FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Pentagon Protester of the Week- In Absentia

NOTE:  For those who don't know,  every Monday morning the Pentagon allows only the biggest idiots best and brightest dissenters to post up on the grassy area by the Metro entrance escalators and display their signs. 

Protester of the Week

This entry is for a protester two week ago…there is no winner this week since yesterday the 6 protesters were just standing around in a circle holding hands in what I would assume would be prayer but it could have also been some new age witchcraftish cult circle in which they were calling upon the dead spirits of hippies/protesters past…needless to say, I expect a little more emotion from them in the future if they wish to be ridiculed commented upon by me.


Without further ado:

This morning there was a slight bite to the air as I rose from the warm arms of mother metro to the Pentagon entrance.  I saw that the weather had kept some of the fair-weather protesters away, but 4 ardent lunatics citizens had grabbed their umbrellas and galoshes and showed up to make my morning. 

IN AN UNPRECEDENTED MOVE BY FUUO the winner this week was not physically present (read on for the reveal)!

However, the winner’s father stood with his graying goatee underneath a blue and yellow umbrella (perhaps a sly nod to the Navy blue and gold?…maybe a secretive, desperate plea to the military to free him from the manacles of the vicious protesting cycle in which he has found himself enslaved) with a sign that stated:

No weapons in Space

In and of itself this is not a very maniacal or controversial statement, after all we hardly get our own astronauts into space anymore, let alone weapons…so I am not sure if this is a plea/protest or merely a taunt?
However, it was not the message itself that won me over—what sealed it for me was that despite his anti-american self-hatred communism political convictions he was not above a little child labor.  And who doesn't love that.

Because there was no way a fully functioning adult made this sign. 

Only the imagination and genius of a child could have thought to create the stars that twinkled throughout his sign—clear indications of the ‘space’ spoken in the sign.  And of course, without these stars, I would have been forever haunted with uncertainty as to whether the protester meant ‘outer space’ or was referring to the more general ‘communal space’

I have attempted to recreate this sign for my readers.  Believe me though, it doesn’t even come close to doing justice but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.  

Protesting aside:  there was another sign that stated:  “Weapons make some rich and others dead”…while true, the same could be said about McDonalds, cigarettes, base jumping, skateboarding, boxing, sex, pig farming, magic markers etc…I would encourage this protester to get a little more specific on future signs if he hopes to make an impact.

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