In both cases, a forgein people went to another land, established a colony, built settlements, then using sustained violence removed those people from the land...eventually the colony became a state and when the native people continued fought back they were branded terrorists and when they were killed it was rationalized that they were inferior barbarians with a primitive religion.
I have no doubt that in the future the case of Palestine will be looked on with Shame, the same as Jim Crow laws or the US's treatment of Native Americans is by todays generation. 'how did they allow that to happen?"
There is no excuse for it, except misinformation and a failure of Americans to provide a consistent respect for human rights and law.
Its a pity you havent heard of this. There is a UN report done, done by a as respected and impartial authority Judge Richard Goldstone from South Africa.
It found evidence of numerous war crimes committed by Israel during the war on Gaza...Politics being what it is, he's been slandered and the report has not lead to anything actionable.
http://goldstonefacts.org/
Its fair to question things, but seriously its not nearly as one sided as you seem think.
When you say
And, in my book, repeated deliberate attacks specifically on civilian population with intent to cause maximum deaths marks you down as the bad guy right away, regardless of any other reasoning. Terrorism is terrorism.
I hope you're referring to the 1400 Palestenains and not the 13 Israeli. You concede that those 1400 Palesteians werent all guilty of killing the Israelis...they were just civilians, guilty of Palestenians.
Here is a link that describes who attacked who first
We used to say the same things about the Native Americans. They were savages! Thats why we killed them.
And the Africans, I mean come on they're not civilized, of course they don't have human feelings for their children.
Don't let that feeling of racial superiority go to head too much, eventually you're going to have to give it up. The only difference between you and them is, you have more guns.
re-read the comments...90% of them didn't comment on the West Bank..they went off about 'how Islam is dangerous and bad' and 'its not compatible with the West' blah, blah....
there is memme thats been building in the US, especially in the past year about how threatening Islam is to us! That doesnt stand up to scrunity of History..be in the far past or recent events.
It only serves to demonize the people we have gone or will go to war with...
Whether this is how America is going to collectively deal with the hangover from Iraq or whether its purposeful seeds being planted for a war with Iran....I dont know.
You should consider this whenever you read the news. Before it was the muslims it was Commies, then it was Yellow Peril, then it was remember the Maine and on and on....
Right now there is a poster in Times Square about Iran and how we shouldnt let them get a nuclear weapon. Somebody paid a lot of money for that ad, yet they seemingly arent selling anything. Why? Whats in it for them?
Not to ramble, but when I see a story about how Hamas is abusing Palestenians, and I see the knee jerk reactions from people. I wonder what would be the reaction if 100X other stories I know happened there, that I read about on mondoweiss.net were more distributed? And how come I never see those stories outside of niche blogs? Why are the only stories the ones that make it to wider public ones that make the muslims seem barbaric?
I'm afraid I can't take you seriously if you think that Hamas is thing restricting freedom from the Palestenians.
Besides a 60 year occupation...2 million people in Gaza have been living in virtual open air prison for the past 4 years. Israel controls every product that enters gaza to the extent that they recieve just enough food not to starve, but too much so they reproduce.
The fact that we're reading an article about Hamas restricting freedom and not this, if you know the area, is absurd.
Here is article about kindly Israeli/Harvard professor calling for the restriction of pre-natel subsidizes (food) to prevent Palestenians from breeding too much.
If this was any other country doing this, we'd all be up in arms, but because its us and they're muslims...its eh...whatever
Having to take a loyalty oath to the "Jewish" state or risk losing your citizenship sure seems like a type of Blasphemy...as it only applies to Non-Jews and they have to swore to loyalty to a "Jewish" state.
but as you and I well know the only difference between Israel and Hamas is one are fanatics with good PR the other are just poor refugees.
According to the book’s author, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, “Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and should be killed in order to “curb their evil inclinations.” “If we kill a gentile who has has violated one of the seven commandments there is nothing wrong with the murder,” Shapira insisted. Citing Jewish law as his source he declared: “There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”
And this fits right into thinking of Israels current President who in the past few weeks has been speaking Population transfers of Non-Jews out of Israel...which of course is necessary if Israel is to remain a "Democratic" and Jewish state. If you're going to lose your majority in the state, you just forcibly remove the people living there. Thats democracy, right?
Ah, Israel, why are the Palestenians so angry with you, is it really that hard to understand? Really?
Yes, we should look away when Israel indiscrimnately kills civilians cause heck they elected Hamas...they deserve it.
