Sulaco

Why?

Hey hey - to be fair I am sure Higgly concentrates on cleaning up his backyard. I am sure he spends hours lobbying the Canuckie government to reign in mining giants like Talisman or Placer Dome - even when the government is Liberal - because that is where Higgly has any power of the vote. I am certain that he concentrates there rather than whining on this board about Bush's evil. Counless letters leave Higgly's home with addresses of various MPs, mine corp officials, oxfam and other interested parties, in order to reign in Canadian companies' destructive policies.

Oxymoron?

That's just the kind of platitude that makes me cringe. This is what we call enlightened? Australopithecus are also our "ancestors" - think before you speak. Sorry - just read Jerry Galinda's collection of bromides in another thread. Why do these stupid slogans obscure intelligent discussion so often? Answer: most people are kinda dumb.

It's not footnoted. And it's merely a collection of links. And I don't link to external websites.

Oy vey. What silliness. The chosen people, god bless them, have committed genocide several times - apparently because they were justified in doing so by God. Atheist have killed millions, but I guess they did it for rational reasons and rational philosophies rather than faith. People kill each other. That is not to say qualitiative and quantitative comparisons cannot be made - as long as yous tart from the baselines that humans do kill each other - often en masse. And neither qualitatively, nor quantitatively, do crusading Christian fundamentalists hold sway, in the body of Christianity, to the same extent that jihadists do in Islam. Finally - I am not sure your exemplary Christian death cult is calling for suicide bombings or jihad - rather it seems to me they are patiently waiting for god to bring it all about. See? A qualitative difference.

Yeah, I hope to god as well - because if you are - well that was a peaceful act by a nation seeking to extend a hand of friendship to a bunch o' wussy brits. It was a cultural exchange. I-Pods were synchronized.

To inform. And I prefer to think of it as a tirade. What is the point of your question? Were you hoping for a different answer?

Oh sod off you pretentious little napoleon. Is it not enough that you screwed up a whole board - do you now have to peddle your BS everywhere else? For anyone who might not know Mr. Hardner - for the sake of his argument he will twist anything and everything. He is a spin-meister with little to no honour. He will play at being in the middle ground while he slowly attempts to screw you. Heck - if it was only willfull behavior that was at issue he wouldn't be so bad - but this man's psychological issues are so sublimated that much of the time he believes he is doing good, that he is being kind. Here for instance he has been making misrepresentations for multiple posts - but not only is he burying the lies in sugar to make them more paletable to all of you, I think partl;y he does it because he thinks by lying he is doing good. Hardner is the ultimate totalitarian bureaucrat personality - if you let him he will helpfully set down guidelines, and engage in carefully sweet paternalisitc lying, and he will altruistically not even ask for your thanks as he carries out this "work that someone must do." And when things go to pot - as they did on the web board he moderated to death, he will run off for somewhere else to begin anew - being helpful. And enjoying that disgusting power that scum like him believe they have. He is the ultimate soviet apparatchink - but a low level one.

That is not entirely correct. One doesn't get to engage in societal behaviors and take advantage of their fruitand then disclaim all responsibility for the actions of others in the vartious groupings one participates in. The question in my view is how far does that responsibility go, and what conseqences are permissible. Does collective responsibility permit collective punishment and if so to what extent. Ultimately, one of the few defences of terrorism that has any feet, is that which is based on concepts of collective responsibility. Thus while I decry obvious terrorism - pure targetting of civilians for the sake of political results - there are many more nuances positions between such activity and the decision of two armies to meet on a battlefield far from civilian populations.

I don't click on external links. So where exactly does this quote of yours support your claim that the US (CIA) armed and funded the coup leaders? I am going to report you for flaming.

Oh - I don't click on links to external sites. I was hoping for a definition from you. Perhaps with citation to a footnoted academic source.

Ooops, I get it. Funny. But Higgly is liable to believe.

So Chilean Armed forces were trained and armed by the CIA. Care to back that strange claim up?

God forbid the military juna be seen as "the real villain." Anyone else notice this strange, pathological drive to avoid blaming those who are most directly to blame?

"Action" was a deified concept in fascist Italy. That action was the core of fascism; and from it all policies flowed. Polcies were to be picked on the ground that they permitted the nation-state to move toward its goals. Communitartianism and corporatism - "hallmarks" of fascism were hallmarks only because Mussolini thought they would permit smoother, more efficient, action. Fascism was ultimately an ideology of "pragmatism" - and as with all ultra-pragmatism that just meant personal biases were raised over any principles by being assigned lables of "efficient" and "effective". That's why I've always loved Nike's campaign.

