Who Is IOZ?: The First Syllable in Context

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The First Syllable in Context

Primitive superstitious Afghan people are rioting because we burned the Koran. It's like this guy says, "This is not just about dishonoring the Koran, it is about disrespecting our dead, and killing our children." Like he said, it's just about dishonoring the Koran.

56 comments:

Mr.Fundamental said...: I thought that people that read the NY Times are intelligent, nuanced, tolerant and sophisticated. at least that is what they told me. just speaking from memory here, don't mind me. seriously did anyone in the comments there read the article? or did they just orgasm when they saw the title?; 12:05 PM
El Serracho! said...: It will be fun if this is the event that finally leads to the US getting its butt kicked out of that place..which of course bodes poorly for Iran.; 12:10 PM
IOZ said...: I don't know why that camel was so worried about that straw anyway.; 12:11 PM
Professor Coldheart said...: Members of the Afghan Parliament called on Afghans to take up arms against the American military

"... er, um, ah, starting today, that is."; 12:14 PM
Professor Coldheart said...: Many [protesters] hefted rocks, throwing them at passing SUVs as well as Afghan police and American military vehicles. SUVs are often driven by people from foreign organizations.

My first thought was, "Hell, those ignorant 'black bloc' protesters, inciting the mob to violence. What if that SUV driver was just some Pashtun farmer on his way home?" Thanks for that added context, NYTimes.; 12:17 PM
El Serracho! said...: "Aware that the episode could damage American efforts here which are at a crucial stage in negotiating a strategic partnership agreement with the Afghans and attempting to pave the way for peace negotiations, "

after 11 years, we are finally at the crucial stage of "paving the way" to begin fucking peace negotiations.

everything was going just fine until these yahoos burned some korans.; 12:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Killing kids is one thing but burning a Koran? That's going too far.; 12:35 PM
Anonymous said...: they got the white people out of there, though, right?; 12:36 PM
LorenzoStDuBois said...: I actually find that the most popular comments in NYTimes articles are surprisingly anti-empire and anti-neoliberal, which makes it allthemore interesting that here instead they are dominated by the Sam Harris/Bill Maher “Religion is stupid and therefore Muslims are animals” crowd.; 12:39 PM
gamefaced said...: i'm all for burning bibles to manifest my sincere apolojeez.; 1:01 PM
demize! said...: Its like the daily double ; they got to say "Jihad" and "Mullahs" in the same sentence.; 2:20 PM
PR said...: PC@12:17; I don't think the heroin profits are trickling down so far that the farmers can afford SUVs.; 2:50 PM
Professor Coldheart said...: ... that's the joke, PR.; 3:25 PM
rob payne said...: The US government not only pisses on Afghans they piss on us as well the only difference being is we thank them and ask for more while the Afghans become angry. I admire the Afghan people and I despise the US and its stinking military.; 4:20 PM
Anonymous said...: NATO kills children again and again - no riots
Anyone anywhere does anything to a Quran - riots; 4:40 PM
davidly said...: Were you listening to The Dude's story, Nonny?; 4:43 PM
Anon said...: "NATO kills children again and again - no riots
Anyone anywhere does anything to a Quran - riots"

Suuuuure. No riots. I mean, if it didn't appear in the NYT, then it didn't happen, right?

Are you aware that for the last ten years a significant number of Afghans were directly and indirectly supporting the taliban and other such groups in their largely succesful attempt to resist occupation and kill as many Western imperialists (and Afghan colaborateurs) as possible?

Or do you honestly think Afghan resistance started yesterday?; 5:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Right, so every Afghan who beats his wife does it because of NATO. Are Kashmiri Muslims part of the Afghan resistance too? Must be, since no Muslims in Afghanistan or anywhere else ever riot for religious reasons.; 6:54 PM
anne said...: afghan whigs.. ..okay now everyone look back to the last post and let's talk about our hair .. . / rob ? ..what was that you said last night about commenting .. .; 7:05 PM
tsisageya said...: Amen, Mr. IOZ. Thank you.; 7:17 PM
Hell this works here, too said...: WOLVERINES!; 7:18 PM
Christopher said...: Really, how were we supposed to know that Afghan culture thinks it's bad to desecrate the dead or kill children?

We can't be expected to keep up with every weird foreign custom.; 7:19 PM
Anon said...: "Right, so every Afghan who beats his wife does it because of NATO. Are Kashmiri Muslims part of the Afghan resistance too? Must be, since no Muslims in Afghanistan or anywhere else ever riot for religious reasons."

OK, pop quiz, what do Kashmir and Afghanistan have in common?

If you answered "brutal foreign occupation", congratulations, you might actually know something about what you are talking about after all!

I mean, I don't deny that religious people like getting worked up about silly things, but they don't usually go on full-on riot mode without some other underlying cause.

And, needless to say, it serves the propagandists well to focus on the religion and forget the underlying causes.; 7:25 PM
demize! said...: Why does NATO have surplus stocks of Korans that need immediate burning anyway? Just saying.; 7:25 PM
Christopher said...: I mean, I don't deny that religious people like getting worked up about silly things, but they don't usually go on full-on riot mode without some other underlying cause.

