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    marye
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    Nuclear power! Carcinogenic cell phones! The Stanley Cup! and the usual parade of kids dancing and shaking their bones, politicians throwing stones, etc. Discuss.

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  • fluffanutter
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    It is deeply disturbing
    That the story of the Afghan Massacre keeps changing on a daily basis. This would suggest to any reasonable person that something is slightly more than amiss from the version of events military authorities are projecting. Whether it was a sanctioned or non-sanctioned operation or an operation at all and just the demented actions of one war-weary veteran will never be known, not even after a trial. But, watching the actions of military authorities in that theater of operations is quite revealing. They pulled Bales out to Kuwait immediately after Karzai started making serious noise about a show trial in Afghanistan. I think Anna's opinion, is a viable possibility. Especially so since the timing fit ever so perfectly -- Just when Obama and Cameron were conferring about the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago. Lets face it, if the US and Britain want something from NATO, they get it. Does anybody really think this was a "coincidence"? Please! Jonapi, when you tell somebody to fuck off it doesn't reflect well on you and usually means you have no facts to support your own conclusion. Saying that everybody in a forward operating base in a combat theater on a high alert is a clown (in that they allow a drunk to sneak out, sneak in and then sneak back out again) is a dog that just don't hunt. We are being asked to suspend our logical, rational thinking process here and I am so happy that there are people among us who are not sheep enough to swallow it hook, line and sinker. This whole thing is tragic in the extreme. I feel sorry for every person involved. Especially for Bales and every one of the Afghan dead and injured. Further, for every person involved in this insane conflict. Isn't it clear now that we should have just invaded and occupied the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan? That would have cut the heart out of this problem and brought a quick demise to Bin Laden. 10 years later, with thousands dead and trillions spent the job got done in the most grotesque way imaginable.
  • Anonymous (not verified)
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    "yes, there is a vegetarian option. you can fuck off."
    "when you reach that conclusion you are calling a lot of people a bunch of clowns who were guarding that base that night..." yep, that's right.
  • Anna rRxia
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    The point of this op.
    Was to create an endgame strategy to get NATO out of the war early. If there were all these witnesses how come the story didn't come out clearly from the beginning? How come Bales remained silent and invoked his Miranda rights? That is pretty level-headed thinking for a drunk. How come he got a top-notch lawyer right away? How come the press has come up with all these favorable stories? How come we keep getting "expert analysis" that it will be hard to convict Bales because there are no forensics, no weapons to test and all that sort of thing? I think this op. went way wrong and Bales is being set up to take the fall but I feel that somebody decided they had to cover their (& his) ass, so Bales is going to serve about three years in the stockade at Leavenworth during a showcase trial in which he will be found innocent by reason of insanity, concussive head injury, PTSD and whatever else his lawyer can come up with. Speaking of eye-witnesses, how about the Afghan villagers themselves who saw multiple soldiers in different villages doing the killing? Karzai got to those villages with hush cash very quickly and the US dropped even heavier money bags on them. No, I think it very hard to conclude that this was the action of one drunk soldier, who happens to be a Special Forces Ranger, in a forward operating base on high alert in the wake of the koran burnings. I mean, I really hope I'm wrong but it sure does stink the way this episode got spun and continues to spin, like a top!
  • Mike Edwards
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    Thanks Anna, I will
    Your conclusion that "obviously, this was a sanctioned black op" doesn't seem to take into account that those killed were mostly young children. Also, the serious diplomatic misstep of moving Bales to Kuwait immediately after the event would seem to indicate that the military command was caught off-guard and improvising badly. I understand that Bales' story has changed since it first came out, which doesn't surprise me since there was alcohol involved, but I don't think his testimony is necessary to determine what happened. There's abundant circumstantial evidence and eyewitness accounts, which should be enough for a military court to convict him of murder. Finally, you don't offer an alternate theory of the crime; if it was obviously a black op, what was its point?
  • Anna rRxia
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    Believe what you want, Mike
    But i think it would be hard for somebody who was drunk to sneak out twice from a forward operating base. when you reach that conclusion you are calling a lot of people a bunch of clowns who were guarding that base that night... I am not one to see conspiracies around every corner. I just happened to be right on top of this story when it broke and have seen it's evolution.
