The Only Daily That Comes Out
Weekly
Issue #186
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The Only Daily That Comes Out
Weekly
Issue #186
is brought to you by
Antarctica in the year 2020
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Posted May 16, 2006   The De Beers Theory of the
Iraq War
by Michael Dare
Nobody knows precisely what diamonds
would actually be worth in a free and open marketplace, but considering the fact
that "gem" quality diamonds have no worth other than as adornment, it's safe to
assume the current retail price of approximately $6,500 per carat the size of a
pea is about 100 times what they're really worth.
The De Beers Group has a monopoly on the
diamond market and have used the universal law of supply and demand (The
lower the supply and the greater the demand, the higher the price) to drive up
the price enormously. They use their position as the world's largest diamond
distributor to create an artificial scarcity, hoarding the product of their
African mines and only allowing a certain amount on the marketplace every year.
Since 1938, their "A Diamond is
Forever" ad campaign has hoodwinked America, their largest market, into
believing that diamonds are the only suitable gift for a man to give a woman
upon their engagement. Before the ad campaign, the idea of diamond engagement
rings was non-existent. Lately, they have inundated the airwaves with ads trying
to convince men they should marry their wives AGAIN, buying them another
overpriced rock to prove their love. These ads are particularly successful
because they don't even mention a brand name, just a product, a product whose
market they happen to control almost in its entirety. The ads also convince
consumers that only a new diamond will do, so the market in used diamonds is
negligible and their resale value extremely low.
So what would you do if you were the
oil industry? You'd drive up the price of oil by using the same universal law of
supply and demand. You'd increase the demand by getting the government to ease
minimum MPG requirements and by getting everyone to buy SUVs that get hideous
gas mileage, and you'd decrease the already diminishing supply by closing
refineries and invading foreign countries with oil, NOT to put the oil on the
marketplace but to PREVENT the oil from getting to the marketplace, just like De
Beers, and just like De Bush.
Iraq's oil output is half what it was
before we invaded. SUVs are the most popular vehicles on the road. Half the
oil refineries in the state of California have closed in the last decade. Gas
was only $1.60 a gallon way back in 2000 when Bush literally "took" office. De
Bush has fulfilled his campaign promise to Exxon to double the price of gas
during his term. Maybe some day they'll name an oil tanker after him. Then he'll
be as cool as Condoleezza.
What the Mona Lisa Thinks of The Da Vinci
Code
A lot of very smart people are taken in by hoaxes
concocted by other very smart people, and I'm often quite surprised when someone
I admire and respect forwards me an e-mail that obviously isn't true. I always
try to set the record straight, and I once had the dubious pleasure of informing
a UCLA professor that there was literally no way to track forwarded e-mail and
that Bill Gates wasn't going to give any money to a crippled child if I
forwarded his message to everyone on my list.
There have been two anti-Bill Clinton e-mails
making the rounds for years, one calling him a felon for dodging the
draft and another blaming
9/11 on his inaction in previous terrorist attacks. (Hell if I'm going to
reprint them here. The links take you to the Snopes site which reprints them and
labels them both "false.") Both e-mails are clearly full of lies and
distortions. Among other things, one blames 9/11 on Bill Clinton because he
didn't take any action after the World Trade Center bombings of 1993. I'm no
great fan of Bill Clinton, but that doesn't change the fact that the Clinton
administration not only chased down the culprits of the bombing but caught them.
Four remain in jail to this day.
The latest e-mail making the rounds pastes
these two different hoaxes together and mysteriously concludes that because of
these lies about Bill, we shouldn't vote for Hillary. Of course there are plenty
of legitimate reasons not to vote for Hillary but these ancient hoaxes about her
husband aren't two of them.
I received this scurrilous piece of blather from
Linda Lightfoot, and since I'd already received both halves dozens of times, I
proceeded to inform her that she was the victim of a hoax, and since the hoax
said "send this to everyone you know," perhaps the right thing to do would be to
inform the people she sent it to that it was a hoax so the hoax wouldn't be
perpetuated. I've done this many times in the past, and everyone has agreed to
help stop the madness. Not Linda, who responded with this...
