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On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:07:16 GMT, (Christopher)
wrote, in part: One away day in space and China is now public enemy one in the American administration mind set, it seems were back to the same mind set as it was on 1 October 1958. I wasn't aware that George Bush was voicing any sentiments similar to mine. I would rather have expected him to be extending warm congratulations to China. Which are also appropriate on such an occasion; this is an achievement. I am only not entirely happy about it because I saw China as a problem before it happened. John Savard http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html |
#23
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In any case, any American familiar with our form of government would be apt
to agree. We're a Republic. We've never espoused to be a "true" democracy (except perhaps at the town level.) But somebody here is a critic of China for not beeing a democracy. It is fully posible to become active in politics through therir system too. Surprise. If you know Aristotles "The State" you might have some thoughts about what system is the best. Press not supportive of the govermental actions of USA doesn't get a pass to the stock exchange. If that is not sanction, what is? Huh? What are you talking about? The government doesn't control the "stock exchange" (besides, which one are you referring to, we have a number of them you know.) And you can find a newspaper that will cover any subject you want from any point of view you want. So tell me how this is not a sanction? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in546042.shtml Democraty means "people rule". They dont. The number of people woting in USA is to low to be considered a democraty. The system is flawed as it is clearly failing. Proof? The number of people woting. Or perhaps the system is wildly successful and people feel little need to express their views. Those who disagree are capable of expressing their Inhabitant of dreamland, can you imagine the opposite? That people has lost faith to the system? That the system does'nt provide true choice as people can't get news coverage and a campain if they're not employed by coorperate America. views. In fact, one of our states just recalled their governor. So obviously people can express their views. Like Bush said: "Eigther you are with us, or against us". That does not leave room for dissenting views. If you are not with us you are unpatriotic. That is to effectly block free speach and the right to think independant. In that possibly short second of doubt you lost your freedom. You are allowed to be muslim in USA, but you risk losing your job, or beeing jailed without forml reason. Or if you are from another part of the world like Afganistan, you are not given the most fundamental rights as considered by the rest of the world. The recent actions by the US government bear close scruitny. And guess what, they are getting them. The courts aren't exactly happy with everything the White House is doing and has made it clear. Many people aren't happy and they've made it clear. Despite what some may call abuses of our government (and I tend to think we've gone to far in some areas) you don't find people "disappearing". Protests are held, even televised. There is always a war, always an excuse. This time the Senate threw away fundamental human rights. The White House is just one of serveral unhealty bodies in coorperate America. Well, sorry we didn't get around to our grand experiment sooner. But I'll hazard a guess we'll be around for awhile longer. In fact if you look at most despotic states formed in the last 100 years, very few are left. Tends to argue that they are on the way out. A despotic state does'nt live longer than it's despot, so I'm hardly surprised. Sincerly Bjørn Ove |
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(B. Isaksen) wrote in
om: In any case, any American familiar with our form of government would be apt to agree. We're a Republic. We've never espoused to be a "true" democracy (except perhaps at the town level.) But somebody here is a critic of China for not beeing a democracy. Yes, and you may or may not have noticed that said critic was posting from a .ca (Canadian) address. That does not necessarily mean the critic is Canadian, of course. In either case, many undereducated Americans call their government a "democracy" as well. Press not supportive of the govermental actions of USA doesn't get a pass to the stock exchange. If that is not sanction, what is? Huh? What are you talking about? The government doesn't control the "stock exchange" (besides, which one are you referring to, we have a number of them you know.) And you can find a newspaper that will cover any subject you want from any point of view you want. So tell me how this is not a sanction? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in546042.shtml There is no evidence the NYSE's action was caused by governmental sanction. The NYSE is a private organization and has the right to deny accreditation to any news organization they choose. -- JRF Reply-to address spam-proofed - to reply by E-mail, check "Organization" (I am not assimilated) and think one step ahead of IBM. |
#25
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On 18 Oct 2003 07:23:08 -0700, in a place far, far away,
