May 30
...serving up your daily dish.
And the point of this was? How many innocent Iraqis were also killed by terrorist fanatics on these days? How many Jews? How many Palestinians? How many Sudanese? Et al? How many more deaths were plotted today by Basque terrorists? By jihadists? By Chechens? By the IRA (who will probably also throw bank robbery into the equation? Et al?
The point of Memorial Day, I always naively imagined, was to honor the sacrifice of others. Alive and serving and dead because they served. Not to try and score a (shaky at best) political point. Besides, the day has it origins in commemorations of the Civil War. Surely that conflict isn't controversial on this web site?
Posted by: cathar | May 30, 2005 12:29:38 PM
Well, the religious right of its day were the most vehement anti-slavery folks in the North anyway. Lincoln was famously ambivalent about slavery until well into the war. So was it a combination of the religious right plus the big lie (i.e. that the war was, initially at least, fought over slavery) that led us to the bloody carnage of the Civil War (aka War Between the States aka War for Southern Independence)?
Posted by: former ridger | May 30, 2005 12:47:32 PM
If the point is that we should remember the fallen with respect every day then I agree.
Somehow the casual "tossed-off" jetsam of the "days" makes the true purpose of the cartoon all to clear: one cartoonist's way of honoring the fallen is to claim their deaths to be worthless and in vain.
A popular, I am sure, notion in these parts.
The true problem with liberalism (any more because it was not always the case) is that it is a political ideology bereft of a foundation of belief in, well, anything much at all -- save for the self-righteous sanctimony of its adherents.
If solipsism is the sum-total of your beliefs then, necessarily, all casualty due to any external belief is necessarily "in vain".
Such is the "spirit of the day" here in "Blue" America! No need or desire to simply honor the dead in a neutral way. Far to generous a thought that perhaps even if you think their deaths were in vain, they surely did not. Far be it for us to simply say that "we honor your sacrifice". Much too complicated a notion, hereabouts. Especially when there are cheap political points to be made - more self-gratifying gyrations one can "spill" forth.
Posted by: Right of Center | May 30, 2005 1:28:07 PM
I hate to take away from all the momentous talk of Memorial Day, but...
I'M DONE!!!!
Exams: over. My academic career: ended (for now). Today I had my last exam! Yay!
Posted by: Marshall | May 30, 2005 1:30:11 PM
Well, I went to a parade this morning and saw a young serviceman in his dress white uniform, white gloves, crew cut... and it made me want to cry. God as my witness he didn't look a day over 15 years old. I guess he had to be 18. He looked so young and so proud, and all I wanted to do was to thank God that my boys are home and safe and that this boy would be kept safe, too.
Posted by: gc | May 30, 2005 1:36:31 PM
This thread is a perfect example of how one might want to join in here, but the same vicious, hateful, and, unfortunately, ubiquitous posters make the whole endeavor unappealing. It's like walking into a room with a foul odor, and I'm sure I'm not alone in choosing to simply click on (this time with these words thrown over my shoulder).
Posted by: Martin | May 30, 2005 2:11:00 PM
Yeah, it always irks me that the "I Hate America" crowd fails to see irony in that American lives lost in wartime are responsible for their right to condemn that same America.
Try doing this in Beirut or North Korea and see where it gets you.
Posted by: Miss Martta | May 30, 2005 2:12:40 PM
Man, I don't visit here often cuz of the skanks that haunt these off precints e.g. ROC, cathar, etc. but I gotta say this:
Get over it, you sanctimonious clueless assholes! You have no idea what the progressives, liberals, Democrats even modestly moderates think --- you're still locked into the Archie Bunker worldview. Absolutely incredible...
Hey, dig it: Every evening I line my kids up when they're around and we all stop what we're doing and sit in silence reading the names of the newly fallen heroes in Iraq that only Lehrer and PBS Newshour are brave and patriotic enough to broadcast.
These men and women are dying for no good reason and that's a criminal act that I hope someday men like Wolfowitz, Bush and Rumsfeld will be prosecuted - at least in the dungeons and courthouses of their individual tortured souls.
On this Memorial Day, I salute the dead and wounded of our proud land and wish deep props and condolences to their surviving kin.
To the yipping, reactionary tools on this list I can only hope someday you suffer a similar pain. I mean it.
So how about it?... maybe just maybe with a little effort, you can wrench your swollen, dizzy, hateful heads outta your sorry Reagna-era asses and get on with life creatively, constructively - hey --- lovingly!...
Thom Kennon
Posted by: Thom Kennon | May 30, 2005 2:38:37 PM
Why does everything have to be so freaking political and divisive. It's Memorial Day - it's not about you it's about people like my Uncle who died in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and his body was never recovered. It's about brave soldiers who fight - regardless of politics - for a nation not any one political leader. It's about alll those Americans who have died so others could have a taste of freedom. I just left Beirut this morning and it would be nice, just once to log on to this blog without having to see everything boiled down to the hate Bush, love Bush bifurcation.Honor the fallen and take a moment to be silent to remember that there have been people who have actually sacrificed everthing just so people like us can bitch an moan about how terrible everything is. This makes me sick. Maybe I will stay an extra week.
Posted by: Jmo | May 30, 2005 2:52:31 PM
Assholes like Cathar and ROC poison
the atmosphere here.
This time I decided to announce that I am taking my business elsewhere.
