Is this girl worried about being blown up? Why? Isn’t this the kind of thinking that got Bush re-elected in the first place??
Sorry Everybody — How Can We Make It Up To You? — A Website crops up to apologize to the world for re-electing Bush. You send it your photo, it gets posted. Is this ever going to end? Worth a look. The next website I expect will be the pro-Bush, send-in-a picture website. How about wedontcarewhattheworldthinks.com?
via JCS Dvorak
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Bad Behavior has blocked 4312 access attempts in the last 7 days.
This is another time my post didn’t make it. Wondering if there is something awry in John’s blog software.
I don’t like to discuss things that happened 60 or more years ago, simply because many things have changed since then.
So, for example, we should ignore the fact that Macedonia has been part of Greece for thousands of years? I’m not bringing this subject up specifically, rather I’m using it to illustrate that history, even history more than 60 years, is very applicable today.
There are many people that disagree with your interpretation of the US being imperial. We tried to appeal to the UN prior to the Iraq invasion and they did authorize the use of force. Unfortunately, the UN is dominated by totalitarian counties and has become corrupt as evidenced in the information out of Iraq about the Oil for Food program. It is now believed that Saddam skimmed 21 billion (that’s with a “b”) out of the Oil for Food program. Who was he trading with: the French among other countries.
Yes, the world is tired of innocents being bombed, especially the US. The difference between you and I is that we have a vastly different idea about how to stop killing of innocents in the long run.
For the last time, try to understand what I am really saying and stop trying to find things behind the lines, that are not said by me.
I am not trying to tell you to ignore history because that would be terribly silly. I am only trying to tell you that many things changed since WW II including your enemies, technology, money, presidents, type of war etc.
You said: “Yes, the world is tired of innocents being bombed, especially the US”. I am trying to make clear that I was not happy when your country was bombed, in advance. Then, remember that your country owns the largest amount of WMDs (nuclear and biological weapons) in the whole world. Plus, here is a list of some of your country’s bombings the last 20 years and also BEFORE 9/11:
Lebanon 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Iran 1987
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991-2000
Kuwait 1991
Somalia 1993
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
Few more bombs “accidentally” hit other targets like Bulgaria, FYROM, Pakistan and others during “smart” bombings.
You said: “It was only after we invaded that we discovered there were few or none”. You’re joking, right?
Come on… open your eyes AT LAST!!!
Again, my naive friend, you are overlooking the facts. It is a fact that every major country believed that Saddam had WMD before the war. I have already provided one link and there are others. Prior to the war, it was never a question of whether he had WMDs. Rather, questions being asked were: how big is the arsenal, what type of WMD, is it a threat, and how do we remove them etc. The debate solely revolved around what to do about the fact that Saddam thumbed his nose at the UN for 10+ years, had WMD and would probably find ways to use them.
You are letting hindsight blind you into thinking we, and everyone else, knew all along that he did not have WMDs and that is categorically false.
No my friend, YOU are overlooking the facts. You live in a country that censorship, fear, theocracy, racism and dictatorship rule. Are you the ones that will judge if a country is free? Are you the ones that decide what is taking place to the planet? You own the largest amount of Weapons of Mass Destruction and you dare talking about them? You bombed about 20 countries over the last 20 years and now you’re talking about freedom? You invaded in Iraq just to get the oil sources and the whole world knows that, and now you’re developing theories about national security and shit? The day you invaded in Iraq, half the world went down the streets protesting against your imperialistic and oil-loving policies and none of them believed a thing about war against terrorism and your gov proved them right. What was the next thing that your gov did; Developing theories about freedom and liberating Iraq, while your troops were torturing innocent Iraqis, that were fighting for their country. Now, the Iraqis that fought for their soil are terrorists, and you, that wanted Iraq to be taken without any resistance are great liberators and did a great thing for humanity. Who are you trying to fool?
The whole world is fed up with your theories. Your people don’t have a clue about war and you keep saying that your country is on a war, without knowing what that means. I have met families that suffered from the war in Serbia, I talked with people that can’t walk anymore because you bombed their CHURCH, my grand father had one less leg, and now you’re talking about war? At least some of us, the elder ones if you prefer, and not me, that live in the real world and not your Dreamland know a little of war and suffer. If you believe all these shit that your government talks about, share them with them and see what they have to tell.
All you do is talking about terrorism. You destroyed Afghanistan when you were seeking ONE person. “Fahreneit 9/11” was a movie full of REAL evidence, videos, pictures and interviews and now, all of a sudden, Michael Moore is a hypocrite and a liar.
