If you want something nice to read, check out this article on tattooing in 1885 instead.
Not having done so for a long time, watching CNN and other American news is very upsetting. I can't believe some of the ridiculous junk that gets aired… Outside of some insane racism and cultural ignorance (and ignorance in general), the instant writing off Chavez and Ahmadinejad as “stupid” blows me away. Saying that we shouldn't listen to anyone who would “insult the President” (Iran and Venezuela both gave examples of US funding of terrorism, and Chavez called Bush “the Devil”), as a blanket rule is ridiculous. Instead of actually talking about what was being said (which was largely facts that people in the West don't like hearing, as well as a constant message that what's desperately needed is world peace and democracy), they focused on distractions like what he was wearing. Here's a quote from the news:
“He didn't even have enough class to show up wearing a necktie. We're in New York, we have neckties here.”
What they don't seem to understand is that the reason he doesn't wear an expensive suit is that he believes that decadence and wasteful spending (which ultimately causes world resources to be consumed unequally) are wrong, and part of the world's problem. Complaining that he doesn't look wealthy enough to be worth listening to is vile, and underscores the truth of the complaints these nations are raising. Sheesh, I wish more politicians would worry more about their politics than how much their suit cost.
And all of this crap about Chavez making a mistake in raising his complaints with US policy (among other things, that the US sponsors terrorist groups in Venezuela and across Central and South America — and what was fucked up, was that if you speak Spanish and watched the speech, you'll note that the translator “edited” Chavez's speech removing and softening those references) because “now the US won't buy oil from him”… Give me a break. The US desperately needs his oil and will continue handing him money. It's laughable. There are plenty of countries happy to buy oil from Venezuela… If anything, the US should worry that Venezuela and the other oil producing countries may embargo the United States in favor of the European and Asian markets — which have more money to spend anyway. Ask yourself seriously what will happen to the United States without oil — and what if China starts calling in its debts?
And the interviews with Bush are bizarre… Outside of the strange, nonsensical rambling answers full of either lies or ignorance, it blows me away that still there has been no serious internal media grilling of these policies and statements, even when they're boldfaced falsehoods.I can't tell if Bush and his little cabal have simply lost their minds at this point, because I can't see that any of these actions will turn out well for even special interests inside America.
At this point Bush and many others have reduced the US economy and US military to such a shadow of what it once was that the US can't launch meaningful military attacks on even half-assed collapsed nations, let alone powerful nations. I find it very disturbing watching US politicians calling for invasions of Iran, given that Iran's ground forces seriously outgun the US military… Short of using a massive barrage of nuclear strikes, there isn't a country on the planet at this point that the US can effectively control. And now threats against other nuclear nations like Pakistan? It's nuts.
I really wonder if over the next five years we will watch the collapse of the United States. The world will certainly get very unpleasant if that comes to be, and a lot of people will die as the US starts lobbing its nukes in a desperate last ditch effort to retain control over the world's resources which have already almost entirely slipped from her fingers…
It's crazy. I can't understand it.
I think if I watched FOX I'd probably have shot my TV by now. Actually, if I watched FOX all the time, I'd probably believe this junk too.
(Original forum unavailable, sorry)*
