Oops I miscalculated do to the (intended) Pavalonian response action. My comment above should have read Thursday October 5th as those scientists who devoloped the theory were quite clear that everything came in to existence on a Thursday.
Those who developed this theory were clearly inspired by religous fundamentalists. History will show that they were quite clearly mocking religion. But as the day wore on it began to dawn on one of them that this was actually a way to diffuse the the arguement. You diffuse it by making it a left brain and right brain type of thing. Scientists can continue to beleive with the left and the right part of their brain that evolution is true and that it is real. The religously stubborn can
continue to maintain that man has not changed with the right part of their brain but with left part of their brain they can play what if games with evolution since it is not real but only virtual.
Most of the rest of us can maintain that evolution has not changed with the left side of our brains but we can play what if games with the bible as it is only virtual and not real with the right side of our brains.
A few us can maintain that although both the stories of the bible and the stories of evolution might make some interestng points both of them are full of wholes and even mistakes waiting to be corrected with both sides of our brains.
I think that the world began on October 1st 1933 or November 22nd 1963 and that everything before that is just virtual history implanted in our brains like in the movie Blade Runner and that this universe is really just a movie set that is only a few decades old and is only the size of a large computer in a fourth dimension that we are all trapped inside of. So does that make me a religous fundamentalist, an artist who takes art to seriously, or a just a nut case? Yes science has some practical values, but I have some evidence that I do not care to share with you because scientist will not accept it as evidence anyways, that in the end it will not be the scientists who will be laughing at the foolishness of others but the artists.
Not at all surprising. When the stock market is doing bad stockbrokers are all to willing to help paniced investors sell their stocks and when the stock market is doing well stock brokers are all to willing to help hopeful investors buy stocks.
Ditto with real estate agents and rental property. Though the real estate agents to work much harder.
Enlisted retirees do not have to take a reduction because they were getting screwed the whole time that they were in the military. Well except maybe E8s and E9s but they got screwed enought until they got to that point.
Your conclusion is true for enlisted soldiers but it is certianly not true for officers. The military officers of the have been leeches on American society for decades. Life might not be a piece of cake for company grade officers but after that hurdle is overcome the US miltary officer has it made. First all they make very good money to do very low risk jobs that are completely fraudulent in nature. In the best of times they misappropriate huge amounts of natural resources can could be used to help alliviate real problems. In the worst of times they commit mass murder. Then to top it off once they retire they get really good pensions with nice benifits at a young age in which they can and usually do get good jobs with nice pay from the new job. Then when they reach the age that most of us retire they retire often with two good pensions, either from the GSA or from a large defence industry oriented coporation plus other assets that they have accumulated because they had a very good income their entire working life.
I would be willing to bet that if one compared all of the people who have played football in the NFL and all of the people who retired from the military as a commissioned officer after the age of 42 and compared their net worth those who retired from the NFL the net worth of the officers would be higher.
When will it stop? These people have been ripping the rest of us off for generations and will continue to rip the rest of off for decades to come unless important changes are made.
That is what I have been wanting to say now for a while.
Not that such changes will now ever come about because
no one has any stomach for change of this sort anymore but theologically speaking every retired officer in the military should be forced to take at least a 2 grade reduction in rank.
They should be thankful that they even get to keep that much of their pension, before taxes of course.
A little earlieer I brought our glass bottles to the glass collection point. It was the first time in more than 17 years that all of the glass jars and bottels were clear. I found that ironic. You see at the time I was thinking about something.
I forget now what it was but I wrote about it somewhere else but I think that it has something or other to do with tranparency. I like Snowden but I do think that he is wrong about something and the US Constittuion is outdated on some significant matters. One of those has to do with monitoring.
I say that the US government not only has a right to monitor my every politcal thought, even before it is fully formed, it has an obligation to do so. Since most of my thoughts are politcal the NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, OSI, CID, CIS, INS, BATF, and DEA should all be asking for large increase in appropriations from Congress. If money has to come from the Dept. of Education to make do then so be it. It has been said that for these organizations I am the Department of Education. That it was said by me should only reinforce the accuracy of the statement.
So haveing gotten that out of the way. I would now like to confess something that has been troubleing me today. It is a hypothetical question that really has no bearing on anything practical. It is only a hypnotic exersice.
What if..........What if in March of 1942 top scientists reported to the government leadership in Japan, the Soviet Union, Gemany, the United Kingdom, and the United States that a large Astroid is moving towards the earth and has a 50/50 chance of striking the earth in 1950. The astroid is so large that if it strikes the earth nothing will survive. Then in March of 1944 these scientists report that new better calculations indicate that the chances that this astoid will strike the earth in 1950 are 99.999%. The political leadership tried to keep the news from spreading but by March of 1945 every adult had heard the story.
If this had happened would anyone have bothered to finish fighting the war? I must say that if the final chapter of human existance was the victory over the Nazis and the death of Hitler that would have been a pretty classy way to go out.
But what good is a great ending to a story if there is no one to hear the story? Could the privates of any army have gotten themselves out of bed on the cold mornings in March when no matter what there would be no one left to save from death and slavery when everyone was going to die in the not to distant future? Could the officers have in good faith asked their men to advance towards the enemy when civilization itself had just been given a death sentence not in the distant future but in the quite near future? To die in the ruins of Breslau at that time might have been a blessing. But if one took such chances one might not die but be crippled or blinded. Then as the end drew near and civilzation came unglued such people would be defensless from the whims of fate. Things would never get better after the war but only worse and worse and worse.
I am glad that it did not happen that way. There is no telling how our war would have ended. The only thing that might have motivated soldiers to get out bed each morning might have been the desire to aquire enemy booty. The pilaging and murder that would have preceeded the impact of the astroid might have been a fate much worse than the astroid itself.
Sorry it really should not be the season for a trip to the cemetary.
Luther was side of opposition to the Catholic Church. Calvin was another. And let us not forget King Henry.
I have just watched the HBO series about John Adams. I had always had a pretty low opinion of Adams because of the Alien and Sedition Act. But now that I was forced to more fully consider the circumstances of the time I understand how difficult it was to do the right thing at that time. Who can really say what the right thing was. If I were tranported back in time I would be partial to supporting France in its war with England. If that had been done who can say how history might have changed. There might have never been a Reign or Terror or a Napoleon. On the other hand the USA might not have survived the war of 1812. I can now understand that Adams had good reasons for doing what he did when he did it.
Jeremy, can you explain to me how someone can not risk their saved capital? You think of any scenario of what someone does with their capital and I will explain to you the risks involved with that choice.
Furthermore your scenario about people being afraid to risk their capital rests the judgement that it (the capital) belongs to them in the first place. It is certianly not your fault that you have done that the idea that what you can get belongs to you is a value that is extremely imbeded in American culture, especially conservative culture. (Which made me think of a really funny one liner about conservative and their guns. I will not write it here or Juan will have a fit but I will write it somewhere else someday.)
Emmi, I am glad that you made that point too.
When I wrote my first comments none of the comments above mine were visable on my screen. Had I seen what had been written I would not have needed to write what I did write in my first comments.
I read recently that in 1970 the top one percent of Germans got 11% of the income and the top 1% of Americans got 9% of the income. By 2010 the top 1% of Germans still got 11% of the income and the top 1% of Americans got 20% of the income. I do not know what the Germans are doing that the Americans are not doing but it looks to me like the American 1% has gotten away with murder for the past 40 years.
But this question over looks something that I consider even more important. That is the idea that is constantly pitched by so many economists that GDP should always be increasing and that it can always be increasing. Such optimism is entirely unsuportable. The world will sooner or later and most like sooner run out of many of the important raw material to sustain the industrial living standards of Europe and the USA.
The worlds corporations are acting like 8 or 9 or 10 billion people can live like the people in Iowa or Bavaria.
Since this is not possible and since I thin that the resources sources of this planet have to be fairly shared I think that it is neccessary for Americans to be FORCED to lower thier living standards. Sadly many in the USA and Europe do not agree with me. They think that the rest of the world should FORCED to support the 1% and those other 19% that collaborate with the 1% to ensure their survival.
There is one thing that Europeans could learn from the USA. That is how to integrate immigrants faster and at less cost in to their own societies. It does not have to be a losing proposition for those countries that immigrants and refugess.
Perhaps a short term incovience but with longer term paybacks.
Point of Clarification
The Directors of any Agency with the letters ADINS will not have any privacy either if that is something that they currently have.
When the Constitution was written a firearm could fire about 6 shots a minute. When people wanted to communicate they had to go down to the local tavern. If they wanted to communicate over long distances they had to send a letter through intermediaries. My understanding is that in the period of 1776-1789 people knew where there neighbor stood on the important issues of the day.
Today America has more prisoners per capita than any other country in the world. I would suggest that two of the factors that contribute to this toll of slavery are privacy and guns.
As a piece of evidence for my assertion I would point out that most people how have an affair met the other person at work.
Why is this the case? Because when people are at work they are on their best behavior. They are on their best behavior at work because that is a place that privacy is in short supply.
Liberals have often said that secrecy is a poison to democracy. Although i do not have any love for democracy I do agree with that assessment. So it is clear what a civilized society should do. It should make it very clear that you yes you are being watched. It is no secret. It does not matter if you are the CEO of Boeing or a Senator or truck driver IT IS NO SECRET you are being watched not only by numerous government agencies but by non governmental institutions, by your subordinates, by your children, and if you think that you have found a quite place out in the forest and that you are finally alone stop and kick yourself in the groin, because you are still not alone.
WE are not alone. Which I think is quite helpful to know because WE humans are awfully damned stupid.
Dissent in a surveillence state is possible. The more dissenters there are the more people that will be hired to watch these dissedents. That creates more opportunities for the dissenters to get decent paying jobs in a society in wich there are enough decent paying jobs to cover about 25% of families.
But I digress.
If the state moves beyond watching and actually using violence to oppress dissent then human history has shown that support for the dissenters actually grows when the dissenters are supporting a just cause. Of course this growth will not be due to the fact that the dissenters are getting good jobs and living well in an unjust society. It will be because they refuse to recant when they are feed to hungary lions. It will be becasue they refuse to recant when they are being tied to a stake and a bonfire is being prepared underneath them. It will be because they refuse to turn back when they reach a bridge with armed men standing on the other side who are itching to bust the heads of the marchers. the point might be reached in which the dissenters will be able to mount counter violence if such means are neccessary. But there are no guarantees. An insurgency against injustice could die in its crib as the founding members are rounded up before the group can take root. Even if it grows to the point that it can mount an armed insurgency all those that take part and could suffer in vain. Even if the insurgency is successful to the point of taking power things might not go well after that. All of the sacrifices might have been for nothing.
But here is a warning for those who are slow to become a dissenter. Your silence could also land you in a pile of trouble. Your attempts to live well might all be in vain.
I think that your take on this is really unrealalistic. Systems of power are going to protect themselves. Do really think that it can be otherwise? Systems of power can be good or bad or better or worse. America has 300 plus million people. How many people does the FBI the Secret Service and other similar agencies have? If any system of power is going to survive it has to stay two steps ahead of all potential compition. That means that it has to be able to evaluate the potenial threats of today but the potential threats of tommorrow. In a system widely periceved by the population as just there will not be much to worry about but at a time that society's consensus is breaking down there will be a hell of a lot to worry about.
So lets say that you are a progressive who wants to change the system. It will not really matter if you want to change it legally or illegally a threat is a threat is a threat. Those in power will not only want to know what your intentions are but what your capabilities are. So these alphabet soup agencies have a limited amount of money to figure that out. If you have reached the point that they are doing 24 hour a day surrevalence on you you are doing a something really significant. You are robbing the system of its resources.
If the system is good you are doing someihing bad. If the system is bad you are doing something good and you may not even know it. Why everyone who wants to change a bad system should be delighted when they are under 24 hour survelence. Just by going about their normal routine they get to help drive nails in the coffin of a bad system.
Well what if we are talking about El Salvador in the 1970s or 1980s and not the USA then if you come under 24 hour survelence you are likely to be seeing the inside of your own coffin. The thing is opponents of Samosa or Baby Doc did not bitch about death squads trying to track them. They knew that that was the nature of the beast. You do not kill such a beast by asking them to play fair you kill it by infiltrating it and killing it members when they are on their way to church and when they are in a movie theater.
This is not hell. You can see it from here. But as long as the American people are not intimidated by power or seduced by false patriotism hell can be avioded.
