[Rictor]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20050221/wl_nm/iraq_propaganda_dc

Exibit A

Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government is stepping up its propaganda war with insurgents by broadcasting videotaped interviews with suspects who appear to confess to killings, rape and theft on the orders of guerrillas.

The offensive was launched in recent weeks on state-run Iraqiya television, which broadcast lengthy interrogations of Iraqis it said had carried out terrorist acts under the direction of "Abdullah," described as a criminal with close ties to Syria.

There is no obvious way to verify the authenticity of the confessions. The interrogator's face does not appear on camera, and the suspects are shown sitting in office chairs across from a desk in a white-walled room.

...

The interviewer encouraged the men to speak about "filthy crimes" and constantly mentioned Syria.

"So were these goods smuggled with the knowledge of the Syrian government?" he asked.

Exibit B

The great purges involving thousands of people, with public trials of traitors and thought-criminals who made abject confession of their crimes and were afterwards executed, were special show-pieces not occurring oftener than once in a couple of years.

[vyper]

Well there's a shock.  I'm beyond being shocked.

[pyro-manic]

Wa-hey...

[Flipside]

Oh, I'm sure that their opinions and statements are at least as sincere and without duress as the statements made by kidnap victims in Iraq

[vyper]

Ding ding.

[Janos]

Originally posted by Flipside
Oh, I'm sure that their opinions and statements are at least as sincere and without duress as the statements made by kidnap victims in Iraq

Which makes it allright?

buhh?

[Flipside]

Yeah, that's fine, you see, it all balances out in the end, such is the great Karma of life

Not.

Edit : And for someone who specialises in Sarcasm, that one passed you by

[Janos]

Originally posted by Flipside
Yeah, that's fine, you see, it all balances out in the end, such is the great Karma of life

Not.

Edit : And for someone who specialises in Sarcasm, that one passed you by

I am tired and ruined!

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Since when was "oftener" a word?

[Woolie Wool]

Since a long time ago. I've seen in in several books. But it sounds stupid so not many people use it.

[Flipside]

I think it must be an American phrase then, it is certainly not accepted as gramatically correct in the UK, any more than saying 'More oftenly'

[Rictor]

uhmm, thats Orwell you know.

I think its one of those wierd words/phrases which sounds like it shouldn't be a word but really is, except that no one's used it for a good fifty years.

[Flipside]

Yeah, that's possible, the word 'often' is one of those strange ones that no longer stands up to have prosthetic letters, but language drift happens so fast these days that a mode of speech can change entirely in less than a generation.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

bad means good?  when did this happen?  was it the 80's?  dammit i have a blank spot from the 80's where an entire semester should be!!!!

[Corsair]

I like Sergey Eisenstein's work the best. We could use a modern day Alexander Nevsky.