Bradley Manning: “I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female.” [The Frisky]
Kim Kardashian’s lover is worried about going too mainstream. [Bitten & Bound]
Taylor Swift shades Kanye with jam. Seriously. [PopBytes]
Kim Cattrall says fizzy yoga saved her life. Sure. [Wonderwall]
Sources claim Lindsay Lohan lied about her coke use. [Amy Grindhouse]
This description of Farrah Abraham is dead-on. [IDLYITW]
Lady Gaga tried to game the Billboard charts to beat Katy Perry. [Starcasm]
Elin Nordgren is still really beautiful. [Celebslam]
Does T.I. have some marriage problems? [Bossip]
Robin Williams with a duck! [Seriously OMG WTF]
Nearly 2 decades later, the “Sabatoge” video is still amazing. [OMG Blog]
“Futuristic fashion” is in for Fall/Winter. [Yeeeah]
Duchess Kate’s dress sold out in 2 hours. [Life & Style]
The scariest kids’ movie characters. [The Loop]
Lucas Cruikshank came out too! [Limelife]
They should give this lady a medal. [Gawker]
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Lindsay lied about her coke use? Quelle horreur! She was also photographed out with Vikram the other night…her married sugar daddy with a recent drug smuggling arrest. Anyone surprised to see she picked up right where she left off? Think Oprah’s cameras are still following her around documenting her dive back into the muck?
I Know, Not Lindsay Lohan! Not A Lie! My pearls are ever so firmly clutched!!
My thoughts exactly. Is this news? It’s pretty damn obvious she is lying. And if she just did it when people offered it to her, why was she arrested with come on her? I may have believed she was trying to change if she actually took accountability and stopped this lying charade. Goes to show how superior she feels and how stupid she thinks everyone but her is. She is the only person I will look forward to seeing her downfall and she disgusts me.
Yes-right back with the shady characters. How shocking.
Chelsea Manning it is then.
Great quote by he ACLU on this subject yesterday:
When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system.
https://www.aclu.org/free-speech/aclu-comment-bradley-manning-sentence
Her statement: http://www.today.com/news/i-am-chelsea-read-mannings-full-statement-6C10974052
ACLU statement about her gender issue: https://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights-free-speech/aclu-response-chelsea-mannings-disclosure-gender-dysphoria
+1. When I have more cash, the ACLU deserves another check.
Hows this going to work? The military wont pay for the transition. Will they even allow him to receive self-funded hormone treatment in prison? Is prison even the best place to transition given the psychological implications. This. Will. Get. Messy.
Yeah this is uber complicated. With whom will Chelsea be housed, male or female prisoners. Because surely until the hormone therapy and surgery, the same reasons why males arent housed with females would apply here. I think I heard once that transgender females who havent physically transitioned are placed with males but under protective custody. I dont know
Given the high profile nature of the case and the fact that she’s been labelled a traitor she would have been in the segregation unit anyway, with or without the gender issues. I think they know damn well she would never survive gen pop.
Sara, “will they even allow HER to”, not “him”. And no, prisons are not the best place to transition but given the psychological impact of dysmorphia it is still the safest for her to start as soon as possible.
Chelsea didn’t ask to be housed with female prisoners.
Oh Chelsea is determined to get Conservatives to loathe his guts isnt she.
If this wasnt such a serious condition I would think she was trolling them.
I’m happy for her. If she’s gonna be forced to do as much time she has been sentenced to, why not make the taxpayers pay for all of her hormonal and other trans related treatments!
This is poetic justice!
I hope Americans are not under the impression that she is a hero! Chelsea is not Edward Snowden. She did a stupid, stupid, stupid thing with that unfiltered data dump. She endangered the lives of activists all over the world and I bet that lives were lost or atleast destroyed. Stupid.
For those who dont know, the leaks contained communiques from American envoys in the field to your Government. Many of those communiques were built from local sources, usually civil society activists but also government insiders.
In my home country Kenya, people didnt just read those leaks to see what the US Ambassador was saying about us. They read them to speculate who was “snitching” on their own country. Redacting names meant nothing. You could piece together from the text that the source say attended this State dinner and that Embassy party, works in the Office of the VP or is female. From there its not hard to figure who the source was. The suspicion alone would be devastating to that person and his family.
