Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Diatribe - This is OUR fault!

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-14-04 11:06 PM
Original message
Diatribe - This is OUR fault!
That’s right, this is America’s fault, plain and simple. The rise of the Bush Administration and the Neo-Conservative agenda is, for the most part, our fault.

Americans, simply put, are arrogant, ignorant, and selfish. We have therefore given rise to those who emulate the true nature and character of America. I have heard this said before in many ways and many times.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." – H.L. Mencken

Now it has truly happened… but not for such simple reasons.

Here’s the one point many who have studied this administration and its incompetence have failed to grasp; (brace yourself)

The Bush Administration is trying to SAVE us.

No, not from terrorists. They’ve proven far to incompetent and unwilling to protect us from terrorists. In fact, they NEED the threat of terrorism looming over us, somewhere, out there, just waiting for us to display a moment of weakness to pounce on us in our living rooms. They need us to feel insecure in order to garner our unquestioning loyalty and support. Without that, they will not be able to save us from our REAL enemy…
ourselves.
How could I say that? Maybe you already know the answer – we love to be comfortable. Comfort is oxygen to Americans and it takes many forms in our culture. Fiscal comfort is an illusion we go to great lengths to maintain. We like to be comfortable and we will do nearly anything to stay that way… even if it means war.

If you’ve ever used a credit card to buy what you cannot afford, you are guilty of seeking comfort.
If you’ve ever bought a car that gets less than 15 miles per gallon of gas – you’re guilty.
Nice secure SUV? – Guilty
Have you ever been in a union? Guilty.
Have you held a public office and received a raise? Guilty.
Big screen TV from Rent-a-Center?
Guilty.
2nd Mortgage?
Guilty.
Bankruptcy?
Guilty.
Shop at Wal-Mart?
Guilty.
Tax credits for your kids?
Guilty.
Attended public school?
Guilty.

Did I just make you mad? Not yet?

Used a tax shelter? Guilty. Sued anyone for ‘pain and suffering’? Guilty. Collected unemployment insurance? Guilty. Welfare? Guilty. Medicaid? Guilty. Laid off employees? Guilty.
Think I’m just being silly? Guilty.
If didn’t piss you off… Guilty…

Anything to be comfortable – whether it’s necessary or not, we all seek comfort.
And therein lies the problem.

Obviously I’m not telling anyone they’re a criminal for any of these things, I don’t feel like getting lynched right here in front of my computer.

For the record I am pro-union, have shopped at Wal-mart, and taken advantage of rentals. I do think SUVs are a menace because people buy them for status instead of their driving ability (they make me uncomfortable). I’ve used Medicaid, Food stamps, maxed out credit cards… you get the idea – I like comfort… I like security.

So here’s the problem - if I were in public office, especially high office – and I tried to tell the American people what they could drive, how they could shop, where they could shop, whether they could join a union, how many children they could have, or where they had to go to school… my political life expectancy would be that of a bound, muzzled, and catnip-basted hog in a pit of Bengal tigers that have been fed nothing but cucumbers for a week.
Not long indeed.

The Bush Administration knows this.
Every politician knows this.

But you can’t tell the American people they can’t have everything they want, if Americans don’t get what they want, if they become ‘uncomfortable’ – they get rid of their leaders. Ahhh… the beauty of democracy.

So here’s why they’re trying to save us;

In the interest of pursuing comfort, this country has gone nearly 14 Trillion dollars into debt.
No, that little $7 Trillion number you’ve heard about? Wrong. You think state and municipal governments borrow from the federal coffers? No.
Our combined Federal, State, and Local debt is nearly 14 TRILLION dollars.
We’re in trouble – we’re going into debt JUST paying down the INTEREST on these debts… and we’re still borrowing… to stay comfortable. Soon we will have to borrow JUST to pay the interest.
But to tell the American people we have to reduce our standard of living? Tell big corporate donors they can’t have tax shelters? Never happen… at least not in time to save us.

Anyone notice how the value of the US dollar is falling?
That would be because of our debt. The value of the dollar has everything to do with America’s ability to generate income. That ability is in decline both because of the terrible debt we have to pay off AND the increasing trade deficit. As we send more money and jobs out of this country – our net national value declines. As our ability to pay off our debt appears to diminish, our currency becomes much less attractive. Fewer countries will be willing to buy our debt as the returns seem neither secure or of value even if paid off.
We will have massive debt and no one will be willing to help us out. Our ability to pay for that debt will continue to decline. Our domestic programs will go bankrupt, Government cuts will add new unemployment in record numbers, unemployment will go bankrupt, factories will close, more unemployment, the dollar will continue to fall… in short – total economic collapse.

And that’s not the worst of it.

