Unthanksgiving
The day after Thanksgiving is...Unthanksgiving. The day when you give...whatever the opposite of thanks is...to all the things that make you wish the great studio executive in the sky would just cancel the sitcom called "Humanity".
Here's my list of things that make me want to punch the human race in its stupid, smug face:
1) The NHS offers homeopathy.
Tax money is being used to treat patients with serious diseases with Magic Water.
2) George W Bush has a new job: Motivational Speaker.
Yes, the man who couldn't string together two sentences without mangling the grammar and saying something mindblowingly dumb, is a professional public speaker.
The billionaire moron gets paid more than you or I will ever see to spend the occasional 90 minutes telling other billionaire morons how they deserve to be billionaires.
The man whose picture is next to the word "Fail" in the dictionary will tell you how to be a success - where success is defined as "rich" and you can't get to hear him speak unless you're already rich. And dumb enough to want to hear him speak.
3) Reported homophobic attacks are up 35% in British schools. That's "reported" as opposed to "actual", and "physical attacks" as opposed to "name calling".
Ah, but which schools? It's a very specific set. Faith schools!
4) Barak Obama is sending 34,000 extra troops into Afghanistan. He admitted that he wasn't happy with any of the options given him by advisors, so eventually selected...the one he hated least.
So the candidate who made all those vague not-quite-promises about ending the wars in the middle east, is now the president ramping up a war with no clear purpose and shrinking chance of victory.
It's 8 years in, and there's talk of another 10. It was meant to take 2 weeks to "pacify" the country before installing a client government, and that hasn't happened yet. Some soldiers are now on their 5th tour of duty there.
It also means America is now so short of troops at home, that if there should be another Katrina or some other major domestic disaster, there just isn't the military manpower to cope with it.
5) Climate change denialists are crowing over reports that one university's climatic research department exaggerated figures.
The evidence of fraud is, shall we say, selectively edited, but we're being told it proves all climate scientists everywhere are faking the data for no reason, somehow.
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This is my cue to go back to bed.
ReplyDeleteThe day after Thanksgiving is still Thanksgiving (Thursday and Friday are considered the entire Thanksgiving holiday). Of course, nowadays, most merchants are pushing that Friday is called Black Friday--the beginning of the holiday shopping season, with deep discounts and sales.
ReplyDeleteI do support the Pres Obama's decision to send additional troops, because Afghanistan is the home of the terrorists who attacked the US on 9/11. This was the war we should've fought in the first place--take out Osama bin Laden!
The whole Iraq fiasco was unnecessary--Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. And as horrible as Saddam Hussein was, he did serve as a check to Iran's craziness. Now, we've got nutcases in Iran itching to launch nukes (soon as they make 'em or buy 'em from Russia).
Some of the reasons why natural disasters turn out deadly is because people don't listen. There are always ample warnings to evacuate when a hurricane comes--we know at least three to two days in advance in Texas. The decision to flee to safety (courtesy of gov't run buses and shelters) or stay and risk dying is up to the individual. As of right now, law enforcement can't force you evacuate if you don't want to--this is why so many people get stranded and die, because they didn't want to leave their homes.
People paying George W Bush to speak is an inspiration that mentally challenged people can have great careers and some might even have plenty of money to waste!
@Eroswings: I do support the Pres Obama's decision to send additional troops, because Afghanistan is the home of the terrorists who attacked the US on 9/11.
ReplyDeleteThey came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Apart from one who was Lebenese. None were from Afganistan.
This was the war we should've fought in the first place--take out Osama bin Laden!
He's Syrian.
They may not have been born in Afghanistan, but that's their base of operation, where their leader, bin Laden, is hiding in the mountain range between the Afghanistan and Pakistan border.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that taking out bin Laden is necessary--cut off the leadership and show the rest of the Muslim extremists that the US will not sit by and let them terrorize us. We didn't start this war, but we sure as hell need to finish it. You cannot let a few hate fueled extremists terrorize and kill innocent people who have a different faith, different ideology, different beliefs. You have to take a stand.
I wonder, how many people could've been saved from death camps and war had the world decided to stop Hitler early on instead of letting him roll over Poland and the other eastern European countries?
Had we not been mislead into Iraq, I really do believe that we could've killed bin Laden and wiped out the Al Qaeda network that first year in Afghanistan. But the Bush PR machine (Cheney) wasted our resources and focus on Iraq instead, giving Al Qaeda (and bin Laden) time to escape and hole up in the mountains.
When the Bush administration decided to go into Iraq, I was one of the very few who protested, because I was aghast that we were diverting our attention from bin Laden to a distraction war in Iraq. I couldn't believe that people were not understanding that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11! Years later, those same idiots who called me unpatriotic and stupid for not supporting the Iraq war have eaten their words and feel guilty every time they see me. A few have apologized.
Make no mistake, while no one truly supports war, everyone supports our troops, because they are asked to do a job that is dangerous, do their duty, and follow our leadership.
The Special Forces had bin Laden within killing range those first few months, but were told to hold back and wait for an air strike! Talk about poor strategy and unfit leadership!
First of all, killing Bin Laden is of mostly symbolic value - to us, not them.
ReplyDeleteWill his death discourage the extremists? Or will someone else just take his place at the top of the ladder? He feeds off extremist sentiment, and sometimes stirs it up, but it would be absurd to suggest he's the source of it. The various extreme groups in Afganistan (and Iraq) survived the death or capture of their top people multiple times.
Bin Laden does - or at least did - have a loose network, of at most 300 people, mostly in Syria, and it wasn't cohesive enough to give itself a name. The name "Al Qaeda" ("Foundation, Groundwork") was a slogan for a cultural movement which other extreme groups were hoping to create. In the late 90s the CIA misunderstood what it meant.
Second, we don't actually know where Bin Laden is, or even if he's still alive. There's at least three "Bin Ladens" releasing the occsional audio or video tape, and no good evidence any of them are genuine.
Putting a bullet through Hitler's skull before WW2 wouldn't have prevented naziism or the war, because Hitler wasn't even a major cause of either - he was a figurehead. Occasionally leaders really do lead - most are just there to be inspiring while others do the actual work behind the scenes.
The invasion of Iraq was the second stage of a disasterous plan to control middle eastern oil - the pretended connection of Iraq to Bin Laden was one weak excuse among many. Now that plan seems to have been abandoned, and the new plan is to install a pro-American government in the middle of the Arab world.
The thinking looks to be that Afganistan both can be and has to be beaten into submission before it can be rebuilt. I can't see that strategy working, not in this day and age.
It's good that you've got a few apologies. I've got a few aqaintences who used to tell me I was supporting terrorists...now telling me they were never convinced by all that propaganda.