  • Mike Edwards
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    Occam's Razor
    > Obviously, this was a sanctioned black op. I disagree with your assessment, Anna. I think the story that's been carried by the media--alcohol was involved, Bales saw a buddy get injured the day before, and Bales himself had been wounded in combat a couple of times--is probably close to the truth. Those variables coming into play within a culture of killing that's ten years into a failed counter-terrorism project would seem to be sufficient to trigger a reaction such as Bales'. "He just snapped," seems to cover this one pretty well.
  • Anna rRxia
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    Nobody knows the trouble Bales knows
    Some things you hate to be right about... The story that they were trying to stick to didn't work and now Sgt. Bales is said to have snuck out, snuffed out some Afghans, snuck back in and then gone BACK OUT AGAIN and killed some more Afghans in a different village. My, my. Such an ambitious lad! This is getting freakin' ridiculous. Sgt. Bales doesn't remember anything about this night in his life. He is like the Manchurian Candidate (the newer one). Obviously, this was a sanctioned black op. by Ft. Lewis/McCord cowboy special forces operators, designed for maximum deniability. You have to wonder what kind of Kool-aid they gave him when he got back from the mission. The US has now reimbursed each family that lost a member $50,000. I think they paid something like $2,000 per injury. This is a sad, sad chapter in US foreign military involvement. It will only mean something if Obama & Cameron successfully lead NATO to end the Campaign one year earlier than the scheduled pullout in 2014. They are getting fierce pushback from conservative thinktanks and conservative cold warriors who somehow believe we need to stay the course in this ridiculous ruse of an engagement. Guess what? We didn't need to fight in Iraq. It is debatable if we needed to do this thing in Afghanistan. There is no debate (worth wasting your breath over) if we should be there post Bin Laden's demise. Pull up the map online of the number of dead in the Afghan Campaign. You can even break it out by state if you want. Very, very frightning... Some things you hate to be right about (sighhhh)!
  • Anna rRxia
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    If he only had a heart!
    Dick Cheney goin' down that yellow brick road feelin bad! Somebody else deserved that heart, Dick! Give it back!
  • Mr. Pid
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    I think
    technically, that would be called an implant, not a transplant.
  • cosmicbadger
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    Tin Man
    I wasn't aware Cheney had a heart that needed replacing!
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Nuclear power! Carcinogenic cell phones! The Stanley Cup! and the usual parade of kids dancing and shaking their bones, politicians throwing stones, etc. Discuss.

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Probably closest to Augusta Civic Center, as regards Dead-played venues. Also the location of my first Dead show, by the way (9/2/79)...
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is floating away in floodwaters, and the news just barely mentioned it yesterday. Wonder why that is?
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Yikes TL. I am going to Vietnam on Monday. Hope the Red River will not be flooding too.
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Nobody cares about the Thai people. Climate dislocation is not going to be an orderly thing. The richest countries will take care of themselves the best and the poorer ones will be left to take care of themselves. If ever there was a morality play about greed, this is it. Rich countries won't reel in CO@ emissions and poorer countries are left to fend for themselves and either move or become extinct. What does becoming wealthy mean in this context? It must be like people going around a boat they are on pitying the masses left to swim.
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ha ha! yeah i know all about Ginger Baker; that's a fantastic record by the way. great footage on youtube too.don't see it working out all that terribly badly though! a little smoking action misinterpreted by the usual police and moral silliness. Ginger Baker not the "cleanliness" of individuals!! i'm suggesting a different route!! huge thanks gratefaldean for the info! nice to see a little cosmic synchronicity in the question. first show, eh? good year too. i will imbibe that show as soon as. of course, my post should've included many other countries with individual musical richness, not just Africa; China, India, Romania, Thailand.... i guess no one's interested in Thailand, TL, because there's nothing there we can exploit, at least financially. so who cares? god forbid we learn from their culture, customs and history; support bacteria! it's the only culture some people will ever have.
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I think we had better google a bit about that, and I will be wishing you a safe and dry voyage!
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about Thailand. The very idea of watching life be submerged in water is horrifying!
