WAR!

Re: Pirate Parties.

I voted for the Sex Party in the Senate at the last federal election. In Australia it's not a wasted vote as we have preferential/quota system voting in the upper house. Their policies were much more than just sex - more an anti-censorship, pro-secular, social-libertarian platform.

DPBD!

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MacArthur was a highly respected war hero.

Not by all, not by a long shot. Very good at propaganda and tooting his own horn. Good at ordering his soldiers to "fight to the last man" at his Philippines base after he'd safely abandoned it. Detested by most Australian forces as arrogant, out of touch, and barely competent. Even he acknowledged his medal of honor was "intended not so much for me personally as it is a recognition of the indomitable courage of the gallant army which it was my honor to command."

History has been kind to him...

Australians don't vote for US President, so Truman wouldn't care what they thought.

Not just Australians, he was ordered to Australia by Roosevelt as a demotion for some of his antics in the early part of the war (namely sitting on his arse and doing nothing after being informed of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and thus indirectly enabling Japan to destroy most of the air fleet under his command).

To be fair, he did pick up his game later in the war but I'm not simply being parochial in calling Macarthur pompous (his "I will return" speech was delivered off the back of a train to four people) and upon occasion incompetent.

He was something of an egomaniac, but many at his rank are. (See: Patton) He was also intolerant of authority. Got himself removed from command during the Korean War, if I remember correctly. Still, Inchon was amazing.

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jw
I advocate supporting third parties that will try to correct the system. But on election day, if you KNOW that your party isn't yet capable of winning, vote for a party that has a chance of winning. Then send a check to your third party, and start building for the next election.

I agree. I've had the luxury of not casting a vote that would make a difference. (Wish we had the preferential system.)

dtt, I don't blame us. There's a shitload of money spent to misrepresent the facts, target our fears and distract us. The media is all noise now. Their purpose is to entertain, not to inform. With all that working against the boring truth, what chance does the average person have of educating themselves?

The media is all noise now.

Oh, you're better than that... granted, the majority of media are crap -- read Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" to see why it's easier. But you know that information and education is out there to be had, if you show interest and effort. Granted, there could be more effort to make it less like C-SPAN and more entertaining, but really, all? (And look to history: we've had crap media, especially newspapers, for the entire history of the U.S.; the idea of a non-partisan and fact-checked newspaper is a relatively modern invention; yet, we've had responsible governance, on and off.)

Even in popular dead-tree format: the NYRB, the Economist, the (news section, not the editorial) WSJ... even though these all have entertainment sections and some crappy horse-race-centric political coverage, you don't have to resort to enrolling in a poli-sci grad course to be educated. And you don't have to feel the burden of reading "all of them" (cf. Palin). These are all available to, and the publishers would love to harness, "the average person".

It's a differential equation of why there's so much crap out there: demand and supply are both variables that change with the other.

But again, I'll say that giving up and not a) holding people to account and/or b) implicitly endorsing the unacceptable status quo, is an effective vote for what you decry.

ddt



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2012 08:24PM by ddt.

It's strange. For a long time I've been a very "give me more info" kind of guy. Try to read a lot of articles, even try (though it gets harder these days without getting into some serious muck) to read the other side of the argument. And it's definitely out there. I can certainly track down what's at least "fairly agreed upon by knowledgeable people". The problem is that a)the vast majority of the public (a lot of them not voting, but still) are the 99%'ers that don't have the time/resources/interest/intellect to do that work. If you're a single mom, working 70-80 hour weeks, and coming home and taking care of your kid(s), there's not a lot of "peruse my RSS feeds and see what's going on in Washington today" time. Add the x% of the country that doesn't have fast internet access (STILL!). Add in even a small lack of interest and it's a tough slog.

Don't get me wrong, I think the economists are right, and a lot of people make the value calculation that their vote doesn't matter/make a difference, so why waste the effort. I like the idea out of Arizona where everyone who votes gets entered into a USD $1million lottery. Gets more people to vote. And if "enticed" to vote, many might actually spend the time to educate themselves. And if they don't, well... at least they can't claim it "wasn't their fault" or whatever.

Morg "And maybe I'll win a million dollars!" anti

podcast consumption 24 hours a day.

NYT cyber war against Iran - good sources, info

http://nyti.ms/L8062V

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no country’s infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran.

For the record, I have previously stated I don't think we will attack (conventional) nor should attack Iran.
http://bit.ly/L80nmH
http://bit.ly/L80u1k

El Jeffe is right. Break the US up. Please. The "liberals" are really the ones standing in the way of this. I hope it happens in the next decade.

Ten minutes after it happens, the red states conquer the blue states and re-unite the country anyway. An educated, open mind is no match for a good blaster at your side.

Um, hello? Rogue state in serious need of some Pax America "liberation" ???

Pity they don't have a buttload of oil and Haliburton Inc wasn't still in Gubmint...

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El Jeffe
NYT cyber war against Iran - good sources, info

http://nyti.ms/L8062V

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no country’s infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran.

For the record, I have previously stated I don't think we will attack (conventional) nor should attack Iran.
http://bit.ly/L80nmH
http://bit.ly/L80u1k

So far so good. No overt attack so far.

Ten years ago, this is what people were saying about those who didn't buy into pro-war arguments: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/behold-the-hatred-resentment-and-mockery-aimed-at-anti-iraq-war-protesters/274230/

ddt