words, words, words
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If I begin to detail myself here, will you understand?
P. I am me
Q. I don't always know exactly who that is
R. I am Quaker
S. I like words and playing with them
T. I like genmaicha tea
U. I like the word napkin more than most others
V. I spend time walking my neighborhood
W. I cook rice often
X. I sleep well most every night
Y. I eat large amounts of fruit and vegetables
Z. I munch, sleep, write, create, cook, bike, watch, walk, listen, hope, learn, drink, live, breathe, touch, know, question, taste, copy, read, stare, carry, talk, dance, finger, try.
raisin@gmail.com
albums:
Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs
Erasure: I Say, I Say, I Say
Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On?
David Bowie: Hunky Dory
George Michael: Listen without Prejudice
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
songs:
Wild is the Wind: Nina Simone
Come Undone: Duran Duran
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini: Rachmaninov
My Funny Valentine: Chet Baker
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate: The Flaming Lips
This Must Be the Place: The Talking Heads
Hyperballad: Bjork
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Thursday, May 06, 2004
I've been thinking over Bush's comment that the Iraqi prisoner torture exhibits showed him torturers who were not like any Americans he knew. I would completely disagree. The Air Force showed me a side of people I never thought could exist. I was naive at 17, obviously, but not as much as Bush at 50-some. The Academy had nothing to do with torture, but there were times when you could see group-think happening, people doing things they would never have done in any other situation. Many people go into the military to kill, simple as that. yes, they'l tell you that, and you'll think they're kidding, but although they kind of are, there is a side underneath them that is completely serious. And that's just the Air Force, the kinder and gentler branch. The problems we're seeing come from the Army and the Marines, the much tougher, and less intelligent branch.
it doesn't shock me at all that such torture would happen. Even if 19 out of 20 guys were opposed to what they were 'methods' they were using, it only takes one outspoken big guy to get the whole gang behind him. Rush Limbaugh compared the torture to frat boy pranks, and in a way he's right (except for the gruesome reality that the iraqis are not volunteers and would have been shot had they tried to complain). Guys in bad situations have a tendency to follow the worst of them, the guy who has all the bad instincts. Even when everyone else knows it's wrong, they follow because they want to prove they're tough. Especially in the past decade, when so many young soldiers are angry at the so-called feminization of the military, they just want some action. and if all they can get is torturing the men in front of them, that's enough.
Strange though, after all the abuses the Bush administration has committed in the past three years, that this would blow up to be so big, something hardly even in their control (yes, the Defense Secretary has 'leadership' over it, but it's a long shot to say he approved it). But I guess it always happens this way; the worst criminals finally getting jailed for the least theft.
11:50 AM
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