I got nothing, and the news coverage is dominated by the shootings in Ft. Hood, and I don’t have anything to add to the speculation there.
I will say this, though- the speed with which Lily picks up anything even remotely edible and begins to chomp on it while I am walking her is frightening, and would lead a casual observer to think she had never been fed once in her life. I’m beginning to understand the term “trashhound.”
Terri
I have a cat like that. I raised him from a tiny kitten, but he is like a dog, in that he will eat anything and everything, even taking it off the table or snatching it out of your hand. Actually he eats things even my dogs won’t eat.
PeakVT
U3 to 10.2%; U6 to 17.5%. Ouch.
Tattoosydney
I love John Stewart.
General Winfield Stuck
There really isn’t much to say on the shootings, other than it sounds like the shrink needed his head shrunk. He didn’t want to go to Iraq either because he didn’t think we should be there, or just didn’t much care for life in a war zone.
I know the military is not a democracy where you get a vote, but it seems to me that a Muslim who didn’t want to be around while his countryman were needlessly occupying a country and killing folks of his religious and racial origins should maybe have been given a pass on serving there if it bothered him that much.
Can’t help but think that after 8 or 9 years of never ending war, that bidness in the shrink bidness was good enough to have plenty of work for him in the states, or some other location other than Iraq.
I will say, that though I have high respect for those who choose to serve, the day they discharged me from the Army remains the happiest day of my life.
dmsilev
@Tattoosydney: That was one of the most concentrated doses of televised Awesome that I’ve seen in a long time. And someone on TDS’s writing staff must read the blogosphere: “You know who else didn’t answer medical questions? Hitler.”
-dms
cat48
Joe and Mika are cheering because the new unemployment figures are out & they are up to 10.2%. Yeah! The Dems are in deep doo doo & they better not pass health care now. Everybody cheer! Pls people, don’t forget either about the shootings BO is responsible for, too!! Yea, happy Friday.
Nicole
Gawker has a piece on how the person who brought down the shooter was a woman, so why aren’t women allowed in combat?
On a happier note, first day of the Breeders Cup is today. Today, it’s all the girl horse races.
General Winfield Stuck
10.2 percent unemployment and a 3.5 rise in GDP/ This is why I hate the Unemploy. number, because that such a rise at this time of increasing production, could just as easily be explained at least in part, by long time folks without jobs and off the radar suddenly jumping back in the job hunting game and temporarily inflating the percentage of unemployed.
Tattoosydney
@dmsilev:
It was Stewart doing the squeaks of rage at about 7.00 that finally did me in.
Leelee for Obama
There seems to have been some warning signs here-of course, we won’t know anything for sure for quite a while, but the Major was attracting attention, and I wonder why there wasn’t some sort of official intervention here. This also illustrates how important mental-health issues are and will continue to be for our military. If the shrink is losing his grip, how the hell can a regular soldier handle what’s coming?
The religious aspect makes me wonder why he couldn’t have served in Germany, it’s not like stress can’t be relocated to another area, is it? It seems to me, a relocation would be helpful. Maybe I am naive, and that’s likely, I admit; I’ve got no military experience at all, but why would he need to treat mental-health issues in theater? I’m sure others could have done that?
Could you Folks with more knowledge enlighten me?
BTW-the post he made about suicide bombing seems to me to be more in the style of Bill Mahar’s theme, that the 911 attackers were lots of bad things, but they weren’t cowards. I read it as saying the suiciders were more strategic than fanatical. I don’t agree with the argument, but it didn’t sound as supportive as it did explanatory, and mostly in a religious context. Am I wrong?
Svensker
@Nicole:
I was in the first group of women who were allowed to throw grenades in the Army, as an experiment. My grenade went about 5 feet. Nor could I lift the bazooka. I was an excellent shot, however.
General Winfield Stuck
@Svensker:
LOL
Skepticat
@Leelee for Obama: At the rate there are demands to expand the armed forces, especially with more troops being requested for Afraq–oh, and yes, the rate at which soldiers are dying–they seem to need every warm body they can find. And being a warm body may well be the only requirement.
Nicole
@Skepticat: I wonder, though, if allowing women into combat would, much like a draft, really affect America’s willingness to go into unnecessary war. Not because of some great compassion for women, mind you, but because, on some level, we’re a limited resource. I was watching a bit of Prom Night in Mississippi and Morgan Freeman commented that, at the base of the matter, a lot of segregation revolves around a fear of black men and white women. In other words, one group of males wanting to limit access of another group of males to access to females. So, put that limited resource into a situation where some of them will absolutely be lost, and, on some level, the general population decide the war isn’t worth it.
Or maybe I’m trying to put too much of a biological impetus on it, and it’s just plain old chauvinism- not wanting women in a situation where they might gain power and status. ;)
Halteclere
Just this past weekend I was defending Muslums from the blanket suspicions my in-laws wanted to heap on every one that is in the US. Thanks for giving credence to their stereotype, fucker.
General Winfield Stuck
@Nicole:
In the frontless wars we are in today, lots of women are in combat, just not infantry or technically combat units. All you have to do to know this is look at the rosters of KIA with more than a few feminine names on it.
dmsilev
@Tattoosydney: For me, it was the blackboard. I’m very curious to know what the connection was between Van Jones and photosynthesis.
-dms
Jane_in_Colorado
I will say this, though- the speed with which Lily picks up anything even remotely edible and begins to chomp on it while I am walking her is frightening, and would lead a casual observer to think she had never been fed once in her life. I’m beginning to understand the term “trashhound.”
It’s a dog thing. Dave Barry once wrote that his dogs would eat anything that hit the floor, on the philosophy that, if it turned out not to be food, they could always throw it up later.
My dog will eat cat poop out of the litter box if I don’t get it scooped up fast enough.
Persia
Mara Liasson’s story on prospects for the Democrats next year blew my mind. The sky is falling, people! Get ready for the Republican resurgence!
GReynoldsCT00
@Terri:
I can beat that. I had a cat, half siamese, who would raid the garbage, get into the wadded up tinfoil that was used for baking bacon (it’s cleaner than frying!) and eat it. Then he’d yak up the little wads of foil all day long…was truly disgusting. That and he once got into a whole bowl of homemade tuna salad on the counter. We didn’t know he had eaten it until he jumped back down to the floor and let out a massive belch. Good times with that cat.
ellaesther
Now, John Cole, until your dog has either a) eaten and subsequently, uh, regurgitated an entire bag of candy corn (dog-size to bag-size ratio must be consistent with dachshund:big fucking bag) and/or b) eaten and subsequently regurgitated a series of lipsticks left on countertops/tables by your mom? You do not truly know a dog and its eating ways.
Just sayin’.
dianeb
Since this is an open thread I’ll chance it and de-lurk to put this thought out. Whenever there’s a shooting, the wingnuts usually come out with a screed about how the shooter wouldn’t have gotten very far if the entire US population was allowed to carry whatever weapons they wanted anywhere they wanted in any way they wanted (open or concealed)–these band of brothers would have shot the guy and ended the violence, but because of gun laws and all that librul stuff more people died.
So here’s my thought: an army psychiatrist opens fire on an army base, full of guns and people who can access them as well as those who carry them all the time. So did this decrease the carnage? Can’t wait to read that one.
PeakVT
@General Winfield Stuck: If you look at Table A you will see that the labor force is going down, and has been for a while.
geg6
After last night, I must say it.
Jon Stewart is a god.
That is all.
ellaesther
@GReynoldsCT00: Ah. I see that your cat and my dogs were of the same school of thought!
