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Mumbai and Valley Stream, or Who Would Jesus Trample?

By Ron Kuby

I understand why a group of Islamic fanatics would systematically plan and execute the slaughter of scores of totally innocent, unarmed, civilian people. Seen that before, right here in New York City.  I get it.  I mean, that's why we call them terrorists.  That is what they do.  That is why they are international outlaws, subject to arrest (if they're lucky), or death by gunfire (if they're not).  I am horrified, but not mystified.

I am utterly baffled as to why 2000 potential shoppers, early on Friday morning, were so eager to buy discounted electronics at Wal-Mart for Christmas that they surged forward through the opening doors and trampled to death the young worker who opened them.  The worker was named Jdimytai Damour, a Long Island high school graduate who had attended Nassau Community College.  He recently lost his job as a customer representative, and went to a temp agency, which placed him at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart to help handle the Black Friday shoppers. So he got up nice and early the day after Thanksgiving, in order to  open the store by 5 a.m. and make a few bucks.

By 5 a.m., the crowd outside the Wal-Mart, which started arriving the previous evening, had grown to about 2,000.  When the doors did not open exactly at 5:00 a.m., the crowd started chanting. Damour got the doors open three minutes later and the throng surged forward, first knocking him down, then trampling him to death in search of bargains.  Imagine stepping on top of another human being, imagine being stepped on over and over again, and all for a cheaper big-screen TV to celebrate the Christmas season.  Who are these people?  How can they do this?  

OK, Wal-Mart is to blame for not having enough security and line police and blahblahblah.  But aren't you supposed to not trample people to death to get more stuff even if there are no police?  These were not terrorists who had sworn bayat to Osama bin Laden.  They were just a bunch of regular folks, eager for a good deal, and utterly heedless of the consequences to others.

Other than that, my Thanksgiving was great--dear friends and family, I cooked two turkeys (one with a cranberry brine, one with a vegetable stock/herb brine).  The Beloved Marilyn made the traditional Italian stuffing (heavy on the sausage), the two cranberry sauces, and the roasted garlic brussel sprouts.  Everyone else brought a dish or two and we dozed in front of the fire watching the "House" marathon.

Comments

(42)

Easily fixed...

Yes it was a horrible tragedy and yes Wal-Mart is partially at fault. I say partially because "Wal-Mart" didn't trample the guy any more than the airlines allowed the Islamic Terrorists on 9/11 to hijack planes.

Now, how do we fix this crap in the future? Easy. Make people line up outside and do what Best Buy, Staples and other stores do, when people come in (one at a time), you give them tickets for blow-out items or hand out the tickets while the people are in line.

DUH!

The best part of an Obama Presidency is that Hillary will NEVER be President..

By A GDecember 1, 2008 - 4:10pm

As opposed to?? Would you propose that we all go back to living in huts and trading livestock for a young wife (which I suppose could also be conspicuous consumption)?

I'm not even sure that one could label this as a consumption problem when one could imagine that most of these folks were shopping for gifts to provide to others, not merely to elevate their own status.

By Kill-Twitty December 1, 2008 - 4:51pm

I've noticed that, as he disappears, you tend to appear and pick up Twitty's end of the argument or further conversations he began... and rather often. Surely it's just a coincidence...
____________________
"It's all been satirized for your protection." --Maher

By SJerseyIndyDecember 1, 2008 - 4:59pm

I'm quite certain that you're sharp enough to notice the different patterns in syntax and such. Though I don't know for sure, I strongly suspect that Fighty and I are similar in age, background and political leanings, hence my inability to restrain myself from jumping into a previous discussion.

So you are a right wing

socialist like frightenedtwit?

By hufflarry2000December 1, 2008 - 6:09pm

You have accused me of that on more than one occassion yourself Huff, everytime I mention funding my education with the GI bill. Though I still fail to see how being employed by the government and receiving the benefits promised constitutes socialism.

Being employed

by the govt is the very definition of socialism. The govt provides your job, your income and health insurance and every other thing in your life. A govt employee is completely dependent on the govt and tax payers to support himself.

You have a small mind.


You bore me.

I've got a THOUSAND DOLLARS that says you were born after Nixon's resignation.

