A truly HORRIFIC tsunami picture

William Graham wrote:
Of course....Exactly when we should leave is a judgment call....the
people whose opinions I like the best have "guesstimated" in around
18 months......

Sounds reasonable, but I would never unfairly hold anybody to that at
this point.

But to say that there is no justification for staying
now that Saddam Hussein has been deactivated is ludicrous.......

I agree completely. That's like saying "Ok, we got our guy, we're
outta here. Now that we've de-stabilized your power and bureaucratic
governing structure and created a HUGE leadership void, you all can now
go about the business of a civil war and killing each other in large
numbers until something shakes out." That's irresponsible and
ridiculous. That would be worse than what's happening now.

--
As long as Major League Baseball expects public funding for their
facilities, and as long as they enjoy an added level of freedom of
operation from an anti-trust exemption, then there is a public trust
and public interest involved. IOW, they owe me.

I'll tell you what is offensive, Mr. Mike Jacoubowsky.
YOU...were more upset that there were ratings offered by default on this
particular web-site, than you apparently were to the horrific image of
death.

Don't start THIS AGAIN!!

Most people...UNLIKE YOU...were too busy being floored by the enormity of
the tragedy to notice something as petty as you have, least of all to stop
and whine about something so totally unrelated.

UNBELIEVABLE that one cannot post an image without
someone...somewhere...taking offense.

I am so sick of this politically-correct BS that I could just spit.

I'm supposed to apologize for being offended that the photo was used in a
commercial for-profit setting where people are making money by having it
seen? That somebody should have the guts or whatever to recognize that the
massive destruction and death deserve better than that?

Even the "evil" network TV folk ran the 9/11 coverage for probably a day
solid without commercial interruption. And no, that wasn't because no
advertiser would pay to be associated with it.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

The very picture in question was published on the front page of the Arizona
Daily Star last week.

"Rate this image! 3697 people have rated this image, and the average
rating is 3.88."...

Makes you wonder what people were rating it for, and what it would
have taken to get a higher rating.

Are you blaming the site, or the OP?

Definitely not blaming the OP. The photo needs to be seen. It's a tragedy of
epic proportions, and there's no reason to hide from it. Viewing the photos
helps us to understand the magnitude of human suffering, the need to provide
aid and work on how such things might be mitigated (you can't prevent a
Tsunami, but you can certainly minimize the loss of life).

And I'll admit, I over-reacted. Ideally, there should be a site where such
photos can be viewed without advertising or something asking for a rating.
Maybe I should have been offended only by the fact that many *had* taken the
opportunity to rate the photo?

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Aguyathome writes:

It's the worst single human tragedy that I know of
that has taken place in my 41 years on the planet ...

That's the same thing the radio announcer said about the Hindenburg
crash.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

"The Dave©" wrote in message
...
William Graham wrote:
Of course....Exactly when we should leave is a judgment call....the
people whose opinions I like the best have "guesstimated" in around
18 months......

Sounds reasonable, but I would never unfairly hold anybody to that at
this point.

But to say that there is no justification for staying
now that Saddam Hussein has been deactivated is ludicrous.......

I agree completely. That's like saying "Ok, we got our guy, we're
outta here. Now that we've de-stabilized your power and bureaucratic
governing structure and created a HUGE leadership void, you all can now
go about the business of a civil war and killing each other in large
numbers until something shakes out." That's irresponsible and
ridiculous. That would be worse than what's happening now.

Not only that, but that is exactly what we have been accused of doing too
often in the past. In fact, it is the main reason why Bush Senior pulled out
when he did in march of 1991........He didn't want to bother with all the
work that would be involved with replacing Saddam Hussein, so he just walked
away from it and left him in power. I was so mad at him that I didn't vote
for him in 1992........

"The Dave©" wrote in message
...
William Graham wrote:
Of course....Exactly when we should leave is a judgment call....the
people whose opinions I like the best have "guesstimated" in around
18 months......

Sounds reasonable, but I would never unfairly hold anybody to that at
this point.

But to say that there is no justification for staying
now that Saddam Hussein has been deactivated is ludicrous.......

I agree completely. That's like saying "Ok, we got our guy, we're
outta here. Now that we've de-stabilized your power and bureaucratic
governing structure and created a HUGE leadership void, you all can now
go about the business of a civil war and killing each other in large
numbers until something shakes out." That's irresponsible and
ridiculous. That would be worse than what's happening now.

Not only that, but that is exactly what we have been accused of doing too
often in the past. In fact, it is the main reason why Bush Senior pulled out
when he did in march of 1991........He didn't want to bother with all the
work that would be involved with replacing Saddam Hussein, so he just walked
away from it and left him in power. I was so mad at him that I didn't vote
for him in 1992........

Mxsmanic wrote:

Mike Henley writes:


Hi. I didn't post it on that site. I saw the link on some news forum
and it shocked me, so i shared it here. In fact, it shocked me enough
that i didn't notice the rating thing you mention.


Why did it shock you? The media have been talking for days about
135,000 people dead, and mass graves and cremations. Does it surprise
you that thousands of bodies would be floating near the beach?

It's not surprising that there are all those bodies there, but it's hard
for most of us outside these areas to imagine what that many dead people
actually LOOKS like, which is why the picture comes as such a shock.

Perhaps these photos should be more widely distributed, as it sounds
like people don't reflect very much on the texts they read. A photo is
harder to ignore, I think.

I don't think it's so much that people don't absorb what they read; as
has been noted before, most pictures published in the media are so
sanitized - bodies are covered or in bags, and only small numbers of
them shown at a time - that we're just not used to scenes like that.
135,000 dead is an unfathomable number - consider that even in that
picture, there are probably no more than 200-300 bodies, which is more
like what we're used to seeing in the aftermath of a plane crash or
something... and again, with the bodies mostly bagged or covered up already.

Mxsmanic wrote:

Mike Henley writes:


Hi. I didn't post it on that site. I saw the link on some news forum
and it shocked me, so i shared it here. In fact, it shocked me enough
that i didn't notice the rating thing you mention.


Why did it shock you? The media have been talking for days about
135,000 people dead, and mass graves and cremations. Does it surprise
you that thousands of bodies would be floating near the beach?

It's not surprising that there are all those bodies there, but it's hard
for most of us outside these areas to imagine what that many dead people
actually LOOKS like, which is why the picture comes as such a shock.

Perhaps these photos should be more widely distributed, as it sounds
like people don't reflect very much on the texts they read. A photo is
harder to ignore, I think.

I don't think it's so much that people don't absorb what they read; as
has been noted before, most pictures published in the media are so
sanitized - bodies are covered or in bags, and only small numbers of
them shown at a time - that we're just not used to scenes like that.
135,000 dead is an unfathomable number - consider that even in that
picture, there are probably no more than 200-300 bodies, which is more
like what we're used to seeing in the aftermath of a plane crash or
something... and again, with the bodies mostly bagged or covered up already.

"Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even number wrote in
news:caGBd.67965$QR1.63045@fed1read04:

Perhaps you would prefer we remove him, and then disappear?
Interesting strategy.

I just say that you have to be consistent in your argumentation.
If you want to stay there you cannot use Saddam as a motivation.


/Roland