Free At Last

I have a very specific nausea reflex when it comes to acts of violence. Like most Americans my age, I'm not generally affected by depictions of violence in film, TV or videogames (although the more graphic the depiction, the less sanguine I remain; the data about such depictions desensitizing test subjects to acts of real-life violence are increasingly conclusive). I'm swiftly moved to the point of physical illness, however, by depictions of violence done to innocents, whether real-life or fictional. I can't bear to stay in the room, for example, while my wife cheerfully digests the true-crime docudrama cable shows produced by Bill Kurtis and his ilk; I know many women, particularly, derive from such programs a sense of vicarious triumph over the understandable anxieties that dog them any time they hear footsteps in a parking garage, and they're welcome to it, but I can hardly stomach the recounting of the cold-blooded slaughter of innocent people, much less the re-enacting of it. (Hell, I got sick once when I accidentally caught the cold opening of a "Law & Order" episode in which two college students using an out-of-town parent's apartment for a little nookie were walked in on by thieves and then methodically blown away, despite tearful pleas for mercy. It may not surprise you to learn I'm not a fan of the show.) This reaction doesn't disturb me; on the contrary, I find my visceral response to such things a welcome confirmation of my own persistent humanity.

All of that is to say that few things sicken me more than when terrorists kidnap innocent people, particularly aid workers or journalists who are there to help non-combatants and get their stories out to the world unfiltered by the military, paramilitary or government powers-that-be. If there's a clearer-cut category of self-defeating evildoing than threatening to take the life of a person not only with whom one has no quarrel, but who is actively trying to do something that aids one's own supposed cause, I can't imagine what it is. I am, for a number of reasons, in foursquare opposition to our misadventures in Iraq, but when I hear of a hostage being beheaded on camera with a knife, for God's sake - no matter who they are: military, contractor, U.N. worker, whatever - my reasoned opposition is sorely, sorely tested. Such acts are not, sad to say, inhuman in the strict sense, but they are acute reminders that the purveyors of "intelligent design" and such nonsense are demonstrably full of crap. We are descended from animals; of that, there is no doubt.

And so today I'm literally overcome with flushed, tangible relief. I rejoice, as I'm sure every person with a beating heart does, to hear that Jill Carroll is a free woman. She says that her captors, though they publicly threatened to take her life on several occasions, treated her well and subjected her to no acts of physical violence at all (although the emotional trauma of her ordeal can only be massive). If that is indeed the case, I am profoundly grateful.

I am not a religious man, but at times like this I often wish I were, if only so I might thank the providence which allowed this mercy to come to pass. I have been sick for three months over Jill Carroll's predicament. Today I am, as my homegirls Emily and Amy would say, a little bit closer to fine.

Welcome home, Ms. Carroll.

jill carroll
Politics
Iraq

Take That, Howie!

You know, Howard Kurtz used to seem like a reasonable guy, but this Domenech debacle over at Washingtonpost.com has got his moral compass all discombobulated. So imagine my joy to see, via Crooks and Liars, his recent forays into Dittoheadedness utterly refuted - by a plucky young journalist whose passion and righteous indignation had me leaping to my feet like a midnight showing of Norma Rae on TNT. I do believe I've got me a wee crush on Lara Logan. (I assume my wife will forgive me; she's currently swooning over the fellow that plays the "Night Detective" on BBC America. Fair's fair.)

The cause of my infatuation is not merely Ms. Logan's pulchritude, although that is considerable. It's that she clearly takes great pride in her job and has had it up to her cargo vest with right-wing macaws repeating, ad nauseam, the craven falsehood that the problem with Iraq lies not with our war, dear reader, but with the coverage of it. As if sixty people a day weren't dying in that country in the civil conflict they placidly deny exists. Now that my family's got a member serving in our American armed forces in Baghdad (and a shout out to you, Funky, if you're reading), my patience for such outright butchery of the truth is running somewhat short. So is Ms. Logan's, thank goodness - and in the linked clip, from Kurtz's Reliable Sources show on CNN, she demonstrates herself to be a most reliable source indeed.

Of South African birth and sporting an impressive resumé, Ms. Logan lets loose a controlled yet appropriately passionate defense of herself and her colleagues that leaves Mr. Kurtz practically speechless (to be fair, the effect is abetted by a five second time delay, as Ms. Logan is speaking via satellite from a Baghdad rooftop). Wish we made 'em like her in America. (And yes, I'm looking at you, Laurie Dhue, my erstwhile classmate and Jessica Savitch-manqué, who hath leaped from the dubious frying pan of Fox News updates into the pathetic fire of Geraldo at Large; hope it's all been worth losing your soul over, Laurie).

Politics