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oh absolutely!!look at Khöömi; the birthplace of throat (overtone) singing, Mongolia is astonishing. don't forget your water-wings, badger. i've always pictured you in your cozzy; mmmmmmm.......speeedoooooossssss. was being ironic about not caring.
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a badger in a speedo, paddling the river in Thailand would be a sight to behold-for SURE!
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On Monday, will be driving right past the old Augusta Civic Center. And within a mile or so of the Cumberland County Civic Center. Old stomping grounds, it's been a while...and if we could have held the trip off a couple of more weeks I could have picked up a Furthur show at said CCCC and brought back some very fine memories, but nooooo! It was very strange seeing a link to the Bangor Daily News in these parts, especially from YOUR locale, Mr Pancake (wait a minute, have you morphed back into jonapi? Now I'm very confused). I felt one of those little timequakes rumbling under my seat...or maybe that was something else. Good weekend, all!
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In Rome, Auckland, Tokyo and Zurich the "Wall Street Protests" have gone viral and the potential for a strong movement of people is evident. With all the "class war" talk being thrown around by Republican candidates for President it is not surprising that this movement got off the ground in one hell of a hurry. This movement is citing the widening gap between th rich and the poor and the lack of mobility between the classes, as well as corporate greed personified in corporations that buy and sell on Wall Street. Like a wave that went out to sea, the vacuum on the left has sewn the potential for a big wave to come surging. Or not. These things can fizzle out,
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Frankfurt had a few thousand protesters today, in front of the Euro Bank, and tomorrow a larger demonstration is scheduled in Berlin!
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The movement that originally started the "Occupy Wall Street" looks to be in it for the long haul and the momentum built up in scarcely a month belies a very large grass roots movement. The angst of this movement shall not the nuclear sword of Damocles but the Inconvenient Truth of climate change. Everybody tends to get their 15 minutes of fame in America and then the energy to continue is there or it is not.
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this movement doesn't seem to be fearful to me.
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i morph in many ways gratefaldean.a Panquake rumble in the nether regions is just a welcome in the fault line. tectonic or ginandtonic is all the same to me. personally the bowels vibrate to the dark matter leaks of dirk dresselhaus and ilpo väisänen. now there's a paradigm shift....
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TigerLilly, what if 12,500 of them in node-like vessel, sterile colonies in natural cavities, operated as a unified entity; drones and queens in mass support modifying habits, tapping resources and defending themselves, developing mimetic, commensal, parasitic and mutualistic relationships. WOULD YOU BE FEARFUL THEN? oh, wait.......that's "Ants". sorry.
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Not sure, Jonapi. Have my difficulties to think like an ant.
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think yourself lucky! i have difficulties to think such as an anatomically modern species! mental faculties and components a mystery. sapient nomenclature in disarray. i'll stick to the sonic crumbling. that and potato chilie green garlic rösti and roast tomato reduction. it all makes sense to me, so don't worry.....
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I'm not sure what good it will do for the 99%ers to continue occupying Wall St. and other important landmark financial institutions. What is excellent is what is finally coming to the fore, the understanding that the rich and greedy will never give it up, even if they have to completely foul our own nest. The problem, not unlike Anna Huzzare's in India, is how does one face down a social ill that has stood the mark of time. That rich peoples, countries will not share with poor peoples, countries is a sure indication that we have some basic lessons to relearn. I'm not optimistic.
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U.S. coming to the rescue again. one hundred "special operations troops". those pesky terrorists in Uganda causing trouble and someone's got to sort it all out. apparently it's a "humanitarian mission in the interest of America's national security." going to South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo too. so. nothing to do with oil and resources then.
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in South Sudan also-on a "peace keeping" mission. Wanted to post that yesterday and ask what people think about that.
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"peace mission" read "going to war".a response to the recent kidnappings. will just make Kenyans a target for al Shabab. "Our territorial integrity is threatened with serious security threats of terrorism. We cannot allow this to happen at all," Kenya's Internal Security Minister George Saitoti told the media. "It means we are now going to pursue the enemy, who are the al-Shabab, to wherever they will be, even in their country." some believe that it is not about rescuing hostages but securing the border. inexperienced military versus Islamic delusion. either way, it's going to be bloody.
