The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Open Thread At Noon

Re: Open Thread At Noon

sv — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:37:53 -0000

USA!!!! USA!!!! WOOO!!!! Man DID I enjoy watching this game....

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Hugo Pottisch — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:03:38 -0000

Laughing my head off. At least in bed you still want to stay black? White men should be shouting "I am Negreo tonight" while fucking. And we can all see Malcolm at it: "I'm going to ... you. By an means necessary". Or "What's my name?"

From what I can gather - Malcolm screwed his brains out with white women when he was younger and later went back to black. MLK went the other way?

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Acromion — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:07:35 -0000

I switched off Transformers I right about the time the "black" robot did a headspin. It was so corny I couldn't take it. Why couldn't they just be robots like the cartoon?

Godawful movie and I feel bad for the kids who never got to see the cartoon before that peice of computer animated crap.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

dmf — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:58:57 -0000

glad to hear that you were treated well and that there is growing respect for differences in services, i'm sure that in the field being a soldier first is the rule that people live by, but through my work with vets-VA's in NY,CA,KS, and now in TN, I have known many chaplains, and officers/enlisted folks, like the ones in the report and as I mentioned the history of missionaries and our military is a longstanding one which was the other aspect of the article that you linked, you may be interested to look into some of the theologians working at right-wing thinktanks and of course the whole don't ask don't tell fiasco, well that's more than enough for this poor "noontime" thread and paperwork calls, a pleasure as always.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:04:53 -0000

This is experience and anecdote talking not statistics or research so take it with a grain of salt.

In many ways the U.S. Military is the most tolerant section of our society. At least as an institution. Religiously, all creeds are tolerated and given space to function. Personaly I've seen a muslim chaplain's assistant help oficiate at an episcopalian service. The base chaplain on Doha when I was there in 2002 was a Rabbi. Coming from a relatively Christian tradition with strong Indian Roots --the crow have traditional songs written around the turn of the century in Absalooke (absalaaka)-- the first real contact I had with people of other faiths was in the service. I know personal experience doesn't count for everything, but I know that most chaplains I have seen operate take great pains to be universalist, and understanding when it comes to religious preferences. Again during my deployment the Company Chaplain not only held services every day for those who wanted to come but helped a wiccan soldier to obtain the things needed to set up an altar.

I rember watching a book tv interview with someone --who was I think-- the former head of navy chaplains who was a rabbi, and he recounts a story where he flew out to a carrier to preform a service for a few sailors. While there he had a discussion with the muslim sailors oboard to resolve an issue with the cooks who had been ignorantly cooking the sausage first thing in the morning. Needless to say the sailors were tired of eating cold cereal and they opted to speak with the rabbi because they knew he would understand.

On the whole I don't know how much creedence I put in the intolerance of evengelical chaplains in the military. The issue derserves further study, but I know from personal experience that eveyone is a soldier first.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

dmf — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:30:01 -0000

where/when do you see the break between the christianists and the military happening? seems like christianizing the pagans rhetoric/justification goes right from the colonialist/Indian/Native wars through the cold war into the neo-con war on "facist-Islam", hard to imagine our current army without the Southern Baptist Convention(the twisted history of racism, Empire, and missionaries is a whole other bit of nastiness, just listen to comtemporary right-wing pols talking up the need for the world-wide freedom of religious expression), it's not an accident that the megachurches and our military bases have a high degree of 'positional correspondence', so to speak, again no conspiracy theories just a mutually benefical relationship of means-ends.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:15:28 -0000

perhaps, I don't know entirely.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

keith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:21:00 -0000

AND ITS A FINAL!!!!

USA!!!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

keith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:19:50 -0000

Yeah don't get me started on The Tooon...

I hear you about Real Madrid, although between Kaka, Ronaldo, Ribery, Robben(one of the most underatted players in Europe), Sneijder, and Raul...they sure can kick that one ball around to each other. Look at how Barca beat Man U, they just killed them with possesion. But it will be interesting to see if they can make it all work. By the way, I hear Chelsea is going after Pato hard, that kid is something else!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

dmf — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:12:46 -0000

yep sad to but Manifest Destiny is alive and well and (still) going global, unlikely that there is a growing connection between the military and evangelical christianism probably just more dissent and press coverage of it, Duke prof. St.Haeurwas(sp?) has been writing for years about the dangers of Constantinian/Empire/christianity/nationalism and making a moral case that pacifism is central to being faithful to Jesus and contrary to marriages of church and state but not many takers left right or center for this kind of turn the other cheek love the enemy style religion, Onward Christian soldiers?