The reasons for the decline of the dollar are compounded by one-another. One of those reasons is also the decline of the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
To make this brief; Reserve Currency is what different countries use for purposes of international trade.
Until recently, the entire world, with very few impoverished exceptions, has only used ONE nation’s currency for reserve purposes.
Bet you can guess which nation that is…
Yep – Us, the United States Dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for most of the last century… but that has been changing.
As the world’s Reserve Currency, the dollar has enjoyed a value fixed to the world market, the honor of being invited into every treasury of the world, and the privilege of being the only currency that could purchase the world’s number one commodity.
Oil.
With the dollar as the world’s reserve, the United States has never had to worry about little things like trade deficits, paying back loans, or the cost of energy outstripping our economy. The dollar was gold – and we could make it out of lead.

The US dollar has recently had to endure a bright new competitor – the Euro.
Now the two currencies are at war for the adoration of the world, but the Dollar has a remarkable disadvantage – it represents a huge, gigantic, gargantuan debt.

The point is pretty simple – Our administration knew the Dollar could not compete in the world market against the Euro. They knew that the nations we imported oil from might begin to trade in Euros. Iraq had very lucrative contracts with France, Germany, and Russia just waiting for sanctions to lapse. Wanna guess what currency those trades would depend on? Yep – the Euro. Saddam was never a military threat to us. Even Israel had him out-gunned… but as an economic threat – he was about to crush us. The administration knew that once sanctions were lifted, America’s economy would be crushed. Did they want to tell us this? To tell us that would have been to tell Americans they needed discipline… and discipline is uncomfortable. So they invaded… and they ain’t done yet.
We also MUST control the world oil market. If we do not, as the country responsible for consuming 25% of the world’s energy – we will be price gouged into economic submission no matter how strong the dollar is.

This Administration did not have the brass to tell the American people that we had to take drastic domestic measures to pay down our debt, make American manufacturing more competitive, and strengthen our economy.
That would have made us ‘uncomfortable’… ensuring political extinction for the offending bureaucrats.
So, knowing this, and being generally contemptuous of the American people, they committed to a course of action; war.
War was something Americans could wrap their petty heads around… there were good guys and bad guys… just like on the television.
Once they committed to the invasion of the Middle East; they could not waver… no matter how bad a stench they created.
They must continue to press into the oil-rich land or face telling the American people the ‘uncomfortable’ truth. In order to do so they HAD to win the election at any cost.
They think they are saving America, despite their bald ineptitude.
Can you blame them?
I can.
But I blame Americans too. If Americans had the attention span and willingness to understand concepts more complex than Monday night football, we might have supported an Administration that would have taken the critical and immediate measures necessary to heal our economy.
But instead we must illegally invade sovereign nations, kill the inhabitants, and plant governments there that are bent to execute our will. Vegas odds say Iran is next… there’s even a pool for the excuses or, more terrifying, the ‘event’ that will spur our forces farther East.

It would be too easy just to say that ‘Red Staters’ would not have understood, but I live in a ‘Blue State’ and have found that less than 50% of people I speak with have the patience to care about the real reason for our invasion. Hell – 4 years ago I might not have cared either.

This is your fault America… and I’m right here with you.

Not enough patience to read this whole article?

GUILTY!

-Dr. Garth Eldritch









Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
haydukelives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-14-04 11:16 PM
Response to Original message
1. Just read it all
GUILTY!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
sendero Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-14-04 11:29 PM
Response to Original message
2. What can I say?
I agree with you 100%.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
kentuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 12:21 AM
Response to Original message
3. A strong rant, Doc!
wellsaid..

"The point is pretty simple – Our administration knew the Dollar could not compete in the world market against the Euro. They knew that the nations we imported oil from might begin to trade in Euros. Iraq had very lucrative contracts with France, Germany, and Russia just waiting for sanctions to lapse. Wanna guess what currency those trades would depend on? Yep – the Euro. Saddam was never a military threat to us. Even Israel had him out-gunned… but as an economic threat – he was about to crush us. The administration knew that once sanctions were lifted, America’s economy would be crushed. Did they want to tell us this? To tell us that would have been to tell Americans they needed discipline… and discipline is uncomfortable. So they invaded… and they ain’t done yet.
We also MUST control the world oil market. If we do not, as the country responsible for consuming 25% of the world’s energy – we will be price gouged into economic submission no matter how strong the dollar is."

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 12:40 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I'm sad for America... we've become spoiled rotten...
The great slap in the face WILL come.

And we need to point the fingers at ourselves.

Sure - many of us are forward-thinkers and saw all this coming... especially here at DU.

So I'll be the first to shove this down someone's throat when they cry, "OH WHY did no one TELL us about this! Oh WHY didn't our government DO something!"... I'll say something diplomatic like;

"fuck you you small-minded, self absorbed, petty, insecure, vindictive, ignorant bitch/bastard... you WERE told! by the environmentalists, the Liberals, the Greens, the Libertarians, the SCIENTISTS, the EVOLUTIONISTS... everyone who invested in knowledge while you concerned yourself with owning an SUV because you were so uncertain of your own SELF-WORTH that you had to show all your neighbors just how fucking big and special you are! And so you laughed at the Scientists, the environmentalists, the Liberals... Everyone who told you that REALITY was about to SLAP YOU UPSIDE THE FACE you stupid Fuck!"

