December 2, 2014
"Where are your stories saying the same thing about our heroes joining the U.S. military and having to clean toilets?"
Comment at the Washington Post article "Indian student went to join the Islamic State, but all he got was this lousy job cleaning toilets."
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28 comments:
I would like to ask whether the commenter dare post such twattish comments on the ISIS news site.
I remember National Geo doing a series on...I think it was the USS Nimitz. The series focused mostly on the ranks. Most of them complained that "join the Navy, see the world" was mostly done several decks deep in the ship doing grunt work. And yeah, one of the jobs was cleaning the heads.
Never having been able to keep my mouth shut, I got a thorough education in how to clean latrines.
I like the Fred Astaire song in FOLLOW THE FLEET:
"We joined the navy to see the world
And what did we see? We saw the sea
We saw the Pacific and the Atlantic
But the Atlantic isn't romantic
And the Pacific isn't what it's cracked up to be
"We joined the navy to do or die
But we didn't do and we didn't die
We were much too busy
Looking at the ocean and the sky
"And what did we see? We saw the sea
We saw the Atlantic and the Pacific
But the Pacific isn't terrific
And the Atlantic isn't what it's cracked up to be
"They tell us that the admiral
Is as nice as he can be
But we never see the admiral
Because the admiral has never been to sea
"We joined the navy to see the girls
And what did we see? We saw the sea
Instead of a girl or two in a taxi
We were compelled to look at the Black Sea
Seeing the Black Sea isn't what it's cracked up to be
"Sailing, sailing home again
To see the girls upon the village green
Then across the foam again
To see the other seas we haven't seen
"We owe the navy an awful lot
For they taught us how to do the sailor's hornpipe
And they showed us how to tie a sailor's knot
But more than that, they showed us the sea
"We never get seasick sailing the ocean
We don't object to feeling the motion
We're never seasick but we are awful sick of sea"
BTW...who are "our heroes?" Everyone who joins the military?
Ridiculous. More worshipping at the altar of nationalism and militarism.
I am fascinated by this line from the article:
According to reports in the Indian media, the suspected militant, Areeb Majeed, was compelled by his parents to come home.
Islamic State "fighters raped many a woman there," he reportedly said. Given the sometimes sketchy standards of Indian news outlets, it's worth regarding these quotes attributed to Majeed with a degree of skepticism.
India has better press/media than WAPO where it matters. And it is not like he is saying some outlandish thing.
You'd think it'd be fairly easy for intelligence agencies to penetrate an organization like ISIS based on it's far-flung recruiting.
They got toilets?
Rusty said...
They got toilets?
a straddle over a hole in the ground.
it's cleaning the sponges that is the issue :)
Seriously though.
Yep,
1. I cleaned toilets in Basic.
2. Burned maggot covered $hit in Vietnam
3. Made my trainees clean toilets after I came back and was a Drill Sergeant.
4. Inspected Toilets as an Officer
Option 4 is better than 3 and the rest speaks for itself
PLO = Permanent Latrine Orderly
Robert Cook's heroes are Stalin and Mao.
No, Prez Mommy Jeans: more like Philip K. Dick, Pete Townshend, and Robert Crumb.
How incompetent do you have to be that they won't even trust you to run into a crowd with a bomb vest?
BTW...who are "our heroes?" Everyone who joins the military?
Ridiculous. More worshipping at the altar of nationalism and militarism.
Yeah, everybody knows the real heroes are workers and Communist Party leaders....
No, Prez Mommy Jeans: more like Philip K. Dick, Pete Townshend, and Robert Crumb.
Wow..three drug addled counterculture has beens.
Shocking.
Three geniuses, neither of the two still alive being drug-addled. Get your facts straight. But then, why start something new?
"Yeah, everybody knows the real heroes are workers and Communist Party leaders...."
Do they? I didn't know that.
The real question is: why must we identify anyone as "heroes?" Why do we need to have heroes to identify with? And why should they be athletes and soldiers?
The real question is: why must we identify anyone as "heroes?"
Because we're human, and that is how humans behave.
Three geniuses, neither of the two still alive being drug-addled.
Says who?
Townsend did nothing but write pop songs, do drugs and look at child porn.
Crumb did drugs and drew cartoons (some of which is quite racist)
Dick wrote some interesting stories, but was definitely crazy and drug addled.
The only thing the three had in common was their rejection of mainstream society.
Townshend did not look at child porn, as was verified by the British authorities, who examined all his computers thoroughly. He was never charged with possessing or viewing child porn.
Who says there are not genius pop song writers (and performers)?
Crumb took drugs nearly a half-century ago, but he has not used drugs in many years. His cartoons are brilliant and he is still working.
Dick was (somewhat) drug-addled and (somewhat) crazy.(He was also the most brilliant artist of the three.) But, so what? Who says the drug-addled and crazy cannot also be geniuses? Many geniuses, in fact, have been drug-addled and/or crazy.
All three of these people are/were smarter than you will ever be and have created memorable art, so their personal foibles are inconsequential.
Do you suppose that "heroes" must be completely (or even partially) virtuous? Do you suppose there are any humans who lack failings, who are completely virtuous?
"'The real question is: why must we identify anyone as 'heroes?'
"Because we're human, and that is how humans behave."
Humans have many unseemly habits, including murdering each other, (singly or in masses).
As humans, don't we have the ability to not behave according to our less admirable impulses?
Hagar said...
Never having been able to keep my mouth shut, I got a thorough education in how to clean latrines.
HA! Me too. and on field problems, I was given the opportunity to dig them, for the same reason.
I have the ability not to split infinitive.
There's nothing wrong with splitting infinitives, Birkel. The English language is very plastic.
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