A dialogue between two politically diverse brothers can be read here. But the transcript also contains the following priceless exchange:
Female audience member: Excuse me. I’m not usually awkward at all but I’m sitting here and we’re asked not to smoke. And I don’t like being in a room where smoking is going on.
CH (smoking heavily): Well you don’t have to stay darling, do you? I’m working here and I’m your guest, OK? And this is what I’m like; nobody has to like it.
Ian Katz (Facilitator): Would you just stub that one out?
CH: No. I cleared it with the festival a long time ago. They let me do it.
FAM: We should all be allowed to smoke then.
CH: Fair enough. I wouldn’t object. It might get pretty nasty though. I have a privileged position here, I’m not just one of the audience, so it would be horrible if everyone was like me. This is my last of five gigs, I’ve worked very hard for the festival. I’m going from here to Heathrow airport. If anyone doesn’t like it they can kiss my ass.
IK: Would anyone like to take up that challenge?
(Laughter. Woman walks out)
Love it. Reminds me of the AbFab episode where Patsy attends a play put on by Saffi. As she walks to her seat, she is asked to stop smoking. “Oh, don’t be so bloody stupid!” is the reply. I don’t know why I like this, except, of course, a fondness for people who don’t always conform. I hate cigarette smoke, but I often love the people who emit it.
“ABSURD”: Some of the rhetoric in Amnesty International’s report on U.S. detainment policies is indeed excessive. It is simply wrong on every level to equate the United States’ policy of detention, abuse, torture and rendition of terror suspects with the Soviet Union’s vast domestic prison system, designed to perpetuate an evil totalitarianism. But equally, it is now indisputable that a network of secret prisons exists to detain and interrogate terror suspects, that some of those imprisoned are “ghost detainees” with no proper records or accounting, that abuse and torture have occurred in hundreds of cases, that this president signed a memo defining torture into near-non-existence, that there is no secure method for determining the guilt or innocence of the prisoners, and that all of this has decimated America’s international reputation. It is equally indisputable that investigations into these incidents are simply not “fully investigated in a transparent way.” Even the most egregious cases of murder, as in Bagram, are sometimes dismissed at first for lack of evidence. Incidents of Koran abuse were deemed “not credible” for a week, until five incidents were confirmed. Many, many other accusations are deemed baseless because the only willing testimony comes from prisoners and no investigation takes place. Further, military critics of administration policy are often fired; and the message from the top is unmistakable. These are simply facts. To describe criticisms of this policy and record as “absurd” is itself absurd. It bespeaks either stunning cynicism, or equally stunning denial. And it suggests to me that there will be no resolution to this profound problem coming from the administration itself. They’re relying on the general public not to care, or to believe that the ends of preventing terror justify almost any means, including an end to America’s proud history of decency toward prisoners in wartime. That makes it all the more incumbent on the Congress, the media and the part of the public that does love this country’s reputation and humaneness to speak out and demand accountability. The odds are long, but we have no choice but to try.
The Dish 