Tuesday, February 08, 2005
[posted by jaed at 5:52 PM]Scratching my head
You've probably seen the Anheuser-Busch ad showing a group of soldiers coming home through an airport and getting a spontaneous round of applause on their way through. Some might think it hokey or sentimental. I have a bit of a hard time understanding why anyone might be offended by it, though.
But apparently someone is. Best of the Web refers to a Guardian [moan] column by Stefano Hatfield, who seems quite outraged. Stefano quotes a "furious" neighbor calling it "obscene". (So I guess there are at least two people beyond my comprehension.)
He seems to be interpreting it as some sort of call to arms re Iran, but these soldiers are coming home from Iraq, clearly, not Iran. I am unable to find any reference to Iran in the spot. Iran has been for practical purposes at war with us in eastern Iraq for almost a year now, and it's not impossible that we'll send troops into Iran at some point, but this commercial isn't talking about that.
It's very strange. The column is behind a registration wall, so I haven't read the whole thing, and maybe there's additional context that explains it, but I find it a little difficult to imagine what could explain calling the image of soldiers being welcomed home by their countrymen "obscene".
Saturday, February 05, 2005
[posted by jaed at 6:25 PM]A thought on history
Someone the other day, I can't recall who, said that watching Bush's speeches now, he has the feeling of seeing history in the making. I've been feeling like this for a while. I've witnessed other important moments, of course (at least, "witnessed" through the media) and never felt that sense of history at the time.
Now, though... on the Saturday night and Sunday of the elections in Iraq, I knew I was watching history. Likewise the day of the Afghanistan election. It's not a strange thought at all to me that a future generation will ask me whether I was alive at the time Bush was president, and about what people thought and said, and whether it's true that many people called him names and shouted that he was Hitler, and how they could have said such things.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
[posted by jaed at 6:47 PM]Speaking of an odd affinity for dolls
What the hell is this supposed to be? A doll protest? What? What?
This is on the site of George Galloway's political party - you remember George, the British MP who told Saddam, "Sir, I salute your strength, your courage, your indefatigability" and went on to babble something about "On to Jerusalem!" - but there doesn't seem to be anything explaining this picture. If indeed it can be explained in any known human language, which seems doubtful.
(I think I found this in a comment on QandO. I think.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
[posted by jaed at 5:01 PM]"I swear to Allah, if you do not release our brave warriors held in captivity, by next week Garfield the cat will have a whole new reason to hate Mondays"
A new hostage-taking was announced today, but it seems our jihadist friends may have been reduced to threatening to behead G.I. Joe dolls:
The story, with a picture of the doll, at Wizbang
(Post title stolen from Ace of Spades, who offers a list of the Top Ten Other Terrorist Threats.)
True, it will probably turn out that this was done by some teenager with too much time on his hands, not by real jihadists [are we still supposed to call them "insurgents" after Sunday? I have not yet received the memo] who actually expected this to work, but still. This is sublimely hilarious, and I'm still a little high from the vote, so what the hell.
AH-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