Did you know that in the last 'war' on the gaza refugee camp 1,417 Palestinian were killed. Over 700 were women and children. 13 Israelis died too. You probably read about every one of the Israelis in full page stories in the NY Times, but those Arabs, they're just meaningless numbers to Americans. Theres no love lost for them.
The crime rate in America is higher than any other developed nation on earth, certainly any muslim country. We, the US also distribute and have more weapons than any nation on earth.
As far as killing people for idealogy, consider we killed 3 MILLION people in Vietnam because they didnt view property and free markets the way we wanted them to.
Who has the violent culture, really? Muslims? nah.
Something tells me "they're" not going to do that.?
Again, only Americans could invade two countries, kill over 150K people, yet still have the....ignorance(?) to lecture the people from the same religion they've just killed on "personal freedom and our country's legal system"
I hope for your own sakes. One day you turn off your TV. Stop reading the newspapers...and just think...for yourself. Don't just repeat the Op-Ed, don't take the same position as the pudit on TV...heck maybe you could even go a visit some of these countries, meet some muslims before you take this high and mighty opinions on a culture you have no experience outside of television with.
Thats just hasbra for goy who don't know about Israel.
Israel is hardly free. Not a lick if you're Palestenian, and even the peace loving jewish Israelis arent safe there.
Take for example
Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad spy, where he was drugged and kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents. He was transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors
Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu
And while the Boycott Divesment movement is growing...they are going to make ILLEGAL for Israelis to particpate.
Or what about the weekly peaceful protests in Bil’in that are broken up by police?
heres a story about a nice young jewish American girl who had her eye shot out cause she was holding a...Turkish flag! http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/08/emily_henochowi.php
Israel trails Kuwait (ranked 60th), Lebanon (ranked 61st) and UAE (ranked 86th) in its region. Overall Israel was ranked one behind Guinea-Bissau and right before Qatar.
Recently they made a law requiring non-Jewish citizens to take loyalty oath to "Jewish state of Israel"
Both groups have their share of religious fantics, the difference is the Palestenians were the indigenous people who were violently pushed out of their homes to make way for this new group of religious fanatics. And if you say...but it was theirs according to the bible, I'm afraid that makes you a religious fanatic.
I love how apparently the West now has a peaceful culture. The past 500 years of genoicde and slavery apparently dont count..those 2 countries we're occupying now, you know us peaceful Westerns with the nuclear weapons, who have 700 miltary bases and who spend a trillion dollars on weapons were peaceful...its those muslims...they're the ones trying to take over the world!
really? Do you actually believe what you're saying? Please a read a world history. Try RM Roberts...read it from cover to cover, get some perspective
well if you're a stateless refugee than you have no individual liberty...if objectively looked at who Hamas are and what they are fighting for, you'd see they have everything in common with people who want freedom.
try doing it sometime. Imagine you come from another planet, look at the worlds conflicts from an outsiders perspective...you'll see things arent as clean cut as what the TV tells you.
So International laws only apply after you make peace with yourself? Israel doesnt have to define its borders, can control 4 million refugees lives in every respect without giving them any rights, though they have to obey the Israeli (thats called aparthied btw) all because the Palestenians haven't according to you made peace with themselves?
I can assure you have a lot to learn about Palestine. Seriously, start here
Meanwhile a family was evacuated from his house in Jerusalem where he lived for 30 years to make way for a settler family last week. A peaceful protest was broken up in Bil’in by tear gas and riot police. Extremist settlers burned a Jerusalem church Settlers spray graffiti on mosque in Nablus, run over a man in Qalqiliya, attack a teenager in Hebron and the IDF assasinates two people in Gaza last week
but what do we read about that in the US? No, of course not. That would be too much reality for Americans. Instead we get a story about how those Hamas fiends are cracking down on the internet cafes. We get stories about bad the Iranians are to their women. Its as if they only perspective we get is one that shows us that these 'people' have a archaic, violent culture....ignore the 60 year occupation, ignore the two wars that US just launched over there, lets pick apart and find fault in THEIR culture. They're the violent people! Yeah right...
Theres a great film on You Tube called 'Planet of the Arab', check it out sometime.
those are not the aims of AlQueda according to Osama. those are the aims of AlQueda according to the US govt.
Osama says 2 things -
get your bases out of KSA stop supporting the occupation of palestenians via israel
there were some other things about sanctions on iraq and supporting dictator regimes in the middle east.
there was no destroy israel, no Build Muslim nations based on the first Caliphs, this is purposeful propaganda to make it seem like an endless war with religious undertones instead of one based on us political decisions. try reading osamas transcripts some time....you'll be shocked.
