Other - Politics & Government - June 2007

2007-06-17 12:08:25 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

Should Britain have closer ties with the EU and share laws (even though the cultures differ greatly and thus each individual nation has different interests), or with English-speaking countries, such as the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. I'm starting to think that the latter would better fit Britain's needs. What do you think and why?

[[ Don't have a go at me if you do not share my beliefs. I want to have an intelligent discussion about this. Thanks ]]

2007-06-17 11:48:21 · 10 answers · asked by NONAME 3

Can we admit the reason why people were so pissed about Don Imus being fired is that he degraded black women and 2 black leaders were the ones calling for his firing?

I've never seen so much "support" for a liberal from cons in my life.

Had Mike Huckabee and Bill O'Reilly been the ones calling for a black Imus firing, would anyone have been up in arms about it at all?

Are we really going to continue to pretend it was a freedom of speech thing?

2007-06-17 11:35:12 · 20 answers · asked by Josh 4

2007-06-17 11:07:57 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous

What are the names of real newspapers and magazines in Britain?

2007-06-17 10:57:16 · 17 answers · asked by quarterback 2

I mean putting aside the fact she's a middle aged women trying to look like she is 20yrs old (what is she 55?).....she stives for publicity by saying things that are beyond cruel against members of this country who suffered greatly. Namely the 9/11 widows.

2007-06-17 10:30:08 · 33 answers · asked by Anonymous

http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnMeCfdEGnLoaE7Ar3NH7tupcRV.?qid=20070617114226AAGpFkm

Since I won't let Peace Keeper get away with his Iranian apologetics, he's blocked me...
Just interested in what tripe he's posting today.....

2007-06-17 10:14:12 · 5 answers · asked by Cookies Anyone? 5

2007-06-17 09:59:08 · 9 answers · asked by cynthia nnnnnnnnnnnn 2

2007-06-17 09:58:12 · 4 answers · asked by urna 1

My County has been hit with a billionaire who is ruining our entire County. Even the highest in Political offices visit him, right here. How may I start a blog that will be truly informational about what I know is happening to a County that is being bought, parcel by parcel........and losing itself in the process?

2007-06-17 08:37:59 · 4 answers · asked by laurel g 6

Why do so many liberals get on here to bash Fox news? Ever since the Vietnam era, the three major networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) have absolutely towed the liberal political line. Then a network comes along and gives a conservative perspective, and the liberals go bonkers! Were they so indoctrinated by 40 years of constant liberal media blitz that they cannot deal with an alternative? I mean it is only one of four? (Or five if you count CNN.) These people act like Fox news is the coming of the anti-christ? Why?

2007-06-17 08:18:11 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-06-17 08:14:49 · 9 answers · asked by Tori 2

Houses in a given town/city etc. I know how to find out populations but I'm looking to sepcifically find out how many houses/dwellings there are. IT's UK specific please

Thanks guys

2007-06-17 08:07:56 · 3 answers · asked by s g 2

If your answer is "Yes" read this:
I believe that if you spend 10 minutes reading this essay, you will be better informed than if you listen to a lifetime's worth of Major Media news. This article has two parts:
1. Cultural and general info
2. Political info.
Note: I've explained everything.Any answers before reading the whole thing will prove to be wrong.Specially the political part.I've provided evidence for whatever I say.It's just the way it is.
****
Part 1: Cultural and general info
Hi. I'm a 19 year old Iranian who has spent his life in Iran.I study English.When I chat with people from other countries, I am shocked to see how totally wrong their ideas are about Iran. I wrote this article in an attempt to help correct those ideas.
The first thing the West accuses our government of is that we don't allow personal freedoms. Actually, Iranians disobey laws they don't like as much as anyone.There are only a few restrictions.It's cool over here. People here do whatever they wish to! Many strict rules in other countries don't even exist in Iran. Also, you should understand that what may seem so normal to you, may be a nightmare for us and vise versa.Some of Iran's laws are based on OUR culture. You look at our country from "your own point of view"! In Iran most houses have a sattelite dish. Sattelite television has a serious influence on our people, and Iranians wear very fashionable clothing. Maybe it is a kind of imitation, but we still have our own unique Iranian style. A visitor might wonder if this is a country or a fantasy pageant of beauty queens! Make-up and fashionable clothing are everywhere.I ignore a few fuddy-duddies though!

