March 31, 2006

Jill Carroll released by captors. "It's important people know that I was not harmed," she said. (via Bookslut.) More from the Christian Science Monitor, Carroll's employer.
  • Gee, some good news from Iraq! Just what the right-wingers have been waiting for! Oh, wait. Nope. I was wrong. "She's probably coming home with a suitcase full of cash (her kickback) and a dose of the clap." "Is a kidnapping really a kidnapping if the "victim" goes willingly?" "I've been watching this traitor bitch fawn all over her captors this morning. "Nice furniture, safe, nice clothes, they NEVER threatened me". I'm very glad you were so comforatble while working to undermine our efforts in Iraq. Now, wipe that muslim DNA from your face and confess to pre-planning this? Was your translators death an accident? Too bad he didn't get to enjoy the nice furniture." "Dear Hustler, I never thought this could happen to me. I am a young girl and was travelling abroad for the first time when I met this wonderful Jihadi." Over at the other right-wing blogs, it's much of the same.
  • Wow that's beautiful. Also see.
  • Those LGF bastards reinforce my theory that conservativism is a mental disease. What kind of twisted fuck blames the victim?
  • I think it's a given that the more right-wing you get, the more you are inclined to treat women badly, fossilize your thoughts, become more prejudiced and unwilling to debate anything past level 1. Level 1 is where you say why you're right, and there is no level 2.
  • "It makes very clear that the mujahedeen are the ones that will win in the end," said Carroll. Very soon she'll be trashed in press. The Sheehanization will start within a week.
  • the more you are inclined to treat women badly Pete, the problem from the Little Green Footballers' point of view is that she won't denounce the "Islamofascists"* who kidnapped her; the fact that she is a woman is at the end of the day neither here nor there. She is, quite simply, an enemy. By the way, did you know Michael Moore is fat? *Expression denoting "I understand very little of Islam and still less of fascism".
  • Human shitstains.
  • Hooray for her and her family and her friends.
  • The tyniest bits of good news are a great event, coming from that clusterfuck where lives are shattered daily by the dozen. And those bastards don't deserve to be acknowledged.
  • What Flagpole said.
  • "And those bastards don't deserve to be acknowledged." I disagree. When the base of the right wing in this country shows its teeth, people need to see it.
  • Wow, I had no idea about LGF's political views! Thanks for this valuable information, waitingtoderail. Let's go over there and tell 'em what's what.
  • Aw shucks.
  • No, no don't link to 'em, you fool. That only encourages 'em.
  • I don't think she's being completely honest when she says she was treated well and never threatened. At the time she was taken her translator was murdered in front of her, and in the video her kidnappers released she was crying. I'm glad she's free, and she's remarkably composed, but I don't think we're getting the whole story yet. As for the freepers and lgfs, I think they're just manifesting their own mental illness. They have a great deal of misplaced anger, and they vent it politically. I think they enjoy the adrenaline rush of righteous indignation.
  • Firstly, I didn't hear her comments until today and they sound like someone who's been held hostage for three months. "Stockholm syndrome" I think is a term for something. the fact that she is a woman is at the end of the day neither here nor there I humbly disagree hometown - It is a fundamental, even unspoken-as-unnecessary tenet of conservative thought. Women are inferior.
  • Oh sorry Chy
  • Those LGF bastards reinforce my theory that conservativism is a mental disease. LGF commenters aren't conservatives, they're sociopaths. There's a big difference.
  • Yeah, not all sociopaths have low IQs.
  • I also seem to remember her crying and begging on a videotape for her life. That doesn't seem to me to be the actions of someone being "treated well", but yes I do think that Stockholm Syndrome may be a factor here, as well as maybe figuring that not cutting her head off was pretty good treatment considering what they might have done.
  • It’s nice she’s back. I don’t really see the debate here tho’. Whether they treated her nicely or badly (certainly it’s good that she wasn’t abused) she was kidnapped in the first place. Apparently because there are rumors that female detainees/prisoners of the U.S. forces are being abused. Whether that is true or not, that is in some quarters the perception. If the group that kidnapped Carroll is one of the groups that did it in opposition to that (and their demands certainly make that a possibility) they’d be complete hypocrites if they abused a woman. That’s generally speculation, but a reasonable interpretation of the situation based on the news I’ve seen. What is bizarre is how people with so little invested in the situation, allow their minds to be so clouded with hatred. Carroll’s POV the fact they didn’t harm her can be interpreted as a stronger moral position - given the context on the U.S. side: Abu Ghaib, Gitmo, etc. - plus the unsubstantiated rumors and whatever she’s been privvy to being on the ground. That doesn’t justify kidnapping someone however. And certainly the moral question is far more complex than the fact that although they kidnapped her they didn’t harm her. I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding in several quarters. This crazy hatred thing though - it’s not all right wingers. Just idiots trying to justify their views by pretending to be part of something that espouses a set of principles so they’re not seen as merely convictionless violent maniacs . (Indeed - how many of them serve or have served their country?) What is without question at least to my mind is that she’s free now and that is a good thing.
  • Smedleyman: Whilst I agree with your statement(above), I suspect being 'complete hypocrites' is only a small concern for these people. Perhaps the stink created by her decomposing interpreters body was a more pressing issue.
  • So is Don Imus's producer a sociopath too? "MCGUIRK: She’s carrying Zarqawi’s baby. No doubt about it. IMUS: Man, you are a such a, you’re a… MCGUIRK: Did you hear her comments yesterday? She’s wearing the terrorist headgear. And everything points to that. MCGUIRK: She’s Taliban Janie, this girl. Taliban Jill or whatever." Is Jonah Goldberg? "It's wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn't beaten or killed -- while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is -- I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days."
  • McGuirk is selling radio ads, Goldberg is an idiot.
  • How does that sell radio ads?
  • Idiots listen to it.
  • I posted Carroll's comment that she hadn't been harmed because I personally had been worried that she might be harmed, and I was glad she wasn't. I agree with the Stockholm Syndrome estimation (but really, who wouldn't?) The LGF posters are really... um... unspeakable jerks. Anyone making a stink over the fact that she's wearing hejab is neglecting to note that it's a smart thing for a woman to do in an Islamic country, and most female journalists do at least part of the time, simply for access and/or to avoid harrassment.
  • So, after reading Jill Carroll's statement, I hope those people spend their loveless, venom-filled lives in quiet from here on out.
  • YAAAAYYYY!!! Happy Endings: 1