25 JULY: MTV3 complains about comment in the Vila People radio show. The presenters are critical of the invasion of Grenada, claiming that it in no way threatened US security. They then state that the US has a habit of invading countries the moment it has a problem. TD says that the Grenada invasion threw out Cuban troops out of the island and that the locals celebrate the invasion with a local thanksgiving.
ANALYSIS: TD's view is that the commentators didn't mention what he sees as the positive aspects of the inasion. However, nothing the "manipulators" said is untrue; Grenada was no threat to the US and that the US is invasion-happy. Certainly no other country as frequently attacks weaker countries. His "this is the truth" statement is particularly ironic, as he completely misses out the fact that that the US invasion followed the ousting of immensely popular socialist prime-minister Maurice Bishop, who had invited the Cubans to the island. As always, the truth is much more complex than Truthdetector's cut and paste from conservapedia.
VERDICT: COMMENT NOT BIAS
19 July: MTV3 complains that TV3 says "Obama wanted to surround himself with millitary and diplomatic experts to counteract Republican attacks about his ALLEGED inexperience in the matters of foreign policy and counter-terrorism." Truthdetector feels that this is bias as the inexperience is proven.
ANALYSIS: I happen to agree that Obama has little hands on experience in these matters (though his knowledge is more extensive than that of McCain), but the job of reporters is not to give credence to one side or the other, but report what they say.
VERDICT: COMPLAINING ABOUT LACK OF BIAS
miércoles 2 de julio de 2008
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Obviously, per se, Grenada was no threat to the States (it is gruesome to even mention it). But, hey, have we forgotten already that there was a thing back then called Republics Союз Советских Социалистических Республик? (sorry for my tasteless display of cyrillic command everytime I am given the slightest opportuniy) more commonly known as "the Russians"?. They were very busy looking for ports here and there, and ports in the Caribbean were much sought after, due to the proximity to the States and...the fact that Arkhangelsk is too cold even in summer and high Navy ranks also deserved their caipirinha in the sun...
So I guess we can safely speak of a very certain geo-strategic threat for the US, to have one more Russian antenna (literally and metaphorically) messing in their backyard.
As for "no other country as frequently attacks weaker countries" is a please-fisk-me cry from BNS. I will proceed, dear.
First, ALL other countries are weaker (which means that all US attacks will be on weaker countries). Therefore, the trite moralistic implicit bullying accusation is kinda defused. Second, the US will always be the country attacking the highest number of other countries (at least for the rest of our lives) because the States plays the classic and all-important Empire role, which allows some much needed Pax Americana (despite American isolationists being too damn many, despite American Wilsons and Carters [¿Obamas?]unwillingness to fulfill their imperial public order duties but rather taking on some Presbyterian ill-fated policies, with catastrophic results).
In other words 'certainly no other country as frequently attacks weaker countries' is stinky demagogic anti-american crap and will be blamed as a psychotropicale byproduct from lat night's rave. No doubts that the author will promptly remove it along some excuses.
They are accepted beforehand, my friend.
De Jong.
"obriu pas!"
p.s.
I missed this one...dedicated to you, guys: Архангельск (I need to feel well with the money spent in Russian fees, I'm sure you understand that)
Global warming will have certainly make this port more workable by now. Not all was going to be bad, huh?...
If Padova is not engaging enough for our gang meeting, then I propose Arkhangelsk. I always wanted to go there and wander near the port, be bullied by Russian military staff and else.
That's only my personal interest, but, if you want something for everybody: on the face of global warming, it is safe to start investing in -at this point- ridiculously cheap property in the North. It will sell as hot bread when palms can be grown up there by the seaside.
I wonder how you guys will thank me for all these beautiful tips...
De Jong.
De Jong,
If you are expecting me to breakdown and give up my aspirations as Nordpolenkejser for a big load of baloney on another cheap roach hunting party in Disco Global, you can stop fooling yourself.
Besides, BNS is married and will not be lured to travel hundreds of miles just for the prospect of getting some Slavic slut and Baltika beer, let alone the plight if someone would find about his Che Guevara tattoo.
