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People are understandably upset after video emerged of what appears to be U.S. Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. If they’re surprised, however, they need to pick up a history book. Soldiers piss on corpses in every war. On both sides. Soldiers rape civilians, as a rule, in every war that has ever taken place since time immemorial. Rape is a weapon of war. Piss, some people are now learning, is a weapon of war. Some fucked-up, disgusting combination of the two, plus shit and dismemberment, is a weapon of war. Bad guys do it. “Good” guys do it. When a country’s government decides to wage war, they are deciding to sanction piss, rape, and the torture and murder of women and children who had the colossally bad fortune to be in the midst of the war. When the U.S. decided to enter into Afghanistan and then Iraq, they (i.e. Congress and the president, and the myriad companies that profit from war) knew this. I’m not singling out the U.S. here; while we’re as good at implementing the more horrific, soul-erasing weapons as anyone, we’re not alone. Does your country have a military? In times of war, they kill people, and sometimes they piss on them.
If it isn’t clear why I’m detailing this, it is because I want to express an old thought: war is the very worst thing there is. And if you command an army, you better the fuck understand, in your probably cowardly, definitely privileged, likely draft-dodging bones, that when you send soldiers out to fight and die, they are going to do some unconscionable, irreversible things. And they are doing it in your name. Because you told them to. And pissing on a corpse is a FUCKING POEM compared to issuing an order for beautiful young people to go and kill other beautiful young people in a land far away, because you, in essence, “felt like it.”
Previously - On Hating Gay People
Albums of the Year, 2011
1) Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Bolder, bigger, sweeter.
2) Sepalcure - Sepalcure
Innovative bass music.
3) Tearjerker - Rare
Wonderful hazy hugeness.
4) Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin’ On
Intricate darkness.
5) Peaking Lights - 936
Psychedelic dub weirdness.
6) Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only A Noise
Piano-led, crackling house.
7) The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
Epic, echoing folk.
8) Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
Hardcore rock-opera. Boisterous.
9) Emperor X - Western Teleport
Beams of strangeness from somewhere wonderful.
10) Balam Acab - Wander / Wonder
Elegant bliss-out music.
11) Alexander - Alexander
Unique individual updates nostalgic sounds.
12) LV - Routes
The sound of London, 2011.
13) Suuns - Zeroes QC
Prog-punk noise. Rowdy but tuneful.
14) Sulley - Carrier
Garage 2011 style.
15) Spanish Prisoners - Gold Fools
Meandering album of peculiar genius.
16) Zomby - Dedication
Sad, deep and fucking heavy.
17) Radiohead - King Of Limbs
The boys are back.
18) Josh T. Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen
Can do no wrong round these parts. Monumentally sad record about love and addiction.
19) Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair
Great drums; noisy bastards: brilliant.
20) Burial - Street Halo
EP of new Burial material. Enough said.
Honourable mentions to Youth Lagoon, Blawan, Byetone, Charles Bradley, Damu, Elbow, Fleet Foxes, FaltyDL, The Horrors, Pangaea, SBTRKT, White Denim and Untold.