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Is Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner with them? What is so annoying about a story like that is not knowing what the hell the truth is... Are they helping people, hurting? How, why?
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indeed.more hurt than help. conflict old as dirt. vessels like chopped meat. butcher flesh. cheap. passed down to younger generation when the old die. your mantle in our name. rivers of red in the sand. salt on the tongue. Serbia Kosovo Israel Palestine Islam Christian Tribe Tribe Tribe. proceed in leather fashioned. blinkered racehorse. levitate a choice of the few. uneducated? maybe. intelligent? maybe so. brittle construct. cracked pepper bones. snapped sticks and bloodied ground. veins emptied. more plentiful than water. then America enters with it's own agenda. millions for the military. repossession for the citizens. bitter, disillusioned, disenfranchised. marginalised by the marginal. passed down to the younger generation when the old die. levitate a choice of the few. but they ARE growing. i've seen them.

Form Grows Rampant [Part1] from Threshold House on Vimeo.

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Right now the political spectrum is quite polarized with many people who are activist not understanding how much they have in common. Obama has talked and talked till he is blue in the face about how we have to get the people making over 250k to pay up so we can afford the lifestyle this country has come to know. Now we have Tea Party monsters financed by the right propagating the interests of people who are more rich than they and playing them like fools. On the other hand we have the Occupy Wall Street folks who are hot on the trail of income inequality. This age-old conundrum is unlikely to be resolved. I don't see compromise or a happy ending here. All that can happen is what history has shown us when the pie is shrinking. The rich people hire the poor people who are out of work and put guns in their hands to protect themselves, their family and their private property. Don't forget, under out system of government, property is more important than people. Many of our generation have no idea of the Great Depression with vigilante gun-men keeping the homeless out of their town. Depending on how far these movements advance, conflict may become inevitable. More people are for peace and stability than they are for change. Which is the shame of it, really. If people could fix this crooked, corrupt, rigged, fixed system that the rich use to rule us, America could once again rise in the world's eyes as an advancer of equality. This is an important movement the proportion of which people do not understand. We need to stand together with our brothers and sisters and take down the crooked politicians, generational rich and reactionary numb-nuts who are traitors to their own class. We are entering a new phase of post-peak capitalist countries with older economies that can no longer give everybody everything and the jungle stands ready for the next emerging countries to claw their way to the top of the hill. Sometimes I wonder if our wonderful country will be so pissed at these events that they will take our vastly superior.military strength and blow up the hill. if we can't have it all, then nobody can. ~ The time has come to weigh these things ~
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refuse to be sucked down into class petty class petty petty.i reach for the red cities at night. internal expulsion sun bleached eradication of familiar tropes. Musick to play in the Dark. always eat your broccoli.
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I am a queen of the circulating libraryI have declared an amnesty All books may be returned without a penalty Return the books to me Return the books Don't burn the books You cut down trees to make paper disease It's in the trees: it's coming Return the book of knowledge Return the marble index File under "Paradox" The forest is a college, each tree a university I am a queen of the circulating library I'm here to answer your enquiry All knowledge resides within me Your membership has expired You are way past expiry dates Words, words, words, words! You may as well listen to the birds
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lest we forget what human beings can do to each other.please nurture your fellow brother and sisters
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Folks in Tripoli are happy with the news Moammar Gadhafi is dead. Good luck to the liberated Libyans. One less military mission for the US to support.
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One less military mission that the US can make money from whilst flaunting their commitment to showing absolutely no regard for human life whatsoever.Cue despicable suits smugly marching into another country to rape their resources. Gaddafi was not a nice man. Yes, that's right G-A-D-D-A-F-I; judging by your spelling and spectacular insensitivity and ignorance to world affairs, i'm guessing you're American. When will the rest of the intelligent world remove the hateful dictators in the U.S.? Here's to endless news waffle of intolerable yank military officials smirking over the corpse of another "victory"; their delivery lurking halfway between John Wayne and an animatronic theme-park dummy employed to entertain queuefuls of impatient visitors by wailing outside the ghost train; he shouts, overemphasises every other word, and punctuates his speech with so many ridiculous hand gestures, he'll have his own eye out if he's not careful. He also has a plastic head, hair like a futuristic combat helmet and was probably spawned in a microwaveable petri dish. Whoever brought him up deserves to be sealed inside a packing crate full of jackals and razor wire and rolled down a hill. Just another chest-beating, histrionic areshole. No doubt shot in close-up with soullessly slick camerawork, with wailing rock guitar and numerable close-ups of them sweatily rolling their eyes around in the manner of a schizophrenic mime artist glaring at a boxful of snakes. All about as easy on the eye as a handful of shattered monkey-nut husks unexpectedly flung in your face by a passing drunk. IGNORE THE NEWS NETWORKS, FOLKS.
