There's an old piece of gulag humour from Russia: A man walks down the street one night yelling "Stalin is a swine!" Naturally, he's arrested, and this being Russia, sentenced to hard labour. He gets one day for disturbing the peace - and thirty years for revealing a state secret.
The joke has a modern US equivalent: a major newspaper breaks a story about the administration's secret network of overseas torture centers. The story sparks investigations by both Congress and the Department of Justice - not because a US government agency is violating local, US, and international law, but for being based on leaked, classified information.
Suddenly, the joke isn't so funny anymore, is it?
3 comments:
It was always funny because it was largely true.
Posted by Genius : 11/10/2005 07:06:00 AM
Yet you have gone on and on about the supposed Plamegate affair.
Posted by Anonymous : 11/11/2005 11:57:00 AM
It was funny because it didn't apply to us - we could laugh at those stupid people over there.
But now it's getting closer to home. With Australia following after the US as fast as it can, how long until we get the same?
Posted by Anonymous : 11/12/2005 12:59:00 PM
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