randomWalks

Anti-war Personality Identification Playing Cards at downloadpeace.com.

see also: Mefi.

originally posted by xowie

Quick show of hands: Who remembers the alleged reason we had to stomp Saddam in the first place? Wasn't it nukes? Chemical warfare? WMDs? Skanky mustache? Because, of course, we have found exactly nada. If he had any, and he was as vile as insane as we all seem to think, don't you think he would've used them by now? Go figure.

originally posted by xowie

Without a word, Mellor walked out of the bar, climbed into his gray 1989 Cadillac, and drove to the nearby house on J Street where he lived alone. He laid the gun, which still had a bullet in the chamber and eight more in the 18-round magazine, on his television set and calmly called 911. He told the dispatcher that he'd just killed a man "over the war," according to police reports.

originally posted by xowie

With a heavy heart I must let you know that Babatunde Olatunji passed away Sunday in his room at Esalen with his family by his side. Let us sing and drum for him in his journey to the next world. With our thoughts and prayers he will find a safe passage, and he will come to a place of peace and joy...We love you, Baba! Thank you for the joy and happiness that you have brought to the world through your music, your words and your actions. And so be it.

originally posted by xowie

>>help save us. we're completely fucked.

Brother Jim,

I believe in you and your fellow citizens. I have met them and spoken with them and they are, like yourself, good people. Sure, you feel completely fucked right now but ask yourself this: how will they sell the invasion of North Korea or Syria or Iran to the American people after this? The Bush Administration has shot its bolt. My guess is that in two or three weeks time, Rumsfeld will be gone and a new set of priorities will emerge from a chastened White House.

I can understand how you would feel powerless in the face of the war party. The tide is flowing in their direction right now. Soon though, this will change. Reach over their heads to the people of the world - find a way to manifest that barn-raising tradition. Creative carterism is what we need now from the American people, to counter the belligerence of Bush and Blair. Don't give up your country to those people.

Love,
Brother Bill

originally posted by xowie

Page 23.

originally posted by xowie

Wartime ABCs by Mikhaela B. Reid.

originally posted by xowie

I can’t get “Desert Road”:www.desertroad.net (“a hypergallery of war images from mainstream U.S. media sources including Yahoo! News, The New York Times, and CNN.") to work in Safari, but it sure sounds interesting.

4) "You can just call them 'Trail of Dead,'" says our friend, disdainfully, when we, (apparently lamely), say "?And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead," one too many times. Is it our fault they gave themselves such an unwieldy name?

originally posted by xowie

Although he has no regrets about opening fire, it is clear he'd rather it wasn't a child he killed. "I did what I had to do. I don't have a big problem with it but anyone who shoots a little kid has to feel something," he said.

originally posted by daiichi

In my fourth-grade geography class under a superb teacher, Miss Wagner, I was first introduced to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the palm trees and dates, the kayaks plying the rivers, camel caravans and desert oases, the Arabian Nights, Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (my first movie), the ancient city of Baghdad, Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent. This was the first class in elementary school that fired my imagination. Those wondrous images have stayed with me for more than seventy years. And it now troubles me to hear of America's bombs, missiles and military machines ravishing the cradle of civilization.

originally posted by xowie

Ms. Turner, the library director here, said librarians did not want to help terrorists, but she said other values were at stake as well. "I am more terrified of having my First Amendment rights to information and free speech infringed than I am by the kind of terrorist acts that have come down so far," Ms. Turner said.

originally posted by xowie

Any MRE that has a pack of Skittles or M&Ms is considered a good one, he said. Field studies have shown that young soldiers take comfort in name brands and commercial packaging, so some MREs feature morale-boosting snacks like M&Ms, Lorna Doone cookies, Skittles and Jolly Ranchers, which have become popular currency in poker games.

originally posted by xowie

"She'd spoken in an interview about her daughter who has been deployed in the Gulf, and her son who is in this band Spearhead," says Spearhead frontman Michael Franti. "They showed her a picture of her son wearing a t-shirt that said 'Unfuck the world' on the front, and 'Dethrone the Bushes' on the back. They told her that was an un-American statement. She said, 'That's free speech,' and they said, 'Well, things are changing these days.'"

originally posted by xowie

As the brave members of the U.S. military head out to defend our freedom, it's comforting to know that each one is sheltered in the loving hands of God.