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Easy on Ted, Jonapi. He is pretty much a populist and is happy when the good guys win. He has no mind-bending analysis (I know about). Gadaffi, the spelling of whose name in the media changed over the years, retired to his birth place and died there. He probably would have taken exile, if anybody would have accepted him (ie, if he had enough money). Unfortunately the Libyans became pawns in a Nato afterthought. Could NATO really support a rag-tag army to victory? As long as Uncle Sam was in the bushes with laser pointers guiding smart bombs and drone strikes. Otherwise the NATO countries couldn't do close-in air support to save their lives. As long as the US in a pinch for coin right now, let's start charging our allies for our role as policemen of the world. The Kuwaitis and Saudis were willing to pay for Kuwait, what'll Europe pay for protection? NPR's latest: Gadaffi emerged from a bunker in Sirt saying "Don't shoot!" and was shot anyway. Amazing how much animosity can develop in 40 years as a dictator. To think, he had his own tent in Jersey when visiting the UN.
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There's no universally accepted authority for transliterating Arabic names. The good news is the bozo is dead and gone. As President Obama stated today..." a dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted." Perhaps jonapi can take his mindless drivel and take up space on some other forum, as I for 1 am tired of his irrelevant posts. Monkey boy??!! Hardly a respectful term for the POTUS. Listen to Uncle John's Band a few times and go see a football game in London this weekend. Real American football: Chicago vs Tampa.
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Despicable footage of Ghadaffys death splashed across networks everywhere. Hateful scenes which the stupid leaders of the West reveled in, including our own dear Prime Ministerial gimp David Camera on. All of whom deserve to be locked in a cupboard with a genetically engineered mantis that'll shift and itch and scratch its spiny little legs against their weeping faces, for a period of no less than sixteen thousand years.The show of disgust from their insincere faces would have been massively improved by the insertion of a protracted final sequence in which each leader is glued to a deckchair and kicked down a stairwell. Nice wholesome rubberneckers' television, appealing to the sort of closet ghouls who, on spotting the remains of a car smash, gently slow down the Chevrolet for a good slow-motion porno-peer at the limp arm dangling over the side of a stretcher. Then crack open a Budweiser. Footage of that Hilary Clinton drone watching the footage on her phone; absolutely priceless. A walking vacuum with the face of a Little Chef gammon steak, she couldn't be more dislikeable if she strode around in Nazi regalia firing nailguns at ponies. Gadhuffy was a deeply unpleasant man. Nato managed to convince the rebels not to kill him but take him alive. Apparently. Yet they killed him anyway. You bet your sweet buns they did! What, Gaddhiffi in The Hague spilling out all his secrets of the West's dodgy deals with Libya throughout the years? Not on your nelly, missus. Only thing more despicable was those political buffoons rushing to the camera to shout what a blue sky apple pie sunny day it is for "Democracy" with a capital "D". A line up of the most crashingly tedious shop-window dummies on earth. Gidhalfy was not a menace to the West. Still, what's done is done. We can all now concentrate on those special advisors in Uganda as they start the long drawn out task of carving up the African continent and pillaging all those economic goodies. These are dark days, folks. Dark days. Now wash your hands. And that monkey boy title was not aimed at the good ol' Prezzie Wezzie.