Like I said, this is not Edward Snowden. This is a terrible humanbeing who didnt use her damn brain. She should have got life. Thats the sentence she put on activists in truly oppressive regimes.
@Mimo, I am not completely educated on the specifics of what transpired in Kenya.
There was bloodshed, but the way I understood it, and I could be wrong, is that after the Kenyan people read the Wikileaks dump they were upset by the corruption in government and violence ensued in response to that during elections. Is that true?
HER guts. It was funny how the Today Show Amazon switched pronouns in the middle of her interview.
@Kiddo
The cables triggered three responses
1) Most of the incriminating stuff was widely known but yes, there was some outrage at hearing them off a presumably trusted source.
2) It gave the Establishment an anti-American line of attack. The cables after all were final evidence of Americas big brother complex. Politicians began ranting about American imperialism. The government demanded that the American ambassador be recalled (he did “retire” shortly after btw). Parliament passed a Motion denouncing the US. The backlash was so bad that at our last elections, Pres Obama, who used to be a god like figure, sent a video message to the country, kind of hinting which way to vote. He was laughed out of town and the sense that America spies on us to manipulate us helped win the election for the guy the US didnt want.
3) Finally and more importantly, people began trawling the cables for identifying info. I am a lawyer and while I dont work in Human Rights, I have many friends who do. One of whom had his phone tapped shortly after. Around here you can tell a phone is tapped from the quality of your voice calls. A tapped line echoes. His colleagues were trailed around town. Some began getting threatening texts declaring that “we know you are an American spy”. Blogs sprang up dissecting the cables, naming activists. It was a scary time!!!
To be clear Kenya is a fairly open society. Not nearly as oppressive as most places, so if this idiot was able to stir so much shit here, how much worse was it for activists in say Vietnam, Pakistan or even Zimbabwe.
Mimo Thank you for sharing this information! I’ve been confused about the “hero or traitor” issue but read a very convincing editorial about the human beings she harmed. Osama had a copy of one of her reports with him when he was shot. Also she volunteered for the army …
I’m not overly familiar with the case, but I did see that the army (?) recently released a photo of her dressed as a woman. Which I read as a complete dick move, no pun intended. As if that would suddenly make it okay to really punish this person because “ewww”?
They need to f*cking grow up.
Yes! I’m sometimes at odds with the ACLU but this time they are right on the money!!!
They are like a stopped clock: right twice a day and not for very long.
They can take extreme positions, but generally it is based on the constitution and civil rights.
I don’t always agree, but lately for me, they have been right on the money.
Thank you!
@Kiddo, who wrote: “When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system.”
Sorry, but when a soldier takes an oath declaring to keep said ‘information’ confidential and then releases it to the press and public and ‘attention’ and political ideology, that soldier is lucky to get 35 years, and not death for treason.
Um, Bradley, isn’t it a bit late to pull this card now?
Actually it’s not, Chelsea has long asserted this.
My memory is super vague but werent there emails between him and the guy who snitched on him detailing his gender dismorphia as well as a gay relationship with a superior officer?
I am only referring to Chelsea as he because thats what she was at the time. Thats the protocol right?
Yes, I recall her gender dysmorphia being discussed in the conversations with the scum Adrian Lamo, but I don’t recall a relationship with a superior officer.
Now that she has come out as transgendered, the protocol would be to use her preferred pronoun even when referring to the past. She was female all along.
What “card” is she pulling? Like its easy to be trans or even be woman in this country. Gtfoh.
As a military spouse who could not receive any correspondence from my husband for a month after Chelsea’s data dump became public, and knowing the risk she put other soldiers at, I have absolutely no sympathy for her in regards to her sentence. She committed treason. That being said, being transgendered, I imagine, is incredibly difficult anywhere, but must be so much harder in the military. In that, I do feel sorry for her struggle
This is in response to Megan (still can’t work out why only some posts can be replied to).
As the ex spouse of an Iraqi man, several of whose extended family were killed by US agents who acted with utter impunity I *do* think Manning is a hero.
You couldn’t talk to your husband for a while? My ex will NEVER speak to his family members again. Remind me again what harm they ever caused a single American?
I’m sorry for your ex husband’s loss, BestJess.
And +1 on your thoughts about Chelsea.