Halteclere
@Nicole:
Nicole, I’m sure there is a lot of what you say at work in people’s mind. But also I think many people, when they visualize a combat situation, focus on (what I assume is) atypical situations where someone big and strong has to pick up a fallen comrade, jump over high walls or run fast through an open space while under fire, etc. all while carrying 50lbs of gear – basically things that men are much more physically capable of doing than women. But in reality, how many things that a soldier does while in a firefight require extreme exertions of strength? I don’t know, but would say that with today’s mechanization of everything that a woman would seldom find herself in a position unable to do something that a man could do faster or better.
R-Jud
@geg6: Everyone keeps saying this, and I can’t watch any of the linked clips because I am a broad abroad. Grr.
Tattoosydney, your link doesn’t work for me either. Are you using a proxy or something?
PK
I wonder how long before the links between the shooter’s name Hassan and Hussein Obama begin to be made. I am shocked that no right wing site has been there yet.
GReynoldsCT00
@ellaesther:
Yeah, not much of it!
smiley
@cat48:
They were also saying that because Hasan is Muslim, his motivation for the shootings was political Apparently Islam is a political position now. Dumb asses. (BTW, his motivation very well might have been political.)
Persia
@dianeb: They’ll be too busy complaining about Mooslims to notice.
Nicole
@General Winfield Stuck: I’m aware of that, GWS, but I think, in the mind of the average American, there’s a distinction between combat and non-combat, even though a person can end up just as dead. (Seeing as how Americans seem to not be able to wrap their heads around how much money war costs, while they seem very aware of what social programs cost. I think, if they could actually do that, we might also see an end to unnecessary war.)
smiley
@dianeb:
Apparently that’s not true.Soldiers do not go around base carrying guns. My understanding is that under most conditions, only military police carry guns on base.
Nicole
@Halteclere: True, but there is an actual ban on women in combat, as opposed to an equally physical job, like firefighting, where there are few women serving as firefighters because few women can manage the job, physically, but there is no actual ban on women being firefighters on account of being women- if they can handle the physical work, they can be a firefighter. And I imagine most female firefighters are perfectly capable of what a combat soldier has to do. So why the ban on letting women at least attempt to be combat soldiers, unless there are other factors at work?
Just Some Fuckhead
Steeler Hines Ward is voted dirtiest player in NFL by peers
Leelee for Obama
@Nicole: I wish for that idea to take hold, Nicole. I find it remarkable that the same people who think the cost of war must always be borne, no matter what, but the care of the nation’s citizens must devolve unto the individual and charity still makes me nuts. It’s been my whole life, and yet I still find it startling!
BTW-has anyone ever figured out how small a proportion of the Military spending done during the Cold War, defending Europe, would have provided health care and a social safety net here in the USA? Not saying we shouldn’t have been there, but how small a percentage of that money would have accomplished what was needed?
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@Leelee for Obama: The issue is that no, the Military isn’t a Democracy — you go exactly where your superiors tell you to, without question. If they gave exemptions just because you might be shooting at your co-religionists, it’d be a madhouse.
Moreover, the Armed Forces are strapped — a large part of the issue here is that the tempo of action is brutal on everyone. this is why guys like him were needed downrange, where people can be treated for mental issues when the first signs appear, NOT months later after deployment. Mental health is just like physical health; early treatment often means not just keeping minds and families together, but also more cynically less cost and a better chance of retaining that solider and his experience.
But this is a case of Who Watches the Watchmen. Because numbers are tight, the Armed Forces aren’t able to keep up with issues like this in the way they normally would. He’s not always got someone he can go to. And if the reports of religious harassment are true, he may have even felt isolated.
Finally: There are many devout Muslims serving with distinction and honor in every part of America’s Armed Forces. It’s honestly a disservice to those men and women to think they need “special treatment” because one man went off the rails in a horrible, gut-wrenching tragic way.
Leelee for Obama
@Skepticat: If that isn’t the best argument for a draft, I don’t know what is. All in, or no war.
It’ll never happen, but that’s the crux of the problem. It’s too easy to put the stresses and threats of war on a small percentage of the Nation, and while that continues to be true, we are not gonna solve this.
geg6
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Buncha pussies.
General Winfield Stuck
@PeakVT:
I see that. So much for my theory at this time anyways. Going bad to worse it seems.
shortstop
We’ve always had rescues who were at least marginally adults when we got them. I’ve never had the nerve while meeting our next canine to test whether it’s a dog that will allow me to shove my hand down her throat to remove the rotting garbage she just scooped up, or whether it’s a snap-jaws-tightly-shut-on-prize kind of dog. This would actually be valuable information to have ahead of time.
geg6
@R-Jud:
It’s epic. I watched it on TPM early this morning and just lost it. Made my morning, which wasn’t easy seeing as how my coffee maker picked today to die.
Neutron Flux
@PK: Well you can go right over to Swampland at Time, read RustyReturns comments, and all of your questions will be answered.
Leelee for Obama
@Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill: I understand the problem better now, thanks. Insofar as special treatment goes, I honor anyone who serves this country, no matter what faith they practice-I just thought a situation like this one might have been preempted if there had been some compassion towards the Major’s issues. The “Who watches the Watchman” problem is a frightening thing. We see it in all types of organizations-i.e. police forces, military, medical institutions. Kind of makes me feel helpless.
Tattoosydney
Anyone who says their dog is a truly finicky eater is deluding themselves, or being played for a sucker, I suspect.
All potential food must be eaten immediately lest other dogs get it (even if there are no other dogs nearby). Then you can think about whether it was edible or not.
Ours will try to scoff almost anything – dropped sweets, prawn heads, dead birds, brown gelatinous masses … However, he has “olive” moods and, about half the time, will decline them with one disdainful sniff. Watermelon is always a winner, though.
Svensker
@Halteclere:
Do you say that about those shiftless black folks who give other black folks a bad name?
geg6
@Tattoosydney:
This.
burnspbesq
@Persia:
My dentist loves Mara, because every time I hear her voice I grind my teeth.
Tattoosydney
@Jane_in_Colorado:
@geg6:
Jane_in_Colorado and Dave Barry got there before me.
bemused
Rank, rotting stuff is irresistible to dogs. Eating it, rolling in it, is their idea of paradise. We will have no idea what our younger, 60# dog has wolfed down but there’s no doubt she ate something extremely putrid when it comes out the other end. She does her duty outdoors & the reeking odor spreads out in a massive noxious cloud at least 15 feet in all directions. She’s pretty happy to get rid of it. Her humans near by are just trying not to pass out.
I once walked into the house of a friend who owned a huge Malemute, 120#, & saw an orangey colored object on the floor that I couldn’t identify. The big guy had just upchucked a long white tube sock.
Karen
Hopefully, Lily is more of a garbage gut than my dog. Almost anything will upset her stomach, then we spend days watching her on the carpets. I honestly think German shepherds have the most tender gut in the canine world.
Oh, John, I hope you aren’t a gamer. According to what I read, Windows 7 doesn’t play well with others, nor lets others play.
Tattoosydney
@R-Jud:
I don’t know. I just linked to Oliver’s site. You can find the video on the front page of the Daily Show web site under “The 11/3 Project”.
Halteclere
@Svensker: My in-laws have had enough contact with blacks and “mexicans” to not outright say that all of them need to be closely monitored for suspicious activity.
And this weekend’s conversation was an extension of one we had a while back after the military recruiter shooting in Arkansas.
Tattoosydney
@R-Jud:
I’m in Australia and can watch the videos on the DS website… are you sure it’s because you are not in the US?