(B. Isaksen) made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that: Like Bush said: "Eigther you are with us, or against us". Bush didn't say that. rest of unknowledgable nonsense snipped -- simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole) interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org "Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..." Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me. Here's my email address for autospammers: |
#26
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John Savard wrote:
On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:10:48 GMT, (Christopher) wrote, in part: On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:24:43 GMT, lid (John Savard) wrote: Under democratic rule, the Chinese people would be America's friends. France is a demoracy, yet is France one of 'America's friends'? They gave America the Statue of Liberty! And America gave the French liberation from the Nazis. Which is more important? France is merely confused. Red China, on the other hand, is EEEVIL! Barring a pre-emptive nuclear strike, though, we will sadly have to live with it, and hope the passing of time mellows it. Since the United States outgrew Negro slavery, I suppose there is a case to be made for patience and optimism. Errrmmm... the US didn't "outgrow" slavery. We fought a very big war over it. But if Nazi Germany had been squashed flat the day after the _Kristallnacht_, the world would have been spared the unpleasantness of World War II. Yes, but... we might have gotten to experience the magic of Soviet domination. Had the Nazis been driven out of power early, the Communists in Germany would have been in a stronger position to take over. And of course the Soviet Union wouldn't have been stomped flat by the Luftwaffe and Wermacht. -- Scott Lowther, Engineer Remove the obvious (capitalized) anti-spam gibberish from the reply-to e-mail address |
#27
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![]() Scott Lowther wrote: John Savard wrote: On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:10:48 GMT, (Christopher) wrote, in part: On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:24:43 GMT, lid (John Savard) wrote: Under democratic rule, the Chinese people would be America's friends. France is a demoracy, yet is France one of 'America's friends'? They gave America the Statue of Liberty! And America gave the French liberation from the Nazis. Which is more important? American liberation from the Nazis doesn't disprove French-American friendship, which seemed to be what Savard was arguing the existence of. Am not sure what argument you're trying to rebut. -- Hop David http://clowder.net/hop/index.html |
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On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 04:44:19 GMT, lid
(John Savard) wrote: On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:10:48 GMT, (Christopher) wrote, in part: On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:24:43 GMT, lid (John Savard) wrote: Under democratic rule, the Chinese people would be America's friends. France is a demoracy, yet is France one of 'America's friends'? They gave America the Statue of Liberty! They probably thought it was to vulgar for a French port, and decided it was perferct for an American one. As a Canadian... watching France suppress nationalism in Brittany and Corsica, while stirring up secessionism in Quebec; dismayed at the elimination of the Atlantic cod fishery by French fishing fleets; remembering the death of a Canadian in New Zealand from bombs planted by French spies... I hardly regard France as one of Canada's friends. Its position on Iraq was certainly not friendly to the U.S. either. (For Canada to respectfully decline participation, due to the imminence of a crucial election in Quebec in which the separatists were finally driven from power, was not unreasonable, but then Chretien made indefensible remarks later.) Still, although France has serious disputes with American foreign policy (the novels "Topaz" and "The Spike" were both presented with claims that their premise was other than fictional, so there may indeed be things wrong in France) it doesn't seem to have... _territorial_ ambitions. It is true that they viewed TCP/IP as an American imperialist plot which they hoped to stave off with Minitel for a while, but they came to their senses. France, like Italy and Mexico, has anticlerical laws, so it is not a full First Amendment democracy. Its direct experience of Nazi occupation has unbalanced the country in favor of the Left - and a similar thing has happened in some Latin American countries, sometimes for reasons for which the U. S. bears some responsibility. France is merely confused. Red China, on the other hand, is EEEVIL! Barring a pre-emptive nuclear strike, though, we will sadly have to live with it, and hope the passing of time mellows it. Since the United States outgrew Negro slavery, I suppose there is a case to be made for patience and optimism. But if Nazi Germany had been squashed flat the day after the _Kristallnacht_, the world would have been spared the unpleasantness of World War II. I don't think we really can afford to have any dictators running around, not even in tiny countries in Africa. John Savard http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html Christopher +++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it." Winston Churchill |
#29
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On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 04:46:46 GMT, lid