Actually, it wasn’t her but the opposite site who brought it up first and published a photo of her she had sent to her therapist showing her with a wig and make-up, probably hoping it would weaken her case somehow. So, after she had been “outed” without her consent, I think its her right to add her own side of the story.
In reply to BestJess… My husband is a Green beret…. He has been deployed to Iraq 7 times… The second time, only 30 percent of his unit came back…. He lost his three best friends and his brother. Don’t preach to me about loss.
I think the difference here is unarmed civilians vs. armed combatants.
Not to say either is worse, but I think context is needed. Either way, I’m sorry for both of your losses.
“Sources claim Lindsay Lohan lied about her coke use” I believe those sources are named Captain Obvious, and Senor Duh.
Antoinette Huff is a true hero. I know she says no, but she is.
First, Captain Obvious, and Senor Duh..haha
And second, yes, Antoinette Huff is a hero.
yes, Antoinette Tuff is amazing, a true hero. I’ve listened to that call so many times, and she stays so calm-she saved a lot of bloodshed. The whole thing could have gone horribly wrong but instead this beautiful woman talked that kid down.
This whole Manning case makes me really sad. Did anyone else read some of his statements after his conviction? Moving stuff.
HER statements after HER conviction
Oh for God’s sake.
“From now on, I want you all to call me Loretta”. – Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Sorry, couldn’t help it.
more and more am I starting to believe that Beyonce had to change her hair because Gaga snatched her favorite wig and is now parading it around town.
Lol!!!
People will say anything to keep from facing the repercussions of their actions, won’t they? I don’t know what’s worse – that he only got 35 years for betraying the country he was supposed to protect, or that taxpayers will have to support his stunt because the judicial system is set up to keep criminals comfortable. What’s the matter, Bradley? Too afraid to go to the men’s prison where there might be people who think you should suffer for your treasonous actions?
Who did he betray exactly? I didn’t know that exposing murders and lies from the governement was a betrayal. And we’re not even going to talk about the blatant homophobia in your comment as well as your apparent ignorance of the fact that he’s been struggling with gender dysmorphia since before the trial. (Also, female prison is just as hardcore so your assumptions on that front seem to be coming from a place that’s incredibly sheltered.)
The US government betrayed its people when they enabled spying on its people, among other various unconstitutional bullshit.
Who did he betray? Cables that Manning leaked and Wikileaks published included the names of hundreds of Afgan civilian informants, who were then targeted by the Taliban. So he jeopardized the safety of these people and damaged our military’s ability to work with civilians in the future since they could no longer trust us.
Some, including Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai, raised concerns that the detailed logs had exposed the names of Afghan informants, thus endangering their lives.[51][52] Partially in response to this criticism, Wikileaks announced that it has sought the help of the Pentagon in reviewing a further 15,000 documents before releasing them. The Pentagon said it had not been contacted by Wikileaks.[53] However, blogger Glenn Greenwald presented evidence that the Pentagon had, in fact, been contacted, and that it had refused the request.[54]
On 11 August 2010, a spokesman for the Pentagon told the Washington Post that “We have yet to see any harm come to anyone in Afghanistan that we can directly tie to exposure in the WikiLeaks documents”
In October, the Pentagon concluded that the leak “did not disclose any sensitive intelligence sources or methods”, and that furthermore “there has not been a single case of Afghans needing protection or to be moved because of the leak.”[57] Both Wikileaks and Greenwald pointed to this report as clear evidence that the danger caused by the leak had been vastly overstated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak
Taliban Seeks Vengeance in Wake of WikiLeaks – 8/1/2010
“After WikiLeaks published a trove of U.S. intelligence documents—some of which listed the names and villages of Afghans who had been secretly cooperating with the American military—it didn’t take long for the Taliban to react. A spokesman for the group quickly threatened to “punish” any Afghan listed as having “collaborated” with the U.S. and the Kabul authorities against the growing Taliban insurgency. In recent days, the Taliban has demonstrated how seriously those threats should be considered. Late last week, just four days after the documents were published, death threats began arriving at the homes of key tribal elders in southern Afghanistan. And over the weekend one tribal elder, Khalifa Abdullah, who the Taliban believed had been in close contact with the Americans, was taken from his home in Monar village, in Kandahar province’s embattled Arghandab district, and executed by insurgent gunmen.”
http://tinyurl.com/pl5o9qz
@Libby, I wish I could find a source for that info outside of the Daily Beast….