Oh my goodness gracious. She called me a liberal.
Talk about blaming the messenger. I hold all politicians in equal disdain, not
"equall" disdain (cheap shot), but this has nothing to do with people
disagreeing, "free speech," "freedom of thought," or my "beliefs." It has to do
with fact or fiction. That kid in England doesn't really want your get well
cards, George Carlin didn't really say what the e-mail says he did, ironing your
mail won't kill anthrax spores, nobody's got a million bucks in a foreign bank
that they can't get out without your help, and whatever else may be despicable
about Bill Clinton, he didn't father a black "love child," he's not a felon for
dodging the draft, and his inaction in 1993 didn't cause 9/11.
Since Lightfoot refused or was too lazy to check
the facts, I've decided to do her homework for her.
The e-mail is attributed to "Cdr. Hamilton McWhorter USN (ret)," the first
F6F Hellcat Ace, and a genuine war hero.
According to Break the
Chain, an organization devoted to stopping junk e-mail and misinformation,
the 9/11 e-mail was making the rounds for more than a year before McWhorter's
name magically appeared on it, so chances are it was just added by someone to
give the piece credibility. Lightfoot's latest amalgamation of two hoaxes is
still signed by McWhorter, giving him credit for both, which is
unquestionably not true.
I wrote the following to the webmaster of the site
with the McWhorter tribute page...
His response...
Here's what I believe...
1) If you get an e-mail from a mass mailing that
says "send this to everyone on your list" at the bottom, it is almost
unquestionably a hoax and you should check it out first. Go to Snopes, or Break the Chain, or any of the dozens of
other hoax debunking sites before forwarding it.
2) If you discover you have mistakenly sent out
bad information that asks the reader to forward the bad information, it is your
duty as a decent human being to apologize for your mistake and retract the
statement in order to prevent the bad information from continuing to be
forwarded.
3) If you deliberately send out bad information in a lame attempt to be
funny, like I do all the time, you're exempt.
Linda's forwarded e-mail wasn't a joke. For
breaking these rules, and for taking a page from the Karl Rove handbook and
refusing to refute the charges or defend the actual material but instead
responding with a personal attack on the messenger, I'm afraid Linda Lightfoot
gets my deluded idiot of the week award.
And, of course, in the interest of free speech, I
welcome the opportunity to print her reply.
MD
"Accept my words only when you have examined them for yourselves; do not
accept them simply because of the reverence you have for me. Those who only have
faith in me and affection for me will not find the final freedom. But those who
have faith in the truth and are determined on the path, they will find
awakening."
- Majjhima Nikaya -
Apology of the
Week
Last week I said there needed to be a "day with ignorance." I meant to say
"a say WITHOUT ignorance." Sorry about that.
The Breyer's Ice
Cream ad was a hoax perpetuated by me, so don't get mad at Breyers, get mad
at me, or whoever made it, or whoever sent it to me.
Sophistimicated Doowacky of
the Week
Check out this animation
of the nuclear bunker buster from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Fetus of the
Week
 Lawsuits of the Week
"A cheer went up at the
announcement of the twelve million dollar fine against Universal Music Group
(UMG) for bribery and pay-for-play activities (commonly called payola). This
comes after prior celebrations for the ten million dollar fine against Sony BMG
and the five million dollar fine against Warner Music Group for the same shoddy
business practices.
"All are nice enough news items. Eliot Spitzer, Attorney
General for the State of New York, who spearheaded these investigations, is to
be congratulated along with his entire staff, and they should be encouraged to
continue...
"It might be pointed out that clean air, access to healthcare,
decent roads, fair taxation, dedicated nursing homes, and less urban congestion
are more pressing issues. But still, its good that somebody had to pay some sort
of a fine for payola.
"The most recent fines were
payable to the State of New York, and will be distributed through the
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to New York State not-for-profit entities to
fund music education and appreciation programs. Okay, fine. But how much money
are they going to pay to the State of California? Or any of the other states? It
seems to me that all 49 remaining states are entitled to prosecute and collect.
After all, the deceptive business practices that mislead and cheated residents
of New York also affected the rest of us. Where's our state's money? Is your
state's Attorney General proceeding against all of these firms on your
behalf?..."