Just try to find the real truth man, I bet you can. What I also bet is that you won’t, because you like sitting comfortably in front of your TV, watching what your gov tells BBC1 and CNN to show and listening to Bush talking about terrorism on the radio while you drive your Volvo to go to work.
Now, I can oversee your next post. Theories, theories, theories and talking about terrorism, 9/11, and history. Come on…
I have evidence that backs my claim that the world believed Saddam had WMD prior to the war. I have evidence that the US is not a dictatorship, not the least of which is that the Legislature (made up of 535 individuals) almost unanimously supported the use of force against Iraq. I’m sure I can find people living in Serbia prior to UN (not just US) intervention that would tell you atrocities equally bad or worse to the people with whom you spoke that have lost the their legs. Testimonials of the people that were hurt in the course of removing a dictator provide no credence to your argument that the operation was not worthwhile because we simply need to find any of the thousands of people that were oppressed prior to the engagement. By your reckoning, war is never necessary because innocents get killed. I find that point of view to be utter naďve.
Even people on the Left agree that Fahrenheit 9/11 is replete with half truths and blatant lies. You are being lead by the nose. Do you know what a half truth is? Here’s an example, “Innocent people are killed in wars.” Yep true. But it isn’t the whole truth. What is not being said is that many more innocent people live after the tyrannical government in question is removed and it says nothing of the number of innocent people were being killed or oppressed under that government.
We destroyed Afghanistan did we? Ask some of the Afghani women whether life is better now or under the Taliban. Ask them if removing the Taliban was worth it. Afghanistan just had elections and is on its way to establishing self-governance. That doesn’t sound like destruction to me.
You are simply stomping up and down and throwing baseless slanders at me and my country that provide no credence to you position and instead make you sound like a fool. I have history on my side which you do not care about. I have evidence on my side which you do not care about. You seem to think that a movie made an utter bozo is more real than reality itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if you though Star Wars actually happened. In essence, your arguments are childish. What’s next: a “yo mamma” joke?
APOLOGIES ACCEPTED: http://www.apologiesaccepted.com/index.html
We, wanderers of the world outside the US, have been touched by the initiative of http://www.sorryeverybody.com, and the huge amount of photos they received. The initiators of this website would like to show to the American people that they appreciated that message.
So, wanderers of the world, unite! Get your pencil, grab a piece of paper and write what you think. All it takes is a simple digital camera and this website to express yourself.
a very, very short history:
[11.11.04] birth of concept at 11:00
[11.11.04] website launched at 16:00
[12.11.04] more than 3000 visitors during the first day
[12.11.04] uploaded apologies from throughout the world
[12.11.04] sorryeverybody.com overjoyed by this site
[14.11.04] stats hit 1.000.000 hits
[15.11.04] webserver having a hard time; site migrated
[16.11.04] article in national newspaper Volkskrant
[17.11.04] appearance on national tv’s Vara Laat
Dear Thomas,
I’m afraid you have nothing. You only have some papers that showed that there were WMDs in Iraq before invading in it.
Watch this:
Before invading in Iraq, the reason was that there were WMDs. After you found absolutely NOTHING, the reason became… LIBERATION!!!
Watch also this:
Before you invaded in Afghanistan, the reason was Osama Bin Laden. After you failed in discovering where he was hiding (which made the world think in a.. non-US way – I mean that there were people that thought that the US gov was actually hiding Bin Laden), the reasons became the rights of women, liberation, education and other stuff.
Why on earth should you bomb a country if the women are depressed? Why on earth would you bomb a country that has a state different than yours? You consider your country as a world police that should create wars no matter the country you bomb threats you or not. You haven’t seen war and you think of war as something that happens strictly out of your Dreamland, wrapped around with a bunch of shit like freedom, democracy and terrorism.
Speaking of dictatorship, tell me whether it is right or wrong for the media to be controlled by the government, whether it is right or wrong for you to be filed every single time you answer your phone, every time you walk into the streets, etc.
Now, go on. Develop a few theories more.
Yes, I may be 22yo, but people in my age in some countries, are NOT “dudes”, don’t smoke pot, are NOT alcoholics, are NOT racists, and ARE concerned about what the f**ck is going on with the planet and DO care when some people invade in countries when they have absolutely NO right to do so, and DO care about opening the eyes of the people that believe that this kind of behaviour is right, where they shouldn’t.
Actually, there are reams of examples that substantiate my claim that damn near every nation believed there were WMD in Iraq prior to the war. In fact, claiming the opposite is the wilder claim. There is your challenge. Find me a statement prior to the war from an agent of some country’s intelligence community stating, point blank that they had no evidence of WMD production or stock piles in Iraq prior to the war.
