It's only socialized insurance if OTHER people have it

A few things regarding this incident:
1- No finger biting!!!! Why was this the appropriate response to getting hit in the face?!?!?! Turn yourself in and face the music. You have at least one witness that it was provoked, which will get you a lighter sentence.
2- If you don't want to get your finger bitten, don't start a fight. Seriously, I'm supposed to feel sorry for this guy? He wanted a fight. He got one. He can come and kiss my cellulite-y ass if he wants sympathy.
3- I guess it's a good thing Bill Rice has government run and subsidized health insurance. He could go right to the hospital and get treated without worrying about paying. It never occurs to Bill that maybe other people should be able to get this great insurance, too. But letting others have access to the sweet deal you get yourself by the great virtue of living to 65 is socialism. It's always perfectly reasonable when YOU get the government services, and it's always socialism when SOMEBODY ELSE does. Remember that, boys and girls.

thoughts on whether it's torture

i've been hearing some references from rightwing nutjobs that the cia's use of violence isn't torture because we had medical professionals supervise it. well, isn't the cia sweet. here's a clue: if you need a doctor around to make sure the suspect doesn't die from what you're doing to him, it's torture. if you need a shrink around to make sure you're not inflictng lifelong trauma on your suspect, it's torture.
and i'm tired of hearing how releasing the photos will degrade any self-control the muslims have. somehow, we all survived the release of the abu ghraib photos. so here's my last clue: if people finding out about this will lead to mass demonstrations and sporadic violence at symbols of the abusers, it's torture. please stop fucking with us all.

so they're collateral damage, right?

if you are related to these people, just go read something else. this will justifiably piss you off. but it needs to be said. so just keep browsing.

well, turns out we do body counts after all. they just have to be american bodies. will the military treat these people like the afghanis they killed in august? will we hear that this family was from the animal liberation front? will we hear that the number three is an inflated number, because the san diego locals aren't entirely reliable (or able to count)? will their deaths be tragic, but necessary for our freedoms?

no. the military will compensate the families, and maybe even spank the motherfucker who decided "fuck this shit" before ejecting to leave his plane to crash into civilians. the military will fall all over itself redressing this shit. first of all, because san diego is a major major military town. don't believe me? fuckin' go there. second, san diego is not a war zone, so alot of "journalists" will have access to the locals. third, and maybe most important, the locals speak the same language as the "journalists", and the viewers, and will most likely be the same skin color and religion as the "journalists" and the viewers. don't think that matters? then wtf rock have you been living under? the big one in australia? fuckin' figures.

this will be a goddamned tragedy that the military swears it will take all steps to prevent from ever, ever, happening again. everyone will go on about how sorry the pilot was that he might have hurt someone, and how this really cuts him up, and he can't sleep at night, and fucking so on. there will be no denials of a single goddamn detail, or a single goddamned denial of how fucked up it is that a military plane's pilot can just abandon an f-18 without first making sure it won't hit someone else. there will be no comparison to when the military purposely fires on civilian areas, killing dozens, and claiming it's all okay 'cause they got a few taliban, who had some nerve hiding somewhere difficult to just bomb without killing others. the military will not claim that fighting terrorists trumps your ability to live out the day in your own home. nope.

since no one, no one, else will call these deaths the proper u.s. military name for them, i will: they're collateral damage. freebies. gimmes. people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time (without even knowing it) and paid for it with their lives. people who had the nerve to think they were safe and deserved to be. people who thought staying out of trouble meant it wouldn't crash into the house. if only we really applied this definition, we might rethink how often we use it.