While the response in the BMEshop forum has been overall positive — as in “print the shirts” — I've gotten a fair number of negative responses both in the forum and in private messages. People seem to be worried that it will “give tattooed people a bad image”.
This shirt is clearly humorous and in jest. I seriously doubt that many of you are literally getting tattooed for Satan, and only the most foolish untattooed person could believe such a thing. Furthermore, any person who would believe such a thing already has such a negative view of tattooed people that this shirt isn't going to make a whole lot of difference. Have a sense of humor folks!
On top of that, mal pointed out, “I'd rather be associated with Satan than the alternative in Judeo-Christian mythology. At least Lucifer had the guts to stand up for what he believed in, even if it meant angering a vengeful, petty, supposedly omnipotent being.”
That's true — even reading the Bible (the “victor” gets to write the history, so realize it's only “one side of the story”) it is very clear that Satan is representative of freedom, whereas God represents a benevolent slavery. Now, I'm not telling you this to convert you to Satanism, I'm simply pointing out that on a philosophical level, tattooing and Satan are very clearly linked if we're to play that particular game.
I also got a few complaints about the current BME cover (the new school Virgin Mary tattoo). For those that want to complain, first let me remind you that many people would not consider this sacrilegious at all — abstract representations as well as nudes have been popular during many periods of Christian art. In addition, I have posted “traditional” Christian imagery as cover pieces a number of times this year already.
For the humor impaired I'm considering running the following shirt:
Well, let's look at the news. I guess the story that's been flying around lately is how the US cheated in the last war games exercise — which I should point out sucked over $250 million out of the economy. The reason they did it is clear — when it comes to standard troops (not elite forces), the US consistently looses every military Olympics it takes part in. (Another link). The main complaint in this case: the whole thing was scripted.
Big surprise there, ha. Those of you who've served either in the US military on active duty, or have served with UN peacekeeping forces know that when it's a US camp, there are typically days notice of when the media is going to arrive, and events are staged for the benefit of the camera. Now, I'm not demonizing the US alone when I say that — I saw Robert Young Pelton speak a few years ago about how revolutionary (aka terrorist) forces in South and Central America did exactly the same staging for the benefit of the media.
In any case, seems like a waste of $253 million. Better off with those lame — but also overly expensive — ads that they placed during the superbowl (“remember, if you smoke pot, you support terrorists”).
More worrying to me though is the story I mentioned yesterday about the continuing collapse of the US economy. As I mentioned the Saudis have withdrawn as much as $200 billion in investments and others are following suit. The US trade deficit was over $37 billion in June, and the US dollar is falling against foreign currency. Even Canada, often America's lap dog on invasions has said they want nothing to do with this “war”. In addition Saudis are beginning to file lawsuits against the US government in retaliation for the media abuses.
Then there's all the freakout about al Qaeda using a puppy to test chemical weapons on — assuming we believe the tape is even genuine, which I have my doubts over. You can find a more robust analysis of this issue here, but suffice it to say that the US military kills, according to PETA, “at least 320,000″ animals every year, in “the most painful [experiments] conducted in this country”, at a cost “in excess of $100 million annually”. That's right. $100 million of your tax dollars go to torturing over three hundred thousand animals to death every year, including killing five monkeys a day.
That's really been the game lately — find an atrocity to blame on your enemy, but ignore the ones, usually far greater, that you've committed yourselves. So what if America and Indonesia brutally murdered 200,000 simple tribal peoples in East Timor — after all, they're brown. So what if America helped the Khmer Rouge kill about two million Cambodian citizens in a bloody genocide that Kissenger and others still go unpunished for — after all, they're yellow. Al Qaeda killed 3,000 redblooded American patriots, so if you even think about bringing up the previous two, you've got your priorities wrong!
On the warfront, we've got Rumsfield playing the “shoot now, ask questions later” game. I'm not even kidding — he's actually said that he feels that they should attack without proof, “just in case”, and playing the quite obviously fraudulent “Iraq = Nazi Germany, and if we don't invade now, they'll take over the world” bull. I don't know why people don't see through this… Is the average person in America simply so uneducated about the world and its history that they believe these lies? Are Americans actually taught that they won WWII to preserve democracy for the rest of the world? I've even had a number of Americans tell me that they won the war of 1812, and that they were taught it was to keep out the French?
I'll rewind for a moment to the civil war — the above reminded me because right after the civil war the first thing the new US government did was scrap all the private and state schools and forced students to learn only the history that they permitted (I'm serious). Anyway, the civil war killed more men per capita than any Western war ever has (something like 20% of all men in America died — that's approaching the bubonic plague in effectiveness). The reason that people were willing to die was that this was during the birth of democracy. People genuinely believed that their government represented them — that any attack on their government was an attack on them personally. I think that America may be one of the only places on Earth where people so deeply personalize their government, but strangely enough, without an actual representative government. Just remember all those people who died needlessly next time your thinking starts going along the “my president, right or wrong” line. (End of interjection).
I should also mention Ashcroft I suppose. His latest thing is blocking both the House and Senate judiciary committees from reviewing his counterterrorism policies. Folks, you need to get this psycho out of power! Remember, this is the guy that has been very public that he thinks condoms should be made illegal. You've got some scary leaders right now…
Finally, I wanted to point to this story. A few of you have taken objection to my views because you are in or have family in the military. Even though Bush is pouring more and more money into the military (which largely ends up in the hands of mega-wealthy defense corporations who use this money to sell top-of-the-line weapons to “the enemy” — remember that weapons sold on the foreign market generally outperform the stock gear sold to the US military on account of aftermarket modifications), he is continuing to reduce veterans pay.
Well, I'm typed out.
PS. If you haven't checked it out already, I recommend The Memory Hole.
Post a Comment