I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: QUIET RIOT-“Cum on Feel the Noize” (1983).

I heard this song on  the radio the other day.  When it came out, I rushed out to buy it…it was one of the first metal albums I was going to buy.  I went to the local Pathmark (!) and the total of the album came to $6.66 (!).  How cool! How metal!

I loved this song so much.  But now 26 years later (!), it’s just kind of embarrassing (although not as embarrassing as their outfits in the video!).

By the way, who was the first band to have a clap along drum and vocals only part in a rock song anyhow?  They have a lot to answer for in the 80s metal department.

[READ: August 12, 2010] “In the Line of Duty” [excerpt]

Yes, this is General David McChrystal, who gave the unprecedented interview in Rolling Stone which got him fired.

McChrystal was managing editor of The Pointer, the literary magazine of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where this was published in 1974. I admit I would not have read this if it weren’t McChrystal (I don’t really like military fiction).

This was  a really good piece.  It concerns an officer named Gewissen (a fascinating name which means either Conscience or Certain, depending on the part of speech) in an unspecified country where there are Arabs (but not oil-rich Arabs like he’d expected).

A young civilian boy is shot, effectively torn in half, and Gewissen goes to investigate.  The soldiers who shot the boy say they were doing their duty.  Gewissen ponders the meaning of duty.  And when Gewisen’s Lt. Col. dresses him down, Gewissen wonders aloud about their duty to the boy they are there to protect.

It was very well-written and surprisingly thought-provoking.  I don’t know how long the full story is, (it’s obviously left unfinished), but if it wasn’t too much longer I’d be interested in reading it.

Huh, and in fact the entire piece (the entire issue, in fact) is available here.