===================

No historical perspective whatsoever.

I'm sick to death of you punks... Why don't you text-message your I-Pod to alert your work computer to sync your lips to my fucking balls.


Open a fucking book, Jackass!

By A GDecember 2, 2008 - 3:59pm

"I've got a THOUSAND DOLLARS that says you were born after Nixon's resignation."

Outstanding. Pay-up beeyotch. I was born a couple years before Nixon's resignation.

You can't message an I-pod, unless of course you have an I-phone, and my I-pod certainly can't communicate with my work computer outside of the I-tunes program, and I don't think any of those devices can sync my lips to anything. Geez, history book my ass, apparently you need to recognize the 21st century there geezer. Is that your Depends showing?

"I was born a couple years before Nixon's resignation."


Yeah... That's about right.

No historical perspective whatsoever... Another proud Reagan-Youth Brownshirt.

reagan youth Pictures, Images and Photos

You're a fool.

And don't lecture me about technology... You're so fucking stupid you can't recognize sarcasm when it splits your skull.

Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 2, 2008 - 6:57pm

"No historical perspective whatsoever"

Right. As opposed to a dirty hippie that refuses to believe the "summer of love" is over. I'm certain you're so worldly and wise simply because you didn't wash your hair and carried a sign in the street opposing "THE MAN" while tripping on acid because Timothy Leary said it was cool. I bow to your superiority, oh former hippie.

What I find truly comical is that the "boomer" generation really thinks they've changed the face of America for the better. Yet many of the problems America now faces are coming directly from the leadership of the boomers. It's interesting that "the greatest generation" raised a bunch of whiny spoiled self-centered children that have put the hurt on a great nation.

So, now that I've been so thoroughly reprimanded for my stupidity, I'll just crawl back to my den of evil with the other fascists and thieves.

You see?.. You make my point for me.


Your entire post is a recitation of cartoonish stereotypes created by right-wing kooks. There isn't a shred of historical perspective in it. You're a buffoon.

You're so fucking ignorant you think traitors like Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy, that engaged in direct frontal attacks on our Constitution, are great American heros... YOU'RE AN IDIOT!

I do agree with one thing though... We have your father's right-wing generation to blame.

While your dad's buddies were busy figuring out how to steal the silverware between lynchings, we "dirty hippies" were fighting for morality, equality and giving us things like safe cars, the EPA, and Osha.

FUCK YOU!

Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 4, 2008 - 8:32am

Perhaps you make my point for me. Stereotypes are typically just exaggerated characteristics commonly found in a particular group. Maybe the reality is that you just don't like the particular light that the rest of the world sees you in.

Now let's see. I believe that both the EPA and OSHA were signed into existence by, wait for it........NIXON. And which candidate ran for president in 1980 on an independent platform centered around equality and the equal rights amendment? Now remind me which party was he a part of, although he did not receive the nomination for president? I'll bet you that thousand dollars you owe me that you didn't vote for Nixon or Anderson.

Yeah, you hippies are all over shit alright. First you said nuclear power was bad, now you say coal power is bad. You said that altering the levees around New Orleans would destroy habitat, then you accuse the government of not taking care of the levees because of racism. Hey don't get me wrong. Folks like Ralph Nader have done some good. And you may have carried a sign that said something that supported Nader. Maybe you even voted for the man at some point. But that hardly constitutes some wild idea that you and your ilk are the saviors of the planet and mankind while anybody who believes something different is obviously a traitorous and racist thief.

"Wait for it?"... WAIT FOR MY SLIMEY LOAD, GAG-MONKEY!


You jackass. You think this is a contest... You think this is a fucking football game.

Yes, NIXON signed off on OSHA and EPA.... as I've pointed out on this very forum MANY TIMES... Glad to see you finally opened up a fucking book and did some research.

=======================

Once again, YOU MAKE MY POINT FOR ME.

You are a Reagan-Youth Brownshirt... You came of age after Reagan sold this country off to the highest bidders, selling out common average Americans who do all the building and buying and all the living and dying in this nation... The mothers and fathers that go to work every day, do what they're told, play by the rules and send their sons and daughters overseas TO DIE FOR CORPORATE PROFITS.

