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

Thanks, Apparition, I've read and printed this. Excellent! Note to birth and similar, theonion is an American site!

Lentilla, I am positively made up to hear that there are Amsrican anti-war protestors.. yay!!!!!!>>>>

bushoncrack.com is another one to have a look at.

Will do, and bookmarking.


TD.

Della - Oh, yeah. That's one thing Americans are good at - protesting. We get out there and wave signs when the coffee isn't hot enough in the workroom! What surprises me is that the news networks aren't covering any of that activity. Are hippies out of style? What happened to protest rallies? I can't get information from the tv any more - the news has been reduced to sound bites and short blurbs. I have to go hunting through the newspaper for real news.

Well....On broadway it´s a new day...I guess.

Lentilla, scary thing is when the news changes! On Monday, an oil tanker suffered an 'incident' off the coast of Yemen. Yesterday's newspaper siad (I cut out a clipping, and thank God I did) that although the oil company, Euronav, were insisting it was a terrorist incident, both the Yemenis and 'the US' were saying that it was an accident - as evidence, they said that a hole in the hull showed it had blown *outward*. Today, I checked the newspaper website. They have a new story today, saying that the hole blew *inward* and that Euronav and 'the US' said it was a terrorist incident! I checked the website for yesterday's old story, and it has changed!!! It now has a new paragraph saying the opposite of what the one I clipped yesterday said! (I was alerted by the woman on the radio news, solemnly saying that the whole thing was a 'terrorist incident'). This whole thing is well frightening! Who possibly benefits from this - but Dubya and the Americans - the military/industrial complex, I mean, NOT the ordinary people!

reds(terrorists) under the bed.

Another "reason" to invade Iraq. Republican-funding Weapon-factory-owning conservatives will be making a lot of money. Money that could be going to health and education for example.

Maybe some day soon people will be "detained" for saying such things. Kinda like the 1,000 detained for 6 months without access to council after setp 11 2001 and were never charged with anything to do with that.

>Maybe some day soon people will be "detained" for saying such things. Kinda like the 1,000 detained for 6 months without access to council after setp 11 2001 and were never charged with anything to do with that. <

Yes, and they're pretty well forgotten, too! I have got some pages from a human rights watch website about them. Let's not let them get forgotten!

Its like some Orwellian Nightmare. Anyone remember 1984 - the book where an opressive state is constantly at war, denies truth and civil liberty, and distorts and edits the facts to suit its own ends.

I don't believe George Bush or Tony Blair when they say that the threat from Iraq is an immediate reality. I think that all diplomatic avenues towards a resolution must be reached before we consider going to war. And war must be done with the legitimacy of the international community, otherwise unilateral 'pre-emptive' action will become the norm and *all* nations might well see fit to use more weapons to further thier goals for resources and power.

George Bush has a lot of domestic issues to put right - the economy is struggling, inequality and violence are increasing in the states and they are *still* no closer to catching the actual terrorists responsible for the WTC attacks than they were before they levelled Afghanistan and killed thousands of civilians.

I think that the 'tough stance' on Iraq is not about defending the US people, its about political posturing, control of the oil revenues, and a distraction from domestic issues. Margaret Thatcher managed to win an election off the back of a needless war that could have been resolved with diplomacy (the Falklands)

I reckon that in 30 years time - when the dust settles after the bloodbath in the middle east and finally the true cost of a petrol-reliant life becomes clear, people will look back with the cynicism that now surrounds the Kennedy assasination and see this 'War on Terror' as an bloody load of evil bulls**t.

No 'ordinary person' will gain a thing from this war. The American people will be at a greater risk of violent hatred from the brothers of the bombed Afghans, Iraqi's. Each side will suffer death, and the only winners will be the planners and owners who sit far away awaiting the profits.

And if you wanna know why some people *really* hate Americans, look at this. Then read some history books and find out the facts, not the retrospective self-aggrandising bulls**t.
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/TerrorInUSA/Why.asp

Zebrafish. Now post the same thing here http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F19585?thread=200429

From the site provided (not the same page) by Zebrafish.

"COP6 Talks Collapse

The Hague conference collapsed due to the US wanting carbon sinks as part of the agreement (as well as other provisions like nuclear energy, etc.), which received enormous criticism. In addition, the Europeans were not swaying on their stance that the US should not be given exceptions and should not be allowed to meet much of its greenhouse gas reduction targets without actually cutting emissions. While Britain's John Prescott attempted to find some sort of middle ground, the EU were firm in their stance that the US should not get special treatment. It was this that was largely the cause of the collapse.

The United States, with about 4 percent of the world's population and emitting about 21 percent of the world's carbon dioxide, the role of the US in this process is key. With President Bush coming into power and declaring that he opposes the Kyoto Protocol makes progress on this less likely."

I am so *angry* about this buls**t. I really think that we are an idiotic species with a playground arms race mentality. Its like some kids in an inner city school who only got to know each other a few years back, and tensions have risen from fist-fights to knives to guns as the pointless bickering escalates over 'turf' Only actually we are talking big armies, and propaganda machines and WMD and nuclear weapons and powergames and utterly dark s**t

Even a cursory look at history, the different sides of historical tales, and the fact that the winner gets to tell the tale, gives the impression that much of the time its the guys with the MOST CLOUT that win. Voilence for power is at the heart of all this crap, even in our 'civilised' 21st century international community. Bull S**t.

The movie Starship Troopers is great on this overblown militaristic patriotic hysterical nonsense and the controlling power that such propaganda can have. THEY'LL KEEP FIGHTING AND THEY'LL WIN

This WAR ON TERROR against EVIL DOERS is the most transparant nonsense yet. But despite this, the media and the pundits and the allies and the parliament and the senate and the polls all give the impression of grudging agreement.

Thats probably a lie too. Anyone here know any real life hawks...


Its just so sad and wrong that so many people will die for such a polluting commodity, and that so much money and time and energy goes into such a pointless excercise as war when there are so many better things to do....

I've been wondering how much resources are used and/or destroyed by fighting to control those same resources.

Oh, it will certainly make some sort of ecomonic sense on thier twisted, evil balance sheets. Like the cost of the weapons minus the percentage of the oil revenues and the petrochemicals and the show-of-strength globaly and th higher chance of retaining power domesticly on a post-war honeymoon vote and suchlike - I'm sure have been carefully balanced so that the dear leaders come out on top.

Only what they miss on that balance sheet is the really important stuf like loss of life per dollar per barrel of oil, and the effects of global warming, and the contribution to continuing the cycle of violence. Its an economic nonsense through a skewed and twisted view of what is 'of value'

Is this thread merging with the "opinions on war with Iraq" thread?


TD.

Not entirely, zebrafish has gone over there. Things have flared again over there.

Good, I am going over there now...

Again today in the news,I see that the EU criticizes the Pakistan "democratic" election when the US welcome it...Again,an ex-american president is being awarded with the "peace" Nobel price...

I'll scurry over myself