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I would not accept Israeli Propaganda, distributed by Zionist organs like Wiesenthal. They have consistently conflated opposition to Zionist "slaughter and settle" policy with "antisemitism". They are an actor in the play - and received this "material" from the IDF itself. What is the budget and resource of the IDF for "cointelpro" style productions, vs. that of Hamas?

Thought so.

Donatella Rovera is a disinformation source, and well-known war propagandist, using the language and guise of Human Rights to justify military campaigns that target civilians and "regime change" as well as other International war crimes.

Several AI chapters connected with universities in the U.S. have been taken over by groups with their own agenda. Their interest is to block criticism of certain countries, and to create a false impression that AI favors their position. There have been instances where manipulators sent "news releases" using AI letterhead (of the local group) to push their agenda. On Oct. 2002, AI-London stated that it is not their business to censor these groups (statement by Donatella Rovera when she was asked about this).

In July 2, 2004, AI called for the suspension of weapons sales to
Sudan. On February 16, 2005 it called for a suspension of weapons
sales to Nepal. However, although AI has shown that while it is
willing to issue such calls regarding several countries, it is not
willing to request an embargo of weapons sales to Israel. Donatella
Rovera, the chief researcher on Israel-Palestine offered the following
explanation:

“The situations in Sudan and in Israel-Occupied Territories are
quite different and different norms of international law apply, which
do not make it possible to call for an arms embargos on either the
Israeli or the Palestinian side. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are
under Israeli military occupation (not the case for the Darfour region
in Sudan). Hence, certain provisions of international humanitarian
law, known as the laws of war (notably the 1907 Hague Convention and
the Fourth Geneva Convention) apply in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (and not in the Darfour region).” (email
communication July 5, 2004).

AI is couching its double standards in dubious legalese, but consider
what Prof. Francis Boyle (Professor of International Law at Univ. of
Illinois Champaign) has to say about Rovera's statement:

This is total gibberish. When I was on the Board of Directors of
Amnesty International USA near the end of my second term in 1990-92,
we received the authority to call for an arms embargo against major
human rights violators, which Israel clearly qualified for at the time
and still does—even under United States domestic law. Of course
no one at AI was going to do so because pro-Israel supporters were
major funders of Amnesty International USA, which in turn was a major
funder of Amnesty International in London. He who pays the piper calls
the tune—especially at AIUSA Headquarters in New York and at AI
Headquarters in London.[4]
(http://www.counterpunch.org/rooij10132004.html)

Amnesty was hijacked by interests of the US Dept of State, and NATO governance, using grassroots efforts of its original vision to pervert the intention behind the organization's original foundation:

UNAC urges antiwar and community activists across the U.S. to condemn a sharp change in the direction and character of the campaigns of Amnesty International USA, especially since the hiring in January, 2012 of Suzanne Nossel as Executive Director. Nossel is a former State Department official and aide to former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrook. She coined the term “Smart Power,” w

Fasist dictatorship created with USA help. Please read http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html and other sources commenting CIA involvement.

Yeah, the new deal as a failure sure is "revisionist history". It's certainly not how history was written originally.

Yes, yes it was how things were originally. Even FDR's ally and his Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau testified it was a failure. Speaking before the House Ways and Means Committee in May, 1939 said:

"We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ⦠I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises ⦠I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ⦠and an enormous debt to boot."

You are welcome to your own opinions, but not your own history and facts.

What a pathetically sophomoric understanding. By that definition ALL modern economics is socialism since every viable economic system includes taxes that are collected and spent, thus redistributing wealth.

Straw man. I never said all taxes are bad. Stop putting words in my mouth. Almost by definition, a progressive income tax is redistribution of wealth. In Karl Marx' "Communist Manifesto", read the steps he outlines to establish Communism in a nation. In particular reference steps 2 and 3.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/26/manifesto/176-2.html

"2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all right of inheritance."

Both are meant to redistribute wealth and destroy Capitalism. Number 2 look familiar? That's the "Death Tax" that's been so recently pushed by Progressives.

The rest of your post is nothing but ad-hominem attacks which indicate you've run out of arguments. Typical Progressive debate tactic. Shout down and personally attack those who dare expose the Progressive lies and revisions of history. Good to see nothing has changed, and Progressives haven't gotten any smarter.