Asked whether he was aware of anyone who had been harmed by the disclosures, General Carr said he knew of an Afghan national who had been killed by the Taliban. But a defense lawyer jumped in, objecting that the individual’s name had not been found in leaked documents, a point that General Carr acknowledged. But he added that the Taliban had tried to tie the death to the WikiLeaks disclosures. The judge, Col. Denise R. Lind, said she would disregard that part of his testimony.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/us/in-sentencing-us-tries-to-prove-harm-by-manning.html?_r=0
You know, whatever you think of the Taliban (yes, they’re awful) those Afghans who worked with the INVADING American military forces are indeed collaborators. The US sees itself as virtuously upholding democracy, but the rest of the world, not just the Taliban, see it as carrying out a post-9/11 revenge attack on a Muslim country, civilians and all.
@binturong, I don’t like the idea that civilians suffer any casualties. But what the leaks also revealed was a much greater number of Afghan civilian deaths by the US military than what was officially released. I don’t know that one individual civilian has more importance than any other or why it is more forgivable when one group does the killing versus another. As far as civilian deaths, the US military caused a much greater number than what Manning might have caused, if any, and they wanted that hidden.
binturong – You have got to be kidding.
You’re saying that it is preferable to remain living quietly under the harsh, murderous rule of the Taliban than to work with the U.S. to establish a democratic government?!? Wow, I guess you think the U.S. should just butt out of everything and we should just let people suffering under oppressive, tyrannical governments suffer. We invaded Afghanistan because they allowed Bin Laden to attack US from the comfort and support of their country – we were attacked first.
Yes Libby, a terrorist organization attacked your country, not Iraq nor Afghanistan, nor any other country. Therefore, no, you do not have the right to invade a country and kill innocent children, men and women caught in an unfair fight, that they didn’t call for.
My heart goes to all of those that lost someone in this war, but that means ALL: all the civilians killed by American soldiers, all American soldiers killed by Talibans, every men, women, children caught in this unfair situation. Why are some lives supposed to be more valuable than others?
The so proclaimed help has not shown to result in anything positive, as you might know. Most of these countries have a continuous situation of civil war. Maybe there are other ways to help, then bringing more chaos to an already chaotic situation. It’s a complicated subject and there’s really no simple answer, but any crime, including war crimes, need to be exposed and put out there in the eye of the public that proclaim for justice.
She’s in prison for calling out war crimes and serious human rights violations. And these crimes that still go unpunished, I might mention. The only protection the U.S. needs is from the rich people that are exploiting the world’s resources for personal gain. That’s what’s important.
Free Chelsea Manning!
Exactly how did he betray his country? By letting us all know of the war crimes – and horrors like the targeted killing of innocent civilians – that are being committed in our names? Wasn’t he doing exactly what you accuse him of not doing – i.e., protecting his country from the criminals within it?
At some point as we mature, we all have to stop believing the lies and empty platitudes/rhetoric from our government and the corporate media.
Chelsea Manning deserves to share the Nobel peace prize with Edward Snowden – and the last two U.S. administrations (current one included) should be in jail for war crimes.
+10000
God bless this entire comment. There is nothing more to be said.
Thank Frivolity. You took the words out if my mouth.
He swore to protect our country from enemies without or within. What happens when those in power are those who are the “enemy,” the ones doing harm?
THIS! +10000
“At some point as we mature, we all have to stop believing the lies and empty platitudes/rhetoric from our government and the corporate media.”
That statement rings through my head. I was JUST having a convo about this exact thing the other day and wish I could have worded it exactly like that…
Agree – except for the pronouns. Its is SHE and HER!
frivolity, you need to change your name. That was very non frivolous and dead on the money.
+Infinity and Beyond!
Does anyone else find the government’s relentless smearing of patriot Private Chelsea Manning reminiscent of Scientology’s ‘Fair Game’ doctrine?
This whole ‘story’ of Chelsea’s gender identification coming on the heels of her jail sentence smacks of the classic technique for countering negative accusations by diverting the critical statements and making counter-accusations against the accuser.
“Individuals or groups who are “Fair Game” are judged to be a threat to the Church and, according to the policy, can be punished and harassed using any and all means possible.” – Wiki
@ Crumpets and Crotchshots:
“What happens when those in power are those who are the “enemy,” the ones doing harm?”
