I am done! I have finished editing my novel to the point I am ready to look for an agent (it is 100,100 words using this method to count and 77,400 according to MSWord). Now I have to write something called a query letter and figure out what agents to try sending it to.
I am about ready to shoot my computer, but it’s really just the operating system. Windows 98 seems to be on its last leg, and I can barely check my mail and open IE at the same time before it claims I’m out of memory. I guess I’m going to have to actually pay ninety freak’n dollars to get Windows XP. While I’m at it, I might as well upgrade the rest of my computer. Everything except for the CPU (a 800MHz Athlon) is pretty modern, so does anyone know a good place where I can buy a chassis with motherboard and CPU already installed so I can just gut this computer and move the parts?
Here is the idiotic comment of the week, courtesy James Wakefield in response to my new hate letter to Michael Moore:
I love Michael Moore. I agree with everything he says and I love it that he is making you disgusting, stupid, haters so angry. As I am not an American it’s easy for me to think that all Americans are power hungry war mongers that want to destroy all of the worlds diverse cultures. Greed and capitalism are taking over, its great to see that there are some good Americans like Michael Moore trying to make a difference for the good of all humans and not just the wealthy with their multiple yachts and mansions.
P.S You are not PROVING anything by just saying someones ideas are stupid; the key to an argument is to actually give a reason for why something is stupid. Maybe if you all thought about issues instead of seeing everything in black and white (or good and evil) you wouldn’t be right wing.
Power to the Prolatarian. -James
There is too much idiocy here for me to respond to it all briefly, including just the general stupidity of responding to obvious satire in this manner (BTW, does anyone know the term for when you say you are not going to mention something, and thus mention it in saying you won’t mention it?), but I will say this: I will make it my job in life to meticulously separate any gray into its base components of black and white. I will always be a simpleton who only sees things in right and wrong no matter how mentally taxing it is.
At the Alliance page, I have a post asking for help to take things to the next level (BTW, did you here of the Alliance propaganda victory?).
Also, here is my vote for the New Blog Showcase. Go check it out.
Go Yankees!
-Paragraph 1: “I love it that he is making you disgusting, stupid haters so angry.”
-Paragraph 2: “You are not PROVING anything by just saying someone[‘]s ideas are stupid.”
That’s some interesting juxtaposition there, isn’t it. This once again shows that, to people like this, rules and standards only apply to right-wingers. Incidentally, even though your hate mail was satirical and not meant to actually “prove” anything, it seems to me that anyone capable of rational thought wouldn’t need proof that Michael Moore is an idiot, because just about everything he says/writes demonstrates it.
Frank,
If you’re trying to save money on the PC, a reformat & keeping the Windows 98 is far & away the cheapest way to go. (I have a friend who says he reformats his Windows machine about as often as he reboots his Linux machine.)
My big solution — my laptop is less powerful than your PC — is to divide the hard drive into partitions, install your Windows 98 and Word and everything onto the C partition, and use a program like Drive Image (some people like Ghost, it’s all the same idea) to make a Xerox of this new shiny installation & stuff it away on another partition. Put any data files on that other partition too. Whenever the Windows gets sick, you just slap that image back to the C partition & it’s all good!
Drive Image is $55 or $60, and well worth it!
Frank, you’ll need at least twice the RAM to get the same speed out of your computer that you have (had) with Windows 98.
-Steck
Where’s my yacht? Damnit, is that one of the Alliance perks?
“Power to the Prolatarian[sic]” That’s a refreshingly honest slogan. I mean, sure Marxist governments invariably degenerate into dictatorships, but they usually at least claim to support the entire proletariat. This guy’s openly demanding a dictatorship.
Or maybe he’s just so stupid that he doesn’t know the difference between proletarian and proletariat.
Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s probably the second one.
On the computer chassis, etc, take a look at http://www.aberdeeninc.com They sell barebones versions and most, if not all others are configurable.
cheers,
Dick
“…all Americans are power hungry war mongers that want to destroy all of the worlds diverse cultures. Greed and capitalism are taking over…”
Why do people always say that like it is a bad thing? All these liberals want a single world government… yet everytime we take steps towards making one (under the protective iron fist of America and our new Peach super-money)they complain. I just don’t get it.
I haven’t bought anything in a while, but I do all my parts shopping at newegg.com and have been very satisfied.
Go Yanks??
No Way
Go Braves, errrr
Go Cubbies, errrr
Go Fish, yeah, that’s it
Go Fish
If you want a great place to shop around it is at http://www.pricewatch.com. They have a wide variety of everything and is the place to go. If you had a Fry’s where you lived, I’d recommend that too, but Oh well too bad for you Bwah Ha Ha.
By XP and just beef your memory up to 256 (128 works fine, but at the price of memory might as well do 256).XP is a substantial improvement over 98.I’ve loaded XP on at least 20 machines and they’re all stable problem free machines.
Poor James…
It’s “proletariat” not “prolatarian.”
I’d sue. It’s obvious your parents and teachers have failed you in your upbringing.
I’ve purchased a few cheap barebones systems from these guys, no problems yet. http://www.softwareandstuff.com/hdwmotherboard.html As to the Mikey Moron, he’s obviously a european. What euroweenies think dosen’t matter.
go with a Linux/win98 dual boot. you could use OpenOffice (open source and open standards) to open MS office (propriety source and standards) documents. break the MS brand lockin! if you want to know more about Linux (it’s free as in beer, and as in speech), just post your questions.
