- Your interactive coolness for today: a most ingenious marine traffic map, tracking cargo ships in real time. You may have to zoom out and move around to find something. Click on the icons to see a photo & description of the ship. Via Coming Anarchy, one of whose commenters makes a depressing observation.
- Presidents aren’t supposed to skip nice round anniversary year events like the 20th of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But he will, and he’s taking heat for it. We honor the courage and sacrifice of our troops who served in shooting wars against totalitarian evil. Why not The Cold War? Does he think we’re all simply past all that? Or did someone try to tell him, and he was suffering a James T. Kirk moment?
- Japanese puppeteers? No, female Saudi TV news program hosts.
- A dubious veterans special interest group makes hay from the Ft. Hood slayings:
“I’m very upset. I’m at the point of tears,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, who lives in Austin.
“We warned the military about this. We warned the military about the need to increase the number of mental health care providers. We warned the military about lowering recruiting standards, about the medical exams for soldiers coming back from the war and needing mental health care and brain injury exams.”
“We have been working tirelessly to try to prevent this from happening,” he said. “This is so horrible. This is a tragedy.”
The proprietor of milblog ROK Drop calls BS:
I guess we are supposed to go duck under tables every time we hear a loud bang. We are supposed to stare off into space all the time and cannot sleep at night because of the nightmares of our war crimes. When someone makes us mad were supposed to go into a fit of rage and attack them and God forbid if we have a weapon handy we would then kill them. For those that haven’t already, I highly recommend reading B.G. Burkett’s book Stolen Valor to see exactly how the current perceptions of Vietnam veterans was created. It is really shocking and the same perceptions created about Vietnam veterans are now trying to be attributed to current war veterans as well.
What was the motivation of the Orlando shooting suspect? According to his reply to a shouted question from a reporter, he was angry.
Creep.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 8:46 pm #
The Veterans for Common Sense whores should have their own post. Using dead soldiers what some deranged muslim killed to indict the military is sick and The Statesman should fire this Denise Gamino slut I think for whoring out their newspaper like that. Welcome to Barack Obama’s America I guess. Sick.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 8:55 pm #
That Paul Sullivan guy might oughta steer clear of active duty soldiers for a few months, I think. I’d hate to see what would happen to him if someone among them had read that little hissy-fit outburst of his and ran into him while in a bad mood.
Comment by Pablo on 11/6 @ 9:00 pm #
The Army would have been better served by one less mental health professional yesterday.
Comment by Pablo on 11/6 @ 9:03 pm #
Oh. I was expecting a piracy concern. Damn.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:16 pm #
Whose tax dollars subsidize these whores? That would be ours I think.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:16 pm #
His heritage was Palestinian, but he didn’t even speak Arabic.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:17 pm #
Surveillance video taken at a convenience store that Hasan visited the morning of the shooting show him dressed in white: white skull cap, white leggings, a white tunic. Had he just been to morning prayers? Was he preparing for a martyrdom operation?
But this Muslim terrorist narrative won’t convince everyone.
Comment by AJB on 11/6 @ 9:17 pm #
Why? Are you saying that active duty American soldiers are retarded manchildren who can’t control their fits of rage and feel the need to assault people with different political views? Why do you hate the troops so much?
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:17 pm #
It could be Hasan was just struggling with demons of his own making.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 9:18 pm #
Hasan’s story continues to trickle out. I noticed this and thought it odd since Hasan’s parents were reported to have died years ago.
There was a report earlier tonight that the number of wounded had jumped from 31 to 38, though no explanation of the cause of change was given.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 9:20 pm #
Linkage for that last.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:20 pm #
Perhaps soldiers in the mayhem of the moment only imagined Hasan said “Allahu Akbar.” FBI investigators aren’t sure Hasan really did say those words before he started shooting.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:21 pm #
Psychologists say there is such a thing as “vicarious traumatization,” in which someone can be affected just by hearing what someone else has gone through.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 9:27 pm #
Will the psychologists be coining a new word on the order of theogenic mass murderer to describe jihadi type killing machines?
Comment by JD on 11/6 @ 9:31 pm #
AJB is trying to out-idiot meya and theas/racist willie.
Comment by Grisha on 11/6 @ 9:33 pm #
I’m getting awfully tired of every attack being described as a “tragedy”. Hurricanes and tsunami are tragedies. Mass murders are atrocities and should be called such. To do otherwise dishonors the fallen.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 9:35 pm #
“Hurricanes and tsunami are tragedies.”
