Your Right To Be An Idiot
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Actually, what I was shooting for in my response to the whole GWB == more evil than terrorists post was that there are countries that are a whole lot worse than the US, even if you count us losing freedoms every day (which I'm still not 100% convinced of, but that's off topic). I don't hold that Islam is the worst thing out there, but I will say that your freedom to express yourself under what passes for most Islamic governments is a whole lot less than that under the US, even under that most horrible, evil man GWB. I also think that non-Islamic countries are worse than the US in terms of freedom - see Vietnam, Korea, or China for some wonderful examples of free speech at its finest.
I just want us to really think before posting such things about how GWB/Kerry/Clinton/Cheney/Google/Alito/CurrentPoliticalTarget is worse than anything else on the face of the earth. We all have our likes and dislikes for politics, but I think a realistic view would say that our freedoms under any of the recent presidents is still a whole lot better than what other people enjoy in other countries.
We also have the ability in the USA to elect new representatives and new leaders. You don't like the current president? Vote for someone else and/or ask your reps to impeach him. Don't like your reps? Recall vote or vote for someone else. The options are there to use. You won't get thrown in jail or executed for using them.
-Pete
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Stephen - I agree in entirety with your first three paragraphs..as for "feeling safe" - you have to speak for yourself...I work within spitting distance of the pentagon and I still see people cringe everytime a plane flies overhead or the building alarm goes off...
re:"we still have that freedom, most people just choose not to exercise it."...maybe then most people are just exercising their right to be idiots eh ?!?! Who says leaders have sole monopoly over such rights...right ?! RIGHT ?!
sswords - just to let you know that I've had "state of fear" since last christmas but have only now found the time for it....am enthralled and can barely put it down to do an honest day's work - between that and SSC I have little time to earn my bacon...as for the war on terrorism having only just begun...es verdad!! That - I think is an absolute fact!
GPF - I'm still reeling from the shock of hearing you say that "GWB has done a reasonable job"...You have soooo fallen from the pedestal...and it was a very high one too...forget about the napkin..think I'm going to throw in the towel...
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
This is definitely off topic, but I'm glad you're enjoying the book. If you don't like it, I promise either to refund your purchase price, or to change my sig line back to something more 'Pythonish'.
And just for the record, I wasn't particularly picking on Dubya with my last comments. IMHO pretty much since the second world war, our incursions into other countries for the most part have been increasingly less about protecting freedom and more about protecting the economic or political interest du jor. My two cents for the afternoon.
My hovercraft is full of eels.
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"Arrggggh! So we averted a religious war only to start a political one?"
sorry.
"I just want us to really think before posting such things about how GWB/Kerry/Clinton/Cheney/Google/Alito/CurrentPoliticalTarget is worse than anything else on the face of the earth."
i see it like this: badness = (will to do evil) X (power to follow through with it)
nobody in the world is, at this moment, more powerful than the president of the united states; his motives are questionable at best. so he wins IMHO.
"We all have our likes and dislikes for politics, but I think a realistic view would say that our freedoms under any of the recent presidents is still a whole lot better than what other people enjoy in other countries."
ok, again i'm sorry i dragged more into this than the original topic. yes, we still have most of our freedom of speech, and the broken pieces of the other freedoms we have left still beat those in north korea.
-- Stephen Cook
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I'm with sushila:
"GPF...I disagree that all non-islamic people are hated equally...I think Americans rank high on the Islamic madrasas and their practice target boards..the trainee jihadists most definitely have a "hate America" chip implant set to "high priority"..."
We're number one! We're number one! Oh, wait, ... sigh...
There is no "i" in team, but idiot has two. -
I see, since there are various degrees of hatred... like the layers of hell in dantes inferno... that means the top one needs to change? OR is it the US has the most friendly media coverage for info from other countries....UBL reports from a cave... and it gets front page news... ??? Strikes me as odd. And that Saddam guy... unfortunately he forgot about the 'dont forget or execute the people close to you on the way up.. for others remember it on the way down' I always thought 'three kings' put a lot of that situation into perspective. But everyone hugs the 'oil crisis' which btw has been in the news since world war one. Odd the damn stuff still seems to be found, in vast quantities.