I'm sure I'll put it nicely though...

:evilgrin:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
kentuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 12:52 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Are you really a disenchanted Republican, Doc ?
If so, I can why you are pissed - even moreso than a Democrat..
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:10 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. You've been digging?... Kool
Yes, I'm rather 'disenchanted'.

My party was hijacked.

I've had no refuge from the bullshit until I found DU.

Granted- not everything here is flawless, but the intent to adopt an empirical attitude is genuine.

That's the crux.

I have other ongoing debates online. I've never lost a debate in my life... I cite facts and documentation.
But then I encounter those who seem to live in a fantasy world where what they WANT to believe becomes reality.

As a Cognitive scientist, this is no surprise to me.
So I set out to check the scope of this 'mindset'.

It is astounding. Not because I was unaware of 'societal cognizance', but because of what this means for the survival of the human race.

We, all of us, are in grave danger.

Moreso than I thought possible until recently.

I have been trying to get some wind under my theory on Human Superconscious Mechanics - but I fear that the fruits of my theory will lead to our destruction before I finish my work.

It is a work that can explain Religion, Witchcraft, Psychic phenomenon, Socio-cultural trends, even human destiny itself.
There is a chance that humanity will destroy itself before I can get my work done. (or at least set us back a century or two)

I'm sure you can understand my 'disenchantment' with the general populus... and the most disillusioned of them are Bush** supporters.

They don't realize they are not real Republicans.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
housewolf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 04:22 PM
Response to Reply #7
19. Human Superconscious Mechanics?
I'm a former republican too, but I bailed a while ago.

Your theory of "Human Superconscious Mechanics" is of interest to me. I did a google search and came up with zero results on the phrase. Can you talk a little more with me about your work? Or lead me to a website that might contain some information?

Thanks...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 11:56 PM
Response to Reply #19
27. My apologies, I've published none of my work yet....
Here's a little diatribe I went on though...

(If you have time)


The Real War.


The Human Race is in jeopardy. Currently, a vast war is raging unseen below the surface of our consciousness.

We believe we are engaged in conflicts for many different reasons and under the impetus of many ideals. For the most part, this is true.
We are at war in the Middle East for a number of reasons depending upon whom you ask. We are at war here at home over issues of freedom, happiness, and values.
We are at war with economic forces that will spell our demise as a nation unless we all become economic warriors with the understanding that triage may become a very real necessity.

But there is a greater war, one from which all of these symptoms arise. It is the War for the salvation or obliteration of the human race.

I have come to understand, through study of human nature and human consciousness, just what fate humanity has mapped out for itself. I have come to describe my theory as “The Human Omega”.
No one can argue that humans are not an ambitious species. In fact, we know very well that humanity will ALWAYS reach for what it perceives to be within it’s grasp. It is because of this that we have come so far as a species.
We have the capacity to become so much more than we are, and that is precisely what we have done for millennia. We will reach forward to grasp new concepts, new ideas, and new technologies we are not now even capable of imagining. We will take hold of our own evolution. Whether it takes one hundred years, one thousand, one million… it does not matter; it WILL happen.
I have no doubt that left to explore and flourish humanity will attain transcendence tantamount to true divinity. We will become our own God, made in our image and vice-versa.
Our descendants will become masters of time, space, and consciousness.

All we need do is survive.

One of the greatest hallmarks of the human race is the retention of knowledge. As we acquire the technology to retain information we utilize it – immediately.

Perhaps you are reading this on a website – imagine the amount of information that site backs up and retains. There may be a Library of Congress’ worth of posts, threads and information held in the server memory and backed up for permanent storage.
Now… think of how much information was stored only thirty years ago - A fraction of a fraction of what we store today. How will we preserve everything we want to?

Our divine descendants may well deal with that too, but their methods know no boundaries we can imagine. As masters of time, space, consciousness, and perhaps a number of other curricula we cannot imagine, why not save EVERYTHING?

The trend toward this human destiny is utterly inexorable. Having studied how the human race reaches in all directions around the globe and ever further into the farthest reaches of space, into the future and farther into the past to understand the origin of life on earth. As we delve ever deeper into ourselves, into our intricate intellectual makeup, into our genetic composition, there can be no question we will one day achieve divinity.

Should there exist even a shred of human curiosity in our descendants, (Considering curiosity drove them, I imagine more than a shred will persevere.) they will most likely preserve every consciousness that has ever existed.
Everything will be preserved, perhaps they will have no need for machines, or their machines are woven into the very fabric of the universe; but every event, every dream, every thought, every blade of grass ever to exist, everything from the very beginning of time until the end will be forever preserved in living memory.

