I'm Still Scarred By That Video.
I still can't believe I was stupid enough to watch it. File it under morbid curiosity, I guess. I did not sleep a wink the night I watched it. I kept seeing it every time I closed my eyes. Then I would remember that the boy’s father watched it, and be very sad for the father. Then that random thought generator that is my brain put Boy’s face on Nick Berg’s body. Oh yeah. That was great. See why I didn’t sleep.
The next day I was on my way back from the deli with a toasted bagel with cream cheese and thought of yet another reason the video was so violent. The “cutter” was very good at it. Well as good as one can be at performing a very difficult task. He had a system apparently. A quick cut in back, move around to the front and drag the knife that way. Soon he was hacking at the bone. Sorry to be so graphic, but I’m making a point. The reason he had a system is he’d done it before. Many times before by the look of it. These yahoos do this all the time. They just happened to film this one. Words cannot describe the lunacy of the terrorists. We should stop trying to understand them. It’s not possible for us to understand. We are human. They are obviously not.
Senate is spending a lot of time on the prison “crisis”. Amazing. It’s a crisis when 25 men get humiliated. Not when seven get shot, burned, dragged though the street and hung. Not when a man gets decapitated on film. Five Generals were called back from a war to answer questions about the prisoner mistreatment. Don’t you think they have better things to do. Like, I don’t know, plan a war, take care of our sons and daughters, Keep honest Iraqis safe.
How come we don’t hear about the good things that happen in Iraq. I dug a little. Apparently we’ve done some good there. Imagine. Us. Doing Good. Unthinkable. We’ve gotten power to many residents who haven’t had it (or sporatic service) in ten years or more. I think there should be a reporter dedicated to telling us one good story a week. (Daily would be better) Anything good. Maybe tell about an especially heroic act, or just some soldiers playing with school children. The reporters don’t need to cheerlead, just tell a happy story. This is not my idea, but I like it a lot so I thought I’d share.
To sum up I will leave you with a quote from James Lileks at www.lileks.com the daily bleat. I enjoy his site because he is the primary care giver for his daughter just like I was for a time. That’s how I came across his site. He writes about anything that seems to be on his mind, from playing with his daughter to politics to home maintenance. Here he is finishing up talking about all the negativity in the news.
This smothering gloom, this suppurating corrosion – this isn’t us. This isn’t who we are. If it is, well, we’re lost, because it contains such potent self-hatred that we’ll shrink from defending ourselves, because what we have built isn’t worth defending. Thanks for the push, al Qaeda! We’ll take it from here.
But it’s not us. It’s some, but they don’t set the national temperament. They can set the mood, but not the character. Yet. This war is ours to lose if we want to.
You want to lose it? Me neither.
I wish I could write like that.
The next day I was on my way back from the deli with a toasted bagel with cream cheese and thought of yet another reason the video was so violent. The “cutter” was very good at it. Well as good as one can be at performing a very difficult task. He had a system apparently. A quick cut in back, move around to the front and drag the knife that way. Soon he was hacking at the bone. Sorry to be so graphic, but I’m making a point. The reason he had a system is he’d done it before. Many times before by the look of it. These yahoos do this all the time. They just happened to film this one. Words cannot describe the lunacy of the terrorists. We should stop trying to understand them. It’s not possible for us to understand. We are human. They are obviously not.
Senate is spending a lot of time on the prison “crisis”. Amazing. It’s a crisis when 25 men get humiliated. Not when seven get shot, burned, dragged though the street and hung. Not when a man gets decapitated on film. Five Generals were called back from a war to answer questions about the prisoner mistreatment. Don’t you think they have better things to do. Like, I don’t know, plan a war, take care of our sons and daughters, Keep honest Iraqis safe.
How come we don’t hear about the good things that happen in Iraq. I dug a little. Apparently we’ve done some good there. Imagine. Us. Doing Good. Unthinkable. We’ve gotten power to many residents who haven’t had it (or sporatic service) in ten years or more. I think there should be a reporter dedicated to telling us one good story a week. (Daily would be better) Anything good. Maybe tell about an especially heroic act, or just some soldiers playing with school children. The reporters don’t need to cheerlead, just tell a happy story. This is not my idea, but I like it a lot so I thought I’d share.
To sum up I will leave you with a quote from James Lileks at www.lileks.com the daily bleat. I enjoy his site because he is the primary care giver for his daughter just like I was for a time. That’s how I came across his site. He writes about anything that seems to be on his mind, from playing with his daughter to politics to home maintenance. Here he is finishing up talking about all the negativity in the news.
This smothering gloom, this suppurating corrosion – this isn’t us. This isn’t who we are. If it is, well, we’re lost, because it contains such potent self-hatred that we’ll shrink from defending ourselves, because what we have built isn’t worth defending. Thanks for the push, al Qaeda! We’ll take it from here.
But it’s not us. It’s some, but they don’t set the national temperament. They can set the mood, but not the character. Yet. This war is ours to lose if we want to.
You want to lose it? Me neither.
I wish I could write like that.
posted by Skip at 5/19/2004 10:46:00 PM
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