Well my grammatical errors and writting prolatarian instead of prolatariat are obviously due to my public school education. We need to fund public education more don’t you think?
So it was a satire you say? I guess it does look like a such a cliched rambling of rightwing hate that you were actually mocking your self.
I used to be a conservative, but the more I experienced the austerity of the (Australian)government the more I respected the union and labour movements. I began to realize that there really is a class devide that is almost imposible to cross. People like Mike Moore and myself just want to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots. We want there to be no economical diffrences between different cultures.
Won’t it be great when Hillary is president?
It might be great for you perhaps… You know, since you’re not living in America or anything.
i won’t even talk about praeteritio or apophasis, it’s so annoying, people say they’re NOT going to talk about something, and then they go and do it anyhow!
😉
lol
i really hope the above james wakefield post is a joke: “prolatariat” [still!?]
“(BTW, does anyone know the term for when you say you are not going to mention something, and thus mention it in saying you won’t mention it?)”
Well, I’ll win for dorkiest post of the day, but in Latin it’s praeteritio (preterition in English?), and in Ancient Greek it’s paraleipsis, also spelled as paralepsis. Yummy rhetorical terms. See, Classics is still good for something!
hmm… from now on I’ll use the word “working class”. Damn big words.
So what exactly do conservatives want? What do you want the world to be? Do you want western culture to conquer all the minority groups it can? Do you want George W declared president of the world? Do you want corporations to be more rich and powerful? Do you want to send scary (sorry “amusing” satire) hate mail to everyone that wants equality? Do you want poor 14 year old girls to have to live with their mistake and have the baby? Do you want more toxins in our waterways? Do you want to live in gated communities where you don’t have to mingle with the poor?
Thanks for teaching me “praeteritio” I’ll try to be more careful in the future!
[cslewis]What are they teaching them in schools these days?[/cslewis]
James,
You ask a profound question. What do conservatives like me want? Well take it from a guy who has traveled to every continent except Antarctica, I sure don’t want what the Third World has.
There is this depressing similarity among Third World nations, be it Morocco, El Salvador, Vietnam or Saudi Arabia. It’s the trash, dirt streets, emaciated animals, poor construction techniques, corrupt cops, prevalent violence, undrinkable water, racism, hatred, bigotry and depression. It’s being stopped by four cops with machine guns in Cambodia and being “asked” to pay the “road toll.” It’s meeting a missionary couple and their three small kids at a hotel in Colombia, then finding out a week later that Marxist guerillas kidnapped and killed them. It’s walking through the market in Marrakech and getting nauseated by the unrefrigerated meat covered with flies. It’s driving down roads in Angola and seeing all the bloated corpses by the side of the road. It’s having a prostitute in Thailand tell you that she has a great job – it pays so much more than any other job she could get. It’s getting so violently sick in Calcutta that you think you’re going to die because the bartender put ice in your drink. It’s driving through Saudi Arabia and seeing piles of discarded tires, abandoned cars and trash to make an American Indian cry along the highway.
Then it’s returning to the land of heaven, better known as the United States. The land of paved streets and lawns, and houses with paint on them, and water you can drink, and low crime and good paying jobs for women and responsive government and, well and just about everything else from free emergency medical care to clean air to people who stop at red lights and use the on ramps to get on and the off ramps to get off the highway. It’s not seeing adolescent girls selling themselves openly without comment by the locals.
James, I don’t want to live anywhere other than the United States of America, despite having an enjoyable visit to Australia. But I know for a fact that millions of men, women and children in the Third World watch television and movies and see what we have here and they crave it. They crave it because they live a life of pain and shit.
So James I find your comments depressing and ironic. You and Michael Moore advocate a hatred of the system of government and economics which has created a virtual heaven on earth. You asked “Do you want western culture to conquer all the minority groups it can?” And I answer, “YES.” And all the billions of your so-called minorities in the world scream “YES.” You asked “Do you want corporations to be more rich and powerful?” And I say, “Yes, I want corporations which produce the medicines which cure the poor of the world, I want the corporations which feed the world, I want the corporations which produce washing machines and cars and airplanes and cell phones and computers to be more rich and powerful.”
Then James you asked a most interesting question, “Do you want to live in gated communities where you don’t have to mingle with the poor?” How odd. In order to conquer the world, we would need to leave our gated communities. And you implied, by the way you phrased your questions, that you don’t want us to leave our gated communities to conquer the world’s minorities. So I would answer this last question with “No I don’t want to live in a gated community, blocked off from the poor. I want to bring the benefits of my culture and wealth and beauty to the sick, poor and downtrodden everywhere.” You, James, oppose that. In other words, you want me to remain in my gated community so that the poor remain poor. Because as long as the poor remain that way, you have meaning to your life. You care nothing and do nothing for them. You use them as a crutch for your self-righteous evil.
And James, that is why I despise you and Michael Moore and all those who profit from hating and loathing the very thing which brings hope to the poor of this world.
Bravo! David, Bravo!
I suspect that we’ll never hear from James Wakefield again…
I am just amazed at the idiocy of proclaiming that “Greed and capitalism are taking over, its great to see that there are some good Americans like Michael Moore trying to make a difference for the good of all humans and not just the wealthy with their multiple yachts and mansions” when Michael Moore is one of the best examples of greed and capitalism in this country. Where do you think he gets all of HIS yachts and mansions!?
It is just us normal working people who understand that capitalism is about personal responsibility. We can be successful if we get to work and make it happen. We understand that it’s not about sitting and whining, and waiting for someone else to take care of us.