I believe we are seeing what happens right here with quite possibly fake posters. “This sophisticated form of sockpuppetting – creating a fake online persona for the sole purpose of lauding one’s self or one’s organization, a.k.a. propaganda–goes against Wikipedia’s policies as sock puppets erode the site’s culture of consensus editing “by creating the illusion of greater support for a viewpoint and evading sanctions.”
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter/2009/06/wikipedia-bans-scientology-pos.html#ixzz2cl9mGXyr
This stuff reminds me of Richard Nixon’s bag of Dirty Tricks.
Oh for goodness sake … if all of you standing up now for the two poor lambs who just wanted to defend us from Big Bad Obama had done this under BIG BAD George W. Bush, there wouldn’t have been atrocities to blow the whistle on.
When you keep men in a war theater for three and four tours, sh$t happens. But none of the sh$t happening now was ‘near’ and deep as it was when these two unnecessary wars were ‘lied’ into being. Why didn’t you guys ‘riddle all this’ then??
The ‘man’ (until he changes gender, that’s what he is) is in the Army … he took oaths, which he broke. Why is he entitled to a pardon OR sympathy?
@ Emma – the JP Lover:
At the dawn of the first Iraqi war, I took off work and was on the street carrying my homemade sign, “No Blood For Oil”. Millions of other people around the world protested the fake war against weapons of mass destruction too. There is no Right or Left, there’s only USA Corporate, Inc. that donates heavy dark money to both so called parties.
The Lefties did, however, bring us Child Labor Laws, 8 Hour Days, and the concept of a living wage, but we are seeing a way of life stripped away by the surveillance state.
As to “Why is he entitled to a pardon OR sympathy?”, Private Manning is IMO on par with Patrick Henry who cried out “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Private Chelsea Manning is a patriot.
Um, WOW. On. so. many. levels.
So many people thankfully already checked you concerning his actions, all I have to say is this: since when is treating a medical condition “making someone comfortable”? That is literally one of the most ignorant things I’ve ever heard. Gender dysphoria is a medical condition that has every obligation to be treated because if it is not, it can often be fatal. I don’t know where the f..k you think you live, but in America we treat the medical conditions of our prisoners. It’s called being humane, you out to try it next time you feel like accusing someone of claiming to be trans so that they could be comfortable. That’s utterly laughable and completely out of touch with reality.
Are seriously trying to say that he is faking being teams because he is afraid of prison rape AND implying he deserves this?
Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?????
She I meant….
I know. It’s amazing.
Please excuse my typos and other errors. I was typing on my phone. also reading transphobic crap like this makes me want to lie down for a year.
She wants hormones, not a different prison. Your comment barely merits a response, but it’s just so hurtful that I can’t help it. Do you have any idea what a living hell gender dysphoria is? I’m willing to bet she’d take a life behind prison bars over one more day trapped in her own BODY.
I get the worst feeling Chelsea (or Bradley) will die in prison.
By her own hands?
There are already some terrible (and some well-intentioned but uninformed) comments here about Chelsea Manning, so here’s my attempt at a brief set of guidelines/responses to people’s dumb arguments:
1) Once someone has identified as trans, it’s really, really important to use his or her preferred name/pronouns when discussing them. Misgendering a trans person is seriously, seriously hurtful and offensive.
2) Unless the person specifies otherwise, it’s generally understood that even when referring to the past, the preferred name/pronoun should be used. So she is Chelsea Manning even when discussing the past.
3) Many people who identify as trans do not have gender reassignment surgery. Some who do have it wait quite a while before doing so. Even those who never have any kind of surgery or hormone therapy are entitled to be referred to as the gender they identify with.
4) The preferred term, as I understand it, is transgender or “trans”. As in trans man or trans woman. Terms that are not applicable here: drag queen, gay (just like anyone else, trans people can be straight, gay, or bisexual), transvestite (considered derogatory), tranny (ditto – this is a slur).
5) Chelsea Manning has said that she has identified as a woman since childhood. There is documented evidence of this that way pre-dates wikileaks. This is not something that was made up to try to mess with the trial somehow.
