exterminate the critics of torture

Senator Durbin speculates that if one were to hear of what goes on at Gitmo, one would have believed in happier times that these things took place at the most notorious internment camps of the previoius century and he is called a piece of excrement by right-wing superpatriots. Read the full story and debate at Orcinus.

Now that the Right has twisted this speculate analogy to mean "All US soldiers are Nazis," there are death threats flying around against Durbin.

In the comments, many said that Durbin's remarks are unhelpful. Unhelpful to whom I would like to ask.

On the Northwest flight back to the US, I watched parts of Vin Diesel's "The Pacifier" in which he plays a special opps soldier assigned to babysite a family of adorable blond children, and realized that the worship of the military flourishes unbounded in this country, for not only can Diesel drive a hummer and take out enemy under the cover of night, he can also change diapers and deal with teenage crises with one flex of his giant biceps. But that is not the most disturbing thing about this movie. The most disturbing thing is that the musical loving teenage son (read gay) who Diesel directs in the school production of The Sound of Music plays the Nazi sympathizing boyfriend of the Von Trapp daughter and none of this is mentioned. We just learn that it is all right to like musicals because Diesel can direct them better that the (bad gay) music teacher.

Something has snapped in this country. When the military and its practices are immune from criticism and seen to be all powerful, then militarism has triumphed.

Michael Kimmelman takes Venice

It would be too simple and a bit hysterical to say simply that Michael Kimmelman is a racist: his glibly wielded critical wand has so many other significant deficiencies, but in his latest effort at “covering” the Venice Biennale, Kimmelman mentions that he is disappointed by the Chinese pavilion, but does not include a single name of a Chinese artist. Although he proposes that this Biennale is all about an international perspective and the global village, it is apparent that while Kimmelman may have travelled from New York, he has never left the art world. He listens to the “buzz” on Venetian streets only to find those views confirmed by his own views. So instead of calling him a racist, or anti-Chinese (which would simply inflame nationalist tendencies already on the rise) let us just say that Kimmelman is a sloppy journalist with little editorial oversight. Thanks again New York Times for setting the bar so low: and once again, I have to ask, if the Times covers art in this manner how in God’s name can we trust them to cover issues about which one knows much less, such as the war in Iraq or Tom Delay’s malfeasance?