FUCK YOU!

========================

Look Dude, I've been from one end of this country to the other... I've worked side by side with common laborers digging the ditches for the footings that later HELD UP THE CHEMICAL PLANTS I DESIGNED THAT RECLAIMED HUNDREDS OF TONS CFC's AND SAVED OUR OZONE LAYER.

I've shoveled shit, pulled weeds like a wet-back, and been so poor I didn't know where my next fucking meal was coming from.... I have sat at the highest levels of the very global, nation-less, corporate entities THAT HAVE PREYED UPON MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN AS IF THEY WERE LIVESTOCK FOR SLAUGHTER...

... I've seen what they do and I know how they operate.

========================

You wanna debate??... Fine... Choose an issue and pick your format.

I'm right and you're wrong, and I'm ready to prove it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate

========================

HERE IS THE BEST PART!

Hippie??... "Dirty Hippie"... Well let me wise you up, my Contarded friend.

The NRA has given me their highest rating of "EXPERT MARKSMAN"... I could shoot the pupils out of your inbred crossed eyes.... I own half a dozen guns (all inherited, because my dick is already so big, I feel no compulsion to buy guns).

I've been in maybe 40 bar fights and my fondest wish is that I meet you... And that you might attack me for my liberalism SO THAT I MIGHT BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH MY BARE FUCKING HANDS... in self defense, of course.


Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 4, 2008 - 12:43pm

I don't even know where to start with my discussion of this post. But I'll give it a shot.

So you apparently see yourself as above the "common laborer" if you have to point out that you've sweated with such a lowly peasant, but at the same time want to make sure and point out that you're apparently educated and experienced enough to design chemical plants that apparently saved the world.

Yet despite this education and claim to have roosted at the highest levels of corporate America, you claim to have been truly poverty stricken. Not just broke, but apparently so broke that you weren't sure of a meal. Now how does that work. I've been up and I've been down myself, but at no point have I had to worry that I would not be able to feed and shelter my family.

If one examines these interesing dichotomy one can come to the conclusion that you want to appear as both the ultimate example of Willy Loman and a truly powerful man saving the world for the rest of us more normal Walter Mitty types (note the litererary references there to demonstrate that I have indeed picked up a book or two in my life). So what's the deal? Are you a joe sixpack, or a corporate raider? My guess is that you're just like most of us, somewhere in the middle.

Next, let's talk about the part where you discuss debate briefly but then move on to talk about how you want to kick my ass. And the funniest part is that you claim it would be in self defense. When have I every threatened or attempted to start a physical altercation with anyone here? Christ, you can't even put up a post that doesn't attempt to insult my intelligence multiple times and I still haven't tried to get into it (except maybe for a few well placed barbs, if I do say so myself). Seems to me that one of us preaches an open mind, tolerance and debate, and one of us lives it.

And lastly, let's talk about guns. What the hell does the whole NRA discussion have to do with anything? Was that inserted simply to disprove the hippie thing? Seems to me that you and I have tangled over guns before. As I recall you made quite a few references to my penis which is apparently known by you to be very small. At that time you claimed that I was trying to substitute guns for my lack of manhood. I pointed out at that time that I don't even own a gun. To be open in this discussion, I do now. It's a .22 that I had as a kid and has been at my parent's place for years. Now however, it turns out that the guy who explained to me why gun control was so important and why I was such a penisless redneck loser for believing gun control is bad turns out to be a ranking member of the organization at the forefront of the anti-gun control movement. And an owner of multiple guns to boot. Said guns are apparently inherited (this is necessary to point out because you want to make sure I understand how large your member is), but what does that say about your old man then?

Friend, I think you need to decide who you really are. Call me a Reagan brown shirt. Add Kill Kill Whitey at the end of your posts. Ramble on about what an idiot I am. At least I know who I am and am not posting some bizarre self-contradicting resume of an anti-hippie hippie.

YAWN!...


ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

snoring Pictures, Images and Photos

=============================


IT'S FUN TO KILL-WHITEY

Kill Kill-Whitey

Kill-Kill-Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 4, 2008 - 2:24pm

And I get accused of the diversionary tactics by you? Apparently if you can't win, fake indifference, take your ball and go home.

