# New Gitmo atrocity -- obesity!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 20, 2002, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126 "2002-03-20T00:43:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/21 "2002-03-21T16:54:22Z")
**Biggirl** , ever since some human rights organizations started speaking out to try to ensure that the prisoners at Guantanamo were being treated humanely, **december** has decided those organizations must be anti-American for even suggesting that the prisoners might not be treated well.
He’s using the fact that they’re eating well to further disparage the Red Cross’ and AI’s concerns.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/22 "2002-03-21T20:02:21Z")
Thanks **andros**. I see I have to recalibrate the Evilleftometer[sup]TM[/sup]. The sarcasm detector must be raised and the “relevance to topic” levels must be set to negative.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/23 "2002-03-21T20:27:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cartooniverse \*
> \*\*Trix are for kids.
>
> 😉 \*\*
Reminds me of a current Trix commercial which has the rabbit portraying what appears to be an adult surfer. If Trix are really for kids, why are they offering the cereal to what appears to be an adult? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2002, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/24 "2002-03-22T00:00:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Do you think that Bin Laden or any of his henchmen would spend one dime to accomodate the special needs of any prisoner, much less the millions we have spent housing, protecting and feeding these assholes?
No, he sure wouldn’t. We, however, are not Osama bin Laden.
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### Author:  [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/25 "2002-03-22T01:02:14Z")
**Miller,** of course we’re not Bin Laden nor are we like him, but I’m saying that we need not do backflips to accomodate criminals because the Red Cross or AI (Artificial Intelligence?) wring their hands. We haven’t tortured anybody, and we feed them better than they are used to.
As for my other comments…just venting a little spleen. My whole system is still shocked by the events of last September.
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### Author:  [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2002, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/26 "2002-03-22T04:15:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tripler \*
> \*\*Mmmm, decisions decisions. . .
>
> Thermobaric detonation, or MRE. . . The very air sucked out of my lungs and replaced by a hot flaming gas, or an MRE. . . Tasty gruel for 6 - 12 more months in a dimly lit cave with rationed potable water but all the 7.62mm ammo I can have, or an MRE. . . No TV, no access to the real world, nor actual daylight, or an MRE . . .
>
> Decisions decisions decisions! 😕
>
> Tripler
> Mmmmmmmm, MRE . . . \*\*
I may wish to debate the merits of the no TV, no access, no daylight option. MREs three times a day for a few weeks are bad for the lower GI tract, ifyaknowwhatimeanandithinkyoudo.
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### Author:  [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2002, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/27 "2002-03-22T20:20:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by andros \*
> \*\*… ever since some human rights organizations started speaking out to try to ensure that the prisoners at Guantanamo were being treated humanely, **december** has decided those organizations must be anti-American for even suggesting that the prisoners might not be treated well.
>
> He’s using the fact that they’re eating well to further disparage the Red Cross’ and AI’s concerns. \*\*
**andros’s** post is both accurate and clever. It accurately deciphered a far-from-clear OP. It cleverly framed my position in a bad light. How can it be wrong to try to ensure humane treatment or to be concerned that prisoners are well-treated?
I assert that expressing concern when there’s no good reason for it can be a means of communicating hatred and bigotry. E.g., suppose an international organization publicly said:
> [@](#):
>
> We’re concerned that **december** may be torturing defenceless prisoners.
Or, how about
> [@](#):
>
> We’re concerned that **december** may be dishonest and money-grubbing. We want to ensure that his customers are treated fairly.
These statements would be taken by most as expressing a likelihood that they fairly describe my behavior. I.e., they expess vicious criticism and prejudice.
Critical statements of “concern” made by ICRC and AI _in the absence of any specific knowledge_ were also ways opf expressing bigotry.
I do credit ICRC for stopping this sort of statement after they examined Gitmo and found that conditions were fine.
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/28 "2002-03-22T20:47:30Z")
You’re right, **december** , I spun it. Deliberately. Mostly because you often try your damnedest to spin things your way.
And to be honest, it seems to me you just did it again.
You used this as an example of what you feel the ICRC and AI have done:
> [@](#):
>
> We’re concerned that **december** may be torturing defenceless prisoners.
The spin comes in what you left out:
> [@](#):
>
> The prisoners in **december** ’s care may very well have been responsible for blowing up the World Trade Towers. Knowing that popular opinion in the US is such that these folks probably wouldn’t live for long in any public place in the US, and having seen violence against people suspected of Arab ancestry in the US itself, and knowing that the people who work with **december** to watch over these prisoners represent a cross-section of the US population, it seems clear that there is a _chance_ that these prisoners might come to harm while confined. Since they have not been found guilty in a court of law, we cannot as a people allow them to come to harm.
Now, you can disagree with them all you want, but to call the ICRC bigots is to succumb to the very spin you called me on.
Personally, I think there is and remains a cause for concern. I don’t think the Guantanamo prisoners are being mistreated, and I don’t think they will be . . . but I do not wish to see any slipups. Vigilance is essential, even if it sometimes seems like Chicken Little is calling.
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### Author:  [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2002, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-gitmo-atrocity-obesity/99126/29 "2002-03-22T22:45:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by andros \*
> \*\*You’re right, **december** , I spun it. Deliberately. Mostly because you often try your damnedest to spin things your way. \*\*
_Touche!_
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