david
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Post by david on Jan 12, 2007 16:03:53 GMT -4
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Post by nomuse on Jan 12, 2007 20:24:33 GMT -4
Look....not to be political (trying not to), but reading the Wall Street Journey reveals enough of what the US is doing around the world, and at home, to make you sick to your stomach. There is a reason there is huge voter apathy in the US (although they roused themselves enough last election to massively kick out the party that had been in charge.)
I believe that running out after rumors is liable to make you less interested in what is happening openly right in front of our eyes. Instead of wondering if there is torture being taught to foreign dictatorships, we should be out in the streets protesting the very real incarcerations at "Gitmo," the wrist-slap over Abu Graib, the open admission of Secret CIA Prison Camps -- a phrase which should not be possible in the English language, much less USED by an administration spokesperson.
Torture is a horrific reality of far too much of the world and far too much history. And it will continue to occur every time there is a power imbalance and too little supervision; by governments who have learned they can get away with it forever (China), to servicemen of that Army I once served in, who are getting a wee bit too much of the "Oh, such things happen" from their chain of command.
You want to make a difference, turn off the youtube video feed and spend that time making out a check to Amnesty International.
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
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Post by Al Johnston on Jan 13, 2007 7:31:02 GMT -4
Amnesty are also happy to accept regular donations by direct debit - easy enough to set up.
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david
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Post by david on Jan 13, 2007 10:09:02 GMT -4
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Post by echnaton on Jan 13, 2007 13:13:20 GMT -4
This is also why foreign newspapers aren't sold inthe US--if people start reading the foreign press, they'll find out about American imperialism.
Who ever told you this didn't look very hard. I can get several foreign papers here in Houston. I can can get at least one (The Financial Times) delivered. Most papers for sale are British or Mexican, because of the languages spoken here but other languages can be found. Papers in a variety of other languages are in local libraries. The Economist is widely available as are other weekly periodicals, including foreign language publications. I used to read the Economist regularly and still do occasionally. I am sure that Chinese and Japanese papers are available in many of California's cities. I stick to English magazines because my German isn't good enough. Language is a barrier that prevents many Americans from reading non English publications.
This is not to say that the availability is as good as in Europe of American newspapers. But then again the demand is not as great, nevertheless they are available if you go to a proper news stand.
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david
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Post by david on Jan 14, 2007 7:21:36 GMT -4
I've never been to Houston. I lived in Los Angeles for three years and Miami for one and a half years. This was back in the 80's I never saw anything from any other country. The last time I was in the states was in 95. I visited my sister in Baltimore. I saw nothing from abroad. I read the Ecconomist from time to time. It never has any articles from leftist pundits such as these people. www.rebelion.org/petrasenglish.htmwww.chomsky.info/www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=72www.michaelparenti.org/articles.htmlwww.nologo.org/www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/William_Blum.htmlI didn't know any writings like this existed in the world until I moved to Mexico City in 85. Maybe things are different now that internet has given Americans access to better, more objective information; they can't pretend that this stuff doesn't exist anymore. Tell me, can books by the above people be found in places like "Walden Books" now? I'm an American but I've been gone so long that I'm out of touch with what's happening now. Also, can any articles by the above people be found in any newspapers you've read? Here in Madrid they started to publish Newsweek in Spanish about ten years ago. It was a total flop. Nobody wanted to read it as it was clearly propaganda. There was another English language newspaper here called "The European". It was owned by Rupert Murdoch. It didn't last very long either as it only had the American mainstream point of view. Here where people understand the world nobody reads stuff like that. When I use American newspaper articles as teaching material in the English classes I give here the students make jokes about what the articles say. It's not just that they have access to other newspapers. They travel to Central and South America and Central and South Americans travel here. Everbody here is aware of how the US government exploits Latin America. These two articles summarize it nicely. www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.htmlwww.michaelparenti.org/Imperialism101.htmlI'd like to hear your opinion on these two articles.
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Post by gillianren on Jan 14, 2007 9:20:09 GMT -4
You lived in Los Angeles and never saw a Mexican newspaper? How bizarre. And you do realize that Noam Chomsky's books can be found everywhere, right?
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david
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Post by david on Jan 14, 2007 11:01:20 GMT -4
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Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 14, 2007 18:19:37 GMT -4
You need to be careful with quoting Chomsky, you do know that he believes that 19 Arabs armed with knives took over four jets and crashed three of them into buildings on 9/11, don't you.
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Jason
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Post by Jason on Jan 15, 2007 0:27:50 GMT -4
Apparently David can't make any posts without including at least five links to anti-US propoganda sites.
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david
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Post by david on Jan 22, 2007 13:03:16 GMT -4
I responded to this a week ago but the post didn't appear so I'm trying again. The other post may appear too.
If you think those are propaganda sites, you should go live abroad for a few years. The stuff described in those articles is basic knowledge outside of the US. I call them reality sites.
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Jason
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Post by Jason on Jan 22, 2007 13:13:52 GMT -4
I have lived abroad. They're still propoganda sites.
Much of what the average man on the street in Europe would call "basic knowledge" about the US is wildly inaccuarate, as it's generally based on Hollywood media and sensationalist news sources. I met people in Holland, for example, who believed you couldn't drink water out of the tap in the US and that the leading cause of death in the US was gun violence.
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Jason
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Post by Jason on Jan 22, 2007 13:24:33 GMT -4
On the flip side, you're average American on the street is just as ill-informed about how things really are in Europe.
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david
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Post by david on Jan 22, 2007 14:12:19 GMT -4
That's not true. People in Holland are pretty plugged in to what's happening in Latin America and they are very anti-US government. They are not anti-American people though as they understand that Americans are misinformed people with good intentions. This site summarizes what most non-Americans know and what most Americans don't know. www.thirdworldtraveler.com/What you said about Dutch people is not true so I suppose you are one of the people described in this site. www.opposingdigits.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1222
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Jason
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Post by Jason on Jan 22, 2007 14:42:58 GMT -4
You're painting with a pretty wide brush there. There's more than 16 million people living in the Netherlands. Surely you can't summarize the opinion of all of them with a simple statement like "they're anti-US government but not anti-US people."
What I know about the Dutch people (who in general I quite like, by the way) I know from personal experience, not internet sites.
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