Duh.
Thank you for a very well written argument. I am so lucky to live in Australia which like America has abundant wealth, it is a beatiful country with very little crime. Capitalism has created very beautiful societies that are the most humane. The problem is that behind the beauty there is a dark under belly. In Australia we have Aboriginal communities that are living in third world conditions and we have people living in dire poverty in sub standard housing. I see all this abundant wealth and beauty so I know our society can afford to stop this poverty.
“I want to bring the benefits of my culture and wealth and beauty to the sick, poor and downtrodden everywhere”
I believe what you wrote above is exactly what the leftists are trying to do. We just don’t believe that brute force is going to work. It’s hard for an Iraqi to see the wonderful benefits of capitalism and western culture when their family has been killed in the name of liberation.
I really hate religious extremists, inparticular islamic extremists. It is very easy to think that maybe if we just nuke them they will go away, but that would just make more people HATE America. I am an athiest but I don’t want to see the end of religion. Diversity and multiculturalism are a beautiful thing, Australia has many cultures living harmoniously together. War is not the answer, increase aid and increase immigration, show people that their cultural identity is respected and their people are welcome to enjoy the benefits of our society. It’s a simple idea; if you are nice to people they wont hate you. I don’t like it how the west is seen as a christian culture when a multicultural society would be better (and Muslims would stop thinking their is a Christian agenda to wipe them out.)
Post-modernity is pluralist. It is insane to think that a single culture can conquer all others when you think about all the bloodshed it would cause. When people start getting killed for their political and religious beliefs (no matter how stupid we secretly think their religion may be) it is clearly a large step away from being civilized.
I would much prefer my medicines to be made by government owned institutions so that there would be no profiteering in health. Third world countries would also have access to these medicines.
Wouldn’t it be nice if America was “heaven on Earth” for everyone not just white middle class men.
Something to ask yourself, James. If other cultures live in squalor like David describes, what makes you think they’ll magically get rich with more aid, or by moving to a new continent? Reflect that Africa remains a horrid sinkhole despite massive amounts of foreign aid, and famine stalks North Korea despite the efforts of many countries to feed its people.
Congratulations Frank on finishing your novel. I have been reading your blog for awhile now and you are a great writer. If you get it published, your book will be the first work of fiction that I have bought in a long time.
Again, congrats. And on the computer issue, I have no freakin idea.
Some countries are really shit aren’t they? Maybe it is a waste of money giving them aid when they just spend all the money on building armies. It’s really depressing that people live in such horrible conditions. Communism in third world countries was pretty brutal but it did seem to keep them in order. Yugoslavia was a lot better off under Tito; there wasn’t so many civil wars. I’m really not sure what I think we should do, possibly ignoring the whole thing and focussing on making our own countries better is the best option. This option creates big refugee problems for the first world countries though. They don’t stop breeding too!
Good places to buy what you want are http://www.tcwo.com or especially http://www.mwave.com. Both sites primarily sell parts (very cheaply), but they also sell barebones systems, which are exactly what you described wanting.
James Wakefield,
Can you do me a favor and define “culture”? You keep using it in the context suggesting that America is in some sort of a culture war with Iraq and the rest of the world. Do you consider a dictatorship that involves secret police that torture dissidents and their families and rape women as a form of intimidation to be some aspect of an Islamic culture? Do you consider a dictator that murders Kurds by the thousands because they practice a slightly different an aspect of the Islamic culture? I’m sorry, I guess our oppressive western culture that values free speech and freedom of religion and elections and an anti-torture/anti-rape platform is wrong. How narrow-minded of us to pass judgment on a dictator simply because his view of mass killings and mass graves are different than ours. Perhaps we should all get together and simply agree to disagree.
You whine and complain about how evil corporations are because they exploit people and only care about money. And you insist that you care about people’s rights and living conditions. Yet your only targets are “evil capitalism” and this horrible horribly country I live in. I guess military dictators are ok to you? Mass murder is ok, so long as it isn’t committed by a business? Being brutally oppressed and murdered is a lifestyle choice? Or perhaps, in your convoluted mind, the evil corporations created all of the dictatorships…
Iraq was an excellent example of everything you claim to be against. Horrible living conditions, no free speech, no democracy or free elections, no religious freedom, etc. Heck, Saddam was even war mongering and bent on taking over the middle east (Remember that whole Gulf War thing in 1991?). Furthermore, he opposed your precious United Nations and refused to show that he had (allegedly) dismantled his weapons programs (see UN security council resolution 687, passed April 3 1991).
Yet, for some reason, people like you refused to act. So we did. While you sat around and complained and whined the United States and a few friends went in and took care of the problem. We ended the oppression and are rebuilding the country. Behold the horrors of capitalism, the horrors of the western oppressionist culture! A complete lack of mass graves. No more rapes or torture chamber “vacations.” Free speech. Heck, some Iraqis are even protesting us, the current ruling power. You think they could have protested Saddam when he was in power?
Or maybe you would have preferred a peaceful solution? Maybe we could have all sent Saddam nice letters asking him to stop being so mean. Even better, we could have held protests in our own cities against him! We could have all made nice signs with slogans like “Saddam is Hitler” and “No blood for political power.” I’m sure that would have solved the problem.
Yes Iraq is a craphole. But not as bad as it used to be, and it is getting better. Our evil culture war is bringing democracy and freedom and coca cola. We are doing what you claim to want to do while you sit around and whine and complain and use buzzwords from the socialist pamphlet. Enjoy your “multi-culturism” while we continue to make the world a safer and better place.
