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DerAlte
National Hazard
Posts: 779
Registered: 14-5-2007
Location: Erehwon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Disgusted
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Never invite DerAlte to a rant, Polymer! Don’t apologize, we understand what you’re saying.
As a person who has spent time on both sides of the pond ( more this western side than in Europe) I bleed for what Europe has become – especially
England and France, and I also bleed - but considerably less - for what has happened here in these US. When I came here America still had a healthy,
brash tone of youth, but I now realize it was fading. It is far from its dotage yet, thank God, but has gotten middle-aged.
Big brother is watching us. With good intentions, unlike the former USSR and its minions, let me hasten to add. The police are there to enforce the
law, however stupid. It’s their job. It’s our job to make sure the laws aren’t stupid. To do that we have to elect sensible, unbought
politicians who listen to their constituents and not to the lobbyists and party hacks. And to that extent, we have failed.
The president has one of the lowest favorable poll numbers on record. Congress has, I believe, an even lower approval rating. Why? Because of the two
party system with entrenched ideologies. Once upon a time you could rely on the occasional politician to vote his conscience, listen to his
constituents, and use his head – but now he is expected to toe the party line.
However, the only workable system in a democracy is the two party system. Look at Italy as an example of what can happen with loads of parties.
Locally, in this state, we have had good governors from both sides of the aisle. The state legislature’s actions do not seem to be too dependent on
which party is in the majority. There is not so much heavy money and special interests involved in state politics.
To see an august body that still functions as deliberative, very conscious of the freedoms intended in the constitution look to the Supreme Court.
So, Polymer, what is right? The opinion polls. The people. Always. They are trying to tell you now…
The pursuit of knowledge, wherever it leads, is essential for an advanced society. Where this is restricted, as by the church before the renaissance,
or by big brother, however much he loves you, a country suffers. We are suffering, but not that badly. Look at the infected lands of Islam, for
example.
This rant is too long already, but I must add this piece from the collected gems. I hate to quote without due credit but I don’t have it:
“Leo Tolstoy nailed it over a century ago: "All newspaper and journalistic activity is an intellectual brothel from which there is no retreat."
Keep this in mind: WE created bioweapons. WE brought them into existence. Not a bunch of camel-riding terrorists. And we also created the threat of
biowarfare. And our latest trick is to create the necessity for the "solution" to bioweapons: vaccines. Benjamin Franklin: "Those who are willing to
give up freedom for security deserve neither."
(There follows a restatement of the constitutional amendements – omitted – DerAlte)
…Now the roads and the schools and hospitals are neglected in favor of the real business of government - oil, drugs, war gear, social programs, and
biggest of all: the self-replication of MORE government. And to distract the people from these operations, the power of media to shape our
consciousness has become supreme. So now we have thought crimes, and crimes of incorrect attitude, lawsuits won on the basis of hearsay and
circumstantial evidence from paid "experts." And we have let the government into our homes, into our heads, into our lives.
Whatever you think about you bring about : thought creates reality. We must guard our brain input, because that determines our focus, and our focus
determines our accomplishments. Maybe Nietzsche was right - this world is nothing more than a will to power. By sucking up the evening news, we are
pushed aside by a smoothly orchestrated will to power which may not have our interests in mind."
Regards,
DerAlte
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not_important
International Hazard
Posts: 3873
Registered: 21-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DerAlte
...
The president has one of the lowest favorable poll numbers on record. Congress has, I believe, an even lower approval rating. ...
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Bush 29%
Congress 39%
Congress took two big hits in the last month or so, I believe. The first was the anti-war side down-rating them after the approval of the Ongoing
Emergence Funding for Iraq. The second was when they, having learned nothing from the Dubai ports deal, angered the anti-immigrants forces. Congress
lost 10 to 15 percentage points over those.
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polymer
Harmless
Posts: 36
Registered: 9-12-2006
Location: in deep space
Member Is Offline
Mood: unsteady
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You guys ought to watch "what we call the news" by jibjab.
