It doesn't make sense any more? Doesn't this imply it did make sense at one time?

(Reply) (Thread)

It seemed like at one point there was a tiny bit of sense involved somewhere.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

It's pretty much so completely incomprehensible to the point that if you try to wrap your mind around it, your brain will run out of your nose.

(Reply) (Thread)

...Sweden is nice this time of year....

(Reply) (Thread)

Canada is even better this time of year, and you can drive to visit your family... :)

Honestly, as a Canadian, I don't understand why more of you Americans don't just up and leave. We've got everything you have, without the guns, crazy people running the place, imperialistic policy, and alienating foreign policy... And we've got free health care, to boot.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

No, no, that doesn't make us cowards, that makes our government cowards.
Huge difference.

(Reply) (Thread)

It makes those who agree with the government's actions cowards, and that must be the majority of the population for such an important issue because it's a tuppin' democracy, right?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

Of course the actual assumption made is a lot stronger than (1) - you can replace 'Innocent American Civilian' with 'American soldier of indeterminate innocence' and 'Innocent Iraqi Civilian' with 'a large number of Innocent Iraqi Civilians'.

(Reply) (Thread)

It seems to me that al-Qaeda exists in large part in the minds of those people who want it to exist. That isn't to say that there is no organization out there called al-Qaeda, but that the specter of it is much larger than the actual organization.

On top of that, we've set people over to die and kill in an unjustifiable war, and no one is being asked to sacrifice for it, other than the families of people fighting.

I honestly can't make anymore sense of it than you can, thinking about seems to make me want to bleed out my years and never produces anything that makes sense.

I wonder if we have a culture worth saving.

Entirely unrelated. Did you guys have problems down in the office yesterday around 2pm with cellphones and computers and wireless internet? Up here on the forth floor both my WiFi and cell phone service became spotty and then non-functional. Shortly after that both my phone and mac became unstable, the phone turning on and off seemingly at random, and the computer beech balling and requiring a few restarts. This lasted for about an hour. I'm wondering if it was just me, or something larger. Maybe al-Qaeda decided to attack the eastworks because they hate our freedom.

(Reply) (Thread) (Expand)

You obviously were attacked by the ghosts of disgruntled mill workers. Duh.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

i'm not sure i ever saw the logic. i was 15 or 16 when it "started" so i was generally told it was my "age" that prevented me from grasping George's "logic".

I have to type this here or else it will end up in a comic and nobody wants that.
i don't mind.

We should be drug out on the street and beaten until we piss blood.
agree.

the people that are generally considered smelly and weird think we smell like spoiled milk. i always felt like that was an analogy for so much more. :)

(Reply) (Thread)

Fun quote:

"If we quit Vietnam, tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week we'll have to fight in San Francisco."

- Lyndon Johnson


I was going to tell you about the Bratz movie but instead I think I will tell you about some nice people who are helping donate books to impoverished Kenyans. Because there are people who give a shit, damnit.

(Reply) (Thread)

But...but I don't like pissing blood!

Oddly enough, we (that is, myself and a compatriot of mine) were just talking about this the other night. It makes basically no sense to say that somehow fighting the war is keeping the terrars out of America, because unless I am greatly mistaken, there's been several instances of thwarted terrorist plots on American soil since the war started.

Now, they may have been propaganda cases, yes--but they also would suggest that our military and intelligence is able to defend us, so that whole rationale for the war goes right out of the window.

I am firmly convinced that the only thing that is keeping us over there is the administration's own pride and unwillingness to admit that we were wrong.

Pride is killing thousands of soldiers and civilians. Fuck you America. Fuck you right in the ass.

(Reply) (Thread)

If you haven't seen them, you might be interested in The Power of Nightmares, a BBC documentary about the Neo-Conservative and Al Qaeda rise to power.

Links to the 3 parts on Google Video:

Part 1: Baby It's Cold Outside
Part 2: The Phantom Victory
Part 3: The Shadows in the Cave

(Reply) (Thread) (Expand)

Ooh I've been wanting to see this, I didn't know it was on GV thanks!

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

If you'd like to join us in Canada, I'll put in a good word.

(Reply) (Thread) (Expand)

I left Oklahoma because it was too stupid, I kind of feel like I need to put up a fight before I "cut and run."

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

The only way I can ever understand what is going on during a Bush speech is to regress to childhood.

Dubya's evident understanding of our world is like a five year old's grasp on foreign politics. He's incomprehensible and goes in a completly non-intuitive direction with anything he does.

