2011-09-12, 08:49 | Link #16481 | ||
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Also... frankly, the American public was *beaten to death* with the articles, news, documentaries, and "omg, we can fill the 24/7 with this instead of what is going on NOW" for the last two weeks. Probably most of us Americans came here to escape the blanketing. The only thing I found personally useful was our public broadcast radio has an ongoing feature called Storycorp where people can tell their individual stories. The focus on Sunday was on survivors and relatives telling individual stories of people on that day at the WTC. The stories were heroic, heartbreaking, admissions of utter dumb luck and the difference of seconds. The hardest for me to deal with was listening to widows describe talking to their loved ones on cell phones til the instant of death. OTOH, they did get to say good bye unlike many. Its why I refuse to dignify terrorists with the word "warrior" ... they're criminals, psychopaths, and cruelly manipulative of their own as well as their targets. We should have stuck to treating them like the banal thugs they are rather than pumping their ego with a stupid "war on...." Quote:
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2011-09-12, 09:13 | Link #16483 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 38
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This actually happened to one of my mom's friends. He was supposed to be on the flight that crashed into the second tower, but he just had a bad feeling about it and decided not to get on the flight a couple hours (or the previous night) before it took off. He still has the ticket.
We made a lot of money on the first one before entering the war. We spent a lot of money on the second one after "ending" the war. |
2011-09-12, 09:38 | Link #16484 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Org HQ
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A guy at an anime blog I read makes a great point in his 9/11 post about how history teaches us that militant Muslims have always hated America, even when we'd just gained our independence. I had no idea it went back that far until I read the facts he laid out.
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2011-09-12, 10:14 | Link #16485 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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Greek default jitters hammer French banks, euro
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...78B24R20110912
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2011-09-12, 10:16 | Link #16486 | |
廉頗
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Massachusetts
Age: 34
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Very intense media coverage; think most get their fill from that. |
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2011-09-12, 10:24 | Link #16487 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
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2011-09-12, 11:18 | Link #16488 | |||
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Good points certainly about the widespread coverage on mainstream media. It's something I try to pay attention to whenever I post in this thread — what's the point of bringing attention to headline stories that are already being splashed across papers and screens worldwide? So, for my part, I try to surface the odd story or two from my neck of the woods that would not otherwise appear in other countries. Quote:
Japan quake, six months on: Mother uses digger in search for daughter Sept 11 was, after all, not just an annual anniversary, but also another monthly milestone for a people still putting their lives together. |
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2011-09-12, 11:43 | Link #16489 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 41
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Sectarian clashes in Indonesia leave 5 dead, 150 injured
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2011-09-12, 14:12 | Link #16490 | ||
Aria Company
Join Date: Nov 2003
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2011-09-12, 14:35 | Link #16491 |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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http://news.yahoo.com/convictions-af...133610727.html
The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder convictions and life prison sentences given to an Atlanta vegan couple who were charged with allowing their baby to starve to death. ...... Authorities said the child died of bronchopneumonia due to extreme malnourishment or starvation. Police said his diet consisted only of soy milk and apple juice.
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2011-09-12, 15:00 | Link #16492 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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2011-09-12, 15:03 | Link #16494 | |
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 37
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The Barbary Corsairs would of course be driven by a profit motive. Unlike American slave populations, slave populations in muslim countries did not grow rapidly, because the Quran encourages slaveholders to free their slaves as an act of charity. Which of course ends up driving demand for new slaves. American ships would have been one of many targets. Modern muslim militants have an axe to grind against America due to American support for disliked factions or corrupt regimes. Let's take a look at some of the incidents mentioned: Storming of American embassy in Iran: a response to America allowing the disposed Shah (a corrupt and much hated dictator the US had previously supported) into the US for medical treatment. Beiruit barracks bombing: occurred shortly after the US Navy provided fire support for a faction in the Lebanese Civil War. The commander of the peacekeeping unit that was targeted actually predicted that his unit might be the target of such a reprisal, since it ended the US's image as a neutral party in that war. 9/11 itself is a bit more complicated. Bin Laden mentioned the bombing of Beirut by Israel (an American ally) as a formative moment, however, his big vendetta was against the Saudi government, who he considered massively corrupt. And he also considered breaking American economic supremacy essential to ending corrupt regimes in Saudi Arabia and other muslim countries. I'd probably cite Bin Laden's hatred of the Saudi government as his primary reason for singling out the US, as the conduct of countries like Russia and India (both also hated by muslim militants) towards their muslim populations has been much worse than anything the US has been directly involved in. I mention this not to try and vindicate Islamic militarism, but because I think that understanding its driving forces is essential to preventing its spread. The strategy the US pursued after 9/11 has been a mistake in this regard, as it played directly into the narrative that muslim extremists use to generate hate towards the US. The US's support for certain (often corrupt) governments in the muslim world has often seen as a self interested move - one of Bin Laden's talking points was that the Saudi government was giving America its oil for a pittance compared to its real worth (the math involved was pretty ludicrous, of course). So sending troops into two oil rich countries (Afghanistan is important to several oil pipeline projects) in response to an attack that many muslims see as either the action of a madman or even a false flag operation (Americans are not the only ones who have 9/11 conspiracies, apparently) wasn't good PR by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it played right into the narrative of the world promoted by militant groups. Some of what I've read suggest it wasn't always this way, with many muslims actually having a favourable opinion of America just after World War II - in large part because America was seen as different from the colonialist European powers. It was only later that the associated between America and corrupt regimes started to take route. Tl;DR: The piracy phenomenon was driven by profit, modern day hatred of America among muslims by conditions in muslim countries and perceived American involvement in those conditions. There is no 200+ year hatred towards America among muslims.
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2011-09-12, 15:55 | Link #16495 | |
ARCAM Spriggan agent
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Some news on the attack on the Israeli embassy in Egypt.
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Well Bahrain has condemned the attack since it violates the 1961 Vienna Convention ruyles.
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2011-09-12, 16:42 | Link #16496 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
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If Spain and Italy can survice the speculative wave the Eurozone should be fine. German politicians haven't acted particuarly clever at the start of the crisis when it could have been possible to talk it down. But you can't blame them too much for making mistakes under popular pressure. It's weakness in both the stability pact and the Eurozone's budgetary control and monitoring systems that allowed the previous Greek government to spend beyond its means, the blame for that lies with all the Eurozone members for clinging too much to their own budgetary sovereignty. |
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2011-09-12, 17:26 | Link #16497 | |||
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
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And other members giving up budget sovereignty - I doubt it'll work. The PIIGS and France already rule the ECB, why should they govern better given even more power? |
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2011-09-12, 18:55 | Link #16498 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
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This crisis is caused by unresponsible spending by national governments and uncautious lending by banks, whether they used Euros or DM doesn't matter. |
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2011-09-12, 19:07 | Link #16499 | ||
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
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Who else are Brits going to hate on? The French and Germans? That's a given, but it's as much a "national rivalry" as actual hatred. Besides those countries have not done anything in living memory for Brits to oppose. The United States on the other hand... Quote:
What really finally put the piracy to an end was France's conquest of Algiers, along with the rest of north africa coming under the control of European powers. |
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2011-09-12, 19:23 | Link #16500 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
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I think I disagree about the "have to" part. Germany could have very well decided to let Greece fall. Without the Euro there would be no way for the other countries to transfer papers to the German taxpayer. All Germany has done is delaying the default with taxpayer's money to save foreign banks. Of course there would be damage - but that cannot be avoided anyways. The only thing Germany has done is having increased its own damage. It was a very risky gamble. Too risky in my opinion. |
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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