Dahr Jamail is an “unembedded” journalist in Iraq, reporting for his own blog and an Alaskan Weekly. He claims that “the Shia/Sunni rift is largely a CIA generated myth. There are countless tribes and marriages alike that are both Shia/Sunni. There are mosques here where they pray together.” The essence of that claim is believable — in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in Kosovo, in Sudan, and elsewhere, the “this-gang vs. that-gang” storyline was in many respects a media creation. It’s harder to swallow the notion that CIA is competent enough to deliberately create such a myth, but it’s easy to accept that most of the media is lazy enough to dumb reality down to one. But the fact is, we don’t know. Jamail’s unembedded status means he’s unfiltered by corporate media, but it also means he doesn’t have the track record of an institution behind him. We have little basis on which to evaluate such a statement. Which is, of course, the political genius of embedding journalists — it strips both embeds and the unembedded of full credibility. All that remains is myth. And, of course, the bodies.

Melchom is the paymaster of civil servants in Hell. Murmur, paradoxically, is announced by trumpets. Ishtar once ripped out the teeth of the lion. For more, go to Krista Baker’s guide todemons of the world…

The Revealer has been under fire for publishing the United Church of Christ’s press release about NBC’s and CBS’s refusal to run their ad depicting a gay couple, turned away from a church guarded by bouncers, finding welcome at a UCC church. Even though The Revealer has made a policy of occasionally publishing press releases as primary sources, and even though we’ve published as many conservative releases as liberal ones (that is, one each), some readers have accused us of liberal bias. Well, the truth is that here at The Revealer we swing both ways. Which is why, in our crusade against commercial censorship, we’re delighted to find ourselves in bed with the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Rev. Falwell — now that we’re sleeping together, we call him “Jer” — came out on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball” on “our side” — the side that thinks the ad should have run. Not that Jer isn’t solidly homoph — “biblical.” “Handicaps,” he says, should be welcome in any church, since their condition is “beyond [their] power.” But gay couples can be bounced, since they “choose” their sexuality. Matthews asked if Jer “chose” his heterosexuality. Yes, but — bombshell! — it took him 13 years to do so. As we can attest, Jer is a guy who likes to investigate every position. P.S. The Revealer has also been accused of failing to be nonpartisan. That’s arguable, but we think our critics have a point: “nonpartisan” is a stupid word. From now on, we’re going to be promiscuously polypartisan. With preferential treatment for free speech, and disdain for dualism.