As the kids these days say that is an epic fail.

Much is made of G.I. hardships in “The Hurt Locker.” Their days are a
kinetic nightmare of uncertainty. Iraqis they interact with are all
referred to as “hadjis,” whose next cell phone call might detonate a
bomb. Drunkenness, video games, and writhing in self-pity fill the
non-working hours. The only thing more grinding and disturbing than
service in Iraq is life at home upon return. Spouses just don’t
understand. After a trip to a grocery store, Staff Sergeant James finds
he cannot wait to volunteer for another tour.

From another review …

I would only add a couple of my own complaints. In one scene the American bomb defusing expert, one Sergeant James, scours an abandoned bomb factory, where he discovers a dead Iraqi boy who has been booby-trapped. In keeping with the sensationalist approach of director Kathryn Bigelow, James uses his knife to surgically remove the bomb. To add to the melodrama, the boy is assumed to be a street kid that Sergeant James has befriended, a DVD peddler who calls himself Beckham after the soccer superstar.

Now there have been few reports of booby-trapped corpses in Iraq, but those have exclusively involved occupation forces, either military or civilian like truck drivers. The idea that Sunni insurgents would defile the corpse of a Muslim, even if it belonged to a Shi’ite is unbelievable. As deeply religious rebels, they were and are obviously constrained by their beliefs. The Muslim religion dictates a rapid burial and not the use of a dead believer’s body for a weapon. Suicide bombing, of course, is an entirely different matter that while not exactly sanctioned by the religion is not in open defiance of its strictures, at least as interpreted by its Imams, which is all that matters in the final analysis.

And from yet another review ..

The Hurt Locker, despite claims about its “apolitical” or “non-partisan” character, proves in its own unsavory fashion to be a pro-war and pro-imperialist film. Far from offering a compassionate view of inner-city African-American life in America, Precious wallows in social backwardness, which it blames on the oppressed themselves. Quentin Tarantino’s repulsive Inglourious Basterds postures as an “anti-Nazi” film, but offers its own brand of porno-sadism, which has more than a whiff of fascism about it.

Do your research categuy00 before making rhetorical demands

Deadbeat: 1 catguy:00

“Rendition”, “In the Valley of Elah”, “Lions for Lambs”, “Redacted”, “Stop-Loss”

Pro-Iraq war movies? 0

‘The psychopathic is applauded across popular, corporate culture, from the TV death watch of a man choosing a firing squad over lethal injection to the Oscar winning Hurt Locker and a new acclaimed war documentary Restrepo. Directors of both films deny and dignify the violence of invasion as “apolitical”. And yet behind the cartoon facade is serious purpose. The US is engaged militarily in 75 countries. There are some 900 US military bases across the world, many at the gateways to the sources of fossil fuels.’

http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/the-charge-of-the-media-brigade

“Bulworth” explains it pretty well in this clip, especially at the end.

[http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/31139165]

(Note to zionist spambots: you will need to select a birthdate that shows you are old enough to view the clip, is your programming sophisticated enough to do this?)

“But look how our soldiers have suffered, sending them in unprepared to these foreign hellholes” where the people are portrayed as lesser life forms to be killed, dominated and protected from their own ideas.

Jewish zionists make goebbels seem honourable, open minded and truthful.

Dear Friends,

Veteran journalist Helen Thomas is under attack again. The ADL* took away her job; now it wants to take away her honorary degrees. Let’s turn the tables on them!

ADL Director Abe Foxman recently called the 90-year old former senior White House correspondent a “vulgar anti-Semite,” referred to her comments as “crude,” and called on schools and professional organizations that have honored Thomas over the years to rescind those honors.

Shortly afterward Thomas’s alma mater, Wayne State University, announced that it will no longer give out the “Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media Award.” Others are expected to follow suit.

The attacks on Thomas began in June when a rabbi posted a Youtube video of Thomas taken without her knowledge, followed by sensationalized and inaccurate media reports pushed by former Bush White House PR director Ari Fleischer, an Israel partisan unhappy with Thomas’s tough questions.

The media assault was eagerly taken up by journalists happy to kick a reporter whose integrity and competence surpassed their own once she was down and easy prey. Many, perhaps most, were Israel partisans.

We think it’s important to stand by Helen Thomas. We also think this is an opportunity to reach Americans whose curiosity is now piqued by all the controversy.

