Friday, February 16, 2007
You know, from Stripes?
Cruiser: I joined the army 'cause my father and my brother were in the army. I figured I better join before I got drafted.
Sergeant Hulka: Son, there ain't no draft no more.
Cruiser: There was one?
Sergeant Hulka: Son, there ain't no draft no more.
Cruiser: There was one?
That's what I thought of reading this odd ending to a story about Ricky Martin flashing the bird and talking about George Bush at one of his concerts. I really couldn't care less about Martin, but I did think the final paragraph of this AP piece with "background" on Puerto Rico was kind of odd: Ricky Martin defends obscene, anti-Bush gesture
...Puerto Rico's 4 million people are U.S. citizens and can be drafted into the military but cannot vote for president and have no voting representation in Congress. They also do not pay federal taxes.
"Can be drafted?" Wow. Who knew?
Perhaps the article meant to say that Puerto Rican men are required to register for the draft?
I think it was an awkward way of saying that Puerto Ricans would be subject to a draft if there were one -- just sort of lazy boiler-plate that probably doesn't have much ulterior motive. It just shows how this stuff can contain a message without being overt or even intentional.