6) Trans people do not get any special privileges in prison. That is the exact opposite of reality. The U.S. generally puts trans people in the prison that matches their legal gender, which leads to unbelievably high rates of assault on trans prisoners, especially for trans women housed in male prisons. Most cannot access hormone therapy in prison, even if they were receiving it before they were incarcerated. There is nothing about publicly identifying as a woman that is going to make Chelsea Manning’s time in prison more comfortable, and it’s likely to place her at a higher risk of assault and/or result in solitary confinement.
I’m not hugely sympathetic to what Chelsea did in releasing that information to wikileaks (though I do think her prison sentence is far too long), but I have a lot of respect for her publicly coming out about her gender, and j very much hope this helps spark a (respectful) dialogue about how trans people are treated in the U.S. generally, and in prison specifically.
This!! Thank you!!
Well said. I do know that in federal prison a transgendered is person is assigned to the population they legally belong to, which is determined by surgery and a subsequent court petition. Sadly, this assignment does not entail continued hormone treatments or segregated housing. For example: if someone born a male has gender reassignment surgery and has his gender legally changed to female then she would go to women’s prison. Barring other reasons she will not be housed separately nor will she be able to get hormone shots. If there are exceptions I am not aware of them. What is sad is the fact that someone who can not afford the surgery will have to go to the prison designated to them by their born/legal status. Can not imagine how hard that would be. But federal prisons are quite different from regular or privatized prisons. Assault is not nearly as common and there are friendly, protective humanitarians in all walks of life – even prison.
Your points about who can afford SRS and is able to have their gender corrected on legal documents are super important.
I also think it’s super important to point out that not all trans* people want SRS or bottom surgery and that can often be a barrier to having their identities recognized. A lot of mainstream perspectives still equate gender with genitals and it’s not only unfair and inaccurate, it can also be dehumanizing and crosses a lot of privacy/respect lines. Even the in today show interview with Cheslea’s lawyer, the interviewer’s immediate questions were about SRS. Chelsea herself may not even be certain of what steps she wants/needs to take yet or when and regardless, it’s not really our place to go asking such invasive questions anyways. That stuff just bothers me so much. Like, in what situation is it appropriate to ask a stranger about their genitals?
Lee
Very true and all the more complicated when a prison sentence is involved, especially a lengthy one. I wish people treated one another better.
Wow, I guess I was more ignorant about the plight of trans people in prisons then I thought. I thought that trans folks were at the very least entitled to hormone therapy and counseling. Not necessarily any kind of sex reassignment surgery even though it’s completely inhumane not to provide it for prisoners who need it, but at the very least hormones. And the fact that prisoners who are already on hormones aren’t able to continue taking them after they are imprisoned particularly disgusts me. Thank you for providing this information and I most definitely have some research to do.
Thank you!
Just found an interesting comment in the NYTimes regarding Manning’s sentence:
“William Calley’s division mowed down over 300 innocent civilians in Vietnam — yet he served less than 5 years.”
The commenter is referring to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, which made a huge impression on those of us who lived through that time.
Yep, and the “contractors” who slaughtered my exes family in southern Iraq will never ever be punished. I probably shouldn’t have read this thread because even though the people who are more outraged by what Manning did than by what she exposed seem to be a minority here, they still make me red mist angry and physically sick.
I understand how this thread is painful to you but I am still glad, you didn’t let anybody silence you.
@BestJess–“contractors”=mercenaries, American-style. The US is not building democracy in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else; it is building military bases and satellite areas for US corporations. Since some people seem to have forgotten, it was the US that funded the Taliban in the 1st place–as proxy fighters against the Soviets, during the last bit of the Cold War.
So sorry for your loss, BJ. Not all Americans are believers in the nonsense of US government “democracy building” in the middle east.
Anyone who wants to know the real story of US policy owes a huge debt to people like Manning and Snowden.
Please note that most contractors are not the “mercanary” type you speak of. They do exist, but a lot of people equate contractors with hired killers, and it simply isn’t true.
For reasons I cannot even bear to get into because it just makes me cry, I feel this, and feel your sadness and pain. Thank you for posting.
I need to go curl up on the floor now.
@BestJess:
Thank you for your bravery in sharing your very personal horror. I don’t think a lot of people want to acknowledge that our government has so much civilian death on its hands. Sadly, the Panama Canal invasion comes to mind too.
It’s heartbreaking to see Private Manning scapegoated for shining light on reprehensible government actions, while the guys who orchestrated so much death and deception go free.
