Saturday. Stuff.

Hey, Look, Mom! I'm in the Christian Science Monitor! Nifty article and pix on our beloved Center for Cartoon Studies,

link compliments of Rutland Herald reporter, Trees & Hills Comics group co-founder, and all-around swell guy Dan Barlow. Hey, Dan, and thanks.

And if you didn't get to check this out earlier this week when I posted it, here's Indie Spinner Rack's interminable interview with yours truly. C'mon, it's the weekend -- you've got time now, don'tcha?

John Totleben hisself send this link, exclaiming, "Check this out -- pretty freakin' wild!" and whatdyaknow, it sure is!

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Most Dangerous Cyborg in the World continues to spread doubt, discord, distress and terror in the Middle East...

Have a Great Saturday!

Late night (for me) post:

This just in --

"...His words were greeted with restrained applause..." -- ya, I bet they were. Cheney dodged service, but talks the talk.

And:

This spam.

Did you all get this one, too?
_____________

CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: GEORGE WALKER BUSH
DEAR SIR / MADAM,

I AM GEORGE WALKER BUSH, SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, AND CURRENTLY SERVING AS
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS LETTER MIGHT SURPRISE
YOU BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT MET NEITHER IN PERSON NOR BY CORRESPONDENCE. I
CAME TO KNOW OF YOU IN MY SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE AND REPUTABLE PERSON TO
HANDLE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS TRANSACTION, WHICH INVOLVES THE
TRANSFER OF A HUGE SUM OF MONEY TO AN ACCOUNT REQUIRING MAXIMUM
CONFIDENCE.

I AM WRITING YOU IN ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE PRIMARILY TO SEEK YOUR
ASSISTANCE IN ACQUIRING OIL FUNDS THAT ARE PRESENTLY TRAPPED IN THE
REPUBLIC OF IRAQ. MY PARTNERS AND I SOLICIT YOUR ASSISTANCE IN
COMPLETING A TRANSACTION BEGUN BY MY FATHER, WHO HAS LONG BEEN ACTIVELY
ENGAGED IN THE EXTRACTION OF PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
AND BRAVELY SERVED HIS COUNTRY AS DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY.

IN THE DECADE OF THE NINETEEN-EIGHTIES, MY FATHER, THEN VICE-PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, SOUGHT TO WORK WITH THE GOOD OFFICES
OF
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ TO REGAIN LOST OIL REVENUE
SOURCES
IN THE NEIGHBORING ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN. THIS UNSUCCESSFUL VENTURE
WAS SOON FOLLOWED BY A FALLING OUT WITH HIS IRAQI PARTNER, WHO SOUGHT
TO
ACQUIRE ADDITIONAL OIL REVENUE SOURCES IN THE NEIGHBORING EMIRATE OF
KUWAIT, A WHOLLY-OWNED U.S.-BRITISH SUBSIDIARY.

MY FATHER RE-SECURED THE PETROLEUM ASSETS OF KUWAIT IN 1991 AT A COST
OF
SIXTY-ONE BILLION U.S. DOLLARS ($61,000,000,000). OUT OF THAT COST.

THIRTY-SIX BILLION DOLLARS ($36,000,000,000) WERE SUPPLIED BY HIS
PARTNERS IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA AND OTHER PERSIAN GULF
MONARCHIES, AND SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS ($16,000,000,000) BY GERMAN AND
JAPANESE PARTNERS.

BUT MY FATHER'S FORMER IRAQI BUSINESS PARTNER REMAINED IN CONTROL OF
THE
REPUBLIC OF IRAQ AND ITS PETROLEUM RESERVES.

MY FAMILY IS CALLING FOR YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE IN FUNDING THE REMOVAL
OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ AND ACQUIRING THE PETROLEUM
ASSETS OF HIS COUNTRY, AS COMPENSATION FOR THE COSTS OF REMOVING HIM
FROM POWER.