In my view, everything is great, if you ignore unemployment, drugs, inflation and air pollution. Also, you can't compare Iran today with the Iran you remember. The Shah and the Iatollah Khomini are both some 30 years in the past! 70% of Iran's population is a new generation (Under age 30) without the biases of the past and we've transformed everything.
Ever heard Iranian girls are terrific?I've collected some photos showing Iranian girls! Look! Poeple are like this!
http://www.salijoon.ir/bazigar/hedye%20tehrani/30nema4251159.JPG
http://www.30nema.com/images/gallery/30nema4252403.jpg
http://i10.tinypic.com/4clk3us.jpg
http://tinypic.com/2d0nfao.jpg Is that enough?!
Some people think women don't have any rights in Iran. But in my view, women are overrunning the place. They're very respectful, and they've been the winners in so many cases: Most of them get into the best universities because they're very smart. And they get the best jobs because of their high university degrees. They've got Islamic rights, and that has in some cases made it difficult for men to marry them, because husbands are supposed to buy them expensive things and treat them very well, otherwise women have the right to ask a great amount of money (called Mehr) according to the law, which most husbands cannot afford, so men will be imprisoned.The only thing that women are not allowed to do in Iran is getting into public football stadiums and that's because such places are full of cheeky guys. They do anything from taking part in rallies to singing pop songs.Anything! I've put a sample here.
Another funny thing: Your footage about stoning the women who have committed adultery. Have you ever asked yourselves how many years ago that footage related to? But in one case the thing that had happened was incest not adultery. Most of those footages relate to the early days just after Iran's revolution! Otherwise you'd get new footages at least once a month!What exactly makes you think women are treated differently?The way they are treated in Saudi Arabia? Try to think of the racism in your country too.I found a BOOK of the U.S problems and it got me dizzy! Iran has its own problems too. Each country has its own problems.
Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan are --------- SEPERATE COUNTRIES! --------- Even within Iran, 60% of us are Persian and 30% are Turkish! Iran is a normal country like any other in the world. The Media are very good at creating really scary stuff: "IRAN BEHIND THE CLOSED DOORS!!!" "IRAN UNDERCOVER!!!" Some of that garbage would be enough to scare ME away! But in truth, Iranians are far more open-minded than you have been led to believe.
There are lots of Iranians today who are geniuses and scientists, and are all under age 25. For instance a 17 year old boy has invented 72 amazing inventions. Every year a special scientific compeition is held here and students assemble to show off hundreds of inventions. Iranian students and sportsmen win gold and silver medals in different competitions in the world all the time, in robotics, biology, maths, physics, sports, anything! Why don't the Media talk about them? Please don't summarize our nation and culture with the single word "nuclear". Although we're proud of this achievement because we believe that having nuclear energy means that a country is developed.