Disinterest, not indifference.


You got boring.


Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 5, 2008 - 7:39am

It's a free country. Whatever you gotta tell yourself to sleep man.

"It's a free country."


No it's not... MAN.

Every electronic communication you make... Your posts on this forum... your text messages... Your phone calls... Your porn...

Every Byte of it is scrutinized to one extent or another by your government.

karl rove ss Pictures, Images and Photos

========================

"Whatever you gotta tell yourself to sleep man."

Here... I hope this helps YOU sleep...

Just as I warned you assholes when you were enjoying your "Jack Bower Jerkoff Fantasies", that your draconian attacks on our Constitution involving torture and ILLEGAL domestic surveillance AGAINST CITIZENS LIKE YOU would later bite you in the ass...

That they would later bite you in the ass when Hillary Clinton had the power climb up your ass with a fucking microscope.

I PREDICTED THIS EXACT SCENARIO...

Bend over, clown... Thanks for giving us the power to crush you.... Oh, you assholes WERE SO ANXIOUS FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO INVADE YOUR PRIVACY!!

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU, SHITHEAD... I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN.

Let me put it this way, "Whitey"... Guess who's watching you masterbate!

hillary clinton Pictures, Images and Photos

Kill Kill-Whitey
Kill Kill Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 5, 2008 - 4:31pm

http://www.fontcraft.com/idiotwars/?p=122

I thought it was us righties that were guilty of fear mongering? Oh wait, there's nothing to fear from a sizable group of people that are willing to blow themselves up to kill a few Americans, that's just the right looking to scare your vote out of you. But there truly is quite a bit to fear from our own government, and while that's not a vote grabbing tactic, YOU can be part of the solution if you vote for a lefty. I get it now. It's only fear mongering if the fear appears to you personally to be made up.

I gotta ask, what scenario did you predict? One where the current administration has been publicly flogged for various indiscretions that include domestic spying? It appears though that you are claiming it will be much worse. Interesting.

To describe you as "small minded" is a gross understatement.


Your lack of historical perspective is rivaled only by your utter lack of imagination.

Your first paragraph is utter gibberish. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

But to answer the specific question in your last paragraph, I predicted that the destruction of our constitution by right-wing kooks as evidenced by the revocation of Habeus corpus (a fundamental legal principle that has stood FOR A THOUSAND YEARS), spying on ordinary American citizens, etc., AND THAT THOSE DRACONIAN POWERS WOULD END UP IN THE HANDS OF THOSE DIRECTLY OPPOSED TO THE VERY KOOKS THAT CREATED IT (namely you, jerkoff!).

===========================

Cute link.

Tin foil hat??... Like I said, your lack of historical perspective is rivaled only by your utter lack of imagination.

Open up a fucking book, little-brain... try this one:

http://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928

Here's an excerpt to get you started...

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security...

This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."

Tin foil hat... Pffft!


Kill Kill-Whitey

By A GDecember 7, 2008 - 9:53am

LOL

He's scratching his head right now thinking "1000 years?"...

By f u bush2December 7, 2008 - 10:36am

Damn right, since I believe the number would be more like 800 years. But hey, only 20% wrong is still WAY better than AG typically does.

By A GDecember 7, 2008 - 9:53am

Yes, little brain, that's me. Closed minded. Indeed. Jesus, I'm not the one that thinks the guys in black cars with black suits and sunglasses are spying on my bowel movements and analyzing the fast food wrappers I toss at the local Mickey Ds.

"so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath" Well, apparenlty you predicted wrong there Notsobrightus, as apparenlty the people did notice the slow motion underneath and that would be why many right leaning individuals held their noses and voted with fruits like you for a candidate they believed would right many of those wrongs. Apparently you didn't notice the shellacking the Repubs took at the polls last month. Or maybe you just aren't quite sharp enough to realize that's a direct result of Bush's power grabbing policies and such.

Do you not realize how foolish you look trying to paint me as an uneducated hick that hasn't read a book? It's damn near too easy to run you in circles.