originally posted by xowie

"Ender's Game has had a lot of influence on our thinking," said Michael Macedonia, director of the Army's simulation technology center in Orlando, Fla., which plans to build a virtual Afghanistan that could host hundreds of thousands of networked computers. "The intent is to build a simulation that allows people to play in that world for months or years, participate in different types of roles and see consequences of their decisions."

originally posted by xowie

"After my bio was read, there was no question that I had 400 pairs of eyes on me," Sparks said. "There was an instant where I was uncomfortable but my position is to never be ashamed of who I am. I made it a point to make eye contact with people, on both sides of the aisle."

originally posted by xowie

Nude Interrogation
Did you kill anyone over there? Angelica shifts her gaze from the Janis Joplin poster to the Jimi Hendrix, lifting the pale muslin blouse over her head. The blacklight deepens the blues when the needle drops into the first groove of “All Along the Watchtower.” I don’t want to look at the floor. Did you kill anyone? Did you dig a hole, crawl inside, and wait for your target? Her miniskirt drops into a rainbow at her feet. Sandalwood incense hangs a slow comet of perfume over the room. I shake my head. She unhooks her bra and flings it against a bookcase made of plywood and cinderblocks. Did you use an M-16, a hand-grenade, a bayonet, or your own two strong hands, both thumbs pressed against that little bird in the throat? She stands with her left thumb hooked into the elastic of her sky-blue panties. When she flicks off the blacklight, snowy hills rush up to the windows. Did you kill anyone over there? Are you right-handed or left-handed? Did you drop your gun afterwards? Did you kneel beside the corpse and turn it over? She’s nude against the falling snow. Yes. The record spins like a bull’s-eye on the far wall of Xanadu. Yes, I say. I was scared of the silence. The night was too big. And afterwards, I couldn’t stop looking up at the sky.

Nude Interrogation, Yusef Komunyakaa, 1998.

With the war rolling ahead on television, you the viewer are made a part of the invading army. Even the local meteorologists participate in the illusion. They give two weather reports: sunshine in New York, sandstorms in Basra.

Meanwhile, just as the audience feels a part of the army, the army becomes part of the audience. American troops on an aircraft carrier watch CNN to see how the war is playing and progressing. Soldiers are watching other soldiers on television.

That is, there is general confusion as to who is acting and who is watching. And at the crux of the confusion are the traditional eyewitnesses to war, the journalists, "embedded" with the troops. Are the television cameras the witnesses to war, or are they part of the weaponry? Or both?

Regime Change
Advancing down the road from Niniveh
Death paused a while and said 'Now listen here.
You see the names of places roundabout?
They're mine now, and I've turned them inside out.
Take Eden, further south: At dawn today
I ordered up my troops to tear away
Its walls and gates so everyone can see
That gorgeous fruit which dangles from its tree.
You want it, don't you? Go and eat it then,
And lick your lips, and pick the same again.
Take Tigris and Euphrates; once they ran
Through childhood-coloured slats of sand and sun.
Not any more they don't; I've filled them up
With countless different kinds of human crap.
Take Babylon, the palace sprouting flowers
Which sweetened empires in their peaceful hours -
I've found a different way to scent the air:
Already it's a by-word for despair.
Which leaves Baghdad - the star-tipped minarets,
The marble courts and halls, the mirage-heat.
These places, and the ancient things you know,
You won't know soon. I'm working on it now.'

originally posted by xowie

The problem with [SUV ticketing] campaigns is that they target people who have already made a multi-year commitment to a particular vehicle. Such folks are very unlikely to change their behavior based on a slip of paper put under their windshield, or a bumpersticker stuck on their wide, bloated backsides. They have made wickedness their lifestyle choice. They are a lost cause.

The hybrid owners in your area have taken a substantial risk in choosing a young, largely unproven technology in an effort to conserve the environment and cut down on foreign dependencies. These owners deserve to be showered in your love and affection.

The least you could do is leave the hybrid owners a thank you card now and then.

"I saw the heads of my two little girls come off," said Lamea Hassan, 36. "My girls—I watched their heads come off their bodies. My son is dead."

Clarity
I think what you'll find,
I think what you'll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.
And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.
—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing 

originally posted by xowie

I watched so much and from such an early age, in fact, that I didn't understand what TV was for. I say this to people and they think I'm kidding, but I didn't realize that 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was supposed to be funny I thought you just watched it. The people said things, and they moved around, and you just waited till you saw the kid—you know, you liked to see Richie.

Madonna has pulled the US release of her new video, which contained images of transvestite soldiers, Iraqi children and a grenade being lobbed at a lookalike of US President George W Bush. Australian Broadcasting Corp.