Let’s Not be Guilty of Premature Convictions

UPDATE: The first soldier up, Spc. Jeremy Morlock, pled guilty today. He said that “the plan was to kill people,” and that everyone knew that the people they were shooting were innocent. Obviously a heinous, inhuman, indefensible act. With his testimony in place, I think it’s fair to let the finger-pointings start.

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Ace is talking about the photos of the Army guys who allegedly massacred Afghani civilians:

Who killed the Afghan civilians? Not the Taliban — US forces. Twelve men are on trial in Seattle for going rogue psycho and “staging” fake enemy attacks in order to justify attacking civilians. 

Later Ace talks about this being President Obama’s “Abu Ghraib” (though he doesn’t think that’s reasonable):

Drudge’s new headline makes a point I didn’t consider — this is Obama’s Abu Ghraib. 

But before we start making those observations, I think we should let the trials run their courses. We were all outraged when Jack Murtha convicted the Marines of the Haditha killings in the press, and that outrage turned out to be justified – 7 of the 8 accused personnel had charges dropped or were acquitted. [The 8th, Sgt. Frank Wuterich, has just had his trial delayed (again) to 6/27/2011]

The case against the Army soldiers sounds pretty damning, but let’s await the outcome of the trials before we start trying to sort out all the political ramifications.

400 lb Sumo Wrestler Finishes Marathon!

Wow. If this guy can do it, none of us have any excuses. It took him almost 10 hours (he walked the last 18 miles), but he finished the LA Marathon. And it sounds like it was brutal for him:

He said afterward that he lost track of where he was after mile 10 and, slightly delirious, only figured out that he’d made it to mile 15 when his friend and fellow sumo wrestler, Americus Abesamis, met him with fresh socks and told him how far he had come.

Way to go, Kelly Gneiting! (photo from this Vietnamese site)

Recipe for Controversy Fail

Mix a moron:

A controversial US evangelical preacher on Sunday oversaw the burning of a copy of the Qur’an in a small Florida church after finding the Muslim holy book “guilty” of crimes.

with a little theater

Sunday’s event was presented as a trial of the book in which the Qur’an was found “guilty” and “executed”.

and you get . . . . not much

The event was open to the public, but fewer than 30 people attended.

But maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. I’m sure the press, CAIR, and the Muslim world can manage to inflate even this feeble, pointless, inane circus into a major event.

(Did it even occur to these goofballs to wait until news slowed down before staging this silly “trial?”)