That said, De Jong, I appreciate your flip-flop back to real estate savvy -we still had a pending business here, didn't we?
I see, however, a serious flaw in your argument regarding Arkhangelsk. After my calculi, by the time you could grow palm trees in the seaside, the tawing of the pole would have drawn the whole city.
Maybe you would like to consider some hinterland alternatives, like, say, Karpogori or Plesetsk. Nearby Baikonur ruins could be a nice seaside tourist attraction after all.
I'm fucked if this is not a new Russian Costa Daurada with its Port Aventura, Vandellós and Cambrils, dude.
Regards,
alcinous
OK, De Jong, I do agree that there were geopolitical concerns, and it is possible to make a case that the invasion was justified on these grounds. I (along with the Nuremburg judges) happen to believe you can't go invading countries any time you find it convenient, but hey, shit happens.
As for the "No other country so freguently attacks weaker countries", you were quite right to point out my error. I unreservedly retract the word "weaker". :-)
As for pax americana, my attitude is bast summed up by the grafiti found at the corner of Calle Hospital and the Boque car park:
"No queremos que nuestros hermanos del norte nos echen una mano."
Alcinous, don't worry if De has cornered the Siberian real estate market, when the time comes you will be welcome on my balmy tropical paradise cooperative hacienda/night-club commune. We will have sugar cane and lime plantations in order to keep you in caiparinhas and mojitos, and every family will have a penguin butler.
Liberating the Falkland Islands was the only half-decent thing the wicked witch of the south did during her 11 year tyrrany.
“No queremos que nuestros hermanos del norte nos echen una mano”
Again, a fine example of a typical left-wing play on words of the kind tainting the streets of Barcelona (“Tourist, you are the terrorist”, “Mal-visc-a Barcelona”, and so on).
Fuck, you let these Argentinians enter the country and they end up believing the joke.
-“How many kinds of immigrants are there in Spain?”
-“I don’t know”
-“Two: foreigners and Argentinians”
My favourite graffitis are the more popular ones. Undoubtedly, the best of them was one I saw one summer evening not long ago during a stopover in Barcelona, in one of my nostalgic wanders through the Barri Gòtic. There it read obscenely, in a corner between carrer nou de Sant Francesc and carrer d’en Brull, with a typical old man handwriting, brushed in black:
“CADA CATALÁ QUATRE FILLS”
We still don’t know if the woman was just the necessary conveying receptacle for the manly seed (?) or was also included in the rate, what would turn out a quite numerous offspring per couple (8 kids, nothing less) unseen since the early 1900s.
Like Mr Scrooge in the tale, I was starting by then to feel really overwhelmed by the past Volksgeist in the dim light and absolute silence of a street anchored in the 19th century when, at sudden, a small owl soared from an abandoned garret (Spanish: buhardilla) and, quickly rushing with its white wings open, leaped upon some small mouse in the middle of the street.
After a short struggle, the bird nervously flied up again to perch in an old street lamp, while you could still hear the rodent shrieking “hi-hi” in its fangs.
That wasn't the last time I saw birds of prey in town, but it was the last time I saw a white owl so close to me.
Good night
alcinous
By the way, I'm pretty sure it must have been an òbila, not just the sort of mussol you'd expect at first sight.
Is that possible or am I talking nonsense?
alcinous
Sounds like Athena's owl of wisdom to me, the Little Owl. (We have them on my urban street)
Although I admit you may be talking nonsense.
By the way in Algherese, lots of little owls are "mussolini".
Yes, that's what I feared... I knew I must stop reading those Gothic novels, brimming with ghastly night visions and still life despair.
"These were wild and miserable thoughts, but I cannot describe to you how the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me and how I listened to every blast of wind as if it were a dull ugly siroc on its way to consume me".
"Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of earth, nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe; the very accents of love were ineffectual. I was encompassed by a cloud which no benefical influence could penetrate. The wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it, and to die -was but a type of me."
etc.
I'm definitely resuming reading my German essay ASAP.
Regards,
alcinous
As for graffitti, "cada català quatre fills" is a good one, and I may endorse it, especially if your "with a typical old man handwriting" account was confirmed.
