I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different. When Nov. 11 rolls around, this quote from Breakfast of Champions gets dragged out of storage and put on display for the occasion of Kurt Vonnegut's birthday and Armistice/Veterans Day. But that's what remembrance and ceremony are for, after all, as mile markers on our half-blind
“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
An addendum after reading this again as this strange Memorial Day draws to a close: I think Vonnegut would have liked R wonkette and its self aware, vaguely tragic snark.
Maybe we need for each state to spend the day reading the names of the dead soldiers on all the TV and radio and Internet streams. Make it inescapable. Broadcast it into the streets.
I will add my 2 cents to that. Swampay's self-awareness beats the empty gestures of all the governments toward those who served. You're welcome Swampay. And thank you.
Mine too. In 1986 I was out on the south side side of Dallas to watch Halley's Comet pre-dawn with KNON on the radio when I heard this the first time. I packed up my gear and drove back to town so I could call the DJ and say "What was that song!"
I've been a Pogues fan ever since and I've seen them live, and when I later did a dive trip via Sydney, I appreciated landing at Circular Quay even more.
OK, Brethren and Sisteren, how do we turn this from a de- or master- bating society into action? No way short of catastrophe, as I see it.
Heinlein wasn't wrong in Starship Troopers [the book; not the sucky movie]. Only vets get to vote, and before you shit on my head, read it. Vets included all volunteers, and most didn't serve in combat branches, but you served where you were assigned. Only on completion of a satisfactory term of service were you a citizen with voting rights. Was the average citizen smarter or better in any way? No. But to find out why, read the book.
Maybe the US needs to disappear up its own asshole as the Teabaggers and their pandering Rethugs head in that direction.
But I'll guarantee that of those who have served in combat, there are a greater percentage who oppose endless war than in the Republican Party. Just look at the list of chickenhawks who lead them today and in the recent past.
Buncha fuckin' cowards; sick mofos. Send your kids to fight for my beliefs, while mine are above all that.
In case no one has already posted a link to it, here is Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s letter to his parents in Indiana in May 1945, shortly after he had become a repatriated POW.
It's always darkly hilarious to read the ejaculations of your genuine German stooge.
The assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 no more caused the First World War than it did the Peloponnesian War.
And the flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause a storm - where? - in the Amazon?, over the Atlantic?, in China?, .. , on the Moon?
Without German military adventurism the events in Sarajevo would have caused a nasty spat between Austria and Serbia but no more than that.
The Germans used these events to trigger their 'Schlieffen Plan'; they had been sitting on this plan for some twenty years just waiting to use it.
In this way the Germans drew in Russia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, France, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, and ultimately the United States (who won the war with that new invention, the tank).
The peace treaty of Versailles was not particularly mean-spirited. For 'mean-spirited' you have to go back to the really savage treaty which Germany imposed on France in 1871. They exacted crushing war-reparations but the French paid up in three years. They didn't whine (which is what Germany is best at). The Germans whined about the end of WWI because almost none of the barbaric destruction which they caused didn't happen on German soil and so they couldn't understand how or why they were defeated. Cue Hitler.
The Germans always escape responsibility for their savage and atrocious behaviour by posing as big anti-Bolshevists. Hilarious! This is the supreme irony since it was their defeat of Russia that shattered the Russian government and made it inevitable that the Bolsheviks would pick up the pieces. (In the east the Schlieffen plan DID work.)
That Lenin was on the spot is also because of Germany. They shipped him back to Russia in 1917.
Nor can they learn. It was the hatred of Socialism on the part of some figures in the German Parliament that partly explains the events of this last July in Greece.
The contenders for the title of 'Worst Country of the Twentieth Century' are many but Germany easily outstrips them all. They are directly responsible for the deaths of 100 million people. By comparison they make Stalin's purges look like the shy love poetry of a Bloomsbury blue stocking.
As I said: 'Guck Fermany'.
And don't tell me not to post on Wonkette. That's Dok's job.
Does anyone remember a song by Bob Dylan called "Masters of War" - sung most famously by Joan Baez? You could release that song today and it would still be timely, especially on Veteran's Day. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Learn it your own damn self.
My bucket list includes going to the Kurt Vonnegut museum in his hometown, Indianapolis. They even have a pack of his Pall Malls.