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lamagonzo, America is not the policemen of the world. They are the bullies.Too much time spent glued to the games console and television set has created a docile mindless population which will swallow quicker than a hungry hooker at feeding time. Since real life can't compare to fantasy life, you wind up feeling inadequate and miserable - and the more inadequate and miserable you feel, the more television you watch, and the more boring your life becomes. Plus, you're inert, so you start to get fat. Before you know it, your fingers are too chubby to successfully stab the 'off' button on the remote control, and you're doomed to spend the rest of your days in front of the box like a semi-deflated hot-air balloon, occasionally breaking into a sweat as you struggle to open the day's thirtieth packet of potato chips. TV and especially the American News has the same properties as Valium. And if you watch the News, you could become convinced it also exhibits characteristics of heroin, nicotine, cocaine, alcohol and crack, blended together to form the single most addictive, destructive drug the Western world has ever seen, one that's painlessly administered through the eyeball, leaves no visible scars and is killing society dead. Some people will believe anything.
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...and when I use the words "the world's policeman" I am being very sarcastic. But does that mean all of the NY Times is bullocks? Or just a third of it? (And none to do with the Palestinians). The thing I try to point out with these references (mostly lost) is that America produces more weapons than the rest of the world and has armed forces that know how to use them and they keep getting better every year. Not only that but we have war colleges and computer gaming that allow us to use our weaponry to the best tactical advantage. The rest of the world has pretty much given up on trying to match us, though we kind of believe NATO and other allies can sally fourth into the fray with us when the bugle sounds. In reality, in Afghanistan where more than 50 country's armies are assembled they overwhelmingly do the administrative and supportive work just above the hired help. The news does tend to paint an illusion of "us" against "them". All I'm saying is the US is the U.S. and everybody is trailing in our wake. But what happens when we can't afford the latest and the greatest because of budget shortfalls? When our militray empire contracts and we can't bully our way to achieving our "national interests"? Through the natural order of things somebody else will take over. It's a brave, new world. Almost. Give it 30 years/.
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Well, i know where you're coming from, lamagonzo. I believe we're on the same page when it comes to world affairs and moral outlook.People on this forum should not equate criticism of the U.S. government with all of it's citizens. Whenever someone speaks up theres the usual knee-jerk reaction of "now hang on buddy...". It's ingrained naivety that is exceptionally dangerous and damaging to the rest of the world. It is not a case of the good guys versus the bad guys. It is bad guys versus bad guys. The footage being broadcast of Gaddafi's capture and death is horrific. I'm well aware of what he did to other people but it is not up to another human being to take a life and degrade it like that. A homegrown policy of gun ownership seems to continually teach certain people that this is perfectly acceptable. (While clucking on about their God at the same time; God Bless America. Insha'Allah. No difference). It's pathetic. And all this is going to happen all over again in Africa. I am sick of all this bullshit and sick of all these bullies. I'm sick of life being treated as a joke and sick of murder, cruelty, torture and manipulation. And i'm especially sick of this retarded attitude that comes with the death of another accompanied by an extra crisp ironing of the Stars & Stripes, which is then hoisted high outside a stupid person's front porch. I want Western dictators removed permanently. Low intelligence coupled with Religion is ruining our planet. As a human being on this earth, i object.

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Jonapi: Chill out, dude. Take your meds. You talk about chubby fingers on the keyboard, but are you projecting? Your self-loathing is toxic--get it outta here. Here are a few carcinogenic, soul-killing shows that you should begin watching. This is like American herbal medicine: STORAGE WARS (The Wow factor, baby! What will Barry Weiss find next?!?! A cast of oddballs bid on storage lockers in hopes of finding hidden treasures. A Picasso? Or just an old Penthouse? Tune in!) AMERICAN PICKERS (Two guys--Mike and Frank--modern-day Laurel and Hardy/Mutt and Jeff characters--ride around the U.S. looking for lost "mantiques" and folk art treasures--you'll love it--Danielle is a cutey, too) WIPEOUT (Totally mindless--just what you need--better than a mantra--contestants wend their way through a gauntlet of stupidity, often falling into the drink--laughs for all--my son likes it--you have kids?--I get the sense that ain't ever happening) OK--gotta run--picking my older brother up at O'Hare. He is just getting back from Afghanistan. Says he has a duffel-bag filled with fingers and weird trinkets. We're gonna buy a 30-pack of beer, get rowdy, and then hit some strip clubs. WAHOO!!!! Bring on the ladies!!! Tomorrow we are knocking on doors for the Tea Party and drumming up support for increased hydraulic fracturing. Something has to power my TV!!