A few months ago Iran uncovered the most effective anti-H.I.V medicine. I searched for news of that on the internet, but there was no single sign of it.Now, I found it among the English news: "The medicine is produced from herbs using nano technology" The link to read about it is: http://www.payvand.com/news/07/feb/1032.html
The Media are unjust. They never talk about facts!
Some interesting facts:
Iran is a pioneer in medicine and genetics, and Iranian surgeons have found lots of new methods for treating spinal defects, and many diseases (mainly the treatment for different types of cancer) and the best brain and heart surgeons are Iranian.The pioneer in heart transplants and artificiall hearts, "artificial vessels" using nano-technology (Reported yesterday) and so on and so! (I've put two websites below) The head of the Mars Mission in NASA is Iranian. One of the best designers of sports cars working in Germany is Iranian. Some of the best 3D animators are Iranian. Iran is one of the best countries in counter-engineering. Holds the second place in building dams and in loads of other things! It's one of the top countries in bio-technology and nano-technology. The 4th highest tower in the world (Milad tower) is in Tehran (visit it at this link from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Milad.jpg ). 51 of the top 100 universities in the Mid-East are in Iran, and they're among the top universities of the world as well. The champion weight-lifter, a woman the nobel peace prize are Iranian. The 6th top movie director in the world is Iranian.(Abbas Kiarostami) http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1084266,00.html
These are just small samples.If the media told you about Iran's achievemens everyday and didn't hide them, your news would be full of Iranian news!Iranian girls are famous for being terrific. We have Persian rugs and Persian literature, many Persian poets, artists and scientists that are world famous. Iranian culture is now westernized and only a little of the ancient culture has survived. According to statistics Tehran is the cheapest capital city in the world (one Dollar =about 950 Tomans) There are many other things. How many pages would you need to describe a country? Iran has nearly all the industries and technologies found in 'developed' countries. Oh, and we have four seasons! We get a lot of snow and there are skating rinks! lol The list is endless.

I'm gonna introduce Iran's international news website to you (Press TV) which was established recently. It's fully in English. In the "Sic / Tech" section you'll always see Iran's discoveries. The address is: http://www.presstv.ir/news.aspx Press TV news: Iranian scientists have registered more than 4800 inventions during the last Iranian calendar year of 1385 (April 21 2006-April 20, 2007). 4800 inventions in just one year!
The list of highly-respected Iranian scientists and engineers in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Iranian_scientists_and_engineers#T
The list of notable Iranian figures and pioneers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_Medicine_in_Iran
An extract: Iranian medical community is a significant part of medical community in US and Europe
Enough evidence?

Some people think Iran is a desert! Well, it is, if you consider California a desert. We share the same latitude. Iran is a modern country with breathtakingly beautiful nature and lots of historic places to visit. Please take a look at the following links to see if Iran looks like what you think or not! This is a photo of Tehran (Awesome, Isn't it?): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Tehran-2-1600.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran

If you like you can visit these too, hundreds of pretty photos from the cities, nature and historic places:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hills_south_west_of_Sanandaj_near_the_village_of_Kilaneh.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/k_amj/throughout_iran&page=all
http://www.pbase.com/k_amj/throughout_iran&page=2
http://www.pbase.com/k_amj/throughout_iran&page=3
http://www.bigsoccer.com:80/forum/showthread.php?t=199709&page=4
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199709&page=3
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199709&page=13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran

Some people think music is forbidden in Iran. "Music of Iran and Iranian musicians have received countless awards in the course of history. Every year from 1977 to 2007.Evidence? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Iran
I send Iranian music to my American and Canadian chat friends and they all say they're some of the best songs they've ever heard.
Here's a sample of the latest hits from two official Iranian music websites.You can just right click on the links below and choose "Save Target As" to download them. Iranian music is just modern pop which is based on electronic stuff.Experience how awsome music can be produced by electronic Trance drums instead of DJ music!
1.(The window: 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/03_%20Panjereh.mp3
2.(Keep me in your memory: 2005) http://www.sarzamin.org/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/07_%20Yaade%20Man%20Baash.mp3
3.(I just want you: 2003) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Mansour/Crazy/Delam%20Faghat%20Toro%20Mikhaad(www.Bia2Music.com).MP3
4.(You know this: 2007) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Top33/128/Neorin%20-%20To%20Ino%20Miduni.mp3
5.(Hold my hand: 2007) http://www.sarzaminmp3.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mansour%20-%20Beautiful/09_%20Dastamo%20Begir.mp3
6.(The wetness of your eyes: 2006) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Top33/128/Ehsan%20Gheibi%20-%20Khisie%20Cheshmat.mp3
7.(The rain: 2007) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/Sunset%20to%20Sunrise/64/Siavash%20Ghomayshi%20-%20Sunset%20to%20Sunrise%20-%2005%20Baroon%20(www.Bia2Music.com).wma
8.(Farangis "A female name" 2007) http://download.bia2music.com/Music/Irani/Siavash%20Ghomayshi/Sunset%20to%20Sunrise/64/Siavash%20Ghomayshi%20-%20Sunset%20to%20Sunrise%20-%2001%20Farangis%20(www.Bia2Music.com).wma
9.(The distance: 2007) http://www.sarzaminsong.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi%20-%20Sunset%20to%20Sunrise/03_%20Faseleh.mp3
10.(Sunrise: 2007) http://www.sarzaminsong.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Siavash%20Ghomayshi%20-%20Sunset%20to%20Sunrise/04_%20Tolou.mp3
11.(Stop world:2006) http://www.sarzaminmusic.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Reza%20Sadeghi%20-%20Vaysa%20Donya/01_%20Vaysa%20Donya.mp3
12.(You can't: 2007) http://www.sarzaminmp3.com/Sarzaminmusic/Persian/128KB/Mansour%20-%20Beautiful/06_%20Nemitooni.mp3

