From: Jonathan Davis (jonathan.davis@lineone.net)
Date: Wed May 19 2004 - 10:24:11 MDT
This is my final word on this and I am sorry to not have the courtesy to
leave this be but I also want to make my final clarifications (then I
promise, that's it for this thread).
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf Of
rhinoceros
Sent: 19 May 2004 15:15
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: virus: Re:Banality of Evil and Digital Photography
[rhinoceros] I am not an advocate of "having the last word", so I will
leave my first reply stand or fall by its merit. There are only a couple of
points I want to address.
[Jonathan Davis] Klien paints a picture of a US where the Bush
administration has devastated the hinterland, driving these poor dumb beasts
to take refuge in the armed forces only to find themselves killed or
arrested in Iraq.
[rhinoceros] Do I have to post what Naomi Klein said for a third time?
Where are the "dumb beasts" or anything to that effect?
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=5530sebb
[Jonathan 2] "Klein paints a picture" said Jonathan.
[Jonathan Davis] The current economic climate is largely inherited from 15
years of US political and fiscal policies. Also, until recently Bush was
accused of distracting attention from the Economy with Iraq? Now that the
Economy is growing again she charges him with the reverse!
[rhinoceros] Everything is inherited from something in the past, but that
hardly changes the economic results of the last years. A significant
percentage of the American people I have met here in CoV found themselves
kicked out of well-paid high-tech jobs, confirming what one can read all
over the news. GDP indices prosper but more people are laid off and left
behind.
[Jonathan] We are not a representative sample AND the IT industry was hit by
the dot.com bubble. It had nothing to do with Bush. Zero.
[rhinoceros] If you read Naomi Klein's article again (a brilliant one -- I
don't always defend the articles I post) you will find that Bush's thumbs-up
to economy is nothing more than a performance. He did not really deliver to
the Americans any way to benefit. On the contrary, he told them that they
need no special care because "America can". Did you notice the following?
<quote>
No wonder the President's Economic Report in February floated the idea of
reclassifying fast-food restaurants as factories. "When a fast-food
restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a 'service' or is
it combining inputs to 'manufacture' a product?" the report asks.
<end quote>
[Jonathan 2] The US economy is *growing*. Fact.
[rhinoceros] And who is "the enemy" who beheads captives? Not the serial
killer I just mentioned?
[Jonathan] Who do you mean?
[rhinoceros] That was in my immediately preceding sentence in my initial
reply: "Why would I want to fight and defeat anyone in their home because of
a shady Lebanese serial killer who is trying to cash-in the anger of the
abused? -- and he may too."
Al-Zarqawi, of course. The shady Lebanese.
[Jonathan 2] Oh sorry, I missed that for some reason.
Bye way of last words from me, let me say that I think Klein's article (like
her books) is very interesting. I also happen to disagree with most of it
(as we well know).
In my view the real mistakes of the Bush Administration are its fiscal
policy - the US needs to take radical action now to stave of the
generational accounts nightmare; his attacks on science like stem cells (but
not Kyoto - he was right about that as everyone from New Zealand to Russia
is coming to see) and his attacks on gay rights.
On foreign policy (except the war on drugs) I broadly agree with him (Bush).
Regards
Jonathan
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