Re: Open Thread At Noon

keith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:08:17 -0000

Howard is qaulity. He may be a deciding factor in my supporting Everton this coming year...or at least until my Magpies can get back in the EPL...fucking Kinear, ugh!!!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Destro Villain — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:00:44 -0000

2-0!!!! USA!USA!USA!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:50:50 -0000

I thought that

this article needs consideration for those interested. It's about a certain group of evengelical chaplains in the military. Now it doesn't square entirely with my personal experience but it is interesting.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Jennifer D. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:48:12 -0000

That was Tee Vee at its very best! I loved how he rambled for about ten minutes before he finally came out and said he was meeting a hottie in Argentina. And the tears. And the almost tears. It was truly dramatic.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Destro Villain — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:25:02 -0000

excellent goal...stupid yellow card....this is what happens when you're not used to the world stage....hopefully the boys can hold on for the win.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Destro Villain — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:22:14 -0000

wow....that was unexpectedly expected.....affair? sure, but bouncing to Argentina and not expecting people to ask where....wow...he upped the game, who can top that?

Re: Open Thread At Noon

sean — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:00:27 -0000

wow - Sanford's presser was awesommmeeeeeeeee! I wouldn't have been more shocked if he came out and said he liked wearing the gimp masks with the zippered mouth. Talk about a confession...just sort of spilled his guts. I give him credit for fessin up, but deduct a million DKP for being a cheating D'bag and ditching his kids for some strange on Father's Day...wtg Gov GG

Re: Open Thread At Noon

sv — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:54:33 -0000

Thanks Dan W - I don't think I can get away w/ watching a whole feed at work like that, and I'd rather catch it at home, if i can, anyway.

also don't you have to pay for ESPN 360 unless you have Verizon Cable/IP, or something? not sure if that's what you were getting at by saying "depending on your ISP" but that is what i heard from a friend.

anyway.. i saw parts of the US-Italy game, not the whole thing, and i actually thought the US played very well. (I wish I had seen the US-Egypt game.) I don't really hold out much hope of us beating Spain (don't they also have a whole bunch of Barca players?), but I think they will surprise people, maybe even score a goal.

I don't follow much league soccer. My friends and I, being that we live up around here, are Red Bull NY fans. Worse than being a Jets fan, let me tell you. getting to the final game in MLS last year *was* really awesome, though. I think I heard about Real loading up...

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Col. Mike — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:51:57 -0000

Hello!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Jennifer D. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:44:48 -0000

LCrawfty is a white woman? (like me). Wow, see, I never would have guessed that! I was picturing her as a late thirties black guy. That is one of the things I love about this blog.

Okay - now I have to go back to trying to get my jaw back off the floor after the Governor's press conference.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:05:34 -0000

I thought this was especially poignant.

I know a lot of white folks who have been following this are now very scared of getting it wrong, of being called out on their internalized, unsuspected racism by the scary PoC. And all I can say to you is — this stuff is hard, and with the best of intentions, you will get it wrong sometimes. I do too. That sucks, but racism is a huge, painful, intractable problem deeply embedded in our society, so it’s not surprising that the fix isn’t going to be easy. But the answer is never going to come from white folks or people of color sitting back on their hands and refusing to participate in the discussion. Come on in and talk about it. We’ll figure this out together.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

keith — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:00:20 -0000

I didn't see Italy, but let me tell you, being a man down had no effect on the Brazil game. They were just too damned good, hell they were down 2-0 before the 20th minute. It will be a good test though, Spain is awfully loaded, The Gooch and Bocanegro are going to have their hands full with David Villa and Torres.

Since their is not alot of soccer talk on this here blog, I gotta say, what's up with Real Madrid??? They are now after Ribery, yikes they are loading up. I was feeling down about soccer until the Confed. Cup. I decided this past year I was going to support a team in the English Premier Lg. After days of soul searching and research, I decide to join the Toon Army and follow Newcastle United. And they promptly got relegated. So, needless to say I have beened bummed out on all things soccer. But, thanks to the US for getting the bug going again.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

permazorch — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:41:36 -0000

Hear-hear!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

permazorch — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:37:52 -0000

Well, I'd like to introduce you all to one of my favorite writers, and one of best film essayists around. His name is Walter Chaw. Here's his review of Transformers 2 (electric boogaloo).

Re: Open Thread At Noon

sv — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:35:40 -0000

Also -- USA v. Spain in the Confederations Cup, today at 2:30 ET. I'm at work but I think ESPN2 is replaying it at 11 PM tonight. (for those of you who can do this, you can probably also catch it on rojadirecta.com live.) Spain is the best team in the world, basically, but I think the US will play well against them. I'm a bit afraid of ref bias. I didn't see the games we played against Italy and Brazil but we were a man down for the majority of both games. Well let me not throw accusations out there, I'm just saying, after World Cup '06... But regardless, we're looking good after that Egypt game. Anyway -- GO USA!!!