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Who Killed Richard Swink?
Sorry to leave this here. I really miss the first part of what I wrote and failed to post, but I don't have time now to reconstruct it. Time to go to work, my friends.— October 29, 2009 12:35 a.m.
Who Killed Richard Swink?
Rickey, you make a good point. Anti-social behavior is commonplace in EVERY culture. Especially in cities. Violence, however, is a different story. America is way out front in the post-industrial world when it comes to committing acts of violence. We lead the world in imprisoning people too. USA! USA! USA! We can put the most away! Our typical universities are unrivaled in excellence. Our typical high schools are unrivaled in mediocrity. America was always "best" when it represented an ideal. Sadly, it doesn't do that so well anymore. Patriotism has become like religion...it's just not based on fact. And anyone who points out that other countries have a lot of things going for them (not bashing America, just saying others do some things better) hears the enraged snarls of zealots.— October 29, 2009 12:33 a.m.
Who Killed Richard Swink?
huh...the first half of the previous post was lost...weird...so that's why it starts so abruptly.— October 29, 2009 12:27 a.m.
Who Killed Richard Swink?
I readily agree that the USA is great in many ways. Doing business, for example, is far easier with less paperwork and taxes than elsewhere. Also, rude petty corruption is relatively rare in the USA (though we all know that polite massive corruption is far too common). Freedom happens to be important to me. I served four years in the Navy during Reagan's second term out of simple idealism. I hated what the communists were doing to their own people, prosecuting thought crimes, a repressive justice system and police that beat student protesters with impunity. When the wall fell, I came to Prague. I've kept coming back over the years. Freedom in the Czech Republic is far greater than in the USA. Czechs, as a general rule, are far better educated than most Americans and typically speak two or three languages. Reading books here is NORMAL and POPULAR. (Imagine that!) The women(on average)are far better looking than Americans. The beer here is the best in the world...and affordable. And back in America? The beer's gotten much better in the last twenty years, but the women have grown fatter and less attractive. Reading continues to decline. Multi-lingualism is rare. I think most will agree that our K-12 education system is in bad shape. Most importantly, freedom in the USA has been drastically curtailed in the last decade. The "land of the free" now willingly participates in a security-state charade, submitting to undeserving authority out of fear. Monitoring innocent citizens is common place, prosecutors and police have practical impunity for crimes, and machine gun toting stormtroopers are swarming in to bust up medical marijuana collectives. I'm still the same idealist, and now I have to recognize that my own country is going down the same path as the authoritarians of other regimes. It's hard to say America is the "best" when it betrays its own ideals so readily.— October 29, 2009 12:25 a.m.
Who Killed Richard Swink?
For those who are chanting "America better than any other country on the planet", let me ask a simple question... How would you know? Do you even have a passport? Have you visited other countries? For how long? Have you ever lived and worked in another country? Do you speak any language other than English? I love the country of my birth. There's a lot to admire about the USA. But it's far from the "best" in a lot of ways. Americans who repeat the "USA #1" line usually have no standing to make the claim, having never experienced living anywhere else. These same dolts react angrily when they're told that other countries do in fact have merits that exceed America's. Inevitably, they say "love it or leave it" or the asinine "don't let the door hit you on the way out". To them, I respond with a hearty "F*** You!" Until you've actually been somewhere else so that you CAN make a comparison, shut your pseudo-patriotic pie-holes.— October 27, 2009 11:34 p.m.
Oh, Tempura, Oh, Morels!
I am OUTRAGED! Yes, OUTRAGED! While all of you are nattering on about stuffing geese with baby food to make them fat and tasty, you are naively ignoring the far worse abuse we humans commit in the name of culinary exploration. Yes, I'm talking about the vicious murder of hundreds of thousands of living plants every day. We can all justify killing and eating animals. After all, they bite and can be quite dangerous. But innocent lovely plants...how can you justify destroying them merely to fill your fat immoral stomachs! Yes, you disgust me, you plant eaters. You are so vile and cruel, you even snip off the young plants' reproductive organs and present them to potential mates as part of your bizzare love rituals. What kind of sick threat is that anyway? From now on, I urge all of you to give up your terrible appetites for innocent foliage, roots, flowers, nuts, seeds, and fruits. The plants have never done you any harm, and it is horrible to contemplate what you do to them every day! (I suspect some of you even have house bound slave plants you keep indoors for your sick amusement. Disgusting!) Beware, or one day the plants shall rise up and take their revenge. For me, I'm giving up all plant related foods for good, and will only eat food that once had a face. Now is there a particular brand of foi gras you'd recommend? Best, Fred "Save the Flowers!" Williams— October 20, 2009 10:57 p.m.
Unfriendly skies
Burwell, who says Sanders has a 160 IQ?— October 10, 2009 11:35 p.m.
The Beatles vs. Dr. Dre
Josh, you're grumpy.— October 10, 2009 10:54 p.m.
Wright is Wrong -- Technology in Todays World
Dan Quayle is on facebook...lots. He's got over five million accounts. In all of them, he's registered as a girl. That's why women outnumber men on facebook. I'm having a ham and egg sandwhiche wright know. LOL. CUL8R!— October 10, 2009 10:43 p.m.
Unfriendly skies
In Czech, we call people "dement". It means stupid, so it's probably related to the same latin root that gives Spanish "mensa" and English "demented". No matter what you call it, turning a blind eye for decades to rampant steroid abuse by SDPD officers is just stupid. Have a look at some of the information available on the topic: http://www.mesomorphosis.com/articles/hoberman/co… http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/big_guns_poli… http://oceanbeachpoliceabuse.blogspot.com/2005/09… Best, Fred Williams (former member of the San Diego Crime Commission) (P.s. I'm unable to attend this meeting in person. I'm currently working in Prague. I participate as much as I can from a distance because my heart is always in San Diego.)— October 10, 2009 7:27 a.m.