Superimposition

h/t Mish
 

h/t Scott Lemieux @ Lawyers, Guns & Money

Really? That's The Image You Want to Go With, Huh?

If there was any discussion, it might have gone something like this:

Are you sure this is the look you want for your training program? I realize that the on-line market for students is - well ... distinct from shall we say traditional avenues of appeal, but --

No, no. I don't mean to suggest that there's anything necessarily wrong with this young woman's appearance ... it's just ... the leopard print seems a bit suggestive ... on at least a few levels. Along with the hoop earrings and the general exotic and fairly erotic over-the-shoulder come-hither ...

Yes, of course I realize advertising is all about seduction but ... my problem?

Well, sir. I'm not sure if we're targeting young, middle-eastern women or sexually adventurous western males ... no. Of course there's no reason we can't market to a variety of potential demographics at the same time. I see your point, sir. Yes. Of course.

We'll have it on-line in our next ad-buy. Thank you, sir.

The Under-handed Matter

“We can’t possibly kill everyone who wants to harm us,” a senior administration official said. “It’s a necessary part of what we do. . . . We’re not going to wind up in 10 years in a world of everybody holding hands and saying, ‘We love America.’ ”

That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism. Targeting lists that were regarded as finite emergency measures after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now fixtures of the national security apparatus. The rosters expand and contract with the pace of drone strikes but never go to zero.

Meanwhile, a significant milestone looms: The number of militants and civilians killed in the drone campaign over the past 10 years will soon exceed 3,000 by certain estimates, surpassing the number of people al-Qaeda killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Obama administration has touted its successes against the terrorist network, including the death of Osama bin Laden, as signature achievements that argue for President Obama’s reelection. The administration has taken tentative steps toward greater transparency, formally acknowledging for the first time the United States’ use of armed drones.

Less visible is the extent to which Obama has institutionalized the highly classified practice of targeted killing, transforming ad-hoc elements into a counterterrorism infrastructure capable of sustaining a seemingly permanent war. Spokesmen for the White House, the National Counterterrorism Center, the CIA and other agencies declined to comment on the matrix or other counterterrorism programs.

Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists By Greg Miller @ Washington Post

emphasis is mine
h/t sosadmin @ PRIVACYSOS via Falguni A. Sheth @ Translation Exercises

Facts of the Matter at Hand

"You Don't Own Me" PSA from You Don't Own Me on Vimeo.

h/t Juan @ Informed Comment

“Piercing” Objectivity

What about the other others? What about the poor people who dove under their beds, or hid behind the goat cart, or just ran until their hearts burst when they heard the detonation? What about the people hiding behind rocks that, to them, are substantially less solid and real than the blind explosive death from the sky? What about the other others tomorrow, as they walk to work, cutting their eyes toward the clouds, jumping every time an old car backfires? How can a society — even an impoverished one — hold itself together full in the knowledge that life and death is at the whim of someone at a distant targeting station, even more remote from the actual war he's fighting than the gods on Olympus were removed from Troy, since they occasionally at least visited the battlefield?

The Lethal Presidency Has Become an Everyday War by Charles P. Pierce

Social (Media) Disease

Wow. Really, just ... wow.

The Violentacrez clan seems to have walked out of a Todd Solondz movie, and a significant part of Violentacrez's mythos on Reddit comes from the details he's shared about his family. In 2010, Violentacrez hosted a legendary "Ask Me Anything" thread"—the same Q & A feature Barack Obama took part in last month. He was asked what was the creepiest thing he'd done "IRL" and delighted readers with a tale ripped out of Penthouse letters. "That'd be a tough call," Violentacrez wrote, "Perhaps oral sex with my 19-year-old stepdaughter." It was completely consensual, he claimed in the post, and went on to brag about how awesome it had been in graphic detail.

This happened over ten years ago, Violentacrez claimed. When his then-wife, the girl's mother, found out, she "got mad, then got over it," Violentacrez wrote. He says they were married for ten more years.

His current wife is similarly accepting of Brutsch's unsavory side, according to Brutsch. She is not only aware of his online habits, she's also a prolific Redditor under the handle not_so_violentacrez. She is a founder of the Fibromyalgia subreddit. She has diabetes and plays the online game Kingdom of Camelot. Violentacrez said that at home, the two would lie in bed together with their laptops, both on Reddit, him posting his porn, she posting cute animal videos and pictures of dolphins.

Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web by Adrian Chen @ Gawker

h/t Jill @ Feministe