Getting a hold of your address book can show someone WHO you associate with. It can not provide information about the NATURE of that association. Jesus associated with criminals and made no secret about it. He was proud of it. Criminals are the ones who need the extra help of a guidance counselor to change their destructive behavior. In any society the government is THE Guidance Counselor. One the is some cases needs to be fired. But it should not have its hands tied when it is trying to do its job. When the police go to a judge and say we want a warrant it is only natural that most judges say yes most of the time if not all of the time. So if the police know that asking for a warrant is merely a formality it is only natural that they should come to see not applying for a warrant in cases where no one will no anyways what they have done as like driving 65 in a 60 speed zone. You shouldn't do it but if you did it will be considered a pretty trivial offence.
Active Countermeasures must be implemented to deal with this threat to us all. We are way beyond nipping the problem in the bud. There has been a lack of political will to address the problem openly. Once we start labeling people for the traitors to humanity that they are we have tacken the first step towards reestablishing sanity. Once moral leadership has been establsihed we can then take actions to reduce the temptation towards irresponsible anti social behavior. When we combine the proper behavior of a much greater part of our population AND TAKE ACTIVE COUNTERMEASURES such as increasing the amount of cloud reflecting agents in the atmosphere then and only then we might have a chance to avoid a mass die off.....Unless we make things even worse.
But if we kill everyone instead of 95% of everyone can people say that we really made things worse?
To prove that I am really serious about doing what it takes
I will go to a Major NASCAR race and stand in front of everyone and call for a speed limit of 75 miles per hour to be imposed during all NASCAR events. If I do not make it out alive at least I will no longer be contributing to the problem.
Sacrices, reasonable risks and most of all team work is what it will take from everyone so that no one gets left behind.
Well so that no one gets left behind except for those people who will refuse to be reasonable by MY definition of reasonable.
This report sounds really stupid to me. I am just an angry citizen not an expert on nervea agents. But I have heard that
poison gas is very dangersous. So I guess that means that I am suppossed to believe that these really dangerous weapons were used but they did not kill anyone. Or am I supposed to believe that these really dangerous weapons were used but that a medical doctor, including corners, would be unable to pin point the cause of death after a person had died from exposure to such weapons. Or perhaps that the people killed
by these weapons all disappeared before they could be examined? I did not actually listen to the report because I was so turned off by the introduction of suspicions but no
proof. Come on, the UN should not waste my time with such
double talk.
Yes the graphs tell the story. Minnesota is a place where 4 million people can not only literally walk across water they can even drive across it too. I bet that no one in South Carolina can do that.
Today when I was out walking I met an old man. He said that his uncle was in fought WW 1 for the Germans in Tanzanika.
His uncle converted to communism after the war. He went back to Tanzania after the war in the 1920s. He had ideas of leading a communist insurrection against the British authorities. But this period in history was one with huge changes in industrial warfare. Although he figured that he could throw the Brits he knew that they would come back in even greater numbers. The only way to defeat them them would be if the native people could create an industrial society before the Brits counter attacked. He saw no chance for them to do that. So, he moved back to the USSR to offer his support in defending the Revolution. Sadly he was thrown in to prison for awile. But eventually he succeded in convincing them that he was not an agent of the German government and he lived for a long time there before returning to East Germany after the war. Luckily for him he died before communism collapsed. Sadly for him he might have died before he saw Capitalism collapse. Funny how you can meet the strangest people in a foggy forest.
As far as I can imagine every person in the Syrian military has been killing either the rebels for quite a long time already or has joined the rebels. I would think that the idea that there is such a thing as Syrian military forces who could be seen as inpartial and trustworthy enough by the different factions to earn the trust of the minorities that they will be protected if there is some kind of agreement has long since past.
By the way who was in power in Lebanon in 1975? Who holds power today? If you ask a Lebonese Christian, Did the Christians lose the civil war? What would be his or her likely resposne? From how many areas were Christians ethnically cleansed? If it is a lot I would think that most Christians might think that they lost. If it is not a lot then perhaps they can claim that they did not lose.
I wonder if anyone in Iran has considered the idea of building bridges to the opposition in Syria so that even IF Assad falls they would be able to maintain some good will in the country among the Sunni majority?
Keep in mind that I now support gung control. But I am a defector from the cause. Therefore I have insight in to how gun lovers think that those who have always been on the side of gun control may lack.
It goes like this, 9,000 gun mureders in the USA, 10,000 or 20,000 or even 30,000 no big deal. We do not drop the speed limit on the highways even though the more we drop the speed limits the more lives that we would save. Guns are for more important than cars in the minds of gun lovers. In fact guns might even be more important than women in the minds of some gun lovers. It would not surprise me if some Marines on a cold night have actally tried to see if a gun could be a proper replacement for a woman. That is after all the kind of training that they get. It has been reported that Marine Drill Sergeants say, If the government wanted you to have a woman it would have issued you one.
Such Frankness about the facts of life may cause the Inspector General to insist that this post be removed from the thread. Well I do not outrank an Inpector General but if I could I would take this thread and needle and stick it in the IGs eye.
It does not make sense that Austrians are so much more violent than there northern German neighbors. What does make sense is that the stats make the Austians look more violent than they are because when the law breaking English and Swedes and Dutch come to vacation in Austrian they bring their law breaking habits with them.
The Americans have proven 365 days a year for more than 200 years that they are not Swiss so they should not have the same rights as the Swiss.
But your statistics do have a silver lining. I my memory serves me correctly in the 1980s the number of murders in the US was usually running around 20,000 per year with a smaller population. Therefore I guess that we can conclude that taller people are less likely to committ murder.
I saw a report on Russia Today (RT-TV) that in the Murbarak era when the Parliment went on vacation in the summer time that their powers (what Powers?) were theoretically placed in Mubaraks hands. The speculation was that now that the Parliment had meet and recessed that Mursi would claim the legeslative functions until they reconviened.
I wrote a definition of politics but then I was embarrassed by it so I erased it. I did think about your question though, for a long time, and I wanted you to know that.
In order to stay one step ahead of you I proprose that the
definition of the word Nerd should be changed to anyone who posses more than two residences in a small country like the UK and anyone who posses more than three residences in a large country like the US.
In countries like the US I had in mind that there are people, such as movie stars, who work on both coasts on a regualr basis, so it would reasonable for such a person to have an appartment in Berverly Hills and Manhattan with a vacation home in Palm Springs.
Someone who has nine homes, five of them in the UK is cleally way way over the line.
These are some good thoughts but they perhaps leave off a bit of the story. If we stop using these catagories now perhaps things would be left as they are with Whites having a disporportionate amount of economic and politcal power. Efficatively meaning that those whites how have always had disproportionate economic and political power get to keep it.
For many years I have wondered why blacks who have actively opposed the power structure in the US have been treated so much more harshly than the whites which have opposed it. To me someone like William Kunstler was a much bigger threat to power than say Fred Hampton.
It did not make sense to me that blacks should be treated more harshly because I thought that those at the top were evil but not stupid. Yet racist policies seemed to be the policies of the stupid. Perhaps my perceptions are inaccurate but recently another idea came to my mind that I had not had before. Perhaps there is some rational behind the idea that black dissedents have been treated more harshly than white dissedents. The idea that came to me is that it would create the idea among black dissedents that they can not trust white dissedents becasue they are phoney.
If they were real they would be suffering. Have any important black dissedents of the past or present ever made this charge? I am not so familiar with the subject that I know the answer to this question.
With reports that methane is already being released from the siberian trunda as it thaws and from the artic ocean sea bed as it warms up I wonder if it is possible to capture any significant portion of this gas that is naturally being released in to the atmosphere.
MP3 that is a good discription. Its to late baby its to late.
The temps that we are at now are already causing the leak of massive amounts of methane from Siberia and from the Artic Ocean. Its too late baby its to late. How will we build enough solar and wind power to go around for 7 billion people without the use of huge amounts energy? This energy will come primarily from fossil fuels. I have read that nuclear power has a similar problem. That is not hard to imagine. Just imagine all of the engery need to make the containment structure. That is even before you get to the fact that uranium is not exactly abundent and has to be highly refined to use has a fuel. Its too late baby its to late. It might only be ten minutes in to the third quarter but we are down 38 to 3. Oh, but wait. We can try an Ale Merry Pass.
Someone could start putting gases in to the atmosphere that will counteract the effects of CO2 and Methane. Failing that Dr. Spock could appear and build an orbiting sunshield for us.
We did not even finish reading your report as even your plan of arming the ANA with tanks and helicopter gunships does not seem realistic either.
All that we can hope for is that the Iranians and maybe the Uzbecks or Tadjicks will make an alliance of convience and that they will support anti taliban forces who can hopefully keep control of part of the country and that after trying for a while to capture the whole country the taliban will eventually give up and settle for part of it. We COULD hope that they will not be be even more looney than the Saudis this time around but I am not sure that we CAN have such a hope.
Is, free OF paradise, really what it says? That would make it more provocative in the 21st Century but way back when it was written such a phrase might have caused someone to loose their head, quite literally.
Every political party should have its own intellegence gathering agency. The repubican party can subcontact their intel gathtering to Ztratvor.
Anyways the part about the Russians giving the Israelis the codes sounds goofy. How hard would it have been for the Iranians to change the codes? Would the Israelis know for sure whether or not the Russians gave them the correct codes before they had been tested under combat conditions?
This is a good one. If this was the only thing that he wrote it could have been a clue that he was really a Tibetian Buddhist who took a vow to plunge in to the depths of hell to help quench the thirst of the souls trapped there and to refuse entry in to heaven until all beings are granted entry in to heaven.
Now on to a more pertinate subject. Iran says that it could easily block the straits of Hormuz. They US uses mega resources building nuclear powered Aircraft Carriers and Amphibious Assault Task Forces to be able to keep these straits open. Yet why is it never asked by the Wall Street Journal or The Times or the Post or Forbes why so much oil must past through the straights in the first place. Why have no oil pipelines simply been built to bypass the straits? Why were these pipelines not built 30 years ago?
No instead the US builds the worlds most expensive and deceptive welfare program commonly known as the Department of Defense. And threatens to murder God knows how many people if it is not bowed down to and worshiped.
No No no the world has it all wrong. These deaths are not at all connected by international politics.
What connects them is the growing womens rights movement in Iran.
What these men all have in common is not only that they were scientists but that they were all stepping out on their wives.
Iranian women are just not going to stand for that anymore.
These bombings send a clear message. The woman of Iran will get their justice one way or another. They will stop at nothing not even learning the arts of bomb making to keep thier men in line.
I think that the 1% faction is bigger than 1%. There are those not very rich people who suffer from Stockholm syndrom who think that they are part of the 1%. Seems to me like there are quite a few such people but it might just be from where I am sitting.
Wingbat,
Damn that is a good post. It just breaks the bones of the pro western intervention movement. I do not see how anyone can read your post and not start to have doubts about the idea that the West should have any part in the movement to overthrow Quaddafi.
I myself wish that I could support both sides in the Lybian Civil War. I can certianly understand if poorly trained men in their teens and twenties, an age in which men should not have to worry about anything other than their love life, are risking their lives against forces with much more heavy weaponery, these men much surely have some deep political grievences.
Yet Quddafi has a record of decades of struggle against western imperialism which can not be ignored. I therefore must come down on his side until such time as I believe that the rebel forces are led by Marxist oriented leaders.
Quaddafi is often deamonized in the western press. Support for this that or the other political movements in other countries, or the Berlin Disco bombing. This comming from institutions who do not demonize those who overthrew Allende and even tried to overthrow an elected Australian Prime Minister. Quaddafis crimes are trivial in comparison with the CIAs and the US governments.
For Decades now I have listened as people told me that first Khomeni and now Khameni wanted to bring Iran back to the 9th century. Well here in the US we have the Republicans who want to bring us back to the 17th century. Then the Democratic leadership claims to be liberal because they only want to bring us back to the 18 century. Was the 9th century in Iran really all that much worse than the 18 century in Europe or the US? Fine Birds of a feather. All of them are Pee Cocks if you ask me.
20 to 40 years might be true for India or Italy or Ireland or Iran but for a country like the US where the parking lots are so large a person needs to carry a cantine of water to cross them, along with lots of other energy wasteful infrastructure, I think that they are going to have to work very hard to achieve that goal.
If it can become a national obession like beating the Russians in Hockey once was then maybe they could do it.
By the way when I say that a civil suit is warranted I do not mean that the plantiffs should neccissarily win. Instigating a riot is something that should be thought about very carefully. I am under the impression that in a civil trial a jury has to determine on which side the preponderance of evidence lays and does not have to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I am also under the impression that a jury has to reach a unamious verdict. If this is so I think that a defense strategy of jury nullification is also reasonable. By that I mean that a person has a right to instigate a riot because people have the right to say what they believe is the truth reguardless of how other people will react to what is saud.
Damn this is tragic because a society seems to be screwed no matter what position it takes.
Goes back to what I have said before some things just have to be dealt with by creating a mature culture, with customs not neccissarily laws, to prevent unneccessary unwanted problems.
If this church really thinks that it is neccessary to have a right to burn the Koran it should be willing to defend that right with their money in a court of law. I have always thought that flag burning was a right but I never figured that if I or some else burned the flag it would cause American conservatives to riot. I have figured that it could cause a fight. And in that case I would hold conservatives entirely responsible for the consequences of that fight because in most of the US are tradition is that a person is not justified in using violence to respond to a non violent provocation. If conservatives are enraged by seeing someone burn the US flag they can do something that they think would enrage the flag burner like burning the US Constitution. Hhahahahahahahahahaha. Are conservatives smart enought to understand why I am laughing at them?
This is a really tragic situation. In America if a white guy called a black guy a nigger I do not think that the black guy would be justified in responding to that insult with physical violence. But if that was the defense I would take that as a mitigating circumstance. I also could understand that in other cultures in would actually be a defense. In Germany it is my understanding based on training that I recieved about 10 years ago the black would be legally allowed to slap the white person with an open hand and if a fight then followed the white guy would be held to be responsible. This church in Florida has really crossed a red line in the sand for many Muslims and they clearly did it on purpose. Although I would not support any state action against these christian bigots I do think that a civil trial in which the indirect victims of this action sued the church for wrongful death would be warrented. These deaths were clearly a forseeable result of such activity and the church carried out this action in wanton disreguard for the likely consequences. Now if the church had carried out a less inflamitory activity like publishing a phamlet about why they beleived the Koran are not binding rules of human behavior and people in any Muslim country had rioted over that then a civil law suit would clearly be an unwarranted unreasonable action.
I can clearly say this becasue I am a warranted reasonable person and a civli law suit under those cirmunstances would seem like harrasment to me. That is logic that can not be logically argued with.
I am against arming the rebels but I am less against that than allowing NATO to bomb Loyalist tanks. Giving someone the tools to fight their own battles is not as bad as fighting their battles for them. Unless they are physically or mentally handicapped.
I have heard that a civil war is about to break out in the Ivory Coast because the President will not step down. Will the US and or Nato launch a humanitarian rescue mission there too? I bet that the west does not. It would be much more justified. If Libyan opponents of Ghaddhaffi fear execution they have a clear escape route to Egypt or Algeria. There are currently fluid but clear front lines. I doubt if that will be the case in the Ivory Coast.
I think that the inhabitants of Lala land should chew a pig's ass. What do they call a pig's ass there?
ERic,
We have been living in Bizzarroworld since Jan. 2001 and since Jan.1981 and since June 8th 1967 and since November 22nd 1963 and since 1913 and since 1832. Roots of corruption run very deep in America. It takes a few good dilligent people in the right places at the right time to keep a country on a scenic path.
Doing the right thing for the wrong reason? For the US anyone in power in Libya is better than Khadaffy. US rulers are indifferent to democracy. When the mob is on thier side fine. When it is not they will try to subvert it.
In the US of the 21st century marketing has replaced reasoning.
I just read that Mubarak has actually resigned and that Sulieman will not take power either. It seems that an Egyptain version of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are now the official ruling body.
What I thought was kind of funny is that yahoo news portrayed the situation in which Egyptian protestors were running around shouting that they are free. I hope that when they wake up tommorrow they realize that the struggle for what type of society that Egypt will be in the future has just begun. Freedom, what ever that word means to the jubilant, is certianly not guaranteed. Let the recent history of eastern Europe be a warning to them.
Here is a change that I would like to see.
The University of Chicago posseses thousands (30,000?)clay tablets which are adminstrative records removed from the Iranian World Heratige Site at Persepolis in the 1930s.
I think that those tablets should be returned to the country that they belong to, Iran. The University of Chicago can photograph them before they return them. Although these tablets were legally obtained, US society no longer deserves to hold such a valuble piece of Iranian History.
Some might say that the current Iranian government does not deserve them either. While not being a fan of that government they have cooperated with archeologists from many different countries in researching Iran's past.
It should not be required that there be a revolution in Iran before the tablets are returned.
I was just watching Russian Today and scrolling across the bottom of the page was a report that released Wikileakes documnets show that the US Government had been planning the overthrow of Mubarak. I do not believe this. Have you ever seen anything in Wikileaks that would support this accusation?
I wonder if why RT would report this when it is something that could be so easily checked on.
Something is a bit ood about the whole thing. I think the answer lies in Orwell. One is for the CIA to think, Aha the Ruskies are claiming that we are behind the fall of Murbarak because they want us to think that they are really behind it because they really did not have a damned thing to do with it.
Or maybe they are just building up a historical record so that if they do not like the way that the things are turning out they can say that we were behind whoever took power as a way to try to discredit them. If they like whoever takes power the little claim that the US had been plotting for years to remove Mubarak from power will be lost to his tory.
Maybe they actually think that some people in current high level circles will buy in to this claim and if they manage to keep power these people will turn to the Russians as a counter to US manipulations inside their country.
I myself do not think that it was very smart to make this claim. It makes the US leadership look smart.
So that is it? We just walk away from Iraq next year and Afghanistan in 3 or 4 or 5 years and say no harm no foul?
No one did anything wrong. If they did it was neccessary for the national interest. America land of the free home of the brave leader of the free world and all of that. We recover from the our advetures in the ME just like we recovered from our adventures in SEA, by throwing ourselves a big birthday party or something. Say wasnt the war of English reconquest fought at about this time 200 years ago?
If these attacks were carried out by Pashtuns in areas that they are a minority how long will it be before Pashtuns are ethnically cleansed from some areas Afghanistan?
That question is asked based on the assumption that the attacks in Qonduz did not have any passive support from any of the local population outside of some Pashtuns who live there.
By the way that is of course a rhetorical question.
So in Febuary they will be put on trial. Who can say that they will get an unfair trial. Then who can say they will get a fair trial. What I say is that if they are found innocent they should be released. Is there any doubt that if they are found innoccent they will be released?
Do Iranians recognize such a thing as a mistrial? I mean could it be like a LT. Watada trial where the defense kicks the governments ass but to aviod imbarresment the government declares a mistrial so that it can keep the case going and the accussed in a legal limbo for an even longer period of time?
Does the Iranian legal system totally ignore its own laws like the US does?
We give reenlistment bonuses to war criminals and put defenders of the Constitution in Prison. It would not surprise me if the Iranians do the same. After all what type of role models do they have to learn from?
I guess this little notice can go here as well as anywhere else. I just read that a small city in Tennessee, called something like Mufreesboro, pardon my spelling but it is not exactly a name known throughout the US let alone Europe and if I have not heard of it it can not be very important now can it. Well the reason that this town is important today is that the town itself is being sued by some residents to block the building of a Mosque.
These residents claim that Islam is not a religion but a political movement.
Hahahahaha that is really really funny...........because they have a good point. In Islam the leader should be, like in England, both the head of state and the head of the religion. Hhahahahaha all of those Anglican Churches are going to have to be torn down after this case, or sold. I once saw an unused Church that was turned in to a very nice beauty parlor.
So Arab Mosque attendance is about the same as American Church attendance.
That means from a European view both Americans and Arabs are very religious.
From a European view that is a very scary thing indeed. If our conservative parties are getting 40% of the vote and church attendance is 10% one could deduce that not even conservatives place a very high value on religion in Europe. Some of them might say that they do. I think that they really mean tradition not religion.
I wonder if that is Merkel thinks that Multi culturalism has failed, because Turkish men refuse to wear Lederhosen and Turkish Women refuse to wear Tracht. She should remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, A Döner Kebob a day keeps the doctor away. (Ad long as it has cabbage.)
I think that this story is suspect. We are supposed to believe that a General was outraged by the suggestion of a cabinet member. What a crock of shit. Did this General demand the president fire the cabinet member? Of course not. Did the General report this incident to the press? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that General probably had one of his underlings plant that idea in the head of the cabinet member.
Did this General issue a warning to his army that there were come "CIVILIAN" politicians who were planning a war of aggression in the middle east and if they succeeded in getting the US government to launch such a war the US military would be obligated to go on strike? No Generals in the US military are are not only without any political leanings they are also obviously without any ethical leanings.
Remember the USS Liberty!
I too wonder how this informatien ended up on this blog. It is darned fascinating and important info too. I have serious doubtz that a country that puts teenagers in adult prisons will no what to do with the informatien.
What is really sad is that by the time the Palestinians do get control over even part of their country and a few of the refugees can return it seems that there will not be anything left to return to. Everything will be destroyed and the ground water will be pumped dry.
It is illegal for Iranians to travel to Israel. It would not surprise me although I had heard that Jews travel back and forth between Iran and Israel frequently. That was several years ago though that I had heard that. Anyways it is illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba.
When I am in power I will give any American who calls for an American or Israeli attack on Iran 40 and and 1/4 years in prison just to show that I can be precise too.
I agree Hossein was naive. Iran is not the 21st century Ottoman Empire. The US is.
If a person wants to live in Iran they should follow one of the following strategies.
A.) Keep your mouth shut and stay out of politics
B.) Work with in the Islamic System to make small changes.
C.) Work outside the system using non violent measures to achieve your goals and do not be surprised when you get your head bashed in, get tortured, and so forth.
D.) Work from outside the system using violence to change the system always saving your last bullet for yourself so that you are never taken prisoner.
It is a tough choice.
Not on topic just a little needle in the eye for Obama supporters who should be revolutionaries. Defense "President" Gates said at a Dinner with Afghan Pres. Karzai that the US military is not ever leaving Afghanistan, as reported by Anti war.com. Now let me see who does Obama work for?
Hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahah
My wifes Cousin was here from Iran a few weeks ago. She complained about how some of her relatives were beaten by police during the upheaval and they were not even demonstrating. Well a few days ago I saw news footage of a demonstration in Europe.
I think that it was Spain. The unarmed demonstrators were on one side of the street.
Police in full riot gear on the other side of the street. 4 policemen at a time would charge the demonstrators and pull someone out of their line. The unlucky demonstrator was then carried behind police lines were they were then given a beating by the police with their clubs. Wow those Iranians are so backwards by comparison.
Did AQ really lead the US leadership anywhere the US leadership did not really want to go? NO wonder why some people think that the AQ is really a CIA operation.
I have read that the average expected life span of a wind turbine is 25 years. This is a rather depressing estimate. I have to wonder if it is really true. Why should it wear out in just 25 years? I can understand that it would need maintenance. But the word life span indicates that it would have to be torn down and a new one built. That does not make a lot of sense to me. Could this figure just be a trick to allow utility companies a larger tax break?
There are ungratful ingrate Iraqi who are complaining about their own courts decision to award 400 million dollars to Americans harmed by Saddams unwelcom invasion of Quwait. The thing is by my undersanding the courts decision is that payments will be mad e in Iraqui Currency. Therefore by the time the benificairies can take their payments to the bank for conversion to US dollars they may have very little to actually deposite in to their accounts.
The US has spent boo kuh amounts of money trying to rebuild the Iraqi economy. We have given the Iraqis what perhaps 40 billion or is it now 400 billion and what did we get for it why 4,000 dead brothers in arms. (I almost said commarades in arms but that sounded a little to socialist. I would never ever write anything like that on purpose.) So what is a measly 400 million when compared against billions? We even gave them the rope that they used to hand Saddam and his fellows.
I think that when our military forces leave Iraq they can do so with their heads held high because they did such a wonderful job. Of course they all ready know that I only state it hear because many of your readers do not know that. Your readers should know that like the Canadian Mounties we always get our man figuratively speaking.
We know that we always accomplish our mission because it says so right there in our OERs and EERs in black and white.
Juan I hope to see you at the unveling of the Iraq War Victory Monument at the Lake Wobegone Community College on the 21st, OK?
Is monitoring Cadets to make sure that they do not have religous tendancies any different than monitoring cadets to insure that they do not have communists tendacies, or capitalist tendancies, or athiest tendacies, or anarchists tendacies, or seperatist tendacies, or fascist tendacies? Oh, wait that last one is perhaps wrong. Can an army exist if it expells cadets with fascist tendacies? That seems to be almost a pre requisit for becoming a military officer in any country. (Define facism some one says, A person who follows the idea, I support my traditions right or wrong to the last breath)
So here is the real catch. All states have been established through a period of struggle by one ruling faction who have had to defeat other potential ruling factions who have been at odds with each other over political (collective policies). Gaining majority support is a tactic used by these competing factions to gain strength over thier opponets.
Every state has sacred bridges over which the majority of its citizens may not be allowed to cross, such as nationalization of industry or privatization of industry. If I am not mistaken a key idea in the establishment of modern Turkey is that religion was a key cause of the collapse of the Ottomon Empire.
Almost 90 years later it seems many Turks have now come to the conclusion that implementation of non religous ideas can be just as stupid as the implementation of religous ideas. I think that it would be hard for people on one side not to see those on the other as backwards at best and as have a hidden motive at worse.
I do not support repatraitions for Iraq from the US. It is not that they are not deserved but Iraq does not need them. Once it is free and peaceful it has the potential to become a very prosperous area Buddhas willing. Anyways the Iraqis owe huge repatriations of their own to Iran so if there are going to be repatriations to anyone some paperwork could be saved by just having the US pay repatrations to Iran.
To make such a suggestion proves that I am honest person. I hope for a secular socialist future for Iran but giving the Iranian government repatriations would actually strenghten their postion. It would make the job of the people that I have the best hopes for harder. I have not asked them but I think that they would be willing to make the sacrifice.
Now as another examplel of my honesty I will state that if I had magical powers to force the US to pay repatriations to Iran would I do so. No, again not that Iran does not deserve repatriations from the US but Iran is not exactly a destitute country.
The US owes many countries repatriations (and even many of its own citizens). There are other countries in the world that desperately need the money that they should get like Congo and Haiti and Nicarauga and Honduras, perhaps Vietnam.
What a relief, I think, if you are right. I am not talking about Obama. I am talking about the rules for convicting someone of apostasy. I wonder if the conservative Ayatollah sin Qom, Gom, Qum or whatever it is called have the same standards as those that you quoted. I am free, free at last!
For me the Iraq war ends when the war criminals who started it and the accesories after the fact stand trial. All wars are vile civil wars. The battleground is changing. The means are changing. The goal remains the same.
All of the European countries of the EU find it very difficult to work together. Would the Turks, Iraqis, Iranians, Kurds, and Syrians find it any easier? I suspect that they would have just a much difficulty reaching a decision as the Europeans. Who will be the first person to recommend that they form a joint committee to study the feasibility of a Union of Diverse Peoples.
I can guess that such a committee would conclude that it would not work with out a strong central leader, capable of being very brutal, to hold such a union together long enough until it took hold in the imaginations of the people of the area. The committee should know that I am free for the moment. They should act fast because one can never say how long that will be the case.
In honor of Ernie Padgett,
Born 1 March 1899
Died 15 April 1957
I hope that someone comes up with a smarter renewable way to run cars rather than rechargeable batteries. That is hardly renewable. The batteries will take large amounts of energy to make and deplete other resources. The making hydrogen from water and burning the hydrogen for fuel seems at first glance to be more practical.
In honor of Neal Ball,
born 22 April 1881
died 15 October 1957
I do not think that it will do the vast majority of Americans any good at all to just read the Quran. They also need to have someone that they can turn to ask their questions and make comments to about what it is that they are reading. Then depending on the person that they communicate with they may come to have a greater appreciation for the book or they will be really turned off by it depending on who their "guide" is. It is not just a question of the intelligence of the person with which they are studying the Koran but how well student and teacher fit together. Most guides or teachers will try to convert you to Islam. Just as a reminder to anyone who would consider taking the time to study the Koran. It is the students job to remain skeptical but also open minded. Such a balancing act is an art not a science. In my opinion no one not even God or the Gods themselves can give you a grade on any conclusions that you would come to.
Go pick up any Wino off a street in Los Angelas, Chicagao, or New York and you are more likely to hear a true story than any story concocted by the US or the Iranian government. I can not see how anyone in the outside world could make heads or tails out of this nonsense.
(S)He lies hidden among the masses. (S)He is the child of Thomas Paine and Buddha.
(S)He is the cousin(in?) of Mohammad. (S)he is the master of humor. If you do not get it you are not listening. (S)He is very modest.
NO kidding!
The conservatives are partially right. The leaders of western society are demonic. While the death of a woman for adultery is a very tragic and brutal and backward act which attracts a lot of attention, the speculation by western billionaires which drives up the price of rice by 300% and wheat by 100% as occurred in 2008 and causes a brutal death for millions goes practically unnoticed in the world press. In my book that makes the west 10,000 times more backward than even the Taliban.
Khameni and his followers are also right about the hidden Imam. He or she is here in this world NOW. He or she is surrounded by his or her enemies but is protected by a squadron of loyal Turkish bodyguards. But what will shock the conservative Muslims is that the hidden Imam is no longer a Muslim but is now a Unitarian Universalist Buddhist! If you think that will piss off the Shia's, the Hidden Imam is pretty pissed off at what has become of his community as well. More than likely he will get feed up at disappear again.
NO kidding!
Just a short note the French Press Agency is saying that the Turkish and Israeli Foreign Ministers have had a secret meeting in Geneva to try to repair damaged ties between the two countries. (I think that they really mean governments.)
Eppie,
That is an interesting hypothesis. I sent a longer reply yesterday but I must have forgotten to hit the send button and my reply disappeared in to cyberspace.
But one question that I have is, do you know anyone personally in Georgia or Azerbaijan that could confirm that Israeli jets are in those countries?
On the other hand if Turks can now make love with Greeks in good conscience why can't they make love with Kurds in good conscience? People generally do not risk their lives by taking part in an armed uprising against a more powerful foe unless they have some pretty strong grievances.
Of course my solution to the problems do not make any sense to anyone with political power anywhere therefore I can claim with a large amount of certainty that it must be on the right track. That would be a Union between Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and maybe Kuwait. Under this union a Kurdistan would be created in the border region of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Kurdistan like Iran, Turkey and Iraq would not be and independent country. It would be a region with some degree of autonomy just like Iran, Turkey and Iraq.
Now if the leaders of these of these countries had more sense they would send ambassadors to ring my doorbell and receive copies of my proposed Constitution for the region. They just need to give me 72 hours notice so that I can make tea and clean the house to be ready for them. I will not even charge them for the copies.
At some point the Afghans and Pakistanis may want to join too.
Israeli newspapers are reporting that an Iranian Newspaper has reported that US military forces are "massing" in Azerbaijan. If the US sent more than one Battalion there would'nt that get reported by the Times or Post? I have also seen a report that there is a report that 4 or 5 aircraft carriers are on their way to the Indian Ocean.
Have you heard anything of that sort? If that is true that would be alarming. Just one aircraft carrier probably has twice the combat potential as the whole Iranian Air Force.
Such an overwhelming force would not need surprise to achieve a tactical victory.
I guess that in the US military they still believe that if you string one tactical victory after another you will eventually be able to say that you won.
I hope that they do not interrupt coverage of the World Cup to show us cruise missiles and F-18s flying over some Iranian city. They better have the decency to wait until the Championship game is finished.
It is true that tactics that work in America may not work in Iran and vice versa. The Iranians are much smarter. Now is the time to build the networks of those that will take an Axe to the head of the beast if it does not reform. Everyone in the security services recently passed a key test. Now they face a new test. A test from forces that know their inner most thoughts and desires. The first task is to find me. I am surrounded by my enemies who are eager to see brought down. But they can not get to me becasue I am protected by a loyal squadron of bodyguards. Yet these bodyguards are not my followers. Alone I have charged in to the valley of death and have set the army of the enemy fleeing in all directions. Their retreat saved them from defeat on that day. But like the protagonist in the movie Sliding Doors their future fate is sealed. Only the course of their defeat is undecided.
If a Major or Colonel in the Iranian Security Forces should accept me as their coworker I do not promise paradise at the end of their struggles. Those who struggle only for their personal salvation are not worthy of joining our struggle. If a Major or Colonel should join me in our struggle I do not promise power at the end of the struggle. Those who struggle only for power are not worthy of our struggle. If a Major or Colonel should join me in our struggle I do not even promise victory. Those who struggle when only when victory is possible are not worthy of our struggle. The only thing that I promise is a dangerous journey with many twists and turns that will finally lead to a new path, if you can get there. This new path is not the easyest path to follow, nor is it the hardest. It is the most scenic. Ask yourself if you are worthy of this struggle. Then pray for guidance to aquire your answer. Is it you that I am speaking to, or another in Columbia?
You would think that my appeal would be made in Persian if it were true would yoú not? But did Mohammad make his appeal in Persian? The Koran commanded Muslims to Read! Tell me the names of Muslims that never learned to read? Things rarely work out the way that you were expecting.
When I was returning from Mecca I thought that I would go home. But things did not work out that way. I spent me time lost wandering around Europe and America. Like a true Muslim I studied other religions WITH AN OPEN MIND and I became better for it. What are you capable of becoming? What are you capable of?
I am a person who neither abhors or relishes violence. The Iranian government makes if very difficult for me to say what tactics should be used to drive them from power. Violence is an effective means in attaining ones political goals but with very harsh side effects. I think that if I were an Iranian I would neither endorse or condemn others who at this point choose to fight the Iranian government with violent means. I myself though would stick with non violent means at least for the time being.
The leaders of Iran are making a false claim that they are the legitimate leaders of that country. Such claims have led to civil wars over and over again in human history. For false leaders to take over the reins of power is an enraging event. I am still enraged by the assissination of President Kennedy. The US has not had a legitimate government since that time. Yet when we look at what makes people in Iran angry about thier government it is the same gripes that people all over the world have, even in Europe, with the exception of how women are treated.
Although women might be treated differently in western culture, western culture certianly does not seem to be a very good model for the development of our daughters either. Furthermore if one adds up the suffering that women would endure if there were a civil war in Iran I would have to question whether or not it would be worth it. I would advise Iranian women to immigrate to Canada or Australia or even Turkey, or Azerbijan, or Armenia. These are countries that I think Iranians could immigrate to without large sums of money. Voting with your feet is sometimes the best vote that there is. When there are two men in Iran for every woman then perhaps the Iranian clerics might be pressured in to treating Iranian women with a little more respect.
Iranian Muslims should hear me because Sp4 Manning is my spiritual son. That should count for something. Iranian Muslims should hear me because Major Hassan is my spiritual cousin. That should count for something too. Iranian Muslims should hear me because I place truth and justice above national identity. That should count the most of all.
In honor of
Russel Means
Che Gueverra
Bobby Seals
Sgt. Karim Akbar
So what are the chances that a member of the Iranian Security Forces would ever read what I have just written and come to the correct conclusion that I am the one that they have waited centuries for? One in a billion or one in a trillion perhaps?
The only way that we can know for sure is to leave it up and test them.
Yes I am playing a game. One in which everyone deserving wins.
Crazy? Well, humor me. It will help to build my insanity defense.
Do you think that it is a bad time to for me to make outrageous claims?
My advisors think otherwise. They actually saw the movie Sliding Doors.
I wonder why no one answered my question of why it was so important for Khamenei and those that backed Khamenei not to allow Mosavi to become President? This question has maybe been asked and answered before. But maybe I missed it or maybe I just do not remember. One year after the events is a little review not in order.
Here is another thing not to forget. Those non Iranians who are defending Iran's nuclear power program against US imperialist and zionist attacks are not defending Iran the government but Iran the people. Juan, I mention this especially for you becasue you have mentioned how much you dislike Ahmadinejad.
The internal policies of the Iranian government may suck. Yet in the disputes between the US government and the Iranian government the US is 125% wrong and Iran is 110% right.
Why was it so important for Khamenei and the security leadership to back Ahmadinejad instead of Mosavi? After all you would think that since the four people allowed to campaign for the position had been approved out of a cast of hundreds who were disqualified any one of the four would have been PERFECTLY acceptable in their opinion.
I hope that this attack does to Israel and the US what the attack on black marchers at the bridge in Selma Alabama did to the white southern racists. I do not have much hope though.
The world is very reluctant to hold the US responsible for the actions of its 51st state.
Oops I miscalculated do to the (intended) Pavalonian response action. My comment above should have read Thursday October 5th as those scientists who devoloped the theory were quite clear that everything came in to existence on a Thursday.
Those who developed this theory were clearly inspired by religous fundamentalists. History will show that they were quite clearly mocking religion. But as the day wore on it began to dawn on one of them that this was actually a way to diffuse the the arguement. You diffuse it by making it a left brain and right brain type of thing. Scientists can continue to beleive with the left and the right part of their brain that evolution is true and that it is real. The religously stubborn can
continue to maintain that man has not changed with the right part of their brain but with left part of their brain they can play what if games with evolution since it is not real but only virtual.