America 2010 is like Germany 1933 or Alabama 1958.
Its become acceptable to be hold hateful opinions about entire group of people if they're muslim or arab. Its acceptable to mock them under the cover of free speech.
Its all happened before, and its happening again.
Take for example the active campaign in the US to make Islam seem like a religion of violence. Anyone remember the Clarion fund DVDs that were inlcuded in the newspapers a few years ago before the election? Google it.
Google the Iraq war while you're at. The US, the great Judeo-Christian democracy that launched a war that destroyed a country and cost a 100K civilians their lives.
Oh yes, but its those damn muslims who are a threat to the world peace. Lets exercise our free speech by insulting their religion...lets like 'Theo VaGogh" call them goat f*ckers and then act shocked when incitement works!
Sad, sad, sad, how little we learn from history. Who benefits from this supposed clash of civilizations? Who benefits from the US being at odds with the Muslim world? what foreign policies are effected? These are the questions you should ask. Muslims are no better or worse than everyone else. The belief that they are is convenient for political reasons. Thats what you 'smart' slash-doters should be thinking about.
this is such marlarky - UN Security Council's condemnation of it
Everyone knows the US holds veto power on the Security Council so there will NEVER be a condemnation of the US from the Security council. Speaking of which though where is the explict UN declaration authorizing force from the UN that Bush intially claimed he would get? Lets not pretend that didnt break the same international protocol it expects other nations to follow to start this war. Please, lets be serious...
"People are going to die in war. Even civilians. This is a fact of life, get over it."
"But if I'm a civilian killed in a war, I've lost a very important part of my life" To paraphrase some celebrity... Maybe we should think of ways that to make this less a fact of life, and more a gross pervison of it? Like maybe holding leaders who ignore the international community and an wage unnecessary war responsible for the civilians who die because of it.
Thankfully we have the luxary of not having to target civilians. The US has trillions of dollars invested in the miltary, they're not going to lose a one on one battle against any insurgents. Theres no existential threat to the three hundred million Americans in our continent sized country from AlQueda.
We can put all sorts of moral constraints on ourselves. If AlQueda played by our rules and only attacked military targets, they wouldnt get very far, they'd be annihalted. Thats where attacks on civlians and buses come from - its a war of last resort.
It's terrible, evil and abhorent, but frankly its just another form of warfare. I'm not making any defense of it, I'm just saying it doesnt seem that surprising - it seems like one thing any enemy would do when they couldnt win a direct fight...the other thing is non-violent protests, which I really wish catches on in the ME...
Re:Creators' Rights Question Didn't Make the Cut,
on
Neil Gaiman Responds
·
· Score: 1
it would have been nice to have him address it as it pertains to his recent miracleman dispute - too bad
I don't know if people who don't like comics don't like superheros. I'd assume they don't like the poorly presented superhero comics that are so common.
Theres a lot going on in Watchmen. I can't imagine many people who given the patience to read it wouldn't see comics in new light.
I do agree its not the best book to introduce a new person to, if only because its long read.
I'm not Warren Ellis, but a great book to get people to realize what comics can do, that I'd recommend, is Birth Caul by Alan Moore and Eddie Cambell.
Its short a book - so chances are they'll read it. I've never met anyone who wasn't amazed by it. Granted its based on a spoken word, so the words are more central than the comic aspects. It works well to convince people that there are very talented people creating comics. (or in the case of Moore, were:-(
For a book that exceeds at showcasing comics as an art form, I'd recommend GTO. Which visually takes advantage of comics to its fullest.
Note most women won't like GTO, since frequently its bawdy jokes are aimed towards amusing adolecent boys.
and didn't Old Yeller get shot and didn't that Old Lion die. I know its hip to be condecsending and insult Disney, but at least make sense when you do it.
Regarding
"This, as Uncle Walt had taught us, was a medium for children, and children could not be trusted with an advanced concept such as death."
That explains everything - I was in Moscow for a week and saw three serious traffic accidents - maybe the light sequences had something to do with it - thanks for the info
Slashdot Mirror
In both cases, a forgein people went to another land, established a colony, built settlements, then using sustained violence removed those people from the land...eventually the colony became a state and when the native people continued fought back they were branded terrorists and when they were killed it was rationalized that they were inferior barbarians with a primitive religion.
