An amusing story of the reporter from the Sacramento Bee who didn’t have the appropriate ID to get past a Green Zone checkpoint is making the rounds. It’s amusing because it so perfectly illustrates the media’s disdain for the troops – and in fairness, probably for everyone else as well – and the patience and professionalism of your average, everyday soldier. The reporter wrote,

With nothing to lose I decided to get pushy. [...] I made it known that I was jotting down his name.

My security man was struggling with a smirk on his face. He knew my plan. I was going to bully my way back into the Green Zone. [...]

When you’ve got nothing to lose, I told my security officer, you do what it takes. He nodded in agreement.

The reporter, bombarded with negative comments, replaced most of the offending post with this tepid, semi-literate non-apology:

(Yes, I’m obviously new to blogging. Somtimes I share too much. The blogosphere has reacted and pointed out my folly. Yes, I can be pushy. I can also be wrong. I’v’e edited this post — and have shut down the comment feature.)

I could have a good time fisking just those six sentences, not to mention the original post, but why bother? Aside from the fact that LGF and Ace have the original post saved so it will live in infamy, DocWeasel thinks that Bobby Calvan might be salvageable. And the classic gem out of all this, in my opinion, was commenter David Vogel’s response:

If I could offer a correction, you did not have “nothing to lose.” Fabritsio Kuattrokki, the Italian hostage who – “I will show you how an Italian dies” – while trying to tear off his hood and look into the eyes of the men who were about to put a bullet through his head, had nothing to lose.

You, sir, had nothing to fear. The hostage defied his murderers because he knew nothing he did could make the consequences any worse. The reporter antagonized an American soldier because he knew nothing he did would have any consequences.

The first is the act of a hero, the second the act of a child who feels brave for throwing pebbles at a well-trained guard dog.

Calvan had nothing to lose, because although he was attempting to face down and bully a man with a gun, he accurately assessed that he had absolutely nothing to fear from a United States soldier. Anyone who thinks the threat of “jotting down his name” is in any way comparable to a loaded, automatic weapon, must have an ace in the hole – otherwise he would be a complete fool. Bobby Calvan, whether or not he will ever admit it, was relying – with good reason – on the professionalism of a man he despised. That’s a reality check. Calvan weaseled his way through the checkpoint in Baghdad, but maybe he’ll go through this one the right way.

______________
Well, maybe he won’t. While I was writing this post, he apparently took down the entire website rather than simply shutting down commenting and posting an apology. Well, if you’re interested in reading the comments on the post, which were classic, click here for the PDF.
click here to read the original post and all the comments at Docweasel.

The only question left at this point is what is the definition of the new internet verb, calvan?

The Violence Worker offers one:

To be Calvaned is to write something about yourself that you think is so great an your readers find is so despicable, that every commenter lets you know just how loathsome you really are. Usage: Joe’s post got him Calvaned big time!

I’m “reliably” informed by a WND sponsor that Farrah Faucett has fled America. No, really. See? Here’s a quote from that very email, and if you are on their mailing list, you can receive gems like this, too.

WARNING: You are about to expose a shocking truth that will affect you and those closest to you…

Because of the controversy, Farrah Fawcett just fled America, a splinter group of doctors secretly went underground and tens of thousands signed a petition to ensure a book would not be banned.

What’s this secret the pharmaceutical giants don’t want you to know? How does it affect YOU??

We have a window of opportunity to snatch this information while we still can…

Click here to expose the dirtiest little secret of the healthcare crisis: www.HealthcareShocker.com

A Google News search reveals that Faucett’s cancer has returned and she’s seeking alternative treatment outside the country. That’s sad news. We just lost L to cancer. My mother had cancer. My grandmother died of cancer. My husband had cancer and only survived due to (what was at the time) radical treatment at MD Anderson. I have all the sympathy in the world for cancer sufferers. I will not be surprised at all, due to my family and personal history, if I join their ranks at some point. But of course there’s nothing in the news stories I read to indicate that she was chased or somehow forced to leave the country, or that she endorses the use of her name by these people. And I was curious to see what troofer-style allegations were being made about the medical establishment so I clicked through. Here’s some of what I found:

Hello,

Please forgive the ‘cloak and dagger’, but I’m going out on a limb by telling you this…

I don’t know how ‘they’ have done it… How have ‘they’ managed to keep this quiet?

Who are ‘they’?

‘They’ are the upper echelons of the medical establishment.

