shame, anger, disgust

I had lots of lighthearted things to write about, but a few minutes of looking at these new photos from Abu Ghraib (published in the Sydney Morning Herald) steamrolled over that mood.

As did this post by Jeanne of Body & Soul, about the video of British soldiers beating detainees, and the appalling lack of justice in the investigation about the death of 22-year old Afghan taxi driver Dilawar in U.S. military custody.

And Ann Coulter at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference: "I think our motto should be post 9/11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.' " The audience responded with thunderous applause.

For some reason I'm thinking of the morning after the Indian elections in spring 2004, when the BJP was kicked out of power, and I wrote my best friend to say congratulations. He replied that he'd pulled his passport out of the drawer of his desk and looked at it, and gotten teary with happiness. At the time, I still had hope that in the coming November, I'd feel the same way. These days, I'm starting to despair that there will ever be reason to.