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lapsedmodernistGregory Bateson said in one of his metalogues from "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" that you can't add information; you have to multiply it. But I think today we have to engage in some basic arithmetic. so the question is, what do all these stories add up to?
A) The Spin (see verbiage in the headline)
US Forces outraged by Iraqi teen rape claim
Baghdad - An Iraqi newspaper run by Sunni Muslims traded charges on Monday with the United States-led occupation authority over the alleged rape of two Iraqi girls by US soldiers, a claim denied by the coalition.
According to the daily As-Saah, the girls, aged 14 and 15, were talking to American soldiers in Suwaira, 180km south of Baghdad, on Friday when the soldiers suggested they accompany them to their camp to take pictures but then collectively raped the pair.
This allegation is "absolutely false", the US Central Command said in a statement.
"We take any claim of this nature extremely seriously, have looked into the allegations and found nothing whatsoever to substantiate the accusations, including checking local hospital records," it said.
As-Saah said one of the girls died after she was raped by 18 soldiers while the other was killed by her family. Editor Naama Abderrazzak told AFP two of the daily's reporters had talked to residents of the area and seen the bodies of the two girls.
B) The Preemptive Countermeasure (that would be an admission of guilt were it not for the fact that we are on the other side of Orwellian Looking Glass (or is it the Orwellian Wonderland?) where the "liberators" are now the "peacekeeping forces"
U.S. Wants Another U.N. Exemption from Global Court
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is asking the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution on Thursday renewing the exemption of U.S. peacekeepers from prosecution by the new war crimes tribunal, diplomats said.
Despite misgivings on the controversial resolution, the measure will easily be adopted, with members wary of another bruising fight with the Bush administration after refusing to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
Unclear, however, is whether Germany and possibly France, will express opposition by abstaining instead of voting "yes." Last year's vote was 15-0 after the United States threatened to veto U.N. peacekeeping missions, one by one.
C) The Proxy For News, a.k.a. The UnNews
Fifth-grader wins White House trip with well-chosen remark
The Associated Press
6/10/03 3:01 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Speaking up sometimes has its rewards.
Fifth-grader Corey Stevens first piped up when the top lawyer for the U.S. Department of Education, on a recent visit to a Salem-area school, asked if anybody had questions about President Bush's education policies.
Later that day, Corey spoke out again to answer questions from a reporter. His reward: On Tuesday, Corey joins a handful of students who'll stand beside President Bush for a Rose Garden ceremony celebrating a milestone of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Teachers at Lake Labish Elementary say most of their students have never been to the Oregon Coast, much less jetted to the East Coast. So when Corey told his teacher, Jim Griffin, that the White House had phoned and the president wanted to fly him to Washington, D.C., Griffin thought the boy had misunderstood.
But Corey, who's 11, had it exactly right, says his principal, Cameron Covey. "They just liked what he had to say about No Child Left Behind." (snip)
The boy said: "Actually, I think that's a good idea. 'Cause we need to learn. We don't need to just be lazy. And they should check up on all of the groups. That's how they'll know they're all learning."
(This story reminds me of the reification of the lowest common denominator that used to go on in Soviet propaganda all the time. I guess that makes sense, just like it makes sense that Bush would be excited about an interlocutor of his developmental level. But it really made me think of all these stories I had to read in, like, third grade about Lenin; they were these weird stories about how he fooled the Tsar's police, but always in these really obvious ways that were nonetheless presented as heroic mental feats. Like, for example, he had some forbidden books in his house and they were all on the bottom shelf of the bookcase (which is retarded to begin with, why would you make a "forbidden books" bookshelf in the first place? my parents' generation had their banned books bound in textbook covers that said things like Physics or Calculus or History of the Communist Party, and then they put them in random places, instead of alphabetizing them in full view), and when the police came to search for the books, he--get this--offered them a stepstool as some sort of primitive psychology maneuver. According to the insipid apocryphal story, they were grateful for the stepstool, interpreting it as his cooperation, and, obviously, started at the top of the bookshelf, went through every book at the top, did not find anything, got tired, and left without looking at the bottom shelf, while Lenin stood by and mysteriously smiled the smile of a brilliant genius that fooled the feared Tsar's police. Obviously, everyone was aware of how stupid these stories actually were, which is evidenced by the jokes that arose that followed the format of those stories. Like: "Lenin is at home. There is a knock on the door. "Who is there?" he asks. "The Tsar's Police," follows the reply. "Lenin is not home," squeaks Lenin in a high voice. "Damn it, he is not home again," say the policement to each other and leave. And this is how, for the fifth time, the great leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin fooled the Tsar's police." We need some jokes like that for Bush. I'm gonna work on that.)
And, finally,
D) The Context
Many Americans Unaware WMD Have Not Been Found
06/09/03: (PIPA) A striking finding in the new Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) Knowledge Networks poll is that many Americans are unaware that weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq. While 59% of those polled correctly said the US has not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 41% said they believed that the US has found such weapons (34%) or were unsure (7%).
Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments: "For some Americans, their desire to support the war may be leading them to screen out information that weapons of mass destruction have not been found. Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention to the topic, this level of misinformation suggests that some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."
