You Have Entered the Toxic Vituperation Dimension
By Mona
Jim, Thoreau, and ye shrill bloggers hither and yon, look who is reading us and promoting us to — wait for it –the American Enterprise Institute!
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Yes, and speaking with Lieberman at AEI and rending his garments over the woeful decline of political dis-coarse — and agreeing that blogs are just so, so mean ‘n stuff — was House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who firmly insisted to his piously nodding neocon audience that we must stop this lack of decorum now, gosh darn it, and commence “disagreeing without being disagreeable.”
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Yessirs! No more disagreeable!!!:
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Comment by Joe Strummer —
April 30, 2007 @ 11:24 pm
Joe Lieberman is an unctuous as any politician out there. In Joe Lieberman’s mind, Joe Lieberman isn’t disagreeable, everyone else does. Joe Lieberman isn’t vituperative, everyone else is. Joe Lieberman isn’t poll drive, everyone else is.
He’s so damn insufferable.
Comment by Kevin Carson —
May 1, 2007 @ 12:16 am
I remember when he was announced as Gore’s VP pick in 2000, and all the talking heads started outdoing each other about what a man of “integrity” he was. I figured right then he had to be a real son of a bitch.
Comment by Barry —
May 1, 2007 @ 5:22 am
Joe, and he probably does think of himself in the third person.
This is just another data point in favor of my theory of right-wing freudian projection. After six year of callng everybody else traitors, and eight years of just raw profane screaming, it’s not *them* who are at fault, it’s us.
Comment by Eric Martin —
May 1, 2007 @ 8:54 am
Is it safe to say that the vituperative toxicity of the Intertubes is what’s delaying our imminent victory in Iraq?
Also, making the baby Jesus weep and sob?
Comment by joe —
May 1, 2007 @ 11:35 am
Ooh, quick, let’s go ask two people who’ve spent five years calling everyone who disagrees with them traitors to their couintry, and supporters of a Ba’athist torture state, if they think our political discourse is impolite.
Comment by Dave W. —
May 1, 2007 @ 11:48 am
I don’t think the soldier meant to shoot the child and that is why he is crying. Because he is sad about the collateral damage.
It is bad when soldiers are calloused about the collateral damage they do, especially when children that young are accidentally shot. It is hard to know what to do about those other soldiers (not shown), though, because if we make them more sensitive to the suffering of the children they accidentally kill, then it may make them less fierce as warriors and the safety of the oil infrastructure could be compromised.
I wonder if Mr. Balko has seen this picture. He is not anti-military.
Comment by Timothy —
May 1, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
I don’t know the context of the above photo with the soldier and the child. I read Dave W’s comment but wasn’t sure where he got his information. But I do think the photo shows the absolute horror and shame of this war. What are we doing to one another, to our soldiers, and to the Iraqi people? How can anyone any longer support this barbarity? I’m so weary of all of this shit!
Comment by Mona —
May 1, 2007 @ 12:42 pm
I had seen that horrific picture some time ago at another anti-war site, but could not recall which one. It is not, to my knowledge, a foto of a child that the soldier killed, but merely one showing a dead tot he carried away.
As is my usual habit, I found this pic by doing a Google image search. (My one lack of talent –ok, one of many — is I do not know how to reduce size, or I would have done that.)
The AEI whining about disagreeable debating and toxic bloggers makes me want to vomit. I think that picture well captures why.
Comment by Davebo —
May 1, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
Old Joe at the AEI???
He isn’t even pretending anymore. And though it would give the Senate back to the GOP until 2008, I almost wish he’d take the final step and switch parties.
And I can’t imagine what the good folks of CT are thinking now.
Comment by Dave W. —
May 1, 2007 @ 1:13 pm
It is not, to my knowledge, a foto of a child that the soldier killed, but merely one showing a dead tot he carried away.
I think it is good for everybody to come up with their own backstory to the picture. As long as your backstory is plausible, it is a good one to discuss. Since soldiers do sometimes accidentally shoot tots in Iraq, I know my backstory is plausible. maybe some people think that the child was injured by a bomb from a Coalition aircraft, instead of being shot by the soldier in the picture. that can happen, too.
If I got conscripted to fight in Iraq, and I accidentally shot a tot like that, then I would cry just like the soldier in the picture. I would try to comfort the child as it was dying from my bullets, just like the soldier in the picture. If I had volunteered for service I would feel even worse.
However, there would be limits to my remorse. I certainly wouldn’t come back to the US and blow up a building the way Tim McVeigh did after observing the collateral damage of the previous Iraq War. I would stick to hugs and tears and photographs, just like the soldier in the picture.
Finally, I would like to thank Mona for sharing this photo here at highclearing and I would like to thank all who have the courage to share their the feelings and interpretations that this interesting photo encourages in our hearts and minds.
I hope that HnR links this thread. it deserves it!
Comment by D.A. Ridgely —
May 1, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Mona, just add “height=250 width=400″ inside your tag without the quote marks and varying the numerical values until it fits. (Those values usually work at my site, FWIW)
I, by the way, had a mild case of toxic vituperation the other day but found that a mild laxative did the trick. Obviously, stronger medicine is required for the delicate sensibilities of Mr. Lieberman. Perhaps a high colonic?
Comment by Lawrence Krubner —
May 2, 2007 @ 9:26 pm
“(My one lack of talent –ok, one of many — is I do not know how to reduce size, or I would have done that.)”
I’m working on some code, for various clients, to make it easier for them to resize images on their WordPress blogs. I own the copyright on the code and am happy to share it. I’ll try to remember to send it to you or Mr. Henley when I’m done. If I forget, send me an email in 2 weeks to remind me.
Comment by Lawrence Krubner —
May 2, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
“Mona, just add “height=250 width=400″ inside your tag without the quote marks and varying the numerical values until it fits. (Those values usually work at my site, FWIW)”
You’re assuming they (the writers here at HighClearing) work on the raw HTML source. It’s possible you know this for a fact, since you’re a friend of Mona’s. But WordPress allows two editing modes, one of which completely hides the HTML. If she’s in the WYSIWYG mode, then she might like another means of easily editing the size of the photo.