Tattoosydney
@bemused:
This. Sadly.
Hob
@Jane_in_Colorado: Not to diminish the specialness of your dog, but I think cat poop is pretty highly regarded by dogs in general. When I catch my guy having found some, and I wail despairingly “Aw no! Leave it!”, instead of his usual guilty “Sorry uh I was just, uh, sorry” look, he gives me a puzzled & half pitying stare like “But, but it’s CAT SHIT! Have you tried it?”
Evinfuilt
If only those army victims were armed they could have prevented this shooting in a rambo-esque way.
R-Jud
@Tattoosydney: Any time I pull up a link to the clip, it says “Sorry, videos not available in your country.”
I am guessing Channel 4 got them to stop showing clips online here in the UK, as they re-air TDS the day after it goes out in the US.
Guess I’ll have to wait for it to pop up on YouTube and hope it doesn’t get taken down while I’m watching it.
Evinfuilt
And for those who have had their dogs eating the kitty poo (or as I think of it, Tootsie Rolls) I recommend grabbing a Clevercat top-entry litter box.
It stopped both of my dogs cold, no more midnight munchies for them.
bemused
@Tattoosydney:
Ha, even as we are struggling to breathe, we can’t help but be in awe of the gigantic stink bombs she can produce.
Svensker
@Halteclere:
If you visualize the Islamic world as pretty much like the American world, imagine how they perceive us. We condemn “ragheads” for one guy going crazy. We’ve got how many hundred thousand soldiers in their countries shooting them and bombing them?
Given your in-laws’ world view, their fear of Muslims is probably “rational.” Turn that around and assume the same sort of world view in many homes in the Islamic world about Americans — which is way more “rational” — then imagine what happens.
All I’m saying is that what you’re doing is saddling all Muslims with this guy’s sin. I’m asking if you blame Obama for the black guy who murdered a white guy in Paterson, NJ, yesterday?
bemused
@Hob:
Hilarious. I have seen that look.@Evinfuilt:
What the heck do they put in that cat litter? Not much repels dogs so whoever thought up the ingredient is a genius.
Brick Oven Bill
The always prescient Associated Press notes:
“The motive for the shooting wasn’t clear, but Hasan was apparently set to deploy soon and had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
I’m sure it had nothing to do with the syllables ‘Allahu Akbar’ that he reportedly shouted.
Fjordman notes:
“The Judeo-Christian, Western culture is based on guilt [ed. See Svensker above], and Muslims exploit this by playing on our guilt complex. The Arab-Islamic culture is based on shame. It’s time we learn to play on their shame, just as they do on our guilt. They feel humiliated and paranoid about everything. In defense of their egos and by extention their religion they do stupid things, such as the London bombings and sharing the beheading videos with the rest of the world. While these tactics are successful in terrorizing people, they also alert Western people and other infidels that Islam may not be the “religion of peace and tolerance” that it claims to be.”
Major Hassan acted stupidly for his cause. This is why Islam, in its current form, will fail.
Fjordman, on the other hand, is very good. He no longer maintains his web-site, but it remains a very good place to study the psychology of the Muslim mind. If you want to actually learn something about what happened at Fort Hood, turn off the TV and open his link. Fjordman is from Norway, and has been affected by immigration.
Fergus Wooster
Ok, the catnip kitten/demon is really starting to freak me out.
Bring back mutant Pamela Anderson or the Peta Steak ad, please.
Bill D.
My sister used to call cat crap “dog candy” from long experience.
For more on trash hounds, check out:
Bill D.
Fergus Wooster
Clevercat top-entry litter box helps.
Also recommend letting the dog get caught in the litter room by the cats. My two cats were unamused, and tag-teamed my Rottie mercilessly for the intrusion – whilst blocking her exit. I had to carry her out while kicking cats out of the way.
Numerous tufts of black fur on the floor.
She hasn’t shown as much of an interest in litter since then. . .
Paul L.
Priceless
David Neiwert who is the first condemn the Right wing for any violence remotely connected to it (Abortion Doctor,Holocaust museum, ambush of Pittsburgh Police shootings) and wrote a book about it, is condemning the “rush to judgment: of the Fort Hood shooter.
Wingnuts rush to conclusions about Fort Hood shooter — but cousin says he was ‘good American’ harassed for being Muslim
2th&nayle
@Hob:
Hahaha! Hilarious! FTW!
Bob In Pacifica
Our old dog used to love month-old cheetos in the gutter. “Finely aged,” he would bark.
timb
Anyone seen Pam Gellar’s place? The bigotry and stupidity are amazing!
Drew
@Jane_in_Colorado: Dogs don’t just eat cat shit because it is on the floor, rather they eat it because it is very high in protein. Rabbits also eat their own dung, as it the plants they eat are not easy to efficiently process, so a rabbit has the ability to shit a turd that is all waste, and then the next may not have much waste at all, just undigested goodness, that the rabbit will willingly eat again.
Drew
Carol
“There really isn’t much to say on the shootings, other than it sounds like the shrink needed his head shrunk.”
“BTW-the post he made about suicide bombing seems to me to be more in the style of Bill Mahar’s theme”
Oh, I see – so when the census worker was found in KY (an evident suicide now), and Poplanski in Pittsburgh killed the cops and the old nutter killed the guard at the Holocaust museum we had a pattern. Right wingers, Beck fans, etc were all suspect. The folks here who had their panties in a twist over it were being perfectly logical and rational in suspecting something dark and sinister at the root of conservatism.
But the Ft. Dix 6, the kid in TX, and the Ft. Hood shooter who apparently screamed Allahu Ahkbar before opening up are all just an anomaly (to say nothing of the ‘93 and ‘01 WTC attacks or the kid who was picked up in CO recently). Nothing to see here, please move along. In fact, let’s mock how the right is overreacting. It’s not like we do the same thing whenever a Beck fan explodes.
I’m willing to concede that there actually is something dark and sinister underlying Beck’s worldview. But WTF is up with the double standard on this by you people? The indicators pointing towards Islam being a potential root cause behind attacks like this far outweigh the indicators linking Beck’s drivel to right wing violence – and yet you hyperventilate over the latter and bend over backwards to deny any link in the case of the former. You would have more credibility if you showed a shred of self awareness, and at least acknowledged your hypocrisy.
The far left really is just as deluded and atavistic as the far right. You people bitch and moan whenever Israel stomps on Hezbollah for launching rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas, and then when Georgia gets stomped by Russia for doing pretty much the same thing you look the other way – because the neo-cons were rooting for the underdog. The left has its idols and fetishes just like the right has. Neither side is a friend of logical consistency.
REN
We live in a way rural area where deer hunters operate within 100 yards of our house. Every single year after season when I let my dogs loose again,{ they’ve always had that privilege}, my oldest, a lab mix ,will arrive back with her stomach practically dragging on the ground from eating gut piles. She likes to get back in the house before she yaks it all up. She looks at me as I clean it up like, what ARE you doing, I was saving that for later. She once ate three boxes of chocolate and all the wrappings and ribbons that were on the Christmas packages they came out of. Dead toads, moles, birds, anything dead is a great snack. The phrase” cast iron stomach” was likely first used in reference to dogs.
shortstop
Remember the dog-themed commercial in the MasterCard “priceless” series? The third baseman responds to every instance of our hound consuming grossness with a cheerful, “Life with a dog — revolting!”
valdivia
RE cat poop and dogs. Radio Lab had a show about parasites and in their talk about toxoplasmosis, they explained that cat urine has a powerful chemical brainwashing effect on rats. Maybe the same happens with their poop and dogs. The show is called parasites and can be found here:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/
Carol
One other thing – there is a need for MD Psychs down range, as it were. Whenever a unit, particularly at the squad or platoon level, loses someone, the Army and USMC are pretty good about making sure everyone in that unit receives counseling as soon as possible from a trained professional. If a Psych isn’t available, the Chaplain takes on the responsibility. The effects/consequences of not conducting post event counseling for everyone immediately affected can be devastating. Your buddy has just been wacked – you’re young, pissed, and ready to dole out some retribution. The next trip off the FOB should be interesting; you can kiss “winning hearts and minds” goodbye for a few days. That part of the campaign plan might have to take a breather. Actually, it’s not uncommon – where possible – to give a unit that’s taken a hit a brief reprieve to let things cool down. Good policy.
