Saturday, December 29, 2012

I Hate The War

Friday saw protests across Iraq.  Nouri mitigated the coverage of it by refusing to allow reporters outside the areas into them. The shameful corporate American news broadcasts -- especially NBC -- refused to note the protests.  They sold the war and now they run like crazy from their responsibilities.

The outrage in the US over the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School is curious when you consider the lack of similar outrage in the US for the Iraqi orphans, for the Iraqis with birth defects as a result of weapons and chemicals the US sent into Iraq starting in 2003.  What was done to in Newtown by one person was done on a much more massive scale in Iraq on the orders of the US government.

Iraq is estimated to now have one million orphans.  That's a result of the Iraq War.  But there's no concern for the deaths that created those orphans.

There are no outraged sermons on US cable on behalf of Iraqis.  No one's calling for an end to wars on behalf of the Iraqi orphans. 

American 'newscasts' really aren't even interested.  I guess when you're guilty, you don't like to be reminded of your crimes.  You just roll on to the next diversion, hoping to hell your actions don't create nightmares that haunt you for the rest of your lives.

Wars are popular because they're sold.  The press sells them. They ensure that new wars are popular by refusing to report the realities of war.  That's on the ground when the battle is taking place, yes.  It's also when they move on to a 'new' story in order to avoid what really happened to a 'liberated' people.

And that's true not just of corporate news, it's true of 'independent' news as well.  That's the really sad reality: Very few in the US media -- big or small -- are interested in truth.





It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)


The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.





E-mails.

First up, silly idiots.  A certain British professor hates Kurds and felt the need to share that hatred repeatedly this week.  I have no idea why.  Along with sharing that, the idiot wanted to provide 'tips.'  You're wasting your time doing that.

I don't read the bulk of the e-mails.  There are a ton of people who work the public e-mail account.  I heard about this woman today while talking to Shirley on the phone.  The idiot wrote repeatedly and Martha and Shirley actually responded to her or 'responded.'  They decided to just ignore her and let her know that she was much smaller and far less important than she thought the Kurds were.  (This woman truly hates Kurdish people -- she shared vile remarks about them.  It makes you wonder about the British education system that someone like that can be an educator.)  So they responded with "Thank you for writing, we're sorry but C.I. doesn't send out autographed photos at this time" type e-mails.  This infuriated the professor -- as they knew it would.  She wrote four or five times, apparently.  And they responded the same each time.  It resulted in a funny story which is the only reason I heard about it today.


Second, what's the schedule for this week?  Sunday, Isaiah will have a comic.  I will do "Hejira."  Martha and Shirley's look at the year in books will go up.  Monday?  I'll do an Iraq snapshot, Kat's look at the year in music and Ruth's look at the year in radio will go up.  I'll work on the year-in-review late and it will go up the first.  There may or may not be anything additional but that's what will go up. 

A visitor e-mailed the public account regarding that it would have been nice to know "everyone's schedule" ahead of Christmas.  Everyone?  I'm responsible for this site and I'm one of the ones responsible for Third.  Third ran a normal schedule last Sunday.  There was no need for an update on that.  What others did at their sites is something to take up with them:



I don't control their sites, I'm not over their sites.  They took Christmas Day off.  That's generally what they do with the exception of Mike.  This year, he had his first Christmas with his daughter.  I'm not surprised he took time off.

Here?  I only put up one entry on Christmas Day.  That honestly wasn't planned (and it wasn't announced).  The day before and the day after we did normal schedule.  I had planned to do two entries on Christmas Day.  But I was taking part in the round-table for Gina and Krista's newsletter, Martha and Shirley had asked me to read over a draft of their book review (they're always done ahead of time, they put the rest of us to shame).  I was entertaining a house full of guests and I had a cold.  I took some cold medicine and a nap that ended up being more than a nap.  I woke up at 11 my time and thought, "Anything I could write about now will be the same as tomorrow morning." So I went right back to sleep.

I didn't plan to only post one entry on December 25th, that's just how it ended up.  My apologies.  It was not planned.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.





Posted by at