Welcome home Maj. Swampcracker, Jr.!
I gotta admit that, as a pure civilian*, seeing the guy up front with the rifle strapped on seems odd. Moreso because of the caroling, of course, but even just standing around the barracks/assembly hall with other, unarmed, soldiers. It also seems odd that there are (distinctive-looking) rifles up on the walls, like Beowulf's mead-hall or something. Are they decorative, or do the soldiers grab them as they head out to battle?
Anyway, Merry Christmas to every last one, and a safe damned New Year.
* One of my best friends served, but in the Navy, so the guns were mostly attached to the ships; otherwise, the military is nothing I've dealt with personally
Soooo... the post title's ironic, right?
Cheerful compared to the last one? A commenter's family member is currently safe and uninjured? But say what you like on this thread -- I was just being touchy about the other one.
What's more cheerful than an armed Santa?
Also, how hot must that guy have been in a Santa suit in the desert?
They have winter in the desert too, you know.
In retrospect, 7 was an especially stupid comment, even for me.
What's more cheerful than an armed Santa?
Armless Santa certainly doesn't look cheerful.
It's ok, mrh. I read your comment and was like "yeah, no shit!" until I was like "wait a minute..."
9: 43C and smoke. Don't forget the smoke.
Iraq's equivalent of fog, one presumes.
6:But say what you like on this thread --
Don't tempt me.
Ya know, it ain't exactly as if I want people to be phony or inhuman or somethin. Just honest & impolitic & maybe rude.
Armless Santa certainly doesn't look cheerful.
But fits down the chimney much better.
rude to whom? just in general?
btw you are the most politicized one here i come to think
sorry, just being rude
Armless Santa certainly doesn't look cheerful.
I can tell you this much: That was the last time I got put on the naughty list.
I don't think Bob would take "politicized" as an insult, read.
LB, I see nothing cheerful at all in looking at pictures of soldiers who are soon to return to Iraq. Every time I look at something like this I wonder what I'm supposed to feel. Am I supposed to feel some sense of national pride? Wish the soldiers "luck," whatever that means in this context? Or should I say what I actually feel, that these people should refuse to go back, that they should get the hell out of this country if they have to, that in going to Iraq they're not fighting for their country or for my freedom or for some abstract concept of national service but for a war crime, and that none of this is worth killing or dying for?
16:btw you are the most politicized one here i come to think
Not at all offended. I believe the consciously phony split between the personal & the political is at the root of many or most of our worst human tragedies.
I suppose many others agree, but have what I see as strange and counterproductive understandings of that interface. They really really think the same of me, but the social norms enable them to think of me as hateful & wicked. I certainly don't think of them that way. Mostly I'm very sad.
Why anyone would play the curved soprano is beyond me. They look cool but the sound is totally unmanageable, unless you're playing on one of a very few (exceedingly expensive) models. You can't get hit the C/C# on the fly without sounding off by at least a half dollar, and the G# cluster keypad feels unnatural. I wouldn't exactly complain if someone gave me, say, a Yanigasawa SC991, but I'd trade it fast for this beauty.
i can't believe i tried to insult someone
it's not in my peace-loving nature, revolting
i just tried to play along if you might mention
well, getting moldy fruits in return is not worth of efforts though
Just so we're clear, 22 is a non sequitur, right?
Sometimes read's comments make me doubt my own command of English. It took me a few scans to figure out where the additional word in 17 fit in 16. It's like a puzzle!
There's a sax choir playing in the video, ben, if you'd bother to support the troops long enough to watch it.
I saw C/C# in Armsmasher's comment, and assumed it was about computer programming. There is hope, but not for me.
19:Every time I look at something like this I wonder what I'm supposed to feel.
I suspect you are supposed to feel compassion & empathy.
I have never said this is easy. Over the weekend, I have pretty much decided that this is a more intractable & personally painful...hegemony?...than capitalism or gender roles. We really can't talk about it, or act on it, when it counts.
I suspect you are supposed to feel compassion & empathy.
I do, Bob, which is the problem. I empathize with them as people, not as fellow members of the American Team, which means I also empathize with the other people they're supposed to kill.
And I don't fundamentally disagree. Eh. I put this up as "Look, a commenter's daughter, doing something generally dangerous but as of now all right!" Your reactions aren't misplaced or wrong, it's just not what I was thinking in making the post.
29: Not sure what you mean here. Say more, pls.
(Yes, I just encouraged mcmanus to expound further. I like to live dangerously.)
31:Your reactions aren't misplaced or wrong
I am never so certain, and usually have feelings & propositions rather than conclusions. Those feelings may well be pathological, and I am not certain enough of their origins to take any credit. I will take some blame for their expressions in public.
Emerson "opposes relationships" by which I presume he mostly means romantic relationships. I have some problems with socialization, and maybe I just try to rationalize & justify a pathology.
We live in the world we live in, with people as they are. Revolutions will be catastrophic and agonizing and cruel, and the old ways, for all their horrendous costs, may provide us...I can't seem to finish this.
32:I approach this subject obliquely and cautiously, because I can put names & faces of good people on it.
And I don't want to hurt anybody and I don't know if it is worth it.
Revolutions will be catastrophic and agonizing and cruel,
you could just drop to endorse it
whatever it provides, revolution i mean
22: Straight soprano saxes are easier. But the curved ones are so kyute!
35:The concept of Revolution provides hope. The role of Revolutionary provides...well, the problem with self-analysis is the counter-transference.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Plato* ...quoted by Andrew Olmsted at the start of his posthumous post.
Who the fuck am I to tell Andrew he is wrong? Who the fuck am I to tell hilzoy she is wrong?
Who would listen? What would be the point?
re: 22
I saw Tommy Smith playing one, once. In a sort of 'third stream' recital [Chopin + improv]. Sounded amazing. But then again, he can probably afford a really good sax.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZbM4Onquws
Hi mrh--Just wanted to say that the sandwich shop we dropped by on the way to the bus station made a good Italian sub. Much better than Subway would have been.
37: History would seem to be on Olmstead's and Plato's side of that argument. The only things that change are the technologies and rationales for killing the other guy.
4: Those rifles on the wall look like trophies taken from snipers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVD