I am not ethnocentric or xenophobic, and I'm certainly not a racist. Having lived abroad for almost half of my adulthood I have known a lot of people from other cultures and countries. If I were to list the top 20 people I have known over the years who I like and trust the most, more than half would hold citizenship from another country, and many would have have darker colored skin.
If you look at the people who have been responsible for most of the bombings over the last 25 years, either of airliners or as suicide bombers, you see certain things. What I am about to say is not racism or intolerance; it is simply realism. Facing up to the truth.
----- Most of them were religious fanatics of one denomination or another.
----- Very few of these people are over 45 years old. Most are 30 or younger.
----- Most have dark colored skin.
----- A significant number are named Abdul or Mohamed.
Some may call this a form of racism called racial profiling. I simply call it the profiling of murderers. It is unproductive and rude, and a horrific waste of time and money, to force a courteous, 60 year old white haired grandparent to remove his/her shoes and undergo rigorous procedures like being patted down. This is what happened to me just a few weeks ago on a domestic flight when I few from El Paso, Texas in America to Amarillo, Texas. This farce pretends that nothing is known about terrorism, and that elderly Americans are as much at risk of committing an act of terrorism as a young, fanatically religious Muslim is.
The rules are currently being modified so that no one can get out of their seat during the last hour of a flight. What about all those older folks who have to pee frequently? An hour is a long time for me and many others.
The 20 something Nigerian who tried to blow up the airliner a couple of days ago not only fit the profile I have identified, he was so weird and screwed up that his own father had recently warned the American authorities about him. These incompetent American “security” jerks didn't think that the opinion of his own father was adequate cause to put his name on the database list where the security folks at the Amsterdam airport would have been warned about this young man which might have caused them to look a little closer at him.
One time I flew out of Lod airport in Israel. The security people in Israel weren't out of work minimum wage people who had been given a bit of training. They were soldiers from the Israeli military. They carried at the ready loaded sub-machine guns. Every single passenger, fully 100%, was given a thorough pat down. Then all of their luggage, both hand bags and checked bags, were completely unpacked and inspected – right there in public by the security people with you standing there watching and answering any questions they had. These people even removed the batteries from my Sony Walkman. They were professional. They were not abusive, but they were were absolutely no-nonsense. You didn't joke around with these folks. When soldiers are standing there with loaded weapons drawn, and they are not smiling, you take the whole event a little more seriously.
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I spent almost half of my adulthood living abroad. During these years I got to know many people from other cultures and countries: Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Kurdish Iraq, Senegal, Finland, and many others.
There were a few bad apples, but in the vast majority of cases these people were all hard working, decent, and honest. One exception was the people from Sweden. For some reason this culture is well known by their fellow Scandinavians as being arrogant. I most certainly agree.
I got to know many Swedes, and almost without exception they were revoltingly dishonest and arrogant.
I see in the news today that one of the nazi groups in Sweden funded the theft of the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign from the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. There is some logic to this. -
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I have watched several of the Swedes I know swell up with national pride and arrogance when they explain that Sweden remained neutral during WWII. In other words the Swedes did not have the balls or the strength of character to oppose Hitler and his sadists. Many years later the new generation which wasn't even alive during WWII is still proud of this refusal by Sweden to oppose nazism. These people are seriously demented.
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After a year in office the American people have a much better idea of who the man who is currently serving as President really is. It is clear that us liberals and progressives did not get the candidate we thought we were electing. Not at all.
Obama now claims that he did not campaign on the “public option.” He actually campaigned on the “single payer” system, which is even better than the PO. Saying that he did not campaign for the PO is actually downright dishonest and deceptive.
He kept on the top Bush people on the economy and warfare. He presided over the largest bail out of (give away to) the super rich in history. He speaks nice words, but his actions as commander in chief are those of a right-wing warmonger. He has not ended the wars, and he has not closed down all the secret jails. He did not stand up to the drug companies, the health insurance companies, the military, or the right wing. He has not achieved any meaningful reform of Wall Street and financial re-regulation.
