the suppliants

Comprehensive News Source on Mexico's Drug War

The Los Angeles Times has a project called "MEXICO UNDER SIEGE:  The Drug War At Our Doorstep" and it looks to be a very well-presented, information-rich and constantly updated news and information source on the Drug War.  In the photo above is Laura Zuniga, Miss Sinaloa and the Hispanoamerica Queen (until she was stripped of the crown yesterday), who was arrested on Christmas Eve in the company of drug runners.  Apparently she was going shopping with her drug kingpin boyfriend ($53,000 US dollars were found in the vehicle along with a number of assault rifles and pistols) when they were stopped at a military checkpoint.  She is a sad example of how deeply the reach of the Drug Cartels has become in Mexican culture.  Some may wonder why this former elementary-school-teacher-turned beauty queen would get mixed up with such bad company.  But in reality she is nothing more than a pawn, a prize - a narco boss with a shapely 23-year old beauty queen on his arm makes him look pretty powerful.  Whether the beauty queen was participating voluntarily with the drug cartel or whether they forced her into their company by intimidation or threats to kill her family is not yet known.  What is known, however, is that the drug cartels these days are vying among each other to see who can cherry pick the prizes this country has to offer.      

Warfare & the Soul of Man

What does war do to the soul of man? 

This is one of the many questions concerning the human soul explored by Homer's Iliad.  What does it mean to be trained to kill another person and then to actually, with one's own hands, take the life of another human being?  What are the consequences of such an act to our personhood?  In addition to The Iliad, Stanley Kubrick's 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket also deftly explores these questions.  In one scene, Joker,  the protagonist of the film, has an interesting conversation with a helicopter gunship door gunner as the gunner mows down Vietnamese civilians with his M60.  Listen to the gunner's answer when Joker asks him how he can kill woman and children...
So what is it with these door gunners anyway...?

A U.S. Army helicopter gunner, his helmet face painted as a skull, awaits soldiers to board his Chinook transport helicopter October 30, 2008 for transport out of the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents had attacked a nearby U.S. Army outpost, and the Americans responded with machine guns, mortars and helicopter gunships. (John Moore/Getty Images)