The twisted definition of death reminds me of Steve Martin as Navin Johnson in THE JERK.
As a carnival barker at a Guess-Your-Weight stand…
Carnival Rube Hey honey, let’s see how good this guy is. What’d I win?
Navin Uh, anything in this general area right in here. Anything below the stereo and on this side of the bicentennial glasses. Anything between the ashtrays and the thimble. Anything in this three inches right in here in this area. That includes the Chiclets, but not the erasers.
***
GRIM ACCOUNTING IN IRAQ
What Defines a Killing as Sectarian?
U.S. Military Teams Analyze and Tally Each Civilian Death
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 25, 2007; Page A01
On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.
Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day’s civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.
…
The soldiers have a manual telling them what to look for. Signs of torture or a single shot to the head, corpses left in a “known body dump” — as the body of the Sunni man found on Sept. 3 was — spell sectarian violence, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dan Macomber, the team leader. Macomber, who has been at his job in Baghdad since February, rarely has to look it up anymore.
Citation: (The Jerk quote) via corky.net