Killing survivors: some historical points.

In WW2, it was pretty much SOP to kill Japanese airmen and sailors who were left as survivors when their plane was shot down or their ship sunk. The argument was based on a number of documented cases of Japanese POW survivors attacking and often killing their rescuers. Everyone knew it was a war crime, and nobody cared. There are any number of documented or attested instances of American troops killing POWs for one reason or another, and getting away with it.

Several points immediately occur, but the most significant to my mind and the one that is becoming lost in all the noise is this: we are not at war. Those people in the water were foreign nationals and civilians. We murdered them. The legalists may try to obfuscate this as they wish, but they cannot erase the fact. They can only make the fact irrelevant, as in the case of the Japanese survivors or other war crimes committed by US forces over the years.

Personally, I have zero tolerance for anyone, pundit or politician or random Internet Yahoo, who tries to sell the point that these murders were anything other than state-sponsored piracy on the high seas. And insofar as I am a citizen of the State which has committed this crime, I am furious with every official in the chain of command who passed on this indefensible order. Less so with the figurative 19-year old seaman with his figurative finger on the figurative trigger: he was between a rock and a hard place, and his superiors are supposed to protect him from this shit.. You may blame the top of the chain-of-command as much as you like, and may try to paint Admiral Bradley as an innocent scapegoat as much as you like, but responsibility for this act is not compartmentalized: every single link in the chain failed, and betrayed their oaths to the Constitution, to say nothing of betraying common human morality.

-- Mal

Songs with addresses...

Post a song with an address in the title or lyrics. It can be specific, or more general -- a corner in Winslow, Arizona, for example.

My contribution to start it off:

More brilliance from PMJ:

I love this song.

Why is it that even the more obscure songs of the 60s were so much fun? I think it's the "papa-do-ron-dey-ron-dey-doo" that gets me.

And yes, I do know that this song was originally "When Summer Comes I'm Gonna Hustle You," which the Beach Boys gave to Jan and Dean.

I learned something new last night, which only goes to show I am behind the times...

Ever hear of "ghost" restaurants? It seems Denny's (and many other places, according to the manager I spoke with last night) is home to several restaurants that are name-only, "ghosts" that are set up for online orders under wholly fictitious names. These "ghosts" are just Denny's under a different name, offering their own menu, but with everything cooked and handled by the Denny's in which they are putatively located. Most of the employees of the store don't even know the "ghosts" are there -- I called the store last night because of a no-show delivery, and the people there answered "Dennys" and were all "Huh? I never heard of the Meltdown." (Which is the name of the restaurant I *thought* I was ordering from).
Many points occur. Here's one: how little pride and faith must one have in one's own product, one's own company, that one would masquerade as another store to get customers? And I wonder how many people who sneer at Denny's and claim they would never eat in such a place have ordered items from one of their "ghosts" and feel smug and cool because they're eating from some posh place and not a greasy spoon like Denny's?

-- Mal

Sims 2 Legacy: anybody playing?

Because I've been living under a rock for the past few months (years), I just found out about the Sims 2 Legacy being released.

I used to play the hell out of that game before EA pulled the plug. Would you believe, I still have my old Neighborhood file and all my (many gigabytes) of custom content? I kept it all just in case I might get to play it again someday.

That day appears to have come, but I have questions... like will it be possible to resurrect my old 'hood at all, even with all the data? IOW, what have EA broken in the new edition that will make my old 'hood unplayable now? Especially with all the behavioral mods I installed?

Just wondering if anyone here has already gone through this experience and has advice.

-- Mal

You know, it's a funny thing: since DOGE stole everybody's SS data...

... I have had hack attempts on my Amazon and Walmart accounts and my NFCU checking account, which I never even use.

What an amazing coincidence.

-- Mal

35 days for Walmart to cancel my account.

That is ridiculous. I'm told that I cannot use my phone number to make a new account with Walmart for 35 days. "Oh, you can use somebody else's phone number," forsooth. Well, no I can't, there is nobody else, and I wouldn't want to go through the nightmare of changing it later anyway.

My account was hacked, and this is the crap they tell me. Meanwhile, I pointed out that they were dealing with a fraudulent third-party company who used their stationery to confirm orders and send a delivery notice (news flash: the product fraudulently ordered was not delivered), and overnight, that company is removed from their stores.

Priorities, amiright?

-- Mal

Gotta admit, I didn't know Beethoven wrote boogie-woogie (not ai, promise!)

Hacked twice in like two months.

This is getting annoying, especially since I changed all my p/ws and account info the first time!

Two months ago, Amazon hacked. Today Walmart. I guess the good news is, my credit card isn't registered anywhere else except bookstores, and who hacks bookstores?

-- Mal