How bout this link? Funny shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6cLruNpDvQ&feature=related

By A G December 1, 2008 - 4:10pm

That's all you see here... a need for "crowd control"...
Yeah... that's about right, coming from you.

------------------------
Hopefully you weren't expecting much more from a proud member of The Fast Food Nation. A quick fix to the short-term problem is so much easier to think about than what might've led to and what a possible cure might be for the long-term, deeply-rooted plague of consumerism paired with a ceaseless desire to keep up with the Joneses which helped set the stage for the trampling in the first place. That's "hard werk!".
____________________
"It's all been satirized for your protection." --Maher

.

.

IS THIS WHERE MY TAX $$$$ WENT WHEN WE BAILED AIG OUT?

Hi Ron, I got this in my e news alerts from the Miami Herald. Now we know where some of our tax $$$ went ............AIG sells AIG Private Bank to Abu Dhabi firm
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- American International Group Inc. on Monday said it has agreed to sell its wealth management arm AIG Private Bank Ltd. to Aabar Investments PJSC of Abu Dhabi.

Terms of the deal, which is part of the New York-based insurance company's restructuring plans, were not disclosed.

Under its new ownership, AIG Private Bank will become an independent financial institution, headquartered in Switzerland along with branches and representative offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Dubai.

The wealth management company will conduct business under a new name and will continue to focus on providing wealth management services.

"This sends a clear message to our customers that we will continue to be a trustworthy, reliable and competent partner for them," Chief Executive Eduardo Leemann of AIG Private Bank said in a statement.

Leemann and his senior management team will remain with the bank, AIG said.

Faced with a liquidity crunch, AIG said in October it would sell off a number of business units to pay off a $85 billion government loan. The insurer's total government assistance has now risen to about $150 billion.

The company has not specifically disclosed the assets it would sell or the expected prices from the sales. However, AIG has said it plans to retain its U.S. property and casualty and foreign general insurance businesses, and plans to retain an ownership interest in its foreign life insurance operations............. Marilyn from Florida

Apparently the US warned India of the threat

Wow! India has a leader like Bush who ignored the intelligence!

India's nationalists are in control.

They were too busy looking for a fall guy to provide decent security for the greater Bombay area. Their main concern is to whip up historical hatreds between the Hindus and Muslims so their government recieves all kinds of extraordinary policing powers to go after the people who they are really afraid of.- unions, neighborhood organizations, and left- wing political parties ( the real ones, not the dupes of the communist party, who have gone along with every move the nationalists have made).
The latest creation of the Indian government, since the al- Queada " link" failed to stick, was that the Deccan Muhadjadeen were connected with the Somali pirates and looking for revenge! Keep spinning, dudes, you might just get something to stick!

The Trampling

So according to internet information which may or may not be accurate, this guy who was trampled was 6' 5" tall and weighed 270 lbs. Holy Shit!!!!!!

And speaking from experience, and I shit you not: I used to reverse commute from NYC to Long Island, and one day I was literally knocked down in Penn Station by a throng of NYC bound morning commuters while I was all alone walking in the opposite direction trying to catch my own LIRR train. Nobody even stopped, all they could say was "excuse me" or "what are you doing." I guess the women thought I was trying to look up their dresses while I was busy being trampled. I nearly suffered the same fate, but for my own efforts to scramble out of the way.

It is a miracle this kind of shit doesn't happen more often, and perhaps the real problem is the "I don't want to get involved." mentality. You see somebody hurt and you think that somebody else will help, but then nobody helps.

All of our collective actions and inaction everyday make the world what it is, I guess. And guess what, the world is pretty shitty.

el

One More Thing

I heard the public press release by Wal Mart on this and it was a crock of shit about all of their precautions of extra guards, crown barriers, extra staff, but that "in spite of all of our precautions" this terrible thing happened. I don't believe a word those ass holes say. True, this is a terrible commentary on the state of humanity by people who don't want to get involved, or worse, will step on your throat for a fucking toaster. But Wal Mart should be held accountable on this as well.

