When Newsweek published a story about a Koran being flushed by interrogators in Guantanamo it was repeated by the AP, Fox news and other news organizations and led to widespread rioting and 16 deaths worldwide. This happened despite the physical impossibility of flushing a book down a toilet. Try it. You can’t do it. Yet the editors at Newsweek printed a story that could not possibly have happened getting 16 people killed. All to give the US a black eye? You have to decide why they did it.
The point about this story is that despite the physical impossibility of the act was the virtual universal acceptance of its truthfulness. It was the conservative blogosphere that first raised questions about the story which later led to a Newsweek retraction; but not before deadly rioting occurred. And to this day I am convinced that many people still believe the Koran flushing story. Among those who still believe are the editors of the Columbia Journalism Review.
And let's not forget Kos and Juan Cole. The Newsweek fiasco reminds us why trust in the MSM is plummeting.
Which brings us to Sgt. Karsnia’s arrest of Larry Craig in a Minneapolis Airport bathroom. In its haste to get the Larry Craig story behind us, the Right and the Republicans have decided to flush Larry Craig and hope the story goes away. Which, by the way, is exactly what Larry Craig hoped would happen if he copped a plea to a lesser charge.
I don’t know Larry Craig and don’t even know his voting record although I am told he has voted for issues that are loosely defined (by the media) as “family values.”
But let us consider for a moment the facts of the case. You can read the transcript and the complaint here.
First there is the peering into the bathroom stall (anybody there?). I have a confession. When a stall door is closed and no other is available I sometimes try to see if there's someone in there or if the door is just stuck. If you’re Sgt. Karsnia you have been in the toilet for about a quarter hour and, how do I put this delicately … a men’s room is not the most pleasant place to be. You want to get on with it and out of there. You want to catch someone so you can get out.
A stall opens up to the left of Karsnia and Craig enters, placing his roller bag in front of him. Today when I travel I usually have my wife along. We watch our our luggage in the airport corridor when one of us has to visit the rest room. But if you're alone where else do you place your bag in a bathroom stall? Trust me ladies, there's no place behind you or to either side. But to Karsnia placing your bag in the only unoccupied place in the stall is a sign of interest in homosexual sex.
Then we come to the foot tapping after Craig enters the stall. Is this really a sign of interest in sex? Frankly you have to take Karsnia’s word for it. At this point, everything anyone does who enters a men’s room appears to indicate an interest in homosexual sex.
The foot touching part is a little strange. First, Karsnia had to have his foot very close to Craig’s stall to allow Craig’s foot to touch his. After all, how far into another stall can you move your foot under a men’s room partition while still sitting on the throne?
And last we have the hand swipe. This is the point at which Craig is supposed to have reached across his body and used his left hand (the one with his ring on it) to swipe the stall divider on his right. Try it at home. Go Ahead. Sit down, imagining you are a 60 year old man (trust me, as we get older we don't get more limber) and swipe your left hand (the one with your ring finger) on your right side near the floor. I nearly fell off the toilet trying this maneuver, yet this is what Karsnia said Craig did just before he arrested him.
No words were exchanged. No bodily fluids were exchanged. Neither Craig not Karsnia slithered under the divider between their stalls (that's a really sickening thought. Who would want to spend time sliding on an airport bathroom floor?). All he got to see was Karsnia's badge and an order to come out.
As I said before, I don’t know Larry Craig and never will, but this story is beginning to look like the flushed Koran story because parts of it are just physically improbable. Maybe he’s sexual pervert who cruises airport bathrooms looking for anonymous sex. Or maybe he’s like the guards at Guantanamo who were accused of doing something that was physically impossible. By Craig’s guilty plea and resignation we may never know. But I do know that Karsnia is a baby faced jerk and likely a perjurer.
By the way, there is at least one other blogger who questions that narrative. Varifrank.
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