Most of the rest of us can maintain that evolution has not changed with the left side of our brains but we can play what if games with the bible as it is only virtual and not real with the right side of our brains.
A few us can maintain that although both the stories of the bible and the stories of evolution might make some interestng points both of them are full of wholes and even mistakes waiting to be corrected with both sides of our brains.
I think that the world began on October 1st 1933 or November 22nd 1963 and that everything before that is just virtual history implanted in our brains like in the movie Blade Runner and that this universe is really just a movie set that is only a few decades old and is only the size of a large computer in a fourth dimension that we are all trapped inside of. So does that make me a religous fundamentalist, an artist who takes art to seriously, or a just a nut case? Yes science has some practical values, but I have some evidence that I do not care to share with you because scientist will not accept it as evidence anyways, that in the end it will not be the scientists who will be laughing at the foolishness of others but the artists.
wow
Not at all surprising. When the stock market is doing bad stockbrokers are all to willing to help paniced investors sell their stocks and when the stock market is doing well stock brokers are all to willing to help hopeful investors buy stocks.
Ditto with real estate agents and rental property. Though the real estate agents to work much harder.
Enlisted retirees do not have to take a reduction because they were getting screwed the whole time that they were in the military. Well except maybe E8s and E9s but they got screwed enought until they got to that point.
Your conclusion is true for enlisted soldiers but it is certianly not true for officers. The military officers of the have been leeches on American society for decades. Life might not be a piece of cake for company grade officers but after that hurdle is overcome the US miltary officer has it made. First all they make very good money to do very low risk jobs that are completely fraudulent in nature. In the best of times they misappropriate huge amounts of natural resources can could be used to help alliviate real problems. In the worst of times they commit mass murder. Then to top it off once they retire they get really good pensions with nice benifits at a young age in which they can and usually do get good jobs with nice pay from the new job. Then when they reach the age that most of us retire they retire often with two good pensions, either from the GSA or from a large defence industry oriented coporation plus other assets that they have accumulated because they had a very good income their entire working life.
I would be willing to bet that if one compared all of the people who have played football in the NFL and all of the people who retired from the military as a commissioned officer after the age of 42 and compared their net worth those who retired from the NFL the net worth of the officers would be higher.
When will it stop? These people have been ripping the rest of us off for generations and will continue to rip the rest of off for decades to come unless important changes are made.
That is what I have been wanting to say now for a while.
Not that such changes will now ever come about because
no one has any stomach for change of this sort anymore but theologically speaking every retired officer in the military should be forced to take at least a 2 grade reduction in rank.
They should be thankful that they even get to keep that much of their pension, before taxes of course.
A little earlieer I brought our glass bottles to the glass collection point. It was the first time in more than 17 years that all of the glass jars and bottels were clear. I found that ironic. You see at the time I was thinking about something.
I forget now what it was but I wrote about it somewhere else but I think that it has something or other to do with tranparency. I like Snowden but I do think that he is wrong about something and the US Constittuion is outdated on some significant matters. One of those has to do with monitoring.
I say that the US government not only has a right to monitor my every politcal thought, even before it is fully formed, it has an obligation to do so. Since most of my thoughts are politcal the NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, OSI, CID, CIS, INS, BATF, and DEA should all be asking for large increase in appropriations from Congress. If money has to come from the Dept. of Education to make do then so be it. It has been said that for these organizations I am the Department of Education. That it was said by me should only reinforce the accuracy of the statement.
So haveing gotten that out of the way. I would now like to confess something that has been troubleing me today. It is a hypothetical question that really has no bearing on anything practical. It is only a hypnotic exersice.
What if..........What if in March of 1942 top scientists reported to the government leadership in Japan, the Soviet Union, Gemany, the United Kingdom, and the United States that a large Astroid is moving towards the earth and has a 50/50 chance of striking the earth in 1950. The astroid is so large that if it strikes the earth nothing will survive. Then in March of 1944 these scientists report that new better calculations indicate that the chances that this astoid will strike the earth in 1950 are 99.999%. The political leadership tried to keep the news from spreading but by March of 1945 every adult had heard the story.
If this had happened would anyone have bothered to finish fighting the war? I must say that if the final chapter of human existance was the victory over the Nazis and the death of Hitler that would have been a pretty classy way to go out.
But what good is a great ending to a story if there is no one to hear the story? Could the privates of any army have gotten themselves out of bed on the cold mornings in March when no matter what there would be no one left to save from death and slavery when everyone was going to die in the not to distant future? Could the officers have in good faith asked their men to advance towards the enemy when civilization itself had just been given a death sentence not in the distant future but in the quite near future? To die in the ruins of Breslau at that time might have been a blessing. But if one took such chances one might not die but be crippled or blinded. Then as the end drew near and civilzation came unglued such people would be defensless from the whims of fate. Things would never get better after the war but only worse and worse and worse.
I am glad that it did not happen that way. There is no telling how our war would have ended. The only thing that might have motivated soldiers to get out bed each morning might have been the desire to aquire enemy booty. The pilaging and murder that would have preceeded the impact of the astroid might have been a fate much worse than the astroid itself.
Sorry it really should not be the season for a trip to the cemetary.
Luther was side of opposition to the Catholic Church. Calvin was another. And let us not forget King Henry.
I have just watched the HBO series about John Adams. I had always had a pretty low opinion of Adams because of the Alien and Sedition Act. But now that I was forced to more fully consider the circumstances of the time I understand how difficult it was to do the right thing at that time. Who can really say what the right thing was. If I were tranported back in time I would be partial to supporting France in its war with England. If that had been done who can say how history might have changed. There might have never been a Reign or Terror or a Napoleon. On the other hand the USA might not have survived the war of 1812. I can now understand that Adams had good reasons for doing what he did when he did it.
How many ppm of political hot air were in the atmosphere in November?
Jeremy, can you explain to me how someone can not risk their saved capital? You think of any scenario of what someone does with their capital and I will explain to you the risks involved with that choice.
Furthermore your scenario about people being afraid to risk their capital rests the judgement that it (the capital) belongs to them in the first place. It is certianly not your fault that you have done that the idea that what you can get belongs to you is a value that is extremely imbeded in American culture, especially conservative culture. (Which made me think of a really funny one liner about conservative and their guns. I will not write it here or Juan will have a fit but I will write it somewhere else someday.)
Emmi, I am glad that you made that point too.
When I wrote my first comments none of the comments above mine were visable on my screen. Had I seen what had been written I would not have needed to write what I did write in my first comments.
I read recently that in 1970 the top one percent of Germans got 11% of the income and the top 1% of Americans got 9% of the income. By 2010 the top 1% of Germans still got 11% of the income and the top 1% of Americans got 20% of the income. I do not know what the Germans are doing that the Americans are not doing but it looks to me like the American 1% has gotten away with murder for the past 40 years.
But this question over looks something that I consider even more important. That is the idea that is constantly pitched by so many economists that GDP should always be increasing and that it can always be increasing. Such optimism is entirely unsuportable. The world will sooner or later and most like sooner run out of many of the important raw material to sustain the industrial living standards of Europe and the USA.
The worlds corporations are acting like 8 or 9 or 10 billion people can live like the people in Iowa or Bavaria.
Since this is not possible and since I thin that the resources sources of this planet have to be fairly shared I think that it is neccessary for Americans to be FORCED to lower thier living standards. Sadly many in the USA and Europe do not agree with me. They think that the rest of the world should FORCED to support the 1% and those other 19% that collaborate with the 1% to ensure their survival.
There is one thing that Europeans could learn from the USA. That is how to integrate immigrants faster and at less cost in to their own societies. It does not have to be a losing proposition for those countries that immigrants and refugess.
Perhaps a short term incovience but with longer term paybacks.
Point of Clarification
The Directors of any Agency with the letters ADINS will not have any privacy either if that is something that they currently have.
When the Constitution was written a firearm could fire about 6 shots a minute. When people wanted to communicate they had to go down to the local tavern. If they wanted to communicate over long distances they had to send a letter through intermediaries. My understanding is that in the period of 1776-1789 people knew where there neighbor stood on the important issues of the day.
Today America has more prisoners per capita than any other country in the world. I would suggest that two of the factors that contribute to this toll of slavery are privacy and guns.
As a piece of evidence for my assertion I would point out that most people how have an affair met the other person at work.
Why is this the case? Because when people are at work they are on their best behavior. They are on their best behavior at work because that is a place that privacy is in short supply.
Liberals have often said that secrecy is a poison to democracy. Although i do not have any love for democracy I do agree with that assessment. So it is clear what a civilized society should do. It should make it very clear that you yes you are being watched. It is no secret. It does not matter if you are the CEO of Boeing or a Senator or truck driver IT IS NO SECRET you are being watched not only by numerous government agencies but by non governmental institutions, by your subordinates, by your children, and if you think that you have found a quite place out in the forest and that you are finally alone stop and kick yourself in the groin, because you are still not alone.
WE are not alone. Which I think is quite helpful to know because WE humans are awfully damned stupid.
Dissent in a surveillence state is possible. The more dissenters there are the more people that will be hired to watch these dissedents. That creates more opportunities for the dissenters to get decent paying jobs in a society in wich there are enough decent paying jobs to cover about 25% of families.
But I digress.
If the state moves beyond watching and actually using violence to oppress dissent then human history has shown that support for the dissenters actually grows when the dissenters are supporting a just cause. Of course this growth will not be due to the fact that the dissenters are getting good jobs and living well in an unjust society. It will be because they refuse to recant when they are feed to hungary lions. It will be becasue they refuse to recant when they are being tied to a stake and a bonfire is being prepared underneath them. It will be because they refuse to turn back when they reach a bridge with armed men standing on the other side who are itching to bust the heads of the marchers. the point might be reached in which the dissenters will be able to mount counter violence if such means are neccessary. But there are no guarantees. An insurgency against injustice could die in its crib as the founding members are rounded up before the group can take root. Even if it grows to the point that it can mount an armed insurgency all those that take part and could suffer in vain. Even if the insurgency is successful to the point of taking power things might not go well after that. All of the sacrifices might have been for nothing.
But here is a warning for those who are slow to become a dissenter. Your silence could also land you in a pile of trouble. Your attempts to live well might all be in vain.
I think that your take on this is really unrealalistic. Systems of power are going to protect themselves. Do really think that it can be otherwise? Systems of power can be good or bad or better or worse. America has 300 plus million people. How many people does the FBI the Secret Service and other similar agencies have? If any system of power is going to survive it has to stay two steps ahead of all potential compition. That means that it has to be able to evaluate the potenial threats of today but the potential threats of tommorrow. In a system widely periceved by the population as just there will not be much to worry about but at a time that society's consensus is breaking down there will be a hell of a lot to worry about.
So lets say that you are a progressive who wants to change the system. It will not really matter if you want to change it legally or illegally a threat is a threat is a threat. Those in power will not only want to know what your intentions are but what your capabilities are. So these alphabet soup agencies have a limited amount of money to figure that out. If you have reached the point that they are doing 24 hour a day surrevalence on you you are doing a something really significant. You are robbing the system of its resources.
If the system is good you are doing someihing bad. If the system is bad you are doing something good and you may not even know it. Why everyone who wants to change a bad system should be delighted when they are under 24 hour survelence. Just by going about their normal routine they get to help drive nails in the coffin of a bad system.
Well what if we are talking about El Salvador in the 1970s or 1980s and not the USA then if you come under 24 hour survelence you are likely to be seeing the inside of your own coffin. The thing is opponents of Samosa or Baby Doc did not bitch about death squads trying to track them. They knew that that was the nature of the beast. You do not kill such a beast by asking them to play fair you kill it by infiltrating it and killing it members when they are on their way to church and when they are in a movie theater.
This is not hell. You can see it from here. But as long as the American people are not intimidated by power or seduced by false patriotism hell can be avioded.
Good. Now this crowd only needs to figure out how to get control of the intstuments of power or create new ones that can displace the old ones.
The only thing is how can we say that we know that this is not a cardboard model of a drone?
That should have read, One THAT IN some cases needs to be fired.
Getting a hold of your address book can show someone WHO you associate with. It can not provide information about the NATURE of that association. Jesus associated with criminals and made no secret about it. He was proud of it. Criminals are the ones who need the extra help of a guidance counselor to change their destructive behavior. In any society the government is THE Guidance Counselor. One the is some cases needs to be fired. But it should not have its hands tied when it is trying to do its job. When the police go to a judge and say we want a warrant it is only natural that most judges say yes most of the time if not all of the time. So if the police know that asking for a warrant is merely a formality it is only natural that they should come to see not applying for a warrant in cases where no one will no anyways what they have done as like driving 65 in a 60 speed zone. You shouldn't do it but if you did it will be considered a pretty trivial offence.