If this seems far-fetched to you, try to explain an automobile to a Neanderthal.
I don’t understand how these things would work any more than he would understand what makes a Porsche run… but he can understand what it does… as I can this.

So when a consciousness passes from life, that consciousness will find absolute access to every bit of knowledge, every event, and every perspective in the universe. Even yours.
You will come to know everything, and to be anything.
This is the gift our children can give us, our descendants, with the impetus to preserve gifted to them by our common nature, will preserve all.
The vast loop of the continuum will be closed, linear time will become meaningless, and we BECOME divine… We achieve the Human Omega.
For all intents and purposes – this may already be the case given that time is not linear.
We cannot know what philosophy our descendants will operate on, we can only know that we will not know or understand it until we rejoin the Omega Consciousness. We can pretend all we want to be right or moral, but there will certainly be more to the truth than second-guessing the will of God.

This brings us to the Great Fear.

There is no question that we are in pain. We witness the atrocities we visit upon each other, the tortures, the injustices... so much pain.
It is said that those who do evil do so because they are in pain.
One cannot imagine a pain they have not felt, but, in some fashion or another, they experience the pain they have caused.
This then becomes a cycle; The Tormentor is in pain because of the pain he has caused. He does not realize that his pain is self-loathing; he cannot understand his masochism – for he is immediately aware of his victim’s agony. He seeks to cause pain to punish himself. The Tormentor turns his pain back into anger that seeks to inflict pain once again.
This pain is unfathomable, but it does not merely reside in the individual, it pervades the human super-, sub-, and unconscious. It is passed around from person to person, culture to culture, generation to generation.
Like a virus, this pain begets itself perpetually; it will not perish until we rise above it.

Just like Jesus said.

But ‘it’ does not want that.
Without getting into Human Superconscious Theory, this is best explained by saying that this vast human suffering has taken on a life of it’s own. Somewhere in the interface between this vast suffering and human empathy, there has evolved a disturbing dissonance, which has yielded a self-sustaining entity.
Pain begets not only pain, but the methods of its continuation as well.

There is an operative effect on the human psyche because of this pain. There is fear.
This fear is so deeply embedded in our racial subconscious that it too has a ‘life of it’s own’.
The fear is of spending eternity with the pain we have caused.

We know that there are one of two ultimate outcomes for the human race.

One is the transcendence of humanity by constant growth and enlightenment.

The other is absolute Oblivion

The pain we are in are the cumulative screams of millions upon millions tortured alive, the tears of a child who didn’t want to die hungry the day the death squad came, the mother putting a plastic shopping bag over the head of her baby to futilely try to save it from the poison gas as she succumbs to a rasping death.
There is a great awareness of this horrific torment, both in the victims, and in the tormentors.

This is a pain so great it begs for Oblivion. To forget forever, to have never been is it’s only desire.

This pain has been at war with our destiny for thousands of years.

Should the Human Race survive, this pain will be preserved forever in the consciousness of The Human Omega.
Should the Human Race be extinguished, there will be no Human Omega, and we will all descend into the soft, eternal nothingness of oblivion.

This vicious agony has not sat still and waited for us to extinguish ourselves, nay – it has spent countless centuries engineering our demise.
Through the human subconscious it has worked to trigger our own undoing, and these are the times it has been brought to bear.

Being so imaginative, we have tried to devise methods to explain the world around us with little or no empirical rational.
Religion was one of those methods.
When we developed empathy as a race, we had to find a way to justify taking the life of a screaming animal for our own sustenance. We developed more humane means of doing so and also ‘told ourselves’ that a higher power said it was ok to do so.

Our survival was that ‘higher power’; we called it ‘God’.

But we took religion, which has roots in Human Superconscious understanding, too far.
We let the pain in.
Pain and Religion don’t mix. Just like Jesus said.

We created the ‘Deadly Meme’ of our own destruction.
There can be no doubt that the anger of ‘fire and brimstone’ and the ‘Wrath of God’ was not written out of enlightenment, but rather out of the realization that there was so much wrong… so much pain. These writings had such beauty and wisdom, they were accepted as carte blanche and absolute truth, and therein lay the danger.

For over a thousand years, huge portions of the human race have invested their faith in stories that tell them they will be favored when all else perish in fire.
They read that if they did ‘this’ and believed ‘that’, they would be given such rewards they cannot imagine. And so the faithful have divested themselves of human conscience, the precursor of faith, to acquire those rewards.
Such a powerful impetus as faith extends far beyond and much deeper than the empirical actions of the faithful, however.

This notion of the ‘end of the world’ has been invested in by so many, over such a period of time, and with such fervor – it may be impossible to stop it.

Because of a number of books written from the perspective of this pain, we may not survive as a race.

This belief in the end of the world has fueled the actions of so many of our leaders. They are so certain Armageddon is upon us that they have no intention of preserving our resources or our restraint. They have been fooled into believing that their actions are divine and that the destruction of the Human Race has no impact on achieving divinity.

