tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5669238942080921290.post6547688278063241873..comments2024-01-03T03:14:58.642-08:00Comments on Short Shots: Stoking Anxiety for Fun and ProfitCase Wagenvoordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10598177456573356261noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5669238942080921290.post-63581028766032049072010-01-05T06:38:07.279-08:002010-01-05T06:38:07.279-08:00Ivan,
True, but he who has the most guns usually ...Ivan,<br /><br />True, but he who has the most guns usually goes bankrupt buying them.<br /><br />The tragedy is that our leaders think it is a chess game.Case Wagenvoordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10598177456573356261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5669238942080921290.post-86871357985574956422010-01-04T16:54:25.153-08:002010-01-04T16:54:25.153-08:00is porn the only winner during credit crunch?is porn the only winner during credit crunch?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5669238942080921290.post-83167273281839557752010-01-04T05:29:09.278-08:002010-01-04T05:29:09.278-08:00Well, either off-shored or sub-contracted: the lat...Well, either off-shored or sub-contracted: the latest estimate I've seen is that we have one independent contactor on the ground in Iraq/Afghanistan for every soldier we have there. This is a great way to keep the M-I complex whirring while disavowing direct responsibility. Even in 18th and 19th centuries nations did not sink to that level of self-deception.<br /><br />I knew all had run further amock when I looked at the Sunday "news" and saw that Obama has already been authorizing military support and weapons for activity in Yemen, and because of "threats" from the new arch enemy (Al-Queda in the Arabian Penninsula: oooh...really scarey) and the not-so-successful Christmas day airplane underwear bomber, both the US and Britian have shuttered their Yemenese embassies (absurd paranoia). And Michael Chertoff has monetary ties to the makers of full-body scanners...which will be installed in the US to used on travellers BEFORE THEY LEAVE the country????...And we will pat down people entering the country from "dangerous countries" AFTER they enter the US and have deplaned??? I'm confused. <br /><br />Meanwhile, as Sec of State, Hillary has raised $54 M to erect a US pavillion in Shanghai? Did I get that right? This will help US-Sino relations HOW, exactly? And this d fund raising is the job of the S of S since WHEN, exactly? <br /><br />Old white men (with no hair or white hair and/or expensive suits...and I am one) have been holding the empire-ical nations hostage and devising compliance through backwards thinking, fear and nostalgia ( things were much better back when...)for probably as long as anyone can remember or has been recorded: America wants it to be 1952, Israel would like for it to be 1948 and the Catholic Church would like for it to be the age of Augustine and "Holy" roamin' empires again. <br /><br />I recommend a trip through George Lakoff's "The Political Mind" as an antidote to this malady. And Paul Krugman (especially today 1/4/10) in the NYT or Robert Reich's blogspot.com will help clear up why our thinking economically is outdated, drives the military economics and lacks any rearward perspective. <br /><br />As an earlier column here documented, the Chinese have managed to be a nation of production (vs. our consumption)without complete dependence upon war machinery: if we stopped thinking like yesterday and focused on the needs of the future, we might not be in this unholy mess. <br /><br />Case, I'm not certain this is a "geopolitical chess game". I fear it is more like a big game of musical chairs, and the available chairs are becoming fewer and fewer and smaller and smaller. And he with the most guns and best propaganda wins. For now.Ivan Hentschelnoreply@blogger.com