What we Missed.
Today was Iran's election, TPM has some pictures.
A soldier's courageous story of why he will not deploy to Afghanistan.
Great piece from Sokari on organizing around sexuality and gender in some of the African nations.
Firedoglake has an update on the debacle in Albany.
Adam Serwer at Tapped on D.C.'s anti-gay marriage "crusaders."
A new Target Women from Sarah Haskins, "Lady Friends."
A jail in Virginia broke up a lesbian cell block that had been created to separate butch women. Um, wow.
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I have a question for this warden: How do you stop doing something and maintain that you never did it in the first place? Seriously, wtf is this shitstain talking about?
Love the Sarah Haskins video. I cracked up after the Swanson broth commercial...
y are commercials targeted at women presumed to be sexist? are AARP or commercials that target older people ageist? The whole "Target Women" things seems to imply poor women are targeted like prey
It just shows how companies advertise to women, many times using stereotypes. I wouldn't say that all of them are assumed to be misogynistic, but the gender stereotypes are really prevalent still. The shoes one especially.
"Target" refers to the target demographic...was this a rhetorical question?
I love Target Women and wish Sarah Haskins was my lady friend.
"You wanna go light my mom's super expensive candle?" haha
That soldier has some decent courage, although it's sad to see someone slowly realise they're just part of a machine.
I am always saddened when I see Soldiers take the controversial routes toward taking an anti-war movement.
Pouting and going AWOL, no matter how much he truly believes in his cause, isn't going to change anything. This soldier needs to remember that he is merely a number to the Army. And why, conveniently, is he against the war now? If he truly were against the war, he'd be speaking out against it from the very time he had a change of consciousness.
There are logical and effective ways of doing things - neither what he does nor what Code Pink does, will ever end the war.
Further, not only is this soldier short-channging his battle buddies, if he cares so deeply about the damage that war causes, why the hell is he refusing to go, thus making someone else to have to go in his place?
I am most certainly not a god-and-country kind of guy, but I believe that once a soldier signs up, a soldier ought to complete his contract.
I have serious issues with soldiers being "anti-war" when they are faced with deployment. And yes, I understand the many complex socio-economic(which includes complicated crossovers of race, education, etc) reasons that individuals enlist in the armed forces. However, you are still enlisting in the United States military, which has never, by any standard, remained inactive. What exactly did this person think was going to happen? I don't agree with anything the military industrial complex is doing, but let's focus on creating situations and opportunities that keep men and women FROM enlisting, because they see no other alternative. There are elements (or lack thereof) of personal responsibility for actions that I see looked over time and time again. And I know a lot of people might get angry about this post, but I think a solid dose of reality is sometimes necessary.
I'd commend him for seeing through the BS indoctrination soldiers are put through. Yeah, he was bit stupid to join, but everybody's a bit stupid in their own way. Who cares if he tries to pull out of his contract? The only thing that will suffer will be (in a very minor way) the military he's a part of, and I, like him, don't see that as a bad thing.
Soldier guy is stupid, not courageous.
That's what he signed up for. I'm a young man and I didn't believe going to Ira was just (although anyone actually looking at Afghanistan in the real world couldn't think our presence isn't necessary there, but that's me digressing). So, I didn't sign up for the army!
Whoo! Brain surgery there. You don't get to take the good in the bad in life. You can't sign up for the army and not get deployed anymore then you can sign up for work and not show up.
Just not the way things do, or should, work.
I'm surprised by all of the posts coming out against the soldier.
1. Marc: While one person protesting might not make much of a difference, it can serve to encourage others to do the same. Humans have a tendency to accept the status quo and obey. When one person refuses to do what their told, it helps a lot of other people find the courage to refuse as well. See Milgram's experiment.
2. Questioneverything and Jeffrey: The article clearly says that the soldier turn against the occupations after his experiences in Iraq. Is changing one's mind morally reprehensible now? Yes, he signed up for the army of his own volition, and we can assume that he probably was for the wars from the beginning. However, if he changed his mind and refuses to be deployed now, that should be a good thing.
3. Jeffrey: You can sign up for the army and refuse to be deployed just in the same way you can get a job and not show up. There are repercussions for both, and the soldier said he was fully aware and prepared for it.
Your right, I apologize.
I should have said the word "should" instead of "can". Certainly, you can avoid going to work, but you shouldn't.
Just as you can commit murder, but you shouldn't.
Guys not a hero, just somebody with not a whole lot of foresight.
I would like to coin a new word for Sarah Haskins, if it doesn't exist already: She's my SHERO! :o)
All together they also form powerful many thousands army of the Pakistan Talibs which victory can cardinally change all geopolitical union with the next Afghanistan where "Taliban" of the Mullah too does not sit on an equal place.