Not Funny

This cartoon is considerably more creepy than what is normally published in the New Yorker. It was sort of unfortunate that I read it the morning after I saw this story.

And while I'm at it, this cartoon isn't funny at all. I don't know what it is about prison rape that sends people into fits of giggles, but you'd think the editors of the New Yorker would have better taste than that. Making fun of Polish names? "We just don't publish that kind of thing." But, condemning American citizens to serial rape? That's comedy gold.

Liberated Women

Riverbend is a woman who operates the blog Baghdad Burning from inside Baghdad. She posted recently about Sabrine Al-Janabi, a woman who was brave enough to report her rape at the hands of American-trained Iraqi Securtiy Forces, and use her real name. Her post ends:

"Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile."