In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.
The religious right is motivated by the suspicion that someone, somewhere,
is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.
You've already heard about the U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who went postal on a village. Not much I can say there. There's an easy way to make sure it never happens again: Leave. 'Nuff said.
I finished the red beans and rice. Four meals straight of red beans and rice? Just call me Toots McPenguin ;).
This bloody daylight savings time has walloped me good. So I'm going to wrap it up and head to bed.
-- Badtux the Tired Penguin
Ground rules: Comments that consist solely of insults, fact-free talking points, are off-topic, or simply spam the same argument over and over will be deleted. The penguin is the only one allowed to be an ass here. All viewpoints, however, are welcomed, even if I disagree vehemently with you.
WARNING: You are entitled to create your own arguments, but you are NOT entitled to create your own facts. If you spew scientific denialism, or insist that the sky is purple, or otherwise insist that your made-up universe of pink unicorns and cotton candy trees is "real", well -- expect the banhammer.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
It has been pretty well established that if you take a group of young people and subject them to certain conditions, they will often do terrible things. One of the ways most anyone would deal with a situation where they have to shoot and kill people is to dehumanize those people. Once you stop seeing the other group as being people, it becomes easier to kill them. The longer soldiers are in war zones the worse it gets. Our military fails its soldiers by sending them on too many tours of duty and by encouraging a culture where small abuses are tolerated. Don't get me wrong, this soldier must be punished but unless we also examine flaws in our military as an institution, we can expect more of this. Getting out of Afghanistan, although worthwhile for many reasons, wont solve the larger problem.
ReplyDeleteI Tux... I agree with your position on any of the "Stans."
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, Julia Child had a solution that works really well. Soak each pound of beans in about 10 quarts of water for 18-hours or overnight. The noxious bean products that cause what Ms. Child called the "rooti-toot-toots." You want to rinse them thoroughly the next day and use fresh water. Even random women say my beans are generally side effect free.
Bruce
Er, that should read "Hi Tux..."
DeleteThe reality is soldiers are exceptionally poorly suited to occupation. Making soldiers into policemen generally results in bad and violent policemen...policing is corrosive to military morale simply because the (mostly) black and white battlefield scenario changes to many shades of grey and greatly restricts to troops from using their training.
ReplyDeleteBS, I do of course soak the beans overnight (or longer) in as much water as I can fit in the pot, and it does help in reducing the starchiness. It helps. But not when you eat beans for two days straight ;).
ReplyDeleteCP88, I've made that point before. The job of a soldier is to kill. Not to nation build, not to police, not to patrol looking for crime, a soldier's job is to go to foreign lands, meet interesting people, and kill them. If that wasn't a soldier's job, we wouldn't need soldiers -- the training and equipment of a soldier far exceed the requirements of any job *not* requiring killing lots of the nation's enemies dead. We would just need a buncha Wackyhut rent-a-cops if not for that whole "kill lotsa enemies dead" thing.
You take a buncha youngsters trained to kill our nation's enemies dead and tell'em no, you can't kill, ya gotta be all touchy feely and shit, it's like taking a raw steak and waving it in front a starving dog that you just ordered 'sit'. Sooner or later that dog's gonna snap. Just sayin'.
- Badtux the Reality-based Penguin
"Leave. 'Nuff said."
ReplyDeleteHear, hear!
"Beans, beans, beautiful fruit..." maybe I'll have some for lunch today!
Have you ever considered dedicating a day to cooking and recipes on your blog?
ReplyDelete