I kill a lot of time on Wikipedia. Ancient and Medieval history is usually my thing. I just love how one one quick search can just spider into a multi-hour smorgasborg of topics.

I was reading about the Catholic church’s Medieval inquisitions a few days ago and found myself kind of slack-jawed at the correlations between the process back then and what is happening now.

According to the wiki entry:
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I was reading a Wired article about the statistics of death in the United States compared to the “Politics of Fear” type shit you see on the news left and right. To believe the news, I’d be insane to not flee New York for the hills because Al Qaeda’s going to kill my skinny, white ass any second now and if I was smart enough to head for the mountains, I should probably dig a bunker because they’re going to nuke that shit too. However, Wired points out the actual statistical reality of mortality in the States, complete with a nice little color-coded chart á la Dept. of Homeland Security’s absolutely retarded threat advisory chart.

Sanely speaking, death by terrorism ranks second to lowest (lowest being that radical, extremist, Jihad-freak: Carbon Monoxide). The flu, a hernia, driving and just about everything else you might prefer to die of all rank much, much higher.

What caught my eye, was the fact that you’re more likely to be shot by law enforcement (3949) than killed by a terrorist (3147). I wonder what the numbers might rise to if being killed by the government, such as being shipped off to Iraq or being neglected in New Orleans after Katrina were to be factored in. Who would be the bigger killer of American citizens? Al Qaeda or the Bush administration?

You know, as much as Saddam Hussein is a dick, daveb was a little disappointed when he saw the news of his capture, bearded and hiding in a shallow pit. All that build up for nothing. He figured, c’mon, this is Saddam “gas me some Kurds and pop me some crystal” Hussein! Fucking Iraqi gangsta shit. You’d think he’d roll up on a convoy, strapped to the teeth with WMDs, blasting Americans to high hell before hitting paradise with all it’s attending virgins. But no, he was caught hiding in a hole with a briefcase of cash. Fuck that. Saddam, what happened kiddo? Where’d the balls of steel go? Why’d you go out like a bitch when it could have been a blaze of fucking glory?

But wait! Daveb read this morning, an account by a former marine that Saddam Hussein’s capture was bullshit. The marine, who was present at Saddam’s capture said the hidey-hole scenario on the news was a total fabrication, staged a full day after he had been apprehended. As part of a 20 man team, this guy encountered Saddam and a few of his baddies held up in a house.

“We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed,” he said.

He said Saddam himself fired at them with a gun from the window of a room on the second floor. Then they shouted at him in Arabic: “You have to surrender. … There is no point in resisting.”

“Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam’s capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well,”

You go Saddam. That’s more like it. Evil dictators need to keep the standards up. If you’re going to be a tyrant, go out like a tyrant should go out. If this is true, Saddam, you’re a bastard, but you get props for keeping it real.

Now why the whole capture was falsified, who knows? Probably to paint the picture of him as a coward and thief, fleeing his country with the cash instead of defending it. That is, assuming this story is true. If it is true, what’s going to keep it from being mentioned at his trial?