No, it's really not funny at all

Post #253,261 by jake123 4/24/06 3:01:38 PM Reply	No, it's really not funny at all We're in deep shit here. While it's kind of psychologically useful to perhaps laugh at how badly we've screwed the pooch, sober reflection tells us that we are between a rock and a hard place. To wit: a completely plausible scenario includes the widespread disavowal and revulsion of the theocratic rulers in Tehran by the Iranian populace after the commission of a major war crime against Israel by turning Tel Aviv into radioactive glass by Iran's leadership. One might say, "well, that's OK, after all they're out and discredited now", but I personally suspect that the people who lived in said place of now glowing vitrium would disagree. Further, a large part of the strength of the US dollar is predicated on the idea that the US is the Big Dog of global military power. That is being revealed as not being so true as people thought. This can lead to a downward spiral; the dollar weakens as investors look for other hedges against the wane of US power, reducing the US' ability to buy military, which leads to further weakening of the perception of US power, which leads to lower value for the US buck, which reduces the US' ability to buy military, which leads to... resulting in the US in particular (and North America in general) becoming a much poorer place. This will also lead to a big change in how people will react to the society they're in. I think (though I can't say that I know) that we're in better shape for that change up here in Canada, but I can't imagine what the situation might be like in much of the large cities in the US when people can no longer afford to drive to work and have to stop working at the same time as the price of the basics like food, energy, clothes, shelter, and medicine go through the roof as the dollar devaluates. The current cabal in Washington have stuck it to us proper. The only (rather threadbare) consolation if they've gone over the top on it this time is that most of them will end up being killed by the mob when the mob realises how badly they've mismanaged everything in the name of lining their pockets. --\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca \n [link\|http://consultron.ca\|http://consultron.ca] [link\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] \n Kingston Ontario Canada [link\|news://news.consultron.ca\|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
Post #253,315 by rcareaga 4/24/06 9:01:25 PM 4/25/06 10:33:35 AM Reply	for my part... I thought it was funny and true. Why the Cheney Cabal turned aside repeated feelers from the former Iranian presidency and went out of its way to signal "you're next, camel jockeys" is difficult to fathom unless they wanted a confrontation...? Seems ungrateful on Bush's part given the 1980 collaboration with the infant revolutionary regime in the cause of the mullahs' and the Reaganauts' shared dream to humiliate Carter, but hey—these alliances of convenience are typically discarded when it's, well, [link\|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov-Ribbentrop\|convenient]. I confess, unlike some of our sturdier yeoman contributers, to a certain furtive schadenfreude as I regard the prospect of American exceptionalism beginning its stately spiral down the toilet of history on the way to the common destiny of every single empire, without exception, recorded on the lavatory walls of humanity's sorry written record. No doubt there will be elements of the decline that I'll find personally unpleasant, but the surroundings were pleasant in my youth and in my prime, and I have no immediate hostages to fortune, although I grieve for the future certain collateral descendants will inherit. Balanced against this will be a certain satisfaction that the Bad Guys—and I'm sorry to report to those of you who haven't been following the news that We "R" It (meaning no disrespect to sundry but considerably less dangerous freelance Bad Guys who happen to hate us)—will drink deep from the cup of comuppance, if nowhere near as deep as have sundry indigenous southern neighbors in our shared paradisiacal hemisphere. Oh, and as to Tel Aviv turning into glass at a presto-chango from Tehran? Could happen, I suppose, but if you look at the history of Our Plucky Ally's wars, it's likelier that the Iranian capital would go vitreous first. If not, it would follow shortly thereupon, plus Iran's other urban centers, plus, for good measure, every Arab city of note within Israeli missile range (what's that you say? Tel Aviv was smoked by the Persians and not the Arabs? Who gives a fuck?—a raghead is a raghead. Same reasoning worked for The Greatest Nation on Earth back in the day), and Israel would still likely have a couple of hundred warheads to spare. Any rational head of state would take this into account, unless, of course, its ruling clique believed that this kind of catastrophe would attend the return of a long-prophesied holy personage...but this is the 21st century; no one in a position of authority could possibly...oh dear...oh dear. cordially, [edit: rogue comma] Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist. Edited by rcareaga April 25, 2006, 10:33:35 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #253,339 by jb4 4/25/06 9:51:32 AM Reply	Rand, my man... ...I truly love reading your posts. But I'm not sure that Israel's stockpile would necessarily be the one depleted in retaliation. I rather think that someone would love to see if those things planted in the North Dakota tundra (that is, the things other than sunflowers, Durum wheat, and spuds) still worked.... jb4 "Every Republican who wants to defend Bush on [the expansion of Presidential powers], should be forced to say, 'I wouldn't hesitate to see President Hillary Rodham Clinton have the same authority'." — an unidentified letter writer to Newsweek on the expansion of executive powers under the Bush administration
Post #253,355 by inthane-chan 4/25/06 11:58:49 AM Reply	Dude. I gotta tell ya, the 420 from flyover country is primo! I don't know who would wonder if it works or not... </hijack> On a more serious note, I used to be able to laugh at crap like this all the time. The problem is now, there is too much material... When somebody asks you to trade your freedoms for security, it isn't your* security they're talking about.*
Post #253,356 by jb4 4/25/06 11:59:06 AM Reply	Re: your edit... Must...resist...the...Finn...of...Death.... jb4 "Every Republican who wants to defend Bush on [the expansion of Presidential powers], should be forced to say, 'I wouldn't hesitate to see President Hillary Rodham Clinton have the same authority'." — an unidentified letter writer to Newsweek on the expansion of executive powers under the Bush administration
Post #253,365 by inthane-chan 4/25/06 1:00:51 PM Reply	ICLRPD (new thread) Created as new thread #253364 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=253364\|ICLRPD] When somebody asks you to trade your freedoms for security, it isn't your* security they're talking about.*
Post #253,398 by CRConrad 4/25/06 4:53:34 PM Reply	Yeah, I agree.
Post #253,464 by rcareaga 4/26/06 9:32:49 AM Reply	Alas, both of you are wrong Now reread and tell me why—in another thread, perhaps. pedantically, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.

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