fahrenheit 451
from the editorial review of fahrenheit 451 ( through amazon )

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.

from arabnews, this, ( through the dailykos )

It was the final chapter in the sack of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives — a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents including the old royal archives of Iraq — were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the Islamic Library of Qur’ans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze.

and this from rush limbaugh's ridiculous and inane defense,

If anything, the Iraqis have engaged in "targeted looting," taking back what the Baath Party and other Saddam thugs have stolen from them in the past three decades.

i'm actually starting to feel sorry for the american public, is the regard for their intelligence so lost on commentators like limbaugh?
the straits times of singapore had this in an article by maureen dowd of the new york times, my emphasis,

The coalition forces were guarding the Iraqi Oil Ministry building while hundreds of Iraqis ran off with precious heirlooms and artefacts from a 7,000-year-old civilisation. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blew off the repeated requests of scholars and archaeologists that the soldiers protect Iraqi history in the museum as zealously as they protected Iraqi wealth in the oil wells.

Mr Rumsfeld made it clear on Tuesday that he was not too worried about a few old pots. He said it was 'a stretch' to attribute the looting of the museum to 'a defect' in the war plan.

'We've seen looting in this country,' he said at the Pentagon briefing. 'We've seen riots at soccer games at various countries around the world... To the extent it happens in a war zone, it's difficult to stop.'
[.....]Even when they had the museum as an awful example, the war planners let more of Iraq's priceless intellectual history be destroyed, as looters and arsonists gutted the National Library on Monday.

riots at soccer games, yeah that explains it all, thanks rummy.
posted by ubaid - Wednesday, April 16, 2003 at 9:28 PM - 0 comments - post anonymously