And so on and on!
It's now 2007 and most people still think we are uneducated people living in deserts and riding camels!

Part 2: Political info.
Let's clarify some political issues as well: Some of the Americans think that president Ahmadinejad hates the U.S and Israel and wants to nuke them!! The Media are good at putting lying comments out there. I really don't get the point why our politicians defame themselves by talking about things that have got nothing to do with us. The thing is that they occasionally make some statements that the media would make them controversial topics to interest its viewers! For example they pick up some specific phrases of a long speech (without refering to the main points and reasons for that speech) and put so many bad comments on that.
First of all, Iranians don't hate anyone.We hate neither Jews nor Americans. How would our guys dream of America, want to be like them as much as possible, and hate them at the same time?! The truth us that Iranians are the only people in the Mid-East that are pro-American! Being agaisnt the U.S policies is a different story! We live basically the same lives.Don't look at the way women dress in public places! You've got to see them in other places!I've got to say that for Iran, Israel is not equal with Jews! Israel is a gov't. Jews are faithful people! 20,000 Jews and lots of Christians live here equally with Iranians and two of Iran's parliment members are Jews. Who says we want to force others to convert to Islam? Have you ever found a Moslem knocking at your door asking you to do so?
Christians and Jews are both God-believers and respectful to us.

I wonder who Iran is really a threat to. Is it logical to say someone's guilty because we THINK / PREDICT that he's going to do something wrong? And they repeat the same "nuclear weapons" tosh over and over and brainwash people! Correction! It's "nuclear energy". Besides, how many "nuclear weapons" do they have themselves? Hundreds of thousands? Has Iran ever attacked any countries? No. Has it developed any nukes? No! That's what nuclear agency says. Only Iran's opponents are pulling Iran's leg and what they say is just based on political conflicts. What we're doing is legal. Iran is a peaceful country. Why? It's the regional super-power and if she wanted, she could easily invade the countries in our neibourhood just like what Saddam did to our country, but as you see Iran has peaceful relations with all of them.

Some people say he said: Israel should be wiped off the map! the thing is that he exactly said: "The Imam "Khomeyni" said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time."They've only told you this phrase not the whole thing and it's mistranslated intentionally. Besides, they've been saying such things for a long time.It's their habit.Here's an article."Wiped off the map....The roumor of the century.Read how the media and the U.S newspapers have twisted it into a controvertioal topic. http://www.antiwar.com/orig/norouzi.php?articleid=11025 Now you see that you were wrong.Iran has always defended itself, but it's not an offensive country.

