Well, the comic is back on track, even if the rest of the world is careering violently out of control. I love the capacity of silent facial expressions to capture the character of the person. I can’t make movies, but this is pretty close. I really feel like everyone in this scene comes off just as I meant them to.
As for the rest of it, well – I’m sure the pundits and newsreels and websites and all the talking heads have gone over the atrocity in Paris with brutal elegance far better than I’m likely to do. It was another of those weird synchronicities that last week’s filler featured soldiers of the Free French Army very prominently. The attack was a shock, of course, but it was no surprise to me, really. Paris is the cynosure and great symbol of western secularism, humanism, pluralism and intellectual advancement. It’s the exemplar of what great cultures can achieve when liberal republican values are allowed to flourish. Ours is a revolution that doesn’t end just because a bunch of decadent reactionaries commits a crime, however heinous. When the torch of enlightenment falls, it doesn’t go out – you just have to pick it up and hold it higher than before.
Bon courage, mes amis. Solidarité!
…and thank you for using the correct word. ‘Tragedy’ is used far too often to describe this sort of thing; while tragic, it is indeed an atrocity.
Vive la France!
Such is the way of the world. Institutionalized sociopathy defies understanding – but I think that when the truth comes out it’ll be revealed that the crazies behind all this are just as cynical, venial, fat and selfish as the Nazis and the Communists turned out to be, however they may pretend to religious righteousness. The pursuit of power always corrupts and destroys those who embark upon it – it’s just a matter of speaking the truth and waiting it out.
“Survivors” shows that at least someone has the right priorities at this stage.
Whatever form it has taken, however far it has spread, the war itself is effectively over by now , even if the people here haven’t though that through just yet.
Well, you wonder how there can be a war when there’s nothing left to fight over.
People can be pretty stubborn – and even more stupid.
I agree with you completely, this was an atrocity.
Also, I think there are several more reason Paris was chosen as a target, besides the ones you already mentioned.
First off, ISIL has just suffered a few major military reverses in face of French supported Kurdish militias, so, for them, this was probably a way to “save face”, by showing the world they are still dangerous.
Also, this will no doubt increase the mistrust of the Syrian refugees in Europe and especially France and will just up the level of racism and discrimination against them, which suits ISIL fine, because, a) – those are people which ISIL sees as “traitors” anyway and b) it’s always easier to find willing recruits among people suffering discrimination, especially since most of those people will be angry at the French government for treating them like criminals rather than stopping to think it’s really the Islamic terrorist’s fault for escalating the situation.
ISIL after all, advances it’s causes by preying on the people’s fears, for example most of the Sunni tribes in the area occupied by ISIL that are concerned they are going to be massacred at the hands of either the Kurds or the Shiite militias which are busy fighting the Islamic State, and the recent involvement of the French Air Force in the conflict just adds further fears of French neo-colonialism, because there was a little thing called the “French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon” which existed from 1920 to 1943 and was anything but gentle when crushing local tribal dissent and people have long memories.
So yeah, no wonder they chose Paris for this attack.
It has been really a black couple of weeks for me, because this comes on the heels of a tragic nightclub fire during a rock concert in Bucharest which killed over 55 people, seven of them personal friends, and now I found out five more people I knew died at Bataclan.
In a dark coincidence, one of the bombs at the Stade du France exploded exactly in front of the hotel we stayed in lest year when we were invited by the French Government for the Centenary commemoration of the start of the First world war.
First, you have my condolences on your losses – I’ve dealt with a lot more death in my life than most people my age, and it never gets easier. Learning to live without people you care deeply about is the most difficult thing to do. I’m very sorry to hear you were so doubly afflicted in the past few weeks.
And on the latter points you make, you’re quite right. But fear-fueled hysteria breeds exhaustion, and coercion breeds resentment. I believe that this is the greatest advantage that western liberal ideology has over totalitarian crypto-fascism of this variety.
