sounds like an utterly asinine program. thank God I don't indulge in the idiot-box these days

america eats her young, as you must know, just like guppies and sharks; they're tasty and produce much wealth, especially when we can convince them to produce that wealth by going abroad and taking it from others. Hansel, go eat the fat of the foreign land (hydrocarbons, mmm), then come back here and watch tv for a while, to make it soft. . . And then soup!

but seriously. are you praising or criticizing 24? is it really so over the top to suggest in televised entertainment that our government or some of its parts might condone or even make policy of torture and other nefarious shenanigans? MASH, the X-files, and certain otherwise mostly laughable steven segal movies come to mind, but reflection will reveal more.

i propose that the difference is that you did not consider them propaganda at the time they entered your awareness, whereas you have been unable to see 24 as other than the sensationally opportunistic fear-mongering propaganda that it is.

sure we fear -- is it eurasia or east asia? -- a whole lot in a generalized way that doesn't yet keep us from going to the movies and malls and offices, but it is big brother who is standing right beyond that nielson box, pulling the levers.

A fun anonymized anecdote. I have a friend whose parents' next-door neighbors are an Iranian family, and whose sister is married to a military intelligence officer, in the suburbs where you may recall one or more unknown men, for several weeks and much broadcast time, shot and killed several people in public from hiding with no apparent motive and few traces, a couple years ago. This was after "the world changed" and America was involved in any number of colorably or actually bellicose actions abroad, so we the people were pretty keyed up, lest we suddenly find ourselves no longer alive whether by unsuspected bullets or biochem toxin or mushroom cloud. And so the unknown shooter of random people sent us off, culturally, into heretofore unknown levels of fear and paranoia inhibited behaviors.

When the word went out that we should be on the lookout for swarthy men intent on evil, driving a greyish-whitish-ivory step-van, or van, or a utility vehicle of some sort with ladders or a roll bar, or possibly gourmet lights, of course my friend's sister's husband reported the family of next door neighboor Iranian immigrants as potential snipers. He's an american christian. Naturally, that family did not turn out to be randomly offing people for no reason, but a couple black men with the evil sounding names of mohammad and malvo.

that family is still making preparations for the great day of reckoning in sleeper mode, I realized when, entirely my chance, I happened to sit through one inter-commercial unit of that program last week, and the sleeper family reminded me and my anonymous friend of the Iranian neighbor family.

Luckily, I can be sure that that friend's brother in law has seen 24, or is familiar through "water cooler" exposure to the plot, and will know the right time to re-rat out the suspiciously not from these parts neighbors.

Meanwhile, there's no time for tv because I gotta be snooping on my neighbors to find out whether my suspicion that they are Mara Salvatrucha sleepers here to liaise with the jihadists when they all finally awaken, and Shiva's eye is at last opened, is correct, and if so, rat 'em out to the Homeland troops before taking extreme vigilante action to thwart their designs.

Don't watch that stuff RW. You'll rot your brain.

I definitely praising them. Remember, they acutally showed Americans torturing Americans. It wasn't like the SecDef's son came back with no marks or anything--they showed him strapped in and getting some sort of "Sensory" thingamajiggie. He was definitely yelling out in pain. By making Americans torture Americans, the show made people put themseles in the position of those who were tortured. People don't like that. I think it was a good thing, especially if, as I suspect, it will turn out that the kid knew nothing and was tortured for no reason.

woo hoo, then stay tuned!

good thing we americans can count on NBC (the broadcaster, not the class of prohibited materials) to challenge our preconceptions and stick it to the man; pretty soon, if we watch enough of their programming, we'll no doubt be liberated and wind up enlightened.
in the mean time, act while supplies last; offer void in kentucky.

have you seen any of the coverage of _real_ torture being done by _real_ americans and _real_ american client states and allies? Very few absurd apparati there, pretty much your basic headbags, shackles, naked humiliations, bludgeons, german shepherds and bare wires trailing from car batteries and generators. No felt-lined cases of shiny bladed and spiked weapons, no ominous fluid squirting from syringes. Of course, the SecDef's son is american, so he probably won't be humiliated by naked pyramiding with other men, but will enjoy it like the great satan himself. Better use the salad bowl and egg-beaters on this one.

incidentally, how did the poll of viewers on the efficacy of torture in democracy come out? do american's like it bloodyfisted, or administered by a fastidious hand weilding gleaming instruments through a fine leather glove? my money's on the latter.


pax