It is now clear that Obama is a spineless coward who is perfectly happy to compromise his values and beliefs. He is a chicken; afraid of getting his hands dirty or any fight.
By the George Bush standard of intelligence and sounding articulate when reading from a teleprompter Barack Obama scores very well.
By the GB standards of candidness and honesty to the American people he scores just a little bit better than Bush.
Certainly the ambulance chaser, cheating lawyer from North Carolina would not have been better. Nor John Kerry, or the Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson.
Does the American form of democracy weed out all the honest men long before they ever work their way up to important positions of power? The pervasive corruption of campaign finance appears to be well on its way to destroying democracy in America.
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I recently was invited to a surprise birthday party for one of my relatives. Surprise is the operative word here.
A Surprise Party has a lot in common with Punking someone. Maybe the person is tired, or in a bad mood, or has been out all day hiking and smells horrible. Rather than being able to properly prepare himself emotionally and otherwise for a party in his honor, it is just thrust upon him like an unexpected slap in the face. This is inconsiderate, bad mannered, and rude behavior.
Surprise parties share certain similarities with negative or put down humor.
I didn't say any of this to the host; I simply declined to participate. I didn't wish to be a participant in this sort of thing. My lack of attendance seems to have caused a wee bit of resentment.
Do I look like I'm overly concerned?
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I'm not interested in reading the news from the perspective of the Klan or the neo nazis. Nor am I interested in the opinion of fools who belong to the Hummer Owner's Association. These and many other groupings of racists, right wingers, or just plain old clueless people do not have anything worthwhile to teach me. At the very minimum they are a waste of my time. So I do not click on news which is published by them.
I now put Fox News in this same category. I do not like their world view, and I find their reporting to be biased. So I do not click on news which is published by them.
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I am heavily inclined towards a humanitarian approach to immigration and naturalization.
Immigration is good for America, assuming that the immigrants are the best educated and most highly motivated members of their society. Allowing uneducated fruit pickers to become American citizens simply because they haven't committed any serious crimes recently is not necessarily as good for America. But we still should try to treat these foreigners decently.
Whoever they are, whatever social class they come from, a demonstrated proficiency in speaking and reading/writing in the English language must be an absolute requirement to gaining permanent resident status or American citizenship. A country cannot continue to function properly unless all the members of the society can communicate well with each other.
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Robert Gaston Fuller grew up in El Paso, Texas. He is probably most famous for his song I Fought The Law and The Law Won.
There was a teen club on Pershing St. in El Paso where I got to see him and his band play in the early 1960s.
In 1964 he and his band The Bobbie Fuller Four moved to southern California. Two years later he was found dead. He was 23 years old at the time of his death (he was six years older than me). The death was considered very suspicious since he had been badly beaten. Many people still think he was murdered.
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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fuller
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The results were extremely poor, much like I was afraid. The developing countries actually thought this conference was about an enormous transfer of wealth from the developed countries to the largely corrupt/poor countries. But it really was about making substantial and difficult changes worldwide to greatly reduce the burning of fossil fuels.
America, the world's second largest polluter, agreed to lower its total emissions, just a bit. China, the largest polluter in the world, agreed to lower the rate of growth of it's emissions. In other words the air pollution coming out of China will continue to grow, just not quite as rapidly as it would have. But the Chinese wouldn't even consider any form of verification, so its all just words. Blah, blah, blah.
America can't even protect New Orleans or rebuild it after the big flood. Is it going to help by giving billions of dollars of cash to corrupt, poor countries supposedly to build sea walls, etc? All it will do is enrich the corrupt political leaders in these developing countries.
Don't just talk about humanity doing things to reduce global warming. Put your money where your mouth is. I drive a Prius, and my house has a white roof and triple pane windows.