Not really. Try the Iliad, Oedipus Rex, or if you want to go modern, Hamlet or MacBeth.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/6 @ 9:36 pm #
The tragedy thing doesn’t bug me. It’s usually not being called a tragedy when it’s called a tragedy it’s just shorthand for “that shit what just happened” I think.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 9:40 pm #
What gets lost is what bugs me. It isn’t that people mis-express their feelings of great sadness using tragedy in the unavoidable act of god situation, it’s that they have forgotten what tragedy was designed to teach us about ourselves.
Comment by Joe on 11/6 @ 9:43 pm #
Those idiots at NPR said no one can tell if religion is a factor, but then they report that Dr. Hasan addressed a medical board (where doctors give reports on latest medicines, therapies, etc.) with a rant on how non believers in Islam would have their heads cut off and hot oil poured down their throats for eternity. The doctors were horrified. Hasan was not describing Muslim extremist mentality, he was describing reality in hell for non believers. Another Muslim doctor in the audience challenged Hasan and Hasan refused to back down and argued with that doctor.
Then he went on a similar rant at another medical conference.
Could you imagine the outrage if some Christian stated anything even remotely like that? And that Hasan was not immediately suspended is amazing.
Hasan is obviously a criminal fanatic. I hate to say this (because it could take the death penalty off the table) but Hasan is potentially insane. The medical leadership that did not act in light of such comments by Husan are culpable in the deaths that occurred.
Comment by Joe on 11/6 @ 9:49 pm #
Tragedy is Macbeth having a fateful flaw (and a pain in the ass wife) that unravels his life and leads to his eventual downfall. Macbeth has the ability to stop the downfall, but the tragedy is he does not.
Pathos is when the Roman Emperor orders the death of some individual and his family and on their way to die, the little child daughter of the person sentanced to death promises to be good. The crowd weeps. She did nothing other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is nothing she can do to change her fate.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 9:51 pm #
“Could you imagine the outrage if some Christian stated anything even remotely like that?”
I remember a fellow named Lt. Gen Boykin caught an awful lot of grief for espousing his religious views back in 2002.
Comment by SBP on 11/6 @ 9:53 pm #
if you want to go modern, Hamlet or MacBeth.
Aha! You are J.R.R. Tolkien! Faked your own death back in ‘73, didn’t you?
Seriously, I remember reading a bit from Tolkien where he expressed annoyance about people assuming that he liked modern junk, such as Shakespeare.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 10:02 pm #
Heh, it’s hard as heck to know where to draw the line though isn’t it SBP? I’ve heard some people point to this guy others to this. Whateve’s, whicheve’s, it’s out there somewhere.
Comment by SBP on 11/6 @ 10:12 pm #
If I recall correctly, Tolkien accepted Chaucer. Grudgingly.
Comment by sdferr on 11/6 @ 10:21 pm #
G.C. strikes me as one of those most fortunate of men, free of the taint of mathematical physik, free indeed, of any idea of such a thing.
Comment by Joe on 11/6 @ 10:51 pm #
Obama failed to connect the dots…
Comment by Fletch on 11/7 @ 1:25 am #
Can I go O/T?
In the Columbus(OH) Dispatch today, they printed a column written by Froma Harrop on the Op/Ed page.
The title was “Tea-Baggers show how to lose a seat”…
I wrote my first ever email to anyone important– in this case – Benjamin Marrison – managing editor of the local bumwipe.
—————————————————————–
Mr Marrison-
I am writing about the Op/ed column by Froma Harrop entitled “Tea-Baggers show how to lose a seat” printed in today’s Dispatch.
I admit to being a little shocked at seeing an obscene sexual term used in a headline of a story in a family newspaper, and I can only await future headlines with language such as “fudge-packers”, “salad-tossers”, and/or “coal-burners”.
Regards
Scott F. Fletcher
4195 Waterside Pl.
Grove City, OH
————————————————————
Here’s the reply I received…(I must give him credit- The reply was less than 2 hrs after my original email)
———————————————————
Thanks for writing.
The vast majority of our readers have no idea that there’s a sexual
reference tucked into that expression. I guess I’m ignorant as to “coal
burners.” Can you elaborate?
Benjamin J. Marrison
Editor
The Columbus Dispatch
bmarrison@dispatch.com
614.461.8827
———————————–
I will now have to admit I’ve been drinking since 3PM -It’s Breeders Cup weekend- and I made more than a couple dollars on She Be Wild(pdf)–Yippee!!), and I also had league bowling tonight (I shot 683- with lots of “beer frames”!)… but I was really pissed that he referenced his audience’s supposed ignorance as a defense.