Some say he's said: "The Holocaust is a myth!" Again, this is a single phrase taken from a long speech and there are totally logical reasons for saying so. If 6,000,000 Jews were killed, that's terrible, but 300,000 Shiite Moslems killed by Saddam aren't important at all? Over 650,000 Iraqi people are killed and that's not important?! When Fox News simply says that America and Israel are capable of destroying and killing Iran's population of 69,000,000 within two weeks, it's OK and no one says they're threatening other countries to nuke them (I saw this with my own eyes on the Fox News website) Millions of people killed in Afghanistan, Hiroshima & Nagasaki and the Vietnam war are not considered human beings at all! Now I think you'd get the point why he's IRONICALLY said it's a myth. Moreover, don't you believe in freedom of speech/mind? Well, if you'd like to blame someone for that, hope in a time-machine and sue Hitler! lol

Some countries are using Iran as a scapegoat to put the blame (for their own faults) on.
This part is just for Americans:
Those of you who say why Iran says "Death to America":
1. 'America' to us means the U.S govt, not the people. How do you expect Iranians to mean "American people" when our media admires Americans for marching and holding up "no war" placards?! Also, I see a lot of "Let's nuke Iran"s on YA.Isn't that a kind of "Death to Iran"?
2. The new generation don't say such things and if some of them occasionally march in the streets that's because some of the stupid guys enjoy making noise and they mainly go out there to meet their girlfriends/boyfriends! Strange. Isn't it?
3. Such mottos are not just said in Iran and as you know whatever you hear is a response to the U.S govt's terrible actions which has made life for many people hell (You wouldn't deny that attacking countries is a mistake. Would you?)
4. U.S. companies assistance in developing Iraq's chemical weapons facilities during the Iran-Iraq war which killed over a million Iranians
5. USS Vincennes shooting down Iran Air Flight 655 with many civilian fatalities
6.U.S. Support for anti-Iranian terrorist organisations (i.e. the MKO);
7. Economic damage caused by U.S. sanctions and political pressure; U.S. UAV overflights over Iran violating Iranian airspace since 2003.

When you call Ahmadinejad a nutcase for what he's said, what do you call Bush for his war crimes?
To those who are upset with American hostages taken for 444 days:
1. Firstly, It's related to so many years ago and it's almost a part of history, and don't forget that when there's a revolution, there'd be chaos and people may do things that they should not, moreover they're all alive and healthy. Aren't they?
2.The U.S has arrested Iranian diplomats in Iraq and had tortured the one who was freed. Now you decide who has the right to be upset with whom. How do you believe in their lies about politics when they hide both the most and the least important things from you considering the fact that politics is the world of lies in its nature?!!!

If you like to insist on your theory of attacking Israel, I'll tell you our logical theory: "The moment that Iran attacks Israel, Iran will be wiped off the face of the earth by the U.S and its allies and Iran is far more logical than doing such a stupid thing" So, forget about it.I'm quite sure you know that all the events and lies in the world are a part of a pre-planned scenario by major world-powers (Iran as an important country has always been a part of their plans)And the first step is to brainwash people.They excactly know what will happen even 50 years later! I think Iraq is such a good example.Attacking it with the excuse of removing Saddam while they'd put Saddam there themselves and had supported him for years! They said they had W.M.Ds and you believed them.Now they say Iran (a member of N.P.T) has nukes / is developing nukes and you believe them wilhe the nuclear agency hasn't found any sign of illegal activities.Time to wake up!
Isn't it better for both countries to forget past conflicts and to have peaceful relations? Our two gov'ts are like 10 year old children playing a stupid, harsh, rhetorical game. They don't care about hurting people's feelings. They just try to make our two peoples enemies to achieve their own goals. We, as the people of these countries, MUST NOT allow these conflics into our hearts. Now, what do you think? I can't wait to see both nations in peace. It'd be marvelous!
Did you find my article informative? : )
Thanks for your time

2007-06-17 07:42:26 · 11 answers · asked by Peace-seeker 2

2007-06-17 05:32:28 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-06-17 05:24:16 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

Besides global warming.

