Doubleplus GC Posted February 22, 2003 Author Share Posted February 22, 2003 Millions out of 6 billion? Yeah, right, Bush wishes he had even a quarter of the world behind him. Outside of these sheep here in the US and some hosers in Britain (okay, I take that back, not is not the time for stereotyping) the rest of the world is diametrically opposed to Bush and his pissyfarting. Rolling Stone's interview with Tom Morello proved a very tidy way to sum up the whole issue and to shut my closed-minded conservative friends the hell up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted February 26, 2003 Author Share Posted February 26, 2003 I am reading about Machiavelli in my English class. For the most part, Bush is the perfect Machiavellian prince except that he is too fixated on people liking him (which every president must in a (quote)democracy(unquote)). I think it's time for the Machiavellian theology to be put in it's place at the bottom of the rubbish bin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted March 4, 2003 Author Share Posted March 4, 2003 My short story teacher suggested a while back that Northern California simply secede from the union. I said "nah, we can't do that, it'd fuck up Manifest Destiny." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Roach Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 You give 'em hell, GC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Roach Posted March 25, 2003 Share Posted March 25, 2003 Posted the following to promote discussion on a local board. As predicted, nobody cared, but that's ok because my point isn't to change people but to not allow myself to be changed. ----------------------- Thanks to all who posted their views, we are listening. It doesn't matter what your beliefs...and remember that beliefs do not define people any more than they define you. The Western world has had little education in terms of ETHICS. What are our ethics? I think of sentiments such as be kind to each other, share, don't hurt others, The Golden Rule, etc. But moral thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and others eventually come to the conclusion that balance, equity, and moderation in behavior lead to "happiness." Happiness can vary greatly from one person to the next, and getting caught up in the statistics of war (the ever-changing percentages of pro-war, anti-war, and moderates in the country, bay area vs. the nation, local vs. global, etc) obscures our vision. The first rule of statistics is that it has great potential to be subjective, often more subjective than objective. In other words, it is very simple for biases to influence results in statistics. Statisticians have refined the art of removing bias, but it is not a perfected art. I believe statistiscs has been used, is being used, and will continue being used regularly to promote people's agendas rather than to seek knowledge for knowledge's sake. Let's not get in the habit of telling people that they are wrong. No one is right, and no one is wrong, how could we be when we are all the same? Only a god could decide such things, and whether there is a god or not, obviously we are deciding for ourselves at this point. Forcing our beliefs on other people does not allow us to appreciate the variability of human thought, and prevents us from having a discussion to try to reach consensus. Reaching consensus is hard to do because it involves GIVING UP POWER, but it is possible and necessary for us to sacrifice for others sake, which in the process also serves our own best interests. I don't see myself in the President at all, but that's not what matters. He should, as a powerful political figure, be using his great means to promote discussion. Instead he's over-simplifying to get people to turn to his side. I'm embarassed of George W. Bush, not because his beliefs are so radically different from mine (though they are), but because he is so tactless when it comes to diplomacy. This is not leadership as much as it is apathy for the people who are most affected by his actions. The most susceptible of society (povery stricken, children, elderly, minorities, women, etc.) suffer as a result. It is not only Bush, his strategy is repeated in almost every nation I can think of, but Bush is the leader of the most compassionate country in the world, while being far from the "compassionate conservative" he used to claim. Even our President has stated that while he hears the liberal perspective, he "respectfully disagrees" and will do whatever he thinks is best with the "coalition of the willing." In other words, he doesn't give a **** what anyone thinks, except for HIMSELF, HIS family, HIS friends, and HIS staff. He thinks he's freeing the people of the world, but if he wants to promote equity and justice, working for consensus with the UN would be a good start! Respect each other but don't lose yourself. Peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 What I find most saddening on a personal level (at least for me) is the fact that now, after the war has started, most American's literally HATE Europe. I'm from Germany, and seeing that the American government calls for boycotting European goods really makes me jeopardize Bush's sanity... or the sanity of so many American people. French wine is poured away in public and German cars are no longer sold in the US. My impression is that there is real hate towards (I think especially) Germany and France... two countries most Americans won't even find on a map. I'm not trying to generalize here, but as far as it reads in the press it looks like the majority of American people think this way. And I think it's not fair... not at