November 16, 2015

  • culture war?

    The Paris attack, says John Oliver,

      was carried out by gigantic fucking assholes.  Unconscionable flaming assholes, possibly working with other fucking assholes, definitely working in service of an ideology of pure assholery.  Second, and this goes almost without saying, fuck these assholes. Fuck them, if I may say, sideways.  And third, it is important to remember, nothing about what these assholes are trying to do is going to work.  France is going to endure.

    La France c'est le pays le plus civilisé du monde.

    I know something about France.  You know something about France.  Challenging France to a culture war is a losing proposition.  They have the best food, right?  The best literature, best fashion, best wine, best language, best philosophy.  Ask any Frenchman.  You will not win a culture war with France.

    eiffel

     
    I will add that I feel rather lucky that I do not live in New York or DC.

     

Comments (5)

  • I too am glad I don't live in NYC or DC. I'm also glad none of the Republican candidates was president when this happened. Do you think any of them show an aptitude to deal with this most important issue, terrorism at home and abroad, that faces the U.S. these days?

    • Ya. I saw a pretty good PBS presentation about The Rise of ISIS
      http://video.pbs.org/video/2365356572/

      When we left Iraq in 2011, al-Maliki instantly rounded up hundreds of Sunni / Bathists and killed them. The ones that got away became ISIS. In hindsight we never should have trusted al-Maliki (always hindsight!). Obama made this grotesque mistake, and so did I, so did you. Our principle was clear -- leave the nation building to the inhabitants. But we screwed up.

  • I used to feel lucky not to live in a large, well-known metropolis too. Now that Redlands has become a dot on the map, I'm not sure there's room to gloat.
    The good thing about mountain biking is that it puts the danger of terrorism into perspective. One is less likely to be shot by a terrorist than crippled by a rock. That's the GOOD news. The bad news is, one is more likely to have his privacy invaded, or his door bashed in by the police. I'll take my chances with the rocks; they're less implacable than men with guns.

    • You're replying to my post from three weeks ago. At that time the France attack was frightening. In the mean time, we've seen so many domestic mass shootings that France is now pretty much forgotten, and we're worried again about those crazy loners with assault rifles and suicide bombs.

      Also, let's be honest, we're worried about those crazy broads with their suicide bicycles.

    • It makes all the difference whether we're living in a war zone or in peaceable civilization. Every day a crazy loner with a gun carries out war here. This is not the country I grew up in. Spike Lee's latest movie observes that gun violence is Chicago is WORSE THAN Iraq.

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