I have no doubt that in the future the case of Palestine will be looked on with Shame, the same as Jim Crow laws or the US's treatment of Native Americans is by todays generation. 'how did they allow that to happen?"
There is no excuse for it, except misinformation and a failure of Americans to provide a consistent respect for human rights and law.
Its a pity you havent heard of this. There is a UN report done, done by a as respected and impartial authority Judge Richard Goldstone from South Africa.
It found evidence of numerous war crimes committed by Israel during the war on Gaza...Politics being what it is, he's been slandered and the report has not lead to anything actionable.
http://goldstonefacts.org/
Its fair to question things, but seriously its not nearly as one sided as you seem think.
When you say
And, in my book, repeated deliberate attacks
specifically on civilian population with intent to cause maximum deaths marks you down as the bad guy right away, regardless of any other reasoning. Terrorism is terrorism.
I hope you're referring to the 1400 Palestenains and not the 13 Israeli. You concede that those 1400 Palesteians werent all guilty of killing the Israelis...they were just civilians, guilty of Palestenians.
Here is a link that describes who attacked who first
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDBiycEz12s
We used to say the same things about the Native Americans. They were savages! Thats why we killed them.
And the Africans, I mean come on they're not civilized, of course they don't have human feelings for their children.
Don't let that feeling of racial superiority go to head too much, eventually you're going to have to give it up. The only difference between you and them is, you have more guns.
I am not trying decieve you.
re-read the comments...90% of them didn't comment on the West Bank..they went off about 'how Islam is dangerous and bad' and 'its not compatible with the West' blah, blah....
there is memme thats been building in the US, especially in the past year about how threatening Islam is to us! That doesnt stand up to scrunity of History..be in the far past or recent events.
It only serves to demonize the people we have gone or will go to war with...
Whether this is how America is going to collectively deal with the hangover from Iraq or whether its purposeful seeds being planted for a war with Iran....I dont know.
You should consider this whenever you read the news. Before it was the muslims it was Commies, then it was Yellow Peril, then it was remember the Maine and on and on....
Right now there is a poster in Times Square about Iran and how we shouldnt let them get a nuclear
weapon. Somebody paid a lot of money for that ad, yet they seemingly arent selling anything. Why? Whats in it for them?
Not to ramble, but when I see a story about how Hamas is abusing Palestenians, and I see the knee jerk reactions from people. I wonder what would be the reaction if 100X other stories I know happened there, that I read about on mondoweiss.net were more distributed? And how come I never see those stories outside of niche blogs? Why are the only stories the ones that make it to wider public ones that make the muslims seem barbaric?
I'm afraid I can't take you seriously if you think that Hamas is thing restricting freedom from the Palestenians.
Besides a 60 year occupation...2 million people in Gaza have been living in virtual open air prison for the past 4 years. Israel controls every product that enters gaza to the extent that they recieve just enough food not to starve, but too much so they reproduce.
The fact that we're reading an article about Hamas restricting freedom and not this, if you know the area, is absurd.
Here is article about kindly Israeli/Harvard professor calling for the restriction of pre-natel subsidizes (food) to prevent Palestenians from breeding too much.
If this was any other country doing this, we'd all be up in arms, but because its us and they're muslims...its eh...whatever
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/harvard-prof-urges-popula_b_472191.html
Having to take a loyalty oath to the "Jewish" state or risk losing your citizenship sure seems like a type of Blasphemy...as it only applies to Non-Jews and they have to swore to loyalty to a "Jewish" state.
but as you and I well know the only difference between Israel and Hamas is one are fanatics with good PR the other are just poor refugees.
Lets see what the the Rabbis have to say
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t_LxpCY2G8&feature=player_embedded
According to the book’s author, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, “Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and should be killed in order to “curb their evil inclinations.” “If we kill a gentile who has has violated one of the seven commandments there is nothing wrong with the murder,” Shapira insisted. Citing Jewish law as his source he declared: “There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”
And this fits right into thinking of Israels current President who in the past few weeks has been speaking Population transfers of Non-Jews out of Israel...which of course is necessary if Israel is to remain a "Democratic" and Jewish state. If you're going to lose your majority in the state, you just forcibly remove the people living there. Thats democracy, right?
Ah, Israel, why are the Palestenians so angry with you, is it really that hard to understand? Really?
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lieberman-presents-plans-for-population-exchange-at-un-1.316197
Yes, we should look away when Israel indiscrimnately kills civilians cause heck they elected Hamas...they deserve it.