Ared
P.S. Sorry for any typo errors, it is either proof read or lunch.
Likewise, it’s hard for an Iraqi whose family was butchered by Saddam’s thugs to see the virtue in “peaceful” solutions that leave Saddam & Sons in power to endlessly repeat that action. Iraqis are a diverse group. It’s very simplistic to let one situation stand for the whole nation. And many, many more died (and would have died) under Saddam than from Coalition intervention.
If more people die and suffer in peace than in war, which is worse? I go for the “less death, less suffering” route myself, whether that means war or peace.
Actually, this is a simplistic idea. The truth is, while we have done some bad things, they don’t hate us for anything bad we’ve done. They hate us because they are told to from the day they are born. Think about it — if you are told from early childhood how evil and threatening Group X is, how killing members of Group X is the best, most noble, holiest thing you can do, and it comes from everyone you love and respect (parents, religion, government, friends, school, media, etc.), how will you feel about Group X?
It really doesn’t matter how nice we are. It really doesn’t matter how much money we give them, or respect, or anything else. Their leaders, like many before them, use hate and fear as tools of control. As long as they are able, they will use those tools to generate hatred for the US, regardless of what the US does. Well, almost regardless — since they use hate and fear to keep control, when spreading that hate and fear becomes the bigger threat to their power, their behavior will start to change, as it has in Saudi Arabia and Syria.
It doesn’t matter how we portray ourselves. Anyone who’s been paying attention since the ’60s will laugh that Christian West idea out the door. Again, near-absolute control of the media and the need to generate fear and hatred in order to maintain power dictate how the West is seen, not reality, not our own self-portrait.
Asians in the US actually have a higher median income than whites, but the average white (not just male, mind you) does have it pretty good, I’ll admit. But even the poor in the US, even those below the poverty line, have it better than people in many third world countries. Heaven is a relative term, especially for an athiest, I would think.
Speaking of heaven, one day I would love to visit your country. Hate to sound like a typical tourist, but Byron Bay and the Gold Coast sound like heaven to me. Plus, I have friends in Brisbane.
Cheers!
James wrote:
“Some countries are really shit aren’t they? Maybe it is a waste of money giving them aid when they just spend all the money on building armies.”
Hopefully Iraq will be a better place as a result of the war. The thing about this war that scares me is that although Iraq was a horrible dictatorship where many evils were committed they were not as bad as many other countries. Infact Iraq has always been the country in the middle east that most welcomed western tourists. There was also a seperation of church and state which made them a more tolerant country then say Iran. If you remember the reason we went to war was because of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. There was no evidence of such weapons and no such weapons have been found as of yet. So what concerns me is that Iraq is just the begginning. I fear that countries like North Korea which were foolishly called a member of a so-called axis of evil will get justifiably scared that America is coming to conquer them, and what are they doing as a result? They are trying to get nuclear weapons!
Looking at the war on Iraq by itself it is quite easy to justify as you Ared have. We don’t want to see a crusade though. Perhaps the attack will serve as a warning to other countries which I really hope it does.
Ofcourse us leftists are concerned about the exploitation committed by dictatorships! The reason it may seem that we concern ourselves with stoping big business exploitation more is because that is a more local concern.
I second the recommendation from MWave. You can either buy a ‘barebone system’, or you can pick out the parts and add the ‘assembly and testing’ item. If you’re going to go to XP, buy it with a system. It’s cheaper that way.
I’ve built about 10 systems with mwave, and never had a problem with their customer service. They’re good people.
“Power to the proletarian”…it’s a chain yanker; this guy doesn’t know his commie diction.
I thought “proletarian” was an adjective, as in “proletarian democrats”, or “proletarian teacher’s union”, or even “proletarian AARP”.
“Proletariat” is a noun, and should have been properly used in this doofuses commie sign off.
From my experience as an operative, I would deduce that this guy is a deep-cover spy working as either an AIDs awareness counselor or a Philadelphia mayor.
I believe the term for mentioning something in the course of stating that one is not going to mention it is:
Oxymention: verb (Latin-oxis, not going to AND mensis, oops, I did it again)1. To mention the unmentionable, unintentionimentionable. 2. To talk of one’s underwear: “Don’t talk about your unmentionables/underwear.” 3. To campaign like a Democrat: “I’m not going to engage in the politics of personal destruction, but let’s talk about Ashcroft’s Nazi memorabilia.”
Hope this clears things up.
Dennis McLain
Portland, Oregon
Ya know I realized I got the proletarian thing wrong as soon as I posted it, I confess I’m sloppy with my grammer. However my spelling mistakes do not make my politics stupid, if this was the case I’m sure you wouldn’t have voted for Bush
Power to the bourgeoisie, Kill more Iraqis
Hey, James, I tried listening to your comments for as long as I could stand…Iraq as tourist area for Western countries? WTF, you mean like France?
I toured Iraq once, but that was called “the Desert Storm Tour”…and it was to liberate Kuwait.
Dumbass.
“However my spelling mistakes do not make my politics stupid, if this was the case I’m sure you wouldn’t have voted for Bush”
Huh?
Don’t need to respond to the rest of your diatribes; others have done it very well.
Okay, I finally figured out what you were saying, and it was yet another “Bush is stoopid” joke.
Holy crap, that was funny. Most original joke ever, and no doubt accurate, too. I mean, we all know Bush is totally stupid, right? That’s what you have to be to become President, after all.