Active Countermeasures must be implemented to deal with this threat to us all. We are way beyond nipping the problem in the bud. There has been a lack of political will to address the problem openly. Once we start labeling people for the traitors to humanity that they are we have tacken the first step towards reestablishing sanity. Once moral leadership has been establsihed we can then take actions to reduce the temptation towards irresponsible anti social behavior. When we combine the proper behavior of a much greater part of our population AND TAKE ACTIVE COUNTERMEASURES such as increasing the amount of cloud reflecting agents in the atmosphere then and only then we might have a chance to avoid a mass die off.....Unless we make things even worse.
But if we kill everyone instead of 95% of everyone can people say that we really made things worse?
To prove that I am really serious about doing what it takes
I will go to a Major NASCAR race and stand in front of everyone and call for a speed limit of 75 miles per hour to be imposed during all NASCAR events. If I do not make it out alive at least I will no longer be contributing to the problem.
Sacrices, reasonable risks and most of all team work is what it will take from everyone so that no one gets left behind.
Well so that no one gets left behind except for those people who will refuse to be reasonable by MY definition of reasonable.
This report sounds really stupid to me. I am just an angry citizen not an expert on nervea agents. But I have heard that
poison gas is very dangersous. So I guess that means that I am suppossed to believe that these really dangerous weapons were used but they did not kill anyone. Or am I supposed to believe that these really dangerous weapons were used but that a medical doctor, including corners, would be unable to pin point the cause of death after a person had died from exposure to such weapons. Or perhaps that the people killed
by these weapons all disappeared before they could be examined? I did not actually listen to the report because I was so turned off by the introduction of suspicions but no
proof. Come on, the UN should not waste my time with such
double talk.
Yes the graphs tell the story. Minnesota is a place where 4 million people can not only literally walk across water they can even drive across it too. I bet that no one in South Carolina can do that.
My thoughts exactly.
Today when I was out walking I met an old man. He said that his uncle was in fought WW 1 for the Germans in Tanzanika.
His uncle converted to communism after the war. He went back to Tanzania after the war in the 1920s. He had ideas of leading a communist insurrection against the British authorities. But this period in history was one with huge changes in industrial warfare. Although he figured that he could throw the Brits he knew that they would come back in even greater numbers. The only way to defeat them them would be if the native people could create an industrial society before the Brits counter attacked. He saw no chance for them to do that. So, he moved back to the USSR to offer his support in defending the Revolution. Sadly he was thrown in to prison for awile. But eventually he succeded in convincing them that he was not an agent of the German government and he lived for a long time there before returning to East Germany after the war. Luckily for him he died before communism collapsed. Sadly for him he might have died before he saw Capitalism collapse. Funny how you can meet the strangest people in a foggy forest.
As far as I can imagine every person in the Syrian military has been killing either the rebels for quite a long time already or has joined the rebels. I would think that the idea that there is such a thing as Syrian military forces who could be seen as inpartial and trustworthy enough by the different factions to earn the trust of the minorities that they will be protected if there is some kind of agreement has long since past.
By the way who was in power in Lebanon in 1975? Who holds power today? If you ask a Lebonese Christian, Did the Christians lose the civil war? What would be his or her likely resposne? From how many areas were Christians ethnically cleansed? If it is a lot I would think that most Christians might think that they lost. If it is not a lot then perhaps they can claim that they did not lose.
I wonder if anyone in Iran has considered the idea of building bridges to the opposition in Syria so that even IF Assad falls they would be able to maintain some good will in the country among the Sunni majority?
So how does he now get out of the UK?
Keep in mind that I now support gung control. But I am a defector from the cause. Therefore I have insight in to how gun lovers think that those who have always been on the side of gun control may lack.
It goes like this, 9,000 gun mureders in the USA, 10,000 or 20,000 or even 30,000 no big deal. We do not drop the speed limit on the highways even though the more we drop the speed limits the more lives that we would save. Guns are for more important than cars in the minds of gun lovers. In fact guns might even be more important than women in the minds of some gun lovers. It would not surprise me if some Marines on a cold night have actally tried to see if a gun could be a proper replacement for a woman. That is after all the kind of training that they get. It has been reported that Marine Drill Sergeants say, If the government wanted you to have a woman it would have issued you one.
Such Frankness about the facts of life may cause the Inspector General to insist that this post be removed from the thread. Well I do not outrank an Inpector General but if I could I would take this thread and needle and stick it in the IGs eye.
It does not make sense that Austrians are so much more violent than there northern German neighbors. What does make sense is that the stats make the Austians look more violent than they are because when the law breaking English and Swedes and Dutch come to vacation in Austrian they bring their law breaking habits with them.
If that were said in court the opposing attorney would object for badgering the witness.
The Americans have proven 365 days a year for more than 200 years that they are not Swiss so they should not have the same rights as the Swiss.
But your statistics do have a silver lining. I my memory serves me correctly in the 1980s the number of murders in the US was usually running around 20,000 per year with a smaller population. Therefore I guess that we can conclude that taller people are less likely to committ murder.
I saw a report on Russia Today (RT-TV) that in the Murbarak era when the Parliment went on vacation in the summer time that their powers (what Powers?) were theoretically placed in Mubaraks hands. The speculation was that now that the Parliment had meet and recessed that Mursi would claim the legeslative functions until they reconviened.
I wrote a definition of politics but then I was embarrassed by it so I erased it. I did think about your question though, for a long time, and I wanted you to know that.
In order to stay one step ahead of you I proprose that the
definition of the word Nerd should be changed to anyone who posses more than two residences in a small country like the UK and anyone who posses more than three residences in a large country like the US.
In countries like the US I had in mind that there are people, such as movie stars, who work on both coasts on a regualr basis, so it would reasonable for such a person to have an appartment in Berverly Hills and Manhattan with a vacation home in Palm Springs.
Someone who has nine homes, five of them in the UK is cleally way way over the line.
These are some good thoughts but they perhaps leave off a bit of the story. If we stop using these catagories now perhaps things would be left as they are with Whites having a disporportionate amount of economic and politcal power. Efficatively meaning that those whites how have always had disproportionate economic and political power get to keep it.
For many years I have wondered why blacks who have actively opposed the power structure in the US have been treated so much more harshly than the whites which have opposed it. To me someone like William Kunstler was a much bigger threat to power than say Fred Hampton.
It did not make sense to me that blacks should be treated more harshly because I thought that those at the top were evil but not stupid. Yet racist policies seemed to be the policies of the stupid. Perhaps my perceptions are inaccurate but recently another idea came to my mind that I had not had before. Perhaps there is some rational behind the idea that black dissedents have been treated more harshly than white dissedents. The idea that came to me is that it would create the idea among black dissedents that they can not trust white dissedents becasue they are phoney.
If they were real they would be suffering. Have any important black dissedents of the past or present ever made this charge? I am not so familiar with the subject that I know the answer to this question.
With reports that methane is already being released from the siberian trunda as it thaws and from the artic ocean sea bed as it warms up I wonder if it is possible to capture any significant portion of this gas that is naturally being released in to the atmosphere.
the first story was facsinating.
MP3 that is a good discription. Its to late baby its to late.
The temps that we are at now are already causing the leak of massive amounts of methane from Siberia and from the Artic Ocean. Its too late baby its to late. How will we build enough solar and wind power to go around for 7 billion people without the use of huge amounts energy? This energy will come primarily from fossil fuels. I have read that nuclear power has a similar problem. That is not hard to imagine. Just imagine all of the engery need to make the containment structure. That is even before you get to the fact that uranium is not exactly abundent and has to be highly refined to use has a fuel. Its too late baby its to late. It might only be ten minutes in to the third quarter but we are down 38 to 3. Oh, but wait. We can try an Ale Merry Pass.
Someone could start putting gases in to the atmosphere that will counteract the effects of CO2 and Methane. Failing that Dr. Spock could appear and build an orbiting sunshield for us.
Is there or is there not a rule about targeting people trying to remove wounded people from the battlefield?
We did not even finish reading your report as even your plan of arming the ANA with tanks and helicopter gunships does not seem realistic either.
All that we can hope for is that the Iranians and maybe the Uzbecks or Tadjicks will make an alliance of convience and that they will support anti taliban forces who can hopefully keep control of part of the country and that after trying for a while to capture the whole country the taliban will eventually give up and settle for part of it. We COULD hope that they will not be be even more looney than the Saudis this time around but I am not sure that we CAN have such a hope.
Is, free OF paradise, really what it says? That would make it more provocative in the 21st Century but way back when it was written such a phrase might have caused someone to loose their head, quite literally.
Every political party should have its own intellegence gathering agency. The repubican party can subcontact their intel gathtering to Ztratvor.
Anyways the part about the Russians giving the Israelis the codes sounds goofy. How hard would it have been for the Iranians to change the codes? Would the Israelis know for sure whether or not the Russians gave them the correct codes before they had been tested under combat conditions?
This is a good one. If this was the only thing that he wrote it could have been a clue that he was really a Tibetian Buddhist who took a vow to plunge in to the depths of hell to help quench the thirst of the souls trapped there and to refuse entry in to heaven until all beings are granted entry in to heaven.
This could just be a trick to lower the alert level of the Iranian military.
Now on to a more pertinate subject. Iran says that it could easily block the straits of Hormuz. They US uses mega resources building nuclear powered Aircraft Carriers and Amphibious Assault Task Forces to be able to keep these straits open. Yet why is it never asked by the Wall Street Journal or The Times or the Post or Forbes why so much oil must past through the straights in the first place. Why have no oil pipelines simply been built to bypass the straits? Why were these pipelines not built 30 years ago?
No instead the US builds the worlds most expensive and deceptive welfare program commonly known as the Department of Defense. And threatens to murder God knows how many people if it is not bowed down to and worshiped.
No No no the world has it all wrong. These deaths are not at all connected by international politics.
What connects them is the growing womens rights movement in Iran.
What these men all have in common is not only that they were scientists but that they were all stepping out on their wives.
Iranian women are just not going to stand for that anymore.
These bombings send a clear message. The woman of Iran will get their justice one way or another. They will stop at nothing not even learning the arts of bomb making to keep thier men in line.
I think that the 1% faction is bigger than 1%. There are those not very rich people who suffer from Stockholm syndrom who think that they are part of the 1%. Seems to me like there are quite a few such people but it might just be from where I am sitting.
Wingbat,
Damn that is a good post. It just breaks the bones of the pro western intervention movement. I do not see how anyone can read your post and not start to have doubts about the idea that the West should have any part in the movement to overthrow Quaddafi.
I myself wish that I could support both sides in the Lybian Civil War. I can certianly understand if poorly trained men in their teens and twenties, an age in which men should not have to worry about anything other than their love life, are risking their lives against forces with much more heavy weaponery, these men much surely have some deep political grievences.
Yet Quddafi has a record of decades of struggle against western imperialism which can not be ignored. I therefore must come down on his side until such time as I believe that the rebel forces are led by Marxist oriented leaders.
Quaddafi is often deamonized in the western press. Support for this that or the other political movements in other countries, or the Berlin Disco bombing. This comming from institutions who do not demonize those who overthrew Allende and even tried to overthrow an elected Australian Prime Minister. Quaddafis crimes are trivial in comparison with the CIAs and the US governments.
For Decades now I have listened as people told me that first Khomeni and now Khameni wanted to bring Iran back to the 9th century. Well here in the US we have the Republicans who want to bring us back to the 17th century. Then the Democratic leadership claims to be liberal because they only want to bring us back to the 18 century. Was the 9th century in Iran really all that much worse than the 18 century in Europe or the US? Fine Birds of a feather. All of them are Pee Cocks if you ask me.
20 to 40 years might be true for India or Italy or Ireland or Iran but for a country like the US where the parking lots are so large a person needs to carry a cantine of water to cross them, along with lots of other energy wasteful infrastructure, I think that they are going to have to work very hard to achieve that goal.
If it can become a national obession like beating the Russians in Hockey once was then maybe they could do it.
By the way when I say that a civil suit is warranted I do not mean that the plantiffs should neccissarily win. Instigating a riot is something that should be thought about very carefully. I am under the impression that in a civil trial a jury has to determine on which side the preponderance of evidence lays and does not have to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I am also under the impression that a jury has to reach a unamious verdict. If this is so I think that a defense strategy of jury nullification is also reasonable. By that I mean that a person has a right to instigate a riot because people have the right to say what they believe is the truth reguardless of how other people will react to what is saud.
