News and Current Events - 2012

[Sandy]

A good reason to vote for Romney is not necessary. Nor is one necessary to vote for Obama. People do not vote for good reasons. Nine times out of ten they vote against something or someone. And it has little to do with reasoning (ie: thinking about things.) Not many vote outside their party affiliations. Do you find it different where you live?

The sad thing isn't that this is true, it is. The sad thing is that you need only a minority of voters to behave like this to get irrational, partisan results. Bad thinking drives out the good.

[killersmom]

Dear Linda, I do hope they have the power back on  for you now. You should have some of our rain from the South of England, we have a 1000 boat cavalcade on the Thames this afternoon to celebrate 60 years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and at present it is chucking it down!

Thanks Jess! Yes it came back on late last evening, but kept going off for 30 minutes at a time. I quit resetting my clocks till this morning. Yes we could use the rain. The high winds this spring and summer have just been relentless.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I love this photo I saw online:

[Tony_]

  I was wondering, are we going to have a 2012 election thread?  Dave Cullen opened the last one on June 4, 2008, and.....off they went.  Although there were, of course, a lot of personal opinions on issues, I was really enjoying the trends, polls, and projections.
  But, either way, does anyone from those days remember which polls ended up being most accurate?  I go to RealClearPolitics, and it is very frustrating, because.....I forget which ones are more credible.  Anyone remember?

[Lyle (Mooska)]

After the election I think it just morphed into the current events thread.
Do people want to have an election thread AND a current events thread
for other things?

[kathy]

Your grandparents hardly got "nothing." They got what generations of other people worked and fought to secure for US citizens, legal and illegal.  And they got it for free. Nobody's grandparents come here because they have it so good in their own countries. They come here to fix something in their lives, to get away from whatever it is that make things intolerable in their native lands. They come here so their children and grandchildren are free to rant and rave in public about every little thing they dislike about other people and how things are done and how poorly the government works. They come here because no matter how bad it is here, it's better than home. I don't know anybody who doesn't do some menial work at some time in their lives. It's part and parcle of getting to "the good life." It is what MAKES the good life good.

They got nothing.  All they had was the clothes on their backs plus a certain kind of "trunk" (they all seemed to haved the same kind of trunk) containing things from "the old country".  Sure, they came as all emigrants did - to find a better life in a new country, and some - certainly not all - were lucky enough to have relatives or friends who came before them.  .  But they sure didn't have it easy.  On the contrary.  

[kathy]

Apart from Native Americans, (and they probably came from Mongolia over the land bridge back in the mists of time) didn't everyone in the USA come from somewhere else?

They sure did. 

[kathy]

Hi, Kathy,
-Just trying to "keep it real" as the kids are fond of saying...

I hope I don't come off as an "Obama-hater" -- because I'm not... I just hate government corruption, is all, particularly in our own gov't.
--
Just watched George Clooney's film, Syriana, for the umpteenth time... I still tear up when I watch Mazhar Munir hug his father Goodbye, knowing it would be the last time as he goes off to avenge the deaths of his people by Big Oil and its CIA lackeys.

And, BTW, it finally dawned on me just how attractive Alex Siddig is:


Didn't he play in Star Trek, once?

Oh, sure, I knew that's what you meant.  I despise corruption in the U.S. Gov't. too.
And - "Syriana"; it is sad.  I was so glad that film was made considering the topic(s) and the way the U.S. feels since cheney/bush up to this day.  I loved how it showed the corrupt big oil and of course CIA have always been involved in terrible deeds.     
I think Alex Siddiq is quite good looking.  It was Space Nine I think - not sure.

But stan, no one - no one - will ever look so beautifully handsome in Arab robes as my unrequited love Peter O'Toole.   As LOA he is beyond perfect and iconic, as is the film itself.  He was born/destined for that role, thank the movie gods and director David Lean. 
I'm sorry for going a bit OT here, mods...but, well when it comes to Peter...

[doodler]

They got nothing.  All they had was the clothes on their backs plus a certain kind of "trunk" (they all seemed to haved the same kind of trunk) containing things from "the old country".  Sure, they came as all emigrants did - to find a better life in a new country, and some - certainly not all - were lucky enough to have relatives or friends who came before them.  .  But they sure didn't have it easy.  On the contrary.  

