The likelihood that I would screw that up was 100%, plus or minus 0%.

Doesn’t make it any less humiliating, though.

The Nuremberg defendants attempted to assert the accusation of Victor’s Justice as a defense, but it was rejected.

I really don’t see any deviation from the normal operation of criminal law here. If I am indicted for murder, and answer the charges by asserting that an equally indictment-worthy suspect for some other murder walks free, my being told that this is no defense at law should surprise no one.

My understanding is that KSM was happy to talk about his role in 9/11, and in fact wouldn’t shut up about it. The torture was used to get him to “confess” that all their training was paid for by Iraq and that Saddam Hussein Barack and Michelle Obama personally made sandwiches for all the hijackers and that he (KSM) killed Alyona Ivanova and her sister Lizaveta with an axe.

Fixed.

Not quite: I believe that the idea (from the German and Japanese sides) was that, if they were going to be prosecuted, then the Allies would have to also prosecute their own, or be seen to be blatantly hypocritical. The Allies, recognising this, chose instead The Way Of The Weasel, and pretended that those people weren’t guilty or that those acts weren’t war crimes or crimes against humanity.

This is not, in my opinion, the proudest moment of Western Civilization. The bastards who got what they deserved at Nuremberg got what they deserved, but the validity of the whole proceeding is called into question since justice was applied in such a one-sided way.

True. It would have been much better if all the war crimes/crimes against humanity had been punished – if that had happened consistently, regardless of winners and losers, then perhaps there would have been fewer such crimes subsequently.

Jennifer said,

November 25, 2009 at 19:42

Whoops. Misidentified blog. This is the blog that satisfies my dystopian yearnings. The link I posted is correct for WOVERINES and PENIS, but the one posted here is the one I drop in on regularly…it’s a guy documenting how societies fall apart at the seams, one personal vignette at a time.

I know you confused the hell out of me. Seeing the pictures of the Red Dawn remake, with all the Republicans thrown in the re-education camps brought a tear of joy to my eye.

I hear it’s got a tragic ending though – (SPOILER ALERT) The sonsabitches break out of the camps.

If that ain’t a tearjerker I don’t know what is.

It is my understanding (from Chomsky, I think, so consume with your approved dose of salt) that it was considered an acceptable defense at Nuremberg and Tokyo for the defendant to show that whatever he was accused of doing, the Allies did it too. Since, axiomatically, the Good Guys do not commit war crimes, a defendant was considered innocent if both sides did it.

This is not, in my opinion, the proudest moment of Western Civilization. The bastards who got what they deserved at Nuremberg got what they deserved, but the validity of the whole proceeding is called into question since justice was applied in such a one-sided way.