After winning a victory against small pox the surviving small pox populations were placed into reservations at various Western Laboratories in case the disease should somehow resurface again under a new guise. I think it's time to start returning land to the descendants of those smallpox victimized by the West. Worse yet - the west has, by providing cheaper modes of transport created whole countries were multiple contagions battle for the possession of host bodies. The west could not have thought that Malaria and the Sleeping sickness might coexist in any one country peacefully. It was really an attempt to make sure none of the these contagions could prosper, so that that the west could always have a well of contagion to exploit. And I should add that I do believe had Africa not been devided in such a manner that two or more contagions are forced to coexist in single political entities, these contagions would have kept to their territories and all conflict would have been averted. Hmm... And what next? A renewed war on meningitis. Fighting tuberculosis just produces more and better tuberculosis bacteria. But I am being facetious. What I am really sorry for is that western nations are attempting to build hygene infrastructure in the 3rd world. Roman imperialism reborn.

What's a "neocon"?

Having come from an East European country I feel I don't have to take responsibility for anything except I guess Stalin. Though I am sorry Vienna was saved from the Muslims by a Polish king, his knights, and the thousands of serfs. Having adopted the West as my home, having made the explicit choice, I feel I arguably bear more responsibility for the West's sins than do Morris or ScottSa. After all my endorsment of the West is fully active. Thus I am conflicted. I am sorry that the West provided technologies that did away with serfdom, that the west provided a culture that is superior to Eastern Orthodox mysticim and that had infuenced even thouse countries were the orthodox still hold sway - cultural emperialism. I am sorry also to all the Easterners that Western companies continue to work on genetically engineered crops that might permit those same Easterners, who have been so resistant to rationalized farming methods, to become self sufficient without very much work at all. Afterall, they did not take western technical knowhow so it looks like it will have to be embedded in plant genetics. I am sorry that western medicine has been so promulgated in the pursuit of betterment and that as an unlucky result sticking thousands of needles into people is not nearly as prevalent a curative approach as it otherwise would be. I am sorry that my tax dollars went to an attempt to end starvation as warfare is Somalia. I am sorry the Serbs were put in their place by western bombs. I am sorry awww lordy am I sorry. So on so forth ad infinitum. You know good comes with the bad - from the west far more good than bad.

Umm no - they were trained, funded and armed by the Chilean Armed Forces.

Oy vey. You're just hoping the CIA will throw some money your way to shut off the fount of TRVTH that you otherwise are.

Standard misconception - the CIA is competent. It is arrived at by taking a left-wing world view thgat, to maintain its assumptions, must ascribe to the CIA and the al-mighty dollar, powers far beyond the fantastical. The coup in CHile took place, primarily, because the officert corps, mainly drawn on from the middle class, influenced by discontent and fear amongst that same middle class, decided they could not let a socialist hold power. TYhe US acquiesced in the coup and gave assurances of political support. They did not mind control officers, they did not pay them off. It is a ridiculous assertion to say otherwise. Rather they prodded what was rolling already. Thewy did not engineer, the merely provided and extra push to what was being engineered. This is the truth about Chile and about most coups in Latin America. They are domestically inspired by discontent with the elected governmenbt, and by the military's tie to one class or another. What about Russia? When have the CIA ever succeeded in Cuba. The fact is Musharraf is unpopular in Pakistan. Chances are you dislike him as well. But the boogyman is better target and ypour boogyman is the incompetent CIA. Bah!

Are you suggesting that the High Courts in Pakistan are part of the US judiciary system?

Ok - that's not a harmelss pank. That's not even a risque joke. That, instead, is objectively abhorent bahavior. I cannot conceive that it should be criminal - but it certainly should be looked down upon as the worst of bigotted caricaturizing.

Except that generally, in democratic nations, would-be theorcrats are permitted to exist. They are even permitted to vote. And battle against them is done in papers, in public via argument, and at the ballot box. And thus goes democracy. Andf that's why national; borders are and will remain important. because some groups of people HAVE organized themselves in such a manner that theocrats are permitted to exist but are weaned off their dsire to use force and led to believe, ideally, that their positions could and should onyl be explored through democratic means. If I were an angry cynic I would see this article as far more damging than helping things. It is an attempt at dividing those nations which do organize themselves along democratic lines. It is an invitation to civili war in democratic satates while the Theocrats from outside, with the power of the nation state behind them push for victory. But in reality I suspect this man is just stupid. He obviously knows not how to differentiate between those theologies that have made their peace with democracy - and those that have not. How does the devil win? By making everyone look the devil.