Exactly what did they expect? What do you think would have been fair for this country to give them to start out? And should whatever it is it be provided for every immigrant?

[huntinbuddy]

After the election I think it just morphed into the current events thread.
Do people want to have an election thread AND a current events thread
for other things?

I think we need a new elections thread for the upcoming months.....so things like this can be posted....

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82572015/

[oilgun]

Finally!

Bush and Blair Found Guilty of War Crimes for Irak Attack

A tribunal in Malaysia, spearheaded by that nation’s former Prime Minister, yesterday found George Bush and Tony Blair guilty of “crimes against peace” and other war crimes for their 2003 aggressive attack on Iraq, as well as fabricating pretexts used to justify the attack. The seven-member Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal — which featured an American law professor as one of its chief prosecutors — has no formal enforcement power, but was modeled after a 1967 tribunal in Sweden and Denmark that found the U.S. guilty of a war of aggression in Vietnam, and, even more so, after the U.S.-led Nuremberg Tribunal held after World War II. Just as the U.S. steadfastly ignored the 1967 tribunal on Vietnam, Bush and Blair both ignored the summons sent to them and thus were tried in absentia.
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/23/bush_and_blair_found_guilty_of_war_crimes_for_iraq_attack/

[kathy]

Exactly what did they expect? What do you think would have been fair for this country to give them to start out? And should whatever it is it be provided for every immigrant?

They had no idea what to expect; I suppose whatever they knew was hearsay.  This all took place during the first decade of the 20th Centrury at the peak of the immigration period; how would they really know anything of the place they went to?  They didn't even speak English.
I never even thought this country would have 'given' them anything anyway; it wasn't done in those days.  After they got off the boat and herded through Ellis Island they just had to get by.  

[AZ.bbm]

...I think Alex Siddiq is quite good looking.  It was Space Nine I think - not sure... But stan, no one - no one - will ever look so beautifully handsome in Arab robes as my unrequited love Peter O'Toole.  As LOA he is beyond perfect and iconic, as is the film itself.  He was born/destined for that role, thank the movie gods and director David Lean...

-Okay, you've GOT me, there, sis!  
Yes,  'Lawrence of Arabia' would be the #2 classic movie of all time (after BBM, of course).  O'Toole and Sharif: Oh. My. Gawd. -- Even Steven Spielberg credits LOA as his inspiration to become a filmmaker!  BTW,Kathy, did you know that there was a sequel to LOA? -See "5 Things You Might Not Know About David Lean's 'Lawrence Of Arabia'" Item #5. And incredibly, Alex Siddig had a role in the sequel!

See ya, later, have a great week!

-Stan

[kathy]

Finally!

Bush and Blair Found Guilty of War Crimes for Irak Attack

A tribunal in Malaysia, spearheaded by that nation’s former Prime Minister, yesterday found George Bush and Tony Blair guilty of “crimes against peace” and other war crimes for their 2003 aggressive attack on Iraq, as well as fabricating pretexts used to justify the attack. The seven-member Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal — which featured an American law professor as one of its chief prosecutors — has no formal enforcement power, but was modeled after a 1967 tribunal in Sweden and Denmark that found the U.S. guilty of a war of aggression in Vietnam, and, even more so, after the U.S.-led Nuremberg Tribunal held after World War II. Just as the U.S. steadfastly ignored the 1967 tribunal on Vietnam, Bush and Blair both ignored the summons sent to them and thus were tried in absentia.
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/23/bush_and_blair_found_guilty_of_war_crimes_for_iraq_attack/

Finally and at last! What a warmongering pair those two were and are.  And we must not forget cheney and all the rest of the warmongers.  Liars and criminals, all of them. 

[Tony_]

Exactly what did they expect? What do you think would have been fair for this country to give them to start out? And should whatever it is it be provided for every immigrant?

  The earliest immigrants were indentured servants, who were promised, in some colonies, 50 acres of land when their service was over.  Much later, wasn't there a similar program for land for those who settled the Mid-West?
 Even so, in modern times, we really should owe nor offer anything, and they should have either prospects for employment, or social support from their families or ethnic community.  The exceptions, IMO, should be for political asylum, and also healthcare and education for illegal immigrants' children, subject to finally shutting down the borders.  Some kind of sane balance.