Frank’s IMW post above pretty much nails it on that particular meme:
Hey, dennymack bro, got any Oxymention for sale?
Forget this Wakefield guy. Here’s the scoop:
Socialism is evil, it means the death of the human soul. Socialists are traitors to humanity.
There’s no more need to debate socialists than there is to debate NAMBLA activists.
Frank! James must be right! Isn’t it obvious? I mean, he backs-up his statements about Americans with facts and logic and all that sort-of good stuff. But now I am deeply saddened. I mean, if Moore is so GOOD, then I must be so BAD or maybe just sort-of bad. Or in other words, since Moore is white, then I must be black, or maybe that’s just a half-good tan. But in any event, James’ flash of obvious brilliance has made me realize just how disgusted I am with myself and just how stupid I must really be for finding satire so josh-darn funny. And now I hate myself. Frank! Help me! How can I regain my self-esteem and get that everything is fuzzy and warm feeling?
Frank, get a bigger harddrive and more memory. Memory costs are next to nothing nowadays. Also when you reinstall Win 98 make sure you have the latest drivers for all of your hardware and the latest service packs from Microsoft. Going to http://www.pricewatch.com is good but you must know what it is you’re looking for. Good luck in repairing your PC.
Frank, come away from the dark side! Ditch Microsoft and go Linux or Unix. Ok, that may not be feasible. At least go Windows 2000 – XP has more flaws than James’ arguments.
I have no advice on a good place to get a motherboard/processor – I’ve always had bad luck dealing with internet computer retailers. Don’t forget that the newer motherboards are probably going to require a different memory configuration than what you’ve currently got, so you want to budget for new memory. Don’t toss your Athlon – you can use it for a test machine if you want to play around with alternate operating systems, or as a backup (in case of emergency, break glass).
Good luck.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if America was ‘heaven on Earth’ for everyone not just white middle class men.”
Mr. Wakefield, I’m a graduate student living with three other gals of the same position. We’re all Americans, but ethnically, one is Iranian, one is Korean, and the other is white, whatever “white” means. I’m “white” too, not that it matters. What matters is that America is an amazingly wonderful place for all of us, where we’re able to pursue our research interests and to make ourselves into better citizens, not just of this country, but of the world. We live in a fine apartment, we make enough to pay for it and for our food, and not a single one of us is a middle-class white male. Yet, we’re making our way fairly easily in America, enjoying every minute of it. It’s just wrong to make such a generalization as to say that only “middle-class white men” can make it here- my Iranian pal was raised by her mother, who made only $20,000 dollars a year to support herself and her two children, and yet this chick’s got the brains, the drive, and will have the Ivy League doctorate to let her teach at the UPenn vet school when she gets out. And you’ll likely think that she’s an exception to the rule, but somehow I don’t think so. She and her mother are living proof that if you’ve got the desire, America’s got the raw material from which to shape your dream. It’s gonna take hard work and sacrifice, and it won’t be as easy for some as for others, but the opportunity is there.
I don’t know if you really believe that only middle class white men are successful in this country, but I’m on my way to proving you wrong, as are millions of women throughout the nation. In my first year as a post-doc, I’ll make more money than my father, or either of my grandfathers, ever did. And I can tell you, they won’t be offended by the collapse of the patriarchy. They’ll be darn proud that their daughter/granddaughter is working toward curing cancer, or allergies, or autoimmune diseases, or whatever my research ends up being. This country isn’t about men, it isn’t about whites. It’s just people, just like anywhere else.
James,
You are an idiot.
I say idiot because you clearly know nothing about this country. I spent three months in Australia, and I can tell you there are more rich, successful minorities in America than there are people in OZ. There are more rich blacks in Los Angeles than there are on the rest of the PLANET.
You ask what conservatives want? We want to be FREE, idiot — I say idiot because you can apologize for Saddam all you want, but the fact remains that Iraqis are not being ortured to death at a rate of 5,000 a month, thanks entirely to George Bush and conservatives, and not to Michael Moore. He is too busy torturing Americans to do anything else.
You say you want to make the world more equal — well, conservatives want that too, idiot. I say idiot because we believe that rather than making the entire world into your poverty-striken, environmentally -ruined, third world shithole of failure, dictatorship, crime, starvation and disease, we would prefer to raise them to the level of free, happy, capitalists — like Michael Moore, for instance, who, you may have noticed, is not on the verge of starvation like your Proletariat.
You do seem a nice sort of idiot though. But the next time you say only rich, white men are successfull in the USA, perhaps you might want to take your head out of your butt and LOOK THE F*** AROUND FIRST.
IDIOT.
Oh, PS Idiot —
North Korea STARTED the crisis by announcing it had nuclear weapons in direct violation of the deal brokered by BILL CLINTON, who sent the high holy man JIMMY CARTER to get HIS PERSONAL WORD! that the NK’s PROMISED, CROSS THEIR HEARTS AND HOPE TO DIE that they would not develop a nuclear program. Bush put them in the Axis of Evil BECAUSE THEY LIED, and when they are gone –no thanks to you — you will see unfold horrors that make Iraq look like a Beverly Hills Kindergarten.
Once AGAIN, THAT is the result of your Proletariat, idiot — they are eating their own babies, as you shall find out soon enough.
Ronald Reagan said that the difference between Communists and non-Communists was simple: Communists READ Marx and Lenin; Anti-Communists UNDERSTAND Marx and Lenin.