One more time, capturing Osama Bin Laden is not the entirety of the War on Terrorism. (Read that last sentence about 50 times before continuing.) The entire reason for invading Afghanistan and Iraq is terrorism. Adding to the primary objective of rooting out terrorists is the worry that terrorists might get their hands on WMD. The invasion of Afghanistan was primarily about rooting out strongholds of terrorists, overthrowing the Taliban and, while we are at it, finding Osama Bin Laden. That the Taliban would not hand him over was further proof that they were supporting terrorists. Iraq was a country that had stated on numerous occasions that they were working on nuclear weapons and would supply terrorists that would use them against the US. We knew both governments were oppressive, but didn’t realize the extent of the oppression until we invaded. Saddam had gone so far as to gas his own people at one point. So, what we have now in Iraq is single flash point where any terrorist that wants to meet Allah can be obliged.
Now, where does liberation come in? The invasions and subsequent liberations served two purposes both directly related to terrorism. Firstly, it killed a large number of these idiots and wiped out their bases. Secondly, and more importantly, we were able to remove oppressive governments and replace them with representative governments. Representative governments generally have lower incidents of terrorist activity than oppressive governments over the long haul. Representative governments are generally more stable and less prone to revolution. In fact, historically, has there ever been an example of a country with a representative government invading another country with a representative government? AFAIK, the answer is no. Right now, most of the Iraqis that are dying are being killed by other Iraqis. Eventually, the Iraqi government will stabilize to the point where they can handle rooting out these bozos on their own which has already happened to some degree. That’s the ideal. Encourage countries to eliminate terrorists on their own because it is in their own best interest for prosperity of the people. Again, it all fits into the same objective of eliminating terrorism.
>Why on earth should you bomb a country if the women are depressed?
What an inane statement. “Depressed”?! Try subjugated. Try abused. Try vermin-like treatment.
>Speaking of dictatorship, tell me whether it is right
>or wrong for the media to be controlled by the government,
It is utter stupidity to claim that the US is a dictatorship by any definition in the book. The US government does not control the media as evidenced by the thousands of media outlets in the US that have widely varying points of view. Unless you can provide substantial hard evidence of the US Government forcefully enacting specific content to all media outlets, I find your statement ridiculous and categorically false.
You think we didn’t have the right to invade Iraq. The UN thought and voted differently (assuming that you and I are giving any credence to the UN). Relating this to the topic at hand, we in the US have nothing to apologize for.
Once again, you don’t understand what I am saying. I am saying that I don’t believe that the actual reason for the invasion in Iraq was WMDs. Of course there are evidence prior the war that there were WMDs in Iraq, and so there are evidence that your country owns WMDs. Get this: You own weapons of mass destruction and very often, you “try” them against various countries with no reason, but you don’t consider yourselves as terrorists. Thank you for the vocabulary lessons. Your irony shows one thing: You don’t really care about what is happening to these people. Have you ever seen what their religion says? They act exactly as their religion tells them to. What should you do? Change their religion too? Change their culture according to yours?
Once again, you are developing utopical theories about stable governments in countries that have an islamic state. Once again you write stupid, racist centenses that contain: “meet allah”. This is extremely stupid!
The war against terrorism: Wow, I never imagined how good propaganda works. What should be the right thing to do; Arresting an idiot (which you try, the last 3 years, but – I don’t know why… you can’t!) that threw the planes to the towers OR bomb every country that owns guns? Why don’t you bomb the whole of the world? They own guns and there is a chance that they hit your country. Now, you’re gonna say “this is utterly stupid”, and I’m gonna say: No man, creating wars and making up theories after that, is utterly stupid. Your gov did their best to scare your people with imaginary terrorist threats once and a while, made up theories about liberation and shit, won the election, and will now continue their great plan about conquering the world. Now, who’s gonna stop them? Your beloved president said: “Everyone that is not with us, is against us”. What you should read behind the lines: “We are going to make up a few terrorist threats more, so that we can finish our work in dominating the oil sources in Saudi Arabia and Africa”. I am sure that if someday oil is found in Sahara Desert, your gov will find some terrorists there too. Now you’re gonna say: “this is a straw man’s argument” and I’m gonna say: “Sorry friend, my English is bad and I don’t want to speak like an american politician which means too much speaking about NOTHING”. The world is sick of your bully policy. What I mean by bully policy, is the way that your president in Chile, where he showed his real face (talking about korea, and trying forcing everyone acting HIS way.
