heh. I and my (Greek) husband are pretty much expecting something almost like this when we go back to visit the U.S. this summer, even though he was a resident and green-card-holder for years and years.

Really, it's because of this sort of surreal, once-unimaginable stuff that I have about zero impulse to visit my wacked-out homecountry at all at this point, and wouldn't even consider it if it weren't for the fact that it's been so long since we've seen my family.

It seems that the U.S. is entirely unconcerned with its reputation or standing among other countries in the least, and has no need to follow any human rights agenda at all.

I like the post-it note idea. Or an index card with a staple-gun. Either one really.

NEXT! Number 24601. *ka-chunk*

NEXT! ...

This is slightly off topic, but just last night I was reading about convict tattooing.

In India, the practice of tattooing people as a punishment had died out but the British decided to revive it when they ran things over there. The Indian custom had been to tattoo an image on the forehead of the offender appropriate to the crime - female genitalia for adultery, a bottle for drunkeness, etc - but the British changed it to tattooing the crime, name and the court of sentencing. This practice was restricted to lifers and was of course very humiliating particularly as tattooing was something women did, and of course for many, tattooing was against their religion (I'm sure killing was as well, but you know, you can't really apply common sense to religious belief). The reason tattooing was used was because many of these people were used as slaves for building roads and of course for notorious The East India Company - since they were often out in the open they had a habit of running away.

Additionally it was common in ancient Greece, and subsequently Rome, for slaves to be tattooed on their foreheads - in Greece they would have "Stop me I'm a runaway slave" written on their foreheads.

I suppose the point I'm making is that writing things on peoples heads in such a manner has often been a symbol of conquest and, dare I say it, ownership. For the marked it's both humiliating and (at least in this case for a short while) stigmatising.

Having said all that, they're probably just playing that guessing game where you have to guess the name written on your own head: "Am I Donald Duck?"

*slaps "POWER OF PRIDE" sticker on SUV*

I had no idea, dodgy...did the Nazis get it from them too?

AmIDetainedOrNot.com

For the marked it's both humiliating and (at least in this case for a short while) stigmatising.

What's funny is that in my high school (back in the days before Zero Tolerance really meant Zero) on "Senior Day" every year the seniors would go around with markers and write their class year on the foreheads of the freshmen. Generally non-permanent marker, but not always. We never knew that we were part of 2000+ year tradition of forehead-marking, but it makes a lot of sense.

I had no idea, dodgy...did the Nazis get it from them too?

Well I'm sure they didn't have to look too far for inspiration. Tattooing is an innate part of human society, and therefore the possibility for enforced tattooing has always been around. Add to this the fact that we instinctively understand what someone branding you means - that you're property, that you're like an animal - and then I guess the temptations are too high for those who wish to control people. One thing I feel sure of is that even if human civilisation had to start from scratch again, tattooing would be created again, and enforced tattooing would at some point be attempted again.

tangent on a tangent, i've been meaning to do more research on tattoo symbolism/"secret codes", which you get a lot of from prison systems--
--but then i wish people would put more thought into their tattoos in general

My god, I was astounded at this. Write the number on his shirt, a tag, even his arm. Anywhere but his fucking forehead.

That's truly horrendous. To echo a comment on that page - I wonder what we're not seeing.

i know--it's the stuff of nightmares--or worse. Related: A federal judge has told the government it will have to release additional pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, civil rights lawyers said.

Government lawyer Sean Lane argued that releasing pictures, even if faces and other features are obscured, would violate Geneva Convention rules on prisoner treatment by subjecting detainees to additional humiliation or embarrassment.

I can't imagine what it takes to make that argument with a straight face.

Christ almighty. What is there left to say? I've been typing and deleting for 20 minutes because I have nothing. Except, how much more fucked could we possibly be? Can anyone truly imagine what the next 10 years in America are going to look like? The next 20? Because I've got nothing, here.

errr. well, tattooing would be worse, right? as would, you know, gassing them. or using them as expendables in obscene medical experiments. or just shooting people. or torturing them. or raping them. or getting dogs to bite them. or shooting them when they're lying there wounded. or just occupying their country. or not fixing the fucking water supplies.

seems like quite a lot of things are worse than this when you come to think of it.

this is a foreign army fighting a local resistance in support of an installed government. either you think that's a good thing or not (and personally i find it a very hard question). but compared to that, writing with a pen on someone is neither here nor there. no matter how good an excuse it is to trot out stories of something worse.

don't you get an ink stamp when you vote?

is it just lack of imagination? did you think occupying armies wouldn't involve this kind of thing? and now it's like "oh, wow, i thought they would be giving out cuddly toys. shit - that pen writing changes everything."

or is it that "americans still in iraq" is too boring? we need to have a hook - need to make it fresh? isn't that something we despise when big media does it?

bleagh. i don't have a point here. except that somehow this thread seems to be more about group bonding on the internet than iraqis.

"let's all get together for a pomo riff on labelling people. that would be fun."

hmm. maybe this is a point - a pretty consistent criticism of the right against war objecters is that they look for any excuse to complain about "our troops" rather than focussing on what is important.

or maybe it's just me. i guess i just dislike groups. or simple solutions. or something.

sorry. who pissed in my cornflakes this morning?

don't you get an ink stamp when you vote?
nope--there is no physical marking of voters in America. We show id, sign our names, and vote. We get nothing--some places do give a sticker saying, "i voted", but it's not at all mandatory.

andrew, dehumanization like that just further hurts all of us, and our military should know better. They allowed that picture to be disseminated. (it's from Yahoo news). Some of us live in gigantic targets for revenge--and these actions being taken in our name are exacerbating them. You can see why i care, no?

I honestly can't see why this is such a big deal. Have you never got a pass-out at a nightclub or an event? It seems to me that this is simply an efficient way of temporarily tagging prisoners so that they don't get mixed up when being processed.

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't see what.

i emailed it to Crooks and Liars and he posted it

And bagnewsnotes has it too