It’s hard for most of us to understand what Tony Snow was thinking today when he said “It’s a Number” in reference to the twenty-five hundred American military personnel killed in Iraq. A poor choice of words to be sure, but as bleeding heart liberals we should probably do our due diligence and have a look at the culture where those words were formed.
Or whatever.
Huh?
Sorry, Chris: could you elaborate a little bit on “the culture where those words were formed”?
They say that an image is worth a thousand words, but that depends on both the image and the words, and the image you posted didn’t explain much to me.
Not trying to be confrontational. Just mystified.
No, that’s cool. Thanks. Most people haven’t seen it yet, so I can still pull it down without looking like a total jackass. The connection I was thinking of was between the flippant manner in which Snow dismissed the war dead and the flippant manner in which some of the delegates to the the RNC in 2004 dismissed John Kerry’s Purple Heart medals by wearing little band-aids with crude purple hearts on them. Any better, or should I pull it?
Ahhhh…okay. Nice connection.
Maybe other people will pick up on that right away; don’t pull it on my account.
Anyway, this very exchange might serve as a “guide for the perplexed” — if there are any other than me.
Thanks, Chris.
Thanks for the criticism and the questions. It’s way too easy for me to assume that everybody knows exactly what is going through my head at any given moment and has all the bloggy political culture stuff from the last four or five years memorized and can reference it whenever I ask them to. Hell, I can’t do that. There are some big flaws in this post now that I look at it. Granted, it was a two liner, so if it sucks it won’t crush my ego too bad. I’m not bothered by people think my argument or my viewpoint is wrong and I have a fairly open mind when confronted. What I get really pissed at myself about is when I’m not communicating clearly. Again, thanks for the comment. My political blogging is a work in progress, so we’re bound to hit a few thousand bumps.
Ease up, Chris!
You had a good connection to make. I didn’t get it. The reason could be that the image wasn’t ideal or it could be that I just didn’t get it because I’m out of the visual loop. The latter is a distinct possibility. I haven’t had cable in years and never see TV broadcasts except when I’m in a motel, which I am very infrequently. So I just don’t get a lot of visual references, and I know that. And although I’d of course heard about the purple heart band-aids, and even seen some, that wasn’t what jumped out to me from the image. Again — might be the image, might be me.
I would say that your political blogging, which you describe as a work in progress (which, of course, every endeavor is), is going very impressively indeed, to judge by what I’ve seen here at BMT since you showed up on the front page. But to be worried that someone, somewhere, will not get your point is surely disastrous. Especially in a medium like this, where juxtaposition of images and text, allusion to common frames of reference/familiar quotes/familiar phrases etc. are effective means of triggering and conveying insights.
And especially in a medium like this, where if somebody like me doesn’t get it he/she can ask and you can explain. Pretty cool, huh?
while hundreds of thousands mourn, and that woman is having a great time while they suffer. That was my immediate reaction, and I found it striking. (My die-hard gop sister is flippant, even about our 86 y/o mom for whom I am a full-time caregiver. Her flippancy is appalling to me in much the same way as that woman’s picture is. It may have clicked for me right away because of that.)
My personal taste is for a variety of diaries. For example, I liked this one as much as some of those more thoroughly explicated. This provokes an immediate emotional reaction and subsequent thoughtfulness. Others open my mind with new knowledge or a new point of view.
Just my .02.
I got it. It’s a crushing point. This is maybe a little too much piffle for a front page post, maybe better as a comment. But it’s a sharp point.
It is a crushing point. But the whole post could well be fleshed out a bit to emphasize and further clarify the concepts the diary’s author is trying to reveal.
The nice part about being the unofficial late night guy is that the trivial stuff flies a little better than it would at noon on a weekday. Well, maybe not tonight, but some nights. The thing that worried me most in taking this front page gig is that my posts aren’t in the tradition of most of the Scoop community sites like this one and My Left Wing and MyDD and Kos where the posts and diaries are long and serious and full of links. I like to do quick hits and emotional outbursts, like this post, or long silly story’s where I try to let loose a little more. I’m not one who can analyze the nuances of the 5th congressional district in New York, so I don’t. I try to be bitter and sarcastic instead. On a Scoop site this probably should be a comment rather than a post. I’ll get the hang of this, or Booman will throw me overboard. We’ll see. Thanks for the input, I’ll definitely keep your words in mind.
I think it`s interesting to be surprised. I could give a shit about the “5th congressional district ” either. For some reason, I always check to see what you`re up to on any given night.
The “Cry me a river” diaries & posts get sort of repetative after the first one, although it took me a while to figure it out.
I think picking someone off the street to get their opinion on the shape of things is more interesting than what you know will be todays “Soupe du jour” on any given day.
Always wear your life vest if you`er afraid of being thrown overboard.
I doubt that`ll happen though.
Maybe you already pick a stranger off the street. If not, maybe you could give it a try.
MAN ON THE STREET by CHRIS
I’m not afraid of being thrown overboard. Shit happens. I’m just surprised to be here at all. The “cry me a river” stuff was a little thick. I get an expression in my head and I beat it to death for about a month. It happens over and over again. I think it works sometimes, as in “we’ll cry that river when we get to it” or “I’ll cry you that river some day” just as a way of saying that you aren’t quite as concerned about a particular issue as some people might be without dismissing that issue out of hand.. Just silliness. Thanks for your input Knucklehead.
A couple of trillion dollars is just a number also.