You have officially switched the Bozo bit. I’m thoroughly convinced you are unbelievably naďve, stupendously ignorant or plain stupid (or perhaps some combination thereof). I will finish my contribution to this discussion with this post. Let’s recap some of your claims:
1. You claimed that Bush is stupid and then proceeded to provide a link that supports my claim that he is intelligent.
2. You claimed that “very often..[the US] ”try” them [WMD] against various countries” when in fact, the only WMD ever deployed by the US against anyone was Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
3. You claimed that the US is a dictatorship which defies every definition of the term as well as the reality of how the US Government is organized.
4. You claimed that the US Government controls the media while providing absolutely no evidence for this ridiculous claim and completely ignoring the fact that there are more media outlets in the US than any other country in the world.
5. You claimed that we (or anyone else) knew that Iraq did not have WMD prior to the war ignoring the fact that at one point Iraq admitted to having them! Further, it ignores the sheer number of countries that believed that Iraq had WMD prior to the war. The real discussion prior to the war was what to do about the fact that Iraq had WMD and whether it was an imminent threat.
6. You claimed that Michael Moore’s movie was full of real evidence ignoring the fact it is full of half truths specifically orchestrated to have you come to a specific conclusion. Furthermore, it contradicts your claim that the government “controls” the media as his movie is a form of media (albeit fiction).
7. You stated that we should ignore history more than 60 years ago while making claims about the thousands of years that Macedonia was part of Greece (or the other way around). (For the record, I agree that Macedonia is part of Greece.) However, history is something that cannot be ignored or we are doomed to repeat it.
8. You insinuated that the US is intentionally killing innocent people in the liberation of Iraq. Aside from being ridiculous claim and the fact that thousands of soldiers that have died or been injured trying to prevent injuring innocents, it completely ignores the thousands of Iraqis are dying from other Iraqis.
9. You claimed we “destroyed” Afghanistan when instead they just successfully held elections.
10. You claimed that we are trying “help the Jews kill Palestinians” when in fact both Isreal and the US have tried on numerous occasions to make peace between Isreal and Palestine and yet the Palestinians have rejected every offer.
11. You claimed that Blacks and Latinos were intentionally prevented from voting even though thousands, if not millions of Blacks and Latinos found no difficulty in casting their votes in this past election.
So there you have it. A small compendium of outlandish claims none of which have any evidence or even decent logic to support them. I wish you well. Perhpas one day, after you have acquired some wisdom through experience, you will find that my point of view, along with that of many of my countryman, was not so outlandish as you currently think.
OK, now you’ve crossed the line. I am not going to offend you, because this is a “straw man’s act”…
1. You talk to me about evidence, the moment that the only evidence you’ve shown is ONE fu**n link!
2. You talk to me about WMDs the moment that your beloved president said (about Korea): “Get rid of the nuclear programs”, where in fact your country is NOT! It doesn’t sound very fair to me…
3. You talk to me like a politician, the moment I ask for real evidence and words that matter, and the only thik you do is providing a loooot of american dreamish theories.
4. You talk about liberation, when you have absolutely NO RIGHT to judge if a country is free or not.
5. You keep talking about the war against terrorism and you keep developing theories about how bombing countries helps the war against terrorism, the moment that the only terrorist that attacked your country is Osama Bin Laden, who by the way keeps shooting videoclips!
6. You repeated the phrase “meet allah” which is extremely racist.
7. You are UNABLE to think that your “war against terrorism”, which for the majority of the people is just “a war to take the oil sources all over the world”, has a great chance to raise a new bigger wave of terrorism, the moment you can fight terrorism in other ways.
8. You keep claiming about history, the moment that you are stuck in WW II.
9. You voted for Bush for crying out loud! The man that thinks like this Sony Cybershot advertisement: “Don’t think, shoot”!
10. I am pretty damn sure that you are going to discover some terrorists in Iran.
I am no longer discussing with you, because you are UNABLE to discuss. I actually think that people like you deserve a leader like Bush. He is ego, paranoid, imperialist and kinda stupid (maybe the fact that he screwed up the first debate and he was told what to say in the second debate could open your eyes a little). Think outside the box. The world is NOT America. The world isn’t motivated by stupid statements like: “God is speaking through me” and other ugly shit. The world is sick of your world-police policy.
I feel really sorry for you man. I feel really sorry for the 50% of your country. I hope the planet isn’t destroyed the next 4 years… Bye, and think positive or at least try.
Home Security Systems…
When choosing a home security system, it’s important to know that not all systems are created equal. Each company offers various features and has a different track record. Before signing a contract with a company, you should know that you are getting …