I've found that you can usually tell if something is motivated by religion by asking yourself if you like the religion involved or not.

For example, if you're a Christian, you can conclude that the Inquisition was an economically motivated fluke that doesn't generally represent Christianity, while communist religious persecutions show the inherent dangers of atheism. If you're an atheist, on the other hand, you can conclude the exact opposite.

What I'm saying is, the only way to really know why these particular folk are rioting is to ask yourself "Are Afghanistan Muslims the kind of people who deserve the benefit of a doubt?"

When you answer that question, you'll have all the evidence you need.; 8:22 PM
Anonymous said...: "I mean, I don't deny that religious people like getting worked up about silly things, but they don't usually go on full-on riot mode without some other underlying cause."

They do if they're fundamentalist Muslims.; 8:46 PM
G said...: Hey Anonymous fuckwit, do you understand what 'usually' means?

Do you understand what the word 'anectodal' means?

Also, do you know how to read a Wikipedia article?

"According to Nadeem Anthony, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, there is a link between violence against Christians and the US-led war in Afghanistan. Joseph Francis of the Christian Nationalist Part stated that the Muslim mob in Gojra had been incited with hate-speech that called Christians "America's dogs", he added since "9/11, we've felt a lot more at risk"; 9:46 PM
Anonymous said...: 9/11 explains Salman Rushdie? Must involve time machines somehow.; 10:40 PM
LA Confidential Pantload said...: "You can’t just disrespect our holy book and kill our innocent children and make a small apology.”

True. It's about gettin' paid.; 11:42 PM
Anonymous said...: Atheism isn't a religion, it's just a system of beliefs structured around a theory about the existence of God.; 12:23 AM
demize! said...: Than why are so many "evangelists"? You know marching as to war...; 12:31 AM
High Arka said...: Karzai is really finding his groove. Note that he "strongly condemned" the riots, and commissioned a panel to investigate them.

The thirteenth generation of zombie satire seems to be performing well. What we need is praetor Kissinger appointed to head a panel of Harvard experts to figure out why these people are so mad, and what should be done about it. They could network with Karzai's panel, but only if we buy them heated granite toilet seats and some of those cool little boutique M&Ms.; 4:12 AM
High Arka said...: /kneel

Dear God, please forgive me. I've read the New York Times. It was IOZ's fault--he was criticizing it so heavily I forgot that giving them ad-view revenue only perpetuates it. Please forgive me.

Oops, lightning just struck the top of my building. brb!; 4:13 AM
the pied cow blog said...: Hey, rank-and-file Afghans appear to be a lot smarter than we are: at least they riot.

The best we can do is an after-school debating society where rich kids stand around in a park and their teachers carry on an inane debate about whether unruly kids should be kept after school for having broken a window.

And that was the best we can do. The rest of us show our mounting displeasure by tuning in to Wheel of Fortune after supper.; 5:06 AM
High Arka said...: Don't forget reading IOZ!

Also, we have stuffs. If we didn't have stuffs, maybe we would cause more trouble.

When is the next GoT coming out?; 5:13 AM
the pied cow blog said...: Okay, I'll bite. What does GoT stand for?; 5:39 AM
High Arka said...: That Which Must Not Be Named, aka Game of Thrones.

/pain; 6:34 AM
Anonymous said...: See, 'us' is killing those Afghan women's chilluns, thus liberating said women from oppression of diaper washing. And the only thing you do, Monsieur, is snicker and whine. Shame!

The Dull Sycophant; 6:41 AM
High Arka said...: Point amusing, Dull, but Afghan women in the business of caring for children actually wash (and dispose of) far fewer diapers than their western counterparts. Using EC, they often don't need to diaper at all, and can just read the baby enough to put it over the right spot when it's time to eliminate.

The "let's ignore its way of communicating, and instead wrap its filth in stuff against the body and clean it up later" trend with regards infants is a hallmark of authoritarian parenting that finds an easy home in cultures which like to sell cloth diapers, washing soaps, disposable governesses, and later on, disposable diapers.; 8:15 AM
puppylander said...: h.a.,

there's definitely something to "ignore its way of communicating". e.g., my m-i-l (boop! boop! booop! misogyny alert!) does that a lot. it's the world she grew up in (weee-er! weee-er! weee-er! elitism alert!)

i'll say this: it's kinda sad to miss the cues. (infants don't give you much warning, but) it's really cute when you watch mine, mashing the keys on her tiny piano, then suddenly, a pause, silence, a little grunt, and then more piano key mashing.; 10:07 AM
Joe said...: From the first comment under the article:

I am just absolutely astounded and appalled that a sensitive issue like this would have been handled in such a ham-fisted, careless way. Have these folks learned NOTHING about local sensitivities?

Sounds like the occupying army needs to take a cultural sensitivity training class or two.; 10:08 AM
Anonymous said...: High Arka,

i.e., cooking for and feeding the little shits, cleaning their clothes, wiping their butts and noses, cleaning their messes, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

A woman is slave to her family, so Thank God for women liberating drones hard at work courtesy of my tax dollar.
.
.
.
Actually, we don't really know how Afghan women feel, as protesting is mostly done by men...