Secrecy (‘cloak and dagger’). Of course it isn’t really secret, as they’ve published it on the web, and there’s evidently no dagger, as they have not be prevented from doing so. “They” (the upper echelons) are out to get us. Who are these upper echelons? Does that mean doctors who teach at universities? Doctors at MD Anderson and the Mayo clinic? Doctors who oversee new drug applications at the FDA? Who are these people who hate us so much? Why are they persecuting that nice Charlie’s Angel?

there’s a documented medical secret that’s been deliberately buried… a secret so powerful it would change everything and make that debate irrelevant. The whole thing’s a house of cards that may be about to blown down.

The Man wants to keep the proletarians down.

Listen, the tests the hospital commissioned weren’t expected to be successful but they were, and it was a major embarrassment for them. What followed was nothing short of the most heinous cover-up in medical history. Who knows how many people have needlessly died because of it…

Some of the doctors were so outraged by the cover-up they secretly formed an anonymous underground- a resistance group- and looked for a way to get the story out…

Because it’s impossible to build a website -oh, wait! They have a website, so evidently that’s not it. But this underground, anonymous resistance group, whose motives are only pure and altruistic, instead of publishing the information on a website – for example, a website on non-US servers just like the kiddie porn people sometimes do to avoid prosecution – instead decided to publish a book. Way to be anonymous, fellas! Because printing and distributing a book couldn’t possibly leave a paper trail which would lead The Man and his ninjas in black helicopters right to your door. But perhaps you’re not too worried about that after all, since you’re willing to trade your anonymity and safety for $17.

The next step – since they have so bravely defied The Man by getting this book published somehow – was to ensure that it wouldn’t be banned.

But the fight wasn’t over even then because each year in America books get banned (yep, banned) and this title could clearly have been a target.

But…

…our cause is gathering steam. Over summer, we placed a video appeal on YouTube and it went viral. It quickly got into the most viewed videos that month.

The purpose of the YouTube video?

To ask people to sign a petition to ensure the book would NOT be banned!

TENS of THOUSANDS flocked to sign it. The event became a first in history according to the American Library Association. It was recently announced in the New York Times.

What government agency is in charge of banning books? Who enforces the ban – local cops, the FBI, ICE (since they obviously don’t spend much time arresting and deporting illegal aliens), the Secret Service? Where do they burn the books, and why aren’t the global warming nuts screaming about the wasted trees and carbon emissions? It’s a mystery. But it’s okay now, because The Truth is about to come out. Of course, they couldn’t just publish a paper in the New England Journal of medicine or The Lancet. After all The Man runs those publications, right? This is so explosive they couldn’t publish scientific studies, research papers, or patient studies that could be peer-reviewed. No. It’s so explosive they had to fictionalize it.

Listen, too many people have too much to lose by this getting out- drugs companies, hospitals, healthcare providers- the list is endless. Time after time, attempts to publish this information as a non-fiction book mysteriously hit a brick wall. So instead, the truth will come out in the form of a fact-based thriller ‘more explosive than The Da Vinci Code’. In The Pandora Prescription a FACTUAL conspiracy is exposed by a fictional character in real time- another first in publishing history.

Viral marketing campaign or new troofer conspiracy? You be the judge. But just as in the Da Vinci Code and the troofers, there is a fringe element who will believe this garbage, whether the makers intend it or not.

[Added: Heh - "The actress joins a long list of famous personalities who have gone abroad for alternative cancer therapies, including Steve McQueen, Coretta Scott King and Michael Landon."

Hmm... Steve McQueen, treated for mesothelioma with laetrile and coffee enemas, died of a heart attack before the efficacy of the treatment was established. Coretta Scott King died of ovarian cancer at a facility not legally licensed to "perform surgery, take X-rays, perform laboratory work or run an internal pharmacy, all of which it was doing." Michael Landon died of pancreatic cancer; I couldn't find any info about his alternative treatment. Has any "famous personality" had any success with alternative treatment?  Do people who seek "alternative" medicine die of their illness because the treatment was garbage, or because they were already so far gone nothing could have helped them? I don't know. But I do know that anyone who thinks that there is a vast medical conspiracy to deny a cure is a fool. To say that doctors - including doctors with cancer victims in their own families - would deliberately withhold treatment is a ridiculous libel. All doctors are not saints, but to say that as a group - even a group composed of the "upper echelons" - they would or could participate in such an evil conspiracy is as stupid as saying that our military is composed of murderous psychopaths. It's ridiculous, and so are the people who subscribe to the theory. ]
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