"All of the bribery was
conducted to boost artists careers and increase corporate revenue through the
use of artists talent. But Ill bet every dollar spent by the record companies
was charged off against the artists in question. Don't all these acts now need a
new accounting that shows where they were being illegally charged? The way
things now stand, it's as if the pimp got arrested and the money confiscated,
which means the girls who did all the work (the recording artists, in case
you're not following this analogy) are, you guessed it, getting screwed
again."
- Scott G: Millions for
New York, but Where's Your Share? -
"The Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31,
2006, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its
customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its
massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans'
communications.
"In December of 2005, the press revealed that the government
had instituted a comprehensive and warrantless electronic surveillance program
that ignored the careful safeguards set forth by Congress. This surveillance
program, purportedly authorized by the President at least as early as 2001 and
primarily undertaken by the NSA, intercepts and analyzes the communications of
millions of ordinary Americans.
"In the largest 'fishing expedition' ever devised, the NSA
uses powerful computers to 'data-mine' the contents of these Internet and
telephone communications for suspicious names, numbers, and words, and to
analyze traffic data indicating who is calling and emailing whom in order to
identify persons who may be 'linked' to 'suspicious activities,' suspected
terrorists or other investigatory targets, whether directly or indirectly.
"But the government did not act-and is not acting-alone...
The lawsuit alleges that AT&T Corp. has
opened its key telecommunications facilities and databases to direct access by
the NSA and/or other government agencies, thereby disclosing to the government
the contents of its customers' communications as well as detailed communications
records about millions of its customers, including the lawsuit's class
members."
Republican Joke of the
Week
A prostitute walks into a bar with a penguin on her head. The bartender
says "Where'd you get that?" and the penguin says "Rep. Randall 'Duke'
Cunningham's office, they're all over the place. Want
one?"
New Google Feature of the
Week
 Answer to Last Issue's
Stupid Questions
Let's say there was a
game show called "The Decline of Western Civilization" hosted by David Blaine.
What would it be?
And what are your hotel requirements?
Stupid Questions of the Week
Linda Lightfoot's e-mail contained a list of
everyone she sent it to. Since she refuses, should
I just forward the Snopes links to all of them?
Why the fuck are the season finales of House,
Boston Legal, and Scrubs all on at the
same time?
Side note: What is the one thing about House
that makes it one of the most groundbreaking shows on television? Every other
mystery show, whether medical or legal or detective, you have a chance of
figuring it out. Not House. No chance in hell of figuring it out. It
always turns out to be something you couldn't have guessed in a million years,
some weird esoteric thing only House knows. Goes entirely against the grain.
Should be frustrating. Shouldn't work. Does.
Gallery of the
Week
 Worldmapper is a collection of
world maps where territories are re-sized
on each map according to the subject
of interest. This one shows the world
resized by refugees and internally
displaced persons living
there.
Satan Doesn't Want
You to Know
If you put a bar of Ivory soap in the
microwave and nuke it on high for 90 seconds, it will grow and expand
into a grotesque, otherworldly shape, then harden and stay that way. This
only works with Ivory because of the whipped air in it.
Kansas raised its minimum marriage age to 15.
Don't Take My Word for
It
"Good evening my fellow Americans. In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the
decision to elect me as your 43rd President, I knew the road ahead would be
difficult. We have accomplished so much, yet challenges lie ahead.
"In
the last six years, we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have
predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now
on the attack. As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts
of upper Michigan and northern Maine. But I assure you, we will not let the
glaciers win."
"Wow, wow, what an honor. The White House
correspondents' dinner. To just sit here, at the
same table with my hero, George W. Bush, to be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what - I'm a pretty sound sleeper, that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face... "I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he
stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like
aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a
strong message: that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound
- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.
"Now, there may be an energy crisis. This president has
a very forward-thinking energy policy. Why do you think he's down on the ranch
cutting that brush all the time? He's trying to create an alternative energy
source. By 2008 we will have a mesquite-powered car!...
"The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You
know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on
Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs
never will.
"As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am
appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying
America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every
story: the president's side, and the vice president's side...
