BobHarris.com - The L.A. Times: Palestinians getting their property broken are just so darn funny!

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The L.A. Times: Palestinians getting their property broken are just so darn funny!

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Wednesday, 01 June 2005

From the LAT Sports section's "Morning Briefing" column, a reliably lighthearted roundup of amusing topical quotes, anecdotes, and trivia:

This Type of Conduct Warrants a Red Card
By Pete Thomas, Times Staff Writer

Israeli soldiers reportedly barged into a Palestinian home in the West Bank city of Hebron last week with what they apparently believed was just cause: to check out the Champions League soccer final between AC Milan and Liverpool.

Reuters news agency quotes a Palestinian teenager as saying the soldiers commandeered the TV set — and broke furniture and windows — after asking him on the street if his family owned one. Khigaji al Batch said the same thing had happened at his home two weeks earlier.

"They are using our houses like a cinema," Al Batch said.

What a hoot. Armed men breaking into a family home, smashing their belongings, and commandeering their property simply to watch a sporting event -- why, I'm smiling already.

I cannot believe any editor in his right mind could run this item next to cute little anecdotes about basketball, hockey, and surfing, and not realize he's framing real violence against civilians in a war zone as a lighthearted matter.

Apparently we're so desensitized now that the ransacking of an Arab home belongs in the Sports section.

In a humor column.

The LAT Letter to the Editor page is here, or you can contact the Sports Editor This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I'm not expecting the slightest contrition, of course. Oh, no. I'm genuinely curious to learn what rationale they'll invent. My guess is they'll either say that anyone objecting is just taking things too seriously, or the opposite, pretending the column often includes serious items and thus isn't putting real violence in a light-hearted frame. It almost has to be one or the other.

My guess is the latter. So I'm looking forward to some variation on "Why, Morning Briefing often includes hard-hitting exposes of Mideast injustice, alongside the funny quotes from Yogi Berra."

UPDATE: Alert reader Kelly found a few relevant Yogi Berra quotes we'll probably see in upcoming Morning Briefings:

"It ain't over til it's bulldozed over."

"You can observe a lot of injustice just by watchin.'"

"The West Bank is 90% Palestinian, the other half is Israeli."

Next up: Vin Scully comments on the Afghan heroin trade...