For those of the opinion that Bragg's condition is suspicious, or not typical of autism; here is that side of the story: drooooopy contra Bragg.

[youtube emPvLtOEs4Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emPvLtOEs4Y youtube]

Some other relevant material:

[youtube k0HZaPkF6qE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE youtube]

Thanks for the comment Chris, and the suggestion too. I'll be sure to check out Reel Bad Arabs. For anyone else interested here is a trailer:

[youtube 8QKxHINgloA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QKxHINgloA youtube]

Zog Kadare,

Very interesting. I was not aware of that, actually. Thank you for sharing. For anyone else interested, here is a short treatment from Adbusters on the point Zog brought up:
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A...

"In the future we'll have to chose between happy big business interests or a viable Mexico where people want to live and work."

Great point, Christopher. Thank you for the comment!

Hello Sean,

Yes, you're right, and I must agree on that utopian note, but a step can be taken, perhaps, towards something like a GIP for those detained as terrorists. What I meant by struggle (and I'll amend the post to make this more clear) was something akin to the labor that produced the GIP—local, precise, patient labor aimed at blocking or rearticulating power trajectories by allowing the unheard voices of the excluded to be vocalised... I did not mean for struggle to sound like some sort of grandiose movement for a utopian political consciousness under which torture would be obliterated, because, as you said very fairly, that would indeed be utopian (if not dangerous as it would take even more torture to get that far!). Thanks for the comment!

P.S.-Where is that Žižek quote from?

Interesting point. Perhaps, as you said, Waltz's Oscar win was truly less a win for Waltz and more a win for Landa. But desire seems to play dual-role here. It certainly takes a degree of talent to play the difficult role of the eroticised Nazi, that figure which can only be dreamed up, and preformed as if in a trance. Waltz delivered, and the award, which justifiably recognizes his talent, also gives the misplaced dream that he animated a special space of legitimacy, an odd type of grandeur. And it is via these benign (minute even) gestures, I think, that we see power's contemporary eroticisation. Thank you for your comment Ms Bennett.