Here`s a few more numbers.
Rummy said a few weeks, maybe a month…
300,000 to 500,00 troops needed; throw Shinseki ]spelling?] out
One billion dollars at most. The oil will pay for it.
30,000 dead Iraqis give or take.
18,000 to 22,000 wounded youngsters.
60 plus congressmen indicted, under investigation, in jail, or awaiting trial.
60 some % of We The People want the soldiers home.
Zero % of the warmongers served in combat.
Zarqawi identified through DNA within 24 hrs.
Over 800 bodies in the Katrina disaster unidentified 10 months later.
3 suicides at Gitmo
Untold troop suicides in Iraq. More will kill themselves in the years to come.
9lb. perch
72 shotgun pellets to the face.
one apology.
750 signing statements.
3 bike spills.
1 pretzel choking
2 big smooches. Macain Lieberman.
One big “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” banner.
One padded flightsuit.
I could go on for hrs. but however many number of numbers I write, they would only add up to a number.
And who`s counting?
I can`t wait for some people`s to be up.
but I have to agree w/ Knucklehead…“I can`t wait for some people`s to be up.”
seeing those purple heart bandaids and being disgusted. Here was CNN’s take at the time. Also, some intrepid bloggers over at DU gave more info on Pat Peale, the woman in the photo.
Thanks for the back story, Sr. Eegee. Revolting, but doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … we should just give Texas back to the Mexicans. Though that would be a bit cruel to them, I have to admit.
And many of us would willingly go, if it meant we didn’t have to listen to a bunch of jealous damyankees all the time… ;>
I remember it also…and being ashamed that the real Purple Heart vets who were at that convention – John McCain, Chuck Hagel, Bob Dole, among others – did nothing to stop it. They should have taken the mike, ended this nonsense, and then left anyone who did not comply in need of more than a bandaid.
… and suits perfectly that infamous photo.
I got it right off Chris, but then, I’m prone to thinking about cultural analysis and its semiotics. The picture does convey a helluva lot of signs to decode. The nugget is in there, but you could have really developed the idea much more in depth. I wouldn’t say piffle, but rather a thesis statement in search of development. Now I’ll take off my professor hat and desist.
First thing that came to my mind (after seeing the buttons and the band aid) was Burroughs’ line about Church Ladies … “with their mean, bitter, evil pinched faces.” (I paraphrased, so don’t nail me for misquoting, that’s the gist.)
It doe sum up Dumbya lovers in a nutshell though.
Thanks for the input and criticism. My feeling with this sort of post, and none of mine have ever had the burden of being read before, is to provide the thesis statement, or a nugget of the same, and leave the development to the reader/viewer. This is part of the idiom, though not one used very often on Scoop sites. I stole the Picture from The Poor Man (my favorite blog by miles), where it was titled very simply “Happy Memorial Day.” No other written content was provided. That simplicity appeals to me on a lot of levels, though not for every post. The blog that got me started blogging was Atrios, so it’s fair to say I’m a fan of the quick hit. I’m off on a tangent. I’d love to talk to you sometime while you have you professor hat on, if you’re willing.
but I’m not very good at it, I must confess. Having been trained to state, elaborate coherently (not always successful though), and lay out an argument, quick hits just don’t come to me naturally. That’s why I struggle so much at my job writing market research findings and reports to clients. I write paragraphs when they want bullets. Argghhh… I should have never quit teaching, but if I hadn’t, I’d probably be dead or crazy by now.
Happy to put on the professor hat sometime. You know where to find me most nights. If I’m not off reading diaries I’m in the lounge babbling about my garden.
Chris, I don’t know why you find it hard to understand. Perhaps the point isn’t articulated well by Tony Snow. Perhaps Joseph Stalin said it better:
“One man is a tragedy, a million is a statisic.”
– great minds think alike?
make her go away. I honestly feel sick to my stomach looking at that picture. Ack!
Yeah, right. It’s only a number. And when/if the number climbs to the next milestone (hopefully not), what will he be saying. Oh, it’s only an even bigger number. And these are the poeple that “support” the troops. I guess that only applies to living soldiers.
Those “culture of lifers” sure are something else. It’s just a number. Perhaps that’s how they can sleep at night.
One of the top most offensive lines for me has been, “We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.”
If this war/occupation is so darned important to us, we should be paying the price. Implicit in the statement above is the belief that the “collateral” deaths of Iraqis is okay if it keeps our civilian population safe. It says, in essence that it is okay to use Iraqi women and children as human shields. Even if this misadventure really was about keeping “them” away, I wonder how many of us have stopped to think that our safety is coming on the backs of five year olds and grandmas.
Please continue to leave the gloves off when you deal with Karl Rove (unless they are latex gloves intended to ward off infection, that is).
Now to my question:
What do you think the real reason is for the invasion and occupation? We know the basic sales propositions (aka causes for war) developed by Wolfowitz et al were hyped-up fakery. Do you subscribe to the idea that the long range goal was of course, about oil–managing/repressing Iraqi production? I am referring to Greg Palast’s claims that the neocon’s initial privatization dreams gave way to the big oil inspired, Baker-facilitated, Saudi-approved bolster-OPEC, jack the price, and rake in the profits for the forseeable century plan. Ref:(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm) and Armed Madhouse
Oh sure it is just a number. Each of those numbers had a family, extended family and friends and a world that cares about them. How shallow can this man be! I am afraid this is how the republican fanatics are…very shallow and callus