For the Teddy Roosevelt fans:
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919).
Friday, April 11, 2003
I found this in my email. It's very funny. From MIT, Triolet Challenge.
In the continual effort of MIT to promote artistic abilities, students in Steve Ward's sections were invited to submit, as a weekly writing assignment, a triolet (in lieu of the 1-page writeup). The triolet did not have to address the specific question of the assignment directly, but had to relate (at least marginally) to the topic.
Poetry about computers ... something about this makes me giggle. Some of it is actually very funny.
Enjoy!
In the continual effort of MIT to promote artistic abilities, students in Steve Ward's sections were invited to submit, as a weekly writing assignment, a triolet (in lieu of the 1-page writeup). The triolet did not have to address the specific question of the assignment directly, but had to relate (at least marginally) to the topic.
Poetry about computers ... something about this makes me giggle. Some of it is actually very funny.
Enjoy!
Here's one for the conspiracy theorists. I was listening to a radio program last night and they were talking about the incident where the marine hung the American flag on the Saddam Hussein statue. Apparently, the Marine hung the flag upside down (blue stars section down) which mean "distress". The Marine was later interviewed on CNN by Larry King, and he said he was told by his superiors to hang the flag that way.
The person on the radio was speculating about the Marine's actions, since Marines are taught from the get go how the treat the American flag. The person on the radio also said that no one in the news media commented about it.
I remember hearing about this incident, and I thought the buzz on was that it was a mistake for the Marine to even put the American flag on the Hussein statue because it was like a symbol of America conquering Iraq. The coalition forces didn't want to send that message, so they quickly took the flag off. But why was it hung upside down in the first place? Wer the Marines sending a silent message about the "real state of the war in Iraq"? That maybe what those 600 embedded journalists, and all the other international media are reporting are not true, and it's a sham war and that particular Marine's boss wanted the whole world to know it. That, and this is what the radio person said last night, Saddam Hussein and those missing Iraqi leaders whose pictures are now on playing cards (Pokemon watch out) were cut a deal and are now living somewhere and enjoying themselves on a tropical island.
Conspiracy theorists, discuss amongst yourselves.
The person on the radio was speculating about the Marine's actions, since Marines are taught from the get go how the treat the American flag. The person on the radio also said that no one in the news media commented about it.
I remember hearing about this incident, and I thought the buzz on was that it was a mistake for the Marine to even put the American flag on the Hussein statue because it was like a symbol of America conquering Iraq. The coalition forces didn't want to send that message, so they quickly took the flag off. But why was it hung upside down in the first place? Wer the Marines sending a silent message about the "real state of the war in Iraq"? That maybe what those 600 embedded journalists, and all the other international media are reporting are not true, and it's a sham war and that particular Marine's boss wanted the whole world to know it. That, and this is what the radio person said last night, Saddam Hussein and those missing Iraqi leaders whose pictures are now on playing cards (Pokemon watch out) were cut a deal and are now living somewhere and enjoying themselves on a tropical island.
Conspiracy theorists, discuss amongst yourselves.
You need to sign up to read the NY Times online, but there's a great op/ed piece written by Eason Jordan, a CNN news executive, which was published today (4/11/2003). The piece is titled The News We Kept to Ourselves, and in it Jordan talks about the atrocities of the Iraqi regime that CNN never reported.
Some choice bits.
************
I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.
We also had to worry that our reporting might endanger Iraqis not on our payroll. I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting. After all, secret police thugs brutalized even senior officials of the Information Ministry, just to keep them in line (one such official has long been missing all his fingernails).
Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home.
*********
Such lovely people the Iraqi regime, something I'm sure the sign painter from Berkeley who wrote "We love you Saddam" would say. Well at least the Berkeley sign painter won't have to worry about finding a loved one's body parts in a plastic bag on their doorstep, since the person had no beef with Saddam.
When some of the anti-war protestors talk about how horrible America is, I think they need to remember that in places like Iraq things were much worse. Had these anti-war people protested against Saddam, I'm sure they would be missing what? fingernails, teeth, their children, their lives?
Some choice bits.
************
I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.
We also had to worry that our reporting might endanger Iraqis not on our payroll. I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting. After all, secret police thugs brutalized even senior officials of the Information Ministry, just to keep them in line (one such official has long been missing all his fingernails).
Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home.
*********
Such lovely people the Iraqi regime, something I'm sure the sign painter from Berkeley who wrote "We love you Saddam" would say. Well at least the Berkeley sign painter won't have to worry about finding a loved one's body parts in a plastic bag on their doorstep, since the person had no beef with Saddam.
When some of the anti-war protestors talk about how horrible America is, I think they need to remember that in places like Iraq things were much worse. Had these anti-war people protested against Saddam, I'm sure they would be missing what? fingernails, teeth, their children, their lives?
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