Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, February 11, 2007
"Home of the Brave"
Off to a job today, but check this out:
http://www.everytopicintheuniverseexceptchickens.com/good old wikipedia…
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 02/11 at 08:54 AMHello Expendables. Again, not too chilly today.
Cat Lady: Thanks for the link. It always makes me chuckle to see folks poking fun at Wiki and its founder.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/11 at 11:05 AMhello everyone.
just read those comments mickey. how surprised were you by them?
and i have a bit of advice…
never overload your donkey cart…
http://tinyurl.com/y8fqf3Posted by michael on from scotland 02/11 at 11:28 AMMZ, I read all the comments at to your “Why I Hate America” article at Kos. There is a noticable change in tone, perhaps a quarter or a third of the readers seem to be receptive to your piece. Fantastic. Obviously, they hate you for not offering yourself up for slaughter in the comments section. But whatever. They’re all welcome here, I think.
Interesting experiment. Shift the debate <------ this way.
Posted by Keir on from the hague 02/11 at 11:29 AMhello keir, i liked your newest blog.
and also...have you ever noticed that all white people look the same?
http://tinyurl.com/2x5wp8Posted by michael on from scotland 02/11 at 11:44 AMHey Keir and Michael. I started posting stuff at DK to see what the liberals would do but also because the right wing monitors that site. Sadly, they think DK speaks for “the left.” So, I’m reaching two new audiences in one shot. The end result, of course, is mostly vicious attacks (one right wing spent hours constructing two long blog posts about me)...and RMJ can tell you more about being on the receiving end of that. Still, as Keir sez, it’s an experiment.
The piece I posted at DK today, interestingly, has gotten a much better reception:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/11/7403/59678Michael: I’ll check out your links later.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/11 at 12:06 PMHi James, michael, Mickey, and Keir.
I’m with Keir...shift the debate <-------. For too long the center has been so far to the right that the real left is off the scale.
Great topic today. The troops are employees of the people; therefore, the people are responsible for what they do. The troops are part of the war machine. George Bush has no private army, no planes, and no bombs. It is the people who make the war machine possible. Who has the greater responsibility the factory worker who makes the bombs, the pilot who transports the bombs, or the bombardier who drops the bombs? Maybe the people who provide the money to manufacture the bombs have the most responsibility. No matter how you look at this issue, I don’t see how anyone can say that someone is not responsible for his actions. Wearing a uniform might make a fashion statement, but it never gives anyone the right to kill civilians.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/11 at 12:57 PMHi again everybody. Rosemarie, not that I disagree with you, but you do know that, at least for now, wearing the uniform of the US Armed Forces means never having to say you’re sorry. That’s what we’re all trying to change I guess.
I agree about going after the people who finance the production of weapons. The portfolios of 99 percent of stock investors worldwide would have to be frozen. Cool.
Posted by Keir on from the hague 02/11 at 01:09 PMKeir...I agree. You are saying that wearing a uniform means that what happens in Fallujah, stays in Fallujah? It seems that that is way that it is. Those who speak up usually face punishment. I still like that old Jack Nicholson line, “The truth, you can’t stand the truth.” The usa can’t stand the truth. Everytime someone steps out of line, like Phil Donahue did at the beginning of the war, they paid a high price. Now we have the same thing happening to the Wash Post reporter/blogger, Bill Arkin. Even General Electric weighed in on that one just last week. Of course GE has a vested interest in silencing anti-war speech.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/11 at 01:55 PMAlong those lines, RMJ, Michele and I saw a documentary about the Dixie Chicks last night. They made one benign comment about Bush and were banned, boycotted, and received death threats.
Btw, the movie was excellent:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/shutupandsingPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/11 at 02:02 PMMickey...yes, I have followed that whole saga about the Dixie Chicks. I am not a fan of that kind of music but the lyrics that they wrote about the hate that they faced are great. “I’m not ready to make nice”...every once in awhile I pull up those lyrics for inspiration. They showed a lot of spunk and held their ground even though it cost them a lot of money.
Can this be true? Only in America…
http://tinyurl.com/249nv3Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/11 at 02:12 PMI’m in seventh heaven today, your Why I Hate America essay and centipedes all in one post!
Posted by Buddhamonkeydevil on from 02/11 at 04:08 PMYes, Buddha… I agree, Great article from Mickey. He says,”...it’s neither fashionable nor acceptable to go as far as saying, no, I do not support the troops and yes, I hate what America does...” I wonder what happened to the national psyche that allowed for the calling of “baby killers” during Vietnam and does not allow for ANY criticism now.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/11 at 04:43 PMThanks, Buddhamonkeydevil. I was blown away when I first saw that centipede video.