UNFORTUNATELY, OUR PARTNERS FROM 1991 ARE NOT WILLING TO SHOULDER THE
BURDEN OF THIS NEW VENTURE, WHICH IN ITS UPCOMING PHASE MAY COST THE
SUM
OF 100 BILLION TO 200 BILLION DOLLARS ($100,000,000,000 -
$200,000,000,000), BOTH IN THE INITIAL ACQUISITION AND IN LONG-TERM
MANAGEMENT.

WITHOUT THE FUNDS FROM OUR 1991 PARTNERS, WE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO
ACQUIRE THE OIL REVENUE TRAPPED WITHIN IRAQ. THAT IS WHY MY FAMILY AND
OUR COLLEAGUES ARE URGENTLY SEEKING YOUR GRACIOUS ASSISTANCE. OUR
DISTINGUISHED COLLEAGUES IN THIS BUSINESS TRANSACTION INCLUDE THE
SITTING VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, RICHARD CHENEY,
WHO IS AN ORIGINAL PARTNER IN THE IRAQ VENTURE AND FORMER HEAD OF THE
ALLIBURTON OIL COMPANY, AND CONDOLEEZA RICE, WHOSE PROFESSIONAL
DEDICATION TO THE VENTURE WAS DEMONSTRATED IN THE NAMING OF A CHEVRON
OIL TANKER AFTER HER.

I WOULD BESEECH YOU TO TRANSFER A SUM EQUALING TEN TO TWENTY-FIVE
PERCENT (10-25 %) OF YOUR YEARLY INCOME TO OUR ACCOUNT TO AID IN THIS
IMPORTANT VENTURE. THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA WILL FUNCTION AS OUR TRUSTED INTERMEDIARY. I PROPOSE THAT YOU
MAKE THIS TRANSFER BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH (15TH) OF THE MONTH OF APRIL.

I KNOW THAT A TRANSACTION OF THIS MAGNITUDE WOULD MAKE ANYONE
APPREHENSIVE AND WORRIED. BUT I AM ASSURING YOU THAT ALL WILL BE WELL
AT
THE END OF THE DAY. A BOLD STEP TAKEN SHALL NOT BE REGRETTED, I ASSURE
YOU. PLEASE DO BE INFORMED THAT THIS BUSINESS TRANSACTION IS 100%
LEGAL.
IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO CO-OPERATE IN THIS TRANSACTION, PLEASE CONTACT
OUR
INTERMEDIARY REPRESENTATIVES TO FURTHER DISCUSS THE MATTER.

I PRAY THAT YOU UNDERSTAND OUR PLIGHT. MY FAMILY AND OUR COLLEAGUES
WILL
BE FOREVER GRATEFUL. PLEASE REPLY IN STRICT CONFIDENCE TO THE CONTACT
NUMBERS BELOW.

SINCERELY WITH WARM REGARDS,

GEORGE WALKER BUSH

Switchboard: 202.456.1414 Comments: 202.456.1111 Fax: 202.456.2461
Email:
president@whitehouse.gov --

___________

(Compliments of Jean-Marc Lofficier!)

Old Hikers Never Die,
They Just Smell That Way

So, Peter Money and I led a valiant group of CCS students up Mount Ascutney yesterday.

Well, Peter led. Actually, Sean Morgan -- CCS senior, Brownsville local, a man who knows the mountain and was climbing like a mountain goat -- led. Peter and Sean led, joined by fellow vet woodsman and CCS senior Ross Wood Studlar and freshmen Chuck Forsman, Dane Martin, Bryan Stone and Alex (Joon-Ho) Kim. A fine time was had by all.

As the oldest poopster of the party, 52-year-old Bissette held his own, sweeping behind for at least the final third of the climb, but I kept up and I made it to the top. But man, oh man, it was a climb.

I hadn't hiked a mountain in over nine years -- I used to hike

the beloved North Duxbury landmark Camel's Hump

regularly in my youth. Even a couple of winter hikes, mind you -- I was a boy scout, and I loved hiking.

But I was in my forties when I made my last climb (Haystack in Wilmington), and I tell you, I was feeling the years yesterday. Particularly in the last mile of the 3.2 or so mile hike uphill. The equivalent hike down went much quicker and (per usual) tested a whole different set of leg and foot muscles, but it was easier on the ol' bod that the climb up. Gravity, you know.

