Spontaneous Quote: You cannot buy wisdom at the drugstore; only prevention....©maximusdoom 2011
The media is piping with things people are talking about. Needless-to-say, the watercooler is empty. As a kid I always wondered if I would listen to someone who knew more than I did or if I would listen to me if I came back from the future to give me some insight. Obviously I cannot truthfully answer that; only speculate. Our morning was a fluster of conversations. In all of them existed some content that would lend itself to several blogs from each topic. BYU is the easy one; but not as easy as Charlie Sheen — which is too easy; so I'll pass.
The other end of the box. Every now and then you see a roach big enough to rid you of any transportation expenses should you strap youself to them like a cowboy or rope them to the back, front or bottom of your vehicle. Today was one of those such days. I saw a cohort get up suddenly out of the corner of my eye. I see his mouth moving as he rolls up a magazine. With my iPOD deep in Prince classics; I dismiss as an extended bathroom embarkment and keep working on my layout. Then he comes back to his desk still looking somewhere ahead. Removing one earplug, I hear instructions to look ahead. As some of you know, I HATE bugs; particularly ones that might crawl or land on my face or chase me. There it was. A bionic roach half the size of our convertible VW Beetle. He appeared to have the power of flight as well. After some scrambling and mobilization, an office of 4 men; really 3 cause I was only going to be taking pictures, came up with the plans of removal.
The pensive recycler Andy decided to use a long box. To my horror, his great plan was to capture and release! Whatever happened to all the great lessons in history — kill them all! In his most statuesque Statue of Liberty pose, he does not use the closed end of the box to crush the guts out of the behemoth but the open end to capture. Of course it was on the ceiling. Of course it made a run for it. Of course it never occurred to him to smash it with the closed end. YES, Im a smasher! I not only kill them for this life but any possible ones after this one. In fact, you can work up quite a sweat stomping a good bug. I know some spiders, snakes and bugs are good for us; but I dont waste time interviewing them to find out. He who hesitates is lost.
Apparently I will refresh some memories about survivors and what to do with them.
Real Life
The Alamo, The Battle of Thermopylae, and several other Last Stands where the defenders were so effective (and/or annoying) that the victorious attackers finished off whatever survivors, wounded, or captured noncombatants they got their hands on afterward.
The Massacre of Glencoe was ordered by King William of Orange with the line:
"You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds (sic) of Glenco (sic), and put all to the sword under seventy".
The part about leaving those over 70 was not mercy; in those days it was rare to find anyone much over 50 and the understanding was that anyone 70 or over would probably die on their own without someone to provide care for them.
This is frequently applied by a force that manages to defeat one much larger than them - they can't maintain so many prisoners, so the logical thing to do is to kill them all.
Famously happened during the Albigensian Crusade against Catharism in southern France. Asked by a soldier how to tell the difference between Cathar heretics and good Catholics, the Papal legate Arnaud Amalric replied:
"Kill them all. The Lord will recognize his own."
Though it's debatable if he said any such a thing, as there doesn't seem to be any record of him saying those words until about 50 years afterwards.
Arguably the result of any protracted siege in history. The soldiers, after watching their mates getting killed in various horrific fashions over a period of weeks or months, work out their frustrations on the defenders and civilians inside.
The Jolly Roger. In real life, the Jolly Roger was a good thing (assuming you were being attacked by pirates), as it meant that the pirates would accept prisoners. However, a blood red flag meant "death to all".
Both flags and their respective meaning are used in the flashback segment of the Tintin book The Secret Of The Unicorn.
In Roman Conflicts, once the battering ram was deployed, it was the signal that no prisoners would be taken, even as slaves. The Rome episode The Ram Has Touched The Wall explains this.
To extend the explanation: when a (Roman) army approached a hostile city and the city surrendered before arrival, the city's inhabitants and possessions were sacrosanct, and there would be no (official) looting or pillaging. If the city held out, but surrendered before the siege engines were in place, the citizens who fought (those of fighting age) were taken as slaves and the city looted, but no (official) rape or other destruction would take place. If the siege continued to the full, and the city overrun, the invaders could do as they pleased, and the commanders either looked the other way or actively encouraged their troops. This even applied to Roman cities, such as those on Sicily, after they rebelled. There are accounts of Legionaries who expressed the hope that the city would not surrender, so they could get some good looting and rape in.
The city of Carthage was completely destroyed by the Romans at the climax of the Third Carthaginian War. The Carthaginian citizens were either slaughtered or captured as slaves; none were spared.
Roman deserters were always killed if captured by Rome. There were accounts of ex-Roman soldiers at Carthage building a great bonfire in the Basilica before it fell, and leaping into the flames to avoid mandatory crucifixion for their desertion.Shown in Spartacus: Blood and Sand: The Thracians who deserted the Roman forces were killed or taken into slavery, along with those of their villages.
The Battle of Little Bighorn.
Well that's a lot said in very little. Yes, opinions are like ...; everybody's got one. Like the release of said gasses; weighing before the release is paramount.
..and what is Friday without a couple of good haikus as a send off. Perhaps good is being presumptuous of me. Today's subject is one I hold near and dear; bubble baths! It is invaluable for creatives to revive themselves by escaping and harmonizing the internal energies. Failure to do so always results in the most conflicting of emotional and collateral of damages.
Photo from adnamaotupac
Fridakus — haikus on Friday
Below the Chaos
Deep breath in, breath out;
Hot bubble bath, smooth jazz, rain;
Stressless incense burns.
Bubble Talk
Popping bubbles shhhh,
Burying me in warm pleasure,
Unity and peace.
Self Therapy
Rain, jazz and bubbles
Alone, candles, insence, bath
One person, one soul.
1 comment:
Every situation is different. It all depends, right? Funnily enough, I just finished rewatching '300' and was thinking about all that stuff. And those haiku...silky smooth.
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