2007-06-17 04:28:08 · 9 answers · asked by jake 1

Janet Reno is a good example. She fried a few dozen Davidians, "accepted full responsibility" but then served out the full eight if I recall correctly. There are countless other examples leftys so try to stay out of the moveon.org playbook on this one.

2007-06-17 03:10:08 · 4 answers · asked by RP McMurphy 4

What would you do to amuse yourselves if Yahoo Answers was deleted from the site? Would you go out in public spouting the nonsense that is spewed in here and risk having you lights punched out? Would you actually do something that may benefit society? Would you help a neighbor without first finding out whether they are conservative or liberal? Would you have the balls to even venture out of cyberspace and have a face to face conversation with another living soul?

2007-06-17 02:21:07 · 4 answers · asked by pecker_head_bill 4

Ideally, ALL the small parties would join together and put all their policy items in terms of promises to conduct referenda.

This means that EVERY fringe party who can in principle support Direct Democracy (as originally practiced by the Ancient Athenians) would put their manifestoes together, promise to allow the citizen to vote on whether to withdraw from the EU, bring back the death penalty, have lower taxes, withdraw from Iraq etc etc. They would NOT be compromising their principles if they agreed to let the voters to decide on their more controversial policies or by joining together to defeat the Lib-Lab-Con!

This proposed party would just be the "one-stop shop" where ALL policies offered by ALL parties would be on offer to the electorate.

Isn't this the only way to defeat the mainstream parties who are all saying the same thing (about taxes, education, the war in Iraq) and not giving the citizen any choice at all?

http://www.1party4all.co.uk

demonstrates this!

2007-06-17 02:03:39 · 10 answers · asked by Andromeda 3

2007-06-17 01:32:50 · 7 answers · asked by federalistcapers 2

i hear cuba is looking for a few good socialists..perhaps all you democrats could form your own country...you can have rhode island.

2007-06-17 01:29:07 · 16 answers · asked by federalistcapers 2

In-depth responses appreciated.

2007-06-16 23:59:20 · 4 answers · asked by crossfirelover1 2

Bush increases Federal Education funding 60%
Clinton increases Federal Education funding 29%

Bush increases Pell Grant funding 56%
Clinton increases Pell Grant funding 35%

1993 federal education budget - 32.4 billion
2001 federal education budget - 42 billion
2007 federal education budget - 67.3 billion

1993 federal pell grant budget - 6.4 billion
2001 federal pell grant budget - 8.7 billion
2007 federal pell grant budget - 13.6 billion

The last time we had a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress .

Federal Education Funding was CUT 16%
from 32 billion in 1993 to 27 billion in 1994.

So why do people keep repeating the myth that democrats increase education funing and republicans cut it ?