As Dirty Harry quipped in Magnum Force, "A man's got to know his limitations." I used to climb Camel's Hump's 4,080+ feet once or twice a year and love it, but I was a much younger man then. Mount Ascutney is far shy of Camel's Hump's altitude (see below), but it sure marks my current limit -- though I fully intend to visit the peak this summer, I'll take the car up to the near-summit parking lot and walk that mile versus the 3+ miles uphill we managed yesterday. It's unlikely I'll be making the hike we made yesterday ever again in this lifetime, unless it's as ashes in an urn for my students to spread over the summit.

Peter and I planned this way back in December 2006 and this past January. It was our intention to bring the entire freshmen class on this end-of-the-year sojourn, but alas, due to a number of issues I shan't go into here, that didn't happen as we'd hoped. Still, we stuck to our staffs and those who could join us, did.

Since the state park proper is closed until May 18th -- the day before CCS graduation -- planning a day trip that involved simply driving ourselves to just shy of the summit (there's apparently a parking lot between the south peak and summit; a less-than-a-mile foot trail takes you to the summit) was impossible. So, we decided, Peter and I, to make the climb to the peak on the Brownsville Trail, and just go for it.

Who is this Peter Money cat? He teaches at CCS, and he's a poet and a good man. Check him out.

What's this Mount Ascutney thang? Rather than bore you with historical and contextual blather, here's the Wikipedia listing for the mountain,

and here's the tech-stuff at Peakbagger.com, for those into such matters.

We made the climb. It was memorable, a great, grand experience. I'll write about it in some detail later -- jeez, I not only climbed it, I came home and prepped for the coming week of CCS and drew two complete pages for James Sturm's CCS class today (the climax to a class 'round robin' 'versus' comic, which concludes with my "Baby With Adult Legs vs. Bryan Stone" final round -- Baby With Adult Legs created by Joe Lambert, Bryan Stone by -- uh, Bryan's mom, I think. And his Dad. I hope.) -- so I'm too pooped to blog much today.

I'm not sure how high up we were -- there's some confusion in the available literature on the mountain.

Ross checked his hiking guide in the drive to Peter's house to eat after we were off the mountain, and reported it was 2600 feet, rated as a 'strenuous climb' (that it was!), but I don't know about that height.

We passed the North Summit sign, marking 2600+ feet, and there was still considerable climbing after that. Since the parking lot for the park is reportedly at an elevation of 2,800 feet, I reckon we climbed at least a wee bit higher than that, whatever the hiking guide books say otherwise. I know that after the North Summit sign, we climbed for at least another half hour, and it was all climbing!

Anyhoot, we made it to the observation tower. This was originally a fire tower; the cabin was long ago removed and the whole contraption has been relocated, and the views are breathtaking, encompassing the entire landscape round Ascutney's peak. We didn't make it to Brownsville Rock, which was about another 1/4 mile northwest of the summit -- Sean told us about this (it's a hang gliding launch site), but going to and coming from the tower we passed the sign for the Rock and simply continued on our way; nobody even commented on it. Next time, eh?

If you're into going yourself some time, check out the Vt. State Parks site, with mucho links to this and that relevant to such a trek.

Here's all the trail particulars, too, for those in any way interested in reading more about the hike.

OK, enough on that -- for now. If anyone who had cameras send me pics, I'll post 'em here!

In any case, gentlemen -- Peter, Chuck, Sean, Dane, Ross, Alex, Bryan -- it was a real honor to climb that rock with all of you, and it's a day I'll savor to the end of my days. Thanks for making it happen!