In all seriousness with regard to Lindsay Lohan, as the saying goes, half the battle is admitting you have a problem and in that regard I am saddened she is still lying/underplaying it.
Antoinette Tuff is amazing and should be rewarded as a hero! Such an incredible lady. <3
I agree. She exhibited the behavior I think all of us would like to think we would as well. I’m not so sure I would be able to be that compassionate and brave in her situation.
Looking at the confusion here to be politically correct in addressing Bradley/Chelsea Manning, I’m quite relieved that my mother language doesn’t have gender 🙂
LOL!! That would make it much easier.
But if your language doesn’t have gender how do you differentiate between male and female?
Ow, sorry, I should’ve been more precise! Of course there is a word for “man” and “woman” in my language. But we don’t address a third person differently (“he” vs “she), we just use one similar word (“dia”) to address everyone, regardless of their sex. I hope that helps! 🙂
In Turkish, for example, you have “spouse” instead of husband or wife, “sibling” instead of brother or sister, and if you really must distinguish, you say “boy sibling” or “girl sibling”. A pronoun can refer to your mother, your grandfather, or your cat—it’s wonderful 🙂
Clarify? Are you saying that when you refer in general to people you have a gender neutral pronoun? Because that is AWESOME.
This need for a gender neutral pronoun is growing and taking root in English btw. Look at this:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/25/178788893/yo-said-what
That really is awesome! I get stuck a lot of the time because I work in French and don’t always want to be forced to “come out” every time one of the, often elderly, people who I am working with asks me a personal question or notices my wedding band. Unfortunately in French, even words like “partner” are gendered so I end up either being sketchily evasive or resorting to what I feel is full out lie by using the masculine form if I’m really uncomfortable.
@Lee–Romance languages in particular are a monumental pain in the butt that way!
@C&C–“I gave the book to him” and “She took me out to dinner” use the same pronoun for “him” and “she”. Fabulous, isn’t it? 🙂 And thanks for that link–I LOVE that kind of sociolinguistic stuff.
@lenje–oooh, a language with no gender! Let me guess…”lenje” sounds kind of Scandinavian to me, but those languages have gender, I think. Maybe Turkish? No gender there. Tell us which language, I’m dying of suspense–I find languages totally fascinating, since they determine how we think and deal with the world.
Indonesian :):)
Are you from Malaysia too? 😀
Nope, see my answer above. Hi neighbor! 😉
My language, Finnish, is the same.
Isn’t it interesting that two such different cultures came up with an almost entirely gender-neutral language?
Perhaps I should clarify — we don’t have gender specific pronouns, but I’m not sure I’d call the language entirely gender neutral either. For example, we have an abundance of words ending in man (fireman, chairman, what have you) and seem to be extremely resistant to change that. In my view, that is unfortunate.
But the pronoun thing certainly is interesting. We have Turkey, Malaysia and Finland where that’s the case. Very different cultures, sharing that same linguistic quirk. It’s fascinating.
Very interesting Silk. It sounds like Turkish is maybe a bit more gender-neutral than Finnish. Totally off the gender subject, I love the way Finnish looks when it’s written! “Liiviläisten oma kieli on latvian kielen syrjäyttämä ja äärimmäisen uhanalainen: Latvian viimeinen liiviä äidinkielenään puhunut ihminen kuoli vuonna 2009, mutta kielen myöhemmin opetelleita on jonkin verran. Liiviläinen kulttuuri ja kieli ovat latvialaisten niitä kohtaan kokeman mielenkiinnon takia hiljattain kokeneet uuden nousukauden.” Dug that up out of Finnish Wikipedia! I think it’s all the doubled letters, plus umlauts, that make it look so cool. Well, whoops, back to Manning…
@SilkSpectre: It looks like many Asian languages are quite gender neutral, especially the pronoun for third person. If I remember correctly, Mandarin and Japanese are like that as well.
I’m heartened by the support that Chelsea Manning is being given on this site. I’ve followed wikileaks pretty closely since its beginning and was saddened that she received such a harsh sentence for her role.
Also, as someone who was paid to do a fair amount of research on US relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan, I’d like to let any of you who aren’t aware know, that the US has been heavily invested in Afghanistan since the Reagan administration and first began its initial involvement under Jimmy Carter.