The greatest deceiver has deceived them. The very thing they believe they are waging war against has fooled them.

They will go to any lengths to carry out its will by lashing out at the agony and creating more. This cycle will wind itself into a literal firestorm of extinguishing rage.

We must not allow these things to occur, we must not allow our leaders to take us into a holy war in this age of mass destructive capability.

For then surely we will embrace oblivion.


-Dr. Garth Eldritch
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
magellan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 08:15 PM
Response to Reply #7
20. I'm also very interested
Does your theory have anything to do with how we and Bush Loyalists seem to be looking at the same world in completely opposite ways -- fundamentally from separate realities -- and are completely unable to accept the other as "real" and viable?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 11:49 PM
Response to Reply #20
26. In a word; yes.
Of course there is more to it.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
AndyTiedye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:01 AM
Response to Original message
6. You should lose all the "guilty" flamebait at the beginning of your articl
Edited on Wed Dec-15-04 01:03 AM by AndyTiedye
It has nothing to do with the point you are trying to make about
currencies, and it drives away much of your potential audience.

But I blame Americans too. If Americans had the attention span and willingness to understand concepts more complex than Monday night football, we might have supported an Administration that would have taken the critical and immediate measures necessary to heal our economy.

We did understand. That is why a plurality of voters voted
for Al Gore for President in 2000. If he had not been robbed of
the election, he would have put us firmly on a path of conservation
and energy independence. Then people like Saddam Hussein or the
House of Saud would not have any economic leverage over us. If
they are trying to deal with an oil glut and declining prices, they
will not alienate their biggest customer by switching currencies,
and it wouldn't matter much to us if they did.

But instead we must illegally invade sovereign nations, kill the inhabitants, and plant governments there that are bent to execute our will. Vegas odds say Iran is next… there’s even a pool for the excuses or, more terrifying, the ‘event’ that will spur our forces farther East.

We decided no such thing. Boosh** lied. He said that Saddam Hussein was going to :nuke: us, remember? He got Colon Powell to say it too.
I didn't believe them, but I cannot accuse those who did of the above.



Yes, I read the whole thing, and I read your last version too.
(Actually, I was kind of amused at how few of the things on your
strange and arbitrary list I was actually "guilty" of. I do own
an SUV. I need the off-pavement capability. It's a hybrid, and
burns much less gas than any other SUV available.)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:14 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. Thank you Andy
Edited on Wed Dec-15-04 01:23 AM by Dr_eldritch
Indeed, I know better.

But if I can ilicit a certain depth of response, it will help me drive to the point.

I will re-work this. (Again ;))


{On edit}; Arbitrary? Please illustrate a list representing comfort juxtaposed by fiscal advantage... more info is ALWAYS helpful.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Guaranteed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:17 AM
Response to Original message
9. Wow, well done.
Yeah, like Andy said, a little too much rhetoric, though- kind of distracting.

Really, really well done, though.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:25 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Thanks - WIP
"Work in Progress"

(My Sister and I usually Edit each-other... but we've diverged in the last few years. :()
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DulceDecorum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:46 AM
Response to Original message
11. Oil-eating bacteria
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1125/

Catastrophic oil spills are nothing new. The recent Persian Gulf oil well spill, last estimated at 68 million gallons by the International Maritime Organization, may be smaller than a 1983 oil spill in the Gulf of approximately 80 million gallons that occurred during the Iran Iraq War.
<snip>
Exxon and the EPA have experimented with a shoreline cleanup technique called bioremediation -- the use of bacteria to degrade oil into harmless water, carbon dioxide, and fatty acids. Exxon's pilot project involved spraying fertilizers on 74 miles of the more than 900 miles of oiled shoreline in Alaska in the hopes of spurring growth of naturally occurring bacteria that eat oil.
http://www.arkent.com/resources/oil_spill_concerns.html

Oil will NOT save you.
Oil will KILL you.
This administration will not save you.
Ask the soldiers who have returned from Iraq.
Ask the parents who allowed their children to be sent to Afghanistan.
Ask the men who served in Vietnam.

Mr. Morden,
you are saying that the US has the Neocon-given "right"
to STEAL property that does NOT belong to them
and MURDER all the people who stand in their way.

Mr. Morden,
you sir,
are supporting the propaganda put out by blood-stained monsters,
who are the personification of eloquent argument for the necessity
of maintaining free abortion clinics in every neighborhood.

Mr. Morden,
you are also saying that there will be no peace,
no justice
and no freedom on this planet
for as long as the US insists on oppressing the other nations of the world.
All the more reason for the other nations to boycott you
and your reptilian ways.
Take a look at the sea that lies in the proximity of the US Strategic Reserve.



http://web.naplesnews.com/sections/specials/blackwater/front.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=8259

Black Water Reports Again Surfacing
October 30, 2003
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/news/blackwater2003.html

Mr. Morden,
you cannot even keep the oil that you have stolen,
and yet you insist on spilling blood to get more.
Just admit it,
Neocons enjoy killing and
THAT is what they were sent to earth to do.