all. We don't want war. We've had two of them, and I guess that's already more than enough. And regarding this "no war"-politic of Europe as either anti-american ,or even making Europe appear to become an enemy, is the biggest mistake one can make. I don't like Bush's politics... as far as you can call it that. I want Clinton back. I felt comfortable with him being the mightiest man on earth. But with Bush it's just like the allegory of "a little kid finding his father's gun"... and in this case it's literally true. Sad, but true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 Clinton bombed the Iraqis too. I have doubts as to whether America is literally "boycotting" European goods, that would be pure arrogance, and I have more faith in the American public than that. I refuse to belief that pedantic actions like this would be taken, particularly since Bush has declared his "respect" towards the liberal approach as Moon Roach quoted. I'm sure the American public would prefer the comfort of going about daily life with the "If I can't see it, it's not there" attitude rather than going to the trouble of boycotting goods to spite the few friendly, rational, countries that believe in diplomacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 In the meantime, it's good to see that the ever-eloquent Orson Scott Card is writing a lot of trash. And it isn't even accurate trash. Still, sometimes it's funny. He's getting increasingly demagogic. You know why I'm watching Fox News on cable for war coverage? Because I knew they would speak of our soldiers, of our victories and our losses and our goals in this war. [...] It's a good feeling to hear about our war from people who actually think it would be a good thing if we win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted April 13, 2003 Share Posted April 13, 2003 So how was your war? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted May 4, 2003 Author Share Posted May 4, 2003 In reference to the anti-Europe sentiment in America: a nearby college that a friend of mine attented has decided that they will no longer sell French Fries as a means of telling France how "we" feel about them. Starting a few months back, the campus began selling Freedom Fries, as well as Freedom Bread. As a friend of this friend put it: "will a freedom kiss still have tongue? Can I get a Braid of Liberty in my hair?" And my war was fine, thank you. Iraq was pretty simple. I look forward to picking fights with Iran, as soon as we finish with Korea and Somalia. It's gonna be a long five years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien426 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Then what about Syria? And France and Germany also deserve to be liberated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swordmaster Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Originally posted by Doubleplus GC In reference to the anti-Europe sentiment in America: a nearby college that a friend of mine attented has decided that they will no longer sell French Fries as a means of telling France how "we" feel about them. I'm looking forward to France asking the U.S. to return the Statue of Liberty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 Originally posted by Doubleplus GC In reference to the anti-Europe sentiment in America: a nearby college that a friend of mine attented has decided that they will no longer sell French Fries as a means of telling France how "we" feel about them. Starting a few months back, the campus began selling Freedom Fries. I think French Fries are actually called frites Americains (in a non-not-knowing-French way) in France. At leasy they were in '98, when I was there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted June 10, 2003 Author Share Posted June 10, 2003 I suppose they might be calling them frites Yanques now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Roach Posted June 10, 2003 Share Posted June 10, 2003 They are pommes frites, oui? Aren't greasy fried potatoes something the whole universe can stand behind together? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted July 6, 2003 Author Share Posted July 6, 2003 Especially funny, looking back, since french fries are from Belgium originally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Like van Damme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 And Brussle sprouts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted January 28, 2004 Author Share Posted January 28, 2004 God I hate brussel sprouts. We grow them in giant fields next to the highway here (a location that can't possibly improve them) and the stink has this penchant for moving through the window glass. Anyway, we caught Saddam. Don't really have any idea what to do with him. Rereading this thread, I realize that I was very very negative. One of the dangers of being in a community college in San Francisco is you think only in anti. The caucus has thrown the Democratic party completely out of whack. No one can decided who to vote for, which means that even if there is huge anti-Bush sentiment (which I think there is, I mean, where are the Weapons of Mass Distruction?) the opposition will be divided in three and Bush can win with even less support. He's pushing education again, which is actually something I think he said would be put first when he took office, and has become something of a pre-election afterthought now. He's promised to put a man on Mars in ten years. Let's pause for a moment: a man. On Mars. The planet. You know, the red one. It took 12 years to get a probe to Mars. 12 years of actual flight. And the man on Mars is going to entail the moon base as