Anyway, the need for Psychs in theatre isn’t driven by the fact that everyone, or even a significant minority, is a walking timebomb of pent up rage and PTSD. And this guy wasn’t some “poor, wrecked soul” suffering from the stress of combat. He was a REMF with an Islamist worldview. The Army should’ve weeded him out and given him a Chapter 88, Failure to Adapt discharge a long time ago. Fuck him. I hope he lives a full life, so he can really think about what he’s done. Thanks to his worldview though – and with some help from far left apologists, he’ll probably be able to rationalize it and sleep well at night.
matoko_chan
Sorry, Carol, but the problem is here, that Bush’s War on Terror was RELLY a war on al-Islam.
As much as he tried to deny it.
Perhaps the Iraq war started out as a WMD hunt, but it quickly morphed into a naked attempt to proselytize “judeo-christian democracy”.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi CIVILIANS have died over the past eight years, at the high point of sectarian violence Iraq was losing 3500 citizens per week….a 911 every week on a population of 25 million. Bush’s war of choice cost us a trillion dollars we don’t actually have and around 5000 lives from the finest military on the planet…..FOR NOTHING.
And now NON-judeo-xian-democracy Iraq, which is an islamic state (shariah in their constitution), is rapidly returning to steady state sectarian violence, persecution of minorities and homosexuals, while we still have 100,000+ troops in-country.
Bush has killed more americans in Iraq than OBL killed in twintowers, lol.
So yeah, muslims don’t want us there, and we can’t “win”, w/e the hell that means.
If we want to have muslims stop attacking us, we need to gtfo out of Iraq and Af-Pak.
bemused
@REN:
Deer hunting country here too. Our close neighbor is a hunter but he doesn’t like to dispose of deer bones, etc. He has even left a plastic garbage bag full deer parts sitting by his garage for months in the winter or left a pile in his back yard. As you can imagine, as soon as our dogs get a whiff, they make a beeline to it. Our dogs get stomach upsets, haul home deer leg bones & make a mess rummaging through the bag. The neighbor continued to do this even after phone calls. I can’t imagine why he would rather have neighbor dogs or wolves & bears waking up in the spring making possible visits to his home than simply getting rid of the attraction. I’m guessing laziness.
Carol
Paul L – priceless indeed.
bemused
@valdivia:
Cats are so diabolical. They have been secretly brainwashing the dogs in the family all this time. This explains so much.
Nicole
I have two stepbrothers who are Muslim, and both are rightwing conservatives who voted for Bush twice and think Rocky IV is one of the great achievements of 1980’s cinema. Islam is not a root cause behind attacks like this- in fact, I’d be far more likely to believe that American rightwing bias against Muslims is more of a factor than Islam itself.
In the case of the attacks on the WTC, didn’t bin Laden say it was the presence of American military on Saudi soil? That seems less to me about Islam and more about occupation. Because, of course, Americans would be just tickled pink if say, the French set up permanent military bases in Florida.
I’m not justifying anyone’s attacks on anyone, so don’t start with that; I’m just saying the right’s continual “It’s because Islam is eeeeeeevil!” rhetoric is merely a way to keep Americans from really taking a look at what is done in their name around the world.
So no, I don’t see anything hypocritical in saying Glen Beck incites rightwing violence and also saying that Islam is not a “root cause” of attacks like this. They aren’t equivalent.
matoko_chan
You are a WEC, aren’t you carol?
white evangelical christian.
Have you considered…..most of the worlds ills come from Big White Christian Bwana’s incessent meddling?
Israel/Palestine, Operation Ajax, the tyrant shah, the Iraq War, Af-Pak situ, the british raj, triple digit pop growth in Africa, Viet Nam, just trying to help out the little brown/black/yellow people…..right?
I’d rather have good honest rapists like the Romans and the Mongols.
Being WEC means never having to say you’re sorry.
Being WEC means we are going to rape you and kill you and steal your stuff, but we are doing it so you have the benefit of Our Infinitely Superior “judeo-xian” Democracy…..and because we “love” you and we are “saving” you for Jesus.
Carol
“Perhaps the Iraq war started out as a WMD hunt, but it quickly morphed into a naked attempt to proselytize “judeo-christian democracy”.
Oh Shit – I didn’t realize Matoko Chan was a fucking expert on the dynamics of inter-tribal, inter sectarian conflict in Iraq. He/she clearly understands what it’s all about. Evil Bush-co stooges drinking the blood of poor Iraqi civilians unless they convert to Christianity, because God knows every Infantryman and everyone who supports him is a pure and upstanding moral soul, who wants nothing more than for the Middle East to be “Christianized.”
But this is really rich: “If we want to have muslims stop attacking us, we need to gtfo out of Iraq and Af-Pak.” Because the ’93 WTC attack, the Khobar Towers attack, and Nairobi Embassy bombing, and sundry other attacks against civilians in the West prior to 2001 were all precipitated by our attacks against Iraq and Afghanistan? WTF!
It’s a fact. There are people out there who want to kill you. And your government is not actually always to blame.
Leelee for Obama
@Carol: No matter who is doing the shooting, it’s wrong. The shooting at Ft. Hood is a terrible and horrifying thing that should not have happened, under any circumstances. I felt the same way about any of the shootings and killings that have happened due to political uproar. I am not, in any way, excusing what this man did. I did not say I agreed with his world-view, in fact, I specifically said that I did not. What I said was, there were red flags flying all over, and they were not addressed. It’s entirely possible that Hasan is a terrorist, we will not know for awhile.
As to the need for psychiatric help in theater, I didn’t mean to imply that it isn’t needed. In re-reading my post, I realize it could be construed that way. My point was, why this guy? I get that the Military needs what it needs, and it’s not a democracy, but it seems a grave mistake to ignore something that could be dangerous.
Note-I never said he had an excuse, not even if he WAS harassed about his faith. That should have been dealt with administratively. I’m sure other faiths have some of those issues as well.
geg6
@Carol:
So much bullshit, so little time. First, please feel free to go with the Kentucky cops saying this. And then, please, you and your idiot hillbilly cop friends can show me exactly how this guy committed suicide. Please, I’m dying to see the evidence.
Second, Cop-Killer Poplawski, the Holocaust Museum killer, and, wait, wasn’t there another one? oh yeah!, the Operation Rescue murderer aren’t in any way connected to the right wing in this country? So these were just your every day random murders. Nothing to see there, folks. Just move along.
And equating health care reform to the Holocaust is simply civil political discourse.
The Fort Dix 6 were a joke and if you took them seriously, you are more stupid than you even sound. I don’t know what kid in TX you’re talking about, but I’ll give you a pass on that because I don’t. And a Muslim shouting “Allahu Akbar” just isn’t something I find any more or less menacing on its face than I find asshole Christians in front of women’s clinics shouting “Jesus Saves!”