The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
-- Ambassador Kosh

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
hfojvt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 02:07 AM
Response to Original message
12. If you are not part of the solution ...
What is the point of all this guilt? What am I supposed to do - commit hari-kari? If everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty, except maybe the Amish, because they eschew all comfort.
Look at it this way, a large percentage of Germans are guilty of not stopping the Nazis. However, once you remove the root cause - Hitler and his henchman, and bring them to a semblance of justice, you have solved the worst part of the problem. Germany itself is not nearly as guilty as a small group of Nazis.
I am not sure if saying "guilty, guilty, guilty" to the people is the best way to inspire them to fight the Nazis.
It is like Calvin said, "there is no situation so bad, that you can't add some guilt to it and make it worse."
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
slay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 02:31 AM
Response to Original message
13. A truly excellent post Doc. Seems we will sell our souls for comfort.
Perhaps this nightmare wakeup call is what "the American people" need. Since we seem to have such a hard time doing the right thing when times are relatively good, father Bush has decided to rain down a shit storm of badness upon us as punishment. And by the way, I'm guilty too.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Dream of the Flood Donating Member (63 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 03:43 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. The "guilty" parts serve as a wakeup to the urgency
Edited on Wed Dec-15-04 03:44 AM by Dream of the Flood
Especially since this is a public forum read by people not registered to post (I lurked for over a month before I decided to register). Maybe it will wake up a few FReepers or at least get them thinking--that might be most dangerous of all!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
slay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 09:28 PM
Response to Reply #14
22. Welcome to DU Dream of the Flood!
:)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
magellan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 03:45 AM
Response to Original message
15. Nope, sorry
Sure we're all guilty of consumerism. But I strongly disagree with the idea that this administration is in any shape, form or fashion trying to save us. They don't give a rat's ass about us. Let's not forget our government is corporate America...and they know they've just about reached the threshold of consumerism here. The only thing they're interested in is winning the race to globalize so they can keep reaping their precious profits after this country goes down the economic crapper.

So please, keep preaching your other points -- people need to know that consumerism is destroying this country, and we are all complicit. But stop trying to make it sound like BushCo care and are just doing what they can to stop the bleeding. They're doing nothing of the sort.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. True- saying they might "Save Us" is being generous...
But I do believe that's what they feed their atrophied and malnourished consciences on occasion.

"We're doing this for the American people 'cause they're too dumb."

- I can see that.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Karenina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 09:43 PM
Response to Reply #18
23. You are FAR TOO generous.
.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MsConduct Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 04:15 AM
Response to Original message
16. Great post/thread/rant Doc! I'm going to send it to everyone I know...
just one question: You were being facetious about the Administration trying to 'save' us, correct?

The only dollars/euros they care about are the ones that go into their or their big corporate friend's pockets. They want it all, and the less the rest of us have, the better.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
blm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 10:11 AM
Response to Original message
17. Nominated for home page.
.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Digit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 09:15 PM
Response to Original message
21. Thin the herd, too.
As a baby boomer, I wonder if they are trying to thin the herd of the aging boomers as well.
More than once, I have heard someone say that an elderly person has lived their alotted time, and it is time for them to move on...even when they are NOT at death's door.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 10:34 PM
Response to Original message
24. Hey, Doc...HEY!
You are making me uncomfortable here... You'll never get my vote. <grin>

Yer right, B*** believers do think he is trying to save us. They just don't realize what parts he's trying to save: The ones that we should be most uncomfortable with.

Anyway, glad you found this corner of the world. Reformed republicans are happily invited into the tent, especially ones who 'look' like you.

Interested in this mass mind theory you are humping. Simply put, if you consider most of the inventions we are blessed with, you'll trace their origins to many minds coming together to make them into reality. Who's to say other physical realities are not similarily constructed?

The power inherent in this world must have some kind of guide, and the humanoids seem to be capable of not only physical manipulation of material things, but mental manipulation as well.

You might move your works on this matter into Demopedia, and get other minds working on the theory, eh?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-15-04 11:22 PM
Response to Reply #24
25. By God you might have something!
(so to speak)

The principles for 'Human Superconscious Mechanics' are actually rather basic.

It's the interactions which are complex... that and the human mind.

Simply put - there is a war going on in our 'global' unconscious...

Here's a tiny little fragment if you're interested;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2796124&mesg_id=2796282

If you get this - HSM will be child's play.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 09:45 AM
Response to Reply #25
29. HSM.... all or nothing?
Very good, grasshopper. <grin>

Can we construct, with our minds, ultimate destruction? Oh yeah. We can do just about anything within our own little electron synapsed bowl of jello between our ears.

