New at Reason

March 12, 2007

Jeff Taylor likes his Jihadi propaganda without Congressional censorship, thank you very much.

Comments

Guy Montag|3.12.07 @ 7:36AM|#

is there a pro-terrorism caucus?

Yes and they voted Nanci Pelosi as their leader.

That aside, this YouTube measure (if it could even be called that) is just silly.

edna|3.12.07 @ 7:47AM|#

what about the children?

ah, well, one more way for an obscure back-bencher from the minority party to get his name in the papers.

|3.12.07 @ 7:47AM|#

There is indeed a battle of ideas going on, and the world's leader in ideas and information will be the country with the freest possible flow of ideas and information.

Call me crazy, but I think that the US is in a much stronger position for that battle than, say, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or North Korea. Something to do with that whole "free press" thing.

I may disagree with what somebody says, but I'll always defend his right to air his views in an open forum so I can show just how absofrickinlutely wrong he is.

Sandy|3.12.07 @ 8:03AM|#

Hawkwind will be playing at this year's NEARFest. Unfortunately, so will Magma.

|3.12.07 @ 9:10AM|#

Now, what if a Congressman isn't anti-terrorism, but he represents a district where a lot of his constituents are anti-terrorism? Would he be allowed to join the House Anti-Terrorism Caucus?

Sandy|3.12.07 @ 9:22AM|#

I dunno about you, joe, but I can't wait to get blown up by a terrorist. I love it. That's why I oppose the Bush administration.

Oooh, I hope they use something nucular.

Guy Montag|3.12.07 @ 9:35AM|#

Oooh, I hope they use something nucular.

Please leave Jimmy Carter out of this. He is busy trying to destroy Israel.

|3.12.07 @ 9:48AM|#

Nucular terrorism is just too technocratic and western.

I personally hope to acquire an heirloom strain of anthrax, derived from real third-world sheep.

I like my widespread slaughter have an air of authenticity about it. Atta was a sell-out.

Sandy|3.12.07 @ 9:56AM|#

But nucular terrorism is very progressive. You're clearly one of those bare-foot-doctor leftists, joe, who wouldn't want to see them advance to nucular status.

That's why I oppose the Bush administration's incredibly effective plan to prevent my friends in the Axis of Evil from acquiring nucular capabilities.

|3.12.07 @ 9:57AM|#

This facetious exchange brings up an interesting question: How do eco-terrorists justify the CO2 released by their explosions?

|3.12.07 @ 10:01AM|#

Sandy,

I'd be happy to see al Qaeda produce an authentically Wahabbist nucular weapon. Truly, nothing would make me happier.

But for them to pursue an imperialist, white man's version of a nucular weapon, while it would certainly allow them to achieve the fondest desires of every progressive - widespread murder and the expansion of a medieval theocratic ideology - I'm afraid it would come at the loss of their cultural identify.

Sometimes there are competing ideals. Let's just say that this is a subject reasonable people can disagree on.

Guy Montag|3.12.07 @ 10:04AM|#

How do eco-terrorists justify the CO2 released by their explosions?

'It is for the greater good.'

Much older version:
'You must break a few eggs to make an omlet.'

Plenty of others that I am just not remembering on this unplanned day off.

|3.12.07 @ 10:05AM|#

What's really sad is that somebody will no doubt show up and think that joe and Sandy are serious.

Guy Montag|3.12.07 @ 10:09AM|#

What's really sad is that somebody will no doubt show up and think that joe and Sandy are serious.

Yea, but it makes for great entertainment :)

|3.12.07 @ 10:10AM|#

thoreau,

I'm sure some warblogger will manage to form an argument about Jeff Taylor's, and all libertarians', anti-American, pro-terrorist leanings from this comment thread.

My goodness, did you see what Reason's blog says?

Sandy|3.12.07 @ 10:22AM|#

OK, joe, I'll agree to disagree. At least we agree that the important thing is for us to get killed real good and for sharia to be imposed on the survivors. But Nancy Pelosi specifically told me she was working to have that done, and she was trying on the new line of Burkas at Filene's Basement on Connecticut Avenue.

|3.12.07 @ 10:37AM|#

"Just because jihadist propaganda is out there does not mean anyone is watching."

But we do watch.

