A reminder of our ignorance.

Why pirates can’t be beat.

A reason to stock up smi-auto 22s and lots of rat shot. And maybe pump action shot guns and bird shot just in case it gets to much for selective fire.

Swine Flu at ground zero.

I don’t care what studies show. Don’t drug the water.

Getting away with murder. We all knew it was going to happen. But it still disgusting that not even a scape goat was put on trial.

This piece on torture from the Belmount Club is so good it does not really deserve to be called a rant. But it is a little short to be an essay (by our standard).

And make sure you read this comment after you read the post.

This documentary from the Guardian is worth watching provided you keep two things in mind. The first is that the documentary is from the Guardian with all that implies. The second is that the journalist is captive to a Sunni perspective and he does not even realize it.

No Shia would talk about how nobody in pre-invasion Iraq paid any attention to sectarian divides. To be sure, Shia and Sunni served together in the Iraqi army. But Shia did not serve in the elites unites that kept Saddam in power. It seems that the narrator’s fond memories of his childhood Iraq in part reflects the fact that he had a privileged Sunni upbringing (This is conjecture on our part based on his biography).

Having said that, the Sunni view point is important for the future of Iraq. I doubt that any Sunni in Iraq is feeling optimistic now that the Iraqi government is going after Sunni militias that fought for the Americans and the Americans seem inclined to leave and let God sort the whole mess out.

If you want other views on the documentary, here is the comment section of Abu Muqawama talking about the piece.