He thinks America is great and is the best because that's his way of life and he understands it. He sees all his little global playmates playing government like him, but they're doing it wrong. No no, says bitty Bushy, you have to do it like this. No, I don't like it like that, says the global community, all of whom is older than Bush anyways (...). Bush gets mad, goes home and cries to mommy and daddy and everyone gets in a big fight in the neighborhood because everyone thinks they're right and they're all just a bunch of useless idiots with money and a (creepy) smile, but no one with any real leadership (save a few here and there) is given a posistion of power. Fuck the government.

And you know what else? I won't matter who is in office, a democrat or an elephant, it's not about ideals or the people anymore, it's all for the money. Everything is all for the money.

Fuck, now I'm mad as hell and it's not even eleven in the morning...

(Reply) (Thread)

I guess the trick is to remember that still at least half of the country agrees with you, even though we don't have the money or the power or the inbred royal genepool.

Remember that to be able to see through all of the bullshit means that you're lucky enough to be intelligent, informed, and perceptive, which puts you miles above the majority.

So what is the answer? I don't know. But I think it has something to do with giving time or money to teaching kids to read and AIDS research and Planned Parenthood and writing lots and lots of letters to senators, and even if we don't get what we want, at least maybe we'll feel like democracy still works a little bit. It's easy to get depressed and overwhelmed, the trick is to do everything you can to change the situation that makes you depressed.

Or maybe we're really all doomed and the world is ending in five years, in which case we should PARTY

(Reply) (Thread)

Man what a depressing post. Make with the funny, funny man!

But seriously, the appearance of the word "homeland" is probably the scariest thing in all this, isn't it? I had never heard "homeland" before 9/11/2001 and now it's all over the damn place. Doesn't it sounds a little bit too much like "fatherland?"

(Reply) (Thread)

Why do you hate America?

(Reply) (Thread)

This is what happens when the government ends up with guns.

We can't do anything about it either 'cause they'll just shoot us or send us off for being terrorists.

(Reply) (Thread)

agh, man, you hit it right on the head.

and no it doesn't make us cowards, it makes us "strategic."

(Reply) (Thread)

The only possible cure for it is a hug.

*manly-platonic-hug*

(Reply) (Thread)

"Doesn't that make us COWARDS?"
It makes us so much more than just cowards.

(Reply) (Thread)

I can't believe he got more money. You know how I could have pimped out my house with that kind of money? Hell, I could've at least gotten a working faucet. I could've declared war on termites by dropping some missles in the corner of my yard that used to have the wooden shed and the tree. I'm almost sure the nest is there...somewhere. That'll stop 'em from coming back up to my house where it was built all dumb with wood touching the dirt, right?

No, the logic doesn't work, even if it's applied to anything. There ain't no logic in it. It's like taking everybody's parts out in childhood to fight cancer later on.

Should I start venting about this administration in public again? I used to, but it was years before it was cool to do so.

(Reply) (Thread)

This is the best way I know how to explain America in the context of the world:
Anthropomorhpize every country. America is standing there, a bit fat, in spurs and chaps and blue jeans, shiny cowboy boots and belt buckle the shape of Texas. It's wearing an unbuttoned plaid button-down with an I [heart] NY T-shirt underneath. It's wearing a cowboy hat with the seal of the Red Sox.
Messrs. Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy are wearing suits. France and Russia are dressed business-casual for their cultural. The Arab nations are either wearing suits or something "turrrastic", and Egypt, Turkey and Israel are all ready for a working Monday.
In the goings on of the world, we're the crazy guy dressed as a cowboy, hootin' and hollarin' in the middle of the street.

Man, Jeffery Rowland, you should draw that comic that everyone would want to see.

(Reply) (Thread)

Cognitive dissonance is a stone cold bitch.

(Reply) (Thread)

I'm pretty sure the muslims worship the same God as christians, but follow a different prophet.

(Reply) (Thread)

I hate this war as much as I hate Nazis and being a cashier. I can't believe the fact that I'm working and paying taxes so Dubya can firebomb the people of Iraq.

And whatever happened to habeas corpus? Countless people taken prisoner at Guantanamo were released due to being taken by "mistake".

(Reply) (Thread)

Then maybe you've heard that some of the prisoners' cases are being thrown out of the military tribunal court because their prisoner status does not match up to what the government is charging them with. I'm not sure if that means the government will be forced to hold new trials for them that every other American gets or if they will be released. I do know that it's pissed Dubya and the rest of his cronies off so I'm considering that a good thing.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread) (Expand)

What about Afghanistan?

(Reply) (Thread)