This said, my favourite graffito was found somewhere in Roma (I guess Veltroni's scum removed it, hopefully it has been promptly reinstated in Alemanno's times).
NE USA NE ISLAM
I think it is a tenet that should please and gather all sensibilities around here.
(hope you dont mind, though, the drawing resembling a Fiamma Tricolore next to it)
De Jong
"La Germania è veramente vostra amica"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Germaniamica.jpg
Dear Alcinous.
Your calculi on the suitability of palm trees in the Arctic coast could be right. They would be, but only if you hadnt missed the works in progress at the Беломорская биологическая станция (oops, I've done it again... roughly, White Sea Biological Center) regarding transgenic palm trees. These works are funded by the oil trade returns enhanced under the reign of the much beneficial Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Moscow's ultrarich elite can't hardly wait for the results to come out, so you can bet there will be good news in this regard any given day.
Despite my Slavic sympathies (to say the least) I have to admit that I somehow appreciate you old school German approach to Slavic folks ("old school" means here "early 1940s")
Keep the good work.
De.
That 'ne USA ne Islam' dangerously ressembles its akin 'No to Marxism, no to Liberalism' harboured by the nazi bunch. Same goes for Mr Le Pen's flamme tricolore. Are you sure it wasn't actually, ehem, 'fascists'?
I know, I know -you hate derogatory passe-par-tout words in the mouths of interim philosophy professors, but: could they be right with this one, for a change?
If they were, we should then consider Ständestaat or Estado Orgánico as tantamount to nazism, and that would be, oh, so embarrassing...
A good reason to underlook the fiamme and the Islam thing while stressing the juicier 4 fills discourse.
Alcinous
"Travail, famille, patrie"
Indeed, Alcinous, I guess that was a...errr...kinda fxxxxxt graffitto or something.
I thought it was quite clear from the start. The thing is that when you guys read the F word you automatically put your minds in automatic, bang your bongos loud, call a university strike and, in the process, by the time your system has finally rebooted, some much needed ATMs and/or recycling bins may have perished along their 'llibertat per Franki' stickets.
And that's no good.
That is why I prefered to keep it quiet. And then you arrived and boycotted, with your apparent naïveté, my F innuendo.
(I will keep it for the record of our ever growing pending deeds).
This said, well, let's forget about the fiamma tricolore and let's take the literality of
NE USA NE ISLAM
(no strings attached)
do we agree or what??
De Jong.
"We are the angry mob. We read the papers everyday".
ps. verification code was jnrXBA...this is clearly confirming that we are being bugged!!
Alright De Jong.
Apparently these Fuorza Nuova guys from Italy haven’t been reading precisely the Summa Logica, otherwise they wouldn’t be mingling apples with oranges with their ‘Ne USA ne Islam’.
To start, this proposition doesn’t even have a predicate: even Marinetti would have despised it as intellectually anaesthetic.
One could presume an obnoxious ‘non siamo’, ‘non vogliamo diventare’ behind the scenes, but why not a ‘non ci piascono’, ‘non noi vinceranno’ or anything you would like to infer: ‘non sanno un cazzo di gelati di fragola’ or ‘non vi fanno la lasagna come la mia mamma’.
In fact, not even the subject works, since USA and Islam are two different subject qualities (a country and a religion), so even this logical embryo is unevitably biased, even stronger, as it kinda sketches some sort of antithesis between both (USA and Islam as antagonistic).
Even if this vision were true and the whole thing wasn’t but an outline of description of Italy, it is obvious that the Rom could also subscribe it (not Bush, despite being pentecostalist; not Moors, despite looking alike).
May I suggest instead to work out the more robust, logically defendable ‘Zapatero è frocio’ big banner hung in Perugia, where ‘Zapatero’ is the subject, ‘è’ is the verb, and ‘frocio’ (faggot) is the predicate.
Unlike with the former, I have no intellectual objection to this epistemically true, empirically verifiable and socially convenient proposition –I therefore endorse it, no strings attached.
Regards,
alcinous
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