When I was in about fourth grade or so, I read a book called “Johnny Got His Gun,” by Dalton Trumbo (who was one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, eventually being convicted of contempt of Congress – unlike, say, Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, et al. – spending 11 months in prison, and blacklisted by Hollywood). The book was about a soldier in WWI who has his face blown off by an artillery shell, is deaf, blind, unable to speak, and gradually loses all his limbs to amputation. His attempts to communicate with the outside world (banging his head up and down in Morse code) are taken to be fits, and “treated” with morphine, which induces visions of Jesus Christ, among other things. Yeah, the fact that I read this kind of stuff when I was seven or eight goes a long way in explaining why I turned out a little on the twisted side.
Anyway, I was reminded of this book when I read about 24-yr old Joseph Briseno Jr, who was shot in the back of the head in Baghdad four years ago, shattering his spinal cord, and leaving him blind, brain damaged, and paralyzed from the neck down. He is considered by some to be the “most severely wounded” soldier in Bush’s war.
He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.
[…]
He was 20, attending George Mason University, when he was called up from the reserves and sent to war.
I’m sure that turning a smart, strong, young kid into a blind quadriplegic who has had untold surgeries, bladder problems, high blood pressure, a breathing tube, dead tissue on his tongue, and osteoporosis, who can “respond to questions by grunting or grimacing” is somehow worth everything we’ve “gained” in Iraq. At least to people like Joe Lieberman, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and all the other chickenhawks who have never lifted a finger to serve this country, and who will never have to visit their kid in some cockroach infested army hospital.
It sure doesn’t seem worth it to me, though.
I don’t want to be first today. But oh well.
Morning all
very nice post pj ๐
incredibly sad.
wow, PJ, DITTO! regarding what was said, and what that post did not say but rises in one’s soul.
ARREST โ IMPEACH โ then the V ! thing :smack: :doh:
Blessings to all animals and people killed and stranded by fire in Tahoe.
Roxie in seattle listens and calls into the young turds :nana: :nana:
art norton listens closely to the young turks! :nana: your own self!
Good morning :joe:
Well, AAR is back to advertising for Walmart. :barf:
:doh: ๐ :jerk: ๐ณ :yawn:
BULLETIN
I read on the turds website that they’re theVERY FIRST liberal talk show to bring humor and irreverence to the airwaves.
WOW! imagine that- the very first :fu: :nana:
morning!
powerful book for an eight year old PJ…
like you, i was in the adult stacks when i was a kid.
those experiences left me with the ‘core’ of my artistry; my imagination and empathy.
Kristapea, Tea :joe: Cheers,
One of my young friends just contacted me On MyPage IM … 8) but ๐ฎ “no privacy” [weird}
HE SAID IT IS 112-5 … wait for it….. wait 4 it ……
in ARIZONA … :hot: and he is a NorCal Dude
:rofl2: “melting” …. & I tolds him I will NEVER :rofl2: :hot: “visit”. :rofl2:
A!I!V! … :pup: :bee: ( :billcat: ) :cat:
I just heard: now about 1/2 ago:
I was right :pirate: :yippee: :dancers:
I put a * to mark where I thought where the Quake was. I wrote, I believe on last night’s post.
I said EXACTLY 5 min since :
-it shook at 7:31pm PDT then I felt when it stopped.
I was trying to type at 7:32 & 3pm but didn’t — was trying to move to other sites and when 7:34am … I did not want to end with a 4 ๐ณ , then waited until 5. ๐
A!I!V! … … :pirate: … … (that’s right … Sunset -ish)
๐ก truck broke down still in vegas won 145 last night ๐
Sean, when will you be re-connecting the battery cables?
Quiet blog today.
:no: shhh what if work comes here!
:doh: oh and i forgot to mention the other two hundred i put on black…… black came up!
๐ too quiet……
:paranoid: :nod:
you ok Druid?
god
oh and i forgot to mention the other two hundred i put on blackรขโฌยฆรขโฌยฆ black came up!
Comment by SeanMS รขโฌโ June 25, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Sean took Amy Winehouse’s advice on gambling. He went back to black!
:banana:
Awwww SeanMS,
Cool 8) you won :pup: :yippee: :pirate: 8)
the battery cables … tsk tsk V :rofl2: :rofl2: :no: :rofl2: ; )
(I broke down also,,, but eventually it started. And didn’t win any money, but I looked ” :hubba: ” with hair back and school black baseball cap so at LEAST I had One Win
kinda :smack: :dancers:
A!I!V! … Pink … Get This Party Started …. in honour of mine which STARTED and did not leave me in Arcata … ๐ฎ ๐ฏ ending in 8)
Kevin M, OoooOOooooOOO I like Amy’s advice stick with black,( but I do like Red at times) … it is an artist “thing” for many a decade now. sniff.
IMPEACH โ ARREST โ then the V thing โ Cool Panel 8)
Thx SBlueHeron. ๐
I was decently ROCK’D and ROLL’D … 0n 2nd floor
This was an almost exact strength as the last one, one here of same strength recently. :pirate: 8) :pirate: it was at Sunset and interesting. But kinda normal here. Thx SBlueHeron. ๐
A!I!V! … … PINK … G.T.P.S.
Oh I forgot. Cats were actting WEIRD knocking over things. . I even yelled at them what was their problem. AND things started falling before I felt Q … But okay as of yet — :nod:
But Scary Cool 8) :pirate:
Hey, you people have really been slacking off today.
We have made it back to Brooklyn and it seems that everyone has been waiting for us. Boss called, doctor called, civic assn person called, you get the idea.
It feels great to be sitting in my own home. It does not feel great to have to return all these phone calls. I’m too much of a misanthrope I guess.
I haven’t listened to the news although I’ve managed to read the newspapers on line. Still, I missed having a real paper with a crossword puzzle.
Lots of stuff to do. We had one dog with us and we’ve collected the other. We have to go to Long Island and reunite with the cats who, no doubt, wil be quite ticked off even though I left them with a very nice cat sitter.
I also haven’t been bombarded by Fox News this trip. Local news, CNN and headline news were much more prevelant than Fox this year. But, I also didn’t read the local newspapers which I’m sure would have been disgusting.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun, we have a lot of trilobites to show for it, and I think I’m going to enjoy being home for a while.
Trilobites?
Fossil hunting sounds like a cool vacation.
hey!!…made it homeeee! We had the room for another night but it seemed crazy to stay in the freezing no wifi bare rooms much past the closing ceremonial dinner…Will was homesick…and I was too!!
Happy to even see TV…threat down!!
The stupid Drudge got badly punked on his radio show last night.
Some guy called up and claimed to be Roger Friedman, the Fox News entertainment reviewer. Since Drudge was expecting him, the phony caller had him going for awhile.
And then Drudge asked if he had a cold or something. The punker said “Can’t get anything past you Matt” and then hung up when Drudge asked him if he had seen Sicko yet.
Great, WHT. I never thought I might go looking for Drudge podcasts.
Rerun of Marc on Conan from Valentine’s Day. Conan thinks Marc is still on AAR. Marc just plays along. And now there’s a commercial for a Toby Keith concert. Grrrr….
I was watching that with Drew Barrymore and then seeing it was a rerun and turning it off … oh well