The Dull Sycophant; 1:50 PM
High Arka said...: @puppy, heehee

@Dull, we only know as much about how they feel based upon their inaction as we do about how the non-voting percentage of the U.S. public feels.; 2:36 PM
Gridlock said...: I'm fairly sure "miserable" about covers it; 1:38 AM
Anonymous said...: @High Arka
The feelings of both voting and non-voting Americans have been studied. IIRC 90% of them have a very, very hazy idea of politics apart from stuff that affects them directly and unambiguously. A foreign occupation would be pretty direct. So would having to wear a bag over your head.; 1:40 AM
High Arka said...: Yesh, if we trust the results--but having a hazy idea about American politics is a plus, rather than a minus. Any objectively sane person would be able to follow American politics virginally for two weeks, then conclude that it was an elaborate confidence game. The alienation of the American voter as to "politics" is a wonderful thing; if it were paired with confidence and emotional intelligence, it would be the tipping point. Ergo why most politics, like the Internal Revenue Code, is deliberately brackish, falsely simplistic, and such a Big Lie that a brush with it scares most reasonable people away and leaves the field to the most hideous of players.

Which leaves behind just the hideous establishment, the few occasional complainers, and one or two plucky, stupid, hopeful faces doomed in their quest to achieve something.; 1:55 AM
Anonymous said...: HA

Was a 'sarcasm' tag really needed for my last paragraph? TDS/ fka Capt'n Obvious; 7:45 AM
High Arka said...: One of the cool things about sarcasm is that, in mocking a point of view to the finest degree, you can free the subconscious mind to express something you dislike far better than you might allow yourself to do consciously. E.g., see my take on "The Dark Knight" and how they accidentally made Heath's toon the hero while intending to do otherwise.

Anyway, yeah, clever and thought-provoking. Just spelling it out for exercise.; 1:10 PM
anne said...: biscuit bre ak, ..back to i oz 's 'fro, ... she continues 'er comment from above of another pg,flip flip , an hour in to the conversing one man says to the others , if curlier of wild hair means better in bed .. then why is sweet anne the most sensual .. ,oH.. anne looks up with her doe eyes , and of a young mia farrow hair/but clearly not straight ... ,shh she quickly slips away .. across the road and back .. and with an expressionless fac' she holds up a photo of herself .. ,and with the same lack of expression in her voice says i win .. ./ note , not something i believe ..of the in bed talk that was going on in that cafe at length , i think that davidly's hair is finer .. and i'm sure that i would have great fun with him in bed ... , break over .. .; 3:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I come across this:

"Iran's "saber-rattling" is helping to drive up prices at the gas pump, according to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/geithner-says-iran-saber-rattling-behind-spike-gas-190350468.html

And I feel like Mugatu with his crazy pills. Thank you, IOZ, for providing an oasis of sanity. Even if your attempt at radical feminism shit the bed.; 5:42 PM
Anonymous said...: "I actually find that the most popular comments in NYTimes articles are surprisingly anti-empire and anti-neoliberal, which makes it allthemore interesting that here instead they are dominated by the Sam Harris/Bill Maher “Religion is stupid and therefore Muslims are animals” crowd."

Religion is stupid, and if Muslims insist on acting irrationally over the burning of a book - apparently enough to incite violence and calls for murder - those particular Muslims are animals.

Sam Harris and Bill Maher are absolutely correct. Anyone who considers himself/herself rational and part of a true liberal/left that believes in Enlightenment virtues of reason, rationality, freedom, etc, should oppose all religions and their accompanying irrationality... many on the left seem to be overly sensitive and willing to give Muslims/Islam a free pass. They should be called on their hypocrisy and incoherence. Islam is a mysogisnistic death cult and should be criticized. I'm sure IOZ agrees.. given his apparent great concern over women's rights and insistence that to be a proper anarchist/libertarian, one has to acknowledge the historical and current subjugation of women by men.; 3:33 AM
Montag said...: many on the left seem to be overly sensitive and willing to give Muslims/Islam a free pass. They should be called on their hypocrisy and incoherence. Islam is a mysogisnistic death cult and should be criticized.

religion is awful and Islam is no exception, worthy of criticism. criticizing them with missile firing drones seems a little overkill is all.; 9:15 AM
Brian M said...: anonymous 3:33...I would agree with you 110%. So let's turn our eyes to the wonderful, world sapping, soul destroying religion which utterly dominates "Western" imperial policy...the worship of Mammon. The form of capitalism our government promotes is equally religious and equally vile.

So...anonymous 3:33, the Islamist splinters would like you to meet an American "beam in the eye".; 10:35 AM
anne said...: ,nice brian m .., she says as she doodles a smoking pup.. .; 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Surely a mortal blow to the straw man who keeps insisting Koran murderers are worse than imperialist capitalists.; 12:09 PM
puppylander said...: "virtues of reason, rationality, freedom"

i don't think i trust their definition of those terms.; 4:31 PM

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The First Syllable in Context

56 comments:

Axis Mundi

About Me

Hypocrites Lecteurs, Semblables, et Frères

Archive