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

ok, first, yeah evryone knows that the US lost the war of 1812, although they did prevent the British from retaking the US. However many US citizens, the servey I saw which included the question of why the Whitehouse is white had around 70%, do not know that the capitol was burned to the ground. The Star Spangle Banner, both the poem/song and the 15 stripe 15 star flag originate from the Battle of Baltimore at Ft McHenry which occured almost a month after the Battle of Bladensburg and the burning of Washington.

N.B. Our(US) national anthem is a run-on question.

haha!! I never thought of that! THat's really funny. Good indication about our grammar skills in general!

dave

And don't forget that the anthem's melody is from an old German drinking song. Weird, huh?

> Lentilla, you are indeed responsible for bombing Cambodia.

If, by association, I am guilty of bombing Cambodia by being *American,* what else can we blame on me? Well, let's see... Because I'm female, I'm guilty of getting mankind booted out of the Garden of Eden by eating of the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, and talking Adam into taking a bite too. With that perspective, next thing you'll be telling me that menstruation is a punishment for the sins of woman.

You, because you're a descendant of English colonists, are guilty of any number of civil rights outrages... including the repression of Irish immigrants and the subjugation of India.

Shall I try to demonstrate how truly ridiculous this is? I don't understand your point, Empty, unless it is that you are extremely bored and like to rattle the cages at the zoo. If your objective is to make me think more objectively about America's current political situation, why don't you try to find something that needs doing instead? I'm sure your lawn needs mowing.

> it’s quite likely that your intellectual equipment may not be up to the task, but please try to follow this...

Try to avoid the ad hominem insults and stick to your point. I could call you any number of insults, but have refrained from doing so... because it would make me look almost as foolish as you. And that's pretty foolish!

"If your objective is to make me think more objectively about America's current political situation, why don't you try to find something that needs doing instead?"

Now you're starting to learn, Lentilla. That's the crux of the matter. It does need to be done, seriously and urgently.

You profess to be a liberal American (the ultimate contradiction in terms). You profess to be anti-Bush and his actions. Yet not only do you do nothing about him, you keep insisting that it's not even possible to do anything about him. Except waiting until the end of the year and declining to vote for him. (Yep, that'll really get his attention.)

You are Bush's greatest friend and supporter! People like you do him more favours than anyone else.

As a result of falling for this absurd worship of country that you've been force-fed since birth, you have it ingrained in you that Americans are not truly capable of being guilty of anything much. So the evil reigns.

The actions (or rather inactions) of staunch GOP supporters are understandable, they have an interest in seeing it all continue. But those who profess not to support Dubya, yet insist that Americans are superior and not truly capable of evil so Dubya is deserving of nothing more than mild rebuke at the polling booth, do Dubya more favours than anyone else.

In the last three years your country has:

Allowed its own electoral system to be made a mockery of, by a presidential candidate. Who is allowed to cheat his way into the most powerful job in the world.

THEN held up its particular brand of democracy as an example for the world, even to the point of attempting to force it on other countries at gunpoint.

Unjustifiably and illegally invaded two sovereign nations, causing the deaths of many thousands of innocent people.

Lied to the world in a desperate attempt to get justification to do this.

Established and run a concentration camp on leased foreign land. Where prisoners are held for two years or more without charge, or even adequate identification. Where torture and denial of human rights have taken place.

If a past president can come close to being impeached for an extra-marital affair, surely Dubya has committed impeachable offences 63,000 times over. It's a truly horrendous and urgent situation.

Yet - what's the worst thing that'll happen? - Dubya may not get a second term.

Yes, the American public are responsible for atrocities committed in their name. Who's in a better position to stop them and doesn't?

I didn't write the following, but I wish I had. I found it on another BBC message board and I'm sure the writer won't mind me reproducing it here.

_____________________________________

The Real State Of The Union Speech.

Forget the speech full of empty promises, forget the media platitudes and ersatz adulations, forget wishful thinking. If you want to know the real state of the union, take a good look with your eyes.

See the millions of unemployed, many with advanced college degrees? THAT is the state of the union.

See the high-paying jobs flowing to other countries? THAT is the state of the union.

See the dollar in decline and nothing left to arrest the fall? THAT is the state of the union.

See corporate executives looting their own companies and then walking free? THAT is the state of the union.

See the schools that lack basic supplies? THAT is the state of the union.

See the closed emergency rooms? THAT is the state of the union.

See the holes in the roads? THAT is the state of the union.

See the rolling blackouts? THAT is the state of the union.

See the defense budget bloat to half a trillion dollars? THAT is the state of the union.

See the new nuclear weapons the US Government is building? THAT is the state of the union.

See the billions in tax dollars pouring out to foreign governments? THAT is the state of the union.

See the American women and children sleeping in alleys and eating out of trash dumpsters? THAT is the state of the union.

See the empty storefronts and commercial vacancies? THAT is the state of the union.

See the closed factories, the rusted foundries, and the abandoned mills? THAT is the state of the union.

See the soaring bankruptcies and foreclosures? THAT is the state of the union.

See the poverty and starvation? THAT is the state of the union.

And then there are the things you don't see.

You don't see those nuclear weapons Iraq was supposed to be building. But we invaded Iraq anyway. THAT is the state of the union.

You don't see chemical or biological weapons we were all assured Saddam had. But we invaded Iraq anyway. THAT is the state of the union.

And most of all you don't see the United States looked up to as a bastion of freedom, law, and democracy any more. You don't see the United States looked upon as a moral leader any more. You don't see the United States looked on as a leader in technology any more.

