I'm very much afraid Magus,and I hate to be the one to have to tell you,we are expendable.I hope it isn't too much of a shock.It was to me but I have had a lot of years to get used to it.In fact it is a useful piece of info and you can get in a bit of a tangle if you never find out.
In the 14/18 set to we were as disposable as paper napkins are now.
What about all the other sad cases?
Just pay your taxes with a smile and leave it to the Gov't to share it out as they see fit.If they get it wrong we can always sling them out.There are casualties of motoring,building oh any damn thing-even love.What about Bhopal?
Go on then-what about Bhopal.
spendius.
I'm not sure I understand where the disagreement lies, spendius.
All the casualties make my stomach churn. Isn't it the same with everyone? (well, except maybe for a strict objectivist)
Spendius asserts that military personnel ARE expendable.
Like it's a GOOD thing.
Callous pragmatism like that indicates that he is eligible for the fast track to Promotion!
That's slander Magus.I asserted no such thing.Where you get "Like its a GOOD thing" from I can't imagine.That's your idea not mine.No possible reading of the post can contain that.I'll admit to being a callous pragmatist but that's because I'm a fast learner and keep my eyes and ears open
Is there any cash involved in the Promotion?
primergray-the disagreement is simply in the method of approach.The tears and the gnashing of teeth do not seem to be having any effect.A slimy,sneering irony can often make people think a bit but I don't have any serious expectations.It is due to our literary traditions.There's a pity fatigue setting in here.As an objective fact.Its disgraceful I know but there it is.
We have just banned fox-hunting here at a majestic cost and last night all the news channels were full of the regeneration of white lions in S Africa.They did look pretty.It was wonderful to see.
We got three seconds of a shot of the gazelle herd they had for supplies.Cute innit?They had shifted out to God knows where the tawny lions because white lions are at a disadvantage.
But what about Bhopal?
spendius.
Bhopal was truly horrific. So was Minimata. So are a lot of things.
Maybe I agree with you; I'm not sure.
pg-
I would ask you what "Minimata" meant if it wasn't for the fact that I'm suffering sad news overload already.
Bhopal is still horrific and there doesn't look to be much chance of any relief arriving soon.
It seems to me that given the state of the electorate tax raising is close to a limit.Therefore extra funds can only be found by cutting those activities which produce nothing.Such as subsidies on opera seats and other "artistic" enterprises.It is my settled opinion that real art derives from suffering and that Arts Councils and such like are a disaster for art.So also for sport.Football gets no grants and look at that.With a bit of luck football will civilise the whole world.Excellence in art and sport and possibly everything else derives from being up against it not from featherbedding.Then there were be some spare cash.I have no views about what use to put it to.
Good luck
spendius.
Phoenix32890 wrote:primergray- It may sound cold, but it is the unvarnished truth. I think that many people joined the volunteer military, because they thought in terms of the perks of being in the service. Many probably never dreamed that one day they would be in harms way, on the battlefield.
Maybe, as a stab at "truth in advertising" the recruiters need to tell these very young people about the dangers that they may face while in the service. I think that they need to learn that the military is not all "see the world, and get an education on Uncle Sam".
Why not place your anger and blame where it belongs Phoenix? On the miltary recruiters and politicians that sell the service and sell war all wrapped up in red white and blue bunting, packaged as a glorious and noble thing instead of the filthy, traumatizing mass murder it is? Because necessary or not, noble in purpose or not, that's what war is..mass murder of others, and that's what infantry and other military are trained to do in the end no matter what you call it...kill people, or be the support system for those doing the killing. They should at least have the decency to quit trying to paint a stripe on the turd.
spendius,
Well, Minamata was nowhere near the scale (in terms of numbers of victims) of Bhopal. But since you bring up art, I have to tell you that to me, the most compelling work of art I have ever seen was a documentary photograph of one of the victims and her mother. But I'll leave it at that.
Best wishes for a better new year.
It started out quite simply, with the strangeness of cats "dancing" in the street--and sometimes collapsing and dying. Who would have known, in a modest Japanese fishing village in the 1950s, that when friends or family members occasionally shouted uncontrollably, slurred their speech, or dropped their chopsticks at dinner, that one was witnessing the subtle early symptoms of a debilitating nervous condition caused by ingesting mercury? Yet when such scattered, apparently unconnected, and mildly mysterious events began to haunt the town of Minamata, Japan, they were the first signs of one of the most dramatic and emotionally moving cases of industrial pollution in history.
The outcome was tragic: a whole town was both literally and figuratively poisoned. Yet for those of us, now, who can view it more distantly, this episode also offers a conceptually clear and affectively powerful example of the concentration of elements in food chains, the sometimes unexpected interconnectedness of humans and their environment, and the complex interactions of biology and culture. In short, it is a paradigm for teaching ecology and science-society issues.
The case of Minamata, Japan, and the mercury poisoning (originally called Minamata disease) that took place there, appeared briefly in news headlines in the 1970s and then receded from public attention--at least in the U.S. The episode was fully and richly documented, however, by former Life photographer, Eugene Smith, and his wife, Aileen, who lived in Minamata for several years
Maybe,as things stand,we are unfit to have inherited this wonderful old earth.
I blame it on fornication.Pascal has relevance.Ban fornication and the only problem would be managing the fade out.
The last million would have "the record" to maybe risk a bit of fornication and tryout a more orderly arrangement.
We are in a bind.All these gizmos and cheap energy and cheap food may necessitate the tragedies we have on our heads.It is useless to keep blaming politicians.I'm sure that every last one of them is as decent as you or I and are just as appalled as we are at what we see.We are the problem.The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind.Its obvious.
spendius.
Panzade... what a photo. It's like the Madonna & Child.
Yes...I first saw it when I was 10 and my parents gave me a Eugene Smith book(My mother was a photographer).
spendius wrote:Maybe,as things stand,we are unfit to have inherited this wonderful old earth.
I blame it on fornication.Pascal has relevance.Ban fornication and the only problem would be managing the fade out.
The last million would have "the record" to maybe risk a bit of fornication and tryout a more orderly arrangement.
We are in a bind.All these gizmos and cheap energy and cheap food may necessitate the tragedies we have on our heads.It is useless to keep blaming politicians.I'm sure that every last one of them is as decent as you or I and are just as appalled as we are at what we see.We are the problem.The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind.Its obvious.
spendius.
Yeah but you must admit...death by too much f*#king.......that
IS the way to go....
Two more and I'm done with Eugene:
Bi Polar Bear-
You need to define fornication.I'm not sure your f*#king is quite exactly twhat I meant.If you start with a handshake and work your way onwards the end of the line is fornication assuming no assistance from the chemical or manufacturing conglomerates which isn't very romantic.
I understand your coltishness though.
spendius.
