Day: May 11, 2004

So you all know the story involving the US military and Iraqui prison abuse. The US media, bastions of unbiased and critical thinking, have now started putting out editorials and opinion pieces on what happened and who is responsible.

Here are some of my favourites so far:

1. The prevalence of scatological humor and raunchy sex jokes, a la Dumb and Dumber (link here)

quote from the article: I dont want to overstate my case by insisting that the culture made em do it, but wed be missing a few dots if we didnt admit that the culture that birthed our young soldiers has dumbed down the definition of human dignity. The Farrelly Brothers — kings of the gross-out comedy film genre characterized by scatological humor and raunchy sex jokes — are convenient touchstones in the larger discussion about the debasing of American culture.

2. It's just letting off steam. (link here)

quote: Rush Limbaugh justified the U.S. guards' mistreatment of the Iraqis, stating that they were just “having a good time,” and that their actions served as an “emotional release.[…] You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off? ”

3. Porn made me do it (link here)

quote: It occurred to me that the reason this is happening, and the reason our country may be shocked by shouldn't be in the least surprised that this is happening, is the following: The pornography chickens are coming home to roost. Or to say it the way the Bible does, the American, indeed Western, fascination and enslavement to pornography has sown the wind and now were reaping the whirlwind (cf. Hosea 8:7). The U.S. and the rest of the West has been in the steadily tightening grip of the pornography industry for the last 40 years. It's a boa-constrictor of lust that's not about to loosen its death-embrace.[…]It has a place in many, perhaps most, American homes. Perhaps in your own home^†.[…]What once seemed to be a man's weakness has now become about as common among women as among men. Teens and even children are now being shaped and distorted by the steady diet of pornography that swirls all around them.

† Gasp! Not in my home!

4. They were gay (link here and here)

quotes: Could it be, as Rush Limbaugh mentioned in passing on a recent broadcast, that the perpetrators of the alleged crime are homosexuals? If that's the case, maybe the motivation for their activities was far different than from what has been discussed in the media's wall to wall coverage of this incident. If these individuals are homosexuals, maybe they were getting stimulated by looking at naked Iraqis in sexually provocative positions.[…] Many people believe that homosexuals have a much greater potential than heterosexuals to be sexual predators. In addition, a sizeable number of sexually dysfunctional individuals (aka sexual predators) take pictures of their illicit acts. It gives them an opportunity to glory in their “conquest” as they visually relive their sickening activities.

5. They were women, feminists, Muslims, and/or the academic left. (link here)

quote: I don't even want to quote that piece of trash.

I think the best theory I've heard so far has been advanced by elfs: They were the victims of abstinence education