Patterico's Pontifications

10/4/2006

Rick Ellensburg: The Master of Innuendo

Filed under: General,Scum — Patterico @ 6:21 pm



When we last checked in on “Mr. Civility” Rick Ellensburg, he was falsely accusing my guest blogger of having stalked his ex-girlfriend.

Today we learn that Ellensburg doesn’t seem to like Rush Limbaugh:

If the term “moral degenerate” has any validity and can be fairly applied to anyone, there are few people who merit that term more than Rush Limbaugh. He is the living and breathing embodiment of moral degeneracy, with his countless overlapping sexual affairs, his series of shattered, dissolved marriages, his hedonistic and illegal drug abuse, his jaunts, with fistfulls of Viagra (but no wife), to an impoverished Latin American island renowned for its easy access to underage female prostitutes.

Ah. So innuendo is the game, is it?

If we’re talking prostitution, I note that, according to Wikipedia, “Street-based sex work is illegal all over the world except for Brazil, New South Wales, and New Zealand . . .”

If we’re talking sex tourism: “Popular national destinations for sex tourists includes: Germany, The Netherlands, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Cuba, Thailand and Cambodia.”

One country keeps popping up: Brazil. Apparently, if you’re interested in both legal prostitution and sex tourism, one country fits the bill: Brazil — where, perhaps not coincidentally, one Glenn Greenwald spends a good part of each year.

Was the preceding a conglomeration of baseless insinuation? Well, sure! But it’s about as reality-based as his innuendo-filled diatribe against Rush Limbaugh — in a post most of his commenters consider brilliant!

Steve Lopez: Keeping the Foley Meme Alive

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:23 am



The L.A. Times‘s Steve Lopez compares Hastert to Roger Mahony, and uses an expert to suggest that the disgusting IM’s were known to Hastert:

“First there’s the minimizing,” says David Clohessy, another victims advocate who was struck by the similarities between church and state. “By that I mean defining sexual messages as ‘overly friendly.’

But no such thing has happened.

To repeat: there were “overly friendly” e-mails, and instant messages with sexual filth. Hastert and Co. knew about the former, which arguably should have triggered a better investigation — but not the latter, which would have been sufficient to get rid of the guy instantly.

Yet Lopez has his expert equate the two, even though another article in the same paper says the e-mails were not “sexual”:

He charged that the speaker and others were not aggressive enough late last year in the pursuing a complaint about the e-mails Foley sent a former male page, which the leaders recently characterized as “overly friendly.”

The e-mails were not sexually suggestive . . .

This is at least the second time that the paper has quoted someone who conflates the explicit instant messages with the less disturbing e-mails.

But Lopez didn’t say it — an expert did. That makes it okay, right?

Patterico’s Exclusive Interview with a Man Who Has Spoken to the Terrorists at Guantánamo (Part Three: Hunger Strikes, Suicides and Suicide Attempts, and the Detainees’ Mental Health)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:03 am



[This is Part Three of my exclusive interview with “Stashiu,” an Army nurse who worked at Guantánamo, and who spoke on a regular basis with detainees with psychological and/or behavioral problems. Part One can be accessed here. Part Two is available here.

Once again, these are his opinions and experiences, and are not meant to represent anything or anyone else, including the U.S. Army. Nearly everything has been officially released and those parts that are personal experience have been careful to respect operational security and confidentiality.

In today’s entry, Stashiu talks about the hunger strikes at GTMO, and the suicide attempts — both successful and unsuccessful. He gives insight into the mental health of the detainees.]

Anyone who has read about Guantánamo knows that detainees have often attempted suicide — and earlier this year, three of them succeeded.

Stashiu is able to shed considerable light on the issue of the detainees’ mental health. Based on his experience with the detainees, his opinion is that their suicides were likely an organized political act. Below, he explains the reasoning for his opinion.

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