Truly Divine
The dictionary has many definitions for the word, they include
* Having the nature of or being a deity
* Of, relating to, emanating from, or being the expression of a deity
* Being in the service or worship of a deity; sacred
* Superhuman; godlike
* Supremely good or beautiful; magnificent
* Extremely pleasant; delightful
* Heavenly; perfect
The “divine” is a spiritual concept — not normally something associated with violent events, unless of course you happen to be a religious extremist, or in this case the US military.
They’re calling the test of 700 tonnes of explosives in Nevada Divine Strake – a name that provides us with more than a little insight into what they hold sacred.
Maybe it’s a tribute to the dogshit-eating transvestite star of John Waters’ “Pink Flamingoes”? It is just outside Las Vegas, after all…
“Hold these Chickens!”
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
There’s only two kinds of people, Miss Sandstone. My kind of people…and ASSHOLES! Eat the Bird, Bitch!!
They don’t make films like they used to, that’s for sure.
I’m afraid I don’t follow you SL. Things that burn powder and make noise definitely fall into the category of “Extremely pleasant, delightful.”
Heh.
Hmm…I wonder if I can get tickets–or maybe find a live video feed on the ‘net.
The comments, and lack there of, are actually quite telling. I wonder…. if a certain country that the US is currently shaking it’s sword at were to do the same sort of grand (or even not so grand) test with the same sort of religious code name what those responses might be?
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think my response would be pretty much the same SL.
I mean, if you want to make allegations of blasphemy against GWB and his crew for using what you consider an offensive code name, it’s your website–just don’t expect your readers (or anyone else) to take it seriously–as the posts above show.
Just applying some tough love.
Sorry, SL, but I’m with RJ: I find it difficult to evoke much righteous indignation about this one. Some low level bureaucrat came up with what he thought was a cool sounding name for the exercise: I don’t think this tells us much about the Great American Spiritual Zeitgeist.
I’m more curious about the word “strake”, a charming archaism I know from my wreck diving: it refers to a line of hull planking extending the full length of a vessel.
I wonder if the anonymous bureaucratic poet was trying to evoke “Divine Wind”, the english translation of “Kamikaze”?
Divine Strake
Strake: straightedge used for levelling a bed of sand, a aerodynamic surface generally mounted on the fuselage of an aircraft.
Sounds like a Divine, Flying, Sand leveller !!
Strake also apparently is an archaic form of streak.
Divine Streak – lightning bolts from heaven, anyone?
Or it could be a typo. “Divine Strike” has a nice ring to it.