Damn this is tragic because a society seems to be screwed no matter what position it takes.
Goes back to what I have said before some things just have to be dealt with by creating a mature culture, with customs not neccissarily laws, to prevent unneccessary unwanted problems.
If this church really thinks that it is neccessary to have a right to burn the Koran it should be willing to defend that right with their money in a court of law. I have always thought that flag burning was a right but I never figured that if I or some else burned the flag it would cause American conservatives to riot. I have figured that it could cause a fight. And in that case I would hold conservatives entirely responsible for the consequences of that fight because in most of the US are tradition is that a person is not justified in using violence to respond to a non violent provocation. If conservatives are enraged by seeing someone burn the US flag they can do something that they think would enrage the flag burner like burning the US Constitution. Hhahahahahahahahahaha. Are conservatives smart enought to understand why I am laughing at them?
This is a really tragic situation. In America if a white guy called a black guy a nigger I do not think that the black guy would be justified in responding to that insult with physical violence. But if that was the defense I would take that as a mitigating circumstance. I also could understand that in other cultures in would actually be a defense. In Germany it is my understanding based on training that I recieved about 10 years ago the black would be legally allowed to slap the white person with an open hand and if a fight then followed the white guy would be held to be responsible. This church in Florida has really crossed a red line in the sand for many Muslims and they clearly did it on purpose. Although I would not support any state action against these christian bigots I do think that a civil trial in which the indirect victims of this action sued the church for wrongful death would be warrented. These deaths were clearly a forseeable result of such activity and the church carried out this action in wanton disreguard for the likely consequences. Now if the church had carried out a less inflamitory activity like publishing a phamlet about why they beleived the Koran are not binding rules of human behavior and people in any Muslim country had rioted over that then a civil law suit would clearly be an unwarranted unreasonable action.
I can clearly say this becasue I am a warranted reasonable person and a civli law suit under those cirmunstances would seem like harrasment to me. That is logic that can not be logically argued with.
I am against arming the rebels but I am less against that than allowing NATO to bomb Loyalist tanks. Giving someone the tools to fight their own battles is not as bad as fighting their battles for them. Unless they are physically or mentally handicapped.
I have heard that a civil war is about to break out in the Ivory Coast because the President will not step down. Will the US and or Nato launch a humanitarian rescue mission there too? I bet that the west does not. It would be much more justified. If Libyan opponents of Ghaddhaffi fear execution they have a clear escape route to Egypt or Algeria. There are currently fluid but clear front lines. I doubt if that will be the case in the Ivory Coast.
I think that the inhabitants of Lala land should chew a pig's ass. What do they call a pig's ass there?
ERic,
We have been living in Bizzarroworld since Jan. 2001 and since Jan.1981 and since June 8th 1967 and since November 22nd 1963 and since 1913 and since 1832. Roots of corruption run very deep in America. It takes a few good dilligent people in the right places at the right time to keep a country on a scenic path.
Doing the right thing for the wrong reason? For the US anyone in power in Libya is better than Khadaffy. US rulers are indifferent to democracy. When the mob is on thier side fine. When it is not they will try to subvert it.
In the US of the 21st century marketing has replaced reasoning.
I just read that Mubarak has actually resigned and that Sulieman will not take power either. It seems that an Egyptain version of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are now the official ruling body.
What I thought was kind of funny is that yahoo news portrayed the situation in which Egyptian protestors were running around shouting that they are free. I hope that when they wake up tommorrow they realize that the struggle for what type of society that Egypt will be in the future has just begun. Freedom, what ever that word means to the jubilant, is certianly not guaranteed. Let the recent history of eastern Europe be a warning to them.
Here is a change that I would like to see.
The University of Chicago posseses thousands (30,000?)clay tablets which are adminstrative records removed from the Iranian World Heratige Site at Persepolis in the 1930s.
I think that those tablets should be returned to the country that they belong to, Iran. The University of Chicago can photograph them before they return them. Although these tablets were legally obtained, US society no longer deserves to hold such a valuble piece of Iranian History.
Some might say that the current Iranian government does not deserve them either. While not being a fan of that government they have cooperated with archeologists from many different countries in researching Iran's past.
It should not be required that there be a revolution in Iran before the tablets are returned.
I was just watching Russian Today and scrolling across the bottom of the page was a report that released Wikileakes documnets show that the US Government had been planning the overthrow of Mubarak. I do not believe this. Have you ever seen anything in Wikileaks that would support this accusation?
I wonder if why RT would report this when it is something that could be so easily checked on.
Something is a bit ood about the whole thing. I think the answer lies in Orwell. One is for the CIA to think, Aha the Ruskies are claiming that we are behind the fall of Murbarak because they want us to think that they are really behind it because they really did not have a damned thing to do with it.
Or maybe they are just building up a historical record so that if they do not like the way that the things are turning out they can say that we were behind whoever took power as a way to try to discredit them. If they like whoever takes power the little claim that the US had been plotting for years to remove Mubarak from power will be lost to his tory.
Maybe they actually think that some people in current high level circles will buy in to this claim and if they manage to keep power these people will turn to the Russians as a counter to US manipulations inside their country.
I myself do not think that it was very smart to make this claim. It makes the US leadership look smart.
Very good point. A touchdown with a two point conversion.
A grandslam. A hattrick.
So that is it? We just walk away from Iraq next year and Afghanistan in 3 or 4 or 5 years and say no harm no foul?
No one did anything wrong. If they did it was neccessary for the national interest. America land of the free home of the brave leader of the free world and all of that. We recover from the our advetures in the ME just like we recovered from our adventures in SEA, by throwing ourselves a big birthday party or something. Say wasnt the war of English reconquest fought at about this time 200 years ago?
If these attacks were carried out by Pashtuns in areas that they are a minority how long will it be before Pashtuns are ethnically cleansed from some areas Afghanistan?
That question is asked based on the assumption that the attacks in Qonduz did not have any passive support from any of the local population outside of some Pashtuns who live there.
By the way that is of course a rhetorical question.
Well said Maziar.
So in Febuary they will be put on trial. Who can say that they will get an unfair trial. Then who can say they will get a fair trial. What I say is that if they are found innocent they should be released. Is there any doubt that if they are found innoccent they will be released?
Do Iranians recognize such a thing as a mistrial? I mean could it be like a LT. Watada trial where the defense kicks the governments ass but to aviod imbarresment the government declares a mistrial so that it can keep the case going and the accussed in a legal limbo for an even longer period of time?
Does the Iranian legal system totally ignore its own laws like the US does?
We give reenlistment bonuses to war criminals and put defenders of the Constitution in Prison. It would not surprise me if the Iranians do the same. After all what type of role models do they have to learn from?
I mean the maps of course.
The Crusifix of the problem.
I guess this little notice can go here as well as anywhere else. I just read that a small city in Tennessee, called something like Mufreesboro, pardon my spelling but it is not exactly a name known throughout the US let alone Europe and if I have not heard of it it can not be very important now can it. Well the reason that this town is important today is that the town itself is being sued by some residents to block the building of a Mosque.
These residents claim that Islam is not a religion but a political movement.
Hahahahaha that is really really funny...........because they have a good point. In Islam the leader should be, like in England, both the head of state and the head of the religion. Hhahahahaha all of those Anglican Churches are going to have to be torn down after this case, or sold. I once saw an unused Church that was turned in to a very nice beauty parlor.
So Arab Mosque attendance is about the same as American Church attendance.
That means from a European view both Americans and Arabs are very religious.
From a European view that is a very scary thing indeed. If our conservative parties are getting 40% of the vote and church attendance is 10% one could deduce that not even conservatives place a very high value on religion in Europe. Some of them might say that they do. I think that they really mean tradition not religion.
I wonder if that is Merkel thinks that Multi culturalism has failed, because Turkish men refuse to wear Lederhosen and Turkish Women refuse to wear Tracht. She should remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, A Döner Kebob a day keeps the doctor away. (Ad long as it has cabbage.)
But W. Himself Proposed Ruse
I think that this story is suspect. We are supposed to believe that a General was outraged by the suggestion of a cabinet member. What a crock of shit. Did this General demand the president fire the cabinet member? Of course not. Did the General report this incident to the press? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that General probably had one of his underlings plant that idea in the head of the cabinet member.
Did this General issue a warning to his army that there were come "CIVILIAN" politicians who were planning a war of aggression in the middle east and if they succeeded in getting the US government to launch such a war the US military would be obligated to go on strike? No Generals in the US military are are not only without any political leanings they are also obviously without any ethical leanings.
Remember the USS Liberty!
Juan,
Are international sanctions hurting Iran's economy?
I too wonder how this informatien ended up on this blog. It is darned fascinating and important info too. I have serious doubtz that a country that puts teenagers in adult prisons will no what to do with the informatien.
What is really sad is that by the time the Palestinians do get control over even part of their country and a few of the refugees can return it seems that there will not be anything left to return to. Everything will be destroyed and the ground water will be pumped dry.
It is illegal for Iranians to travel to Israel. It would not surprise me although I had heard that Jews travel back and forth between Iran and Israel frequently. That was several years ago though that I had heard that. Anyways it is illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba.
When I am in power I will give any American who calls for an American or Israeli attack on Iran 40 and and 1/4 years in prison just to show that I can be precise too.
I agree Hossein was naive. Iran is not the 21st century Ottoman Empire. The US is.
If a person wants to live in Iran they should follow one of the following strategies.
A.) Keep your mouth shut and stay out of politics
B.) Work with in the Islamic System to make small changes.
C.) Work outside the system using non violent measures to achieve your goals and do not be surprised when you get your head bashed in, get tortured, and so forth.
D.) Work from outside the system using violence to change the system always saving your last bullet for yourself so that you are never taken prisoner.
It is a tough choice.
Not on topic just a little needle in the eye for Obama supporters who should be revolutionaries. Defense "President" Gates said at a Dinner with Afghan Pres. Karzai that the US military is not ever leaving Afghanistan, as reported by Anti war.com. Now let me see who does Obama work for?
Hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahah
My wifes Cousin was here from Iran a few weeks ago. She complained about how some of her relatives were beaten by police during the upheaval and they were not even demonstrating. Well a few days ago I saw news footage of a demonstration in Europe.
I think that it was Spain. The unarmed demonstrators were on one side of the street.
Police in full riot gear on the other side of the street. 4 policemen at a time would charge the demonstrators and pull someone out of their line. The unlucky demonstrator was then carried behind police lines were they were then given a beating by the police with their clubs. Wow those Iranians are so backwards by comparison.
Did AQ really lead the US leadership anywhere the US leadership did not really want to go? NO wonder why some people think that the AQ is really a CIA operation.
I have read that the average expected life span of a wind turbine is 25 years. This is a rather depressing estimate. I have to wonder if it is really true. Why should it wear out in just 25 years? I can understand that it would need maintenance. But the word life span indicates that it would have to be torn down and a new one built. That does not make a lot of sense to me. Could this figure just be a trick to allow utility companies a larger tax break?
There are ungratful ingrate Iraqi who are complaining about their own courts decision to award 400 million dollars to Americans harmed by Saddams unwelcom invasion of Quwait. The thing is by my undersanding the courts decision is that payments will be mad e in Iraqui Currency. Therefore by the time the benificairies can take their payments to the bank for conversion to US dollars they may have very little to actually deposite in to their accounts.
The US has spent boo kuh amounts of money trying to rebuild the Iraqi economy. We have given the Iraqis what perhaps 40 billion or is it now 400 billion and what did we get for it why 4,000 dead brothers in arms. (I almost said commarades in arms but that sounded a little to socialist. I would never ever write anything like that on purpose.) So what is a measly 400 million when compared against billions? We even gave them the rope that they used to hand Saddam and his fellows.
I think that when our military forces leave Iraq they can do so with their heads held high because they did such a wonderful job. Of course they all ready know that I only state it hear because many of your readers do not know that. Your readers should know that like the Canadian Mounties we always get our man figuratively speaking.
We know that we always accomplish our mission because it says so right there in our OERs and EERs in black and white.
Juan I hope to see you at the unveling of the Iraq War Victory Monument at the Lake Wobegone Community College on the 21st, OK?
