He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt.
He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice.
This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once.
Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action!
It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert Einstein
Category Archives: War
all together now: who’s for a ceasefire?
from the Independent, via Nag on the Lake
cartoon o’ the day: Aislin in the Montreal Gazette
Thanks to Metro for the pointer.
Operation Global Media Domination: award-winning roundup
I’d like to thank all the little people…before they turn on me.
Also the Generator Blog, from whence I stole this Web-award generator. Hey, no sense in waiting for the grass to grow, eh? I thought I’d give all those web-awarders a helping hand. That’s right; raincoaster is always thinking of others. So put your feet up, guys. I’ve gotcha covered.
Meanwhile, in Operation Global Media Domination news, I am happy to report that I have cracked the top 89,000 on Technorati, out of about 45 million blogs, and only since the second-last day of February, when I started the blog. Mother would be so proud. Thanks are particularly due all those Brits who have mistaken me for one of themselves, and a True Patriot at that. Look, I hate Tony Blair as much as any of you, but I also have extremely mixed feelings. It’s…it’s complicated, okay??? Oh yeah, and somebody came to the blog looking for BoJo Porn; try the Times.
The posts most responsible for this rush to the cranial summit of the blogosphere are, of course, Beautiful Agony and 101 Bottles of diet coke, 523 mentos, and 2 mad scientists. Baby Eagles are still big in parts of Cyberia, and some poor, demented dude keeps hitting the blog every damn day looking for Charo porn and finding only a cool, Up With Queers music video. Speaking of gays, Ernest and Bertram went viral for a day or so, landing on a couple of forums across the ocean until the bandwidth got bustickated or whatever it is that happens to bandwidth; short form, E&B viral campaign snipped in the bud, dammit!!!
The latest potentially-viral stars are a couple of YouTubers: Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager, the sad tale of Darth‘s loserish brother’s humdrum life, and Paris Hilton stewing, nearly nekkid, in poop soup. Then there’s the Found Porn Slideshow, always a big hit with the Neanderthals.
The only serious post that’s showing any longevity is From Israel, With Love, the Update which is good as the MSM and much of the blogosphere including BoingBoing seems to have got the story substantially wrong, even after corrections.
So that’s all for this edition of Operation Global Media Domination, other than to say that going offline for a few days actually increased the hits. When I went on vacation, my “take it for granted” number of hits was 300. Now it’s 650.
I should take more vacations.
From Israel with love: the Update
You remember this, right?
“perhaps the parents were not wise when they encouraged their children to doodle on the tank shells. They were letting off a little steam after being cooped up — afraid, angry and isolated — for days. Sometimes people do silly things when they are under emotional stress. Especially when they fail to understand how their childish, empty gesture might be interpreted.”
It might even be interpreted correctly.
As you’ll have read from the link Xeni Jardin posted in the comments on my original post, it was the parents of these children who originally wrote messages on the shells. Then they encouraged their children to do it as well, showing off for the photographers.
Both mainstream media and the blogosphere have lept to the conclusion that the media was responsible.
Israelis say that’s not so. Check the comments here on Cold Desert, where an Israeli says that it’s “It’s sort of a traditional joke in Israel. We all do that.” Even if the photographers hadn’t been there, they’d have done the same thing. Apparently, this is quite de rigeur in these situations, so assume it’s still going on.
And the articles themselves say that’s not so; they say the parents were responsible. The parents wrote the messages, the parents told the kids to add to them. So, what this appeared to be, children in intimate contact with artillery and encouraged to write anti-Lebanese thoughts on the shells, was exactly what it was.
I wish it had been otherwise. I still cannot understand why the media is blaming the media when it is clearly not the media’s fault. Self-hatred doesn’t cover it. The general public believes what the media reports over what the government reports, so it can’t be pandering. Might it be our cultural filter, that just doesn’t want to believe there are people raising their children that way?
I wonder, if the children had been Lebanese, how this all might have played out quite differently.
raincoaster 