a launching platform. Moon. Base. I really think Bush could pull this off, provided he can invent time travel by the end of the decade. Boack to topic: Bush I believe is also pushing the Star Wars plan again. The one where space lasers will blow up any incoming missiles. This is the sort of thing where, from so great a distance, that if the laser's direction is miscalculated by so much as maybe five microns, instead of blowing up a missile it will fry the brains of some North Dakotan. Every time I talk politics with my conservative friends, they talk about we damned liberals taxing us all over the place. And I think to myself: "taxes? You hate us for taxes? Of every tax dollar taken out of your paycheck, 52 cents goes to the military. I mean, we ask that schools receive slightly more than the 1.6% of the budget that they get and you're complaining about taxes?" Great gobs of gray gravy, if military spending was cut in half it would still recieve more money than any other area of governmental spending, and we could quintuple school spending and still save you 15%. Read the damn numbers. These are sad times, and I've become aware that the most impossible thing in the world to do is change a mind in America. It matters not a tidge what facts I give my conservative friends, they will back Bush for few reasons other than they know that he's who they're supposed to support. I'm not making some dogmatic criticism, I've done it too. I supported Gore for quite some time. Did I know anything about him? Gore supported most everything that Bush supported. He wants to bomb Afghanistan. He wants to censor anything his wife deems offensive. He wants to outlaw abortions (and don't get me started on the back and forth I have with abortion rights). But he's home team. I'm liberal, I'm supposed to root for my guy for better or for worse. Clinton was my champion. He bombed more countries than most any president in history. The only way a mind can change is by itself. Arguing will change nothing. The harder you push, the harder the other plants his feet in the ground. People are dying. Think for one moment: for every family that was torn apart because a relative or loved one was killed in the WTC, there are three dozen at least in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kosovo. Think: someone in your life has died. People become alcoholics or drug addicts out of grief when someone close to them dies. I can't stand thinking of what would happen if my dad or my girlfriend or my sister or my roommate died tomorrow. My life would be completely different in a single moment. There would be a space so empty it would pull me away from everything else purely by it's gravity. Can't people connect that this is what happens day after day when we send out bombs? Yes, go ahead and justify, Saddam destroyed more lives than we did. But we put him there. We but Osama there, too. We gave them their guns. We trained Saddam's army, and instead of taking him out ten years ago, we tried to get his own people to do it. They tried, and they died by the thousands because we never helped them. We don't care than life after life isn't just ended, but torn apart because we killed someone else. Just stop. Please. Oil and spheres of influence and worlds safe for democracy, they don't matter when you weigh them opposite so many lives in tiny little pieces. I don't care what you have to say anymore. There is no way anyone will convince me otherwise. And no way they can convince themselves at their deepest part. Peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 Whoa. You have trouble with money going to the military? By the way, I often wonder which would be harder: changing the mind of an American or of an Israeli. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted February 2, 2004 Author Share Posted February 2, 2004 Define encredulity regarding "money to military." I don't like so many American institutions being so grossly underfunded, and that every tax break given us by the government cuts the funding of so many already underfunded organizations (i.e. schools, methadone clinics, ecological preservation) but leave the military intact, disregarding the fact that we spend more money on the military annually than many countries even have, and that it's the most powerful military in the world already, and that it recieves 52% of the budget. And I don't like the fact that I can't avoid my taxes paying fro the construction of $2 trillion B-3 bombers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquasquish Posted February 2, 2004 Share Posted February 2, 2004 Don't worry, the Canadians are a-comin' to liberate you. Between your military bombing its own forces and our moose-launchers, I think we have a pretty good chance If I were you I'd move to either Europe or Canada. I don't think I could stomach having my tax dollars used to invade a collectively castrated middle eastern nation while social programs are failing and far more dangerous nations exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 I'm in the army. Don't go dissin my possie. "for every family that was torn apart because a relative or loved one was killed in the WTC, there are three dozen at least in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kosovo" Iran? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doubleplus GC Posted February 14, 2004 Author Share Posted February 14, 2004 Yes. You ran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisakachris Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 *drumroll* *drumkick* *rimshot* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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