You're response shows me that MSNBC, NPR and the like are apparently doing their jobs.

 

^Oh, you mean brainwashing society?
If thats the case, yes.

 

That's ok, NPR is about to lose its funding anyway, so the government will have one less source of 'news' to contend with.

And Yes, I think you get a more accurate 'news' picture from the likes of John Stewart, or Stevie Colbare... (however that's spelled) than any of the 'real' news networks.......

 

No, I do my own thinking. I rarely (generally only once or twice a year) watch television, and only listen to broadcast radio when on a road trip to catch traffic reports in unfamiliar cities. The news I read online is found via headline aggregation sites (think Google News) that are generally unbiased.

I wasn't attacking your radical right perspective, just hoping to correct for your benefit your mistaken belief that Faux Nooz is "fair and balanced". They are not. Their commentators and regular guests tend to be amazingly ignorant -- Ann Coulter says: With the terrible earthquake and resulting tsunami that have devastated Japan, the only good news is that anyone exposed to excess radiation from the nuclear power plants is now probably much less likely to get cancer. Bill "You can't explain why the tide goes in" O'Liarly claims (on at least two separate occasions) that during WWII American troops gunned down unarmed German POW's in their care at Malmédy, Belgium when in fact it was the other way around. And so on.

Everyone's favorite crazy right-winger who makes things up as he goes along, Rush Limbaugh, famously opined that "At least here in America, [we] didn't teach them how to fish, we gave them the fish. Didn't teach them how to butcher a -- slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter."

Live like you want to live, man, and believe what you want to believe. I was just trying to be helpful.

 

man, reading this thread is interesting.. I'm glad to see a generally civil political discussion can be had w/o folks trying to slap each other down..

most my adult life I've served this country- mostly as a defense contractor, but, once upon a time- as a Marine.. I'm saying this to inject this:

I've somehow seemed to have a talent of being in interesting places at interesting times.. I recall sitting with a coworker having a kahwa, in early '02, Dubai UAE.. It was an interesting place.. I remarked to him "you know, I just read a book about the beginning of WWII in Spain, where agents from every European participant of that war convened and covertly sought alliances, and that is what I feel we are doing now.". Again, I tell you that to tell you this:

It is rare that the truth is known.. One of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes is: "Guard the truth with legions of lies".. I watched things- with my own two eyes- happen in Mogadishu Somalia in '93.. I watched the "Haitian Migration/ Able Manner" happen from the ground.. and I watched the players in the Middle East align at the onset of the current Iraqi debacle.. What is spoken by the talking heads is simply to serve the master.. It has never been written or told true.. Not once have I seen it told accurately. Not once..

Now, Libya is on the radar, and the news/government is manipulating us to feel opposed to the side they have interest in supporting.. and most Americans will buy it.. Why the outrage over Libya, with none mentioned about Sudan, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Bahrain, Oman, Columbia, or even Mexico? - because they have nothing to gain by interfering with those places, or the gain isn't worth the loss..

The first Gulf War was winding down when my unit started hearing about Somalia.. We had video's from dudes on the ground.. we were selecting which side to support- which means we were identifying which side would most likely give us the most in return for supporting them.. Once we determined who would best support us, we started speaking (news) of the horrible things this monster over there was doing to his people.. Guess what? BOTH of those war lords were doing horrible things to the people! we chose the one most likely to benefit us if in power- we didn't do a damn thing based on 'humanity'..

the game of geopolitics is a never ending wonder.. it is never straight scoop.. it IS and it ISN'T the news agencies fault either.. They CHOOSE to report on what benefits their devices, and ignore the rest.. but even the sources don't REALLY know what's happening.. Only one or two maybe actually have all the information/intel, but hell- I even doubt that..

if this kind of thing amuses you, go read how the US become involved in the Vietnam War.. THAT, is scary crap..

another quote, and I'll shut up-

"..How fortunate for government, that the people they lead don't think for themselves.."....... said by:







Adolf Hitler..

Now tell me, what has changed?

 

Or "War Is A Racket" by Major General (USMC, deceased) Smedley Butler, which is a quick enough read and free to view at the linked page. Or read up on how we got into the Spanish-American War. Or the invasion of Iraq in either/both of those wars, for that matter.

Most of the history that we believe we know is more fiction than fact. When the occasional unflattering truth leaks out the ruling class jumps up to tell us that it's just the raving of lunatics, and we swallow the lie whole because we don't want to believe the truth about ourselves as a nation or admit to ourselves that we as individuals were wrong about something we chose to believe. When they can't tell us that it's just the ravings of lunatics, they tell us that it's a "matter of national security" and focus our attention on the "traitor" rather than the truth (i.e. Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange).

Bread and circuses, boys, it's all bread and circuses. All of the screaming about homosexuals, illegal aliens, non-Christian religions, atheists, terrorists, traitors, all of it. US presidential elections are circuses in the "bread and circuses" sense because every four years in November your choices are limited to those who've been vetted by the wealthy ruling class.

Eh, enough of this. Everyone either already knows these things or chooses not to accept them as true. Either way, thanks for indulging me, guys.

 

From the article linked in Unreg's post:

Ain't that the truth. And we are rapidly heading the same way as the Roman Empire.

 

I am not gonna lie, this is a great thread IMO. I like how there werent any fights over stupid political ****(well so far, knock on wood). Definitely interesting.


But, there is no way Democracy will last too much longer. Isnt America the "longest" running one? Or that most dont last over 200 years? I know the Romans, but they had a "choice" to have a dictator when it was needed. Hmmmm... I dont know.

 

So far as I am concerned, NEITHER party is really doing a good job. If it isn't tax and SPEND, it's borrow and SPEND. Our government seems far more concerned about what is going on in other countries, while ignoring the problems right here at home.

 

Well, shucks... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAqk2bMB_Hw

I'm always amazed at the unintended prescience of the first minute or so of this old classroom film.