Paul Mantarakis said,
November 11, 2009 at 22:02
… And just in case you accuse me of being a spineless “chickenhawk” I’m a pfc in the Army National Guard. My company will be deploying to Afghanistan in a year. [So, already National Guard.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 11, 2009 at 22:20
… Speaking as a soldier, I wouldn’t tolerate a homo in my barracks, and none of the other soldiers I know would either. [So, definitely a serving soldier.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 12, 2009 at 5:50
In case you missed it, I am 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Drum and I am going to be deployed… [The first contradiction - they're not a National Guard unit. This is the post Paul will later deny. Notice that it's the first to mention the mountain infantry at all.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 25, 2009 at 5:30
Mr. Bastard, I don’t recall mentioning that I was enlisting in the tenth mountain division, and I don’t recall mentioning the division’s name either. All I said was that I am enlisting in the Mountain Infantry. I didn’t give any other info. You my friend are twisting what I have said to paint me out to be a liar, which I assure you I am not. [Paul is now "enlisting", not already serving. He will later deny that the previous post was him - but he DOES remember mentioning the Mountain Infantry. Forgetting that a) only the post he denies has mentioned them and b) the 10th is the only mountain unit.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 25, 2009 at 5:52
That Mr. Bastard was a name stealer. I am enlisting in the infantry. I did not mention any specific unit. [The first denial. Mountain infantry now scaled back to just "infantry", though he doesn't deny the 5:30 post, which did mention mountains. Nor does he explain all the other times he claimed he was already serving.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 25, 2009 at 18:56
I don’t care what you liberals think, I know my heart, I know I am sincere when I say I am going in the army. I have yet to take the asvab, still studying the math, because admittedly math is not my strong point.
No shame in that. I am however good at the science and English portions of the test. I have a study guide and have taken several of the practice tests. I just need to study harder on the math portion before I take the actual test. Until then I am working in the landscaping business, money is decent but nothing like military pay. I have an associates degree in criminal justice, so I will be starting out as a private first class. After I complete basic training and infantry school I am planning on having the army pay for my bachelor’s degree and becoming an officer.
I am planning a career in the U.S. Army. The only reason I am starting out in the National Guard is because a friend of the family is a Colonel in the National Guard and he can get me in any unit I want is what he said. [For the first time he tries to reconcile the National Guard / regulars claims. This does involve contradicting most of what he's already said, but fair play to him, he does a decent job of explaining how he can be NG and a regular soldier.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 25, 2009 at 23:03
I haven’t lied about anything. I am enlisting in the National Guard to start out, then I am transferring to the regular army and into the tenth mountain division.
What is so hard to understand?
I never said I was currently in the military, only that I will be enlisting.
The asvab comes first and then enlistment. [Outright denial of the THREE posts where he claimed to be already serving, though oddly he attributes only one of these to a nymthief.]
Paul Mantarakis said,
November 25, 2009 at 23:15
I don’t know how many times I have said this, but I will say it again. That [referring to his post of 5:50 on 12th Nov] was a name stealer.
I never wrote that. [Yet in his 23:03 post, he says he's going into the 10th. Remarkably, the nymthief managed BY PURE COINCIDENCE to guess Paul's unit correctly! Who'da thunk it?]

Not quite. K, not Q. Nakba. K and Q are not interchangeable. Thank you.

Hey, the thread already went to hell, anyway. Being pedantic isn’t going to hurt it any.

Also, it was believed that anybody owning more than a quarter of an acre – yes, you read that right – couldn’t really need assistance: so starving small farmers were forced to sell their land to the great estates to qualify for any help from the state. The result was a massive net transfer of land ownership in Ireland from the already poor to the already rich, on the basis of the classic conservative belief that it’s better to help nobody than to risk helping one person who might not need / deserve that help.

And, just like Paul’s be-preached-at-while-you-eat place, there were soup kitchens that would only serve Protestants. The overwhelming majority of the hungry poor were Catholic, but many understandably converted under the effective threat of death.

All round, the Irish potato famine is a prime example of what happens when things are done the conservative way.

Hey, we can’t let them be the only ones to slaughter thousands of innocents!

Karma? Karma? Karma! With added Andy-Lau-botty goodness! (Fun fact: I was on the set for the filming of the dining scene, which sadly didn’t feature the botty, or I’d never have returned home)

Our uncircumcised President is our chickens coming home to roost.

Call it chicken all you want, I ain’t eating it. NOR feeling around under it for eggs.

Tigrismus, I want to marry you and have your babies.

Hey Paul: isn’t that….SOCIALISM?

Our chickens are standing still, ankle deep in their own excrement.

It’s a metaphor applicable to both US domestic politics and US foreign policy.

Question: Am I taking “progressive voice” too seriously.

‘Progressive Voice’ has been used numerous times in the past by one of the resident trolls as one of his strawman leftist characters. This particular iteration is fairly sedate; I seem to recall previous iterations demanding white people to be put in camps, voicing explicit antisemitism, etc.

Saying Iraq is “one million 9/11s” should be telling enough. I don’t believe Iraq ever housed three billion people.

There are good reasons why all armies that have invaded Belgium in the years since its creation have eventually staggered home again in less-than-ordered formation, collectively clutching their heads and complaining about the parrots that shat in their mouths.

What the feck is with the chicken fixation? It was my understanding that 90% of American chickens are caged so COMING HOME TO ROOST is not really an issue. It could be time for a new metaphor. Involving vampire bats, perhaps.