coldhearted scientist وداد

From a conversation I heard, there was this: referring to people killed in alcohol related car accidents, “that is just how we die here,” someone said. This was not a good Fourth of July because of the hot, rainy weather, because my car will not start, and because the one invitation I had was cancelled due to the rain.

Mostly, though, it was not good because a pall was cast over it last night. There was a reunion of sorts, to which I went because I am a well wisher, but whose guest list I had not made. Someone brought a friend who is an interrogator for the U.S. Army, working in Afghanistan, and who used this as an excuse to get incredibly out of line.

I missed the portions of the early evening when she did things such as approach my (shy, gay) colleague announcing that he might be gay but he was hot, that she had tits (sic), and that her pussy was moist (sic). (Yes, this was harassment, designed to make the person uncomfortable.) Evidently there was this and more, but I was at the other end of a long table.

When we moved to the bar she started telling me about her exploits and also her attitudes. I, who do know what the U.S. military is like and have spent time talking to many members of it over the years, was quite disturbed to find we now have people working in it who are so poorly trained as this person and who are so utterly unable to disguise their complete barbarism.

Then, she wanted to sit at a certain table, which was occupied. She insulted the man sitting at it and announced that he should vacate it for her because she was a sergeant in the U.S.A. He replied in mild tones that so had he been before separating from the armed forces. This outraged her, and she became dangerous. I am glad she was not armed.

The man had “disrespected” her and deserved to be “fucked up,” she said. “Blackjack! Blackjack!” she kept screaming. The venue emptied as her friends tried to usher her out; waiters and bartenders were frozen and seemed grateful that the rest of our group was not behaving in this way.

I know this woman’s name but not her unit. I want, mildly, to report her, although I doubt anything would come of it and I will not go out of my way to do so. She kept saying she was not telling us what she had done in Afghanistan but she told me much more than it was wise of her to have done.

She made Janis Karpinski look comparatively professional and also very reasonable. It is probably not a good diplomatic strategy to allow the world to know that people like this woman do not realize how barbaric they sound, or to make so public how poorly trained and also utterly depraved our actors really are.

Axé.