This and that
Have been very busy and am leaving for a few days so will leave you with a bit of this and that...
***The anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is approaching. Spike Lee has an amazing doc and Slate.com has a set of good Magnum photos to look at. Will update my op-ed piece from last year, but suffice to say, the feds' handling of Katrina and its aftermath has been one sorry-ass screw-up after the other. And they gave the rebuilding contracts to Halliburton who did such a good job in Iraq that generators are humming 24/7, schools are sparkling, neighborhoods across the country have been beutifully restored...and soon it will be Beirut's turn...
As you look at the Magnum photos, hum a few bars of Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.
**** So the Brits think Bush is crap. The blogosphere has had a good time with this. So tell me something I don't know. And just how long did it take for this sentiment to arise? FIVE YEARS????????
Hum Slow Boat to China for this one.
****Israel has broken the ceasefire, had a tantrum about Lebanese troops on the border, and basically reserved the right to go back in and do some more damage.
No. No and No. All this neo-con crap about Israel and self-defense needs to stop. And Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel need to give various people back.
***Thomas Sowell is a racist Neocon in academic's clothing who is recycling the vicious rhetoric of anti-Hun WWI propaganda, Nazi screeds and cold war paternalistic neo-colonialism. Someone sent me Point of No Return? which is as sorry an excuse for an op-ed piece on dealing with the Middle East as I have ever read. Sowell has a weak command of Middle Eastern cultural and colonial history, and as an academic, poses a grave danger to US-Middle East relations.
**** Terror in the skys- what is up with this rash of fear-mongering events? Is this a pre-invasion warm-up? Several Indian Brits were pulled off a plane because a couple of holier than thou Americans had waaaay too much time on their hands and thought they were plotting in Arabic. Were they now? Most Americans couldn't tell you what Arabic sounds like, let alone find any country that might be in the Middle East on a map, so why oh why would any self-respecting airline allow the average American to dictate ANYTHING regarding who or what might be a terrorist? And now we have fwv- flying while vigilante- great- the Minutemen mentality has metasticized. Lucky us, whoopee, and screw them. I feel like wearing a Touche Pas Au Liban t-shirt in French and Arabic just to fuck with them.
Ok, enjoy your last few weeks of summer and check out the following blogs: Bloggers Against Torture, My Left Wing, Left End of the Dial, the Arabist, and Donkephant.
Got to cathc the trolley- so, sorry, you'll have to find your own URLS for a change.
Schuss.
***The anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is approaching. Spike Lee has an amazing doc and Slate.com has a set of good Magnum photos to look at. Will update my op-ed piece from last year, but suffice to say, the feds' handling of Katrina and its aftermath has been one sorry-ass screw-up after the other. And they gave the rebuilding contracts to Halliburton who did such a good job in Iraq that generators are humming 24/7, schools are sparkling, neighborhoods across the country have been beutifully restored...and soon it will be Beirut's turn...
As you look at the Magnum photos, hum a few bars of Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.
**** So the Brits think Bush is crap. The blogosphere has had a good time with this. So tell me something I don't know. And just how long did it take for this sentiment to arise? FIVE YEARS????????
Hum Slow Boat to China for this one.
****Israel has broken the ceasefire, had a tantrum about Lebanese troops on the border, and basically reserved the right to go back in and do some more damage.
No. No and No. All this neo-con crap about Israel and self-defense needs to stop. And Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel need to give various people back.
***Thomas Sowell is a racist Neocon in academic's clothing who is recycling the vicious rhetoric of anti-Hun WWI propaganda, Nazi screeds and cold war paternalistic neo-colonialism. Someone sent me Point of No Return? which is as sorry an excuse for an op-ed piece on dealing with the Middle East as I have ever read. Sowell has a weak command of Middle Eastern cultural and colonial history, and as an academic, poses a grave danger to US-Middle East relations.
**** Terror in the skys- what is up with this rash of fear-mongering events? Is this a pre-invasion warm-up? Several Indian Brits were pulled off a plane because a couple of holier than thou Americans had waaaay too much time on their hands and thought they were plotting in Arabic. Were they now? Most Americans couldn't tell you what Arabic sounds like, let alone find any country that might be in the Middle East on a map, so why oh why would any self-respecting airline allow the average American to dictate ANYTHING regarding who or what might be a terrorist? And now we have fwv- flying while vigilante- great- the Minutemen mentality has metasticized. Lucky us, whoopee, and screw them. I feel like wearing a Touche Pas Au Liban t-shirt in French and Arabic just to fuck with them.
Ok, enjoy your last few weeks of summer and check out the following blogs: Bloggers Against Torture, My Left Wing, Left End of the Dial, the Arabist, and Donkephant.
Got to cathc the trolley- so, sorry, you'll have to find your own URLS for a change.
Schuss.
Uncle Sam Wants You!
Yes, he does. And sometimes he wants you so badly, he is willing to look the other way when recruiters cross the line to become sexual predators:
The AP has an interesting article about those nice guys who just want to tell you all about the military.
Remember Abeer Qasim? The 14 year old girl who was raped, murdered and then her body burned to hide the evidence by US soldiers?
This is how it starts.
A reminder to parents with kids entering high school: SIGN THE OPT OUT FORM NOW (more on that in a later post)
Weirick, the Marine Corps defense attorney who has represented several recruiters on rape and sexual misconduct charges, said it's a problem that will probably never entirely go away.
"It's difficult because of the nature of nature," he said. "It's hard to put it in another way, you know? It's usually a consensual relationship or dating type of thing."
When asked if victims feel this way, he said, "It's really a victimless crime other than the institution of the Marine Corps. It's institutional integrity we're protecting, by not allowing this to happen."
The AP has an interesting article about those nice guys who just want to tell you all about the military.
Remember Abeer Qasim? The 14 year old girl who was raped, murdered and then her body burned to hide the evidence by US soldiers?
This is how it starts.
A reminder to parents with kids entering high school: SIGN THE OPT OUT FORM NOW (more on that in a later post)
