A bit more serious this time. This one is cute, touching, and a little troubling, but I liked it.
For the dreamer in all of us
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Author Archives: wellsdc
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Pardon me while I mock someone’s grammar
I’m not sure if this is a grammatical problem or a semantic one, but who really cares anyway? A post from yesterday about the President’s totally unsurprising veto had this passage:
Today’s Washington Post contains the headline, “April Toll is Highest of ’07 for U.S. Troops”. More than 100 Americans have been killed in the past month. This brings the death toll, the ultimate cost for this “War of Failed Leadership” closer to the 3500 mark then ever before.
Now here’s the question: the death toll is closer to the 3500 mark “than ever before” (I’ll skip over the spelling error and go for the jugular)–how could we have been closer to 3500 at some point before now? How does a death toll go back down after it goes up? I’ve studied quite a bit of history and followed the news most of my life, and I am quite confident that death tolls only go in one direction. I guess you could question the methodology by which the death toll is calculated (i.e. initial estimates overshot the mark), but I don’t think that’s it. Most likely, it was a poorly chosen cliche in a hastily written post, but it still messed with my head when I read it.
Also, how sad is it that I am turning to semantic (or grammatical) mockery to avoid thinking abouit what a complete clusterfuck this whole thing is?
Oh snap! vol. 2
Gary Hart, who is probably much, much more qualified to opine on global terrorism than any of the chuckleheads vying for the Repubs’ nomination, gives Rudy Giuliani a much-needed ass-smackin’ today.
The Buckley has spoken
People don’t kill people, bombs kill people
Apparently deaths from car bombs in Iraq are not being counted in the new figures showing “declining violence.” The key apparently is that the number of executions has decreased, which is good. As for the increasing number of car bombings??? Well, let me first point out that Chewbacca is a wookie, but wookies don’t live on Endor…
Also, Mahablog has perhaps the best comment on Malkin’s “Bring It On” moment:
[T]hey’re out of even nonsensical arguments and have resorted to flinging feces.
Dr. Freud, your slip is showing
Via Think Progress:
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, covering yesterday’s flag-draped coffin procession for the Blue Angels pilot who died in a crash last weekend:
This is a scene we are not accustomed to see during war times. They don’t allow us to see the victims — uh, heroes who died for us in Iraq. We don’t get to see their caskets come back. It’s a wonderful honor to be able to pay tribute to this man in this way. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were able to do this with the hundreds upon hundreds who have died for us in Iraq?
Ouch.
WTF???
Just go look at this. If you think it’s either (a) intentionally funny or (b) even remotely insightful, please let me know why.
Real American Heroes
Jessica Lynch and Mary Tillman, for standing up for the truth. “The truth always is more heroic than the hype.”
This is the problem, folks
From an interview with Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich on ESPN.com:
In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he’d learned Kevin Tillman, Pat’s brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother’s body was returned to the United States.
Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family’s unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.
In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: “When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don’t believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don’t know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough.”
Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans’ religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, “I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know.”
Hey asshole, maybe they are upset because you, and the rest of the military, have lied to them for the past two years! Not that it matters, but who ever said anything about the Tillmans being atheist? “Not Christian” and atheist are different concepts, but I doubt this guy can comprehend that. Would you honestly be perfectly hunky-dory fine with losing a member of your family this way just because you believe he/she is now in heaven? The fact that Spc. Tillman died is just as tragic as the deaths of the other 3,000-something American men and women and the countless Iraqis and Afghans (please note that it was a group of self-styled Christians who started the tragedy in Iraq in the first place). The fact that a b.s. story has been spun about it all this time is criminal, and, based on everything I have ever been taught in my life, pretty fricking un-Christian.