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Right with ya Los Lonely Boy! You missed out the mutha of all shows though: "Making The Band"; a reality show about a decade ago chronicling the genesis of a manufactured American boy band. They were called O-Town i think - the 'O' apparently standing for Orlando although it may well represent the ice-cold hollow zero lodged in the heart of this absolute shit. They should of course, have used one of the following names instead: a) Puppet Squad, b) Edifice, c) Apocalypse Yo!, d) Attack of the Omen Five, e) Grinning Despair, f) Your Dreams Lie Crushed Beneath Us, g) The Petri-dish Kids. "I Dare You" another classic. Some daredevil jerk-off attempting a bungee jump towards the swirling blades of a helicopter hovering beneath him. To impress his Vietnam-vet father if i recall. Disappointingly, come the jump itself, he didn't lose so much as a fingertip. Still, watching him dangle above the churning rotor prompts an intriguing question; if the stunt went wrong, what kind of exotic, disjointed thoughts would have pulsed through Super Joe's fevered consciousness at the precise moment the top of his head was lopped off and his brain got sliced into a tumbling flock of slippery grey mind-steaks? I have no idea. And yeah, i definitely project; all over the screen when patriots get all hot under the collar.
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Watching a boy from behind a hedge with a pair of binoculars clamped to your face my little apple plucker, one-handed, naturally, does not make him your son. Just as the plastic offspring, brought to life by a foot pump, is a only a naughty toy for use behind pulled curtains.And to think i answered your online adoption ad in all good faith...

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we had a couple of notable earthquakes here in Oakland the other day, not so much because they were huge (they were about 4) but because they were on the Hayward fault rather than the San Andreas, and hence almost literally in the back yard, like a couple miles from my house, the Henry J, etc. To give you an idea, the Greek would be sort of the apex of a triangle between the two of them. From the standpoint of the Hayward letting off steam without doing any damage, this is great. From the standpoint of drama, it was considerable. None of this gentle swaying, just BOOM! Something between an elevator drop and a truck hitting the building. If we'd been at the Greek it would have been quite exciting...
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And good luck with that! I don't talk eartquake to people who live in the prone areas (considering we just had an East Coast quake, what is prone?). It's just one more thing for the actuaries to figure in to insurance policies. Except for those brief few moments of pure adrenaline that hopefully never turn into anything more. It strikes me now that there must be some AWEsome haiku in an earthquake!
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yikes, even those small quakes are scary.Of all the possible hazards in my travels it is quakes that worry me most. I am glad to hear that no harm was done. Also amused to find that you navigate by concert venues :-)
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so navigating by concert venues is not that unreasonable... Normally we're fairly blase about these things, but normally we get the gentle rolling kind. These were a bit more percussive. Also in, as I say, the back yard.
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If you felt a ultrasonic BOOM at the Greek, Mary, it would be no fault line but Phil's bass! caressing our innards in a way only he knew how. Well, that and Mickey's napalm beam!You guys certainly luckier than those people in Turkey. I saw on the news this morning, they have found a young boy still alive. I've experienced many a small earthquake in Japan and it's still one of the eeriest sensations; no warning, no certainty that it's just a passing ripple. just uncertainty until the minutes pass. all the while checking the news to see if it was the same for everyone and not a just milder pulse from part of a mutha destroying somewhere farther away. Even more unnerving since March.
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Tony Blair. Sycophant. Liar. War Criminal. Mass Murderer. Godfather to Rupert Murdoch's daughter. Now employed by Kazakhstan to improve their standing in the West where he stands make around £12 million. If anyone in the Dead organisation is contacted by Blair, tell him NO. Make like the invisible man is at the door and tell him you can't see him. Interestingly, Murdoch's daughter was baptised in the River Jordan. The ceremony was also attended by vacuous idiots Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackoff and some Trump creature and charmingly covered by Hello magazine. Apparently, they had to clear the area of landmines. No wonder Jesus walked on water. "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." - Oscar Wilde.