Do No Evil – Rise of the Weak: When faced with cave-dwelling terrorists, we've become shrieking cowards who are willing to trade our Constitution, our freedoms & our souls in exchange for a Nanny State Fatherland.
Poppy, I don't know if it will do any good for any American to read this. They just don't care any more. Especially the rich. They have outsourcing and if there are less of us natural born citizens here alive the more their dream of turning this place in to a resort for the rich becomes reality.
Well, you and I care, and I know there's a few others out there. My hope is that the numbers will grow. But you're right, the odds are definitely against us...
The smart cards with chips in them are coming and the internment camps are made, set up in isolated areas. If one doesn't carry their card, one will be suspected of being a terrorist. Many Americans don't know this and consequently are apathetic to what needs to be done.
Our soldiers are dying in vain and the ones that come back in dire need of help are neglected.
I care too. It's hard to believe that ALL of this has happened in less then 8 years.
You wouldn't think that something that take 230 years to create could be distroyed in less then 8 years. Remarkable!
it DIDN'T just happen in the last eight years!
The premise of this article is good, but it turned out to be just another liberal, anti-Bush screed.
The problems and the erosions of our liberties are systemic and the Bill of Rights has been attacked from both sides of the aisle.
Both democrats and republicans happily gutted the fourth amendment (unreasonable search and seizure) first in the
name of wiping out the mafia, then extending it to the "war on drugs" and finally, allowing asset forfeiture for nearly anything, to say nothing of thinking its a great idea to search everyone and their luggage when boarding a plane or going to a large gathering (such as a concert or amusement park)>
The left has been largely responsible for the decimation of the fifth amendment (and still cheer for it and tell those of us who disagree that we are foolish). You know -- the one about self-incrimination-- the DUI laws REQUIRING a breath test if a cop decides he wants you to take one, mandatory drug testing for truck drivers, pilots and trickling down to nearly everyone (except for gov't workers-like cops and firemen== who when originally were going to be required to be drug tested protested that they didn't want to be treated "like second class citizens"),
I think that the US is coming down the other side of the hill and that we are losing our pre-eminence. The 20th century was the American century. The 21st century - Asia? Europe?
China.
China's too oppressive and authoritarian.
I vote for India.
You obviously know nothing of India's Hindu caste system. People are deemed "Untouchables" simply because of the families they are born into and they are treated from birth to death as quite literally untouchable. They are permitted only the lowliest, filthiest and most degrading of jobs. It is a religious culture rife with irrational prejudice and bigotry worthy of the most scathing human rights condemnation yet, by the likes of you, it is given a free pass because it is "religion." A religion of that incomprehensible, nonsensical, Eastern mystical kind that the West likes to ignorantly fawn over. And, also according to you, because it isn't China.
For whatever potential greatness India could possibly achieve it will always be held back by one of the world's most ignorant and oppressive religions for as long as it continues to adhere to it.
In the future history will will probably be taught in the same way as today.
"Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies..."--comments from a review of "Lies My Teacher Told Me"
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?isbn=0684...
Our story will probably be among them somewhere.
History will show that Pax Americana and globalization worked superbly for over 60 years... particularly well over the last quarter century. The coming election will be pivotal as to whether the U.S. truly has lost its will and confidence to continue to lead the world. Will we turn in on ourselves and abrogate unprecedented world peace and prosperity to the sort of fratricidal tribalism and regionalism that characterized Europe in the first half of the last century?
Its having worked superbly for over 60 years is entirely relative and dependent on one's perspective. If you are American that may well be the case. If you are not American you may beg to differ.
The Romans and the British felt much the same way about their empires too. Evidence that ignorance can be bliss.
Humandkind is now more at peace than at any time in history. The standard of living of the entire globe has advanced beyond the wildest dreams of anyone apprehending such things a half century ago. The integration of Europe, at the behest America's velvet lined iron fist, is an excellent example of an incontrovertible positive. Our motives? Perhaps we wanted markets for our goods and services? Perhaps we wanted to stop feeding hundreds of thousands of Americans into the jaws of Europe's fratricidal warfare? But, to borrow a phrase from my son, "it's all good!" And, if part of the glue that holds Europe together is a common dislike of Americans, I'd say it's still all good. I'd rather that than going through what we did in the first half of the last century.
There is a qualitative and quantitative difference between Pax Americana and the empire building of the Romans, the British, and others through history. Those differences may be subtle, but they are real nonetheless.
fta
- A permanent war economy took the place of ordinary economic output.
- "War is peace!" said George Orwell in irony.
- "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace," said George W. Bush in 2002, without a shred of irony.
then there's this.
"Global income inequality is probably greater than it has ever been in human history...... Currently, the richest 1% of people in the world receives as much as the bottom 57%.
....the richest 25% of the world's population receives 75% of the world's income, even when adjusting for Purchasing Power Parity. The poorest 75% of the population share just 25%."
http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/income.php
It is only more dangerous because far more people (and nations) are living at a far higher standard of living than previously and, from the fact that that higher standard is derived from carbon based fuels, namely oil. The world economy requires that oil flow in very large quantities EVERY DAY. The biggest immediate threat to world peace right now would come from the disruption of Middle Eastern oil supplies. The longer term, yet equally insidious, threat to world peace is the growing temptation by politicians to invoke protectionist policies for short term political gain.
In regard to the numbers living in abject poverty today. It is a pretty fair bet that simply counting the development of only China and India, comprising over 2 billion people, obviates that statement.
You prove my point that ignorance can be bliss. You are that evidence I spoke of with your denials and rationalisations plucked out of thin air. Although you would be far more honest in saying that your conscience could not care less and echo Barbara Bush whose "beautiful mind could not be bothered with it all."
