The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet. - William Gibson
Sonny Gill LinkedIn
Tweets
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
- Robert Bresson
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Originally posted by Jason Menard:
Maybe it is you who has the lack of experience?
Originally posted by Michael Ernest:
So far starters, Joe, I think Map has said my piece for me: naivete starts with the idea of being born in the 'best' country in the world. It implies the idea that everyone else looks to the US and says "man, if only I was born there."
What I find truly naive is the idea that anyone gives a shit about your idea of patriotism and is somehow out to destroy it. What's naive is the proposition that people who don't agree with your attitude toward patriotism must therefore be opposed to it. What I find naive is the underlying premise: you seem to think you are not simply entitled to your enthusiasm, you seem to think your approach to patriotism is right. Moral correctness; not much of an improvement on political correctness.
It's another variant of "America, love it or leave it." For me, that idea is bullshit. "Defend it," absolutely. What anyone chooses to feel for their country is what it is; what a person chooses to do for their country is the only meaningful test.
I still love my country and everything it stands for, warts and all
Originally posted by Alan Labout:
The mistake that you may be making, Map, is to assume that American patriotism and Russian patriotism are the same thing. American patriotism tends to manifest itself in mindless empty acts, such as mumbling the Pledge of Alegiance before class, humming the national anthem at football games, and hanging flags on anything that doesn't smell bad. But whether this contributes in any meaningful way to the American propaganda machine is debatable.
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
- Robert Bresson
In 1996, after years of denials, Baghdad effectively admitted stockpiling about 4,000 tons of chemical weapons precursors and more than 100,000 empty munitions casings -- none of which have been accounted for by the inspection teams. (source)
UNSCOM also exposed an extensive biological weapons program, but because of the dual-use nature of many relevant production facilities, such as vaccine plants, the UN inspectors were unable to eliminate this threat. (source)
The head of the UN Special Commission overseeing the
destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) told the Security Council June
24 that UNSCOM has "utterly, unambiguous" test results showing that
Iraq put VX nerve gas in missile warheads. (source)
ALISON CALDWELL: Richard Butler, if the coalition forces haven't yet found weapons of mass destruction, does that mean they aren't there, or that they were never there?
RICHARD BUTLER: No it does not. Everyone in the Security Council knows that there was a residual quantity of weapons left in 1998 when Saddam shut me and my inspectors down and threw us out.
I can tell you the exact numbers, Alison, of chemical weapons, biological weapons and missing missile parts. Everyone agreed on that; the Security Council, the Russians, the French who so strongly opposed the Americans last year, everyone agreed.
Five years later, Hans Blix, my successor reported to the Security Council that there was this residual quantity of weapons unaccounted for. Iraq said it didn't have them anymore. When Hans Blix and his inspectors tried to find them, Iraq wouldn't let them do so, or wouldn't produce the evidence of their destruction. So that was hanging out there.
Let's call that quantity number one. Quantity number one did exist and it was never properly accounted for.
...
RICHARD BUTLER: I think those trailers were mobile laboratories. Look, everyone knew that Iraq had a major biological weapons program and a chemical weapons program, a missile program that was illegal, and has striven to get an atomic bomb.
That's quantity number one. They remain unaccounted for to this day. They've either been destroyed by the Iraqis or buried (source)
Did Iraq cooperate with the weapons inspections?
No. Iraq claimed its arsenal of banned weapons was smaller than its actual size�for example, Iraqi officials insisted until 1995 that a biological weapons research was for defensive purposes only�and tried regularly to outfox the inspectors. Iraqi tactics included having troops fire warning shots at the unarmed inspectors, confiscating documents from UNSCOM and refusing to hand over other documents, spying on U.N. personnel, stonewalling while materials were removed from sites in advance of the inspectors� arrival, sabotaging monitoring equipment, and preventing UNSCOM from using its own helicopters and surveillance aircraft. Iraq increased its resistance at suspect sites it had not declared as weapons facilities, and tons of material used to produce unconventional weapons went unaccounted for.(source)
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Originally posted by Mapraputa Is:
still believing America is the greatest country in the world.
Originally posted by Alan Labout:
Shall we play competing authorities on the subject? Here's the opinion of the UN's former head weapons inspector, a former U.S. marine:
Originally posted by Michael Ernest:
Alan, it's no small number of people who have given their lives, through civil and military service, to defend this country and the people in it. While I understand you are trying to make a certain point, I think it's overstepping to describe American patriotism as little else but tired gestures that signal compliance instead of passion.
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
Uncontrolled vocabularies
"I try my best to make *all* my posts nice, even when I feel upset" -- Philippe Maquet
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low, little ad
Gift giving made easy with the permaculture playing cards
https://coderanch.com/t/777758/Gift-giving-easy-permaculture-playing
|