Just go to jibjab.com and look for "What we call the news"
E/m*c^2
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DerAlte
National Hazard
Posts: 779
Registered: 14-5-2007
Location: Erehwon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Disgusted
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Not_important. depends whose poll you read (but do not necessarily believe). Fox News always puts Bush much higher, and congress lower if the
Dummicrats are in control. Each regularly claims 'margin of error 3-4%'. One of my key studies in life has been statistics, the true mathematical
variety. A sample of 1000 is a damned poor sample if you bias the sampling to your constituents! The variation of polls claiming this 3-4% error is
over 50%!
Poymer, what I call the "news":-
(a) censored: too impolitite for this forum;
(b) an invitation to bug your doctor to see if you have impotence, incontinence, osteoporosis, allergies, etc., ad infinitum. Buy our pills , they
cure ills - if you can stand the side effects; a good ten minutes.
(c) "In Depth Reports" lasting all of 1.825 minutes;
(d) Eye-wetness news, the segment devoted to bugging some poor soul who has suffered some life altering catastrophe, preferably reducing the said poor
person to tears;
(e) a " 'celebrity' report" about some one I have never heard of (I'm out of touch) who has been caught fornicating, drinking to excess, doing drugs,
is in rehabiltation, etc., etc. Damn it, I thought Paris Hilton was a hotel, not a person. Shows how ignorant I am! Who cares, even?
(f) Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, the city below sea level and a disaster destined to happen. Even the French built their section above sea
level. And the Federal response thereto.
(g) If I am am very lucky, 2-3 minutes of the situation in Iraq from a good traditional reporter. A minute on a G8 conference. Several minutes on the
electoral candidates for a presidential election still 18 months off.
As far as newspapers go, by weight 9/10 can be rejected as advertising; the remaining 10% can be divided into trivia (cooking section, or sports, but
only by people like me who neither cook and are past it!). Generally, for a good laugh, don't go to the comics section (still one of the better
parts) but go to the editorials. By all means read your local news and the letters.
Stop ranting, DerAlte, and sign off!
Regards,
DerAlte.
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quicksilver
International Hazard
Posts: 1820
Registered: 7-9-2005
Location: Inches from the keyboard....
Member Is Offline
Mood: ~-=SWINGS=-~
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I once made a call on a FOX News studio. We had to do some work there so I wasn't that concerned. And aside from that I had people with me. But what I
saw.....I'll never forget. Inside there are secret smaller rooms and when I went into one I saw....OH Jesus...what I saw......there were about 20
people in dark hooded robes chanting in a low voice. They had a huge Swastika flag, I suppose it was some Nazi relic....and an alter. On the alter was
a chained woman, human skulls.....oh God...I can't go on; what they DID to her! It was horrible. Several of us ran out into the light of day from the
gloom and terror of that building.....DAMN FOX....DAMN FOX NEWS & all it stands for! (Falls down on knees and shakes fists at the sky).....
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Pyridinium
Hazard to Others
Posts: 258
Registered: 18-5-2005
Location: USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: cupric
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I have in my life witnessed a couple of events that ended up in the news. What I learned is, the news can't be trusted to get even the simplest facts
straight. In one event, the newspaper account was truly nothing like the real thing, which I saw with my own eyes. A few other people saw too. It
was a joke how they twisted it in the newspapers.
When there's potential for a sensational element, such as "Amateur Chemist Busted, Suspected of Making Drugs", the reality might be that he had a
couple of beakers and maybe a few boiling flasks, plus a typical set of chemistry-set chemicals. But facts rarely get in the way of journalism.
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DerAlte
National Hazard
Posts: 779
Registered: 14-5-2007
Location: Erehwon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Disgusted
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Easy, Quicksilver,easy! You were hallucinating! What you had come across was a coven of the Republican Religious Right, where the news is manufactured
and re-shaped... Didn't you see the red phone to HQ? And, for the born again, one to God himself?
Regards,
DerAlte
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