« Devil! | Main | Polling Run Amok »

I'm Bored...Let's Shoot Some People!

Capps and I were bored earlier this evening, so bored we were reduced to watching women's Final Four action while awaiting Deadwood time. Via Shakespear's Sister I see that should have sought out other issues:

Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that 'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'
That's the ticket!

April 4, 2005 | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345160fd69e200d83422d91f53ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference I'm Bored...Let's Shoot Some People!:

» Actually, our Soldiers Do Enjoy Killing People from Daniel Starr
Matthew Yglesias and Shakepeare's Sister express disgust at a security-company memo from Iraq that says it's "fun" to shoot certain people. Josh Chafetz of Oxblog, alarmed that there are people who enjoy the violence-for-violence's-sake movie Sin City,... [Read More]

Tracked on Apr 4, 2005 5:46:39 AM

» Actually, our Soldiers Do Enjoy Killing People from Daniel Starr
Matthew Yglesias and Shakepeare's Sister express disgust at a security-company memo from Iraq that says it's "fun" to shoot certain people. With similar horror, Josh Chafetz of Oxblog, alarmed that there are people who enjoy the violence-for-violence's... [Read More]

Tracked on Apr 4, 2005 5:55:51 AM

Comments

Now that you bring it up, there's a crying need for Deadwood-related blogging out there. After last year's stab at dramatizing social contract theory, this year seems to be moving towards some kind of "stages of capitalism" motif.

Posted by: rd | Apr 4, 2005 12:47:26 AM

I'm having a hard time connecting "bored" with Michigan State, down 16 and coming back against dynastic Tennessee. One male's observation: Maybe you could dial down any snide commments about women's hoops?

Posted by: cuz | Apr 4, 2005 1:34:12 AM

Obviously they went to see "Sin City" and were spiritually contaminated by the experience.

Posted by: Bruce Moomaw | Apr 4, 2005 2:10:17 AM

Cuz, if Matt finds women's hoops boring, that's his preference. If you find it exciting, that's yours. Both views are ones that a decent person can maintain. It's not different from me saying that I don't like Mexican food (at least the kind you get in the US) which should certainly not be viewed as a slur at Mexicans. I don't see where he insulted anyone who enjoys the sport, he merely stated that it bores him. What would you expect him to do, pretend?

Posted by: QuietStorm | Apr 4, 2005 2:29:21 AM

QuietStorm:

he merely stated that it bores him. What would you expect him to do, pretend?

I expect if he has nothing nice, or even interesting, to say, that he says nothing at all.

I'm bored. Let's wake Matthew up and see if we can't get him to blog something interesting.

Posted by: epistemology | Apr 4, 2005 8:46:05 AM

Yes, because saying nice things is what the blogosphere is all about.

Posted by: JP | Apr 4, 2005 9:19:41 AM

Sam Brownback enters race. On the plus side Sam Brownback is such a joke that he will be easily beatable, and being in the race will taint the Republican party. On the negative side, the last time I felt that way about a Republican, it was George W. Bush in 2000 (along with Forbes and some of the other losers).

Posted by: theCoach | Apr 4, 2005 9:28:45 AM

Let's say (controversially?) that it's descriptively true for some soldiers that "killing people is fun." It still doesn't seem like it's something you want the leadership of an organization to be saying, since it suggests they aren't trying to keep the amount of killing they do at the lowest amount possible.

Posted by: washerdreyer | Apr 4, 2005 9:30:17 AM

I find all basketball, regardless of the gender of the participants, boring. How you can drag the last minute or two of a game out to 20+ minutes by constantly fouling and find that gripping is beyond me. My ex-wife loved college basketball and it is one of the great pleasures of not being married to her anymore that I don't have to put up with "March Madness".

Posted by: Freder Frederson | Apr 4, 2005 9:36:24 AM

The Real Deadwood

David Milch, the creator, executive producer and head writer of Deadwood, on the real Deadwood.

Posted by: theCoach | Apr 4, 2005 9:58:22 AM

> It still doesn't seem like it's something you want the
> leadership of an organization to be saying, since it
> suggests they aren't trying to keep the amount of killing
> they do at the lowest amount possible.

I think that depends if they are talking to civilians or not, and if they are engaged in a "war lite" (Bosnia or even Gulf War I) or a real fight to the death (Tarawa, Stalingrad). In the latter situation I think the military prizes men who enjoy killing and tries to develop as much of that feeling as it can. Not something they tend to admit outside their own circles, in modern times anyway.

Cranky

Posted by: Cranky Observer | Apr 4, 2005 10:08:31 AM

But QuietStorm, you don't really dislike Mexican food, do you? I could accept that some people like women's basketball—people are quirky! But we need objective truths in this world: Mexican food is goood.

Posted by: Kriston Capps | Apr 4, 2005 11:20:57 AM

Matt,

Why didn't you watch the Yankees-Red Sox opener?

Posted by: DBL | Apr 4, 2005 11:41:52 AM

Wasn't Blackwater the employer of those guys who got killed in Fallujah last year? Just wondering.