Kuby, listen to your fellow broadcaster, Richard Greene

He did a program before thanksgiving on the horrors of killing turkeys (think Sarah Palin), and how we should pardon them by not sitting around the dinner table with their dead carcass(es). Who invented this horrible tradition? Although you may fondly reminice about your holiday, I do not share your warm and fuzzy feelings when I hear about you and your two dead turkeys and Italian sausage stuffing. "One man's food is another man's poison."

Okay I think I got it now.

If I want to kill someone and not be held accountable for it, I simply need to become The President of The United States, an over-paid Blackwater mercenary, or one of a crowd of people.

I have learned a lot these last 8 years.

If I want to fuck a retiree out of his pension, I only need to bribe someone in Congress.

If I want to out an undercover CIA middle east WMD specialist, I just say Richard Armitage did it, since apparently he is immune from prosecution as well.

If I want to illegaly spy on innocent Americans, I do it with corporations that bribe people in Congress.

If I want to ignore our constitution and decided singularly whether a criminal politician should be allowed to escape scott free, I become Speaker of the House.

These last eight years have taught me that I only need to be concerned with my personal well-being, fuck everyone else.

Nothing like good role models in positions of leadership, huh?

Lying sack of ....

During the last weekend, Bush has had the nerve and gall to blame the intelligence community for his astounding failure that is Iraq. If that were his only fantastic show of incompetence, he might have gotten away with it. But everything Bush has touched has turned to shit, leaving him a shitstain on American Politics. I would call him a lying sack of shit, but that would be insulting to sacks of shit everywhere.

Iraq "is a grave and gathering danger," Bush told the United Nations on Sept. 12, 2002. At the White House two weeks later -- after referring to a British government report that Iraq could launch "a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order" is given -- he went on to say, "Each passing day could be the one on which the Iraqi regime gives anthrax or VX -- nerve gas -- or someday a nuclear weapon to a terrorist ally."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20194-2004Feb6.html

The people up front

got pushed up against the door panels by the 2000 throng behind them....eight people can pick up one person with two fingers each. 2000 people moving impatiently forward is like a bulldozer.

These crowd sizes were not easily predicted by Walmart, and they will take a negligence hit .

It is not the consumers fault for being induced into feeding frenzy by the stores advertising scheme.

Buy onlne and skip the crowds. UPS drivers shop locally and manufacturers usually pay shipping costs.

Walmart emploxees are abused slaves, that should start their own local garage businesses. BUY LOCAL!

Beats cattle guards, you mall rats!

Good Article.

Media Narratives Feed Terrorist Fantasies
By BRET STEPHENS

For purposes of self-justification, Azam Amir Kasab, the only terrorist taken alive in last week's Mumbai massacre, offered that the murder of Jews in the city's Chabad House was undertaken to avenge Israeli atrocities on Palestinians. Two other terrorists cited instances of anti-Muslim Hindu violence as the answer to the question, "Why are you doing this to us?" before mowing down 14 unarmed people at the Oberoi Hotel. And if dead terrorists could talk, we would surely hear Abu Ghraib mentioned as among their reasons for singling out U.S. and British hostages.
One suspects the terrorists spent far too much time listening to the BBC World Service.

Let's hasten to add that by no means should the BBC alone be singled out. When it comes to terrorists and their grievances, nearly all the Western media have provided them with a rich diet on which to feed.

In the spring of 2005, Newsweek ran with a thinly sourced item about the Quran being flushed down a Guantanamo toilet. Result: At least 15 people were killed in Afghan riots.

Newsweek later retracted the story, which was the right thing to do but also, in its way, exceptional. Compare that to the refusal of French reporter Charles Enderlin and his station, France 2, to retract or even express doubt about his September 2000 report on Mohammed al-Durrah, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy allegedly killed by Israeli soldiers during an exchange of gunfire in the Gaza Strip -- an exchange Mr. Enderlin did not witness.

In an exhaustive piece in the June 2003 issue of the Atlantic, James Fallows observed that the evidence that the boy could not have been shot by an Israeli bullet is overwhelming, while the evidence that the entire incident was staged is, at the very least, impressive. In France, the story has been the subject of various lawsuits. In Israel, however, and throughout the Muslim world, Durrah became the poster child for a five-year intifada that took several thousand lives.