Strat

It works for the United States.

Louisiana

Btw, if you care to look at the history of Afghanistan, the disaster that it is now started with a leftist Soviet sponsored coup in 1978.

[...]

So it's a reasonable argument that it was the Soviet Union that caused Taliban to come to power and that the US role was incidental.

Hmmm, no. Zbigniew Brzezinski, a major american geostrategist that served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981 (and then to various very influential neoconservative thinktanks) boasted himself that he enticed the Soviets into Afghanistan as a way to pull them into a quagmire, weakening their empire. (Many more links of similar interviews with him are available if you look, he was quite open about his strategies a decade and two later)

Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [From the Shadows], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Also, here's a more recent interview with the man himself, that reveals depths of geostrategy that you might not even have dreamed of.

Sorry - that link should be http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/157.html

well let me inform you, it's the Climate Research Unit..... they pretty much supply ALL the data for global warming enthusiasts world wide.

I guess I'm a bit behind, I know what the Climate Research Unit is but I never heard of it referred to as CRU. Thanks for the heads up.

also changing from global warming to climate change is a cop out.

No, this is the cop-out. Global Warming was first used in 1975. Before that "inadvertent climate modification" was used. Climate change did come later but it is more accurate, while some places would warm up others would cool off. And of course if some places cool off those like you can say "see Global Warming" is not real. But you can't easily deny that climate is changing.

more and more evidence is coming forward that shows a SHIT load of people are blowing smoke out their asses about the human cause of "global warming" and an awful lot more people are profiteering by the spreading of utter FUD about it too.

And a hell of a lot more can profit off of proving it is wrong. Exxon-Mobile as much deeper pockets than Greenpeace. So does the Middle East, China, India, and Russia. I bet any scientist who can deinitively prove climate change is false can get paid a lot from these businesses and nations. So why aren't they stepping up with that proof?

and the global warming hero Al fucking gore.. the rankest of all the hypocrites...spreading FUD AND a major shareholder in Occidental Petrolium

I just posted the same thing, except for "spreading FUD", which I do not believe. Like you I think Gore is being a bit of a hypocrite, not disclosing the shares in Oxy. However he didn't buy the stocks himself. His father Al Gore Sr was a friend of Armand Hammer who was the CEO of Oxy and he worked for the company becoming head of the subsidiary Island Creek Coal Company after he lost his senate seat. Further the wiki article says "Albert Gore Jr., however, did not exercise control over the shares, which were eventually sold when the estate closed".

Actually I found out about Gore's connection to Oxy back in the '90s. Back then Oxy wanted to explore and drill for oil in the U'wa tribe's homeland in Colombia. The tribe had threatened to commit mass suicide if the Colombian government allowed them to drill.

always odd how when the smell of bullshit is often along the same path as the smell of hypocrisy and money

Yeap, and that works both ways.

Falcon

Bullshit.

Nope. Not bullshit at all, sadly.

Perhaps you meant we can't do better in the future? Or were you saying that we can change the past?

Your BS meter appears to be functioning correctly.

Over eleven years ago (1998), the UN reported that "illegal trade in narcotics has a captive market of about 190 million addicts and users worldwide, and is estimated to be worth more than 400 billion dollars a year". (source)

"No way" by one or two orders of magnitude, I'd say.

Now even if smoking a joint was as foolish as playing russian roulette, under what moral/ethical imperitive do you have the right to stop me putting chocolate or battery acid into MY veins should choose to do so?

Altruism in its "for your own good" paternalistic form, common to all mainstream ideologies (but profoundly alien to Americanism).

According to Martin Luther King Jr, "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government." (ref: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html) It is as true today as it was when he spoke those words in 1967.

So, let's get our definitions straight. Because one person's "terrorist" is another person's "freedom fighter." The US government itself (including most members of the White House and Congress) have inflicted more terror and violence on the world than any tiny group of religious extremists (one might even argue that the White House itself is a group of violent religious extremists). Now, how many engineers are there in Congress? A handful?

The article that forms the basis for this thread is nothing more than junk psychology based on faulty premises and bad data.

I was (still am) irritated that companies in the west quite frequently make money by selling arms to dictatorships that use those arms to stay in power against the wishes of the people who live under their rule. Companies like BAe Systems make huge profits by selling to countries like Indonesia who have an appalling human rights record. I know you can always make the argument that if we don't someone else will but that still doesn't make it any less morally wrong.