Therefore, we have created a hand-out for people (see below) to distribute on campuses and in communities around the country. This brochure explains the validity of Thomas’s videotaped remarks and gives the powerful context about Palestine omitted by mainstream media accounts – the transformative facts that the ADL does not want Americans to know.

Several years ago If Americans Knew received a death threat. Instead of intimidating us, this caused us to work even harder and become ever more effective.

We can now all do the same with Helen Thomas. We can show the ADL that rather than destroying her and intimidating others, their attacks have provided a platform whereby even more Americans are learning the facts!

Because a generous, committed donor is subsidizing this project, we are making these available at a cost anyone can afford – just a nickel apiece! We are providing them in batches of 10, and hope that most people will order 50 or above!

The idea is to give these out as widely as possible – on campuses, at events, in libraries and cafes. Give them to colleagues and neighbors, at book discussion groups and World Affairs Councils.

Together, we can stand by Helen Thomas and give Americans the truth.

Best wishes,

The If Americans Knew Team

Jason Ditz On December 10, 2010 @ 6:13 p .m.

The House of Representatives earlier this week approved a significant increase in the level of military aid to Israel, pushing the level to $3 billion in flat military aid, with an additional $205 million set aside for a short range rocket system.

Both of the increases were already planned as part of a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel, but were formally approved as part of the 212-206 vote in the House on Wednesday.

Rep. Steve Rothman (D – NJ) said the increase in aid to Israel “sends a strong message to both our enemies and allies,” but also comes at a time when the US has only just abandoned the Israeli peace process over its inability to convince Israel to agree to even a short term freeze.

The failure of the peace talks has led a number of Western nations to react negatively to Israel’s settlement expansions, but it appears that, for the US, the peace process was never more than a side story and remains irrelevant to the question of heavily arming the nation.

news.antiwar.com/2010/12/10/house-approves-major-increase-in-israeli-military-aid/

State funded religious schools? That doesn’t sit right.

Government to pay for security guards at Jewish schools

The government is to pick up the cost of providing security guards at Jewish faith schools in England amid concerns about anti-semitic threats to pupils.

At the moment, parents of children at 39 state-funded Jewish schools in England pay £1.6m towards the cost of enhanced measures like security guards.

Ministers have decided to foot the bill to ensure children and staff “feel safe” and can concentrate on studying.

They say they will look at the case for similar help for other faith schools.
At the moment, all state schools get funding to provide basic security measures such as perimeter fences, gates and CCTV. However, ministers have decided it is unreasonable for parents at Jewish schools to continue paying for extra measures, such as security personnel, given the particular threats the institutions face.

Security threat “Faith schools make a fantastic contribution to our education system and none more so than Jewish faith schools,” Education Secretary Michael Gove said.

“Children and staff at these schools should feel safe at school and able to learn in an environment free from any anti-semitic or racist threats.”

The schools will receive £650,000 in funds straight away and up to £2m a year based on assessment of their needs. The funds will be administered by the Community Security Trust, which helps protect Jewish communities and synagogues and draw attention to anti-semitic violence.

Its research suggests there were about 920 anti-semitic incidents in 2009, the highest total since 1984, and 124 violent attacks – 41% up on the year before.

The Trust said not all schools, the bulk of which are located in London, would receive the same amount of funding and resources would be allocated “efficiently and according to need”.

“The Trust is grateful to the secretary of state for recognising the importance of security provision at state-funded Jewish schools and for the time he and his department have spent assessing the problem and constructing a viable solution,” its chief executive Richard Benson said.
The Department for Education said other faith schools – including Islamic schools – should make representations if they felt they were at particular risk and deserved similar support.

“We made approaches and none of the groups came back and said yes we do,” a spokesman said.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11960291

PS In the record for2009 on the CST website, it says:
‘The unprecedented rise in the number of antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2009 occurred largely because of the extreme reactions to the trigger event of the Gaza conflict. In 2006, Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon saw the largest previous such ‘spike’ in antisemitic incidents, when 134 incidents were recorded in the UK during the 34 days of fighting’

Cause and effect then.

Note the use of the word ‘conflict’ to describe the massacre of the people in Gaza.

The CST is a charity but nobody knows how it is funded as it has been given special exemption from making public reports to the Charity Commission.

Gove is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel and of the right wing Henry Jackson Society. Enough said.