"Here's how it works: the president makes decisions.
He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people
of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em
through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to
your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the
one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the
administration. You know - fiction!
"Because really, what incentive do these people have to
answer your questions, after all? I mean, nothing satisfies you. Everybody asks
for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write,
"Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." First of all,
that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This
administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck
chairs on the Hindenburg!"
- Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondent's
Dinner: read or watch the whole thing here -
"According to ABC News, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation has been quietly going after the phone records of news reporters as part of its investigations of leaks of information
of government employees. An entry posted
Monday evening on The Blotter, an ABC News blog, by investigative reporters Brian Ross and Richard
Esposito, reports that, 'The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is
increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations. "It used
to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush
administration," said a senior federal official.'"
"What makes the Internet revolutionary is that
it is democratic, open to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.
That could soon change.
"As In These Times went to press, the
House was setting to vote on the 'Communications Opportunity Promotion and
Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006,' a bill written by the telephone and cable TV
corporations. Among other provisions, the act formally guts what is known as the
First Amendment of the Internetnetwork neutrality. (The Senate will consider a
similar bill in late May or early June.)
"Net neutrality ensures that the public can view
the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site and prevents
companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field for only the
highest-paying sites and services, says Timothy Karr, the campaign director for
Free Press, a media reform organization. Karr is coordinating
SavetheInternet.com, a bipartisan coalition working to preserve network
neutrality.
"By not including network neutrality protections, the
COPE Act upholds a 2005 ruling from the Federal Communications Commission that
allows Internet service providers - telephone companies like AT&T and
Verizon - and cable companies like Comcast - to charge Web content creators a
fee to make their sites readily accessible.
"For example, take a filmmaker who wants to produce a
documentary and distribute it to the public on his Web site. Under this new
legislation, a service provider like AT&T would be able to charge the
filmmaker for making his content available to their customers. Or, if AT&T
did not approve of the documentary, it could refuse to let its customers access
it all together - thereby allowing corporate censorship of a medium now
characterized by the freewheeling exchange of ideas. In effect, the legislation
allows the telecom industry to become the tollbooth operator on the information
superhighway. The Internet will begin to look like cable TV, where viewers can
only choose from available options."
- Joel Bleifuss: Information Highway
Robbers -
"We have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no
matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or
a Jew lends tacit validity to this status quo. People have morally identified
with a subset of humanity rather than with humanity as a whole...
"There is no text more barbaric than the Old Testament
of the Bible - books like Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Exodus. The Qur'an pales
in comparison.
"Not only is the character of God diabolical in those
books, but there are explicit prescriptions for how to live that are not
metaphors; they are not open to theological judo. God just comes right out and
says 'stone people' for a list of offenses so preposterous and all-encompassing
that the killing never stops. You have to kill people for working on the
Sabbath. You kill people for fornication...
"But the Qur'an, virtually on every page, is a manifesto
for religious intolerance. I invite readers of your website who haven't read the
Qur'an to simply read the book. Take out a highlighter and highlight those lines
that counsel the believer to despise infidels, and you will find a book that is
just covered with highlighter...
"[I]f the president of the U.S. started talking about
how Saturn was coming into the wrong quadrant and is therefore not a good time
to launch a war, one would hope that the whole White House press corps would
descend on him with a straitjacket. This would be terrifying - to hear somebody
with so much power basing any part of his decision-making process on something
as disreputable as astrology. Yet we don't have the same response when he's
clearly basing some part of his deliberation on faith."
- Sam Harris: Why Religion Must
End -
"It is of the greatest importance to guard one part of the society against
the injustice of the other."
- James Madison: The Federalist -
"He wasn't warning the poor to be leery of the rich. It was ass-end around:
he was tipping the well-off to watch out for the mob... He didn't plead with his
kind to curb their greed. Far from it: he stressed the need to restrain the
needy. Beware of the numerous, he said, for they lust after the fruits of their
doings, and you own all but all."
- John Sanford explaining what James Madison meant in The
Federalist: from Intruders in Paradise -
"Henry Ford turned back to the Government every cent of profit made from
war contracts."
