I am opening this blog primarily due to having been censored in another topic. A thoughtful (and possibly thought provoking) short reply to a post (not a flame) was deleted by Draginol, when there were replies that were much less relevant and more abusive above mine left standing. It made me think more generally about how censorship affects things in the real world.<B
Draginol.. Have you seen the movie yet (July 5th)? Come to think of it, have you even read any of of Mike's literature? ("Stupid White Men" or "Dude, Where's my country?" specifically?) Many of the facts in both are backed up by the BBC and other 'honourable' news organisations, in another 'contraversial' book - "Bushwacked" by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose. Recommended reading for anyone Bush allows a vote to
Is there any mention of improving public transport services, or even if it might only apply to certain types of fuel or customer? You know how these things pick up spin.
Nazi memorabilia is banned from sale in all EU countries I believe. Surely you don’t have a problem with that? Europeans don’t and most Germans really appreciate it I'm sure. I know a French judge blocked some access to parts of Yahoo! auctions, which is probably a bit extreme - but only Nazi sympathisers would want to buy Nazi objects, so why would anyone really want to sell Nazi memorabilia anyway? I know you have the "right" to, but hey.... that doe
Ooops. Sorry Jill! My mistake. KarmaGirl... I think we might sort of agree on this now? It’s just possible that Americans don’t really get our idealisms, and we don’t really get yours. It’s the "in-bred socialism" thing. Is cancer treatment that cheap there that you can just "pay" for it when you need it? I thought we were talking tens, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars for treatment. I dont have those kinds of savings.
Jill, that’s exactly my point about socialism; America isn’t a socialist country (one reason as to why we really differ and perhaps just don’t get this). In-bred socialism! Brad's other post re. The differences between Europe and USA goes in to this in much more detail. Its important to note that not all people in Europe are socialists, and even many Labour voters don’t like the term. How is this scenario fair?... I have paid insuran
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A very well written blog and very interesting to boot. Its great when people quote specific facts and sources, as you have done here. I have read quite a bit about the Libya fiasco over the last few weeks (mostly from the BBC website, and the Independent UK) and have found recent US claims that Libya's "coming clean" was due to fear of an "operation freedom" type affair on their own soil, extremely distasteful. I think that where policy works,
You say there is resentment for Jews, particularly in Europe... I'm from the UK, and I think you are wrong in what you say. People here rarely talk about "Jews". We do talk about Israel. There is definitley some resentment for the Israeli government, but not for the Jews. I would like to think that the actions of the Israeli government are not condoned by all of its citizens. There is a BIG difference. However bad the actions of some
Mr. Right... "However we must act when we can, as the 21st century must be about pre-emption than reaction." What makes you think that? It’s not true in many cases. Everything needs to be treated differently, with thought and more importantly, caution. We will end up as a world constantly living in fear of each other’s actions. Pre-emption.... is a very dangerous topic. When in the context of missile strikes its definitely not a good
Brad: Without going in to your personal salary information (unless you feel it necessary!), it would be interesting to know how many employees work for you at StarDock, and what kind of money you guys make. Are you a small business as in the US definition, (described as a company with up to 500 employees) or a small business in perhaps what most people might think of as a "small business" ... perhaps 3 - 20 employees? Its important to point ou
I think you will find that Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson) has a purple one too.
I do see your point, and sorry everyone... I wanted to try and stay away from the terrorism thing... Less terrorists on the streets is a good thing. But, does the military action have bad consequences... that actively encourage terrorism too? A sort of "its okay if they attack us, so it must be okay for us to attack them" revenge attitude in the minds of potential terrorists. Perhaps some terrorists are different to others..? <
Good in some ways at prevention, but in the end, they could quite easily kill us all. It makes me think about a great film staring Peter Sellers... "Dr Strangelove (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)." For those who haven’t seen it, the story goes that an insane American general shuts off all communications from his base, and tells all his soldiers that the Russians have attacked. He orders his aircraft, circling nea
Agreed, but so is fighting fire with fire. Sometimes, more thought and less firepower is needed. It is so difficult to fight terrorism with the military. Can I have some examples where it has been proven to work?
Island dog... There is a big difference between terrorist groups such as the IRA and ETA, and Al Qaeda. The IRA are now (at long last) in open discussions with the UK government, and the attrocities seem to have stopped. There are ways of "appeasing" these kinds of terrorists, successfully... as they want something which in theory is possible. We in the UK have grown to realise that we really can not fight organisations like the IRA, and that
The "Is this really the case?" question, was aimed at the media monopoly thing..... (not about Moore)
Back to the original post: which I have just re-read, as I think we are getting a little off track here. Its easy to keep on about terrorism. "America and the World. John Kerry says that several world leaders have privately told him that they want him to beat President Bush in the election. When asked to name them by someone no lower than the Secretary of State Colin Powell he refused." It seems obvious to me why a nation might say so
Thanks for the vote of confidence Julian, but we probably don’t know much about what goes on behind the scenes in Europe either. Our education system today is far from perfect, and my parents (even though they left school at a much earlier age than I did) are still easily more intelligent that I am. Also, there was a program on TV a while ago here, which had 100 "GCSE" exam students (that’s 16 year olds, end of school final exams) go back to a 60's equ
Well... to sound ignorant, I would llike to add that your system seems to be entirely at fault here, rather than Mr. Kerry himself. I would also say that if your country needs to raise taxes (and its defecit would say that it does) then this is still probably the best market to aim the tax at. Much better *solution* to tax problems however, would be to completely seperate the tax issues. Personal and corporate. That way, you pay for what you t
I was going to pick you up on the spelling of Gadafy's name, as I was certain it is spelled "Gadaffi"... However, upon checking my facts, I found this article in the Guardian UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4430772,00.html "Searching the BBC's vast website for articles about Colonel Gadafy recently, I found just three mentions of his name. As far as the BBC is concerned, this may be three times too many, since its approved
Jill... this [i]is[/i] a blogging site. Its ALL about words, not actions. I am not able to get directly involved in American politics, though I am able to sit here at my desk and write to groups such as this to discuss, and hopefully educate myself about things. Obviously, I dont know everything about every subject I write about, but I dont just make things up, or argue points if I dont see vailidity in them. Perhaps you are suggesting that I dont take
A small point, but perhaps a very important one. really only to do with KharmaGirl's comment... Maybe if fuel cost Americans $6.84 per gallon, they would all be encouranged to use fuel more efficiently. Perhaps people would buy cars with more efficient engines, move closer to their workplaces. Perhaps public transport could be improved. Perhaps Alaska wouldnt need drilling. Perhaps Iraq would not have needed "liberating". Perhaps the US would
Marvin: I think many people still think of Tony Blair as someone who has a lot of credibility. Im not sure I agree with the way he has been running the country, but I am certain that I do not want another conservative in No. 10. Things were very bad during their government, and I am sure people have not forgotten already. Mr Blair is much younger than Mr. Howard, and as such appeals to younger voters. I think people see Howard as someone who perhaps be
My quotes didnt work for some reason in that last post, so sorry if it looks like I wrote some of those things....!! - Is there anyone out there who can tidy it up for me?
Woah. Some very direct, and hard points made. If I might add a few comments... mostly aimed toward the original article... It seems to me that Bush's "War on terror" is going to be a very difficult, near impossible one to keep fighting. Terrorists are small, and very difficult to locate. Many of them are people living normal lives. They have advantages even over huge armies, which is why terrorists can operate around the globe successfully, wi