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/history/edhistory.pdf

2007-06-16 23:01:22 · 5 answers · asked by jeeper_peeper321 7

2007-06-16 22:36:20 · 13 answers · asked by ninjaadam 2

2007-06-16 22:10:46 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

Why the state goes to war is not a mystery – at least the general reasons are not mysterious. War is an excuse for spending money on its friends. It can punish enemies that are not going with the program. It intimidates other states tempted to go their own way. It can pave the way for commercial interests linked to the state. The regime that makes and wins a war gets written up in the history books. So the reasons are the same now as in the ancient world: power, money, glory.
Why the bourgeoisie back war is another matter. It is self-evidently not in their interest. The government gains power at their expense. It spends their money and runs up debt that is paid out of taxes and inflation. It fosters the creation of permanent enemies abroad who then work to diminish our security at home. It leads to the violation of privacy and civil liberty.
War is incompatible with a government that leaves people alone to develop their lives in an atmosphere of freedom.
Nonetheless, war with moral themes – we are the good guys working for God and they are the bad guys doing the devil's work – tends to attract a massive amount of middle class support. People believe the lies, and, once exposed, they defend the right of the state to lie. People who are otherwise outraged by murder find themselves celebrating the same on a mass industrial scale. People who harbor no hatred toward foreigners find themselves attaching ghastly monikers to whole classes of foreign peoples. Regular middle class people, who otherwise struggle to eke out a flourishing life in this vale of tears, feel hatred well up within them and confuse it for honor, bravery, courage, and valor.
Why? Nationalism is one answer. To be at war is to feel at one with something much larger than oneself, to be a part of a grand historical project. They have absorbed the civic religion from childhood – Boston tea, cherry trees, log cabins, Chevrolet – but it mostly has no living presence in their minds until the state pushes the war button, and then all the nationalist emotions well up within them.
Nationalism is usually associated with attachment to a particular set of state managers that you think can somehow lead the country in a particular direction of which you approve. So the nationalism of the Iraq war was mostly a Republican Party phenomenon. All Democrats are suspected as being insufficiently loyal, of feeling sympathy for The Enemy, or defending such ideas as civil liberty at a time when the nation needs unity more than ever.
You could tell a Republican nationalist during this last war because the words peace and liberty were always said with a sneer, as if they didn't matter at all. Even the Constitution came in for a pounding from these people. Bush did all he could to consolidate decision-making power unto himself, and even strongly suggested that he was acting on God's orders as Commander in Chief, and his religious constitutionalist supporters went right along with it. They were willing to break as many eggs as necessary to make the war omelet. I've got an archive of a thousand hate mails to prove it.
But nationalism is not the only basis for bourgeois support for war. Long-time war correspondent Chris Hedges, in his great book War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (First Anchor, 2003) argues that war operates as a kind of canvas on which every member of the middle and working class can paint his or her own picture. Whatever personal frustrations exist in your life, however powerless you feel, war works as a kind of narcotic. It provides a means for people to feel temporarily powerful and important, as if they are part of some big episode in history. War then becomes for people a kind of lurching attempt to taste immortality. War gives their lives meaning.
War is the devil's sacrament. It promises to bind us not with God but with the nation state. It grants not life but death. It provides not liberty but slavery. It lives not on truth but on lies, and these lies are themselves said to be worthy of defense. It exalts evil and puts down the good. It is promiscuous in encouraging an orgy of sin, not self-restraint and thought. It is irrational and bloody and vicious and appalling. And it claims to be the highest achievement of man.
It is worse than mass insanity. It is mass wallowing in evil.
And then it is over. People oddly forget what took place. The rose wilts and the thorns grow but people go on with their lives. War no longer inspires. War news becomes uninteresting. All those arguments with friends and family – what were they about anyway? All that killing and expense and death – let's just avert our eyes from it all. Maybe in a few years, once the war is out of the news forever and the country we smashed recovers some modicum of civilization, we can revisit the event and proclaim it glorious. But for now, let's just say it never happened.
That seems to be just about where people stand these days with the Iraq War. Iraq is a mess, hundreds of thousands are killed and maimed, billions of dollars are missing, the debt is astronomical, and the world seethes in hatred toward the conquering empire. And what does the warmongering middle class have to say for itself? Pretty much what you might expect: nothing.
People have long accused the great liberal tradition of a dogmatic attachment to peace. It would appear that this is precisely what is necessary in order to preserve the freedom necessary for all of us to find true meaning in our lives.
Do we reject war and all its works? We do reject them.
-------
Lew Rockwell
Mises.com

2007-06-16 16:42:16 · 6 answers · asked by MIkE ALEGRIA 1

Or is "face" more important than people being killed?

2007-06-16 16:02:18 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-06-16 14:34:29 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous

Reagan wanted regulations eliminated but the Republicans we have now have regulated us to death, To me we are over burdened with regulations and operating a small business is getting worse. Life use to be much simpler and you could concentrate on your customers but now you spend 3/4 of your time complying with regulations and now the penalties are much worse also. maybe we are becoming a totalitarian society with cameras at ever corner.

2007-06-16 14:05:19 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous