There is nothing quite so soul-killing as the death of a child. Unless it is some guy getting half his face blown off by an exploding cigar.Both these things happened on CSI New York tonight.
It is not enough to not be allowed to see the dead and wounded American soldiers returned from Iraq and Afganistan - they must be flown in in the dead of night, without cameras or ceremony, to be mourned alone or comforted alone, because to do otherwise might awaken the sleeping one-eyed Polyphemus from her dreams of becoming an American Idol and the next top model, or his obsession with who is stabbing whom in the back on Survivor or in the Atlanta Falcons locker room, because once old Poly is awake, he's gonna start eating sailors - we must also become desensitized as a nation to the most horrific, battle-simulating wounds by showing close-ups of some guy's cigar-mortared face while people stand around scratching themselves and making obnoxious quips. If it were not enough that we parents are already terrified to let our children out of our sight for even a moment, they must show us that when we do, when we turn our backs for a split second for any reason, even to help someone who has just been assaulted, the kid on his bike will catch a bullet.
It murders the soul. It prepares us for the unthinkable - dead children and slaughtered neighbors - and teaches us that the only truly safe course in life is to mind your own business and not mind the blood, nor to mind when American women employed in Iraq are being gang raped by their male co-workers. We as a nation cry out in horror when a Muslim woman in Saudi Arabia is flogged for having made the mistake of being raped, yet say nothing when an American woman is imprisoned in a shipping container by her American employer for making the same error. For there is one thing as soul killing as dead children and people dismembered by explosives - it is when our government turns over the evidence of a horrific rape to the corporate rapists so they can destroy it. It is when evidence of torture is destroyed to protect the torturers. It is when the price of a barrel of oil outweighs the price of human life and human dignity.
There is the lesson of modern life - don't complain. Take your rogering in silence and be thankful they aren't standing your children up against a wall.
12 comments:
You are so right. Thank you for your eloquence.
Thank you, my friend. This is one of the best comments I've ever read. I'd give an appendage to be able to right like that. (Not saying which appendage, mind you.)
Truly great stuff.
Oh, nuts. I meant "write," of course.
And nobody notices that a gallon of gasoline is a whole dollar cheaper than a gallon of milk.
1) I noticed your lack of the use of the word "alleged" when you accuse male co-workers of raping their female counterpart.
IF she was raped, then those responsible should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But, to my knowledge except for the girls website and various money making schemes (movies and book rights) I was not aware that a trial had been held and their guilt confirmed.
2) I find it very disturbing that honor killings (see the one yesterday in Canada) and rapes and hanging women being routine practice in the ME and other places where Islam dwells is not MORE harshly viewed, especially by feminist groups. How quintessentially bizarre.
3) 35 seconds of forced immersion in water for murdering scum bags who would happily slice your head off. Who cares. Does it work? Yes. Good. I guarantee there was no dignity for Nicholas Berg.
Well written post though.
jenn of the jungle:
Don't you mean "alleged" murdering scum bags??? When were they tried and convicted? Do you truly believe that everyone who is turned in by someone (often for a hefty fee) or rounded up in a sweep is guilty of heinous crimes? Why would you make such an arrogant assumption? Is it because they are not American or because they are not white?
Jenn of the Jungle said...
"35 seconds of forced immersion in water for murdering scum bags who would happily slice your head off."
but. . .
Jenn of the Jungle also said..."I was not aware that a trial had been held and their guilt confirmed."
Do you know the meaning of the word irony? It's not an "arrogant" assumption, it's a shameful display ignorance. Sad part is, she's not alone.
But hey, it's not her up against the wall, right?
Dearest Jenn of the Jungle:
You take umbrage at Jeff's omission of "alleged", yet are somewhat cavalier in your comments about people whom you don't really know, either. Have you ever been waterboarded or raped? I'd suggest, just as an intellectual exercise you hustle right down to the neares S&M club to see if you can find someone who will do the waterboarding (something tells me it's found it's way into the practice) and THEN you can talk about it from the standpoint of a particpant. I don't recommend being raped, I've been sexually assaulted (I was a wimpy little boy--not that it's any excuse for my submitting--I must have liked it).
Yes, "honor killings" are the work of cowards and chauvinists; people who engage in them are despicable. However, we in the U.S. are above all of that. Therein lies the difference between us and such despicable persons--or does it?
Jeff:
Well done.
democommie
You sir... on the odd occasion... simply rule.
JitJ - it's unlikely that those accused will ever be tried and convicted, since the only evidence in the case was turned over to the company employing all those involved in the incident and then "lost". And of course, we know that that the violence against women and children here in America is entirely different than that being perpetrated by not-white foreigners, isn't it? Finally, how do YOU know that waterboarding works?
American Honor Killings happen against women every day in America. Whenever a pathetic jealous husband or boyfriend stalks, traps, and murders some poor woman because they can't handle someone who thinks for themselves or acts independently, THAT is an honor killing. It happens 100s/1000s of times each year, in America.
American Honor Killings take place every day when a stranger murders a woman because he is a human monster and thinks he can get away with it. It happens 100s/1000s of times every year, in America.
The irony is that there is NO HONOR in killing anyone, especially someone taken by surprise or brutally overmatched
There is self-disgrace and betrayal of our own species when American Honor Killings are committed.
Yet these biased and cowardly commenters like "Jenn" who condemn OTHER cultures where honor killings happen but turn a BLIND EYE to even MORE widespread honor killings in their own United States of America (under which god would that be?) - what can you say about creeps like that? They will use anything to justify and broadcast their hatred and instead display their own ignorance and cowardice, their own twisted craven souls.
Also, American soldiers and CIA contractors, and the CIA, have been torturing many more innocent people, men, women, and children, caught up in wide-net roundups in Iraq and Afghanistan since even the beginnings of those wars, than they have actual insurgents. If you don't already realize that, or don't care, then you are either willfully ignorant or just as stupid and incurious as your traitor president. And if it's okay with you that citizens defending their own countries from illegal invasion and occupations are allowed to be tortured, then it would have to be okay with you for Americans to be tortured while defending their own country. Otherwise you would just be an sadistic ignorant warped monster yourself.
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I've got to wonder about the education level of someone like Jenn of the Jungle when I read a comment like hers.
I wonder if Jenn is aware of US actions in Chile in the 1970s and in Guatemala in the 50s through the 90s. I wonder if she would then see "places where Islam dwells" as being so full of murderous scumbags when compared to our handywork.
The rest of the world, which sees us as "murdering scumbags," has a pile of evidence to support their claims.
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