Is monitoring Cadets to make sure that they do not have religous tendancies any different than monitoring cadets to insure that they do not have communists tendacies, or capitalist tendancies, or athiest tendacies, or anarchists tendacies, or seperatist tendacies, or fascist tendacies? Oh, wait that last one is perhaps wrong. Can an army exist if it expells cadets with fascist tendacies? That seems to be almost a pre requisit for becoming a military officer in any country. (Define facism some one says, A person who follows the idea, I support my traditions right or wrong to the last breath)
So here is the real catch. All states have been established through a period of struggle by one ruling faction who have had to defeat other potential ruling factions who have been at odds with each other over political (collective policies). Gaining majority support is a tactic used by these competing factions to gain strength over thier opponets.
Every state has sacred bridges over which the majority of its citizens may not be allowed to cross, such as nationalization of industry or privatization of industry. If I am not mistaken a key idea in the establishment of modern Turkey is that religion was a key cause of the collapse of the Ottomon Empire.
Almost 90 years later it seems many Turks have now come to the conclusion that implementation of non religous ideas can be just as stupid as the implementation of religous ideas. I think that it would be hard for people on one side not to see those on the other as backwards at best and as have a hidden motive at worse.
I do not support repatraitions for Iraq from the US. It is not that they are not deserved but Iraq does not need them. Once it is free and peaceful it has the potential to become a very prosperous area Buddhas willing. Anyways the Iraqis owe huge repatriations of their own to Iran so if there are going to be repatriations to anyone some paperwork could be saved by just having the US pay repatrations to Iran.
To make such a suggestion proves that I am honest person. I hope for a secular socialist future for Iran but giving the Iranian government repatriations would actually strenghten their postion. It would make the job of the people that I have the best hopes for harder. I have not asked them but I think that they would be willing to make the sacrifice.
Now as another examplel of my honesty I will state that if I had magical powers to force the US to pay repatriations to Iran would I do so. No, again not that Iran does not deserve repatriations from the US but Iran is not exactly a destitute country.
The US owes many countries repatriations (and even many of its own citizens). There are other countries in the world that desperately need the money that they should get like Congo and Haiti and Nicarauga and Honduras, perhaps Vietnam.
What a relief, I think, if you are right. I am not talking about Obama. I am talking about the rules for convicting someone of apostasy. I wonder if the conservative Ayatollah sin Qom, Gom, Qum or whatever it is called have the same standards as those that you quoted. I am free, free at last!
For me the Iraq war ends when the war criminals who started it and the accesories after the fact stand trial. All wars are vile civil wars. The battleground is changing. The means are changing. The goal remains the same.
All of the European countries of the EU find it very difficult to work together. Would the Turks, Iraqis, Iranians, Kurds, and Syrians find it any easier? I suspect that they would have just a much difficulty reaching a decision as the Europeans. Who will be the first person to recommend that they form a joint committee to study the feasibility of a Union of Diverse Peoples.
I can guess that such a committee would conclude that it would not work with out a strong central leader, capable of being very brutal, to hold such a union together long enough until it took hold in the imaginations of the people of the area. The committee should know that I am free for the moment. They should act fast because one can never say how long that will be the case.
In honor of Ernie Padgett,
Born 1 March 1899
Died 15 April 1957
I hope that someone comes up with a smarter renewable way to run cars rather than rechargeable batteries. That is hardly renewable. The batteries will take large amounts of energy to make and deplete other resources. The making hydrogen from water and burning the hydrogen for fuel seems at first glance to be more practical.
In honor of Neal Ball,
born 22 April 1881
died 15 October 1957
I wanted to email this article to a nephew but I could not figure out how to do it.
I do not think that it will do the vast majority of Americans any good at all to just read the Quran. They also need to have someone that they can turn to ask their questions and make comments to about what it is that they are reading. Then depending on the person that they communicate with they may come to have a greater appreciation for the book or they will be really turned off by it depending on who their "guide" is. It is not just a question of the intelligence of the person with which they are studying the Koran but how well student and teacher fit together. Most guides or teachers will try to convert you to Islam. Just as a reminder to anyone who would consider taking the time to study the Koran. It is the students job to remain skeptical but also open minded. Such a balancing act is an art not a science. In my opinion no one not even God or the Gods themselves can give you a grade on any conclusions that you would come to.
@Arjay,
I read that Stratfor presentation. I thought that it was pretty good except for the part about why the US is in Afghanistan.
Damn, Dan I just have this unqenchable thirst.
Go pick up any Wino off a street in Los Angelas, Chicagao, or New York and you are more likely to hear a true story than any story concocted by the US or the Iranian government. I can not see how anyone in the outside world could make heads or tails out of this nonsense.
(S)He lies hidden among the masses. (S)He is the child of Thomas Paine and Buddha.
(S)He is the cousin(in?) of Mohammad. (S)he is the master of humor. If you do not get it you are not listening. (S)He is very modest.
NO kidding!
The conservatives are partially right. The leaders of western society are demonic. While the death of a woman for adultery is a very tragic and brutal and backward act which attracts a lot of attention, the speculation by western billionaires which drives up the price of rice by 300% and wheat by 100% as occurred in 2008 and causes a brutal death for millions goes practically unnoticed in the world press. In my book that makes the west 10,000 times more backward than even the Taliban.
Khameni and his followers are also right about the hidden Imam. He or she is here in this world NOW. He or she is surrounded by his or her enemies but is protected by a squadron of loyal Turkish bodyguards. But what will shock the conservative Muslims is that the hidden Imam is no longer a Muslim but is now a Unitarian Universalist Buddhist! If you think that will piss off the Shia's, the Hidden Imam is pretty pissed off at what has become of his community as well. More than likely he will get feed up at disappear again.
NO kidding!
Just a short note the French Press Agency is saying that the Turkish and Israeli Foreign Ministers have had a secret meeting in Geneva to try to repair damaged ties between the two countries. (I think that they really mean governments.)
Eppie,
That is an interesting hypothesis. I sent a longer reply yesterday but I must have forgotten to hit the send button and my reply disappeared in to cyberspace.
But one question that I have is, do you know anyone personally in Georgia or Azerbaijan that could confirm that Israeli jets are in those countries?
On the other hand if Turks can now make love with Greeks in good conscience why can't they make love with Kurds in good conscience? People generally do not risk their lives by taking part in an armed uprising against a more powerful foe unless they have some pretty strong grievances.
Of course my solution to the problems do not make any sense to anyone with political power anywhere therefore I can claim with a large amount of certainty that it must be on the right track. That would be a Union between Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and maybe Kuwait. Under this union a Kurdistan would be created in the border region of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Kurdistan like Iran, Turkey and Iraq would not be and independent country. It would be a region with some degree of autonomy just like Iran, Turkey and Iraq.
Now if the leaders of these of these countries had more sense they would send ambassadors to ring my doorbell and receive copies of my proposed Constitution for the region. They just need to give me 72 hours notice so that I can make tea and clean the house to be ready for them. I will not even charge them for the copies.
At some point the Afghans and Pakistanis may want to join too.
Israeli newspapers are reporting that an Iranian Newspaper has reported that US military forces are "massing" in Azerbaijan. If the US sent more than one Battalion there would'nt that get reported by the Times or Post? I have also seen a report that there is a report that 4 or 5 aircraft carriers are on their way to the Indian Ocean.
Have you heard anything of that sort? If that is true that would be alarming. Just one aircraft carrier probably has twice the combat potential as the whole Iranian Air Force.
Such an overwhelming force would not need surprise to achieve a tactical victory.
I guess that in the US military they still believe that if you string one tactical victory after another you will eventually be able to say that you won.
I hope that they do not interrupt coverage of the World Cup to show us cruise missiles and F-18s flying over some Iranian city. They better have the decency to wait until the Championship game is finished.
It is true that tactics that work in America may not work in Iran and vice versa. The Iranians are much smarter. Now is the time to build the networks of those that will take an Axe to the head of the beast if it does not reform. Everyone in the security services recently passed a key test. Now they face a new test. A test from forces that know their inner most thoughts and desires. The first task is to find me. I am surrounded by my enemies who are eager to see brought down. But they can not get to me becasue I am protected by a loyal squadron of bodyguards. Yet these bodyguards are not my followers. Alone I have charged in to the valley of death and have set the army of the enemy fleeing in all directions. Their retreat saved them from defeat on that day. But like the protagonist in the movie Sliding Doors their future fate is sealed. Only the course of their defeat is undecided.
If a Major or Colonel in the Iranian Security Forces should accept me as their coworker I do not promise paradise at the end of their struggles. Those who struggle only for their personal salvation are not worthy of joining our struggle. If a Major or Colonel should join me in our struggle I do not promise power at the end of the struggle. Those who struggle only for power are not worthy of our struggle. If a Major or Colonel should join me in our struggle I do not even promise victory. Those who struggle when only when victory is possible are not worthy of our struggle. The only thing that I promise is a dangerous journey with many twists and turns that will finally lead to a new path, if you can get there. This new path is not the easyest path to follow, nor is it the hardest. It is the most scenic. Ask yourself if you are worthy of this struggle. Then pray for guidance to aquire your answer. Is it you that I am speaking to, or another in Columbia?
You would think that my appeal would be made in Persian if it were true would yoú not? But did Mohammad make his appeal in Persian? The Koran commanded Muslims to Read! Tell me the names of Muslims that never learned to read? Things rarely work out the way that you were expecting.
When I was returning from Mecca I thought that I would go home. But things did not work out that way. I spent me time lost wandering around Europe and America. Like a true Muslim I studied other religions WITH AN OPEN MIND and I became better for it. What are you capable of becoming? What are you capable of?
I am a person who neither abhors or relishes violence. The Iranian government makes if very difficult for me to say what tactics should be used to drive them from power. Violence is an effective means in attaining ones political goals but with very harsh side effects. I think that if I were an Iranian I would neither endorse or condemn others who at this point choose to fight the Iranian government with violent means. I myself though would stick with non violent means at least for the time being.
The leaders of Iran are making a false claim that they are the legitimate leaders of that country. Such claims have led to civil wars over and over again in human history. For false leaders to take over the reins of power is an enraging event. I am still enraged by the assissination of President Kennedy. The US has not had a legitimate government since that time. Yet when we look at what makes people in Iran angry about thier government it is the same gripes that people all over the world have, even in Europe, with the exception of how women are treated.
Although women might be treated differently in western culture, western culture certianly does not seem to be a very good model for the development of our daughters either. Furthermore if one adds up the suffering that women would endure if there were a civil war in Iran I would have to question whether or not it would be worth it. I would advise Iranian women to immigrate to Canada or Australia or even Turkey, or Azerbijan, or Armenia. These are countries that I think Iranians could immigrate to without large sums of money. Voting with your feet is sometimes the best vote that there is. When there are two men in Iran for every woman then perhaps the Iranian clerics might be pressured in to treating Iranian women with a little more respect.
Iranian Muslims should hear me because Sp4 Manning is my spiritual son. That should count for something. Iranian Muslims should hear me because Major Hassan is my spiritual cousin. That should count for something too. Iranian Muslims should hear me because I place truth and justice above national identity. That should count the most of all.
In honor of
Russel Means
Che Gueverra
Bobby Seals
Sgt. Karim Akbar
So what are the chances that a member of the Iranian Security Forces would ever read what I have just written and come to the correct conclusion that I am the one that they have waited centuries for? One in a billion or one in a trillion perhaps?
The only way that we can know for sure is to leave it up and test them.
Yes I am playing a game. One in which everyone deserving wins.
Crazy? Well, humor me. It will help to build my insanity defense.
Do you think that it is a bad time to for me to make outrageous claims?
My advisors think otherwise. They actually saw the movie Sliding Doors.
I wonder why no one answered my question of why it was so important for Khamenei and those that backed Khamenei not to allow Mosavi to become President? This question has maybe been asked and answered before. But maybe I missed it or maybe I just do not remember. One year after the events is a little review not in order.
Here is another thing not to forget. Those non Iranians who are defending Iran's nuclear power program against US imperialist and zionist attacks are not defending Iran the government but Iran the people. Juan, I mention this especially for you becasue you have mentioned how much you dislike Ahmadinejad.
The internal policies of the Iranian government may suck. Yet in the disputes between the US government and the Iranian government the US is 125% wrong and Iran is 110% right.
Why was it so important for Khamenei and the security leadership to back Ahmadinejad instead of Mosavi? After all you would think that since the four people allowed to campaign for the position had been approved out of a cast of hundreds who were disqualified any one of the four would have been PERFECTLY acceptable in their opinion.
I hope that this attack does to Israel and the US what the attack on black marchers at the bridge in Selma Alabama did to the white southern racists. I do not have much hope though.
The world is very reluctant to hold the US responsible for the actions of its 51st state.