Things to ponder today:

As Head Honcho Asswipe continues to dodge his own culpability for this war-funding situation, acting like the sociopathic self-centered 'no one says no to me' colostomy bag leakage he continues to come across as (if it were so damned vital, why leave it out of the federal budget every single year of these interminable wars and require seven ancillary budgets to be voted through make up for the shortfall?),

and Vice-Cyborg McQuack-Quack further aggravates what Condi already fucked up so adroitly last week ("So we blew your country and all existing infrastructures completely to shit on false pretenses -- get over it! Get up on your own damned feet and act like men instead of like you're ravaged by four years of war, still without clean water, electricity, food or any shred of civilized security! What are you, a pack of pansies?"),

let's have another reality check in assessing how completely they've only spiraled the increasingly dire fiscal situation of the average American:

"The real income of the bottom 90 percent of American taxpayers has declined steadily: they earned $27,060 in real dollars in 1979, $25,646 in 2005."

- Heather Boushey and Christian E. Weller, "What the Numbers Tell Us," in James Lardner and David A. Smith, eds., Inequality Matters (New York: 2005), p. 36.

"The 2006 round of tax cuts delivers 70 percent of its benefits to the richest 5 percent of Americans, and 6.5 percent to the bottom 80 percent."

- Clive Crook, "The Height of Inequality," Atlantic, September 2006, p. 36.

Have a Great Thursday, You Paupers!

Look, Christians want me to leave my wife!
I keep getting these spams -- what is Jesus trying to say to me? Should I abandon my happy marriage with Marge in search of Christian singles? What the fuck? (or, should I say, "do they"?) And -- is that woman hugging another woman? What's up with this spam campaign, Oh Lord? Oh, I'm so confused...



Soap on a Rope: Libby Takes the Bullet; Cheney, Rove Dance

Well, I've shied away from the current news here for some time, if only to keep the blog from living up to its title too much. But the news of

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's conviction

is too much to pass unnoticed. Many of us out here in voting America have been watching and following this closely since the initial outing of Valerie Plame's CIA status.

Yes, Cheney and Rove cakewalked -- Libby's dangling, appeal to follow -- but the revelations of Cheney's complete culpability in the treasonous outing of a CIA agent's identity out of sheer political vindictiveness is now public record -- and in Cheney's own handwriting.

The man is too contemptible for words, the outing of the corruption of the Vice Presidency ("the most powerful Vice President in U.S. history" has been a frequently heard assessment the past two days) apparent. Cheney's vicious betrayal of his oath of office, the power of his position, and utter contempt for the American people and those who serve in the intelligence community outstrips even Spiro Agnew's absolutely shameful abuses of power.

That this verdict arrives in the wake of the latest series of stories concerning the neglect and abuse of Iraq War vets (via the Washington Post's investigation and stories about the conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center) further proves the rampant callousness and disregard for the most fundamental of human realities demonstrated time and time again by this current President and Administration. They are contemptible leaders in every arena of power they have claimed as their own, and the insanity of maintaining any further patience or tolerance of their horrific abuses, or for their apologists, could not be clearer.

The local scene is catching the shock waves, as every corner of the country must.

This, from The Brattleboro Reformer of Brattleboro, VT:

Panel hears from injured vets about squalor at Walter Reed
By Evan Lehmann, Reformer Washington Bureau
Brattleboro Reformer


Tuesday, March 6
WASHINGTON -- He returned from Iraq with one eye, one ear and the idea he'd recuperate somewhere other than the "ghetto."

That's how Spc. Jeremy Duncan described his room in Building 18, a former motel adopted as an outpatient dorm by Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The building is the symbol of squalor in an unfolding scandal that has the Army on its heels. Building 18 has mold, holes, mice and cockroaches. Its inhabitants, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, face long delays in receiving health care.

"It was unforgivable," Duncan told a congressional panel holding a hearing at the hospital Monday. "It wasn't fit for anybody to live like that."

Staff Sgt. J. Daniel Shannon was shot in the head by an insurgent's AK-47. The blunt military careerist suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost his left eye. The attack came in November 2004, outside Ramadi.
Three days later, he arrived at Walter Reed for inpatient care. He was discharged two days later, given a photocopied map of the sprawling facility and told to bunk in Building 18.

He got lost along the way, disoriented by the prescription drugs meant to soothe the bullet wound he suffered less than a week earlier.

Later, the hospital lost him.

"I sat in my room for another couple of weeks wondering when someone would contact me about continuing my medical care," Shannon said.