In my intoxicated state, I felt a response to Mr. Marrison was a “moral imperative”- so I replied thusly…
————————————————-
Mr. Marrison
Thank you for your reply…
The vast majority of our readers have no idea that there’s a sexual
reference tucked into that expression.
How many of your readers would understand “rug muncher” as a reference to lesbianism?
Can I expect to see a headline saying “Mary Jo Kilroy was really chewing the carpet last night” if she gives an extended speech on the floor of the House of Representatives?
BTW, “coal-burner” is an epithet usually applied to a white woman attracted to black males (though I have also heard it applied to white males–See Bill Maher).
If your “editors” and/or yourself are so completely clueless about comtemporary slang, please see UrbanDictionary.com
——————————————————–
Was I out of line?
After all, I didn’t mention that he was apparently familiar with both fudge-packing and salad-tossing…
Comment by maggie katzen on 11/7 @ 1:35 am #
nah, Fletch, but next I would bring up how error riddled her column is… right off the bat: “The Tea Party wing of the Republican Party” um.. someone’s not paying attention. and “for turning a congressional seat that had been in Republican hands for well over a century” um, no.
Those were just the things that jumped out at me… don’t care to fact check everything.
Comment by Fletch on 11/7 @ 1:51 am #
Maggie-
That’s my point…
If Ann Coulter shows up to give a speech at the local college, and leftists throw rotten lettuce and tomatoes at her, could you ever imagine seeing a headline in a newspaper calling them “salad tossers”?
Comment by maggie katzen on 11/7 @ 1:56 am #
googling around I came across this. I love how she’s all, “I had no idea!” mmm hmm, mmm hmm and where has she been since April?
Comment by maggie katzen on 11/7 @ 2:14 am #
WTH is she talking about?
Comment by happyfeet on 11/7 @ 2:16 am #
nice job Mr, Fletch…. realclearpolitics has degraded considerably and I hardly ever go there anymores really
Comment by happyfeet on 11/7 @ 2:20 am #
she’s a very stupid woman, really… or she thinks her readers are very very stupid. Probably both.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/7 @ 2:23 am #
if I wasn’t clear what I mean is this hoochie is so dumb in her dirty socialist little head that she’s given to taking journalists at their word. Almost no one’s that stupid.
Comment by Abe Froman on 11/7 @ 2:54 am #
googling around I came across this. I love how she’s all, “I had no idea!” mmm hmm, mmm hmm and where has she been since April?
Heh. I commented on her blog and couldn’t resist being a dick about it:
It is a perfectly understandable mistake. After all it is rather obvious that instead of being an insightful political observer in her own right, this columnist has her political opinions fed to her by the very media entities which have taken to referring to Tea Party protesters as “tea baggers.” In other words, the juvenile giggles and snickers which accompany this phrase in the insular liberal confines of coastal urbania wouldn’t necessarily trickle down to the poseurs playing dress-up in Ohio with the opinions manufactured for them in NYC and Washington.
Comment by B Moe on 11/7 @ 4:30 am #
I don’t think any of this stuff even brushes up against the frontal lobe before flying out of their heads.
Comment by serr8d on 11/7 @ 6:50 am #
Abe, your comment is still in moderation (who knew?). I left one as well, feeding off the last published comment, but it won’t see the light of day.
Comment by JPS on 11/7 @ 6:53 am #
We warned the military about this. We warned the military about the need to increase the number of mental health care providers.
I’ve about had it with people on any side of any issue who, when something godawful happens, exclaim, “See! This just goes to prove what I’ve been saying all along!”
No, it doesn’t, and even if it did, you should STFU until the period of sober reflection sets in, and even then, try not to sound triumphant about it.
Comment by serr8d on 11/7 @ 7:11 am #
Oh, and thanks! Sanity Inspector, for not linking Little Green Footballs. I’d rather read Daily Kos, nowadays.
Comment by tehag on 11/7 @ 7:25 am #
“Increase the number of mental health care providers”?! So that more psychiatrists can kill soldiers? I’d ask if Paul Sullivan were crazy, but the answer is obvious.
Comment by SBP on 11/7 @ 7:27 am #
Almost no one’s that stupid.
SFAG comes close.
It might be because they’re both taking their marching orders from a dirty little Hungarian muppet (tm, happyfeet).
Comment by alppuccino on 11/7 @ 8:55 am #
We use the Sunday Dispatch to start fires. It burns pretty colors. Way to go Fletch. Go Greyhounds! (not really, I’m from Picktown)