Maybe Durrah was somewhere in the minds of the Mumbai killers. If not, there was no shortage of other Israeli "atrocities" for them to choose from, mostly fictitious or trumped up and all endlessly cited in Western media reports: the "siege" of Gaza; the 2002 Jenin "massacre"; the 1982 massacres (by Lebanese Phalangists) in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut; the execution of Egyptian POWs in 1967.

All these fables have real-world consequences, and not only for Israelis. In July 2006, an American named Naveed Afzal Haq ambled into the offices of the Seattle Jewish Federation and shot six people, killing one. One of the survivors testified that Mr. Haq "stated that he was a Muslim, [and] this was his personal statement against Jews and the Bush administration for giving money to Jews, and for us Jews for giving money to Israel, about Hezbollah, the war in Iraq." Wherever did he get those ideas?
In today's Opinion Journal

As it turns out, often from terrorist suspects themselves, offering their testimonials of Israeli or U.S. malevolence to a credulous Western media. In the Quran-in-the-toilet imbroglio, for instance, the Nation's Ari Berman filed a piece titled "Newsweek Was Right," which cited accounts by former Guantanamo detainees of how their captors abused the Holy Book. Unmentioned in any of this were the instructions contained in al Qaeda's "Manchester Document," obtained by British police in 2000, that told followers to "complain of mistreatment while in prison" and "insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security."

Or consider the tale of Ali Shalal Qaissi, the subject of a New York Times story in March 2006. Mr. Qaissi, founder of the Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons, claimed to be the black-hooded man standing on a box, attached to wires, ghoulishly photographed by the Abu Ghraib jailers. The Times thought enough of his story to put it on page one, until it turned out he wasn't the man. A March 18, 2006, "Editor's Note" tells us something about how these stories make it to print:

"The Times did not adequately research Mr. Qaissi's insistence that he was the man in the photograph. Mr. Qaissi's account had already been broadcast and printed by other outlets, including PBS and Vanity Fair, without challenge. Lawyers for former prisoners at Abu Ghraib vouched for him. Human rights workers seemed to support his account."

Of course, it's always possible to fall for a well-told lie. But it's worth wondering why a media that treats nearly every word uttered by the U.S., British or Israeli governments as inherently suspect has proved so consistently credulous when it comes to every dubious or defamatory claim made against those governments. Or, for that matter, why the media has been so intent on magnifying genuine scandals (like Abu Ghraib) to the point that they become the moral equivalent of 9/11. Some caution is in order: Terrorists, of all people, might actually believe what they read in the papers.

Write to bstephens@wsj.com

Three words for you

"Downing Street memo."

Now answer the question, loser.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~~~John Kenneth Galbraith

scrolled

yawn

By dadyfukdme December 2, 2008 - 9:49am

So much fantasy, so few facts.

In the spring of 2005, Newsweek ran with a thinly sourced item about the Quran being flushed down a Guantanamo toilet. Result: At least 15 people were killed in Afghan riots.

Okay, I think I got it.
Newsweek publishes Quran story. Terrorists attack. Attack blamed on Newsweek.

This all fits the premise offered by Bret Stephens.

Except that:

"It's the -- it's a judgment of our commander in Afghanistan, General Eikenberry, that in fact the violence that we saw in Jalalabad was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran -- and I'll get to that in just a minute -- but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his Cabinet is conducting in Afghanistan. So that's -- that was his judgment today in an after- action of that violence. He didn't -- he thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine."
--General Richard Myers, 2005 DoD press briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Well, whattaya know?

The facts don't quite mesh with Bret's flawed premise.

Speaking of facts (remember them, hatey?).

We'll quote Bret once more:

"Of course, it's always possible to fall for a well-told lie."

Of course, Bret.

Just ask dadyfukdme who fell for yours hook, line, and sinker...
____________________
"It's all been satirized for your protection." --Maher

GUESS WHAT I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT.


... COPY-PASTED RIGHT-WING DRIVEL.

If there is anything on God's Green Earth that is more boring than the wet slobber of "momofuku"... It's the HORSE-SHIT he trolls from the slimey depths of RIGHT-WING-KOOK CYBER-KOOK-SPACE.

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Yawn!

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

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