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June 28, 2002
Prey (album version)
In his review of Ann Coulter's momentous tome, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, Charles Taylor writes/quotes:
Toward the end of "Slander" comes a passage that can stand for the limitations of Coulter's intellect. "Between 1995 and 2001, the New York Times alone ran more than one hundred articles on Selma alone. [This sentence copyrighted by your Department of Redundancy Department.] I believe we may have revisited this triumph of theirs [emphasis added] sufficiently by now. For anyone under 50, the 'heady' days of civil rights marches are something out of a history book. The march on Selma was 35 years ago."
"History," in that passage, means the same thing as "dead." The triumphs of the civil rights era didn't occur in Coulter's lifetime, so it's past, done with (she may as well be saying, "Oh, not that tacky old Negro stuff again!"). That's a very strange notion for a conservative to espouse, one that goes against the very meaning of the word "conservative." And funny that an affirmation of the American principals of liberty and justice for all is "their" triumph (meaning, I assume, blacks and liberals) instead of a triumph for all Americans.
The Seabee battalion I was in Saudi with for Gulf War I didn't get desert cammies. Still thinking in terms of fighting in the lush verdant of Vietnam, we had olive drab uniforms which, coincidentally, were identical to the uniforms we'd sold to our ex-bud Saddam Hussein. We also had bunkers to be used in case of air attack, with sandbags on top to cushion the blasts. The sandbags were also green.
Seebees (CBs) are Construction Battalions. So we had heavy equipment -- front end loaders, flatbeds, y'know -- which were also. . . see, you're way ahead of me here. Green.
I observed that it would be lots easier to just run naked into the desert screaming "HERE WE ARE! SHOOT US NOW! SHOOT US NOW!"
My NCO shook his head sadly and pointed out that the enemy couldn't see us nearly as well if we were naked, and this would also reduce the chances of our own forces mistaking us for Iraqis.
There were some bitter, bitter mother fuckers over there, and anyone who says different probably a) has exactly shit for military experience and b) expressed all kinds of disgust at the Lileks 37% Crew a few days back. Note that ain't none of these folks posting to their warblogs from ships or bases anywhere near Afghanistan.
I like pointing this out to them. They make me laugh.
Besides, if they did join up, it'd be as officers. And I'd give 'em two missions before getting fragged in broad daylight in front of their entire unit, all of whom would later testify under oath that, nope, didn't see a thing, must have shot himself in the back with an accidental weapons discharge. 45 times. From several different angles. And then rolled over and shot himself in the front for good measure.
Now, where was I? Right, Coulter. One of the slanderous lies told about the American Right is that they're racist fuckheads, who only even pretend to give a shit about black people who adhere to conservative ideology, like Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes or Condoleeza Rice.
Take a quick tour of the right-leaning blogosphere. Note the attacks on, for example, Cornell West, Jesse Jackson, Cynthia McKinney, Earl Hilliard, Desmond Tutu, Al Sharpton, Colin Powell -- that last one a bit surprising, I admit, but since Colin apparently doesn't show sufficient enthusiasm for bringing on the Rapture by blowing up the planet, they dogpile on him, too -- and then note the only times the bloghards seem concerned about discrimination.
Kids. Stop shouting. We can see you.
We'll fire when ready.
Posted by Aaron at June 28, 2002 08:21 AM