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lee317 writes "The FBI recently used a photograph of Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares as an example of what Osama Bin Laden might look like today. According to Reuters, Special Agent Jason Pack said a forensic artist had been unable to find suitable features from the FBI's database of photographs and used a picture from the Internet instead. That photo turned out to be one of Llamazares, who apparently looks strikingly similar to what the FBI thinks Bin Laden would look like with a few extra years on him. 'I am stupefied the FBI has used my photo — but it could have been anyone's — to compose a picture of a terrorist. It affects my honor, my own image and also the security of all us,' Llamazares said."
Please show me a society in which no participant has any desire for power, money, or both. Capitalism isn't great, but Communism has only served those who've used it to gain power and money.
There are many small communities based off the idea of communism, and they seem to be working well enough. Here is a larger community that seems to pull off the idea pretty well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Family My sister in law was involved with the Rainbow Family for many years and generally lived a simple life of working and providing for each other in the community. Not everything thinks of only money and power at the end of the day, just most people it seems.
Fortunately for him he lives in a society where you can formulate political opinion from a variety of sources and not resort to a childish game of name calling and vague nonsensical grandstanding.
Well, to be fair, he doesn't. Here in Spain, politicians resorts way more often to childish games of name calling and vague nonsensical grandstanding than in USA or most of european countries (thanks to the damage that the civil war and 40 years of dictatorship did to our people. Not to mention the Basque Country, where hundreds of democratically elected politicians have been living (and still live) with bodyguards and are killed just because they didn't support independentism). The way Spain discusses about politics resembles a bit to what you see in many latinoamerican countries, rather to USA, or the most relevant european countries. Communism just happens to be one of the tolerable alternatives, just like in other european countries. Probably because even the people who hate it see it as an impossible pseudo christian utopy. It seem to me that conservative parties in USA don't even look it as an impossible utopy, it seems a nightmare for them. Here you can discuss about communism, but there're many other things that you couldn't discuss here. For example, what USA knows as libertarianism (Ron Paul, etc), which is something almost completely unknow here.
And note that while Llamazares is pro-socialist, he is not 100% communist. IU is a coalition, and while the communist party (PCE) is probably the biggest, their political agenda is very fuzzy. They know they hate capitalism (what they think capitalism is), but they don't really know what they should do, except raising taxes to rich people.
"Where it has been tried except in tribal communities and modern days communes?" Well, if it didn't work in either of theses cases, nor in any more modern country, where exactly is it supposed to work - if at all?
They are an odd case, but the Israeli kibbutzes are some of the very few successful communist communities.
Ding Ding! You definitely get it. Communism doesn't work for communities and countries larger than "tribes".
We should constantly live in fear of tribal men in caves 8000 miles away at all times.
Osama isn't tribal.
He's medieval.
His family made its fortune in heavy construction for the Saudi royal family. Net worth $7 billion.
Chicken feed. Prince Alwaleed alone is worth $18 billion. No Saudi whatever his merit or ambition can climb higher so long as his family rules.
Do I have to tell you how this story ends?
Neither is it psychologically insignificant that building the iconic mosque or royal palace was where the bin Ladens began.
Osama has spent his entire life on the outside looking in.
Close but no cigar.
Rich List 2009 - 7# The Bin Laden Family
Our populace has many kinds of idiots, including those that think the only reason communism has failed everywhere it's been tried is because the right people weren't in charge.
If you look at many communist states they grew spectacularly despite many abuses in the system. Russia under communism for instance grew from a pre-industrial backwater that got beat down by the Japanese to a world superpower that pushed back the german war machine. Cuba grew from a defacto US plantation colony into an independent state with an infant mortality rate lower than that of the US. China became the workshop of the world under communism and the biggest US creditor holding USD 740 billion in U.S. debt. All 3 of these grew from dirt poor to states with good healthcare and education surpassing others in their region. To say they have "failed" is simplistic at best.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
In many parts of the world, you can call yourself a communist or a marxist or a socialist and then have a discussion about what that means.
But not in the good old USA. Where McCarthy wired electrodes to our testicles and successfully conditioned our response to the term "Communist".
Its interesting to note that the basis for McCarthy's witch hunt was never emphasized: The fear that a political party could be manipulated by foreign powers to influence our political system for their benefit. Which was a valid concern at the time. But we've conditioned people to jump at the word "Commie" while the political elite maintains the ability to inject the agenda of other foreign interests (Israel for example) into our political system without having anyone flinch.
And now we return you to your regularly scheduled program.
Have gnu, will travel.
"China became the workshop of the world under communism..."
No, they became workshop to the world when they embraced capitalism. When they tried collective farming & such during the cultural revolution millions starved. Pretty much the same happened in Russia. In all 3 countries you have incredible amounts of poverty, shortages of goods, etc.. I recall my neighbor's sister visiting from East Germany back in the early 80's. I took her a decade just to get permission to make the trip. She literally cried when she went into a supermarket and saw the shelves overflowing with goods.
People that look at communism with rose colored glasses ignore the incredible tyranny and abuses. To say they succeeded is incredibly stupid at best.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
He claims the news is erased from the MIND, not the internet (archives). He then backs up his claim by linking to past news stories that he says conflict with this one but apparently have been forgotten.
Sadly he does make another mistake, people may assume Bin Laden is death, but they have no evidence so they keep looking until they are 100% sure.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
No pure ideology works on the scale of a modern country (pop > ~1,000,000)
Pure democracy doesn't work for anything larger than Ancient Athens.
I dunno, it works pretty well over here in Switzerland, population somewhere between 7 and 8 million.
Fair enough, although from my limited understanding of Switzerland their level of internal order seems to be more the natural result of the Swiss culture and collective thinking process than an example of what a 'Pure Democracy' can achieve for a country.
If you are someone who likes their trains to run on time, I'm not so sure the magic bullet lies in simply changing the country's governmental structure; the Swiss are a wonderful addition to Humanity's tapestry of life but people who prioritise the importance of societal order as high they do are somewhat in the minority, even in the west.
..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
Pure democracy doesn't work for anything larger than Ancient Athens.
And Athens didn't have universal suffrage. It's easier to have time to be involved in politics when you have slaves doing the hard work.