(John Savard) wrote: On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:07:16 GMT, (Christopher) wrote, in part: One away day in space and China is now public enemy one in the American administration mind set, it seems were back to the same mind set as it was on 1 October 1958. I wasn't aware that George Bush was voicing any sentiments similar to mine. I would rather have expected him to be extending warm congratulations to China. Which are also appropriate on such an occasion; this is an achievement. I am only not entirely happy about it because I saw China as a problem before it happened. That may be so but the first reaction form the American administration shows nothing much has changed since 1958. Christopher +++++++++++++++++++++++++ "Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it." Winston Churchill |
#30
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Scott Lowther wrote:
France is a demoracy, yet is France one of 'America's friends'? They gave America the Statue of Liberty! And America gave the French liberation from the Nazis. Which is more important? Americans tend to conveniently forget that only 2 countries gave the USA concrete intelligence with regards to 9-11 itself. France and Syria. But once the USA ran out of "9-11" stories and felt it needed another evil-doer, it concucted stories about Iraq at which point it lost the support of the world. Ironic that the USA government chose to insult and turn into an ennemy those 2 nations that cooperated so much real intelligence for 9-11. The americans wanted to invade Iraq ? They refused to shift control to a neutral party (UN) ? Then they should stop complaining about the 87 billion bill their little excursion into Irak will cost them. And of the americans were so gullible as to believe what Bush was saying about Irak, and if Americans accused anyone who didn't believe Bush of being unpatriotic, then let the Americans pay that $87 bill in their taxes and higher national debt for many many years to come. Had the american media been objective, they wouldn't have acted as a propaganda avenue for the current Bush regime and would have blasted that "so called evidence" and sided with the rest of the world against Bush and Bliar. Instead of an invasion of Irak, you would have had impeachment proceedings against bush and company. Remember that there was a working group of inspectors who were on site in Irak. Their intelligence was far more reliable than some fake satellite images presented by the USA or some report written by some student about the past in Irak which was used by the Bliar government to generate a "dossier" that pretended that there was a clear and imminent threath. Do americans even know about what happened to the british spoecialist who did reveal that the dossier contained fake information ? The american media adidn't cover much the inquiry that followed. It is a shame because it was very damning to Bliar and Bush. The USA was unwilling to give those UN inspectors a few more weeks. But we are expected to believe that even after 6 months on the ground, the US military should be granted unlimited time to find (or plant) those alledged weapons. Let this be a lesson to every country: if you cannot convince the UN of your so called evidence, it probably means that our so called evidence is not good enough to proceed with war. And if you still go ahead with unilateral invasion of another nation, then expect to pay 100% of the bill. Perhaps the next time, taxpayers will think twice about supporting such an invasion. And perhaps the opposition will do its job and oppose such invasion instead of blindly supporting it because they didn't want to be called unpatriotic. The germans too were highly patriotic during WW-II and blindly supported their government because they had been told that what their government was doing was the right thing. They didn't quite believe some of the horror stories that were coming from outside germany and prefered to believe what their own government was telling them. And once the USA media starts to show all the horror stories of illegally detained without any charges, illegally deported to countries where they were tortured for one year, people with valid visas being detained into cells containing 12 people with lights constantly on as a method of torture in the hopes that some of them would come forth and admit some sort of crime, then perhaps the americans will be just as ashamed of what their country has done as germans are of what their country has done. Interesting that outside of the USA, we do see all the stories of human right abuses inside the USA but american media don't carry those. How many americans were aware that Amnisty International had setup booths in front of INS offices after so many people disapeared after a visit to INS office to have paperwork updated/checked ? Their role was to take down names/numbers of relatives so that those could be contacted by AI in case the person entering the INS office didn't come out. The INS didn't bother advising family members that the father had been illegally arrested, and moved to a prison in a different city without any right to call a lawyer. We are not talking about individual cases, here, we are talking about 10s of thousands of cases of illegal arrests. In the soviet days, most russians were unaware of what was really going on in the siberian camps etc. In the current days, most americans are unaware of what is really going on in american prisons, airports, and streets. |
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