Posted by: Tom Hilton | Apr 4, 2005 11:53:05 AM

Kriston,

You're right, I was perhaps being a bit dismissive. Its just that the Mexican food we get here has too much damn cheese. In Mexico, it wasn't that way.

Posted by: QuietStorm | Apr 4, 2005 12:14:21 PM

There can be no doubt that the quality of Mexican food varies widely with geographic location. Having moved from the San Francisco area to Manhattan recently, I was pretty shocked by the disparity.

Posted by: cs | Apr 4, 2005 12:43:25 PM

DBL,
MY hates Boston, and I am guessing that he considers the Bronx to be closer to Kansas than Manhatten culturally, true elitist that he is.
I believe he is a lapsed Met fan.
Mexican food, especially the Taqueria-style burritos that I know from San Francisco are an objective good.
CS, what was your favorite spot in SF?

Posted by: theCoach | Apr 4, 2005 1:29:54 PM

Dude. What's wrong with cheese?

Posted by: JP | Apr 4, 2005 2:40:30 PM

There can be no doubt that the quality of Mexican food varies widely with geographic location.

I'll attest to that. Never eat Mexican food in Germany.

Posted by: Freder Frederson | Apr 4, 2005 3:18:44 PM

Um, I find the comments here rather strange - this was an email from the President of Blackwater. He thinks killing people is fun. And people are talking about being bored and basketball games.

This isn't actually a military organization, but a mercenary organization. If you have the money, they will soldier for you. People who think killing is fun. We've injected 20,000 or more of these monsters into a foreign land that clearly does not desire them there. We don't know how many people they've killed, whether for fun or theoretically better reasons. There well could be many Iraqis Blackwater killed for Blackwater staff's amusement.

Think also about what happens when Awesome Iraqi Adventure II winds down. Blackwater's forces either are laid-off or they come back en mass. Private armies of people who think killing is fun will either be a. unemployed or b. employed by the highest bidder. Freikorps, anyone?

Do you really think Scaife or De Vos or Coors would, if the chips were down, hesitate to hire Blackwater to sack and burn San Francisco or Seattle or Vermont, if Scaife and De Vos and Coors thought it advisable? Do you think Blackwater would hesitate to take that contract? Do you want men who think killing is fun to be driving around your town with massive weaponry, pointing it at anyone they deem to be a terrorist? (and, of course, once you're dead, your corpse will be identified as a terrorist since only terrorists get killed, of course).

Posted by: burritoboy | Apr 4, 2005 4:03:30 PM

> Um, I find the comments here rather strange - this was an
> email from the President of Blackwater. He thinks
> killing people is fun. And people are talking about being
> bored and basketball games.

Agreed - it is a bit bizarre.

Cranky

Posted by: Cranky Observer | Apr 4, 2005 4:43:46 PM

burritoboy and Cranky:
And people are talking about being bored and basketball games.

The first two words in the Title of the post "I'm bored", and if you did not catch it "women's Final Four", in the first sentence, refers to basketball games. The first word in the post itself is a reference to Kriston Capps, whose comment brings the discussion to Mexican food, a topic that involves burritos. Additionally, you will find references to Deadwood in the post as well.

Let me suggest that if we get glum and serious everytime something bad is discovered during the Bush administration, that we will be an awfully unhumorous bunch. Blackwater bad. I kind of knew that already, and this quote, franky, is not that suprising given what we know about the group. If this is the post that pushed you to ask about the death of outrage, you have missed some serious patterns in Bush related activity.

Do you really think Scaife or De Vos or Coors would, if the chips were down, hesitate to hire Blackwater to sack and burn San Francisco or Seattle or Vermont, if Scaife and De Vos and Coors thought it advisable?

As ridiculous as I find Scaife, I would be very suprised if he ordered the sacking and burning of San Francisco, Seattle and Vermont. I would even be suprised if he were to order the sacking and burning of one of those locales.

Posted by: theCoach | Apr 4, 2005 5:06:04 PM

"Let me suggest that if we get glum and serious everytime something bad is discovered during the Bush administration, that we will be an awfully unhumorous bunch. Blackwater bad. I kind of knew that already, and this quote, franky, is not that suprising given what we know about the group."

Uh, no, Blackwater not bad. "Bad" is for dogs who urinate on your carpet. Blackwater could be guilty of any number of war crimes - and it's a private army, of what size no one is precisely sure (roughly 500 personel in Iraq).

"As ridiculous as I find Scaife, I would be very suprised if he ordered the sacking and burning of San Francisco, Seattle and Vermont. I would even be suprised if he were to order the sacking and burning of one of those locales."

I'm glad you're so confident about Scaife. I'm not - private armies are just the thing to take us down the road to civil war. And Blackwater would more than gladly take sides.

Posted by: burritoboy | Apr 4, 2005 5:50:48 PM

Anyone know where to find the text of the memo? I'd like to see if it has been taken out of context.

f

Posted by: Fred Schoeneman | Apr 4, 2005 9:41:34 PM

Anyone know where to find the text of the memo? I'd like to see if it has been taken out of context.

f

Posted by: Fred Schoeneman | Apr 4, 2005 9:43:53 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.