They never did. It was up to him.

More than two years later, he's still a patient, still waiting for plastic surgery and a prosthetic eye to fill the socket behind his black patch.

Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat and member of the Oversight and Government Reform's subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, which held the hearing, said the hospital's failures could be the "tip of the iceberg."

Welch, who requested that the hearing be held at Walter Reed, questioned Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, who oversaw the hospital for two years until 2004, about reports that patients were retaliated against for revealing the squalid conditions at the hospital.

Soon after The Washington Post exposed the conditions, patients were required to fall into formation around dawn each morning.

Kiley denied it was retaliation, saying Col. Roland Hamilton required the morning formation so patients could air their concerns to him directly.

"He was not in any way threatening them," Kiley said.

Welch also suggested that the Army might have fired the wrong man: Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who was relieved of duty as the hospital's commander last week.

Weightman worked at the hospital for six months.

Welch asked if the conditions at the hospital "have been in existence for over six months?"

"I can't say right now whether this was a short-term or long-term problem," Kiley said.

Shannon, however, knows his stay has been too long.

"I want to leave this place," he said. "I've seen so many soldiers get so frustrated with the process that they will sign anything presented (to) them just so they can get on with their lives."

In many cases, that means they forfeit disability benefits.

You got that? "Forfeit[ing] disability benefits."

This is monstrous on more levels than one can comprehend

The war machine, ramped up on a bed of lies and deceptions, pours patriotic young Americans voluntarily serving into the the jaws of man-made hell, spits them back dismembered, traumatized, in pieces -- and buries them alive in a fresh hell of this government's making. To escape, the young soldiers who have given their all will forfeit their disability benefits -- this is criminal.

War crimes, perpetrated upon our own military by our own leaders.

On the local level, more and more Vermonters are finding their voices to speak out against the ongoing corruption and abuses of power. HomeyM of Jamaica sent out this email to his compadres:

"I was very proud of my town today, Town Meeting day in Jamaica.

There were two resolutions offered, both of which I thought would elicit struggle and debate in a town and state that are after all traditionally Republican (albeit Vermont Republican).

One resolution called for bringing the troops in Iraq home now. The second called for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for lying to get us into war, condoning torture, and taking away our Constitutional freedoms by listening in to phone conversations without a warrant. In this kind of situation of introducing a national (not local) matter, it was almost certain that someone would rise to complain that this is "not something we should be discussing at a Town meeting."

With just one speaker on behalf of each resolution, and NO ONE rising to oppose them, not a single word of opposition, the first passed quickly and UNANIMOUSLY. (For a second I thought I was dreaming.) The second by voice vote had about 95 AYES and only five NAYS. Hooray for Jamaica!

The night before last, in Brattleboro, Cindy Sheehan had asked us to lead the nation in calling for impeachment. Today we responded, as did some twenty other towns in Vermont. Many of those at this meeting, remember, are natives who have traditionally supported Republican leadership. And these are not people who will suppress their opinion if they disagree with you. Of that you may be sure.

I just didn't think it was going to be this easy. My fellow citizens surprised me today, in a very positive way."

Last year, at Marlboro Town Meeting, we had already done the same, as had a clutch of other Vermont towns.

To what end?

More on all this, later --

________________

Cine-Ketchup, Wednesday Edition:

* Grbavica (2006) - When uneasy pick-up lines like, “I’m sure I know you” leads to the commonalities of “Maybe you go to postmortem identifications?”, we aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto. We’re in Sarajevo, recovering from one of the most brutal wars in the European theater in the late 20th Century. Welcome to Grbavica -- the film, a time, place, and state of mind. This modern metropolitan European city is haunted by fresh memories of the Bosnian conflict. The wounds are deep and fresh: in the first scene, an innocent bout of tickling between mother and daughter grows untenable when daughter pins her mother’s arms; only later do we realize almost any human touch or intimacy evokes the rape camps. The echoes are everywhere: talk of mass graves still being disinterred and the search for missing parents, partners, friends or family; angry, outcast teenagers (some the offspring of the rape camp experiences) bond over missing fathers and their affiliations (“he’s a shaheed”); songs sung on buses stir memories; survivor support groups tied to monthly state stipends prompt unexpected, utterly human expressions of fear, despair and trauma; male bar patrons could be innocents, sympathizers, survivors or former brutalizers. We experience all this through the day-to-day life of traumatized Esma Halilovic (Mirjana Karanovic) and her daughter Sara (Luna Mijovic). The immediate tension between them is Esma’s inability to come up with the money necessary to Sara joining her school’s upcoming class trip; if Esma can provide certification of Sara’s shaheed parentage, there is no fee. It’s the kind of economic desperation rich people never know, and may never understand: for want of 200 euro for her daughter’s class trip, Esma’s life, held together by the most tenuous of threads, is unraveling.