I am especially against schemes like the Export Credit Guarantee Department which underwrite these sales so that if the people in said country manage to oust the dictator from power before payment has been made then British taxpayers money is used to pay the bill and then the cost (plus interest) is added to the countries national debt.

In this manner the people who get rid of the dictator end up paying for the weapons that were used to suppress them. I think that if a western company is willing to do business with a country that is on the brink of collapse it should do so at its own risk.

One example is various companies supplying Saddam Hussein with arms (and the Falluja 2 chemical weapons plant) shortly before he invaded Kuwait.

Here are some links:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/040.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,908426,00.html

Although these links only mention British involvement President Reagan was also a supporter of Saddam when he was fighting Iran so American companies were also involved. Here is an interesting photo of Saddam and Reagan shaking hands, not that it proves anything by itself:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

Here are some other random links:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29?language=printer
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0DC123DF936A35751C0A963958260
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/31/world/main534798.shtml

I hope the distribution isn't limited to third-world countries; there are some poor areas right here in the U.S. that could use these machines. Certain Indian reservations come to mind...

Like the Rosebud reservation in the Blackhills, in 2003 it's unemployment was 85%. Or "Fort Mojave Indian Reservation along the California-Arizona-Nevada border, the unemployment rate climbed from 27.2 percent in 1991 to 74.2 percent in 1997."

I need a computer with decent outdoor screen and great battery life, one that's cheap enough I can afford to let it sink into a swamp without diving in and fighting the alligators and leeches for it (I do wildlife research in Florida). This machine may be just the ticket.

Na, go ahead and wrestle those gators, then cook yourself some gator tail. For some extras go to Hog Valley for some wild boor.

"I'm sure most nations would prefer if the US just went back to their pre WWII isolationism"

OH RLY?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/06/world/main665329.shtml
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB117/index.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801640.html
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/USAid.asp
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55a/008.html

Apparently the Cuban health care and education systems are amongst the best in the world and are available to all Cubans. Most of Cuba's hardships seem to come from the trade embargoes enforced by the US.

http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/1659.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Cuba
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1739773. stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/52 32628.stm
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Cuba

I've read articles in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, The Economist, and so on, and the issue is complex as hell. There is a very real Sunni insurgency, and also Al Queda, and a wide hodgepodge of people who are attacking the Iraqi government, Shiites, the USA, or whoever. Whether they are trying to unseat what they see as a repressive Shiite government, or want an Islamicist government, or want to mire the USA in an endless war, or just like chaos, is anyone's guess. I'd guess it's a mixture, and not all killers have the exact same motive.

I don't generally like to feed the trolls, but...
Which country works the most?

So if we're going to feel bad about something, feel bad that some Chinese kid had food to eat and could go places.

China did just fine feeding itself for generations. Then subsidized U.S. agricultural products (the grain surplus) pulled the rug out from underneath Chinese subsistence farmers, driving many of them to the city to seek work. Open boarders and "Free Trade" let the U.S. Corporate class fire their expensive American workers and replace them with cheap Chinese 'slaves'. Search for a torrent of Noam Chomsky's talk, Class War.

My brother took a class that assigned Who Will Feed China?. I haven't finished it yet, but one of the points in the book was that China has replaced much productive farmland with factories. No matter your priorities, food is always more important than Ipods. Whoops.

The globalization blowback has already started, and will pick up the pace as the U.S. recession deepens.

Easter Island's End

Actually, the workers in the US have the highest average of working hours in the industrialized world, along with the lowest (and still falling) vacation time. Japanese businessmen, at least here in Asia, are actually renowned for their vacation and extravagant leisure activities, particularly expensive golfing vacations. Their reputation may be different on the other side of the pond, but that's probably more PR or urban legend than anything else. That's not to say they're not hardworking when they're at work, just that the hours thing is more myth than fact, probably related to the fact that many Asian societies do pressure their children to place foremost emphasis on their education, to the exclusion of all else. That's not so different from parents in the US, but Asian parents do seem to be much more agressive about it, at least from what I've seen -- which isn't imperical evidence, of course.

Since when are scientists more moral than other humans?!

