of Bushes,Turks & the Taliban

Jones main, it’s on. The news has not even made it yet but it appears as if the fragile whatever you call it we put up in Iraq to represent a government has officially dissolved. You see, while most of us up in this camp were sleeping last night, the Turks were sending warplanes over into Iraq to bomb the Kurds. I suspect they were targeting a political group called the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Turks have outlawed the group, but it seems kind of feculent to outlaw an organization in another country, which operates basically autonomously. The say these raid were some 60 miles into Iraq.

Meanwhile on the otherwise of the field (it is football season), all I read about Afghanistan' from this side of the block, is that we are winning the battle, that more and more Taliban fighters are being killed and that each day we work with or favorite Dictator in Pakistan to make progress in terror (that is if progress includes more videos circulating in Pakistan that show 12 year olds beheading a Pakistani's accused of being U.S. spys). The Taliban is always executing and beheading folks who they claim to be spys for the US, we just never see it on TV unless the spies are actual US citizens. I mean Bush and the US media obviiously think that it take four such acts or more to equal one US life. But at the same time, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is asking for more help to develope his armed forces.

Well I guess the Bush administration has some good news to report by their standards, after all the aforementioned and said dictator, just lifted the emergence rule he just placed over his country because they would not vote for him (during a period in which HE amended the country's constitution). At least we can be thankful hat George W. Bush isn’t a general, no telling what he would have done by now.

raw and uncut suffering(6.27.05)

There is nothing wrong with making money. No sirree.
However, making money on the suffering of others that
can do irreversible harm to our community is problematic.
I just had the chance to look at a video that is being distributed
by Fall Thru Entertainment. It is a video series
which features the self-explanatory titles “Ghetto Fights”
and “Wildest Street Brawls.”
These videos in simple terms show common fights that
occur everyday around the world but mainly in urban areas.
The level of violence is not only real, but often over the
edge and outright disgusting. New DVDs in the series
hit the market on May 31, 2005, “Ghetto Fights 2”
nd “Wildest Street Brawls 3” and both deliver more of
the horrors of the streets showcasing pimp beatings,
gang warfare and backyard brawls caught on tape.
To make it worse, it is rumored that hip-hop artist
50 Cent is interested in purchasing the rights to the
video series. He and fellow rapper Ice-T have cameo
appearances on some of the videos. I would expect
this type of behavior from 50 Cent who suggests in his lyrics
that money is the most important thing to him—next to being
shot a slew of times and women. I just wonder how much
thought is given to thinking about what benefits the public
and the community versus one’s pockets.
Moreover, it is not an issue of whether or not it is acceptable
for this type of material to be sold, but if it is a good thing to
promote. I cannot discern any productive value from viewing
people fighting, without payment or a championship belt
on the line. I cannot see looking at human suffering in such
a raw and uncut form as being equivalent to entertainment.
Why not look at videos of beheadings in Iraq, or gassing
of Holocaust victims, if this passes muster as
entertainment?–torrance stephens