It’s as if Kafka, Orwell, Gibbon, and Gore Vidal have been collaborating writing our current events for the last eight years.

And what picture of this country do the released prisoners take home, having been abused legally, physically and even sexually? How can even freshly minted President Obama talk of human rights to any other country? What can he promise? “Our arc of history is temporarily bent toward Freedom, but in four or eight years it might snap back like a cross-bow, so you might want to stand clear.”

Mrs. Polly: Because I am a night-owl and a pedestrian in an urban neighborhood where street-crime has suddenly gone viral, I recently purchased a million-volt police stun-baton so that I would feel less like a bucket of chum at Seaworld.

I haven’t yet had occasion to use the device in self-defense, but I’ve found that if I apply it to my right temple four or five times a day, news reports like this one are easier to digest, and less prone to drive me to acts of anarchic violence.

Strange, that sounds much more convenient then a nail gun. Dragging the air-compressor along behind is a terrible bother.

But if you were to pop over to Yes To Democracy, Georgetown JD has prepared a program for a weekend Birther convention that looks exciting, and might make you feel very much better. It’s the last comment on the latest post.

I’ve found stun batons clash with my ensembles, so I just use my reticule as a sap. It’s amazing how many fishing weights fit in there. I had to swap the crocheted silk handle for steel cable, but it’s still a kicky accessory.

The thing you have to remember is that once you leave the uterus, you’re no longer really a human being and mumblefreemarketmumblejeebusmumble9/11.  This status effect is amplified and far more pronounced for walking, talking non-white fleshbags outside the contiguous USA, mostly because of the fact that they’re non-white and from outside the contiguous USA.

Fuck yeah!

Alas, Mrs. Polly, gals have all the most devilish concealed instruments at their disposal—from the whale-bone corset dagger to the spring-loaded bustle-truncheon to the razor-edged Japanese throwing-merkin.

The male wardrobe is not nearly as accommodating, which necessitates the clumsy and uncomfortable make-dos of a cape and utility belt. No self-respecting Savile Row tailor is going to sew you a pouch for your grappling-gun, no matter how much you offer him.

walking, talking non-white fleshbags outside the contiguous USA,

You mean the collateral?

@Ripley

Once you establish a special class of human beings who have absolutely no rights under the law, you’ve essentially opened the Gates of Hell.

As long as such a category exists, we are all candidates…and “the law” is a semantic convenience.

Strange: It is awfully unfair. If I want to wear a quoit as a cocktail hat, nobody says a thing, but really a grappling gun belongs in a codpiece, and that would no doubt be the subject of speculation.

I never understood why any place under U.S. jurisdiction could be considered beyond the law, no matter where it was. The NeoCons’ dodges and rationalizations seem no more than what children do when they cross their fingers behind their backs.

This is one of the oddest bifurcated discussions I’ve ever had. If indeed I had it at all; I’m getting that all-alone-in-the-howling-void feeling again. I’ll have to cut back on the hydrocodone.

Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld is someone that I would describe as one of the ordinary heroes that we so need, that actually make a difference.  Starting out, as he said, as a “gung-ho” prosecutor, he actually became alarmed at the fact that the evidence not only did not point to the guilt of the prisoners but, in fact, to their innocence!  And yet they were being held, mistreated, and unlikely to be released.  (Until Obama’s order.)  Over and over again the (former!) Bush administration makes it an embarrassment and a travesty to have been an American. 

Mrs. P. you are definitely not “howling in the void” but you are better than I am at staying up late!  But not sleeping so well tonight so why not hit the intertubes for awhile!

Utterly shameful. Kudos to Lt. Col. Vandeveld.

If I hadn’t fallen asleep after posting this, I’d have howled right along with everyone.

Big kudos to Rachel, too, for putting this story on the air. With many more like it, perhaps it will become undeniable to President Obama that he can’t sweep it under the rug, no matter how much he wishes to.