Did you know that in the last 'war' on the gaza refugee camp 1,417 Palestinian were killed. Over 700 were women and children. 13 Israelis died too. You probably read about every one of the Israelis in full page stories in the NY Times, but those Arabs, they're just meaningless numbers to Americans. Theres no love lost for them.
Why don't you watch this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxJWdCwOpc
read up on Palestine and You will understand.
Joe Sacco has two very good (comic) books about Palestine. Check em out.
The crime rate in America is higher than any other developed nation on earth, certainly any muslim country. We, the US also distribute and have more weapons than any nation on earth.
As far as killing people for idealogy, consider we killed 3 MILLION people in Vietnam because they didnt view property and free markets the way we wanted them to.
Who has the violent culture, really? Muslims? nah.
"our" country?
Something tells me "they're" not going to do that.?
Again, only Americans could invade two countries, kill over 150K people, yet still have the....ignorance(?) to lecture the people from the same religion they've just killed on "personal freedom and our country's legal system"
I hope for your own sakes. One day you turn off your TV. Stop reading the newspapers...and just think...for yourself. Don't just repeat the Op-Ed, don't take the same position as the pudit on TV...heck maybe you could even go a visit some of these countries, meet some muslims before you take this high and mighty opinions on a culture you have no experience outside of television with.
Just MO
Thats just hasbra for goy who don't know about Israel.
Israel is hardly free. Not a lick if you're Palestenian, and even the peace loving jewish Israelis arent safe there.
Take for example
Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad spy, where he was drugged and kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents. He was transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors
Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu
And while the Boycott Divesment movement is growing...they are going to make ILLEGAL for Israelis to particpate.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=194370
Or what about the weekly peaceful protests in Bil’in that are broken up by police?
heres a story about a nice young jewish American girl who had her eye shot out cause she was holding a...Turkish flag!
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/08/emily_henochowi.php
haha.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2009
Israel trails Kuwait (ranked 60th), Lebanon (ranked 61st) and UAE (ranked 86th) in its region. Overall Israel was ranked one behind Guinea-Bissau and right before Qatar.
Recently they made a law requiring non-Jewish citizens to take loyalty oath to "Jewish state of Israel"
http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/political_insider/israels_loyalty_oath_time_bomb
Both groups have their share of religious fantics, the difference is the Palestenians were the indigenous people who were violently pushed out of their homes to make way for this new group of religious fanatics. And if you say...but it was theirs according to the bible, I'm afraid that makes you a religious fanatic.
Western values?
haha.
Like the West in the Middle Ages? Not now?
I love how apparently the West now has a peaceful culture. The past 500 years of genoicde and slavery apparently dont count ..those 2 countries we're occupying now, you know us peaceful Westerns with the nuclear weapons, who have 700 miltary bases and who spend a trillion dollars on weapons were peaceful...its those muslims...they're the ones trying to take over the world!
really? Do you actually believe what you're saying? Please a read a world history. Try RM Roberts...read it from cover to cover, get some perspective
well if you're a stateless refugee than you have no individual liberty...if objectively looked at who Hamas are and what they are fighting for, you'd see they have everything in common with people who want freedom.
try doing it sometime. Imagine you come from another planet, look at the worlds conflicts from an outsiders perspective...you'll see things arent as clean cut as what the TV tells you.
Really? Where did you get that standard?
So International laws only apply after you make peace with yourself? Israel doesnt have to define its borders, can control 4 million refugees lives in every respect without giving them any rights, though they have to obey the Israeli (thats called aparthied btw) all because the Palestenians haven't according to you made peace with themselves?
I can assure you have a lot to learn about Palestine. Seriously, start here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgiE9aRmBo
Meanwhile a family was evacuated from his house in Jerusalem where he lived for 30 years to make way for a settler family last week. A peaceful protest was broken up in Bil’in by tear gas and riot police.
Extremist settlers burned a Jerusalem church
Settlers spray graffiti on mosque in Nablus,
run over a man in Qalqiliya,
attack a teenager in Hebron
and the IDF assasinates two people in Gaza last week
but what do we read about that in the US? No, of course not. That would be too much reality for Americans. Instead we get a story about how those Hamas fiends are cracking down on the internet cafes. We get stories about bad the Iranians are to their women. Its as if they only perspective we get is one that shows us that these 'people' have a archaic, violent culture....ignore the 60 year occupation, ignore the two wars that US just launched over there, lets pick apart and find fault in THEIR culture. They're the violent people! Yeah right...