When Dear Leader goes the way of Hitler and Saddam — no doubt over your strong protestations — we will see the triumph of you and your f***ing proletariat — another five or ten million to add to the hundred million or so that your little communist paradise has killed in a century.
You be careful with that word, boyo. There are still free people in the world who are not afraid to fight for their freedom, and you are the low life that rides on their sacrifices for free.
“Diversity and multiculturalism are a beautiful thing…” They worked wonders in the former Yugoslavia.
“I would much prefer my medicines to be made by government owned institutions so that there would be no profiteering in health. Third world countries would also have access to these medicines.” Nationalized health care sure has been great for Cuba and North Korea. Just look at all of the lifesaving breakthroughs they’ve produced…er…
“Wouldn’t it be nice if America was “heaven on Earth” for everyone not just white middle class men.” I know, James. America has just been Hell on Earth for people like Oprah Winfrey and the CEO of American Express, both of whom happen to be black. I bet they wish that they lived in oh, say Rwanda or Liberia.
“Communism in third world countries was pretty brutal but it did seem to keep them in order. Yugoslavia was a lot better off under Tito; there wasn’t so many civil wars.” Yeah, all they had to put up with was a little time in the gulag, but everything was orderly. And then that beautiful multiculturalism came to Yugoslavia…you know the rest.
“So what concerns me is that Iraq is just the begginning. I fear that countries like North Korea which were foolishly called a member of a so-called axis of evil…” That’s right, “foolishly.” Have you read anything about what life is like in the Dear Leader’s Worker’s Paradise? The people are so hungry that they’re robbing graves. For meat. Mull that over for a minute in your comfy home. While he lives like a deranged playboy, his people are forced to become ghouls or starve to death. Evil? Naaaah.
“Ofcourse us leftists are concerned about the exploitation committed by dictatorships! The reason it may seem that we concern ourselves with stoping big business exploitation more is because that is a more local concern.” So, while you’re busy “thinking globally” but “acting locally,” somebody else has to act globally. Who could that be?
Mr. Wakefield, you and your fellow leftists live in a world where everything would be sunshine and lollipops (to quote a song) if only we would CARE more and hold hands and be nice to people. Who cares if we lose our freedom along the way? We’d all get “free” health care and 100% literacy and an orderly police state. At least everyone will be equal…or is it equally miserable?
It’s not even that, James, because the average Joe WILL be miserable while the vanguard of your socialist revolution will have limos and dachas and all the caviar they can eat. “Some animals are more equal than others,” said one Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, and he was a leftist like you. But he found out that your supposed paradise was rotten from within.
The end of leftist politics (even if you don’t really espouse it in your heart) is the death of the human spirit. You’ll force (almost) everyone to be equal and crush the drive to innovate, to strive to be more, because being more is the competitive human drive. You would have us all as slaves. Shame on you.
Well I guess I have been proved wrong. Lets get rid of the hopeless goals of living in harmony amongst each other. Multiculturalism is not going to work, we need to send the message “assimilate or DIE!” Who can stop us?
What was I thinking when I made the stupid statement that being nice to countries would stop the hatred. The clear way of fixing their intolerance is to blast them into submission. The bloody united nations trying to do everything diplomatically, they are idiots. Some liberals are suggesting that by bombing countries we are increasing the risk of terorism, I say thats a risk we have to take. In an effort to decrease the terrorism we will increase the searching powers of the police and keep a close eye and regular inspections on all the people practicing Islam (and communists, intellectuals, artists, unions, protestors and the unemployed).
We should go to war with North Korea, who cares that they have the third largest army in the world. The inevitable loss of thousands of American and allied countries’ soldiers and Korean civilians is acceptable because they would be heroes. It may take a hundred years to wipe out (or assimilate) all the non-western cultures, but we have to do it to clean this world up.
To fund this crusade we have to tighten the budget abit; we’ll spend less on public education, hospitals and we’ll abolish welfare altogether. Don’t worry there will be a tax cut for corporations so that they will stimulate the economy. The economy will still be strong. Conscription must be brought back to support the army.
With welfare gone there will be a large crime increase, so I recommend you all go out and get a gun to protect yourself from dole bludging scum (well they wouldn’t be dole bludging anymore, they’d just be scum!)
Recaping:
So your civil liberties are going, you are becoming a police state, civilians may end up being sent to war (and quite likely dying in a gruesome death.) Your public services are being wittled away or privatised, many areas are becoming too expensive for normal people to live, the arts are being ignored, your freedoms that you are so proud of are being taken away from you, but you get to show off your millitary muscle and you get to clear the world of evil (whatever evil may be)
Attack a country if it invades an allie and the united nations condones the attack.
Attack a country that threatens your way of life (and is an IMMEDIATE threat, none of this scary premptive nonsense)
My buddy Michael Moore is doing all he can to stop America from becoming a facist state, but all you can do is liken any leftist activity to irrelevant 3rd world dictatorships. We have learned from the mistakes of Communism. We will keep fighting against the conservative agenda and we will stop America from taking over the world.
“So your civil liberties are going, you are becoming a police state, civilians may end up being sent to war (and quite likely dying in a gruesome death.) Your public services are being wittled away or privatised, many areas are becoming too expensive for normal people to live, the arts are being ignored, your freedoms that you are so proud of are being taken away from you, but you get to show off your millitary muscle and you get to clear the world of evil (whatever evil may be)”
Cripes, for an Aussie, you sure think you know a lot about life in America. Tell me, Jimmy, which civil liberties exactly have been taken away in this ‘police state’?