I’ll add, too, a point that you didn’t make but that a few others have in the past few days: that I don’t feel like I’m under any obligation to be fair or even-handed to the enemy at this point, not until he surrenders. An understanding of the wages of western imperialism is all to the good, don’t get me wrong. But I do also believe that we in the west are on the side of right in all this. I see nothing offered by this enemy that has any appeal or attraction to me or to any sensible person. And although this whole mess may never, like any war or conflict, have been worth starting, now started, I do believe it’s worth winning.
I wholeheartedly agree that our freedom is our greatest asset and I have high hopes for our future, because, in what we’ve seen so far, brutal dictatorships always end eventually, either by violent revolution or by a softer transition/reversion to more democratic values.
Besides, while fighting a guerrilla campaign in your own country is an effective strategy, terror attacks in someone else’s territory are, IMHO, completely counter-productive, because they will only steel the enemy’s resolve and turn neutral public opinion and even friendlies away from you.
Oh, an speaking of fear-fueled hysteria, I really can’t get over idiots like Trump asking for “immediate retaliation”. Have they learned nothing of the whole Afghanistan and Iraq fiascos? After all, the brute force approach against an elusive foe is the only one that has, time and again, demonstrated not to work.
Even worse is the other bone headed idea that the best defense against terror attacks is arming everybody.
Because, that is exactly what you want to need to combat senseless violence with, more senseless violence.
And that’s not even counting the fact it’s nearly impossible for even armed private citizens to offer worthwhile resistance in the face of sudden attack, because you need quite a lot of training to keep your head in such a situation, even more training to start fighting back, and excellent coordination to start fighting back effectively – can you imagine what random people doing all that?
I say that the most they are going to accomplish is a higher death toll as the shocked survivors of the original attack start shooting at everything that moves.
I have not read in on what happened (and I am lagging since I hardly follows the news, probably in part since I do not have a tv).
All I can say (on a larger scale) is that while threats and violence may win a war, they can *never* win the peace. In particular I think that forgiveness and compassion are necessary means.
Imagine where Europe may have been if USA just left after the WWII…
I also have commented earlier this year that when some fall for the illusion that their desires can be fulfilled if only… they will cause suffering and trying to excuse it, contempt, hatred, lies and ignorance and that the only way around is to embrace knowledge, truth and compassion, and realizing that while we all look and behave [slightly] different, we still have equal value.
Unfortunately not all of us can accept that some other of us have equal value due to ignorance, lies, hatred and contempt… *deep sigh*
Well I mean, what’s really on offer from each side? On our side you get freedom, that is, freedom from coercion. Not as much of it as I might like in my ideal world. But one heck of a lot of it withal. And I return what you have to do is refrain from coercing other people. That’s pretty much it.
On the other hand, in This “Islamic State,” which is neither Islamic nor a state, I might add, you get license, but not freedom. Do what we say, and you won’t be punished if you settle scores, kill people so long as they’re the right people, have slaves, brutalize and brainwash children – all that’s fine so long as you stick to the Party Line as it were. Sound like anything else we’ve seen in the last century or so?
And think of this: the people who, in 1945, we never believed we could ever be at peace with, who we thought would fight to the last man rather than lay down their arms, have in the ensuing decades become the greatest advocates of peace, nonaggression and humanistic values on Earth. So really, anything is possible.
I’m a religious man myself, and I do not believe that God allows things like this to go on for long. But I also have faith in liberty, human solidarity, secularism and enlightenment, and I believe that these values will win out in the end so long as we stick to them with real courage and conviction.
Survivors? Yeah, wasn’t their military mission there ostensibly to help the locals? Getting them nuked doesn’t seem like helping.
What is an E3 Pulse? …Energetic Electron Emission?
An E3 Pulse is a component of an atomic electromagnetic induction pulse or “EMP,” and can propagate in electrical equipment for some time following a detonation, blowing out computers and such. It’s the lower-frequency but longer-duration part of the EMP so they’d be monitoring its effects as a way of calculating how long it’s been since the last one was generated in the area by an exploding atomic bomb.
no survivors bro
Have to wait and see, I guess!