From this seemingly inconsequential situation, writer/director Jasmila Zbanic delineates with increasing power the many fault lines between generations -- each struggling with (unspoken) shock waves and wounds, emotional and physical -- gender, class, affluence, unemployment, poverty and the absolute invisibility of all these all-too-real conflicts, rendering any one of them a near impossibility to deal with. Adding to the quiet dread is the fact that any in Esma’s circles -- work, acquaintances, anyone she has to deal with in any capacity -- who did not experience the worst of the Bosnian War are ignorant or indifferent to her plight or that of every survivor; worst yet, others still prey upon the survivors’ situation. Dangerous underground black markets thrive, assassination is an ongoing job opportunity, violence is central to male life (even Sara’s teen beau has a handgun), but the veneer of life-as-usual is sustained. These tensions conflate normal parent/teenager tensions, further tangled with the truth of Sara’s conception.

A precious few films or TV programs dealing with the current post-Bosnian War conditions exist, much less reach American viewers: the most recent installment of the British series Prime Suspect (6) grounded its script in the conflict’s wake, tied to Bosnian War atrocities spilling over into England. Grbavica is a potent drama of Bosnian life in the 21st Century, eschewing melodramatic or genre conventions that trivialize the harsh realities, rendered all the more terrible for their casual banality -- and its final shots moving for their simplicity and honesty.

________________

I've gotta get to work -- another busy day at CCS --
have a great Wednesday, one and all!

Too Pissed to Post

So, the Republicans are dodging debate and the vote on any -- any, including the compromise with Republican Senator John Warner that Democrats hammered out (Warner joined the rest of his party voting to avoid debate on his own resolution) -- resolution, even as the body count of US military escalates further in Iraq.

We can now handily count the obfuscation and its toll in flesh and blood.

From the beginning, anyone within government circles who told the truth about this goddamned -- and I do mean God Damned -- war, including its dollars-and-cents cost, was unceremoniously ditched by President Bush and his Administration. As the trial of 'Scooter' Libby proceeds, we see just how outrageous this President, Vice President (the literal interpretation of this office now more appropo than it has been since Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace) and his cabinet's behavior truly has been: at one of the most critical junctures of this war they pre-emptively executed, Bush, Cheney et al were too busy attacking another truth-sayer (read "foe"), via treasonous outing of his wife's identity as a covert CIA operative, to pay attention to their dirty little war and its consequences. It's an increasingly fascinating case history, but an absolutely sickening display of the total and abject abuse of power on a mind-boggling scale: they were too busy tarring and feathering one of their own to pay attention to Iraq.

This is horrendous, monstrous, appalling on so many levels, it's truly incomprehensible at this stage of the game.

I don't understand why impeachment is so cavalierly dismissed as simply not an option.

Sigh.

But, of course I do.

And our Senators are demonstrating again, today, why nothing will be done.

They can't even agree to discuss this -- their -- fucking war.

I'm sorry, man, for those of you (especially my friends) who are Republicans, but this, if I am to apply the dualistic rhetoric our current President so loves, is evil, pure and simple. The Republicans, in all their righteous piety, heartfelt convictions and madness, are no longer simply denying reality: they are, by their own definition, doing evil.

Measure the toll of this latest obfuscation in the hard reality of our own military servicemen and women's body count, and tell me otherwise.