But beyond all this, where the fuck do you get off linking liberals with what you obviously see as Islamist terrorists? Fuck you. I’m sick of assholes like you saying shit like this. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you fucking troll.
“You people.” Again, fuck you with a rusty pitchfork you fucking asshole.
PK
Nicole
No, Carol, you history amnesiac, they were precipitated by decades of the US sticking our nose into other nations’ territories and politics in order to get our hands on their limited resources. So yeah, if we want Muslims to stop attacking us we DO need to gtfo out Iraq and Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia, and… etc., etc.
They are not attacking us because they are Muslim. They are attacking us because we are taking their stuff. Why is that so hard to understand? Or does your belief in American exceptionalism extend to expecting other nations to be every so happy and grateful to give us what ain’t ours because we are just so awesome?
General Winfield Stuck
@Carol:
You just have to stop watching so much Glen Beck Carol. The lies will make you blind, deaf and dumber than you already are. And if you have evidence other than winger tripe that Sparkman was a suicide, then deliver it, or stfu.
No one here is giving this killer any quarter. But smearing all muslims is just not cool. Take your strawmen and go back freeperville.
Shell
Re: Lily and eating anything that doesn;t eat her first.
Reminds me of one of my dogs, Clemmie. She was a rescue dog, and my mom always said her life motto is ‘As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!”
Nicole
REN
@ bemused
Oh yes. Deer legs are like tree branches in our yard in the spring. I believe there is a rule prohibiting leaving deer parts in the woods, but that is one of those rules that people ignore. Worse, we live within 200 yards of an ATV,snowmobile trail, and hunters from the local town will dump their remains from it after processing rather than bagging it up at home. They think they are returning it to “nature”, but the bears, wolves,coyotes don’t have a prayer with my dog around. I think she could smell a fart in a whirlwind.
Damned at Random
My (former stray) mutt would eat the most appalling things on our walks – dessicated mouse corpses were a favorite. Once she found a stale bagel – she tried to eat it, but it was too hard to break, so she refused to continue the walk until she buried it under a creosote bush. When she escaped from the yard- as she did occasionally- she would come back reeking with something vile crusted in her coat. Once she crammed her 45 lb body into a cat trap to get a can of tuna and was rescued by animal control.
Nothing grosses out a dog.
Carol
Makoto Chan – I’m starting to get a better picture of where you’re coming from. You’re just another armchair expert making ludicrously bad assessments based on little experience and a shitty staring point.
It’s laughable though that you think I’m a WEC, or that the Army is overrun by them. Personally, God and religion, regardless of the flavor, strike me as pretty ridiculous. And the hard core Wahabbi Sunnis I’ve worked with were about as noble, majestic, and interesting as the nut job polygamous fundy Mormons who inhabit parts of the American Southwest. They’re equally backwards, and actually approach life from a perspective that’s pretty similar once you strip away the difference in prophets. Both really, really like guns, having a lot of wives, trying to turn back the clock as much as possible, and fantasizing about the apocalypse.
Maybe you wouldn’t be such an apologist shill for them if you could imagine them as being more in line with Christian Fundamentalists. They really do tend to be just as intolerant and just as crazy. I guess though they’re just exotic and distant enough for you to romanticize. Noble Savages and all of that bullshit. Whatever floats your boat.
General Winfield Stuck
And I will add that no American muslims are not traveling around the country protesting with the equivilant of KKK signs and carrying assault weapons to dem presnit event, nor do they have their own teevee show spreading lies and hate for a black dem president, and using vapor rub to feign tears for the coming soshulist take over of Amerika by a Kenyan imposter muslim terror loving liberal president…GFY wanker
matoko_chan
No Carol…..subsapient WEC that you are.
Khobar and Blackhawk were precipitated by our little Iranian adventures…..ever hear of Operation Ajax?
Where the CIA sponsered a coup against the ELECTED Iranian Mossadegh and installed the Tyrant Shah as an American puppet?
That the Iranians held the embassy hostages against a return of the Shah when Carter gave him asylum?
What would you define “democracy promotion” as?
To muslims it looks pretty much like an attempt to impose judeo-christian style goverment by force of American arms.
Run along WEC and
proselytizemolest some more children like Rifqa Bery.General Winfield Stuck
Wingnuts are nuts. That is all.
General Winfield Stuck
@General Winfield Stuck:
should be no not in this sentence.
asiangrrlMN
I hate these threads because the dumbass trolls always come out to play. Thank you for reading them and demolishing their batshitcraziness so I don’t have to.
@Tattoosydney: FH#1, thank you so much for sending me this clip. It was exactly what I needed.
matoko_chan
I am a sufi revert Carol.
And you are a “moran”.
I am jus’ saying this will continue to happen until American folds her tents and gtfos of afghanistan and iraq.
To muslims, this is a War on al-Islam, on their religion.
America, go home.
Bush killed more American soldiers in Iraq than OBL killed in 911.
And its OVAH.
We can’t “win”.
Randy P
We had a black Lab who was also a real garbage hound, especially on walks. I was always torn between saying “What did you pick up now?” and then reaching into the mouth to find out, or saying “I’m not going to ask that question because I don’t want to know the answer. Besides, gee whiz, guess it’s too late to find out now (whew).”
But having read the other comments I feel very fortunate that, for some reason, we did not have to deal with the Cat Poop Thing.
Also, thank Dog, we never had to deal with the Eating the Remote Thing, a taste preference for which Labs in particular are famous.
anie
@Karen: I agree about German Shepherds having delicate digestive systems. I got mine from the pound this year. He eats the most expensive Presciption Diet food sold at the vet, or else he will be puking and having diarrea non-stop. And given his size he consumes quite alot of the rather expensive food. The things we put up with for the animals we love.
anie
@Tattoosydney: Laughed out loud and woke up my sleeping grandmother!! This is full of win on so many levels.
Carol
“They are not attacking us because they are Muslim. They are attacking us because we are taking their stuff. Why is that so hard to understand? ”
Ah, Nicole appears to be another woefully ignorant armchair expert. Explain this Einstein. Why the fuck are they attacking their own? What reason could they possibly have for relentlessly and savagely eliminating Muslims in their midst who don’t meet the their standards of religious purity? Are the Iranian mullahs cracking down on their own population, as we speak, doing it because those kids are trying to take all of the oil and whore it out to evil evil Uncle Sam? Are the Wahabbis in Anbar and the SCIRI/OMS affiliated Shia in south Iraq killing their co-religionists because of evil evil Uncle Sam? What about the fatwah against Salmon Rushdie, or killing a fucking cartoonist over a drawing?
Look, I’m not saying we should maintain a heavy footprint over there. I favor old school imperial policing. But if you’re going to flip out about right wingers instigating acts of domestic terrorism, why not show a shred of intellectual consistency and acknowledge that Islam – more specifically devout Islamists – carry the potential for doing some really nasty things as well. I understand removing the beam out our own eye before helping with the splinter in our neighbor’s eye – but there really does seem to be some truth to the whole Clash of Civilizations/Cosmic Warfare argument. Not everything is about rank materialism and taking shit that belongs to someone else – some people have ideas about things, and they’re willing to kill for them.
Randy P
@Persia:
Yeah, I heard that story in the car when I had NPR on for some reason.
First I got mad at the usual “it’s always good news for Republicans” thing. Then I decided I was perfectly happy for Republicans to go into 2010 thinking this.
Provided Democrats actually pass health care that makes a difference in people’s lives. In 2010. I think that really is the single key issue. Or rather it’s the key bellwether (yeah, that overused word) as to whether Democrats can get Democratic agendas through if you elect them. And it’s going to start driving primaries early in 2010.