There were survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after they got nuked, there’ll be survivors here too. How long they remain survivors is the question.
Yes, and even very, very close to ground zero.
According to the Wikipedia article “Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” the closest known survivor of the Hiroshima bomb was in a basement of a reinforced concrete building only 170 meters (560 ft) from ground zero. He lived into his 80’s.
There is hope for survivors.
Let us take a moment and remember the victims and families caught up in the atrocity of Paris……they need us, body and soul.
Now for the hawkish part…
Terrorism needs 2 things; a frightened public and the NEWS to get their “message” out. Treat them like criminals, try them using their laws; and in using their laws, make their families just as responsible for their actions. A high strung, 22 yo college drop out will stop and think when someone (DGSE for example) takes his favorite sister out in the middle of the street and does a double tap to her forehead…. a direct message that means “don’t FUCK with us”. Then perhaps he will think, and his family will intervene and get him away from the radical and terroristic influences.
Now, Islam is a beautiful religion, and Muslim society one that has contributed to the world (algebra anyone?). This is an example of the 10% making the 90% look bad. Trouble is…Arabs are LAZY (anyone who has been to SA knows this). You need to kick them in the ass to get them moving. So perhaps the Arab world needs a world sized boot up their ass to wake them up.
This wanting the US to “do something”,or “we need to be kinder” shit isn’t going to cut it either. The World needs to get off its collective asses and play the game by the rules set by the enemy. Then you will see terrorism disappear. It isn’t PC, it isn’t pretty, but it is EFFECTIVE.
Really? Are you proposing hauling off innocents and shooting them in the the forehead simply because they are related to terrorists?
Great! Let’s fight atrocities with fresh atrocities of our own! History shows us that works a treat… :/
That is really the worst idea imaginable. Not only is it exactly the sort of casual barbarism we are trying to avoid, but what this will actually do to a “high strung, 22 yo college drop out” is get him reeeeealy angry and make it damn sure to commit a terrorist act in order to avenge his murdered sister.
I mean morality aside, even ISIS/Daesh, knows that the best way to control someone is to threaten their loved ones but not actually harm them, because once you harmed them you lost your sway over them and they will now surely try to kill you.
Also, if we decide to “play the game by the rules set by the enemy”, that makes us exactly like the enemy, and that is also exactly what we should avoid. After all, this is the situation that now exists in Syria, with both ISIS/Daesh and Assad committing the same type of atrocities, which means there are a lot of extra groups affiliated either with the SRCC or the SDF dedicated to fighting BOTH (we’re backing the SDF, in case you’re wondering, while Russia and Iran are backing Assad).
Quite on the contrary, we should refrain from using more force then necessary, which is why “boots on the ground” in Syria is a bad idea – it didn’t work in Afghanistan or Iraq (quite the contrary, the latter led directly to the current situation), so sure as hell it wouldn’t work now, either.
What I suggest is the sort of long term strategy countries like Canada and most of the EU are using, “Prevent, Detect, Deny and Respond”, which aims at addressing the factors that may motivate individuals to engage in terrorist activities, identifying terrorists, terrorist organizations and their supporters, denying them the means and opportunities to pursue terrorist activities and finally responding proportionately, rapidly and in an organized manner to terrorist activities and mitigating their effects.
Yeah, going after the families of terrorists is just going to make the terrorists themselves more vengeful, plus the surviving family members are more likely to become vengeful terrorists themselves. And what about the terrorists who hate their families and don’t care what happens to them?
Besides, you’d be surprised how many family members do NOT agree with the terrorist family member’s actions, while said family member did not listen to their objections. Young adults tend to rebel against family values and go do things the rest of their family, especially their parents, would never agree with or approve. To hold them responsible for the actions of their adult son or daughter would be monstrously unfair. Especially if holding them responsible results in their death.
“No, not casualties. Survivors.”
“Oh of course, sir. Good idea. Rather shorter list. Saves time.”