Theres a great film on You Tube called 'Planet of the Arab', check it out sometime.
http://mondoweiss.net/
those are not the aims of AlQueda according to Osama. those are the aims of AlQueda according to the US govt.
Osama says 2 things -
get your bases out of KSA
stop supporting the occupation of palestenians via israel
there were some other things about sanctions on iraq and supporting dictator regimes in the middle east.
there was no destroy israel, no Build Muslim nations based on the first Caliphs, this is purposeful propaganda to make it seem like an endless war with religious undertones instead of one based on us political decisions. try reading osamas transcripts some time....you'll be shocked.
America 2010 is like Germany 1933 or Alabama 1958.
Its become acceptable to be hold hateful opinions about entire group of people if they're muslim or arab. Its acceptable to mock them under the cover of free speech.
Its all happened before, and its happening again.
Take for example the active campaign in the US to make Islam seem like a religion of violence. Anyone remember the Clarion fund DVDs that were inlcuded in the newspapers a few years ago before the election? Google it.
Google the Iraq war while you're at. The US, the great Judeo-Christian democracy that launched a war that destroyed a country and cost a 100K civilians their lives.
Oh yes, but its those damn muslims who are a threat to the world peace. Lets exercise our free speech by insulting their religion...lets like 'Theo VaGogh" call them goat f*ckers and then act shocked when incitement works!
Sad, sad, sad, how little we learn from history. Who benefits from this supposed clash of civilizations? Who benefits from the US being at odds with the Muslim world? what foreign policies are effected? These are the questions you should ask. Muslims are no better or worse than everyone else. The belief that they are is convenient for political reasons. Thats what you 'smart' slash-doters should be thinking about.
http://mondoweiss.net/
this is such marlarky - UN Security Council's condemnation of it
Everyone knows the US holds veto power on the Security Council so there will NEVER be a condemnation of the US from the Security council. Speaking of which though where is the explict UN declaration authorizing force from the UN that Bush intially claimed he would get? Lets not pretend that didnt break the same international protocol it expects other nations to follow to start this war. Please, lets be serious...
"People are going to die in war. Even civilians. This is a fact of life, get over it."
"But if I'm a civilian killed in a war, I've lost a very important part of my life" To paraphrase some celebrity... Maybe we should think of ways that to make this less a fact of life, and more a gross pervison of it? Like maybe holding leaders who ignore the international community and an wage unnecessary war responsible for the civilians who die because of it.
Thankfully we have the luxary of not having to target civilians. The US has trillions of dollars invested in the miltary, they're not going to lose a one on one battle against any insurgents. Theres no existential threat to the three hundred million Americans in our continent sized country from AlQueda.
We can put all sorts of moral constraints on ourselves. If AlQueda played by our rules and only attacked military targets, they wouldnt get very far, they'd be annihalted. Thats where attacks on civlians and buses come from - its a war of last resort.
It's terrible, evil and abhorent, but frankly its just another form of warfare. I'm not making any defense of it, I'm just saying it doesnt seem that surprising - it seems like one thing any enemy would do when they couldnt win a direct fight...the other thing is non-violent protests, which I really wish catches on in the ME...
it would have been nice to have him address it as it pertains to his recent miracleman dispute - too bad
I don't know if people who don't like comics don't like superheros. I'd assume they don't like the poorly presented superhero comics that are so common.
Theres a lot going on in Watchmen. I can't imagine many people who given the patience to read it wouldn't see comics in new light.
I do agree its not the best book to introduce a new person to, if only because its long read.
I'm not Warren Ellis, but a great book to get people to realize what comics can do, that I'd recommend, is Birth Caul by Alan Moore and Eddie Cambell.
Its short a book - so chances are they'll read it. I've never met anyone who wasn't amazed by it. Granted its based on a spoken word, so the words are more central than the comic aspects. It works well to convince people that there are very talented people creating comics. (or in the case of Moore, were:-(
For a book that exceeds at showcasing comics as an art form, I'd recommend GTO. Which visually takes advantage of comics to its fullest.
Note most women won't like GTO, since frequently its bawdy jokes are aimed towards amusing adolecent boys.
and didn't Old Yeller get shot and didn't that Old Lion die. I know its hip to be condecsending and insult Disney, but at least make sense when you do it.
Regarding
"This, as Uncle Walt had taught us, was a medium for children, and children could not be trusted with an advanced concept such as death."
That explains everything - I was in Moscow for a week and saw three serious traffic accidents - maybe the light sequences had something to do with it - thanks for the info