The headline at CNN says “Relief workers confront ‘urban warfare.’” I’m starting to have my doubts. Isn’t this all about oil? Are we going to let troops die so that we can feed the thirst for Gulf of Mexico oil by Bush’s oil buddies? I think it’s time to pull the troops out of New Orleans. We’re obviously not wanted there by the natives and we should just pull out before any more of the troops die. They were obviously better off before we moved the troops in there and created a problem. I think their very presence is obviously creating the very violence they seek to prevent. Is low-cost oil worth the live of one soldier?
No blood for oil, is what I say! It is just a “modest proposal.”
[For the satire-impaired, I am making a point using parody a la Jonathan Swift’s famous proposal.]
“They were obviously better off before we moved the troops in there and created a problem. I think their very presence is obviously creating the very violence they seek to prevent.”
Are you nuts???
How many people were gassed, tortured, raped, and jailed for no crime?? hundreds of thousands
What level of freedom did they enjoy under the former government?? that would be almost none
I agree that human life is not an appropriate trade for oil, but this liberation seems to be about much more!
Peace!
OK, Lindsey, take a deep breath. Read the linked article; it’s about New Orleans. Now read the last line of the blog entry. I’m using parody.
Let me spell it out for you: I’m not suggesting a troop pullout from either Iraq or New Orleans. I am taking the liberal arguments regarding Iraq and showing how they could equally be applied to New Orleans to make the point that such calls for an Iraqi pullout would be just as absurd as a call for a pullout from New Orleans.
I’ve added “New Orleans” to the blog entry to ensure we don’t have more misunderstandings, but this illustrates why people should read the linked stories before commenting. No offense, Lindsey, you just happened to be the one who became the object illustration.
Dom,
I think your post is tacky in the extreme. I understand trying to make political points using parody, but the disaster in NO seems out of bounds. Using the deaths and suffering of the poor people in NO to make a political statement is just wrong. Get some sense and remove the post. Some things should not be joked about.
Satire and parody is not necessarily a joke. I’m making a serious point. Some people need to get less prickly, grow up, get their finger off the hair-trigger of self-outrage, and confront the world as it is.
Face it, amongst the human tragedy in all of this, there is also the politics. Politics is, at it’s base, how people relate to one another and thus is part of everything we do.
You can pretend that politics doesn’t exist today because of the Gulf Coast tragedy, but pretending doesn’t make it so.
Oh bullroar, Bettinelli. It’s all about a lot of stuff lumped together—including and rather predominantly so—our entitlement culture, wherein no-one will communicate or care about anyone else by mutual consent. BUT it’s NOT about IRAQ. Give it up.
It’s no-one’s fault there was a hurricane. Crap happens. There have been disasters in Chicago and San Francisco and New York too. However, back then, we had more common sense and civic decency.
People need to work together to get through it instead of forming gangs and shooting each other, shoving each other out of the way in pure selfishness. I’ve been seeing a complete lack of commonsense and citizenship all week. It’s nauseating. I’m sure terrorists are having a field day seeing all our ridiculous weaknesses—and we have plenty in our culture.
I personally am convinced that they’d ought to send in the army and make the terms of engagement completely clear—fire on a cop and you will take your last breath, period. Clean it up and when the cops can get down the streets, then mobilize locals one by one to get those people out of attics and into refugee areas where they can be watered and fed.
This morning some blowhard congressman from Maryland was huffing and puffing about the Federal response—even while the live TV shot in the other half of the screen was showing convoys of Guardsmen, fire-fighters, and transport vehicles pouring into N.O.
And the congressman had the nerve to throw Bush’s religion in his face (“my Christian brother”!) quoting the parable of the sheep and goats in his denunciation. What a disgusting display.
But then, I’m not one of the people who thinks we shouldn’t be in Iraq—so crucify me. But I’m rather sure that in order to understand what’s going on, one has to think longer than 15 seconds. The Iraq thing is a not-very-thinly-veiled warning to the real engine of terrorism—Saudi Arabia. We needed to raise the level of concern, purely and simply.
Cosmetic, no. Nice in your perfect little sunday school world, no. But necessary in a real world where some people are near to being demons in their perversity and evil. The kind of people who bomb buildings in NYC and blow up subways full of ordinary people on their way to work. And worse, those who finance and plan such things back in the musliborg. Wake up.
OK, Michigancatholic, let me spell it out since my previous attempts to do so don’t seem to have gotten through: I don’t believe what I wrote. It was SATIRE. I’m one of those people who think we should be in Iraq. I’m one of those people who think that the Marines should be sent in to New Orleans in force and establish law and order by the amount of deadly force needed and not an ounce more.
Does that clear things up? Before y ou go off half-cocked, take a second and actually read what is written on the page so you don’t end up looking like a fool for criticizing me for what I clearly didn’t say.
Ok, Bettinelli, so I’m “satire-impaired.” =)
Don’t you take a lot of crap from other catholics, especially ones local to you, about having some common sense?
Why do you think it’s appropriate to go onto someone else’s blog to call him names? This is just out of hand. If you can’t say something nice go to someone else’s blog.
Who called who names?
well, michigancatholic, twice in five minutes, you’ve referred to what Dom’s written as “crap”.
It was obvious from your comments you hadn’t taken the time to actually read what he’d written and think about it before you blew up at him. Why don’t you take a few minutes before you post, re-read what he actually wrote, and then try to act like a civilized guest in someone else’s space?
That’s not calling anyone names.
Don>66.255.204.12
2005-09-02 12:56:31
2005-09-02 16:56:31
I’m not the only “satire-impaired” blog-roller here, Dom. Sorry, it’s been a long week. =)
At least I agree with you on Iraq.
Not to be too snarky before..I have had some trouble with my beliefs about Iraq and so on. There are a lot of people, Catholics, who are against all sorts of self-defense of any sort. Hard to figure out.