"I personally don't know where they get their idea that terrorists make their income from piracy, I might be more inclined to believe such a comment made about drugs myself than piracy..."

Actually I wouldn't belive either, it's more likely to be the American government itself, perhaps not so much now, but in the past there was a lot of spending. For example, who put Saddam in power anyway?

Haydn.

There were African slaves all over Europe before there ever was a United States of America, or for that matter before the New World had been discovered.

The Portuguese and Spaniards began enslaving black Africans in the 1300's. The Dutch and English were also vigorous slave traders for centuries.

Of course, the all-time gold standard for rapacious colonialist cruelty was reached in the French and Belgian colonies in Africa, when entire nations were turned into slave camps.

Moreover, I think that Europeans have not been given near enough credit for the abolition of slavery. If there are two institutions which did more than any other to eliminate chattel slavery, they would be the Royal Navy and the Union Army. (The Muslims, of course, were enthusiastic slavers before, during, and after the period of European slavery, and continue to this day. I'll never understand why so many black activists adopt Muslim names.)

You are obviously the product of an American pubblik skoul edumakashun. It's not your fault. Blame the Gramscian termites of the educational establishment, whose teaching and textbooks are becoming ever more devoted to the idea that the USA is the fount of all evil that has ever existed under the sun.

-ccm

I thought Coke had ongoing issues with black? http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/338.html

Jonathan Postel, the Internet pioneer, used to keep the entire list of Top Level Domains (TLD) at first on the back of an envelope, then on his own paper record sheets. Before he died young (or was "suicided"?), Postel frequently told the world that there ought to be hundreds and hundreds of Top Level Domains -- in a spirit of human freedom and variety of choice.

Ronda Hauben the historian has described how Jonathan Postel's wishes and recommendations were thwarted by the evil ICANN empire of greedy corporations.

Hauben's History of the Internet " A New Communication Paradigm " is something everybody should read, who wants to keep the greatest communications medium of all time free from the greedy corporations.

Top Level Domain Suggestions is my own contribution of ideas for non-corporate, non-tyrannical Internet governance. For instance, a .jam TLD would serve the double purpose of providing a home for jamming musicians and for manufacturers of fruit preserves.

No, he wasn't the CEO, but his wife serves/served on the board.

And to finish off my lil 'rant' let me quote Martin Luther?
I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government

> This is one huge ass scam type deal, yet totally legal and ingenius.

So all economy is scam to you?

> Even if someone goes "No thanks, I'd like to sell you the land back, can I have my money please" they still get the intrest in the long turn and make a profit.

How is that any different from selling or buying physical properity?
You always take a small risk when purchasing properity.

Take manhattan as example. I'm pretty sure the relatives of natives who originally sold the land with glass beads would be able to buy it back for the same price.(yea, urban legend I know..)

But the point is, values fluctuate and if you buy 100 acres of sahara desert, for 5 million dollars, you'd probably have hard time selling it forward with that same price, or with profit.

But what if you discover oil from that area?
I'd say you'd make nice profit by selling the land to some large company, who's more than eager to refine and distribute the oil.

That's the same risk the people on SL are taking when buying digital acres.
They might come up with something oil-like in digital world which would make nice profit for them.

2000 ICE riots.

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

He said "reduce greenhouse gas emissions". He didn't say "ban all pollution". Or anything about burning leaves for that matter.

Personally, I think at the very least we have a responsability to invest on more research on the topic and try not to cause irreversible changes.

I'd like to think that if we were in a situation where we threaten irreversibly our environment we would react better than the inhabitants from the Easter Islands.

I would probably say that the Jewish holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s or King Leopold II's decimation of the Congo in the 1880s is a much larger hate crime than the 9/11 attacks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to trivialize our losses due to the 9/11 attacks, I'm just saying that there have been worse crimes commited out of sheer hate.

It makes me wonder what would have happened differently if communication was where it is today during the time of Leopold and Hitler.

And here's an exercise for yourself: try to imagine how it is that I'm in complete agreement with you :-) You're 4 points are all valid ones. I agree that having US troops stationed abroad has been necessary. What i disagree with is the latest administration's adventure in Iraq. Does the US need to consolidate power in Central Asia. You betcha they do. This is all about resources and strategic positioning. Am i happy about it? No, not really. But i happen to try to look at things realistically. So, i agree with you.

