RE: [microsound] war

["Falcata-Galia and Tariff Records" <fgrecs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tim;

>America isn't nirvana, nowhere would be - no doubt we could improve

All places on Earth can improve.  Even in our own homes.

>But stop the blabber about us having the most "freedom" -
>US is 17th in press freedom
>http://www.e-thepeople.org/a-national/article/12706/view?viewtype=best

>Others statistics involving pollution, child mortality, health care
etc. >show America in a poor light. Just because I am OK doesn't mean
most of my
>countrymen are.  I myself (I think also Rudy) have lived in many places
- >so it is a bit easier to compare systems fairly. I like the pace of
life >and many of the values in certain Arabic countries I've visited.

Indeed.  That's why I'm moving to Macedonia.  Not because of hatred of
the American way of life, but because the pace of life is pleasant
(wine, women and song seemed to drive my recent ancestors to move a lot,
so I am carrying on a fine tradition).

>Oregon law to equate certain protests with "terror" (sound like
Saddam?)
>http://www.rense.com/general36/warpro.htm

Did you read it completely?  I'm doing that tonight.  This sounds way
too anti-American of a law.

>BTW - our "allies" in the "moderate" Arab states and Israel produced so
>much hated of America with the cutting of of hands, the torture, and
the >bulldozing of homes, the fighting unfair fights with
disproportionate >armies - that is why 9-11 happened.

>A statement like "they hate our freedoms" is essentially so undefined
as to 
>be rendered meaningless. Perhaps "they" hate the fact that America
takes >the dignity out of life with its non stop hypocrisy, racism and
>objectification of religion, children, sex and commerce.

These bug me as well.  Nice to be finding some common ground here.

<snip>

>I still love lots of America and lots of Americans - but facts are
facts.
>Btw Rudy - we were told things about the former USSR like "all religion
has
>been wiped out and all religious leaders killed" in the 60s and 70s
(also >the same kind of equating all civilians with leadership or the
supposed >doctrine).

Ah, I remember that relatively well (I was a wee lad then, but had
enough of a sense of what was happening).  They weren't wiped out, but
did have tons of KGB plants inside the Churches and Mosques.  I never
have heard if the Synagogues had the same problem, but I'm relatively
sure they would have.

>Much much more. Propaganda works well when mixed with truth. When I
read
>"Cancer Ward" it was the first time I knew there WAS a Soviet
dissident!! I >was told you were all fire breathing, true believer
"evil" commies until >Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

And now old Alexander is considered a nut by the Russians because he's
going after the Jews because of their role in Communism.  From hero to
goat in a decade.  Amazing.

>No doubt you have also gathered we won WWII w/o much help except from
>Churchill (the man who gassed Afghanistan). We "rescued" the French
etc.

I knew Churchill did some ghastly stuff out there, but had no idea about
gassing in Afghanistan.  I'll have to read up on this.  That's a shame.

Best,

Rudy

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