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Click image for full Garry Trudeau/Doonesbury cartoon.

When is a mosque not a mosque?

Factcheck.org has "debunked" the presence of a mosque in the Pentagon. Muslims pray there, all right, they just do so in a non-denominational "chapel." Well, that does make it sound like something that's comfortably little-c christian, doesn't it? Of course, the ground zero mosque (which is not at ground zero) has also claimed not to be a mosque, rather to be a community center.

The key fact that Factcheck.org raises but fails to compare to rightwing hysteria over Cordoba/Park51 is that Muslims are praying in the exact portion of the Pentagon that had to be reconstructed after the 9/11 attack there. All of them must be triumphalists who are praying for the caliphate to wash infidel America off the face of the earth. Obviously.

Hey, I bet Maj. Nidal Hasan prayed there for the strength to achieve murder in his jihad at Ft. Hood! Call Fox. Let's crank this up. Oh, you mean the Bush administration set this up? Ssssh!

See also Mosqued bawl.

Practical consequences of torture

Suicide bombers. Jihadis. More terrorism.

Former VP Dick Cheney has requested the release of additional memos showing that torture and abuse saved American lives by preventing terrorist attacks. If the Obama Administration decides to release these memos, then I suggest they also release statistics from Iraq showing the number of foreign fighters that were recruited because of our policy of torture and abuse. It was tracked. I know because I saw the slides and because I heard captured foreign fighters state this day in and day out.

H/t Tom, and go read his piece, too:

There is much more to the history of English legal theories of torture, but the point of this lightning fast gloss is simply to reinforce what should be obvious: the opinions of the Bush “Justice” (sic) department were nothing more than words in the form of law whose sole purpose was to provide cover for what any competent lawyer would have had to recognize as crimes.

Blood from a coprolite

The best aspect of the torture of Abu Zubayda is that he is actually an enemy of America. After that, there's not much that's good.

Before torture, he gave up many names in al Qaeda. After he ran out, the Bushists began to hurt him, and all they got was blood from a coprolite.

Once they tortured this jerk, he sent them around the world at a cost of millions chasing bullshit.

Once they tortured him, they lost any valid use of his testimony against others.

The Bushists hurt him because they had him and they could. They broke him - everyone breaks. They got nothing out of him through torture.

Duhbya and Darth are enemies of the Constitution and the rule of law and thus also enemies of America. You don't see me advocating torture for them. But justice? Yes!

72 virgins

Trying to update my earlier post with the actual link to Youtube, I haven't found the clip I was looking for. But the 72 virgins concept has been worked over to great effect, and the whole (non-jihadi) world can always use a laugh irrespective of politics. Enjoy:

• Hierarchy of jihadi sexual needs
• Country music homage to orgies in heaven
• Amateur night, hope for all of us
  
• The joy of ... servicing a martyr

Personally - and, sorrrrrry, I know this is sacrilegious - if I were a Muslim woman, and I read about the jihadi's virgins, there is no way I would die with my hymen intact. Not exactly what the jihadis were looking for in their misogynistic world...