A) The Spin (see verbiage in the headline)
US Forces outraged by Iraqi teen rape claim
Baghdad - An Iraqi newspaper run by Sunni Muslims traded charges on Monday with the United States-led occupation authority over the alleged rape of two Iraqi girls by US soldiers, a claim denied by the coalition.
According to the daily As-Saah, the girls, aged 14 and 15, were talking to American soldiers in Suwaira, 180km south of Baghdad, on Friday when the soldiers suggested they accompany them to their camp to take pictures but then collectively raped the pair.
This allegation is "absolutely false", the US Central Command said in a statement.
"We take any claim of this nature extremely seriously, have looked into the allegations and found nothing whatsoever to substantiate the accusations, including checking local hospital records," it said.
As-Saah said one of the girls died after she was raped by 18 soldiers while the other was killed by her family. Editor Naama Abderrazzak told AFP two of the daily's reporters had talked to residents of the area and seen the bodies of the two girls.
B) The Preemptive Countermeasure (that would be an admission of guilt were it not for the fact that we are on the other side of Orwellian Looking Glass (or is it the Orwellian Wonderland?) where the "liberators" are now the "peacekeeping forces"
U.S. Wants Another U.N. Exemption from Global Court
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is asking the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution on Thursday renewing the exemption of U.S. peacekeepers from prosecution by the new war crimes tribunal, diplomats said.
Despite misgivings on the controversial resolution, the measure will easily be adopted, with members wary of another bruising fight with the Bush administration after refusing to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
Unclear, however, is whether Germany and possibly France, will express opposition by abstaining instead of voting "yes." Last year's vote was 15-0 after the United States threatened to veto U.N. peacekeeping missions, one by one.
C) The Proxy For News, a.k.a. The UnNews
Fifth-grader wins White House trip with well-chosen remark
The Associated Press
6/10/03 3:01 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Speaking up sometimes has its rewards.
Fifth-grader Corey Stevens first piped up when the top lawyer for the U.S. Department of Education, on a recent visit to a Salem-area school, asked if anybody had questions about President Bush's education policies.
Later that day, Corey spoke out again to answer questions from a reporter. His reward: On Tuesday, Corey joins a handful of students who'll stand beside President Bush for a Rose Garden ceremony celebrating a milestone of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Teachers at Lake Labish Elementary say most of their students have never been to the Oregon Coast, much less jetted to the East Coast. So when Corey told his teacher, Jim Griffin, that the White House had phoned and the president wanted to fly him to Washington, D.C., Griffin thought the boy had misunderstood.
But Corey, who's 11, had it exactly right, says his principal, Cameron Covey. "They just liked what he had to say about No Child Left Behind." (snip)
The boy said: "Actually, I think that's a good idea. 'Cause we need to learn. We don't need to just be lazy. And they should check up on all of the groups. That's how they'll know they're all learning."
(This story reminds me of the reification of the lowest common denominator that used to go on in Soviet propaganda all the time. I guess that makes sense, just like it makes sense that Bush would be excited about an interlocutor of his developmental level. But it really made me think of all these stories I had to read in, like, third grade about Lenin; they were these weird stories about how he fooled the Tsar's police, but always in these really obvious ways that were nonetheless presented as heroic mental feats. Like, for example, he had some forbidden books in his house and they were all on the bottom shelf of the bookcase (which is retarded to begin with, why would you make a "forbidden books" bookshelf in the first place? my parents' generation had their banned books bound in textbook covers that said things like Physics or Calculus or History of the Communist Party, and then they put them in random places, instead of alphabetizing them in full view), and when the police came to search for the books, he--get this--offered them a stepstool as some sort of primitive psychology maneuver. According to the insipid apocryphal story, they were grateful for the stepstool, interpreting it as his cooperation, and, obviously, started at the top of the bookshelf, went through every book at the top, did not find anything, got tired, and left without looking at the bottom shelf, while Lenin stood by and mysteriously smiled the smile of a brilliant genius that fooled the feared Tsar's police. Obviously, everyone was aware of how stupid these stories actually were, which is evidenced by the jokes that arose that followed the format of those stories. Like: "Lenin is at home. There is a knock on the door. "Who is there?" he asks. "The Tsar's Police," follows the reply. "Lenin is not home," squeaks Lenin in a high voice. "Damn it, he is not home again," say the policement to each other and leave. And this is how, for the fifth time, the great leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin fooled the Tsar's police." We need some jokes like that for Bush. I'm gonna work on that.)
And, finally,
D) The Context
Many Americans Unaware WMD Have Not Been Found
06/09/03: (PIPA) A striking finding in the new Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) Knowledge Networks poll is that many Americans are unaware that weapons of mass destruction have not been found in Iraq. While 59% of those polled correctly said the US has not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 41% said they believed that the US has found such weapons (34%) or were unsure (7%).
Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments: "For some Americans, their desire to support the war may be leading them to screen out information that weapons of mass destruction have not been found. Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention to the topic, this level of misinformation suggests that some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."
