Rude is the New Polite
Isn't it generally understood that when you hang out with someone or go on a "date" with someone that you shouldn't start having long cell phone conversations in the middle of it? When did such interruptions become polite? Those nextel 2 way things are the worst -- you have to hear both sides of the impolite conversation. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was a short conversation or just saying "I'm busy. call ya later", but after a while, it's just not cool. Come on now; I'm not being unfair.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned or something, but I thought it was considered a good idea to pay attention to your date. Then again, I'm not hip to culture these days. Apparently, "rude" is the new "polite".
Witness the worst of human nature
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
--William Shakespeare
As I watched live footage of a foggy sunrise over Baghdad and listened to the familiar sounds of early morning: birds singing, dogs barking, a passing car; for a moment I was transported to that city of 6 million people and could almost smell the pleasant aroma of dawn in Spring. For a brief moment I imagined waking up to a beautiful sunrise and the beginnings of Spring only to be greeted with a barrage of 1,000lb. bombs dropping on my neighborhood. It is nearly impossible for most Americans to imagine such a situation. It is truly sickening to think about how sheltered we are when many people react with excitement towards the "fireworks" of this aggressive war.
It's been reported that the president went to bed early tonight -- around 10pm. Meanwhile, half a world away, on the president's orders, thousands of soldiers march into an uncertain, dangerous future, and millions of innocent Iraqis awake to death and destruction, again.
War being the greatest of evils, all its accessories necessarily partake of the same character.
--T.S. Eliot
My only "support" for the troops is to ask them to refuse to fight an illegal, immoral war. If they proceed, they are just as accountable as the Nazi military was. Ignorance of international law does not exempt those who would blindly follow their leaders into an unjust war.
A “just war” is hospitable to every self-deception on the part of those waging it, none more than the certainty of virtue, under whose shelter every abomination can be committed with a clear conscience.
--Alexander Cockburn
How many Iraqis will die in order for us to "liberate" them? Will we Americans even be allowed to see the true destruction that will result from this arrogant action?
What else can I say that has not already been said during the months and months of worldwide opposition to this war? Today marks a tragic point in history: the day when unbridled military power succeeded in dismantling international alliances, subverting strong world opinion, and ushering in a new age of blatant imperial ambitions.
Shed a tear for Freedom and Democracy tonight