memes

Thanks to Billman
On Iran's "Nu-cu-lear" ambitions

..."the scary-sounding "16 days" meme has been successfully inserted into the lizard-like brainstem of the corporate media, and will soon be sledgehammered into the consciousness of the American people through the force of brute repetition.
Clearly, the maestros who craft these propaganda campaigns understand well that the power of a narrative is in the specifics -- 16 days, 45 minutes, 25,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX gases.

This is just good, solid storytelling. Or to put it another way: If you're going to lie, be concrete. "
- billmon

Even by the corrupt and debased standards of our times, this is a remarkable thing. The U.S. government is planning aggressive nuclear war (the neocons can give it whatever doublespeak name they like, but it is what it is); those plans have been described in some detail in a major magazine and on the front page of the Washington Post; the most the President of the United States is willing to say about it is that the reports are "speculative" (which is not a synonym for "untrue") and yet as I write these words the lead story on the CNN web site is:
ABC pushes online TV envelope
ABC is going to offer online streams of some of its most popular television shows, including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," for free the day after they first air on broadcast TV. It appears our long national journey towards complete idiocy is over. We've arrived.
- billmon