Btw, here’s a comment someone left for me on another site:
All your anti-war articles are boring. What is the logic behind your anti-war articles? Why and why shouldn’t we go to war? So what if some Iranians die? So what if even all of them die? Who cares? I know you do, but why? Why do you care if an Iranian dies? Why do you care if we nuke that country so hard that every entity in that land dies? I will never understand weird humans like you who always cry peace peace, no-war and boring things like that.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/11 at 04:43 PMSorry, RMJ...simultyping.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/11 at 04:44 PMi dont know if anyone saw this over at counterpunch but it is a very good article - the attack on iran is coming soon, no doubt about it…
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp02092007.html
Posted by michael on from scotland 02/11 at 04:50 PMHi michael...Good link, thanks. The Iran issue is being misrepresented (what else is new) in the Press. They continue to walk down that same old plank saying that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraq. That should not even be the question. The question that the Press should be asking is why does the usa think that it has the right to dictate what country supplies weapons to any other country. The usa is one of the largest suppliers of weapons on the planet. Same as the nuke issue, if the usa has them, then maybe every other nation should have an equal right to them....except any nation that has ever used nuclear weapons to kill civilians. That country should be totally disarmed forever.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/11 at 05:24 PMThose links were hard to look at but I made myself. This is the kind of shit I used to say “Hell Yeah” about. I was of the mind that these people were the enemies and we were bestowed upon by God to be the victors. “War is Hell” was another excuse. This shit is just not acceptable. Now, The question is, What can we do about it? How can we stop this insanity? Voting doesn’t seem to work. What will work when most people just don’t give a shit?
Posted by David on from Louisville KY 02/11 at 06:16 PMAnyone else think the war planners in Washington ought to review the Nazi invasion of Russia before making any moves on Iran? I mean, I oppose any military action on moral and legal grounds, but you’d think even the military types would know it’s just tactical idiocy . . .
. . . oh, wait. Sorry. I forgot who was running the world. Carry on.
Posted by Keir on from the hague 02/11 at 06:37 PMPS: David, you have no idea how encouraging your comments here are. I remember your earliest appearances and note how far you’ve been willing to examine your own notions of right and not right. Your honesty and your willingness to check out some other ideas is exactly “what will work when most people just don’t give a shit”. More of that!
Posted by Keir on from the hague 02/11 at 06:41 PMHey David, I echo Keir’s comments.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/11 at 06:52 PMThanks Keir, When I first posted here I was expecting and hoping for some hateful, smiteful feedback. I thought you all were a bunch of crazies. Instead, You all responded with a bunch of “nice”. I insulted you all and you all showered me with kindness. THAT made me stick around and actually made me open my mind(slowly at first)to what you all were all about. I have come to conclude that you’re not crazy but are actually one of the few “pools” of sanity left in a world gone stark raving mad.
Maybe what the world needs is some more “nice”.
Later.
Posted by David on from Louisville KY 02/11 at 07:03 PMYes, I like David’s attitude too. Voting doesn’t work, especially in a country that has only one party. I think that one thing that would help is spreading the honesty that Mickey shows in his article. We gotta make ‘em know the truth. In my little corner of the world, I have let it be known that any “protest” should also acknowledge the dead Iraqis. Some still don’t get it, but many are starting to see that until we place the same value on their lives as we do on ours, nothing will change. That is just one small step. The next step is to make them see the difference between an “occupier” and those who are defending their country from the occupiers. We have allowed the Pentagonization of the language, like calling slaughtered civilians, “collateral damage”. The Press allowed that propaganda to be spread. Now they are afraid to call an occupier, an “occupier”.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/11 at 07:06 PMRight RMJ, That’s what most people don’t get. An Iraqi’s life and that of their family is just as important to them as our’s is to us(Whether we really are important is up for debate).
As for the atrocities committed by US troops, What can you expect when you hand an eighteen year old testosterone charged kid a weapon of brutal force and give him free reign to use it as he sees fit? AND you call him patriotic and a hero for doing so.
We’ve become so numb in this and other “free” countries to the suffering of others. If it doesn’t bother us who cares? I believe one day that suffering will be visited upon us and I guess that’s what it will take to topple the apple cart.
Posted by David on from Louisville KY 02/11 at 07:24 PMHey, how do I know David isn’t a plant, sent in my Expendable progandists as an example of the converted?
Then there’s this I came across:
Posted by James on from work on a sunday in corporate dungeon 02/11 at 07:25 PMGood on you Mickey for diving into the waters of The Big Orange. The comments are pretty much what I would expect of partisan Democrats.
Posted by Dr. B on from U$A 02/12 at 08:41 PM
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