Reagan heavily funded and armed Osama and his Taliban in an effort to undermine Russia’s invasion and influence in the region. We created the monster and now it has a lot of ugly heads. It’s even more complicated, world tangled and depressing than you can imagine and despite Julian Assange’s egomania and Chelsea Manning’s naivte – I’m thankful for the breach of classified info.
This. It is sad americans don’t recognize that their own government created/will feed the *monsters* who attacked and will bring them down. Wake up.
Thanks for your post, madchen. So many Americans don’t know this.
I am disheartened by those who naively praise Manning’s leak of classified information. This isn’t like Edward Snowden’s revelations. In this case, Manning put real peoples’ lives at risk, including good people in other countries helping to catch the bad guys. There is no moral relevance here. The bad guys, no matter how much you sympathize with them, would slit your throat and the throats of your children without batting an eyelash. That sad part is, Manning’s leak – for all its good in uncovering government corruption – will do nothing to stop the corruption. All she did was confirm what we already suspected, while giving names and details to the enemy. Those at the top in the State Dept, Dept of Defense and the White House (past, present and future) will pay no price for it. Not criminally, not civilly and not at the ballot box. What on earth is the point of outing corruption if the corruption will continue because we keep re-electing the corrupted? Who really is to blame? The powerful or those of us who keep them in power because we keep buying their BS? Instead, nothing came (or will come) of this other than Manning getting a 35 yr sentence and a few well-intentioned Iraqis and Afghans getting their heads lopped off.
“What on earth is the point of outing corruption if the corruption will continue because we keep re-electing the corrupted?”
Resistance in the face of seemingly overwhelming evil is so inspiring that it can move a whole people to reclaim their birthright of freedom, justice, self-determination, and accountable government. Private Manning is the epitome of ‘The Little Guy’ standing up against those who use fear to cudgel us into apathetic submission to the status quo.
^^^This. Every time someone resists, it proves to countless other people that resistance is possible.
As someone who grew up fairly sheltered and has been confused by trans pronouns in the past, I hope that the trans community understands that a lot of people use incorrect pronouns from a place of well-meaning ignorance, not out of any intent to injure anyone. Moving forward, I hope I can use correct pronouns, instead of awkwardly constructing sentences that eliminate pronouns altogether because I’m afraid of doing it wrong.
A sex change on the taxpayer? How original- NOT!
Beats the hell out of war on the tax payer.
Best comeback ever, Janet Planet! 🙂
Aaaaaand Ben Afleck is Batman. Boo.
I’m so WTF on this, I can’t even be properly pissed off.
Why do prisoners take this procedure? Seems to be The popular thing for them at The moment
What? My dreams of having a Daredevil/Elektra sequel are crushed.
I wonder what they did to him…seems almost like mindcontrolishh ishhh.
@Why:
Private Chelsea Manning was imprisoned in solitary confinement, naked, and his prescription glasses were taken away – just like the conditions of Guantanamo Bay.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/manning-treatment-inhuman/
This person is brave – if the world had more brave people like this perhaps we wouldn’t have so many stupid ones; or wouldn’t follow the stupid ones as easily and blindly as we do.
I really hope that the focus on Manning’s sexuality doesn’t distract from the real content of what was revealed, and how the government has tried to hush it up, lie, and smear Manning. Here’s a good article on the situation:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/23/the-virtue-of-chelsea-manning/
Thank you, binturong, for a great link.
It’s a great read for this first quote alone – “Mr. Manning’s treatment has been intended to send a signal to people of conscience in the U.S. government who might seek to bring wrongdoing to light.”
Yeah for the most Part everyone on the site is warm towards Chelsea’s choice I thought I was going to have to lay down the smack down on some people but I don’t. I have a few very close trans friends one started his hormone therapy last week and broke the news to his dad yesterday. So it crushes me when I hear horrible comments like on some if not most other sites. Even if we can’t agree on the political semantics the human aspect of this is really important.
I can’t believe the world we live in today. There is so much grey area when it comes to right and wrong. So much greed, corruption, and warmongering. Why anyone would want to bring more children into it is beyond me.
Hope. They bring children into it because they HOPE.
Life is beautiful and gorgeous in many many respects. Here in America we allow our issues and problems and endless TV blather to take over our minds and our lives. I havent owned a tv in 13 years and couldnt be more happy. Our government will never change. Go and enjoy your life. In this crappy world you must find your own joy.