Pop Life

A whole lotta years ago, a Rabbit staffer was working for another, equally seedy publication, and happened to have the opportunity to visit the ole National Geographic Society magazine staffers right in their lair down at Explorers Hall on 17th Street. They had all kinds of interesting tales about how their teams had braved wild critters, crazed warlords, and Nature’s fury in order to report the stories in their mag, how they took something like fifty rolls of film for every pic that appeared, and so forth.

All really compelling stuff.

Which made it kinda depressing ever after to know that most people pretty much ignore the mag entirely, and the main reaction of a big part of the remaining audience is to flip through to the latest tribal story. “Heh, heh. Look, boobies! Heh, heh.”

The Rabbit is shore ‘nuff light years from Natty Geo, but we feel their pain.

For example, posts detailing and analyzing the Rules for Use of Force (RUF) by contractors—presumably a pretty relevant topic nowdays—get some attention, but don’t really generate much of anything in terms of knowledgeable discussion anywhere else. In fact, there’s resounding silence on the whole issue.

Post random videos, though, and you generate gargantuan (in comparison) traffic, even when they don’t really show much useful info at all.

It’s indicative of PSC coverage in general.

While the shift from near total silence to daily, headline coverage has been gratifying in magnitude and speed, it’s been almost without exception sensational, tabloid coverage. Totally ignoring somehow became total ignorance.

To stick with the RUF vein, there is a critical story, alluded to during the recent Oversight hearing on Blackwater, about how the U.S. deaths in suicide car bomb (oops, “VBIED”) attacks against the security team at right (yes, the multi-ton armored vehicle was blown off the road, over the grass, and into the wall) and others like it, led to the current RUF, which provide for armed contractors, or mercenaries, as you will, to “fire first” … after trying to work through a laundry list of warnings.

Given the deaths of tens of Iraqis, Americans, and others in Mespotamia each and every single day, it would seem like there was someplace in the ongoing catfight between the MSM & Rep. Waxman on the one side and State & Blackwater on the other for some discussion of the RUF, since they really are a primary cause—if not the root cause—of this whole mess. (The recent, occasionally mentioned Unity Resources shooting, and numerous others before and to come, would seem to undercut just a tad the argument that Nisoor Square was due solely to the Blackwater guys being each and every one a bloodthirsty raging psychopath.)

The near total apathy toward considering if and what systemic change is needed is enough to make those foolish enough to believe in the marketplace of ideas and the importance of public policy debate throw up their hands in disgust.

Guess we oughta go stare, glassy-eyed and slack-jawed, at 238 channels of injury-free gunfights, boobs, car chases, and explosions. (Unless it’s Lifetime. Then it’s cancer, incest, or date-rape. Or cancer, incest and date-rape.)

Or just go shopping.

On the other hand, we could always post the long-awaited video from the Iraqi National Police guard tower on Nisour Square and watch our ratings soar. The mighty trusty MoI has vehemently and repeatedly claimed this video “proves” the Blackwater mercenaries brutally murdered unarmed civilians without provocation. Watch it and tell us if you see it.

As for us … not so much. But what do we know. After all, we didn't even believe that Blackwater was behind the California wildfires.

And that was after Batman and Frodo had already told us so.

Wonder how long before there will be Congressional subpoenae and press releases regarding any and all possession of lighters, flint or matches by those Blackwater scoundrels.