Posted by: Angry/Sad/Confused | May 30, 2005 3:04:29 PM
"To the yipping, reactionary tools on this list I can only hope someday you suffer a similar pain. I mean it."
There's a lot of love out there today, oh yeah.
Posted by: Reactionary Tool, Yipping | May 30, 2005 3:10:46 PM
Touche! Who ever this is (why do people cowardly hide behind pretend names!?) i take it back. That was a nasty slice. My bad.
TK
Posted by: Thom Kennon | May 30, 2005 3:23:09 PM
jmo is of course correct. My broadside against liberalism was not fitting the day and was owing to anger and weakness on my part and I wish I had not said it. However, on this of all days, I won't sit idly by when cartoons like the one above are published. I'll take nothing back that I said regarding that cartoon and it's message.
Posted by: Right of Center | May 30, 2005 3:57:12 PM
> If the point is that we should remember the fallen with respect every day then I agree.
> Somehow the casual "tossed-off" jetsam of the "days" makes the true purpose of the cartoon all to clear: one cartoonist's way of honoring the fallen is to claim their deaths to be worthless and in vain.
I took the cartoon to mean that we should also think about the soldiers who are dying on THIS DAY, while we are honoring those who have gone before them. The sacrifice doesn't just stop because we're having a "holiday."
Posted by: Chris the Despised | May 30, 2005 4:08:52 PM
Yes, Chris-- and, BTW, you're one of my favorite posters, so don't feel bad--I interpreted it as reminding people that they should think about the lost lives every day, not just on the designated day.
I don't see it as saying the deaths were "worthless". Were they "in vain"? I would say so, but the cartoon doesn't.
Posted by: latebloomer | May 30, 2005 4:18:30 PM
Maybe it's a good cartoon after all -- it seems subject to at least two interpretations.
Oops, LB, I didn't realize "the Despised" was still attached to my name. That was supposed to be a one-time joke for the poll. I'm not feeling bad about that.
But thanks for your kind comment -- and the feeling is mutual.
Posted by: Chris | May 30, 2005 4:33:55 PM
Thom Kennon says Man, I don't visit here often ...
Thank goodness! What a hate-filled, one-sided rant -- on Memorial Day, no less. It really tickled me to see you use words like "sanctimonious" and "swollen, dizzy, hateful heads" while you wish pain on people due to political views.
There are millions of recently purple-fingered Iraqis that might beg to differ with your characterization of whether our men and women in Iraq are "dying for no good reason."
Here's to hoping that you may, some day, actually "get on with life creatively, constructively - hey --- lovingly," because you have fallen far short today.
Posted by: Anonymous because Thom Kennon is so quick to judge | May 30, 2005 4:44:22 PM
Don't you all have a bar-b-que to go to or something???????
Posted by: Pam | May 30, 2005 4:48:52 PM
I repeat:
Let us all honor the fallen dead and wounded, and their crushed families and loved ones.
and screw this asshole anonymous poster.
stand up, dude, and attach your ideas to a name and face you freaking coward.
Thom Kennon
Posted by: Thom Kennon | May 30, 2005 4:51:55 PM
stand up, dude, and attach your ideas to a name and face you freaking coward
Yeah, like you are sooo courageous, calling people out on the internet. I will not reveal myself.
You have already been revealed as a snarky, sanctimonious, unloving, disrespectful, hate-filled hypocrite...
" stand up, dude"
... and a sexist, too!
You don't like that you came on an internet message board, spewed hypocrisy and venom, and got called on it? Too freakin' bad.
Do you have a coherent argument about why it would be good for Saddam to still be in power, or will you just stick to shedding crocodile tears for the dead and wounded while demanding names and faces of those with whom you disagree?
Posted by: Anonymous because Thom Kennon is so quick to judge | May 30, 2005 5:39:24 PM
Ahem... Who ARE you?
Stand up like a man and I will debate.
Otherwise, stop wasting everybody's time with your panty-waist, anonymous dodges.
TK
Posted by: Thom Kennon | May 30, 2005 5:59:02 PM
Ahhh, so nice to see such an open mind.
The appeal to the crowd is a nice touch -- yes, let's not waste people's time(!) -- while strutting around with tough guy posturing.
"panywaist?"
You call "courage" revealing one's self to a hostile, testosterone-y cock-of-the-walk poster? You are so butch!
People surely will appreciate your COURAGE. When they see you around town from now on, maybe they will think to themselves, "ooooh, there goes a courageous, non-pantywaisted real man! He knows how to celebrate Memorial Day in the bravest way, by using his real name on the intarnets."
It's OK that you're feeling exposed and stupid, what with all the name calling that you started with, but doing more of it does not further impress. I bet you're the guy at the customer service window who DEMANDS TO SEE THE MANAGER! while looking around at all those poor idiots in line behind you. They don't have your special courage. Maybe, when your sending your food back at the restaurant, you toss in something like "tell him it's for Thom Kennon" to ensure that your food gets better treatment!
Demand my name again! Go ahead, do it! You're the substitute teacher with his zipper open -- hit from behind by a spitball, and you can't stand it. I bet you've even used the phrase, "don't you know who I am?" to some feckless, minimum wage sucker who obviously is a pantywaist and who doesn't live their life as lovingly as you do.
To frustrate you further, I get the last word!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Posted by: Anonymous because Thom Kennon is so quick to judge | May 30, 2005 6:36:18 PM
