Because I haven't started a meme in ages...

Listening to a CD I burned for use when working on VicMage.Asia stuff (specifically the song "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart), I found myself thinking about RL heroes of mine, and what they had in common, if anything. Since I've only had one cup of coffee this morning I gave up trying to ferret out anything in particular and figured I'd just list a bunch of 'em, and why I was fond of each one. Who knows, someone might pick it up. In no particular order:

1. Ernest Shackleton, who had a goal and gave his all to try and reach it - but rather than see the people who trusted in him die, turned about and endured freezing hell in an open boat to save them. And did. Every last one.
2. John Henry, of the American folktale, who fought for the dignity of the working man - of the human being - even though it cost him his life to make his point.
3. The women of Nigeria who shamed Shell Oil, and a few other companies, into hiring their men and providing services to their workers by threatening to go naked through the town. For showing that there is more than one way to turn an oppressor around, so long as there is something human left in that oppressor.
4. Wang Weilin, the student who walked in front of the Tiananmen Square tanks - same reason.
5. Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross Movement (there was no Red Crescent in his day) - for taking the greatest horror he had ever seen, the Battle of Solferino, and using its memory to build something he believed could change the world.
6. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, for turning from perceived safety to the cause of the people he was supposed to serve, and speaking for them even though it would (and did) cost him his life.
7. Argo the dog, of the Odyssey, who would not be moved from his post until the return of the master he loved. Because, dammit, that was what he was supposed to do. Penelope, Odysseus' wife, comes a close second to this; she gains extra points for cleverness within an oppressive system, using the only options available to someone in her gender/marital roles.
8. Sima Qian, most stubborn academic in the history of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. Spoke up for a general who had incurred imperial disfavour, was condemned to the socially unspeakable shame of castration, but endured it because he had a Work that he had sworn to finish rather than die - and did.
9. Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden. A diplomat with no particular ties to the Jewish people, no particular industrial or financial interest in their welfare - but was sufficiently disturbed by the behavior of the Third Reich that he risked his status, his position, and his life on numerous occasions to provide false documents and testimonials on behalf of individual Jews, to get them out alive. Close second: an Italian urologist whose name eludes me, but who is memorialized in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, for writing out several hundred certificates swearing up and down that the bearer was circumcised as part of cancer treatment and should not under any circumstances be considered Jewish. Now that is the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath.
And finally, 10. St. Lawrence, of Roman Catholic lore. It's said that Lawrence was martyred by fastening him to a gridiron to be roasted alive over a blazing fire - and that when this happened, Lawrence's last known words to his murderers were, "Turn me over, I am done on this side." The man had fidelity to what he truly believed, endurance in the face of torture, and style and a sense of humour. You have got to admire someone with enough sangfroid to pull that off when he's being roasted alive.

Not a whole lot of women on the list, and I'm sorry for that, but these are the people who came to mind for me, specifically. Your mileage, quite naturally, may vary.

I need more coffee.

This is why

you should fear quintus... this is a sport where he comes from.

Schoolboy is champion bog snorkeller

The challenge for the bog snorkellers is to swim the length of a trench cut through a peat Waen Rhydd bog. Equipped with snorkel and flippers, the entrants are required to finish two lengths of the 60 yard, four feet deep trench, but they must not employ conventional swimming strokes in doing it. As well as the icy cold water and zero visibility, they have to deal with reeds and the gluey mud at the bottom of the trench.

In honour of this today's pulp survival tip is #27. Learn to swim. (Even if your movie takes place in the desert.)

Oh, gods...

If you haven't seen these yet, I almost envy you. Really.

White House: Bush Has Authority to Attack Iraq - CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush's lawyers believe he has authority to attack Iraq without asking Congress, the White House said on Monday, but Democrats urged the president not act without seeking approval.

Cheney Lays Out Case for Pre-Emptive Action on Iraq - NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday laid out the White House's case for pre-emptive action against Iraq, citing mortal danger to the United States and labeling critics as guilty of "willful blindness."

Jesus Christ. Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ. Sweet merciful mother of Buddha. What the hell is wrong with this man? These men? Isn't it enough that they've been jerking every emotional, social, political, and financial string they possibly can to get whatever they want since September 11th? Now they have to turn around, rape the Constitution based on 'a congressional vote authorizing the 1991 Gulf War and an anti-terrorism resolution passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States... [and Dubya's] position as commander-in-chief to send troops into action without an act of war'?

Are their dicks too small, is that it? "Gosh, the economy's still in the toilet even though I've been yacking my head off about it for nearly a year now. Hmm, maybe instead of actually doing anything that gives people any kind of confidence that the corporate executives who did weaselly things are going to be punished in any way, shape or form, I'll wave Li'l Dubya around so that every one of our allies will be forced to reassess why they ever wanted to deal with us, then announce that there's a bright shiny new demon that my daddy never finished killing, then take resources we don't have available and lives we can't spare to go and fight a war that I don't intend to actually PROVE to the American public is necessary! I'll just tell them it is! Then I'll have my buddies label anyone who doesn't approve a traitor, enemy combatant, non-citizen, or wilfully blind! Yeah, that's the ticket! And if that doesn't restore the American economy, then I'll pull another highly questionable election - assuming I decide to let people have a real election at all, because it's just too dangerous to chance that kind of chaos during a really pointless war based on hysterical fears I raised myself without presenting reasonable proof to the very people I'm supposed to be leading!"

There's no way to stop this man, is there? He doesn't give a rat's ass about the Constitution, about the other branches of the government, about his own freakin' party, about our international reputation, about the American people - any of it. Nope. He wants his goddamn war and his goddamn power and he's going to get it if he has to rip out every last shred of procedure and reason in the National Archives, then put the pages back together in an order that makes sense to HIM.

How do you stop someone who isn't willing to listen? Not even to his own allies! He's ignoring everything that's supposed to stop him!

To reference the post I did this morning about heroes, please look at #3, the Nigerian women. Their tactics, and Wang Weilin's, worked... because there was something human left in the people they confronted.

Is there anything at all left in Bush, or Cheney, or Ashcroft, that will listen? Anything?

And why doesn't LJ have an icon for 'despairing'?