Which civilians exactly ‘may end up being sent to war’? In fact, what the f*** do you mean by that non sequitir in the first place? I’m picturing people in business suits being handed rifles and marched onto boats…you’re positively f***ing surreal, my boy!
Which areas exactly are ‘becoming too expensive for normal people to live’? Define ‘normal people’, you f***ing idiot.
Which arts exactly are being ignored? Ever watch American movies, listen to American music, watch American TV, admire paintings by American artists, or attend plays by American playwrights at American theatres starring American actors?
And finally, specifically, what freedoms are being ‘taken away’? Mike Moore certainly hasn’t had his ability to speak, make money from gullible useful idiots like yourself, or eat taken away.
You should probably, as Bill Whittle said, take your head from its position firmly up your asshole prior to commenting on America. It will make your posts so much more coherent.
Really, why all the fuss? This James character is obviously nothing more than an uneducated child (regardless of age) who knows nothing of history, yet thinks parroting Moore and Indymedia tools while looking up really important looking words in a dictionary gives him something resembling knowledge of how the world really works. Because, hey, warm ‘n fuzzies have been historically proven to be the best solution to things like war and genocide. Or something.
His arguments, such as they are, show this lack of fundamental understanding of… well, basically everything, and should be ignored as one would a screaming child who wasn’t given the cookie he demanded.
Anyway, Frank: Try a Mac out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And Go Yankees.
James – your buddy Michael Moore is a professional liar.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s as simple as that. You may or not be an idiot, but you are quite definitely ignorant. Go out and learn something, then come back when you have some actual facts to hand and can debate the topic rationally.
First, Mr. Lion, we (or at least I) are making a big fuss because I am very bored and James is a very easy target based on his accessibility and his horrendously flawed ideology. Yelling at him is sort of like yelling at all of those hippies I always see on campus, except this time I’m not outnumbered and unarmed.
Now, back to James–
“Well I guess I have been proved wrong. Lets get rid of the hopeless goals of living in harmony amongst each other. Multiculturalism is not going to work, we need to send the message “assimilate or DIE!” Who can stop us?”
I don’t think anyone ever said multiculturalism isn’t going to work. It does work; the United States is proof of that. The problem is that you fail to understand what the word means. Based on your use, I can only conclude that you believe “multiculturalism” is some sort of catchall for every minute difference in ways of life.
People of different religions and races and nationalities and with different political views can live together peacefully. Case in point, most of the “western” world. The problem isn’t that we are forcing our culture on others, it is that others refuse to coexist with us. In my completely inexperienced opinion, Fundamental Islam doesn’t like us because our culture is(passively) a threat to them. “Hey, look at that, a way of life that treats women as equals and lets people disagree with religious and political leaders without being imprisoned. Boy, if that spreads over here people would stop following us! Lets call it evil!”
We just want to coexist in an environment where such extremists respect the rights of non-extremists. Coexistence and the commercial exchange of soft drinks. I guess maybe you can’t understand the difference between coexistence and assimilation.
“Ofcourse us leftists are concerned about the exploitation committed by dictatorships!”
“Some countries are really shit aren’t they? Maybe it is a waste of money giving them aid when they just spend all the money on building armies. It’s really depressing that people live in such horrible conditions. Communism in third world countries was pretty brutal but it did seem to keep them in order. Yugoslavia was a lot better off under Tito; there wasn’t so many civil wars. I’m really not sure what I think we should do, possibly ignoring the whole thing and focussing on making our own countries better is the best option.”
“We don’t want to see a crusade though. Perhaps the attack will serve as a warning to other countries which I really hope it does.”
So, basically you:
1.) Acknowledge there are significant international problems in other countries, including violations of the most basic of human rights.
2.) Don’t want to do anything about it (excluding pointless and ineffective weekend protesting).
3.) Don’t want anyone else to do anything about it.
4.) Blame countries like the United States when things go wrong because we are mean capitalists and caused the problem.
5.) Blame the United States because we try to fix problems because we are actually fixing them instead of the ineffective crap the UN does.
So what do you want? You seem to thing war in general is a bad thing, you have a better solution? A REAL solution, not “give peace a chance” or “use diplomacy.” The evil dictators and war criminals and terrorists of the world don’t care about diplomacy, they don’t care about your side of things, they don’t care about your feelings, and they don’t care about the rights of those they oppress or hurt or kill. They don’t care that you protest them or put sanctions on them condemning their actions. So what is your alternative to violence? Let them go on and kill millions upon millions of people so long as it doesn’t show up on the front page of your newspaper? What is your great Plan C? You want to just ignore everything and hope nothing escalates to the point that it affects you?
North Korea is an excellent point. You say our critical/mildly hostile attitude towards NK will only make them (and others like them) accelerate their unconventional weapons programs. So what would you have us do, hand them smiley-face stickers and billions in aid? “Hey, you guys were really bad and you lied and you starve and abuse your citizens for the sake of your weapons programs. You are an abhorred government and we can’t trust you to not sell your nukes at the first garage sale you come across. Here is a bunch of money, now please be quiet.” You think that would discourage such actions?
You don’t want war, you don’t want conflict– stop using Mindless Socialism 101 responses/criticisms and actually come up with a better idea.
Ared
James sez: “It may take a hundred years to wipe out (or assimilate) all the non-western cultures, but we have to do it to clean this world up.” Out of all the people commenting on this thread, you seem to be the only one who has come to this conclusion. I know it’s sarcasm, but I really don’t think this is the stated aim of western democracies.