And giggle.

|3.12.07 @ 10:38AM|#

"- "The war against Islamic radicalism is both a shooting war and a battle of ideology. Our enemies understand that they cannot defeat us face to face on the battleground, so they have created a new battlefield on the Internet," Shuster said in a press release. -"

Those who were not clever enough to get themselves into Gitmo in order to commit suicide, that is. That asymmetrical warfare stuff is tricky.

|3.12.07 @ 10:38AM|#

Figures a capitalist stooge like Pelosi would buy her burka from a chain store. Does that woman's western decadence know no bounds?

|3.12.07 @ 10:49AM|#

Worse, directing vid sites to cut off access to propaganda - of any kind - will merely drive extreme messages underground, making it harder for open-source intelligence analysis to find them, understand them, and disarm them.

Somehow, I don't doubt that our national intelligence services are sitting around and watching YouTube all day.

Sandy|3.12.07 @ 10:50AM|#

I think she said something like, "There's no shame in being poor, only dressing like it."

|3.12.07 @ 11:00AM|#

This facetious exchange brings up an interesting question: How do eco-terrorists justify the CO2 released by their explosions?

Hypocritically?

|3.12.07 @ 11:28AM|#

One pedantic point: Many of the jihadist videos are very slickly produced and are of a quality as good or better than what you might see on CNN. Lot of these guys have someone who attended video production classes at Al Jazeera, not that Al Jazeera knew that they were jihadists or cared one way or the other.

I don't think that it affects Taylor's point about daylight disinfectant, but it is important that these videos not be dismissed as the work of incompetent camcordists cowering in a cave.

|3.12.07 @ 11:40AM|#

If they are producing slick videos then it is all the more important that people critique and challenge them.

|3.12.07 @ 12:02PM|#

How do eco-terrorists justify the CO2 released by their explosions?

There's a joke in here somewhere about vegetarians and methane.

|3.12.07 @ 1:45PM|#

Now, if al-Qaeda started a free porn site, with the porn videos interlaced with subliminal jihadist propaganda, THAT might pose a threat.

But, luckily, so far they haven't been taking my good advice.

|3.12.07 @ 1:49PM|#

crimethink: I would make a joke about 72 virgins, but there are no virgins in porn. Those chicks who say it's their first time on camera have already said the same thing on the last nine sites they were on. Sorry, I'm just totally disillusioned with net porn right now.

|3.12.07 @ 2:27PM|#

Those al Qaida guys might have a serious competitive advantage if they decide to get into the snuff porn business.

edna|3.12.07 @ 3:08PM|#

If they are producing slick videos then it is all the more important that people critique and challenge them.

i swear, if you weren't so ugly, i'd kiss you. and what a nice idea for an investigative journalism piece: what role do al-jazeera and al-arabiya play in the production of these videos? inquiring minds want to know.

trying to censor this stuff is absolutely the stupidest possible reaction. so, of course, that's what congress will try to do...

|3.12.07 @ 4:03PM|#

i swear, if you weren't so ugly, i'd kiss you.

Well, my wife doesn't think I'm ugly. But that just points to a whole other obstacle precluding any sort of kiss.

edna|3.12.07 @ 5:29PM|#

chaste, thoreau, chaste, in the manner of the french air kiss. you've been hanging around too many optics guys.

mediageek|3.12.07 @ 6:07PM|#

"This facetious exchange brings up an interesting question: How do eco-terrorists justify the CO2 released by their explosions?"

They trade Birkenstocks and granola bars for carbon offsets.

*runs for cover*

Guy Montag|3.12.07 @ 8:39PM|#

One pedantic point: Many of the jihadist videos are very slickly produced and are of a quality as good or better than what you might see on CNN.

Perhaps that is not an accident?

|3.12.07 @ 10:41PM|#

From what I've heard about the far left, there's probably a schism between the ones who buy offsets, the ones who buy offsets at a "fair trade" price, and the ones who think that the offsets are way too corporate and instead make their explosives from biodiesel derivatives.

|3.13.07 @ 3:58AM|#

I prefer Jihadi propaganda to the insipid propaganda the U.S. military turns out. How about the Juba sniper videos, or the Dirty Kuffar video clip from a couple of years back. Visceral, thrilling stuff.