Diver down ....

[Tiassa]

diver down, diver down
and the murky waters hide him
amid the ebb of midnight

It's about 1:30 am ... I keep waiting for some revelation, some ethereal grapevine to ring out in the night that Daniel Pearl has died.

There is no political issue.

God might as well be on trial here.

The pervading wrongness of human conflict hangs in crystalline resolution before me.

For fuck's sake, why are they shooting at the writers ...?

Daniel Pearl must come home. Daniel Pearl must come home!

There is no political issue. Only a quiet midnight fraught with grim expectation.

Even such is time that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust,
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.

(Sir Walter Ralegh, on the eve of his execution)

There is no political issue.

 

[wet1]

That picture really gives me the shivers.

No political issue???? Who decides who may live and who has to die??? Isn't that all about politics???

Nobody is allowed to take the life of another human being. No matter what 'evil' deeds this person may have done to others, though most of all, to him/herself...

The picture makes me feel sad about us, humans. And makes me feel cold inside...

 

[Tiassa]

This is beyond politics

This goes way beyond politics. This is out of control. I mean, the jets and the buildings ... I can deal with that. We knew someone was going to hit this country hard eventually.

But when some podunk backwater yahoo can stand up and mock us like that, I'd say it's on. I hope they really do send food packets; the country will burn off its last molecule of restraint if they follow through on that one.

If they're going to do this ...

But I would hate to think they did it half-assed.

If he dies for naught, everybody loses.

E-mail?

And just who the hell talks to the United States that way, anyway?

You do not start shooting the writers! Not this time damn it!

And they really want to do this.

I can't believe that you can fly jets into buildings and I'll just shake my head, but if you take a writer and then email us mocking ransom notes ...

On the other hand, if they have the cajones to send the food packages, every two-bit fundie militant 'twixt Addis Abbaba and Jakarta will take a swing.

They have to know that pacifists are the minority here; the United States will vaporize them if they keep it up.

The funny thing is that if you can communicate with the writers ... that is, if you can make it make sense, they can be your best friends in heaven and earth at times like these.

And let me just say that the Pakistani-floated suggestion of India's involvement, while worth the grim chuckle, is irrelevant. If Mr Pearl comes home in a box, it's amazing how many people are going to die in the next round. Does anyone think we can keep civilian casualties low if we're bombing, say, downtown Beirut? Are we going to rip Calcutta or Delhi if it comes down to it? Jakarta? It's relatively easy to hit a radar tower in the desert, or an airport. How are we going to hunt down, smoke out, and punish the next idiots if they're well urbanized? Carpet bombing? That'll smoke 'em all.

I'm not overestimating the American senses of dignity or restraint. The nation is already prepared to get ugly.

Yet still, there is no political issue.

This is what it comes down to. What a sick, sad hatred called the human race.

thanx,
Tiassa

 

[goofyfish]

Re: This is beyond politics

Originally posted by tiassa
Yet still, there is no political issue. This is what it comes down to. What a sick, sad hatred called the human race.

I always try not to fold into cynicism regarding humankind. I spend a lot of time in forums such as this one that is peopled, for the most part, by those who can "think", and it's a "good thing." Then something like this happens and a switch flips in my brain:

Cancer - a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and spreads destructively.

Humans - a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and spreads destructively.

The potential of our species has proven remarkable time and again, yet the grandeur of our accomplishments can be wiped away in an instant. In 1980, I started reading books by Doug Adams. Although it was intended as a humorus poke at mankind, it always struck a very true chord in me:

"Man had always assumed he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars, and so on – while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons."

Peace.

--- Edit: self-hatred of spelling errors, sorry ---