"....the richest 25% of the world's population receives 75% of the world's income, even when adjusting for Purchasing Power Parity. The poorest 75% of the population share just 25%."
And yet billions of the world's poor live at so much higher a standard of living than they ever have in human history. Go figure. It would seem that income inequality has very little, if any, effect on overall humankind's standard of living. Could it be that the correlation is counter-intuitive or, at the very least, the qualitative aspects of income inequality are of greater importance than the quantitative?
I agree with what you are saying to a point. Yes the standard of living globally has increased for even the poorest of people, but it still sucks to be poor. We, in this Nation at least, in our own arrogance, conceit, and pomposity throw away more in the way of resources than we consume when there is absolutely no reason for us to do so.
You don't get out much do you? Many people have lower standards of living now than any time since the great depression. Some places in the world report a 25% inflation rate on food alone, the US was listed at 5% and Canada at .5%. The US is the chain around the rest of the world's neck pulling their economies down because of poor government performance and blatant imperialism.
Better yet, what will history have to say when those cave-dwelling terrorists (many of whom we have educated in our own universities) manage to set ojf some sort of WMD in a few of our cities and they look back at folks like here who dismissed the possibility as impossible.
No, it's not impossible, just improbable. Do you ever ask why they hate America so much, and what's more important, do you ever try to answer it honestly? Do you really believe that they hate America because of its freedom?
The way I see it, the surest way of staying safe is by making as few enemies as possible. Designating countries as the axis of evil and attacking other countries unprovoked is not that path. They hate America because the US is trying to control the whole world and, being the strongest, it just takes what it wants. If the US interfered in fewer countries affairs, it would have fewer enemies.
you know, Candida, making as few enemies as possible and letting other countries do what they want because it's not our place to interfere is exactly Neville Chamberlain's view of the world -- remember -- Peace at all cost? Do you remember that little altercation that THAT philosophy led to? I believe it was called World War 2...
Ideally, I would agree with you, and if everyone else also meant well, it would work, but unfortunately, I DO believe that the fundamental Islamists hate America because of it's freedoms and what it sees as our infidel ways. Why do I believe this -- BECAUSE THEY SAID SO!!!
Now, do I believe that we should all be treated as suspected criminals whenever we board a plane or go to a concert? No -- most of our anti-terrorist actions are feel good crap that just inconveniences everyone and makes no one safer. There are more subtle ways to safeguard ourselves...and don't even get me started on the Jersey barrriers all over DC!!!.
Sorry, but your argument citing Neville Chamberlain rings more than a little hollow.
Your comment about the beliefs of the fundamental Islamists shows that you comprehend very little, if anything, about what motivates them. They don't hate us because of the freedoms we have, rather they hate us because, in our arrogance, we assume that we and only we know what is right for them and everyone else in the world when such is not the case.
Why do you think my comment about Chamberlain is hollow? Did he not bend over backward to accomodate nearly everyone and to let Hitler and Mussolini do their own thing because it didn't affect England? Did he not negotiate endlessly with Hitler?
Nearly no one considered what Chamberlain was doing as appeasement and and a bad idea until Hitler invaded Poland, and further, if Chamberlain HAD stopped Hitler before or as he took over Austria and the Sudatenland, Hitler would have been a penny-ante thug and Chamberlain STILL would have been a bad guy-- cuz we never would have had to see how bad Hitler really was. He was truly in a no-win situation.
Okay, I apologize... you know more about their reasons than they do...
how foolish of me to take what they say as what they mean. I will, in the future defer to you to translate what they said, into the subtext of what they really mean, because obviously they are too stupid to know why they hate us?
Go read up on history before you try to use it as an example to prove a point. Chamberlain did try to settle things with diplomacy, but he also prepared his country for war. Now what I find funny is how Americans belittle Chamberlain when they didn't have the balls to enter the war for three years and even then it was because Germany declared war on them and not the other way around. It's easy to sit back and miss quote history, you are smart enough to know the difference though.
I agree ... with 120 military bases in the world, I'd say that is a lot of interference and they are there to prop up petty dictators and get the resources of those countries...all for the rich and their shareholders. America is no longer a democracy anyway. It is a scam. America is decaying quickly trying to forestall the inevitable. 40% or more now of America's economy is driven by war and defense spending!!
I don't have to "ask". I lived and worked there for the better part of 10 years. #1 "They" hate America because their government & government run media train them to do so รข;; and please don't give me the "we do the same" nonsense. Children's TV shows (just one example) that laud jihad and teach that Jews are sub-human and Americans are devils is on a scale of its own. #2 Because morally they are horridly offended by the debauchery of our culture and believe that if unstopped it will eventually destroy theirs. #3 Our messed up foreign policy (messed up because it has no consistency from one administration to another other than individual meatheads it supports).
"The surest way of staying safe is by making as few enemies as possible." Would that that were true. A woefully naive point of view that ignores the fact that evil & evil people exist in large numbers in the world. That same mentality allows people to witness muggings and do nothing but cross to the other side of the street.
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How history is written depends a whole bunch on who is writing it. It well may be written in chineese, they own a big share of the late, great United States......
Like Orwell said:
"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."
The people of this country have the power to take back the control of our government, and we should do it before it totally takes over us.
the Chinese own a big part of the USA now.It is too sad that we have given up many of our liberties for a concocted security especially since the physical evidence points to the attacks of 9/11 being an inside job or at very least the Administration was complicit in the events.
After all it was only about "oil" and greed
The tinfoil hat you got from Jiffy isnt working...Another truffer huh?
You have some interesting things to say and some I happen to agree with, however, with out any links to reputable sites you are completely lacking in credibility.