Who's to say that those electrons don't jump through space, right into your friends jello?

Will we do the big nasty anytime soon? Only if we allow it. Whilst there are many bowls of jello walking around thinking mainly of the Destructive part of this Generated - Organized - Decaying, physical world, there are others, such as yourself, who concentrate more on the G + O parts.

In physical laws, correct me if I am wrong, the majority usually wins. We must ensure that the Generating + Organizing aspects of our world keep on generating and organizing.

Decay happens only after generation and organization, eh?

There being so many possibly good things that can occur with the proper use of our jello, it would be a shame if we, in mass, bring on a premature decay.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 05:22 PM
Response to Reply #29
30. Sure thing Sifu...
Did you know we have developed a hat that can read brainwaves?

Did you know that all electrical systems give off radio waves?

My HSM theories deal with the more mundane methods of transmission... but with advanced interpretation.

I like your Generation-organization-Decay model.

I usually use Creation-Destruction with the assumption that Creation assumes organization.

My faith is that because of the multi-verse theories, we may be already saved... wouldn't that be just too cool!

http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/doc/many-worlds-faq.html
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 06:25 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. Are we saved? What from?
Edited on Thu Dec-16-04 06:26 PM by BeFree
Some people are in a living hell. Case in point: A baby in Africa, born with aids. Is that not a living hell?

Is that what the rest of us are saved from? I consider myself to be quite fortunate, indeed, blessed. Contrasted to that poor baby in Africa, it sure seems that I am, eh?

But we are talking about the long run; Thousands of years in time as we know it. What will become of the human race? We know we are Generated from dirt, and those particles of dirt are Organized into a particular thing, and we will Decay, back into dirt.

However, we are more than Dirt, all G-O-Ded up. The brainwaves, the very electricity that we Generate, what's up with that? Some say it is electricity that binds the particles that make up our physical world.

If so, then our brainwaves could be Organizing other particles into what we see, and therefore, we, as a specie are, and have been for eons, creating what we now see?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 08:05 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. Now Sifu...
Did you read the rant on the Human Omega?

Of what consequence is our pain now should we be received into the comfort of omniscience?

Should the human race survive - it will attain transcendence.
In that infinite transcendence lies the capacity and the will to create, experience, and preserve every living memory, every experience.
For how could we become God without knowing all there is to know?

This is the only logical ultimate outcome for the Human Race.

So long as we survive.

That pain will be saved too. But the child will be met with the embrace of every dream, thought, notion, experience... that child will be met with any and every meme that does wish to expel pain and induce all the memories of joy in the universe.

For is that is what Humanity wants - it is the very thing that, one day, Humanity will Create.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 10:35 PM
Response to Reply #32
36. Pure spirit form, eh?
No, I didn't read the rant. Maybe I will.

What, pray tell, is this Sifu stuff?

Anyway, you kinda figure our destiny is a spirit like form, eh? No thanks. I want to enjoy sex in human form: I imagine it wouldn't be all too special in the spirit.

I want to feel the sun on my face, breathe a fresh air, wiggle my toes in the water. If spirit form was all that great, why did we ever have to be humans?

Doc, answer my one question: Saved from what? IOW, if we don't hit this god-like height and we actually go the other way, what will we do?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 11:18 PM
Response to Reply #36
37. LOL - the form is of your choosing...
You called me "Grasshopper".

So I called you "Sifu"

Go look it up and you will understand ...teacher.

You discredit the spirit - you assume that in your body you are not such a spirit, but a dirt-bound mortal being.

Are you so sure?

You want to feel the sun in your face, breathe the fresh air, wiggle your toes in the water... and you have. Sex- to know intimately the ecstasy of another... is that not spirit?
That, my Sifu, is the Spirit.

read this;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1431747&mesg_id=1433825

Ask me anything after you have read this.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-17-04 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #37
43. Read that..twice...heavy, deep stuff
I was just joking about grasshopper. 'Cept that we are all grasshoppers on this little blue ball, spinning in the deep dark blackness of the space between all the other spinning balls.

I know we are all possessed of the spirit. It is that spirit which produces the electric brainwaves which bind together the particles making up the forms in our physical world. From spirit we come, to spirit we go.

Spirit takes human form in order to experience the multitude of feelings which are impossible in the spirit form. Sex, is but one feeling. Hate being another.

What is not grasped here is what is the alternative to becoming totally divine. Your theories offer the two sides: One, didvinity, the other oblivion. We kinda get divine, what is this state of oblivion?

Christ told us to love one another, work together, and forgive tresspassers. Those that took his advice have, by working together, come up with all these cool things we now enjoy. The alternative it seems is to go backward and reduce these purely physical forms meant to provide enjoyment, and subsist, yet again, as cavemen.