General Winfield Stuck
@Carol:
Geesh you can build more strawmen faster and bigger than any troll we’ve seen recently. Where in hell did anyone say that Muslim persons didn’t have the “potential” for violence? Idiot liar.
General Winfield Stuck
And this little neo con turdlett you should shove where it came from.
General Winfield Stuck
Have to go for now.
Carol
Makoto Chan
“I am a sufi revert”
“I am jus’ saying this will continue to happen until American folds her tents and gtfos of afghanistan and iraq.
To muslims, this is a War on al-Islam, on their religion.
America, go home.
Bush killed more American soldiers in Iraq than OBL killed in 911.
And its OVAH.
We can’t “win”.”
Interesting; that sounds a lot like some of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s posts about 6 mos ago. I just hope you’re able to control yourself and your holy rage better than he did.
Right now some far right wackjob is on Storm Front, making equally retarded arguments about the sinister forces at work that are driving US foreign policy. You should both get a room – more in common than you suspect. Good luck. I’d encourage you to seek counseling. Don’t wind up like Maj Hasan!
matoko_chan
Carol…..I really despise stupid people.
Do you know what happens when stupid people decide to go on little overseas “democracy-promotion” adventures that destroy the social fabric of whole cultures without putting any alternative control structures in place?
Sectarian violence happens.
Incidence of criminal acts like rape and murder rise.
The whole place becomes a reaver factory.
Do you know about reavers Carol?
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have DIED.
Their cities were rubble, their children were orphans, their economy was shredded….
Religious sects that have been at war with each other centuries are suddenly free to blow each other up and kill and torture and rape and steal.
You don’t need a degree in cognitive anthropology to see what happened.
tripletee
Glad I’m not the only one with a dog that will eat anything she can get in her mouth. Toys, crayons, cat poop, socks, dirty diapers/kleenex (a particular favorite)… Oh, and money. It’s always a dilemna when you’re cleaning up the back yard and you come across a lawn cigar containing an intact bill – how much is your self-respect worth?
The all-time WTF moment came when she was still a puppy, and I found her in the back yard calmly eating a cactus with 1″ spines. Didn’t seem to bother her much.
I note with interest that our new troll, Carol, seems to have a similar propensity to swallow whatever random bullshit she comes across.
Nicole
@Carol:
Einstein is my pick for the Breeders’ Cup Classic tomorrow. Though it would be awesome if Zenyatta wins. Either way, girl power! (Trainer or horse; s’all good with me)
I’m sorry- what? Get back to me when you are willing to stay focused on your earlier assertion, which is that the US is attacked by Arabic factions because Islam is eeeevil, and not because the US is messing around in other nations’ business.
Nicole
@matoko_chan:
That reference just made me love you a little bit.
Carol
My guess General Suck is that you’re ignorant about “imperial policing” as it’s technically practiced. Arial drones, small strike forces, rapid response. The futility of “winning hearts and minds” is evident. But there are, despite your rosy view of the world and romanticism of Lawrence of Arabia – Noble Savage Islamists, people out there who have ideas they’d be willing to kill for. They’re as unhinged from reality as you are – look at their objectives. And they should be killed when the opportunity presents itself.
Now it’d probably be better to bulk up port security and domestic defenses, but from time to time they are able to hit us from afar. So I think a low profile, and a smack down from time to time, are worth it. FWIW, though – I think we should’ve gotten out of Iraq and Afghanistan a long time ago. Never should’ve gone to Iraq. And we need to get the CIA out of detaining and interrogating suspected terrorists. The FBI has a much better track record, and when you abandon the Keither Sutherland approach you get much better results.
matoko_chan
I actually sound more like Matthew Hoh.
Dr. Nidal turned into a reaver.
He was a doctor that killed, a muslim that took innocent life.
He went crazy.
But don’t you think he had reason to go crazy?
General Winfield Stuck
@Carol:
No I know what it means. It was the swaggering way you delivered it that pisses me off about your type of thug.
I don’t propose getting out of Afgan. completely and support the need to keep AQ at bay. But Iraq was mass murder supported by neocons like yourself and some dimwitted dems, and someday you arrogant motherfuckers will have to answer for your sins. At least I hope so.
Carol
Follow the ball Nicole. My original assertion was that left tards are woefully hypocritical and intellectually inconsistent when they hyperventilate over links between right wing radio and right winger attacks, but then bend over backwards to apologize for Islamists who do the same. That flew over a lot of heads I guess, and it was easier for the Sufi Revert to hone in on what he knows best – the evil US dominating those poor, poor Muslims.
What gets me is the lack of self awareness. But then again, if you had any, and were more intellectually able, you wouldn’t have to wait around for a bunch of squishy moderates and independents to come bail your ass out and help you win an election. The hard left is just as ineffective as the hard right. Equally unhinged.
tripletee
@Carol:
That’s some sweet-ass centrist trolling there, Carol. David Broder just got a tingle up his leg.
Carol
GWS, who’s been doing a majority of the murdering in Iraq? And what makes you think it’ll stop once we leave?
I’m wasting time here, but let me leave you with this. I never wanted to invade Iraq, and played no part in the decision to go there. But at one point when I was there, I asked a local interpreter of mine what he thought about things. He was a Shia from a rural area near the border with Iran – and we worked in a number of areas but spent a lot of time in the Wahabbi enclaves of east Anbar and North Babil. He said he wanted us to stay on one hand, because safety was marginally improved by our presence. But on the other hand he wanted us to leave, so they could get on with killing all of the Sunnis. He grinned when he said the last part; genuinely gleeful at the prospect.
What’s happening over there right now is akin I think to the 100 Years War in Europe. And there’s going to be some spillover. Some of their religious nuts are going to make it over here, or they’re already here, and they’re going to cause a lot of damage (Ft. Hood, for instance). We poked our noses into it a little too deep. Better to cut our losses I think. It’s like the Reformation. A bunch of nutters running around killing people over theological/tribal differences. I think you can be a good liberal and acknowledge this. You don’t need to apologize for Maj Hasan, and you don’t have to go Malkin either. Just acknowledge it.
terry chay
@Just Some Fuckhead:
That’s statistically unsurprising.
It’s a survey of players, let’s assume that it’s relatively evenly distributed across positions.
Let’s say you’re O-Line, there are a lot of players to choose from (mostly defensive ends) your vote is spread out. Let’s say you’re a receiver—same applies, but mostly safeties. Running back or tight end—same but for linebackers. Linebackers or Ends—do the same with your compliment.
But any defensive linebacker, safety, or end who was ever levelled by a receiver would have to vote for him as dirtiest player. It’d be wrong to do otherwise. And Hines Wards is pretty much the only blocking slot receiver in the history of the game (and he does relish it).
The only thing surprising to me was that he only got twice to vote-share of the #2.
PK
Carol
Since everyone is an armchair expert, may I ask what type of an expert are you?
Where did you get your Middle East expertise from?
And what the hell is Old school imperial policing?
Let me try and explain something to you. Just because people try to understand why bad things happen, that does not mean that they condone them.
For example it is very easy for me to understand why a muslim man would go and shoot up a bunch of soldiers. The policies of the US over the last few decades in the Mid East have been horrendous (pick up a goddam history book and read it if you don’t believe me). That does not mean I agree with what the man did.
But on the other hand I have no idea why a bunch of people on medicare would hang tea bags from their ears and rail against govt healthcare. Or why anyone in their right minds would watch Glen Beck.
matoko_chan
I am a grrl and you are a subsapient twodigit dolt, Carol.