- Publicity department, Ford Motor Company -
"The Treasury Dept. has no record of any refund from the Ford Motor
Company."
- Andrew Mellon, Secretary -
"Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who
aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think
we're stupid."
- Jules Feiffer -
"To be ignorant of one's
ignorance is the malady of the ignorant."
- Amos Bronson Alcott - "The motto ('In God We Trust')
stated a lie. If this nation ever trusted in God, that time has gone by; for
nearly half a century its entire trust has been in the Republican Party and the
dollar - mainly the dollar."
- Mark Twain - "Covert operations have never done this country any good. They may give a
momentary advantage to the people who are in power at a particular moment, but
in terms of the interests of this country as a whole, they have proven
disastrous. There isn't a single one, in thirty years, that you can point to and
say, well, that was one that we are now better off, more secure, and happier as
a result of. Every one of them has, in its own way, contributed to the
deterioration of security in the world we live in, and so it's really time to
stop them."
- Peter Dale Scott -
"One thing
is absolutely certain; Bush will stick by his constituents to the bitter end. It
is physically impossible for him to act in the interests of the American people.
He won't be deterred by the falling dollar, the deflating housing market, or the
skyrocketing energy prices...
"Betting
that George Bush will do the wrong thing for the nation is not a matter of
conjecture; it is a mathematical certainty. He is deliberately destroying the
middle class, the prospects for upward mobility, and the currency. The economic
underpinnings of American democracy have been demolished in just 6 short years.
Smart people will prepare themselves for the typhoon ahead."
- Mike Whitney: Preparing for the Economic Typhoon - "This is the most major constitutional crisis since the Civil War. You have
a president who is unaccountable and says that its his interpretation of what
laws he'll select to obey. When you have that, you have a constitutional
crisis."
- Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-Texas, about Ronald Reagan during the
Iran-Contra hearings in 1987 -
"Mr. President,
"You are familiar with history. Aside from the Middle
Ages, in what other point in history has scientific and technical progress been
a crime? Can the possibility of scientific achievements being utilized for
military purposes be reason enough to oppose science and technology altogether?
If such a supposition is true, then all scientific disciplines, including
physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, engineering, etc. must be
opposed...
"September Eleven was a horrendous incident. The killing
of innocents is deplorable and appalling in any part of the world. Our
government immediately declared its disgust with the perpetrators and offered
its condolences to the bereaved and expressed its sympathies.
"All governments have a duty to protect the lives,
property and good standing of their citizens. Reportedly your government employs
extensive security, protection and intelligence systems and even hunts its
opponents abroad. September eleven was not a simple operation. Could it be
planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security
services or their extensive infiltration? Of course this is just an educated
guess. Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we
not told who botched their responsibilities? And, why aren't those responsible
and the guilty parties identified and put on trial?
"All governments have a duty to provide security and
peace of mind for their citizens. For some years now, the people of your country
and neighbours of world trouble spots do not have peace of mind. After 9/11,
instead of healing and tending to the emotional wounds of the survivors and the
American people who had been immensely traumatized by the attacks, some Western
media only intensified the climates of fear and insecurity, some constantly
talked about the possibility of new terror attacks and kept the people in fear.
Is that service to the American people? Is it possible to calculate the damages
incurred from fear and panic?
"American citizens lived in constant fear of fresh
attacks that could come at any moment and in any place. They felt insecure in
the streets, in their place of work and at home. Who would be happy with this
situation? Why was the media, instead of conveying a feeling of security and
providing peace of mind, giving rise to a feeling of insecurity?
"Some believe that the hype paved the way and was the
justification for an attack on Afghanistan. Again I need to refer to the role of
media.
"In media charters, correct dissemination of information
and honest reporting of a story are established tenets. I express my deep regret
about the disregard shown by certain Western media for these principles. The
main pretext for an attack on Iraq was the existence of WMDs. This was repeated
incessantly for the public to, finally, believe and the ground set for an attack
on Iraq.
"Will the truth not be lost in a contrive and deceptive
climate?...
"Those in power have specific time in office, and do not
rule indefinitely, but their names will be recorded in history and will be
constantly judged in the immediate and distant futures. The people will
scrutinize our presidencies.
