Ugh. I’m done with this cold now. Why isn’t it done with me yet?
It’s been interesting watching the reactions to the picture I put up on Sunday. Most of the guys who’ve responded have had some variant on WTF!?
, while most of the gals have been complimentary. There’s been exactly one guy who complimented me, and one gal who reacted with shock. I don’t know what that means, but the clear distinction caught my attention. Karl points out that the WTF!?
reaction is probably due to bafflement, since most guys haven’t picked up on whatever bigger change it was that drove me to cut my hair. I guess that could be it, but I haven’t even plumbed my own motivations yet.
- I haven’t had much to say about the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Why? Well, I think the people who are so up in arms about this need to take a good hard look at the same kinds of abuses that go on in US prisons all the time. When you have reservists who haven’t been trained to work in prisons, and you don’t have enough of them, I think expecting them to behave better than domestic jailers is pretty unrealistic. I’m not saying that makes it right, just that it makes the abuse a lot less surprising to me. In Picture Me Yelling This From A Car, Evan comes to about the same conclusion I did (the abuse isn’t surprising) by looking at history. Don Park’s Tortures for Dummies has more, pointing out that just about anyone is capable of the torture that’s been going on in Iraq.
they are not too different from you and I. The problem is not just them, but all of us.
Over at Mullings, Rich Galen has his perspective on the torture, and he’s someone who’s actually worked in the prison there.First of all, there is no excuse for what a few soldiers did; but there is also no reason to make this into the moral equivalent of the Black Plague.
[101-280, papascott and instapundit] - The New Yorker gives us: Project Knuckleball, in which they discuss the rebirth of the knuckleball. On a good day, it’s nearly an unhittable pitch (to quote Jason Giambi:
You’re better off trying to hit Wakefield when you’re in a drunken stupor
), but as Jim Bouton said:All you need to know is that if you put any kind of a spin on it at all it’ll travel about four hundred and seventy-five feet in the opposite direction
This is a great article, and the timing’s good, since the Saints play their first home exhibition game tomorrow. [colby cosh] - It’s time for The bites of summer: some bugs carry more than just sting. Since mosquito season has started, here’s a rundown of the critters out there that can give you a nasty disease on top of the itchy bite. [strib]