or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
October 28, 2004
100,000 Iraqis Dead In War?
The British medical journal The Lancet is estimating that as many as 100,000 Iraqis have died in the war to date. But who cares, right? The political payoff from these small wars is fantastic!
If America's right wing even deigns to notice this, they will shriek about how no one knows what the real number of dead Iraqis is. And indeed they're right. But they will never, ever ask the next question: why is that, exactly? They will never ask why the US spent A BILLION DOLLARS on the Iraq Survey Group report in a desperate attempt to justify the war, but has spent zero dollars on finding out how many Iraqis have died.
The answer, of course, is that the political careers of people in the US government are worth something, while the lives of Iraqis are not.
I am becoming less funny every day.
Posted at October 28, 2004 04:31 PM | TrackBackNo, Jon, you are not becoming less funny every day. The world is. And you remain skimmingly funny right at the edges, where there's still room for it without being an idiot. So, hat's off to you.
Posted by: H.L. Feldman at October 28, 2004 11:21 PMThree thousand dead at WTC, one thousand plus military dead and let's not forget about the private contractors beheaded. 100,000 Iraqis who had nothing to do any of it, dead! This government is fucked!
Posted by: Thad Wiseheart at October 29, 2004 07:30 PMThat makes me feel a lot better to know only 10-20,000 people were killed for no reason.
Posted by: Thad Wiseheart at October 29, 2004 09:45 PM