And we are just scratching the surface of hydrogen; next they will try to tell us there is a water crisis.
Shushy I think just wants a vegan / vegatarian in the White House and we all know those people dont have enough energy or mental faculties to form two words into a sentence let alone defend our respective countries.
And you got it wrong Canada is number one... number one at what i'm not sure...but we did take down the white house once... we all really feel bad about it.
. but you guys started it.
And further shushy i thought you were a recent addition to the melting pot... not to say you dont count .. but in the big scheme of things your vested interests will and or seem to lie aboard.
Almost non team playerish.
I think i gave more than two cents...
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Heh, we shouldn't hear from her again... I just called the cattle farmer association... they dont take shit from nobody.
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So what's your beef GPF ?!?! That I'm a recent addition to the melting pot so my voice shouldn't be as strong or that it's invasion of the vegetarians ?!
Anyway, from now on I'm going to exercise my right "to remain silent"..
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
mmmmm beef.....
You aint under arrest .. no need to be silent... your musings are enjoyable and tend to be near the top of heap.
I find it odd that people mistake the person for the policy; and other than wondering what does one do to decide whether a leader is doing a good job?
Name a country where the leader in power is amazing? Where everyone thinks they are a good person, fullfill their mandate (peopledate?) and not scorned by the media.
I dare anyone you.
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Hmm..I cannot, of course, name any leader who has been universally liked - not the Pope, not Gandhi - no one - but amongst the "bad guys" there's little to choose between the lot - from Saddam Hussein to Pol Pot to Milosevic to Idi Amin to Hitler - they're all much better feeding the worms than taking up space on earth...that being said - in all these cases (and more) the person WAS the policy....And in my personal (not so "h") opinion - only a handful of the hawks and their pre-emptive beliefs are responsible for the present situation in Iraq...
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
NO.
The present fact that Saddam... has had his opposition party murdered now its possible they might have been trying to assassinate him but whats a few bullets among colleages and that is what brought about his current situation. So.... I dont like GWB. so I shoot him with a cow or a crayon? Or just a womans wrath... is enough to skold him back into 'suffering' with the rest of us.
Regarding Saddam's trial, Odd, they want to have judge removed from his trial, because he might be prejudgial against him for Saddam's reguime beat him so bad he is left partially paralized.
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Doesn't our saying that the leader in power is amazing depend on the country you're living in?
Almost sounds like something out of Paranoia.... "The Computer is my friend. I would never say that the Computer is arbitrary or unfair."As for whether a leader's doing a good job - it's pretty obvious to me - if the leader's not doing what _I_ would do, then he/she is clearly not doing a good job and is unfit for ruling. After all, I'm much better qualified as a DBA to run a nation and much more knowledgeable than any mere politician. 😀
-Pete
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How can there be bad ones if there are no good ones to base it upon?
If they are all bad, then my point is made.
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They're not all bad...not everything is black and white...don't ignore the shades of grey for those make up the majority...
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
If you want see a leader who has done a good job, take a look at Alvaro Uribe, the current president of Colombia. Except for the paramilitaries, rebels and some corrupt political malcontents, he has the nearly the entire country behind him. During the past year his approval rating was up around 70% IIRC which I believe is historic. And the strength of their currency has continued to gain ground against the dollar, to the point where my money is worth about half of what it was when I first began to travel there 5 years ago.
Considering the political and economic turmoil that the country has gone through over the past 4 decades, this to me borders on astounding. Yes, there is still a lot of poverty and corruption in Colombia, and yes there is still a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built out. But overall the progress that I've seen personally over the last several years has been amazing. The way politics are going in South America, Colombia is probably now the staunchest ally of the US, and Uribe has been able to maintain good relations without becoming Dubya's lapdog. All of this I think is a tribute to his character as a leader as well as setting a true example of a public servant.
To me that's a democratic success story. Sad to say that it appears that most of the rest of South America seems to be headed down a more totalitarian and socialist path these days. It's also sad to say that US foreigh policy has had a lot to do with this direction IMHO. We in the US can't afford to ignore South America while we continue to fund expensive and, dare I say dubious incursions halfway across the globe.
(...steps into flame proof suit - I remembered to bring it today)
My hovercraft is full of eels.
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