There is no parity between Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman.
The hard right has always been terrorist wannabes…Klanners, abortion provider assassins, stormfronters, gun-nuts, racists, polygs, survivalists, secessionists.
False equivalence.
The truth is the demographic timer has run out on the white protestant culture that founded this country…..non-hispanic cauc is becoming a minority.
neo-con interventionism is dead…. we cant afford to be the SuperAwesome World Police anymore.
White conservative is a zombie culture…..
Have a nice extinction.
matoko_chan
It NEVAH stopped while we were there.
It GOT WORSE while we were there.
General Winfield Stuck
@Carol:
Don’t really care to know your idea of a good liberal is. What I acknowledge is this man had a problem, whether it derived from his religion, or was just manifest in his personality, doesn’t concern me that much. He was one person, not a terrorist cell, that bonkered out and killed a lot of people for no good reason and he is to be condemned for that. What I also acknowledge are the many, many red flags this man sent up that should have been caught and dealt with before it came to this. And I state again, that the muslims in this country are by and large well assimilated and loyal Americans. They are not remotely acting like the seditious tea bagging fools on my teevee. Maybe you should acknowledge that, eh.
matoko_chan
“Better to cut our losses I think.”
CUT OUR LOSSES?
How about we acknowledge that we fucked up?
How about we fold our tents and gtfo before anymore people die?
Do we HAVE to throw more american kids into the graveyard of empires to save neo-con face??????
I hate your stupid guts at this point, Carol.
Carol
Amen, Matoko Chan. I’m waiting for the clock to run out as well. I also want affordable healthcare for all, gay equality, legalized weed, and a govt. that takes its responsibility towards protecting us from economic violence as seriously as it takes its responsibility to protect us from physical violence. As I see it, you’re right on the money – old white folks, primarily in rural and old Confederate America are holding us back. And there isn’t any parity between Beck and Olberman. And I wish the DHS hadn’t backed down from stating the threat posed by right wing violence.
The logical inconsistency though of throwing a hissy fit over right wing violence, and then bending over backwards to defend or rationalize the actions of a guy like Maj Hasan is what’s troubling. Movements get off track when they systemically delink from political and social reality. One of the refreshing things about the left is that Maddow, Olberman, TPM, etc – do a good job I think of going after their own. Can’t say the same about the right. I hope the left wins. I just don’t want it to slip back to where it was before. And when I see people bending over backwards to apologize for violence in the name of faith b/c it happens to smell like humus I start to think things are sliding.
matoko_chan
Carol, you ignorant twodigit slut.
I am not defending or rationalizing.
Dr. Nidal turned into a reaver.
I want to know why.
Yes, the endless proselytizing of the oh, so, superior “Judeo-xian” evangelicals.
FYI, islamic scholars were discussing spacetime and string theory 500 years before the pig-ignorant papists tried to burn Galileo.
Carol
Should teabaggers be watched as closely as Islamist orgs, message boards, etc? Absolutely.
Was invading Iraq and occupying Afghanistan in a half baked attempt to “win hearts and minds” and spread democracy a monumental, immoral mistake? Absolutely.
Should we GTFO of Iraq and Afghanistan ASAP? Absolutely.
Should we prosecute the Neo Cons who led us into Iraq, and who supported a departure from the Geneva accords and protections for detainees? Absolutely.
Should we consider sending in drones when an opportunity to kill a known AQ terrorist presents itself? Absolutely.
I think we need to be honest about the warning signs, and not overreact when they appear. Tebaggers like Poplanski sent up plenty, as did the Islamist Hasan. Maybe tighter gun control is part of the answer.
matoko_chan
Carol, you are implying al-Islam turned Dr. Nidal into a reaver.
But he broke both his great oaths….to medicine, and to al-Islam.
He took life instead of saving life, and killed the innocent instead of the guilty.
He cannot be a muslim or a doctor.
He went crazy.
Wouldn’t you like to know why?
PK
Name a single person rationalizing yesterday’s violence or bending over backwards to justify it. Understanding something is not the same as condoning or rationalizing it. You are a profoundly stupid person!
Carol
“FYI, islamic scholars were discussing spacetime and string theory 500 years before the pig-ignorant papists tried to burn Galileo.”
Always interesting to see someone reach back that far to grab something they can be proud of. It’s sad. The West started to turn its theocrats out more than 500 years ago. The Islamic world started to backslide when? Did it start with Ottoman ossification, and go into hyperdrive with the birth of Wahabbi and Shia fundamentalism in the mid 19th century? Interesting questions.
FWIW, I don’t like Bernard Lewis. I don’t like Edward Said either. I think Reza Azlan (sp?) has some interesting ideas. Hopefully they’ll be able to sort things out and come to grips with modernity without killing too many folks. It’s a dicey situation, global in magnitude. Much, much bigger than what’s going on with Teabaggers in the states.
Anne Laurie
@bemused:
Or perhaps he’s just trying to broadcast his prowess as THE MIGHTY HUNTER GUY to as many neighbors as possible? (/snark)
As for dogs’ ecumenical eating habits, modern biologists suspect they first starting living with people less because of our mighty-hunter abilities than because we are, by canine standands, a lavish nutritional resource. Modern sanitary facilities have reduced dogs’ access to certain forms of this “bounty”, but humans are almost as inefficient at processing valuable protein calories as felines, if you take my meaning.
Carol
“But he broke both his great oaths….to medicine, and to al-Islam.”
The problem though is that many in the Islamic world can say he was being true to his faith, and will actually consider him a hero. The guy was apparently very devout, and I bet he had a solid grasp of the faith, or at least a broadly accepted version of it. He actively spread the faith at Walter Reed, and gave copies of the Koran to his neighbors before shooting up the grad ceremony at Ft. Hood. It’s a rare day when you don’t hear about a Muslim fanatic doing something equally horrendous, usually in the name of faith – whether it’s in Chechnya, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia or Sudan. What the fuck is going on?
A vast majority of Muslims are not like this at all, just like a vast majority of Evangelicals are not like the anti-abortionists who kill in the name of their faith. But it’s a problem and it shouldn’t be whitewashed.
Imagine if a Glenn Beck fan passed out copies of his book and then opened up on a group of folks after screaming “taxed enough already!!!” or some other nonsense. If right leaning info outlets tried to discount the significance of that you’d be justifiably peeved (as you should have been when they discounted the significance of Poplonski, the Unitarian church shooter, the AZ border incident where the xenos killed the girl and her father, and the Holocaust museum shooter).
geg6
@Carol:
Priceless. Just fuckin’ priceless.
You are sentient enough to have heard, at some point over the last 8 years, that liberals actually DID acknowledge all of this dozens of times, at the tops of our lungs (some of us with big paper mache puppets in marches that numbered in the hundreds of thousands) before any of this nonsense began? No, of course not. You either aren’t sentient enough to notice or you are too dishonest to admit it.
WTFever. You’re an idiot and I am done with you.
sparky
@Carol: as a late visitor to this thread, i will simply say this–for some reason you seem to think that demanding people agree with your characterization of hypocrisy is more important than talking about the actual issues that are generating the casualties. only you know why you are doing it, but unless you can explain why your need for this “concession” that no one has disputed is more important than the actual issues, the most plausible conclusion is that you are just trolling, or angry about something unrelated. as a consequence your arguments aren’t going to be taken seriously.
sorry.
Nicole
Sigh. I can’t believe I’m continuing to feed the troll, but what else do I have to do while waiting for ESPN to start showing racing?
