Combat! - Page 113 of 406 - A blog by Dan Brooks

Friday links! Half-remembered pasts edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links July 3, 2015 1 Comment

Parker Posey in Kicking And Screaming

First of all, sorry for scaring everybody yesterday. I’m still vertiginous, and the Missoula health care system is still unwilling to care for my health on shorter notice than it takes to quit a job at Taco Bell, but I have not given up on life. One reason I will not just sicken and die is that I live in a tower of iron will. Remember the six months in 2007 when I broke my hand, dislocated my shoulder and tore my transverse abdominus? This is not as bad as that, although I’m pretty sure music was better then. It’s hard to remember, because drugs were better, too. Today is Friday, and I suspect that everything was easier in the past, but I can’t prove it. Won’t you compare epochs with me?

Combat! blog spins again, isn’t useful

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized July 2, 2015 2 Comments

There is no Combat! blog today, because vertigo came back. Maybe it’s just a brief dip in the upward-tending line of my recovery, and everything will be fine. Or maybe not. When you think about it, there’s no reason I shouldn’t just sicken and die. The important thing is that my doctor can’t see me until July 14, and no other doctor in Missoula covered by my insurance is taking new patients before September. So whatever happens will happen, and I will get better or not, and in the meantime I will keep not writing and not doing the fun things I planned to do this summer. I suppose I will keep throwing up, too, and continue to lose weight. There’s no reason it should ever stop, really. There’s no reason any doctor should be able figure out what is wrong with me, and there’s no reason what is wrong with me can’t just be everything—getting sick over and over for no particular reason but coincidence. There’s no reason I should be well. There’s no reason I should even be able to stand up. There’s no reason anything should get better, because fuck me, right? If you need me, I’ll be in my apartment, where it’s been record-hot all week for no reason at all, too. Don’t read this post aloud at my funeral.

Who gets to overrule democracy?

By Dan Brooks in Ethical Dilemmas July 1, 2015 1 Comment

Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina burns last night.

Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina burned last night.

Seven black churches in the South have burned down over the last ten days, although officials in Greeleyville, SC say that the fire at Mount Zion AME last night was probably accidental. It burned down during a storm, and “the accidental burning of churches is not uncommon across the US.” That’s one for Fodor’s. It seems possible that various white people in South Carolina, angry their legislature would have the audacity to take down a flag in response to the murder of nine black people, have set things right by terrorizing more black people. It’s a confident moral system that turns to arson. There’s no money in it. The people who do such things must be inordinately convinced of their own rightness.

Combat! blog returns from dead, rotates gently, pities self

By Dan Brooks in Existential Dilemmas June 30, 2015 5 Comments

The Epley Maneuver, which feels as good as it looks

Close observers of Combat! blog will note that it ceased to exist for the last several days. That’s because I have been what doctors call super fucked up. Two weeks ago today, I woke in a cold sweat with the room spinning about me. As is my practice in such situations, I vomited, went back to sleep, vomited, tried to work, vomited, and then conceded that maybe I should see a doctor. I am fully insured thanks to the dread Obamacare, but my doctor was booked for weeks, so I went to the clinic for people without insurance. They diagnosed me with an ear infection and prescribed antihistamines. I spent the next few days in bed and mostly recovered; I would get really dizzy and fall over if I looked down and to the left or if—heaven forfend—I rolled onto my left side in my sleep. But mostly I was okay.

Since 9/11, domestic terrorists have killed more Americans than jihadis

By Dan Brooks in War on Terror June 24, 2015 0 Comment

Dylann Roof, probable terrorist and worst thing that happened to Gold’s Gym

As you probably forgot, jihadis affiliated with Al-Qaeda killed more than 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. Since then, thwarting terrorism has been a top priority of American policy and discourse, and the country has agreed, kind of, that even longstanding interpretations of the Bill of Rights are less important than the threat posed by radical Islam. Also since then, self-proclaimed jihadis have killed 26 Americans, while domestic right-wing and anti-government terrorists have killed 48. Those numbers come from the Washington research group New America, as summarized by this article in the New York Times. Ask most candidates for public office, and Muslim terrorists are an existential threat to the United States. Ask law enforcement, and the bigger problem is right-wing extremists.