"Did we manage to bring peace, security and prosperity
for the people or insecurity and unemployment?
"Did we intend to establish justice, or just supported
special interest groups, and by forcing many people to live in poverty and
hardship, made a few people rich and powerful thus trading the approval of the
people and the Almighty with theirs?
"Did we defend the rights of the underprivileged or
ignore them?
"Did we defend the rights of all people around the world
or imposed wars on them, interfered illegally in their affairs, established
hellish prisons and incarcerated some of them?
"Did we bring the world peace and security or raised the
specter of intimidation and threats?
"Did we tell the truth to our nation and others around
the world or presented an inverted version of it?
"Were we on the side of people or the occupiers and
oppressors?
"Did our administration set out to promote rational
behaviour, logic, ethics, peace, fulfilling obligations, justice, service to the
people, prosperity, progress and respect for human dignity or the force of guns.
"Intimidation, insecurity, disregard for the people,
delaying the progress and excellence of other nations, and trample on peoples
rights?
"And finally, they will judge us on whether we remained
true to our oath of office to serve the people, which is our main task, and the
traditions of the prophets or not?...
"Mr. President,
"How much longer can the world tolerate this situation?
Where will this trend lead the world to? How long must the people of the world
pay for the incorrect decisions of some rulers? How much longer will the specter
of insecurity raised from the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction hunt the
people of the world?
"How much longer will the blood of the innocent men,
women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over
their heads?
"Are you pleased with the current condition of the
world?
"Do you think present policies can continue?
"If billions of dollars spent on security, military
campaigns and troop movement were instead spent on investment and assistance for
poor countries, promotion of health, combating different diseases, education and
improvement of mental and physical fitness, assistance to the victims of natural
disasters, creation of employment opportunities and production, development
projects and poverty alleviation, establishment of peace, mediation between
disputing states and distinguishing the flames of racial, ethnic and other
conflicts where would the world be today? Would not your government, and people
be justifiably proud? Would not your administration's political and economic
standing have been stronger? And I am most sorry to say, would there have been
an ever increasing global hatred of the American governments?"
-
Mahmood Ahmadi-Najad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Full Text: The
President of Iran's Letter To President Bush -
"All of the hand-wringing
currently circulating among the pundit class about the rising tide of 'Bush
hatred' misunderstands the nature of what really is happening. They mistake
anger for hatred -- though in the case of conservatives, it's fair to say that
the confusion is intentional.
"Anger, for the most part, is a
righteous and largely rational thing - it arises from genuine grievances, and is
typically a response to outrages of some form or another. Hatred, on the other
hand, is an irrational thing; it comes from deep in the soul, and is usually an
expression of some deep-seated imbalance on the part of the hater. Naturally, if
anger is allowed to fester unaddressed long enough, it can easily mutate into
hatred. But they are distinctive in nature...
"But, as I have argued at
length previously, the majority of this 'hatred' is predicated on real
policies and real actions by both Bush and his administration. This is not
hatred: it is anger -- real, righteous and well-grounded
anger.
"Anger can be a healthy thing, especially if it is based on solid reasons and real grievances. Anger over real injustices motivated the American Revolution, the anti-slavery and civil-rights movements, and women's suffrage. History is replete with righteous anger. "Anger only becomes unhealthy hatred if it festers. And one of the ways it can fester is if the grievances underlying them are dismissed out of hand as irrational - not just by the perpetrators of the injustices, but by the supposed allies of the victims." - David Neiwert (Orcinus): Rightous Anger -
"42.7% of statistics are made up on the spot."
- Steven Wright - "Too much of a conscience is the death of
comedy."
- Alan Zweibel
-
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
habit."
- Aristotle -
"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
- William G. McAdoo -
"Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the
victim."
- Bertrand Russell -
"If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire
catalogue."
- Sears, Roebuck, and Co. Consumer's Guide, 1897
-
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The Best of Disinfotainment Today - 2005 A Year of Journalism with the Crap Removed  |
Last Disinfotainment Today,
Issue
#185, was much better than this one,
and so is Issue #187.
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