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So was anything accomplished at COP15? At least we are well beyond the ignorant George Bush's denial of global warming. This is very welcomed.
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I get tired of hearing ignorant right wingers tell us how wonderful all our troops are. I am a veteran with an honorable discharge and a couple of medals.
When you agree to join a military to fight and kill, and you do so primarily because of the money offered to you, this fits the definition of a mercenary. OK, these people have few skills and virtually no opportunity for financial success in America. That doesn't affect anything. Most did not join the military out of a sense of patriotism, rather it was from financial desperation.
Most of the people who over the years have joined the French Foreign Legion were misfits, escaped criminals, psychopaths, alcoholics and drug addicts, or other people who did not have opportunities in normal civilized society. So they became mercenaries.
It is time to begin telling the service people of the United States of America that they are expected to behave in a civilized fashion and live by the rules laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
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While campaigning for his current job he said he was in favor of a single payer health care system with universal access. He is so morally weak (read such a coward) and so afraid of a fight that he has almost completely caved in to the arguments of the drug companies, the massive health insurance corporations, the right wing fanatics, and the Republicans.
The senate bill does not assure universal access and it does not implement a single payer system or a vigorous public option.
Obama has not ended the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or closed all the secret jails. In fact he has become a complete tool of the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.
He totally missed the opportunity to reform Wall Street. He sold out to them too.
President Obama is almost as bad as George Bush...a total sell out. This is not hyperbole. Honest. Obama is not at all what he seemed to be, any more than Tiger Woods is. What a terrible shame.
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At the moment I have three computers. All are PCs. One of them has the Microsoft XP operating system, the one I am typing this on runs on Vista, and my newest machine runs under Windows 7.
My first perception is that Windows 7 is only Vista in slightly different clothing. There is one major problem with Win 7 however. Two of my most favorite programs run fine under XP and Vista but not under Win 7. One is a Nikon program which manipulates pictures and the other is a very nice World Atlas sold under the Microsoft brand.
The machine running under XP boots up faster than either the Vista or Seven machines. At this point my favorite operating system remains Windows XP.
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Tiger Woods has single handedly done more to harm the cause of black people (at least black men) than the most ignorant, fervent, racist, and morbidly obese drug addicted radio talk show host in existence. Tiger should be made a life member of the Klan because he sure has helped their cause. Tiger has reinforced the stereotypes of black men being obsessed with sex - especially when it comes to black guys screwing good looking white chicks.
Tiger’s wife apparently rightfully has decided that this alley cat behavior of his will not ever change, so she is planning to divorce him. She is no gold digger, she is just a lady who has been treated incredibly poorly by her arrogant philandering husband.
Tiger is wealthy and has many options open to him. The one where he is ever perceived by the public again as Mr. Clean, or a good guy, or an honest and ethical man is not one of the options.
He could become completely celibate and devote the rest of his life to some worthwhile cause like dealing with poverty. Sort of an ex-whore Mother Teresa type of life. Or he can continue with his downward spiral and his constant sluttish behavior. Or he could just go ahead and commit suicide.
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The health care reform legislation has been so emasculated and perverted in the Senate that it is now a health insurance company's dream. This in no way resembles Universal Health Care. Without a public option or at least a social security buy in this legislation really is worse than the crappy health care system that America already has.
This is not some kind of game or negotiating strategy. This legislation should be defeated. Really.
I worked in his primary and general election campaigns. I am an Obama supporter. But I can only conclude that if President Obama was half as honest and sincere as he pretends to be, he would be absolutely outraged. And unless it is substantially improved in conference committee he would be forced to veto this legislation.
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I have visited Copenhagen several times. It is a delightful city. A friend who is living in Europe sent me a picture this morning:
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I was just watching an old episode of Star Trek Generations. Captain Jean Luc Picard is describing his brother and says, “So pompous and arrogant. Always had to have the last word. He mellowed a little bit in the last few years.”
Remind you of anyone you know?
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