But, why, for instance, can the US admin. not explain to us why it's okay to base forces in Kazakhstan without first pushing Nazarbayev out of power and fostering democracy for the people there? See here for some background.

They revel in their ignorance and are more ready to listen to people from other countries than they are to their conscience.

I agree with the first part, though the second half loses me. I've met quite a few people who seem to wear their ignorance as a badge of honor, though.

In that regard, Bush himself has stated that he doesn't like to read the papers and instead relies on those around him to fill him in. That's bloody absurd, and should have been a wake-up call to the nation that he is a danger to us all. He was 'elected' to lead the executive branch. Yet he has failed in that regard. The otheres in the admin. are leading him around by the nose.

You dork, whatever damage Allende did economically and no amount of self-indulgence by self-congratulatory but tiny wealthy minority of today's Chile who benefited from Pinochet's doings can possibly justify what that bastard and his backers did. You are just a brain-dead neocon who believes that obtaining "wealth" is the purpose of the universe and no cost in human lives, pain or misery is too great to achieve that goal for the priviledged few.

The U.S. gov't knew that 15 years earlier, Saddam gassed the Kurds, in part because U.S. companies and the CIA provided the materials needed to produce those WMD, and continued providing Iraq assistance even after the U.S. had knowledge of their use against the Kurds.

We also knew the WMD existed because the U.N. oversaw their destruction after Persian Gulf War I.

Isn't it funny that, after getting the green light from the U.S. to become a mass murderer, the U.S. spun that knowledge to begin their own campaign of death and destruction in Iraq? You don't know who to believe anymore.

BUSH IS LEAVING TOWN IN 2004!

The U.S. gov't knew that 15 years earlier, Saddam gassed the Kurds, in part because U.S. companies and the CIA provided the materials needed to produce those WMD, and continued providing Iraq assistance even after the U.S. had knowledge of their use against the Kurds.

We also knew the WMD existed because the U.N. oversaw their destruction after Persian Gulf War I.

Isn't it funny that, after getting the green light from the U.S. to become a mass murderer, the U.S. spun that knowledge to begin their own campaign of death and destruction in Iraq? You don't know who to believe anymore.

BUSH IS LEAVING TOWN IN 2004!

The U.S. gov't knew that 15 years earlier, Saddam gassed the Kurds, in part because U.S. companies and the CIA provided the materials needed to produce those WMD, and continued providing Iraq assistance even after the U.S. had knowledge of their use against the Kurds.

We also knew the WMD existed because the U.N. oversaw their destruction after Persian Gulf War I.

Isn't it funny that, after getting the green light from the U.S. to become a mass murderer, the U.S. spun that knowledge to begin their own campaign of death and destruction in Iraq? You don't know who to believe anymore.

BUSH IS LEAVING TOWN IN 2004!

The U.S. gov't knew that 15 years earlier, Saddam gassed the Kurds, in part because U.S. companies and the CIA provided the materials needed to produce those WMD, and continued providing Iraq assistance even after the U.S. had knowledge of their use against the Kurds.

We also knew the WMD existed because the U.N. oversaw their destruction after Persian Gulf War I.

Isn't it funny that, after getting the green light from the U.S. to become a mass murderer, the U.S. spun that knowledge to begin their own campaign of death and destruction in Iraq? You don't know who to believe anymore.

BUSH IS LEAVING TOWN IN 2004!

Fact: The US is a country that has the least amount of vacation days per year then any other county. one of many references

Fact: The average US employee works more hours per week then every other country in the world. reference

So, pretty much it takes at LEAST 3 Indians to do 1 American's job. I don't care if you compare smart people to smart people or stupid people to stupid people.

Try explaining that to my past co-worker who got laid off (along with 35 other people) 1 week after his wife had a premature baby with complications. Explain to him why his job went to India!

Just remember that this "lion" gives more of its wealth to foreign countries that any other 3 countries combined, in foreign aid.

Are you one of those not so smart Indian exchange students? You sure sound like it.

And if they think that we are outsourcing to them because they are better instead of just plain cheaper then why must they come to the US for most of their training and education?

Anyone who thinks outsourcing to India is any more then a political chess move, or for the capitalist companies of America to save a few million dollars a year, needs to rethink the facts. And if you think this is all "Ok", and live in the US maybe it's time for you to outsource yourself!