Hello babies,
My favorite Kurt Quote,
“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
An addendum after reading this again as this strange Memorial Day draws to a close: I think Vonnegut would have liked R wonkette and its self aware, vaguely tragic snark.
Maybe we need for each state to spend the day reading the names of the dead soldiers on all the TV and radio and Internet streams. Make it inescapable. Broadcast it into the streets.
All the respect to Eric Bogle, but here's my preferred version https://youtu.be/cZqN1glz4JY
The first French action when war was declared. Just to clarify.
I will add my 2 cents to that. Swampay's self-awareness beats the empty gestures of all the governments toward those who served. You're welcome Swampay. And thank you.
But not something to enthusiastically embrace.
As long as their worthless hides are unscratched and their piggish banks full the rest of the country can FOAD.
Mine too. In 1986 I was out on the south side side of Dallas to watch Halley's Comet pre-dawn with KNON on the radio when I heard this the first time. I packed up my gear and drove back to town so I could call the DJ and say "What was that song!"
I've been a Pogues fan ever since and I've seen them live, and when I later did a dive trip via Sydney, I appreciated landing at Circular Quay even more.
Can't beat Shane McGowan for passionate lyrics.
Good on ya, brother.
OK, Brethren and Sisteren, how do we turn this from a de- or master- bating society into action? No way short of catastrophe, as I see it.
Heinlein wasn't wrong in Starship Troopers [the book; not the sucky movie]. Only vets get to vote, and before you shit on my head, read it. Vets included all volunteers, and most didn't serve in combat branches, but you served where you were assigned. Only on completion of a satisfactory term of service were you a citizen with voting rights. Was the average citizen smarter or better in any way? No. But to find out why, read the book.
Maybe the US needs to disappear up its own asshole as the Teabaggers and their pandering Rethugs head in that direction.
But I'll guarantee that of those who have served in combat, there are a greater percentage who oppose endless war than in the Republican Party. Just look at the list of chickenhawks who lead them today and in the recent past.
Buncha fuckin' cowards; sick mofos. Send your kids to fight for my beliefs, while mine are above all that.
In case no one has already posted a link to it, here is Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s letter to his parents in Indiana in May 1945, shortly after he had become a repatriated POW.
It's always darkly hilarious to read the ejaculations of your genuine German stooge.
The assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 no more caused the First World War than it did the Peloponnesian War.
And the flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause a storm - where? - in the Amazon?, over the Atlantic?, in China?, .. , on the Moon?
Without German military adventurism the events in Sarajevo would have caused a nasty spat between Austria and Serbia but no more than that.
The Germans used these events to trigger their 'Schlieffen Plan'; they had been sitting on this plan for some twenty years just waiting to use it.
In this way the Germans drew in Russia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, France, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, and ultimately the United States (who won the war with that new invention, the tank).
The peace treaty of Versailles was not particularly mean-spirited. For 'mean-spirited' you have to go back to the really savage treaty which Germany imposed on France in 1871. They exacted crushing war-reparations but the French paid up in three years. They didn't whine (which is what Germany is best at). The Germans whined about the end of WWI because almost none of the barbaric destruction which they caused didn't happen on German soil and so they couldn't understand how or why they were defeated. Cue Hitler.
The Germans always escape responsibility for their savage and atrocious behaviour by posing as big anti-Bolshevists. Hilarious! This is the supreme irony since it was their defeat of Russia that shattered the Russian government and made it inevitable that the Bolsheviks would pick up the pieces. (In the east the Schlieffen plan DID work.)
That Lenin was on the spot is also because of Germany. They shipped him back to Russia in 1917.
Nor can they learn. It was the hatred of Socialism on the part of some figures in the German Parliament that partly explains the events of this last July in Greece.
The contenders for the title of 'Worst Country of the Twentieth Century' are many but Germany easily outstrips them all. They are directly responsible for the deaths of 100 million people. By comparison they make Stalin's purges look like the shy love poetry of a Bloomsbury blue stocking.
As I said: 'Guck Fermany'.
And don't tell me not to post on Wonkette. That's Dok's job.
Does anyone remember a song by Bob Dylan called "Masters of War" - sung most famously by Joan Baez? You could release that song today and it would still be timely, especially on Veteran's Day. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/wat...