One Last Comment On The Micah Wright Hub-Bub

And then I am done. I may remix some remixing again, as that was pretty fun - but I'm through with this, because I realized anyone who actually makes the effort to replace the 'S' in George Bush's name with a dollar sign (every single time he writes it out, which is A LOT) just isn't open to rational discussion.

Well, now he thinks I'm pissed that he misspelled my name, and is now trying to play it off as if he intended to do it. Got news for ya, sport - I wasn't pissed at all, I just thought it was pretty weak. The 'Bird' jokes grew old somewhere around the third grade. That's clearly the best you can do, though, so all is forgiven.

I wrote this in the comments section under my posting of his email, but I will cut and paste it here for those of you who don't bother looking through the comments:

Micah -

I like that way you come off about the military, and how no one should be allowed to have an opinion unless you've served, LIKE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. I guess FDR shoulda kept his goddamn trap shut in 1941, since he never served either. By that logic, are you admitting George Bush Sr. was fully justified in the Gulf War, since he was a WWII HERO? That's one of the shallowest arguments available to the anti-war side, and you know it. Using your method of debate: Since a lot of the protesters have never served in the military, they shouldn't be allowed to protest against it. Since you have never lived in Iraq under Hussein, you shouldn't presume to speak for the Iraqi people. See how senseless that type of argument is?

I never said any one of those comic book dudes were supportive of Hussein. I merely questioned the authenticity of their compassion for the Iraqi people, since NOT A SINGLE CREATOR AMONG THEM has ever hinted at any such compassion in the past. It comes out now, in 2003, as opposed to coming out back in 1998. Again, I think this only fortifies my argument that the protest is not against action in Iraq, but the man behind it. They had no such problems during the Clinton years. There weren't heavy discussions about how the carpet bombing would be portrayed in the pages of Wolverine back then. I didn't call them 'anti-semites' either - you're a fucking liar on that account. I pointed out that comparing Bush and Muslims to Hitler and the Jews was pretty insane considering the ANSWER bunch is cram-packed with anti-semites, and the ANSWER bunch was ANTI-war. I called Pat Mills ALONE an asshole because he was being an asshole by his OWN insinuation that anyone supporting this war was racist, evil, and a mindless sheep. Can't backslide on that one - if you call a war racist and evil, WHAT ELSE can you call the supporters?

Yeah, 30,000 Iraqis turned out on the streets and told the USA to get the fuck out of their country, but how many of them were government employees or compliant to Saddam's regime in other ways? You know, 'look the other way' types who ignored their neighbor's 'disappearing' because they had it pretty good under Saddam? Once the gravy train ended they were pissed - fuck em. I'm sure others are just being reactionary; as the years pass and the knowledge envelops them that the freedom to react was won for them by the US, it will begin to dawn on them that those soldiers made a great sacrifice of both life and innocence...all for complete strangers. It's a little like the situation following the Korean War - a lot of South Koreans resented the US presence. Over the years they've learned that the only thing standing between them and bloody takeover is our troops. My friend Rick was stationed in South Korea for over a year - he said the older Koreans loved the US and the soldiers, while the younger college crowd vocally hated us. Why? All they've known is the presence, and never the sacrifice made. Spoiled, in a way.

And, there are those who will continue to resent us anyway. They're lost to many years of ingrained hatred.

I love how you spell Bush with a $. That's so cute. I love how you persist in calling me Right Wing when I never once called any of you Left Wing. Again, I challenge anyone to find an instance on this blog where I have used the term Left Wing to insult or degrade anyone I disagreed with - whereas I have been called Right Wing innumerable times simply because I supported the war effort. After trying reason for a while, I decided 'fuck it, I'll reflect their own tactics back at them' and watch as whoever I was debating acted shocked and whined. You call me a 'Good Little Nazi' just because I supported the President's decision? Fuck you, and eat shit while you're at it. I don't give a damn what political stripe you are. (EDITED TO ADD: By 'you', I mean those of you amongst the anti-war crowd who use terms like 'Nazi' to describe supporters of the action in Iraq)

And, I don't care if the artwork is Public Domain. Some of those folks who originally painted those posters are still alive. I'm sure some of them do not agree with your views. It's spitting in their faces, credit or no credit. Vastly different situation than using the early works of Walt Disney, a man who has been dead many years(EDITED TO ADD: And whose company built their fortune and legend off public domain material). I'm all for public domain, but I think the same rules for Public Domain that apply to creators in the private sector should apply to works created for the government. Where's your concern for the 80+ year old artists who originally created that work and may not agree with what you're doing with it? I can't bust on you for Photoshopping, I do it myself. I made some particularly nasty gag strips using old Archie Comics. Difference is, I'd never try to sell any of that stuff.

EDITED TO ADD 4/23/2003: I admire Micah Wright for giving credit where it's due, but how about instead of buying more posters to paint over he gives a little bit of that dough to a veteran's charity or to ACTOR? He doesn't have to give all of it, and I know he doesn't make millions off that work, I never said that - or half the words he put into my mouth on his forum, for that matter. But he's got to be making SOMEWHAT of a profit to continue doing it, or at least to keep himself with a fresh supply of fonts, posters, and canvas. It'd be nice if just a little bit of it went back to the original creators of the work.

To me, the funniest thing about all of this is that I didn't even vote for George Bush. I agree with one thing, his position on the Iraq War, then defend myself on this decision - and all of a sudden I'm a bloodthirsty Right Winger. I'll never understand that as long as I live. END EDIT

I'm not spending money on my 'remixes' of your 'remixes', or buying oil paints, because I do not wish to spend either a dime or more than fifteen minutes of my time on them.

As far as Kurt Vonnegut goes, so what? No one seems to have any problems taking cheap shots at George Bush Sr., who is nearly 80 and also served in WWII. No one seems to have a problem taking cheap shots at Bob Dole, nearly 80, also a WWII hero. Or Ronald Reagan, 90+ and dying from Alzheimer's. So save all that shit. (EDITED TO ADD: I guess pointing out this clear case of hypocrisy makes me even MORE 'Right Wing', huh?) Vonnegut has used Dresden on more than one occasion to invalidate the allied efforts of WWII. And according to Stephen Ambrose's 'Citizen Soldiers', recent dislosures put the number of dead closer to 35,000.

A quote from Lt. John Morris regarding Dresden, taken from Ambrose's book:

"I don't rejoice at the 35,000 Germans killed there. I doubt there were many Jews in that number. The good burghers of Dresden had shipped them all off to Auschwitz."

I've never read anything written by Vonnegut regarding that particular aspect of Dresden, although please correct me if I am wrong. I say all this as somewhat of a fan of his work.EDITED TO ADD 4/23/2003: None of this was intended to make light of Vonnegut's experiences in WWII. I just think Dresden has made him somewhat single-minded, and has blinded him to the darker side of what happened in that city before the firebombing.END EDIT

Now his forum is titled ' How Did Our Oil Get Under THEIR Sand?' That's almost as funny as the Parrot joke.

The promise of that Punisher story is pretty comical, though.