“Listen, Beatles Rock Band: When I sing Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds like @WilliamShatner, it isn’t “messy”. It’s AWESOME.” — wilw
- Denial
- Denial
- Denial
- Denial
- Panic
[video]
I’m never eating anything else. It’s nature’s perfect food.
gpoyw
Welcome to tumblr Mr. Man!!!
National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 2009 - The Big Picture - Boston.com
(via ondiru)
BEEEoootiful!
![squashed:
The picture shows a soldier’s return greeting with, presumably, her daughter. Unfortunately, whenever a picture of an unguarded moment makes its way to the internet, some troll wants to demonstrate that, unlike the rest of the mere mortals, they’re unaffected by things like feelings. Thus, douchemonger captions the picture
Just home from killing children
When a picture juxtaposes the raw humanity of parental love, the joy of reunion, hope for a better future, against an implied background of war, terror, senseless brutality, and everything seeking to kill everything right in the world, it takes a sick mind to dismiss it like that. Not cool. It’s an offense to every bit of us that isn’t dead to passion.
Of course, it’s also a mistake to ignore the horror of war. And it’s an even worse mistake to be that anonymous guy in the suit, walking through the background, pretending he isn’t complicit.
Pantspocket responds a bit differently.
Those men and women over there who are serving our country are doing so because you (whatever douchemonger wrote this) are not brave enough to do so. You wouldn’t have the balls if they were hanging down off your fucking chin. You think that just because you don’t agree with the war that the men and women serving have to kowtow to your own personal beliefs? Do you even know what the fuck goes on over there? Oh, no, that’s right, you don’t because YOU’RE NOT OVER THERE. These men and women leave their family: their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, their children, their spouses, their aunts, their uncles and their cousins. Not to mention leaving their friends so they can protect YOUR freedom, asshole.[…]
RobotHeartPolitics responds,
I have issues with this. You say you respect people’s opinions on the war, and then you rip them for making a negative statement about a soldier? Um, you have heard the word “contradictory” before, haven’t you?
And that statement isn’t even so much an opinion as it is a fact. Iraq Body Count keeps a list of all the people who are killed in Iraq, and a surprising (or not surprising, for those of us who have been paying attention for the last several years) number of the casualties are, in fact, children. I say this as the sister of someone currently serving in the military (although thankfully, not currently in Iraq.) This isn’t an issue of bravery or cowardice or any of the romantic bullshit that surrounds war in general. This is an issue of fact: children are casualties of war, and despite the best efforts of many, children continue and will continue to die in Iraq.
…
I agree that the anger is misdirected at the soldiers. (For the most part. The reports about soldiers and American mercenaries who have intentionally killed children and civilians are disturbing and not to be taken lightly.) If you’d just said, “Your problem is with the government. Most of the soldiers are just there because it was a good way for them to have decent pay and benefits and access to a college education. Leave them alone,” I would have been all for your argument.
…
The first comment was disrespectful, to be sure. The second, though, exemplifies all of the blind patriotism and romantic ignorance that makes it possible for hundreds of children to be killed (for no legitimate or honorable reason, actually) to begin with.
I think both reactions miss something important. The costs of war are borne by combatants and noncombatants, young and old, friend and foe. Its casualties include those who never make it home and those who never quite make it all the way home. And the responsibility for war doesn’t stop with those fighting in it.
Does blaming the soldiers help us ignore our own culpability? I’m responsible for the war in Afghanistan because I pay my taxes. I vote for politicians who won’t take a hard stand for pacifism. I drive my car with my cheap, blood-infused gasoline. I patronize industries supported by military contracts. I patronize businesses that pay their taxes. I encourage others to vote, to engage in their community, and to partake of a society that excretes violence.
I do it all because I like war. That’s not true. I abhor it. But I don’t abhor it enough to take any risks for what I believe. I don’t follow Thoreau into withdrawal from a society I am no longer willing to be part of. In short, I don’t dislike war enough to take any risks to oppose it. At least the soldier in the picture has the courage of her convictions.
And me? I quietly disapprove and pretend it isn’t my fault.