>Contrary to a minority of Quebecer's wishes

(cough), a difference of only 50,000 Quebecers is a really, really, really, big minority. As in, what it takes to get Bush elected type of minority. Had I hindsight, myself and 49,999 Canadians would have found it worth their time to move there for a short while to get them the hell outta Canada.

If Canada were the US we'd be rid of that annoying wart. Doctor, bust out the Compound U already!

Mix those facts in with a liberal splash of our once second-in-command party being a group intent on breaking Quebec from Canada along with Bill 101 outlawing English Free Speech in Quebec public schools (a RIGHT guaranteed to ALL CANADIANS by the charter) and I, for one, after that, refer to Quebec as a separate country also. I mean, WTF do they keep that "I will remember the time you damn British beat us" license plate motto for? Because they prefer to use "tough love"?

Fuck 'em, eh? Most Quebecers are assholes, and I fairly judge that by the fact they keep electing a separatist majority government for themselves, over, and over, and over again.

Oh, and for those who aren't convinced, how about this? Only *TOTAL* assholes try to turn a known burial ground into a golf course. At least the original inhabitants of Canada have better manners.

We don't need them, and they DEFINATELY don't want us.

[It was worth the karma]

So, you've never heard of The School of the Americas, which has trained practically every South American terrorist group ever? Quote:

Since 1946, the training center, often called the school of the assassins, has produced ten dictators and hundreds of others connected with human rights violations, drug trafficking and organized crime.

OK, you maybe missed that one, but you must be aware of the Taliban being created by the US? The US being primary funding of Northern Ireland terrorism? Documented evidence about the CIA's terrorist/drugs links?

Stick your head in the sand if you want...

And how did the USA destroy the governments in the Middle East?

Go and read some history

The last time I checked there was a well known terrorist group in Northern Iraq that the USA uprooted. Ansar Al Islam, or some such nonsense.

Yes, and said terrorist group was an enemy of Saddams, and he had tried to destroy them many times. What's your point? Every country has some sort of terrorist precence, government supported or not. Does that justify invasion?

The USA does not tell you what religion to follow; you are free to follow any religion you like, including no religion at all. It is your choice.

Any religion, provided it's Christianity. Have you ever listened to a Bush speach? Oh, and by the way, gimmie a shout when you get a president that isn't a white male Christian. Ain't ever gonna happen.

Yeah, I would believe anything a Pakistani Diplomat says, especially since they are the ones who put the Taliban in power! Perhaps you should learn to not believe everything you read.

It's well documented all over, but I can understand your sceptism.

who have a jealousy of America so embedded into their little minds they fail to grasp the realities of the large world.

People do not fly planes into buildings because of jealosy. Nor is it because of "hating freedom", as Bush puts it. If that were the case, the US wouldn't be the only target. Where are Europes Al Qaida's terrorist attacks? Where are Canadas? Where are Oz/NZ? And a dozen other countries that have a similar way of life to the US?

Go and read some history.

If there was no United States, the world would be a much worse place, care to argue that based on your in depth understanding of world history?

Sure, but the same can be said for any superpower. Chaos theory means we'll never know.

But when you are the most powerful nation the world has ever seen, you have a responsibilty to make the world into a better place. No country gives more foreign aid than America.

No, no responsibity is there and none is taken. US "aid" isn't aid, it's loans. Big difference. These loans feck up the economy for years, and usually get squandered by corrupt officials in the first place.

No country so readily commits the lives of their own Armed Forces to aid those oppressed peoples of the world.

Provided there is profit to be had, then yes. If there is no profit, you can remain oppressed, and the US will happilly sell your dictator weapons.

No country takes in as many immigrants as America does.

That is so far from true it's unbelievable. Sure, the US is (admirally) built on imigration, but you have some of the strictest controls anywhere in the world now. European countries take in far more imigrants/refugees. It's a major political issue over here at the moment.

Don't insult America by taking a moral high ground that you so clearly do not have.

I never took a high-ground. I just pointed out that the US high-ground is a nationalistic delusion. Read some history please. The US doesn't always save the day, that's just Hollywood.

I don't think you know your history very well.

