It’s very hard to know the facts about the carnage on the Iraq-Syria border, but whatever the occasion, it appears that the U.S. military was responsible for the deaths of several Iraqi women and children. It was almost certainly a mistake – either of target or of provocation. But it’s another blow to the prestige of the U.S. military and their ability to avoid the kind of action which will, in fact, make their mission harder rather than easier. There are now many reports of U.S. soldiers feeling so beleaguered and jumpy that their first instinct is to fire, capture or mistreat captives. And so the cycle of distrust in some areas appears to deepen. As to the Iraqi custom of firing into the air in celebration, Zeyad has an interesting post on its history and meaning.
MASSACRE IN GAZA: Another blow to the anti-terror war: Israel’s military killed more civilian children in the Gaza Strip. Again, the details are murky, but this post (especially the map) is helpful in understanding the situation.
TAXING GAS: Tony Blair insists on increasing gas taxes, even in the current climate. In Britain, 74 percent of the price of gas is due to taxes. Just a reminder of how anomalous America’s cheap, cheap gas is.
EMAIL OF THE DAY I: “I’m a United Church of Christ minister in . . . well, maybe I shouldn’t mention the town . . . and that Onion story reminds me of some of the fine ladies in my church. Yes, I have had some of them come to me after a funeral and want to know ‘why did the family want THAT music/THOSE flowers/choose THAT casket?’ After one of my members died, a woman who had one son, another member made this remark after viewing the open casket: ‘If she had a daughter, she’d have some jewelry on. But you can’t rely on a man to think of something like that.’ Name it, I’ve probably heard some whining about it.
In my experience as a clergyperson, there is no limit to the verbal sniping human beings can level at one another. And, in the interest of full disclosure, funeral directors and clergy are just as capable of it as anyone else.”
EMAIL OF THE DAY II: “Hitch’s quote from the “Scarborough Country” show must have been unconsciously plagiarized from a wonderful scene in the novel Auntie Mame (not the movie or the musical) where Mame confronts the vicious anti-semitism of Claude Upson, the would-be father-in-law to her nephew and narrator of the novel, Patrick Dennis: ‘Claude,’ she said, ‘I’ve known dozens of Jews in my life and it has also been my sorry experience to have heard quite a few gentiles who have talked about Jews as you do. I know the adjectives–all of them. Jews, you will tell me, are Mean, Pushy, Avaricious, Possessive, Loud, Vulgar, Garish, Bossy people. But I’ve yet to meet one, from the poorest pushcart vendor on First Avenue to the richest philanthropist on Fifth Avenue, who could ever hold a candle to you when it comes to displaying all of those qualities.'”
SLIPPERY, SLIPPERY SLOPE: A helpful piece by Dahlia Lithwick, dissecting some of the most hysterical arguments against marriage rights for gay citizens.
The Dish 