Via y2karl of Metafilter: the ACLU learned of Koran desecration from Guantanamo Bay prisoners in 2002. However, as several international organizations step up to corroborate Newsweek’s retracted report, most news outlets are discussing the matter as if Newsweek’s article was completely fraudulent. The last time I saw it discussed, Laura Bush was calling it “irresponsible” from her airplane.

The Department of Justice is working on shutting down bitorrent. That’s right, because George Lucas hasn’t made enough money on the Empire Strikes Back.

A 15 year-old high school student in Colorado caught videotape of army recruiters “encouraging him to manufacture a fake high school diploma and accompanying him to a head shop to buy him a drug detox kit.” in order to enlist.

These people will stop at nothing! Nothing! For more on recruiter sliminess, check out today’s Doonesbury strip.

I’ve been keeping this under my hat for a bit, but Debt On sees its first print publication in the current issue of The Nth Degree, a publication of submitted short stories and artwork distributed at conventions. It will join such hilarious and well established cartoons as Bob the Angry Flower and Partially Clips. My thanks to the editors at Nth Degree! Hmm… guess this means I better get to work on some new material…

The Red Cross has confirmed the retracted Newsweek report alleging desecration of the Koran in Guantanamo Bay.

The New York Times reports leaked details from an Army investigation of a detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan. The report describes beatings, deprivation of sleep and water, inmates being chained to the ceiling and dying in captivity. The clincher is “many of the Bagram interrogators, led by the same operations officer, Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, were redeployed to Iraq and in July 2003 took charge of interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison.”

Finally, a British tabloid has obtained these photos of Saddam Hussein. No word yet whether the Army plans to produce these as pinup shots to raise money for military spending. Next up: Kim Jong Il in a speedo.

I was excited to find the Wikipedia entry on my old school, Simon’s Rock College, and even more excited that whoever wrote it got all the facts right. Too often people (particularly if they went to Bard) think that the school was invented by the odious Leon Botstein, who pushed the philosophy of the school in books, talk shows and even in the New York Times. Not so, as the article points out. It was formed in the sixties as an all girls school and its policy of exclusive early admissions was intact then.

I even learned a few things from the article, like that a fellow alumnus is the creator of the awsome comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, Alison Bechdel. They also mentioned MoveOn.org director Eli Pariser, who I really wish would stop sending me email.

That is how the New York Times quoted State Department spokesman Richard Boucher regarding the recent Newsweek story that the Koran had been desecrated by guards at Guantanamo Bay. The report resulted in anti-American riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the report has since been retracted.

However, it is incredible to me that anyone can say that the United States has shown the “utmost respect for [the] religion” of their Muslim prisoners with a straight face. In my rudimentary understanding of Islam, I have been led to believe that their religion, which often emphasizes modesty and is not friendly to homosexuality, is not being respected if: a)Their picture is taken naked. b) They are placed in sexual positions with individuals of the same sex. c) They are led around naked by a leash.

Imagine if naked pictures in sexual positions with others of the same sex had been taken of Christian prisoners in the midwest or deep south, where their religion apparently expressly forbids homosexuality. They would cry and scream that their religion was not being respected, that their rights were being deprived them. The captors would be shocked. “How can you say that?” they’d ask. “We’ve never desecrated a Bible!”

NEW YORK May 11, 2005 — Comedy Central star Dave Chappelle has checked himself into a mental health facility in South Africa, the magazine Entertainment Weekly reported on Wednesday.

The comedian’s whereabouts and condition have been unknown since Comedy Central abruptly announced last week that the planned May 31 launch of the third season of “Chappelle’s Show” had been postponed and production halted.

Chappelle flew from Newark, N.J., to South Africa on April 28 for treatment, said the magazine, quoting a source close to the show it would not identify. Entertainment Weekly said it had corroborating sources for its story.

Get well, Dave.

All those people off looking for it in the Middle East are sorely misled, anyone who can read a map knows that Zion is located in the south of Utah, just off I-15. But I guess it’s best we keep it under our hats. I could do without Israeli settlers in the U.S.

Got the RSS feed up and running, so if you have Firefox you should be able to create a live bookmark, or if you have your own reader just click on the handy picture and subscribe to Debt On!