Fuel for the Meme Game
By Spencer Ackerman
02/07/2008
09:28AM
Hey, look. I've been tagged by the brilliant counterinsurgency theorist-practitioners at Abu Muqawama with a meme! The name of the game is to find the book nearest you, open to page 123 and post the sixth, seventh and eighth sentences. For me, that would be Alfred W. McCoy's A Question of Torture. Here goes:
Above all, [assistant attorney general Jay Bybee] had exposed CIA and military interrogators to possible criminal charges and certain international opprobrium. Washington's original ratification of the UN antitorture convention, by exempting most forms of psychological torture, had already placed American interrogators, even when following the letter of U.S. law, at or beyond the bounds of international law. But now, by reaching his extraordinary definition of "severe pain," Bybee had, remarkably, breached many of the relevant military regulations -- the Army field manual and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
I feel this is a milestone in the short lifespan of the Streak. (Look, he's walking, like a big boy! Doris, get the camcorder!) Since the rules demand it, I hereby tag: Amanda at Blogstretch; Malcolm at Small Wars Journal; Noah at Contentions; Ilan at Democracy Arsenal; and RJ at The Spy Who Billed Me.
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© 2007 The Washington Independent
Comments:
Posted 02/07/2008 10:49am with
So what if the “nearest book near you” doesn’t have a page 123? Well? We’re just supposed to go out and buy a book with at least 123 pages? Is that it? ‘Man up’ Spencer. Any real man would only ever buy a book with 122 pages in it. Criminy dawg, what are you working clandestinely for Barnes and Noble? By the by, tag you’re it!
Posted 02/07/2008 06:23pm with
OK, Malcolm here, the nearest book next to me I just picked it up at the Met Museum store like an hour ago – and note, it has nothing to do with Iraq, torure or terrorism but all about the HUGE house I am renovating Hey a man can dream, can’t he!?
From American Home: From Colonial simplicity to Modern Archtecture
The dining room of the Penne House, the mahogony and oak dining table was made in France, about 1830 to 1845, but was found in New Iberia, Lousiana. The fourteen American mohagany fiddle-back chairs of about 1835 are an assembled set of a type that was popular in Louisana. The table is set with vieux Paris porcelain collected locally. The pelmets over the wondows are made of antique French silk and cotton fabric. The Penne house is furnished with a combination of American Federal and Empire furniture and Louisana Creole and Acadian furniture made between 1750 and 1835.