Shays] said in a debate Wednesday night that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were part of a "sex ring," but not torture, RAW STORY has learned.

"It was outrageous, outrageous involvement of National Guard troops," Shays indicated in a debate, "who were involved in a sex ring and they took pictures of soldiers who were naked, and they did other things that were just outrageous. But it wasn't torture."

Shays has since indicated in interviews that though he does consider it sex abuse, and believes sex abuse is torture, he believes it was "more about pornography than torture."

Rerun time: Forklift Driver Klaus

I posted this ages back, but since goddess_of_impe has just earned her forklift certification, I think it's time to rerun the best safety video of all time.

(It's in German, but don't worry, the important bits are easy to understand.)

(no subject)

Assistant Professor Henry Jones (Jr.) denied tenure. Is anybody surprised?

An interesting question

Via tcpip, an interesting NYT op-ed by Jeff Stein:

FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want? After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants?

Without looking it up, what I could tell you about the distinction would make a short paragraph. The schism is based in differences as to who each sect recognises as Mohammed's legitimate successors; I think somebody named 'Ali' is important but I don't recall how. Iran is predominantly Shi'ite; Iraq has more Shi'ites than Sunnis, but under Saddam the Sunnis were more powerful. Osama bin Laden is Sunni, although that didn't make him friends with Saddam. And Shi'ites pray three times daily, while for Sunnis it's five. That's about all I could tell you.

So it's a little disheartening to read that article and discover that that thimbleful of knowledge puts me ahead of several senior FBI officials and Congressmen involved in counterterrorism and intelligence work. No bloody wonder we haven't figured out how to pacify Baghdad...