Post by Kristal Rose on Oct 25, 2008 8:40:34 GMT -5
I saw a documentary on Al Jazeera, and the US PR guy in Iraq actually came off as quite decent and honest in his work.
Everyone has spin. Even distant space aliens would have a perspective. One can tell who takes a photo by what they capture, the lighting, the expression, even when they have no intent at composition or preferentialism, we still see through their eyes.
I know neither Glass nor Rivera by name.
It's my belief that both liberal and conservative mainstream media are right of center, and that radical/progressive fringe news probably has an affinity with the feelings of at least 20-35% of the public, airs never viewed in the mainstream, like 9/11 conspiracies, for instance. My college physics teaches me that those buildings couldn't have fallen at those free-fall speeds unless the floors beneath were already on their way down for some reason.
"One difference: we don't get paid every time we restore power or clean water to a city. We usually end up doing it for free." - Uh, and you do get paid for something else?
It's not 'extremist' to shoot at soldiers of a foreign nation in your country, even if the government recently established there is in cahoots with them. I'm not a military sort at all, but if I were, I think I'd shoot at Candians who felt they had some reason to place their military in California, even if our elected president thought it was a good idea. If the military thinks people who think in such a fashion will go away, they're smoking drugs. The only way you could possibly get rid of them is to control the media there for two generations and personally monitor everyone who comes out of jail or hiding, or reimmigrates.
I hear they're recommending doctrs carry guns now. Personally I'm a fan of the old British system of gun control, where not even the police carried guns except for SWAT teams, and relied on a whistle network of batons. Even in 1960's american horror/thriller crime movies, the criminals often only carried knives. I dont know if such deescalation is posible in a place like Iraq or not. If I were charge there, and it were possible, I'd fill the nation with metal detectors. For that to work though, the military and police need to be willing to descalate too though, to reduce the motivation of any resistance to carry firearms.
This is part of a larger dream of mine in which the whole world de-arms from nuclear down to knives. The military would then concentrate on global surveilance and inspections of any possible weapon manufacture (sattelites, drones, camera networks, etc.), and the UN could come in and bust anything up with the few handguns still permitted.
In a world with all chemical/incendiary/electrical weapons banned, the defense industry could occupy their top designers attempting to design transcontinental trebuchets or gatling crossbows. I'd prefer they made trancontinental mag-trains though. If I were president I'd put everyone from TRW and Boeing to NASA to work making solar farms, jet-stream turbines, and hydrogen suspended mag-trains. I figure they don't care what they do as long as they have their trillion dollar contracts.
"I wouldn't use the term 'occupied,'" - No? They're just on their way to some other destination? Gone next week? That's not what I've heard.
The military has pulled some tricks that not even the radical media has picked up on. For instance, relief packages dropped from planes into Afghansitan came in yellow boxes. So did bombs. Coincidence? ..or a demoralizing tactic to make people feel whethar they lived or died was no longer in their own hands?
I was sceptical of stories like Jessica Lynch the moment I saw them on TV. Perhaps another branch of the government embedded directly in the networks creates that material, run by the Office of Public Perception perhaps.
As you say, you have no control of what becomes of your reports. Your responsible interviews of american soldiers walking through dirt and grass sent from moms in the US may get reported, but the average american will still have no idea what the casualty ratios are. The average american has a very abstract non-visceral impression of casualties of war. Your department employer won't be out to change that, will they?
I'm listening to a British journalist on the radio complaining about this at this very moment. That the journalists there are sending out reports of the reality of war, but the media refuses to distribute such stories.
Well, good luck. Hope it goes well and isn't a disappointment. Do you ever have time to work on your fiction, or have you left tha behind or now? It was excellent stuff.
Everyone has spin. Even distant space aliens would have a perspective. One can tell who takes a photo by what they capture, the lighting, the expression, even when they have no intent at composition or preferentialism, we still see through their eyes.
I know neither Glass nor Rivera by name.
It's my belief that both liberal and conservative mainstream media are right of center, and that radical/progressive fringe news probably has an affinity with the feelings of at least 20-35% of the public, airs never viewed in the mainstream, like 9/11 conspiracies, for instance. My college physics teaches me that those buildings couldn't have fallen at those free-fall speeds unless the floors beneath were already on their way down for some reason.
"One difference: we don't get paid every time we restore power or clean water to a city. We usually end up doing it for free." - Uh, and you do get paid for something else?
It's not 'extremist' to shoot at soldiers of a foreign nation in your country, even if the government recently established there is in cahoots with them. I'm not a military sort at all, but if I were, I think I'd shoot at Candians who felt they had some reason to place their military in California, even if our elected president thought it was a good idea. If the military thinks people who think in such a fashion will go away, they're smoking drugs. The only way you could possibly get rid of them is to control the media there for two generations and personally monitor everyone who comes out of jail or hiding, or reimmigrates.
I hear they're recommending doctrs carry guns now. Personally I'm a fan of the old British system of gun control, where not even the police carried guns except for SWAT teams, and relied on a whistle network of batons. Even in 1960's american horror/thriller crime movies, the criminals often only carried knives. I dont know if such deescalation is posible in a place like Iraq or not. If I were charge there, and it were possible, I'd fill the nation with metal detectors. For that to work though, the military and police need to be willing to descalate too though, to reduce the motivation of any resistance to carry firearms.
This is part of a larger dream of mine in which the whole world de-arms from nuclear down to knives. The military would then concentrate on global surveilance and inspections of any possible weapon manufacture (sattelites, drones, camera networks, etc.), and the UN could come in and bust anything up with the few handguns still permitted.
In a world with all chemical/incendiary/electrical weapons banned, the defense industry could occupy their top designers attempting to design transcontinental trebuchets or gatling crossbows. I'd prefer they made trancontinental mag-trains though. If I were president I'd put everyone from TRW and Boeing to NASA to work making solar farms, jet-stream turbines, and hydrogen suspended mag-trains. I figure they don't care what they do as long as they have their trillion dollar contracts.
"I wouldn't use the term 'occupied,'" - No? They're just on their way to some other destination? Gone next week? That's not what I've heard.
The military has pulled some tricks that not even the radical media has picked up on. For instance, relief packages dropped from planes into Afghansitan came in yellow boxes. So did bombs. Coincidence? ..or a demoralizing tactic to make people feel whethar they lived or died was no longer in their own hands?
I was sceptical of stories like Jessica Lynch the moment I saw them on TV. Perhaps another branch of the government embedded directly in the networks creates that material, run by the Office of Public Perception perhaps.
As you say, you have no control of what becomes of your reports. Your responsible interviews of american soldiers walking through dirt and grass sent from moms in the US may get reported, but the average american will still have no idea what the casualty ratios are. The average american has a very abstract non-visceral impression of casualties of war. Your department employer won't be out to change that, will they?
I'm listening to a British journalist on the radio complaining about this at this very moment. That the journalists there are sending out reports of the reality of war, but the media refuses to distribute such stories.
Well, good luck. Hope it goes well and isn't a disappointment. Do you ever have time to work on your fiction, or have you left tha behind or now? It was excellent stuff.