Friday Cephalopod: I succumb to peer pressure and will mention Octopolis
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Friday Cephalopod: I succumb to peer pressure and will mention Octopolis
Wow. Every person on the planet saw one version or another of this
"Octopolis" st...
7 years ago
8 comments:
This article should be taught in schools and churches, broadcast in the media and stamped onto our foreheads!
Freedom and liberty are indeed at risk as we pander to the less than plausible terrorist mantra.
However, I doubt that the arms dealers are to blame for the political decisions.
Rossi, you are becoming a parody of yourself. How do you propose to deal with the threat of terrorism, eh?
I'm not prepared to read the left wing crap printed in liberal newspapers authored, by and large, by people who wouldn't have the guts to defend the free world against terrorist extremists. Civil Liberties are of course essential, but so is homeland security.
I found your comment on 9/11 disrespectful and insensitive. I think you'd have a different outlook had a friend or family member of yours died at the hands of muderers who have no concience and no respect for human life.
You're right about the arms dealers Curly. If our government had an ounce of moral courage it would stop providing charity, in policy and in cash, to the arms industry.
David, you accuse me of being a parody yet ironically you're apparently blissfully unaware that you're using the language of spin: "the threat of terrorism".
The fact that you're resorting the the 9/11 gambit reveals just how shallow your position is, and consequently tasteless. As an historical and human event it doesn't qualify as a moral baseline against which to measure policy (which you seem to be trying to do), so every time you carelessly invoke 9/11 you devalue it.
Equally, if I used your particular 'moral outrage' technique, I could argue that many more thousands of people have lost their lives fighting for our freedoms, which easily outnumbers those killed in New York, London, Madrid et al. Whilst there may be some logical value in that argument, personally I would refrain from such an accounting as I find it somewhat morally uncomfortable. I could however suggest that a loss of liberties could render the sacrifice of those who lost their lives protecting them meaningless.
Surely one of the best responses to 9/11 is to identify why and how it happened, and learn lessons. If you want a security lesson from 9/11, I'll give you one - it's don't listen to the vested interests of big business. If the aviation industry had invested in secure cockpits (a proposal which was gutted from the final 1997 White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security Report), there wouldn't have been a 9/11.
I'm surprised you're not "prepared to read left wing crap"? Surely as a politician you need to know what the 'opposition' is up to, or at the very least flex your brain muscle by opening it up to other possibilities? Otherwise you're left living in an intellectual comfort zone cocooned by neo-liberal claptrap and increasingly out of touch with reality.
Personally, I prefer to be more catholic in my reading, comprehend the content objectively, and then make my own conclusions.
I'm not sure that you can easily label Simon Jenkins as 'left wing crap'. He's a former editor of the Times, and also writes for right leaning publications including the The Times and Telegraph (and you can't get much more to the right than the Telegraph!).
Tut tut, Rossi. What have I told you about ranting.
You accuse me of using the "language of spin" by my statement "the threat of terrorism".
So I take it you are denying that there is a threat?
The words head, burried and sand sping to mind.
I'm not sure the word 'burried' would 'sping' to my mind...
Seriously though, it seems protection of liberty is not something we're going to agree on.
Yeah, u try typing posts on the Eurostar on a PDA smaller than your hand, buddy! (Especially when you have fingers as chubby as mine!)
Sorry for the poor SPG, I guess u get the point though.
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