Touch me. Touch me like you didn't touch me last night.

THINGS THEY DON'T TEACH US IN OUR HISTORY BOOKS:

The actual anniversary was yesterday.

65 years ago the United States committed a war crime against Japan by firebombing ordinary citizens in Tokyo.

100,000 civilians died by explosion and fire, the largest number from any attack during the entirety of the war.

I wish I could be surprised that war crimes like this were ignored during/after the the hostilities ended, not to mention that as part of an agreement signed by Japan in 1951, nobody in that country could sue over it being a war crime. But I'm not surprised.

100,000 civilians dead, simply for the crime of being citizens in a country at war. Save for the usual warmonger cries of "they should have stopped their government" or "destabilizing a population is part of war," there was little-to-no significant military reasons for the attack.

This article is from five years ago, but it tell you what you NEED to know.

MARCH 10, 1945: The Firebombing of Tokyo

b

Stop it.
Please.
Stop it.

Why do they WE do this?

And I can't think of anything I can do from here to help stop it...



Over 110 killed, over 200 injured in attack on Benazir Bhutto's motorcade...

"Infinity is present in each part. A loving smile contains all art. The motes of starlight spark and dart. A grain of sand holds power and might." -- Madeline L'Engle

Her books were some of the first I ever read where I thought, "Shit, this is a kid's book, I guess, but...wow, this is heavy."
I know what I need to start rereading when I get home.

Off you go, Madeline. Into the Tesseract with you, there are places to go.

auroracita wants to know the answers to FIVE QUESTIONS.

So here we go:

1. What would you choose to be your last meal?

Dead serious, human flesh, no question. Don't lie and say you've never been curious. I'd want that, and baked beans, and kim chi, and kohlrabi, and cheesecake, and root beer, and bacon and sushi and...

2. If you could have one great mystery of history solved for you, what would it be?

I have a number of them, but we'll just go with one.
Hmmm...
How about...Roswell. What the shit really went down? Even if there were no alien, that was some crazyass stuff.

3. What's your concept of the afterlife?

Don't so much have one. Becoming a bit of all things would make me perfectly happy.

4. What is the single greatest regret of your life?

Not sure that I really have one, truth be told. Maybe...good lord, who knows? I'm sure I could figure one out, but...
Remind me later, maybe I'll have thought of one.

5. Casket or cremation? Why?

Cremation. Better yet, just leave me in a never-visited bit of forest somewhere. Why should I give a shit about my body? Especially caskets. WHY DO WE PUT DEAD PEOPLE IN CASKETS SEALED IN VAULTS UNDER DIRT?! What, do we need me to be MiB or some shit?

If, through some fluke, I end up being buried, this had better be my tombstone:



I am still accepting requests.

b

"Today is the anniversary of the death of Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez. He was the first combat casualty in Iraq. Jose Gutierrez was a young man of 26. Father to his younger siblings. Loved the United States and dreamt of the things he would do in this country after serving in the Corps. A true patriot through and through.

Oh yeah, I forgot. He came here from Guatemala *ILLEGALLY*

I dedicate this to Charlie Daniels, Tom Tancredo, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Minutemen who, as their type claim, won their right to their opinions from the spilled blood of the men and women in uniform like Jose Gutierrez."

-- donchep