Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: For the kids, if nothing else, in reply to BenWilson,
Perspective, dude. I wouldn’t go desecrating bodies myself, but I can fully understand how people feel that way with respect to this particular body.
So can I. There was a time where I'd have felt a warm glow at the news that the drunk driver responsible for the death of my sister had been raped or beaten in prison, and would continue to be so for the rest of his worthless life. On some visceral, level I can understand the appeal of atavistic hobgoblins like Darth McVicar.
But when the hell do you just call your reptilian hind-brain to heel? Because mine gets antsy with fucking around with the basic, and non-negotiable, taboo that you don't disrespect the dead.
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Would you have gone out of your way to give Joseph Mengle or Heinrich Himmer a nice burial? I wouldn’t have.
And I’ll close the gate behind you, and ring the bell. Heinrich Himmler committed suicide after he was captured, and for some bizarre reason he was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on the Lüneburg Heath. I’ve no idea how “nice” it was, but I’ve seen no evidence that his corpse wasn’t treated respectfully.
Now, let’s go for a somewhat sounder analogy. Those who were convicted and sentenced to death after the Nuremberg Trails were allowed visits from clergy before their executions, if requested. Their bodies were cremated, and though the ashes were not returned to their familiies (out of concern that any grave would become a pilgrim’s trail for neo-Nazis) they were respectfully scattered in the Isar river in Munich.
If you want to call that “craven Nazi butt licking”, then I say, Sir, you have no decency and invite you to return to your bridge immediately.
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Hard News: You know what ..., in reply to Rob S,
Right or wrong I think Utu is a good description of Bin Ladens killing.
We're going to have to agree to disagree on that -- I think it's tasteless, misleading and more fitting for the box of a Playstation first person shooter game than a serious daily newspaper.
Still, ka pai for using te reo. Chur, cuz.
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Why not just put him in a body bag and throw him over the side?
Because we not only should be better than terrorists, but at least as good as the German troops who gave Allied soldiers decent burials after the Battle of Crete, rather than dumping “the enemy” in the sea like so much trash?
If you can’t act better than God-damned Nazis, I don’t know what we’re actually fighting for.
And thinking about the headline of this post, I'd actually like "the kids" to know that you can dislike someone -- hell, even loathe them with good cause -- but there are common decencies that are not negotiable. Like not treating human bodies like trash.
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Hard News: For the kids, if nothing else, in reply to Russell Brown,
I still think that main issue will be economics which will be bad ground to play on for Obama ($5 a gallon gas and 8% unemployment will be tough to overcome),
Feinstein's stating the obvious there, but Obama's helped enormously by the profound (and increasingly obvious) unseriousness of the GOP front-runners and Congressional Republicans who are about as popular as crabs at an orgy. According to the latest Times/CBS poll nobody is taking Republicans seriously either.
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<i>He didn’t deserve any respect, let alone craven Islamic butt licking.</i>
Do you actually believe any shit you write, James, or is this some meta-troll. I do love the way certain sections of the American right have defined down any respect for the rule of law, national sovereignty and simple human decency as "craven Islamic butt licking".
I'm really not going to nauseate myself further by finding (let alone posting) links to people bitching that Bin Laden's body should have been desecrated and photos made public. I'm genuinely shocked at the moral depravity it would take to say crap like that -- animals don't behave like that.
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I guess I was asking for it, but I've just seen the front page of yesterday's Dominion Post. The headline?
UTU
Speechless.
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Hard News: For the kids, if nothing else, in reply to Russell Brown,
But … even before yesterday, it suddenly started to close up.
I'd have to look at the dates, but it can't have helped that Donald Trump kicked the birther crazy up to levels even many wing-nuts were backing away from, and the GOP's budget plans aren't pleasing anyone.
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… the man has icewater in his veins.
Or he's just a grown-up who understands that what he does and says has real and lasting consequences beyond the next polling cycle.
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Hard News: You know what ..., in reply to Bart Janssen,
Senior military personnel are quite well known for saying things that are not the truth.
But as Jon pointed out in passing on Media 7, this particular senior military person also seems to think he and his underlings are exempt from the Official Information Act. (Which, I suspect, was deliberately designed to be not only toothless but soft-gummed.) Perhaps I’m an old fashioned girl, but I’m not as relaxed as the Prime Minister about senior military staff who treat the law like the pick ‘n’ mix bins of lollies at the supermarket. X10 when one of those gentlemen is now the Governor-General designate.
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