First, you need to indicate where anyone has apologized for the actions of the Ft. Hood shooter. Please do so. Because your whole argument seems predicated on something that no one has done.
Second, you need to indicate how a religion practiced by 23 percent of the world’s population is in any way equivalent to a rightwing radio show. Because what you have been stating is that Islam- not a particular faction of it, not a particular advocate of it, but Islam, in its entirety, in all its branches, whether Arabic, Pacific Island, African, or American, is the same thing as Glen Beck’s radio program. And that’s moronic. The reason no one here is making an equivalency between Islam and Glen Beck is because they aren’t equivalent. Why is this so hard for you to understand?
Third, you need to explain why moderates are “squishy.”
Carol
Sorry, Geg – in 2002 and again in 2003 all I saw was the equivalent to a bunch of teabggers marching around screaming that 9/11 was an inside job. That’s why the Dems lost big in ’02 and why they couldn’t win in ’04. You were so repulsive, and are, that it effectively drives off potential donors and supporters. Much like the far right nutters, you drive away people with more sense and are determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory whenever the opportunity presents itself (NY 23 – case of teabaggers acting like lefty squealers).
If liberals want to remain dominant, I hope they’ll refrain from going back to alienating normal folks. Explaining that someone who screams Allahu Ahkbar before engaging in a mass killing, who posted Islamist things on message boards, who gave out Korans before the shooting, who spread the word at Walter Reed was likely only responding to our evil oppression of the Muslims is no different than saying a Teabagger who shoots up a bunch of people was responding to a legitimate fear of Obama’s “assault” against the Constitution. Both are explanations I guess – but they strike most people as being kind of wacky. It’s OK to acknowledge that some Muslims are as crazy as their Christian counterparts, and that actually more of them are crazy and prone to violence. Cultural relativism shouldn’t force you to look the other way when something like this happens.
matoko_chan
I just want you to stop with the Islam-is-the-problem bullshytt.
It is not.
Big White Christian Bwana is the problem, and has been since the crusades.
Admit that and we can deal.
Are you familiar with the Firefly series?
We meddled.
We tore up the fabric of culture and society in Iraq, and now you are pissing and moaning about the reavers coming through the tears to attack american soldiers and overthrow your do-good fuckery.
Own it.
matoko_chan
the thing ALL EVANGELICALS DO, Carol, is evangelize.
that is….rabid fanatical belief that their way is the best.
that is why they meddle.
that is why they want to impose their world view on every one else.
Carol
Hey Matoko, what are your thoughts on prominent Muslims calling for the death of Western artists because they’ve offended the devout, justifying the stoning of women convicted of adultery, forced clitorectomy, and the principle of outward Jihad?
Also, just curious, but how integral do you think Saddam Hussein and the Baathist Regime was to the “fabric of culture and society in Iraq.” Are you of the opinion that Muslims are just too savage and bloodthirsty to accept toleration of the other, and that they need a dictator to keep things civil? Or do you think that once again, all evil in the world is caused by the US? Is it just an Arab thing, or a Muslim thing too?
Carol
“the thing ALL EVANGELICALS DO, Carol, is evangelize.”
So it sounds like Maj Hasan was a Muslim evangelist. He was reprimanded at Walter Reed for it, gave out Korans to his neighbors before starting his shooting spree, screamed Allahu Ahkbar before opening up, etc.
Are you advocating that we scrutinize all Islamic “evangelists”? They sure do like to meddle in other people’s business – whether killing artists, stoning or mutilating women, or deciding what should and shouldn’t be worn or eaten. Awesome religion!
Randy P
@Carol:
Thank you for that textbook example of “concern trollery” Carol. I’m sure liberals remaining dominant is a high priority of yours, and I’m sure that the wisest course for liberals would be to listen to advice from knee-jerk right wingers on what they should do.
Dave Trowbridge
We’ve trained our German Shepherd Dog, Oka, not to eat something without looking at us first and waiting for permission, with fairly good success.
It will be far more difficult to do this with a mutt rescue like Lily (cute dog, no diss intended), but it’s worth trying, lest you end up with a poisoned dog some day (e.g., chocolate, raisins, anti-freeze, a Dcon-poisoned rodent, or god-knows-what). Even if you only manage to slow down her trash-mouth habits, it could save her life.
(Yes, Karen/51, GSDs are notorious for having tender guts, and are especially prone to pancreatitis. BTW, Royal Canin 24 for GSDs is the best dog food we’ve ever found for keeping his tummy happy.)
matoko_chan
“the stoning of women convicted of adultery, forced clitorectomy, and the principle of outward Jihad?”
Not your damn bidness, WEC.
perhaps people should come over here with an invasion army and put a stop to your oppression of minority and homosexual citizens, chattel slavery of women and children, attempts to force other peoples children to learn WEC creationism dogma in public school.
“how integral do you think Saddam Hussein and the Baathist Regime was to the “fabric of culture and society in Iraq.”
Again, not your damn bidness WEC.
Not…..America…..bidness.
Yup, Major Hasan was actually reprimanded for proselytizing.
My only question is…..were his co-worker xians reprimand for proselytizing too?
matoko_chan
Carol, own it.
A trillion dollars and nearly 5000 american soldier lives squandered on making yet another islamic state while offing 300,000 Iraqi civilians.
Eight years of pain for absolutely nothing.
The Iraqis declared a national holiday when the US troops pulled back from the cities.
Stupid Old Big White Christian Bwana….he’ll nevah learn.
Iraq is going right back to shariah law and sectarian violence.
Inshallah white christian conservatives will never taste power again in America.
The demographic timer goes tick……tick…….tick.
Brachiator
@matoko_chan:
Oh, please. There ain’t no universally innocent parties in the Big power will stomp on bad power. Neither Islam nor Christianity, nor most other religions or ideologies spread by means of sweet-tempered people asking if people would like to sample the brand.
Whose is it, especially when people ask for help?
So, not our business, anywhere, not even here? A man ran over his daughter because she wanted to adopt Western ways. Who says that our feeble-ass Stupid Old Big White Christian Bwana law should apply when he wants to live by good old Islamic law, right here in the USA?
matoko_chan
The US is not governed by shariah law.
That man will be punished.
My point being, WEC, that no one asked us to invade Iraq.
No one asked us to invade Afghanistan.
Proselytization is the act of intellectual molestation.
The Prophet understood xian proselytization very well, and proofed the people against it as best he could.
Here in the US, there is no protection.
Thus the intellectual statutory rape of Rifqa Bary…..a child.
WEC philosophy: we are going to rape you, kill you and steal your stuff, and we dont feel bad because we are helping you.
And Jesus “loves” you.
/spit
shortstop
Why?
Dave Trowbridge
Shortstop/148: GSDs are the result of over a hundred years of selective breeding using a sport called Schutzhund, which intensively tests obedience (as well as scent tracking and courage/control). As a result, they live to work and are easy dogs to train, which means that even someone relatively untalented at dog training like me can end up with a well-behaved dog, as long as they’re willing to spend some time at it. (I trained Oka almost daily for several years, taking him to work every day to do so–even so, I could have done a much better job.)
The same goes for many other working breeds.
With a mutt, although you’ll often get a longer-lived and healthier dog, it’s less likely you’ll have a dog so focused on working and so the job will be harder for the average Joe. Also, from John’s description of Lily, she sounds timid, which makes the job even harder.
The most important thing is consistency–if you can manage that, you can train almost any dog…except maybe a beagle.
Dave Trowbridge
There was supposed to be a grin emoticon after my comment about beagles.