“Conscription must be brought back to support the army.” You really don’t know much of anything, do you? The only person I can remember who thinks this is a good idea is Charlie Rangel, an effing LEFTIST DEMOCRAT from NY city.
“we’ll spend less on public education…” America already spends more on public education than any other country. We throw buckets full of cash at the public school system, and guess what? It’s tanking! Know why? Because the money goes to mostly leftist administrators and teacher’s unions who wail with indignation any time a proposal comes up that will help POOR kids get out of dismal public schools and into better-performing private schools. But they care about “the children.”
“the arts are being ignored…” Maybe because modern art caters to a tiny slice of elite leftists who drip with scorn for ordinary Americans.
“your freedoms that you are so proud of are being taken away from you…” How? Tell me how this is being done. I’m guessing you’ll say something about the Patriot Act, but tell me something concrete. Give me an instance where someone who disagrees with the Administration, or more broadly, the government, has been hauled off to prison for stating an opinion. I hear crickets chirping…
“My buddy Michael Moore is doing all he can to stop America from becoming a facist state…” Er, no. Your “buddy” is a rich leftist who happens to disagree with conservatives. I’m sure he’d be pleased to read your description of him, though. That’s because he’s a self-important prick. He thinks he’s on a crusade, just as you do. And so it bothers neither of you that he’ll resort to intellectual dishonesty in order to score points with drooling leftists who hate Bush, or to stir up controversy by doing so with the aim of becoming rich and famous.
Your mistake is that you equate conservatism with fascism. America may be becoming more conservative, and that’s largely a reflection of the fact that 3000 of our civilians were murdered on a single day. We were happy before that, but we were also lax. Now, we see that there are people who hate us and wish us harm. We’ve been very “nice” to Saudi Arabia, but that hasn’t stopped their rulers from sponsoring terrorism directed at us. 15 of the 19 hijackers…you see where I’m going with this.
Cutting public spending isn’t tantamount to fascism. It’s fiscal responsibility. And our last Democrat president, the Boy Clinton, would be a fascist under your criteria. He enacted the welfare reform bill that the Republicans drafted.
When you start spouting charges of fascism like you have here, you rob the word of its true meaning. Do you know what that does? It cheapens the lives of those who suffered under the real thing, many of whom came to live in America–if they had the good fortune to survive the brutality they suffered.
James Wakefield You Demented Butthole-
Move to France. They have no air conditioning like even the poorest households have here.
Move to Iraq. Wipe your ass with your hand. No TP.
Move to India. Walk 5 miles to get a bucket of dirty water to drink.
Move to Germany. If you say “Nazi” you go to jail.
Move to Belgium. They just hate the JOOOOOOS.
Move to China. If you mention ANY other God than “The State”, your head is rapidly separated from your body.
Move to Africa. After Muslims killed millions of Christians just for being alive, a good portion of the continent is now coming under a plague of locusts.
I could go on, and on, and on…
You are probably one of those “sustainable” commies. Go jump over Niagara Falls and try to get famous like that one guy.
And, here in Indian country, always save the last bullet for yourself…
Oh jeezus, this is too much. I can’t believe that people like James can even exist. It’s proof that we protect the stupid people too much, because they’re breeding at an alarming rate. Lemme just have some fun here…..
“So your civil liberties are going,” Name one.
“you are becoming a police state,” Really? With like, curfew and stuff? How would you know? Oh, that’s right, YOU DON’T!
“civilians may end up being sent to war (and quite likely dying in a gruesome death.)” You mean the draft, which was done away with some years ago? Riiiiiiiiight. It’s an all volunteer army these days, you twit. And by the way, unlike communist countries, the USA has a certain military philosophy, best said by one Gen. Patton: “Your job is NOT to die for your country, your job is to make the other son-of-a-bitch die for HIS country.”
“Your public services are being wittled away or privatised,” As evidenced by a bloated federal budget, right? You f***ing dolt, do you even have any clue what you’re talking about? Mmmmm, nope, you don’t.
“many areas are becoming too expensive for normal people to live,” Yeah, and those areas are under Liberal control. I should know, I’m living in Seattle. If this place tilted any farther to the left, it would slide into the pacific ocean. But gee, those parts of the country that are predominatly CONSERVATIVE still have a nice low cost of living.
“the arts are being ignored,” Yeah, when they tore down the opera house, we knew the end was near. Oh, wait, THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN, YOU IDIOT! We just don’t want to pay for some asshole to put a crucifix in a bottle of piss and call it “art”.
“your freedoms that you are so proud of are being taken away from you,” Once again, name one. JUST ONE! You can’t, can you? Nope, because James is an unbelieveably stupid poo-poo head, isn’t he? Yes he is!
“but you get to show off your millitary muscle and you get to clear the world of evil (whatever evil may be)” I have looked evil in the eye, you stupid little shit. I have seen things that would make a child like you wet himself and run away screaming. I don’t have the time nor the inclination to describe the horrors of the world to you, and I doubt that you have the mental capacity to understand them in any case. Grow up, and until you actually know what you’re talking about, shut the f*** up. You’re an embarrasment to Australia.
Letter of the Day
A is for ACIDMAN, who’s feeling a bit maudlin… A is for the ATLANTA AIRPORT, which has a new name… A is for ABSTAINING from nicotine… A is for ANGRY… A is for the blogosphere’s newest AUTHOR… A is for…
I think maybe we scared him off… or possibly caused his head to explode.
Either works for me.