Oh, Blackwater.

As everyone knows, I keep my identity secret so that I may freely express my incendiary political views. I'll just go out on limb here: This Blackwater business is fuuucked uuuuuuup. The one, possible, tiny pearl in this mess is the possibility that coverage of the massacre — and the subsequent civil suits — will shed light on the disturbing fact that "contractors operate in a legal netherworld outside of the military courts martial system and are also outside of Iraqi civil law."

The use of private security firms in places we've carpet-bombed is by no means new, but how many more incidents will it take before people realize the fact that they, more often than not, are completely undermining whatever pathetic shred of a hearts-and-minds effort we've still got going over there?? Given the Army's recruitment crunch among other factors, I realize that civilian contractors may be a necessary evil, but their freedom from the strictures of the law is not.

The Doobie Brothers - Black Water
Metric - The Police and the Private