🚀 go-pugleaf

>> no... the "bigger picture" is that we're ALL of us, in this
>> together...including the fanatic freaks in the mideast... and the only 
>> solution that can
>>  possibly save our collective asses is to work together...

> This would be the ideal. Agreed. That said...it's not likely this can ever 
> happen as long as religion is part of the equation.

i firmly believe that religious entrenchment is the greatest cancer in our midst 
right now... i don't have a problem with people maintaining whatever system of 
belief they choose... only when they abdicate their own capacity and 
responsibility for independent and rational thought do i completely lose respect 
for them... i truly wish there was an easy solution to this problem... but i 
suspect the fundies are going to have to wreak far more destruction upon us 
before people begin to wake up and react against it...


>> dialled-up rhetoric such as "US has tried to invade Canada before"
>> is only another form of polarizing hate-mongering... and if you wish
>> your arguments to maintain credibility, then they would be better served with 
>> a higher degree of objectivity and some factual data
>>  to back them up....

> You have a point... Too...I despise the US regime and what they're
> doing to the globe... They're the terrorists now, imo.
> And, afaic, anyone who defends that regime is the hate monger.
> We don't need to be affiliating ourselves with a bully who'll turn on us at 
> the drop of a ten gallon hat. It's like painting a target on
>  ourselves...and Harper's going to be holding the paint can...imo.

i can certainly empathize with your feelings on this matter... they were sad 
days for me when both Bush won twice, and when Harper was elected... it seems 
we're in the midst of an evangelistic resurgence and that scares the hell out of 
me because such predominance in our politics by neo-fascist, superstitious 
freaks is what i firmly believe to be a recipe for self-destruction...

on an aside, i'm a fan of 24 and in last night's episode where the president was 
confronted with the reality of his own incompetence and realizing that his own 
spinelessness was going to result in killing his wife, he asked his chief of 
staff to get on his knees and pray with him.... and i could only imagine bush 
doing the same thing when and if he ever finds himself in direly desperate 
straights... kind of like the deer in the headlights syndrome... so paralyzed by 
the gravity of the situation at hand that they freeze up and guarantee their own 
demise.... not unlike nero fiddling while his country burned up all around 
him....

i think there are rational people everywhere on this globe... and most of them 
prefer to simply avoid any form of confrontation... which is truly an 
intelligent strategy when primarily concerned with one's own well-being... 
however, i also firmly believe in the statement that, "all that is required for 
evil to exist in this world is for good people to stand by and do nothing".... 
and given such, i think much tragedy will need to occur in order to shake people 
out of their doldrums and actually make sincere efforts into contributing toward 
solutions we can all live with....