I’m with squashed on this one.](http://5.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktne8oKQ1U1qzxzwwo1_500.jpg)
The picture shows a soldier’s return greeting with, presumably, her daughter. Unfortunately, whenever a picture of an unguarded moment makes its way to the internet, some troll wants to demonstrate that, unlike the rest of the mere mortals, they’re unaffected by things like feelings. Thus, douchemonger captions the picture
Just home from killing childrenWhen a picture juxtaposes the raw humanity of parental love, the joy of reunion, hope for a better future, against an implied background of war, terror, senseless brutality, and everything seeking to kill everything right in the world, it takes a sick mind to dismiss it like that. Not cool. It’s an offense to every bit of us that isn’t dead to passion.
Of course, it’s also a mistake to ignore the horror of war. And it’s an even worse mistake to be that anonymous guy in the suit, walking through the background, pretending he isn’t complicit.
Pantspocket responds a bit differently.
Those men and women over there who are serving our country are doing so because you (whatever douchemonger wrote this) are not brave enough to do so. You wouldn’t have the balls if they were hanging down off your fucking chin. You think that just because you don’t agree with the war that the men and women serving have to kowtow to your own personal beliefs? Do you even know what the fuck goes on over there? Oh, no, that’s right, you don’t because YOU’RE NOT OVER THERE. These men and women leave their family: their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, their children, their spouses, their aunts, their uncles and their cousins. Not to mention leaving their friends so they can protect YOUR freedom, asshole.
[…]RobotHeartPolitics responds,
I have issues with this. You say you respect people’s opinions on the war, and then you rip them for making a negative statement about a soldier? Um, you have heard the word “contradictory” before, haven’t you?
And that statement isn’t even so much an opinion as it is a fact. Iraq Body Count keeps a list of all the people who are killed in Iraq, and a surprising (or not surprising, for those of us who have been paying attention for the last several years) number of the casualties are, in fact, children. I say this as the sister of someone currently serving in the military (although thankfully, not currently in Iraq.) This isn’t an issue of bravery or cowardice or any of the romantic bullshit that surrounds war in general. This is an issue of fact: children are casualties of war, and despite the best efforts of many, children continue and will continue to die in Iraq.
…
I agree that the anger is misdirected at the soldiers. (For the most part. The reports about soldiers and American mercenaries who have intentionally killed children and civilians are disturbing and not to be taken lightly.) If you’d just said, “Your problem is with the government. Most of the soldiers are just there because it was a good way for them to have decent pay and benefits and access to a college education. Leave them alone,” I would have been all for your argument.
…
The first comment was disrespectful, to be sure. The second, though, exemplifies all of the blind patriotism and romantic ignorance that makes it possible for hundreds of children to be killed (for no legitimate or honorable reason, actually) to begin with.
I think both reactions miss something important. The costs of war are borne by combatants and noncombatants, young and old, friend and foe. Its casualties include those who never make it home and those who never quite make it all the way home. And the responsibility for war doesn’t stop with those fighting in it.
Does blaming the soldiers help us ignore our own culpability? I’m responsible for the war in Afghanistan because I pay my taxes. I vote for politicians who won’t take a hard stand for pacifism. I drive my car with my cheap, blood-infused gasoline. I patronize industries supported by military contracts. I patronize businesses that pay their taxes. I encourage others to vote, to engage in their community, and to partake of a society that excretes violence.
I do it all because I like war. That’s not true. I abhor it. But I don’t abhor it enough to take any risks for what I believe. I don’t follow Thoreau into withdrawal from a society I am no longer willing to be part of. In short, I don’t dislike war enough to take any risks to oppose it. At least the soldier in the picture has the courage of her convictions.
And me? I quietly disapprove and pretend it isn’t my fault.
I’m with squashed on this one.
Over here are a couple of friends loving me up and telling me I’m worth more; over there a friend just gave me what felt kind of like a smackdown for not showering for two days and surrounding myself with miserable people. Alrighty then. Perhaps I’ll re-read that when I’m in a better mood.
I think you’re awesome.