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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Michael Harold
Published Letters: 498 Editor's Choice: 3
The first section, "Naming of Parts", from "Lessons of War" by Henry Reed:
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
My Mother gave me an anthology of poetry when I was around 12 years old. This was one of the last poems in the book. The entire poem is available online at:
http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html
I ask myself every day, every single day, "What has happened to us? Where are our poets? Our artists? Our writers? Where has our soul gone to? Why has reason abandoned us?"
But at least we have Glenn and Digby and a few others.
I ask myself every day, every single day, "What has happened to us? Where are our poets? Our artists? Our writers? Where has our soul gone to? Why has reason abandoned us?"
But at least we have Glenn and Digby and a few others.
And Bebop-o!
The effectiveness of an argument is as much the result of the "preparation" of another mind to hear it as it is of the strength of the argument.
Because the arguments Glenn makes often contain numerous references combined with a careful logic, "counter-arguments" in the form of name calling probably have very little effect on regular readers. In other words, the exclamation "surrender monkey" as a counter argument doesn't get you very far on this blog. Any casual reader who would buy that as a counter-argument has little or nothing to gain from reading Glenn's posts. When these same counter-arguments (by these same people) contain names, dates, numbers and other forms of legitimate information, I have been tempted in the past to try to engage them in some sort of discussion. It is a waste. Any attempt at dialogue is ignored. They are not here for dialogue. A dialogue is a reciprocal conversation. They are here for an opposite purpose. They are here to disrupt any attempt at dialogue. A page of comments by someone like RealName is often no more than a 500 word version of "surrender monkey."
Our self-described (at least in Shooter's case) resident trolls, have no other purpose than to dilute the effect that Glenn's arguments may have in the public space. Although there is a little rhyme from time to time, there is almost never any reason or logic attached to their comments. There is nothing but name calling and the reiteration of talking points you can hear verbatim any time of day from Fox, Limbaugh, or (on the web) LGF.
Since the trolls always show up at the start of a new article by Glenn and often show up again at the end of a comment thread, I can understand the desire of some of the other commenters not to let the trolls have the stage to themselves during peak readership periods. On the other hand, any reader who would buy what the trolls are selling without taking the time to read forward or backward through the comments (at least a page or two) probably isn't familiar with the concept of a troll. So, even the warning, "Reader beware, trolls in the area," would be of little use.
Bring all your friends. I'll bet you'll love it here. I certainly do.
It's only a matter of time before Fox and ClearChannel are added to the radical left list. The more the merrier is all I can say. Like the DC lobbyists, the media seems to mirror the dominant power:
http://www.alternet.org/story/54985/
The problem is, North Korea's Kim Jong-il, China's Hu Jintao and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah are in positions 2, 6 and 7 respectively.
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_01-22-2006/Dictators
So why aren't we liberating North Korea, China and Saudi Arabia? It can't be because most of the Al-Qaeda 9/11 bombers did not come from those countries, because as everyone knows, they did. (Hint: Saudi Arabia).
Must be some other reason.
Hmmm . . .
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