Heck, I dunno, I thought Sifu meant 'stick it-up-your f'n uranus'. LOL
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NuttyFluffers Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 04:12 AM
Response to Original message
28. sweet! just read it all and i'm still innocent! : )
this is great! i'm special! i'm gonna go try to walk on water now, don't mind me... :evilgrin:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 08:09 PM
Response to Reply #28
33. You made me pee myself....
:evilgrin:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
orpupilofnature57 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 09:23 PM
Response to Original message
34. UNFORTUNATELY TRUE,the same reasons for 9/11caused shrub
Edited on Thu Dec-16-04 09:26 PM by orpupilofnature57
I was to busy get high and wasting in my own, narcistic fibrosis.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
35. Doctor, heal our wounds.
Edited on Thu Dec-16-04 10:03 PM by autorank
My goodness, I feel like I should join the parade below and just flagellate myself all day long. I'm not sure I gather the point of a critique that damns almost everyone. I agree with some of what was said but the composite is too broad.



How about the following: most people out there are struggling to get along, avoid falling too far behind, and take care of the needs of their family. If these people had an opportunity to (a) understand the truth of our current predicament and (b) exercise a free choice about that truth, harshly damning polemics like this would not be necessary. Maybe our goal should be spreading the truth and assuring people that their vote counts.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 11:27 PM
Response to Reply #35
38. So let us condemn the rich...
Admonish the wealthy.
(Preacher voice)
Let us not berate the politicians who promise to rid our land of the SUV menace, to tell us where to shop, how many children we can take tax credits for....

Of course we should be told the truth, but don't you get it?

If we were told the truth - we'd vote them out of office.
The Bush administration KNOWS this - that's why they have to lie.

Anyone who said we had to invest 20 billion dollars in nuclear Fusion (I KNOW Gore would have) would have become VERY unpopular because Americans are by and large too plug stupid to understand the necessity.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #38
40. Good point! I agree with most of what you sayd anyway.
I was just lamenting elsewhere about being nailed when a complete read of my message would have clarified things. Mea culpa Maybe this was an unconscious oversight on my part allowing me to post that provocative picture (if you're that kind of doctor, haha). Later.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
madfloridian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Dec-16-04 11:34 PM
Response to Original message
39. Well, Dr., I found your post called "a real Republican"...excellent.
Edited on Thu Dec-16-04 11:36 PM by madfloridian
Very thoughtful. Our party needs to do this as well.

http://www.ibtp.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=15

SNIP.."Learn about your issues before you claim to be in my party.
Talk to people on the ‘other side’ and understand their perspective before you claim to be Republican. You may SAY you understand – but if you have demonized anyone at all, you do not.
If you say ‘Those Liberals’ are like this and ‘The Conservatives’ are like that; if you claim that ‘they’ want to do ‘this’ or ‘that’ to the country, then you do not understand what ‘they’ really want.

The fact is – you have become ‘them’ too.

When questioning an incompetent leadership is ‘unpatriotic’, we are doomed to support despots. That is also un-Republican.

I believe my party should be the forward-thinking party it was meant to be.
The Republican Party is the party that looks for ways to secure the future for all, and while we may disagree on how that is done- it is wrong to think that anyone should be disenfranchised to achieve such an end.
Yes a price must be paid for freedom, but it should be known what that price is and what it is really for BEFORE it is paid by anyone.
When we must be misled in order to accomplish a greater good- no real good will come of it.....".


Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Doctor. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-17-04 09:03 AM
Response to Reply #39
41. Thanks -
I was pretty pissed off when I wrote that too.

I've been bouncing around boards and getting more and more frustrated with people.

If this administration succeeds in securing the oil and reserve currency status (add variable I'm not aware of) they will only have bought America time.

Perhaps they'll continue right on with their looting then hand everything over to someone else when it's about to crash.

I can totally picture that.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Grooner Five Donating Member (319 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-17-04 09:17 AM
Response to Original message
42. a little clarification
"Americans, simply put, are arrogant, ignorant, and selfish. "


Does this also include you?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NoSheep Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-17-04 10:34 AM
Response to Original message
44. You are clearly brilliant and knowledgeable, I have 2 comments:
It was my understanding that spending billions on this unnecessary war is what caused our huge deficit. Your article suggests the war was started in order to remedy the deficit. Perhaps I'm missing something. I'm not really well versed in many things that would help me speak to this issue more intelligently.

Also-not all Americans are guilty of what you accuse yourself and many others of. I seek comfort within my means. And others that I know who aren't guilty are Democrats who live in this red state along with me. You can bet we are really pissed at the sheep we see, rich and poor. Really pissed.

You make some very good points here. Even I realize we have to remain a global economic power or perish. But all Americans aren't like you. Some of us dumb Southerners in red states practice what we preach. I don't feel the folks I know here are "part of the problem". We are indeed a small minority. Unfortunately you are absolutely right. You and your ilk are-and I say that plainly-it's just the truth, as you say.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Tue Apr 23rd 2024, 02:11 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC