They even have a knitting song "Oh so why do I swim through seas so arctical" one of the lines asks

[lapsedmodernist]

I think I have lost my mind, which has been a recurrent somatization, brought about by reading the news, since 2001.

But today, maybe it was first reading about how Walter Reed was privatized by a Halliburton subsudiary, the same one that didn't get ice to Katrina victims, and then reading insightful commentary re: WR on conservative blogs along the lines of "this is what you get when you get socialized medicine"

and THEN coming across this...which...I don't understand. This is beyond ironiagnosia. I just don't understand. What does this article mean? Did I hallucinate it?



A group of women gathered Friday at the Bainbridge Island Senior Center.

They are part of a knitting group growing across the United States.

It only It looks like a knitting club.

This is much more than knit one, purl two. This is politics.

"The whole problem of putting them on the dolphins is one of the things we have to consider in the future. It's an interesting thought," said Jan Bailey, one of the knitters.

The women are knitting sweaters for warm-water bottlenose dolphins. The Navy wants to put them on Homeland Security patrol here.

One of the knitters Karin Beran says that's cruel, but says the dolphins will know what to do with the sweaters.

"Well, I guess the dolphins are so smart, so they can figure it out, if and how and when. I'm just happy to knit for them," Beran said.

They've thought of everything. Susan Scheirman showed me a multi-colored yarn.

"We've imported camouflage yarn for these local dolphins," she said, "so they don't become subject to any kind of terrorism."


The song (see title) makes it very Zovietgeist, somehow, but beyond that...

I keep thinking of some comparison, allusion, metaphor, anything to put it in context and make is make some kind of sense in my poor brain, but no.

The Zeitgeist-engineered Total Semiotic Implosion is now complete.

Tra-la-la-la Arf.

Comments

[already2late.livejournal.com]

That makes my head hurt.

[dfordoom.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what the article means, but it certainly scares me. I have a feeling that if I did understand it, it would scare me even more.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Dolphin wingnuttery is one of my favorite types of wingnuttery.

http://gordonzola.livejournal.com/79727.html#cutid1

[nunofthat.livejournal.com]

Mine too!

http://nunofthat.livejournal.com/70499.html

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

I can't help but wonder at the knitters' priorities, a little. Granted, this administration is fractally fucked up, so you can examine any part of it and it's as fucked up as the whole thing except on a smaller scale, but still. Is this particular protest the best use of limited resources...?

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

Point well taken. It wasn't their tactics so much as their choice of issue. If forcing dolphins to swim in cold water was the only evil thing our government was doing, I'd be all for protesting it, but on any given weekday (and most weekends!) we currently kill more human beings than all the exposed dolphins put together.

On the other hand, if they don't protest it, who will? Sigh.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Well, they've got plenty of attention by the looks of it.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

THIS ARTICLE IS SO SHITTILY WRITTEN I DIDN'T EVEN COMPREHEND THIS WAS A PROTEST.

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking of some comparison, allusion, metaphor, anything to put it in context and make is make some kind of sense in my poor brain, but no.

Schweet! Now we just need to figure out how to cover them with armor plates and get them addicted to smack! (From my favorite semi-legal Russian online library, natch.)

[contrasoma.livejournal.com]

Uhf. I think that article gave me a nosebleed.

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

I *think* the women are making a gesture of protest (against cruelty to dolphins) by maximially pointless knitting. My evidence for this is their own website, plus that they are based in Vermont..

[nerak-g.livejournal.com]

Uhm....and what was that about dolphins being caught in tuna nets? So what if the yarn unravels or comes off (never mind it getting wet, useless gesture) and creatures choke on it?

Even more, the first couple of links make my arteries feel like they're gonna burst.

[nearly-there.livejournal.com]

Wow, that article is inept. Mentioning somewhere that the knitters see their gesture as "... more of a tragic irony - and not nearly as preposterous as being expected to believe that dolphins can be transported and kept humanely alive in such relatively frigid waters" (quote from their website) would have been more than a little bit useful to readers. Hrmph.

Of course, it says something about the state of the world that I was perfectly willing to believe that these people were delusional enough to knit sweaters for dolphins in all seriousness.

Sigh.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Of course, it says something about the state of the world that I was perfectly willing to believe that these people were delusional enough to knit sweaters for dolphins in all seriousness.


yes. and the copy is written poorly enough that I didn't understand that this was not the case.

HEADS WILL ROLL.

[congogirl.livejournal.com]

The article is horrendous.

As for the knitters, at least they are trying to make a statement.

I think the criticism of use of limited resources is unfounded. This group is doing what it already does anyway, but trying to make a point while they are at it. Good for them for getting WaPo press.

[slowbob.livejournal.com]

my face just blowed up

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

The lies about "socialist medicine" always make me bananas.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

yes, especially when it is clear that the hospital was NOT run by the government, but WAS PRIVATIZED.

[ohbusiness.livejournal.com]

It's an article that is trying to both reveal how adorable these extreme protesters are and also explain how extreme the abhorable homeland security force is, but it can't decide which part is the actual story. It also reads like a choppy amatuer news story with lots of soundbites and cuts to random things, almost as if this is just the text of a radio news story or something.