See, the problem here is there was this great big war like sixty years ago. Some goddam cocky nation won that conflict, and in the city of Nuremburg created a set of rules that have since been adopted by the rest of the world. The rules described behaviors that they called “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”. The aggressive invasion and occupation of another nation with whom you are at peace, for example, was a “crime against humanity”. Collective punishment, as described by the thug and quoted above, is a war crime. Now lemme think here, who was that meddling nation that came up with all this obstructionist crap?

mikey

The Romans were explicit in trying to establish an Empire. They wanted to conquer the known world so they could extract loot and slaves from it, and made no bones about that fact.

They didn’t, for example, pretend to be bringing democracy and freedom to those whose lands they occupied and resources they stole…

I still haven’t gotten used to the reappearance of the Preview button.

This is where the party ends
I cant stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

It was the loveliest party that Ive ever attended
If anything was broken Im sure it could be mended
My head cant tolerate this bobbing and pretending
Listen to some bullet-head and the madness that hes saying

Out from the kitchen to the bedroom to the hallway
Your friend apologizes, he could see it my way
He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking
Cant shake the devils hand and say youre only kidding

This is where the party ends
I cant stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

Maybe said Wookie has a loli thing for Ewoks?

I’ll stop there…

To those of you who replied that the photo was not readily identifiable, or that “no one” could possibly know the context, I’ll just say that not everything is about you.

So, in that sense, the new image doesn’t help in the least, but I can see I’m not making any headway here, so I’ll give up.

Thanks to those of you who spoke up in support of me, though. That was kind, and I won’t soon forget it. And thanks to Retardo for at least giving the matter some thought, even if the result isn’t the one I would have preferred.

Haw!

Actually, I even like this version better, thanks Retardo.

OK, Gromit?

Ah, now *that’s* a solution.

Cruel, perhaps, but to eschew cruelty in blogging is folly.

*Nothing* I did was improper. *Everything* the picture’s subject has done is wicked and stupid and as such, deserves to be humiliated in an ethical way. But there was one objection, which was politely and logically rebutted and still…

Heaven forbid that Jenna or the old man shed public tears if Dubya is ever impeached or prosecuted; how many will say, ‘aww, let him off for their sake’?

Why not just take the picture down? Gromit was asking politely, not making a huge scene. The picture is funny, to be sure, but it’s not like some huge coup against the wingnuts or something. Why not just take it down?

“Hey, Hitler’s my buddy — stop clowning on him!”

Fuck you.

The Romans used effective techniques to keep conquests submissive. Kill a Roman soldier & reprisals were stiff–and local leaders were likely to be part of it, including providing family members as hostages. After a few samples of Roman justice local leaders would turn over malcontents before active insurrection got very far. Worked for hundreds of years, most places–even in Palestine–and the Romans did not need massive numbers of troops to keep provinces under control.

Others have tried the same tactics with less effective results, but there are many examples of other successes throughout history. A key to the technique is that it requires the occupying forces to forgo the luxury of thinking of themselves as the good guys; the idea is that fear, and not love, respect, justice, ethics or morality is what produces success, at least initially. If the U.S. goal is to establish control (the “monopoly on violence” that was a topic a year or so ago) then this technique may be the only way left.