h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is a black day indeed for a great many of us here in the USA as well as y'all. Everyone I've spoken to is stunned and reeling, and just as sickened by the results of the popular vote as y'all are.

I can't say I blame anyone for wishing ill on the USA and it's populace, and I understand the reasoning behind it. Just one thing I hope you all can keep in your minds as karma manifests itself: it wasn't all of us asking for this. We're just all going to pay the price.

I knew he'd win. The narrative imperative of the story seemed to suggest that he would.

Let's hope it's just a thriller and not a disaster movie then.

F

It's already a diaster. Although it does have it's comic elements.

Kerry has conceded

how utterly depressing.

<, The stupidity of man seemingly IS infinite>>

The power of stupid, as my brother put it when he predicted this back in February...
What were they thinking?

Diebold manufactured one variety of the electronic voting machines, and Diebold is connected to the infamous Halliburton, I believe.

Well no matter what happens now Bush will probably remembered as a good president. Basically since 9/11 the American government has fell over itself to fight terror or appear to be doing so in the case of the war. He tells his country and anyone else who'll listen that this attitude is vital. If no other major attack happens in say the next 5 years then the response will be seen as appropriate and many lives will have been saved, on the other hand in the face of another disaster the US government (and the British while we're on about it, we're not exactly innocent in all this) has plenty of evidence to show that they have been doing all they can to "fight this menace" but still it's not enough. Bush can't lose. Poo.

No, indeed he can't. He'll probably be remembered like Reagan; in reality a b*st*rd, remembered as a great president.

*Shudders at the thought of a giant statue of Bush.*

Eugh! a giant statue of Bush... But then again, not so bad if it's the sort you can tear down and beat with the soles of your shoes.

Can we then decapitate it and drag it's head through the streets? Please?

and we can poo down its stump too much?

Now now, his precious bible teaches us to do onto others as they would do onto us.

So no, that seems acceptable.

Actually, the lesson Bush seems to have taken from his Bible is "do unto others before they have the chance to do unto you. Whether or not they say they're going to do unto you, and whether or not they even CAN do anything unto you. So basically, do unto others as you damnwell like, then blame god."

H.

any of the UKers here see the Politics of Fear or whatever it was called last night? The concluding (I think) part of the programme about the neocon rise to power and the manipulation of events to ensure power?
I came away with the impression of a society which thinks it is moving forwards and saving itself, but has actually invented a phantom enemy to fight, and in doing so alienated exactly those who would be the enemy they wish to fight. The problem with that is that the enemy then becomes real, but not in exactly the same way as you imagined. So the war on terror has actually created, or rather is creating, the very enemy that it seeks to eradicate, thereby justifying it's own existence.
A couple of points that the programme raised that I thought could not have been put plainer :-
Bin Laden did not orchestrate, mastermind, or originate the September 11th activities. A seperate group of fanatics approached him for funding.
There is no Al Qaeda as supposed to exist, the first reference to it came from a capture international con man who had stolen some of Bin Ladens money and turned evidence to reduce his own sentence.
Dirty Bombs don't work. To get the casualty rates quoted in the reports you would have to stay put in the zone for 1 year.

All this I think has been said before, but never put together in one programme quite so well (IMHO).

The question is, has the neocon movement, in manufacturing this threat, and thereby creating the reality of the threat, created something that is bigger than it can actually deal with? Has it created its own nemesis?

The mindset of preparing for the worst is always a dodgy one. Bit like my more depressive moments If you expect the worst and it happens, you were right, if it doesn;t happen, well, not just yet and arn't we clever to have prevented it so far?

(I fall short of believing everything I see on telly and am aware this was but one view of world events. It is a very compelling one and has the slight advantage of actually having some evidence).

I saw it and thought that it was fantastic. I came away from the TV screen with smiles of disbelief, and for some reason the show made me feel giddy.

I am just after finishing reading this, in fact: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/3973195.stm

I wish these programmes would be shown in New Zealand!

"..don't look forward to the next 911 but they have it coming"
SHAME! Who has it coming? All the innocent children who will loose a or both parents? That is the most horrible thing I'm hearing; "they" have it coming...NO ONE has it coming. Everyone should be saying how terrible any killing is! NO ONE HAS IT COMING! What an awful attitude........
I cannot believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If the BBC accede to the requests in the link in the above post they will put it out on DVD. They should do, it will do the World a great service.

The most telling piece I recall is when it was talking about the way the Cold War was hyped. It was discovered that Soviet nuclear submarines had no acoustic tracking devices, therefore they must be using something the West didn't know about, therefore the Soviet submarine threat was greater than first thought. A typical piece of neo-con logic. Don't respond to the threat as you know it, respond to an unknown threat that may or may not exist.

Donald