Ever heard of something called Iran-Contra? US did invade with the CIA (of course, I'm not implying that they invaded with their military). Check out this link: The history of U.S. intervention in Nicaragua.

While you are at it, here are all the US interventions in the last hundread years or so:

A history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean

A Brief History of U.S. Interventions: 1945 to the Present

Hope you learn something...

Sivaram Velauthapillai

There's no reason why the ESRB couldn't have given Quake III: TA a similar -- or the same -- rating. The "animated" seems redundant since all games are animated. But with the increasing levels of detail and realism, the industry will have to do something to make it clearer what is and what isn't suitable for kids, and how graphic the visuals and levels of violence are, or else it will suffer a backlash. If the previews are an accurate reflection of the game, I have no idea what they're going to do when Doom III comes out.

Now that the new ESRB violence descriptors provide more detailed ratings (presumably to keep up with advancing graphics technology), this should help defang some of the critics who want to prevent mature-themed games from being made. It's still amazing that a parent won't let their kids see an R-rated or NC-17-rated movie but have no problem with buying them games that are intended for adults, and are clearly marked as such.

As for Lieberman and his supposed anti-violence stance, being the political opportunist (source) he is, he sees the writing on the wall. All Lieberman wants is big, fat campaign donations from the entertainment industry elite he disingenuously eschewed during the last election.

Now that domestic game revenues are comparable to -- or surpassing -- Hollywood, what better way to get the big games-industry dollars than by praising the very industry he railed against the last time around?

(I)n 1996, the US outpaced Japan by nearly $10,000 (USD) in terms of value added per person employed and in terms of value added per hour worked by nearly $9(.)

...

In terms of valued added per hour worked in 1997, US workers outproduce their Canadian counterparts by more than $5USD.

The Isreali Army is one of the best in the world at defending itself...but it's never pro-active

They're highly proactive. They conquered the entire nation of Israel in 1948. And then in 1967 they captured more land and headed off any possible retailation by destroying not only the armies of all surrounding Arab nations, but also killing 34 US servicement who witnessed the pre-emptive attack.

Look at how they deal with terrorists. I'd sure say that launching missiles from a helicopter to explode a suspected organizer is pro-active!

a technologically superior military if you arm 2 billion people with steak knives and send them against 100 million with guns

In the second world war, US Marines killed attackers with knives at a 600:1 ratio. And with better equipment, US pilots killed lightly armed people at a ratio of 14000:1.

But the US hasn't used it on innocent civilians, dickhead.

Thats highly debatable.

What would you consider to be examples of American `organizations' acting in a `totalitarian and domineering' manner overseas? What are your sources for these examples?

Here's a speech on the topic. A newspaper article is here originally published in the Boston Globe. There's a good essay on the subject here, although I am sure you'll pooh-pooh this one as you do anything associated with the UN, the author is extremely credible. I leave the rest of the trivial google searching you can use to do your own research to you.

Or to turn the whole thing on its head, since it is plain to even the metaphorical "Blind Freddy" that large companies get away with whatever they are not specifically prohibited from doing, and act in a totalitarian and domineering manner (click to look 'em up if you have trouble) whenever they possibly can (hence the extremely large amount of legislation existing to regulate corporate behaviour especially monopolistic behaviour) what point, exactly, are you attempting to make?

Try this
and here

So at best you can argue that the US is providing funding for programs which are incorrectly claimed to work (and you haven't demonstrated that this is the case yet). It sure seems to me rather a stretch to claim this, but if we accept it at face value, it still hardly works out to the evil US you set out to show...

Yes it does. They do know about the enviromental damages. And the hazards to people. They just don't give a shit. That IS evil.

Except that `the way he did' act was a.) not particularly bad

Yes imprisoning and killing your critics. Just the everyday good stuff.

The truth is that the CIA was as surprised by the coup as anyone else.
Bullshit.
There's an astute argument. What's your source for this?

A reference for my claim is here
And please keep in mind that you have yet to provide any source for your claims.

I find it interesting that /.ers see Microsoft as an evil corporation (for obvious reasons) and Wal-Mart as a champion of the people because they are selling Lindows boxes, even though Wal-Mart shamelessly exploits Maquiladora sweatshop labor, lies about it's products being made in the USA, and forces artists to censor their music, among other things.

At least the people Microsoft empoly get paid well.