And THAT, my fellow Americans, is the real state of the union.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3414741.stm

The US has opposed a WHO initiative to reduce global obesity. Says it all, doesn't it?

It's Kyoto all over again. Rather than accept responsibility along with the rest of the world, America employs any means necessary to weasel out of their responsibilities and swaddle their irresponsible, indiscriminate multinationals.

A favourite tactic is to "question the science" a code term for 'stay in denial long enough to confuse the issue'.

ES, I'd have thought you'd have known better than to put

"You profess to be a liberal American (the ultimate contradiction in terms)."

If you read Dude Where's My Country you'll discover that in fact the vast majority of Americans are liberal.

I'm guessing that your apparent vitriol is because the NZ government had the backbone to stand up to Bush and so were left out of the coalition of the blackmailed, bribed and coerced. Meaning NZ companies won't be getting any of those lucrative rebuilding contracts. If you're not from NZ I appologise, I'm not entirly sure where I got that impression from.

Empty Sky is an ultra-liberal who uses the tactics of the ultra-right wing within America. He ignores all reasoning and just keeps shouting his point, until all opposition is quelched. I've seen the same thing on campus from ultra-liberals. THe main difference is they don't have their own news network.

Maybe that's why Empty works so hard here...he's got his own grassroots, extremist news network to run here on hootoo.

dave

remember when Empty Sky was complaining about Americans driving the gas-guzzling ford F-150? Here's some exciting news: on the thread linked below, Empty, Della & Math Wizard are discussing how great a sports car the Audi S4 is, how it can go 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F96546?thread=367070&show=20&skip=0&lpcr=0 It's good to see that Empty DOESN'T practice what he preaches. Sports cars waste more gas than trucks - at least with a truck you have some functional use (carry cargo, rough roads). A sports car just lets you break traffic laws more easily. Let alone the fact that a sports car encourages driving for the sake of driving - if that's what you like, why not just set a pool of gas on fire and watch the thick black cloud rise into the (formerly empty) sky? dave

It is making me weary.

I've always thought that it'd be fun to export some of the European trucks and 4wd's to the US, then you could have the power and be able to boast about how cheap it is to run. I know Willus pretty much invented the 4wd, but the best 4x4 in the world is Brittish, oh wait a minute, they're now owned by ford, just like Jaguar and Aston Martin. Ok, but it *was* Brittish

The sad thing is that before the Range Rover became the Yuppie minivan it is here in the states now, it was a great utilitarian 4WD, but because of trade restrictions they were prohibitively priced here in the states. Of course now that Generalismo Busho is in power and the 'Environment be damned' attitude prevails, these gas guzzling yuppie tanks, such as the Hummer and Excursion now get very significant tax BREAKS!!!

Yeah, those Hummer's are pretty much the most ridiculous thing on the road.

As Arnold Swarzenemer could have said,

"I'll be back... ing over my dog"

I've yet to see one with mud on the fenders.

When they first started selling them, my dad talked to a very proud (read: obnoxious-gloating-trying-to-rationalize-his-huge-expenditure-and-conspicuous-consumption) new owner of one. This fellow bragged that his new Hummer could go Anywhere. My dad, without missing a beat said"My two wheel drive Ford pickup (Cowboy Cadillac, dirty messy simple farm truck) could go places that Hummer couldn't touch. The Hummer owner had never been to East Texas and the backroads therein. This area is known as the "piney woods" and nothing wider than a bog-standard truck can get between the trees on many of the actual 'roads'. So much for that Hummer.

Um, I think some of Empty Sky's points in post 6386 are pretty good,
specifically paragraphs 5 through 14.

I want to discuss the last one, though, which goes:

<>

There *used* to be a lot of Americans who felt that way, in the 1960s. See, the way the political system is *supposed* to work is that an outraged citizenry elects gadflies like U.S. Rep Robert Drinan or Paul "Pete" McCloskey. Who do we have nowadays that can still do anti-war fire and brimstone? Poor old Ted Kennedy, who has a bad back and (maybe) a hangover, who is viewed by some (including some constituents) as hopelessly outdated but has to be humored because (like the late Strom Thurmond) he will soon be retiring one way or another.

What happened to the post-World-War-II generation that spawned Woodstock, rioted in Chicago in 1968, and forced a U.S. President (Lyndon Johnson) into retirement? Some became stockbrokers. Most settled into a straight lifestyle and became much like any other generation. Their children (The latchkey generation, a.k.a. Generation X) may rebel in their own way, as individuals, but you won't likely see an *organized* resistance to Bush administration policies from them. Politics may just not be their thing.

Then there's John Kerry, a Senator who served in Vietnam and is now running for President. But he was never really the fire-and-brimstone type. He doesn't excite people like Robert Kenedy.

Dave - it's funny where the extreme left ends, and the extreme right begins...

Indeed. The extreme right meets the extreme left somewhere on the other side of the great Möbius strip of political thought, where logic is so twisted by hatred that there really is only one side left, ipso facto making the two identical.

I hate to abaondon that analogy just when I was starting to like it, but what scares me is that both extremes are more and more looking at political moderates as their worst enemies, consequently forging a surreal alliance of sorts. Perhaps a better phrase is a common-need based fanatic attitude towards conversion: the notorious "join us or die!" Such logic seems to be not far removed from that used by thouse who decry "the end of the world is nigh!" and that if we do nothing less than join their fanatic cause, then we are little more than walking zombies that don't deserve to live our lives in peace but in pieces.

Hey ho.

- JD