Xah Lee's Unixism

[Steve Holden]

Bulent Murtezaoglu wrote:
>>>>>>"GM" == Greg Menke <gregm-news at toadmail.com> writes:
> 
> 
> [on the 'crusade' faux pas]
> 
>     GM> You may or may not be right about the dumbness of language,
>     GM> but thats not germane.  What is important are the conclusions
>     GM> people in the middle east draw from it.
> 
> I think the retraction/clarification came out in less than a day if
> not in hours.  People who'd report this to further their agenda are also
> the kind of people who shamelessly lie regardless of who says what
> anyway, so I doubt he did any major damage.  But of course it couldn't
> have helped.
> 
Erm, if we're talking about shameless lying then we needn't look any 
further than George W "reporting for duty" Bush for an example. I remain 
gobsmacked that the American voters still believe he is acting in their 
interests, when he is clearly only motivated by the desire to make the 
rich richer.

Ultimately, of course, it's the voters who are responsible for electing 
a man who is quite incapable of holding two separate thoughts together, 
and who doesn't have the intellectual ability to the necessary will to 
perform a serious analysis of the geopolitical situation.

The fact that a retraction was made doesn't mean that the original 
utterance wasn't what he meant, it merely means that the spinmeisters 
(yet again) jumped into action in response to the latest outbreak of 
"foot-in-mouth" disease. Much as it did when el presidente thoughtlessly 
admitted that the "war on terrorism" was unwinnable.

> [...]
>     GM> What if what if what if.  The problem is we're stuck in a
>     GM> hugely expensive, poorly planned and strategically stupid
>     GM> situation.  We weren't before we invaded.
> 
> I'll tell you what's worse: if the guys who got you into this
> situation aren't duly punished at the polls, we may well see more of
> it.  Not that the replacement would be any better necessarily (indeed
> he might be worse in many ways), but this kind of poor judgement needs
> to have political consequences domestically.  With the Soviets gone,
> the only force that can keep the US gov't in check right now is the
> reaction of the US voter.  That or the unwillingness of the world to
> bankroll these adventures with loans will restrain them in the short
> term.  (The US gets to borrow with US$ denominated paper, if that 
> weren't true and with the US$ getting weaker by about 20-50% against 
> major currencies in the past 3-4 years, the true cost of these 
> adventures would have been obvious by now.  But then again, what 
> do I know?)
> 
Far more than the average American voter, it seems to me.

> [...]
>     GM> One problem with the situation was Dubya & Co succeeded in
>     GM> strongly hinting that disagreement was akin to treason.  
> 
> So it seems.
> 
>     GM> There was simply no policital room for debate after 9/11.  [...]
> 
> Yeah that's probably why people didn't point and laugh at the officials 
> who implied the treason bit above.  Now, I suppose it will be having the
> armed forces stuck in hostile territory that'll be used for this
> purpose.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> BM

It sure will. Just as Kerry's attempt, after being there, to point out 
the unnecessary and irrational nature the war in Viet Nam is now being 
treated as treasonous, when in fact it should be seen as the action of a 
man with a clear connection between his conscience and his conscious.

regards
  Steve