War in Iraq (rated R for violence and nudity)

Depictions of war have come a long way.
War.
The first depictions of war that I can think of is the Greek epics. That was oral, as well as written, and there are also accompanying drawings of death. Then I guess some artists decided to tag along with armies and draw noble steeds and brave soldiers defending their way of life against the Barbarians/Jews/Pagans/Ajam/crusaders/Imperialists/racists/communists/terrorists. Artists, however, were soon overtaken with the advent of photography, but not quite. For a great example of this, one can see photographs of the American civil war and compare them with illustrations. This was when there was competition. Photographs were black and white, while drawings could be any color. And I say that this is when depictions of war began to shift from Romanticism from Realism. But black and white is still black and white. It didn't offer what war really looked like, but it was a step closer. And then in the 1900s, a miracle happened: moving films! That's right, you can now see action. Hence World War 1 footage. And after the war, All Quiet on the Western Front, an antiwar novel, was published. And of course let's not forget the contributions of Wilfred Owen. And by world war two, movies had become well established. But the start of world war two also introduced a new chapter into depictions of war: propaganda. Of course, propaganda is as old as war itself, but the extent of propaganda in world war 2 was massive. The flag at Iwo Jima, the Hammer and Sickle on the Reichstag, the videos of "Russian soldiers" surrendering, Der Ewige Jude, Triumph des Willens, and so forth. It became glorious to die for one's country again. But this only lasted for a while.
Enter Vietnam.
This was another revolutionary war, in the sense that the media was heavily involved in it. And in color! Imagine that! Draftees could see on television what their fate was. Romanticism is dead now. "This is war" finally carried a negative connotation. Kim Phuc's picture was ingrained into us all.
Exit Vietnam.
And then wars such as the Iran-Iraq war, Chechnya, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, India vs Pakistan, South American revolutions, etc. came along. Video cameras on the front lines. And then the first Persian Gulf war. Flip to channel whatever and you can see someone with PRESS written on them. Imagine if such things were told to Eisenhower or Napoleon! Or even Saladin! What would they say? Who knows.

But now the war in Iraq. The youtube war. Homemade videos of soldiers getting hit by IEDs, shooting insurgents, handing out candy to children, shooting civilians, or in other words, just being soldiers. And we even have the other side now; insurgent videos abound. People can see exactly what both sides compose of.

We've come a long way from cave drawings of one tribe battling the other. But what's next? Who knows.

Relax, take a moment and breathe

April fools day

So April Fools Day happened. Nothing special, bye.

now that was good

...???

Egoism, altruism, and altruistic egoism

So I was thinking about this today. How much different is egoism from altruism? It's not like an egoist will ignore others. Is helping others beneficial to the self? I would say yes. I'm not so sure about this, as I only speak of my own experience. I enjoy helping others. And I do it from an egoist standpoint. I help others and feel good about it. And I help others to feel good about it. If I believed my efforts were fruitless, I doubt it would be as enjoyable. I think it is safe to say (at least for me) that when I cannot explain something to someone, it is very painful inside. Like last night (it was after 9:00pm or so), I went walking with my mother. She looked at the moon and asked me
if the bright star next to it was Venus. So I thought it would be an opportunity for me to explain to her the concept of an inferior planet and why Venus can only be seen at sunrise and sunset. So I first asked her where Venus is in the Solar System. She looks at her fingers, and counts to two. Yes, Venus is the 2nd planet mom. And what is the third planet? Earth. Ok, and where is the moon? It goes around Earth. So then I asked her how it would be possible to see Venus at nighttime, when we are facing away from the sun. She didn't understand what I meant. I felt so bad. I tried to explain to her how Venus is an inferior planet and how it cannot possibly be seen at nighttime, like Mars. I asked her to imagine the orbits of Earth and Venus, and find out where they could be positioned in such a way as to be seen at night. But by this time we had already reached home and I ran out of time to explain. I felt so bad. Oh well. Bye mom, goodnight.

Lyndie England, 3 years.. Charles Graner, 10 years

Is there any reason at all that these two haven't been given the death penalty? Ten years of prison for killing, mutilating, torturing, and humiliating so many people? What the hell? Am I missing something here? Here in California we give the death penalty to people who murder several people. So why is someone who has done so much worse being allowed to live? Life in prison!? no? What the fuck? A 10 year sentence? Remember Tookie? What was his crime? He killed four people in a burglary. Four people, and he got a death sentence. How many people killed at Gitmo? How many killed at Bagram? How many killed at Abu Ghraib? Who knows. The photographs show at least 5 people have died (the rest were "just" tortured). And that's just the photographs currently released. Who knows what else is there? And also, the videos. A lot of people do not even know of the videos. And the punishment is 10 years in prison? If we really wanted to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, every single officer acknowledging the abuse should have been executed. That would have been the correct message to send. America is the fucking defender of freedom, and we take our freedom seriously. If some "bad apples" do something, then we will punish them to the fucking extent of the law. There is no excuse. By any means necessary.


וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃

Violence in video games? No. Violence in Scripture? Yes.

Study shows that violence in the Bible correlates with aggressive behavior


LOL? No really? After all of these religious wars, we need a fucking study to prove this?