Phi for All

Isn't this terrible? Like there could be a "small" shooting or bombing! Being insulated in the middle of my huge country, I find it amazing that tiny Israel could keep its sanity amidst so much aggression. We have lakes we could fit the whole of Israel in! How could any bombing not make everyone cringe? When you say the media plays a huge part in it, do you feel they downplay the danger? If you had our approach to media, you'd be in a bunker changing your underwear every 5 minutes! If you've seen Bowling for Columbine (I had mentioned it before) then you know the US media, given a choice between covering a dog pulling an infant from a raging river or the discovery of a cache of weapons in a local gang neighborhood, will go for the guns EVERY TIME, no question! Do you think Israel's media shelters you from the aggressions of your neighboring countries?

The present US administration calls their education program "No Child Left Behind". They proposed it, got it put through and then underfunded it by $27 billion. They promised seniors a prescription drug benefit, but then put through a bill that gave the big drug companies $139 billion and forces seniors to pay more for prescriptions. Their plan to lessen restrictions on air pollution is called "Clear Skies". Their plan to allow unrestricted logging is called "Healthy Forests". Everything this administration has done in Iraq almost seems calculated to foment as much anger from ALL the Islamic nations as possible. They bombed a mosque. They've humiliated Islamic prisoners in ways that strike at the heart of their religion. Then Bush shows his face on Arab television to apologize for it, saying "this is not the America I know", as if it is not his responsibility but OURS. When questioned about any of this, they claim they are being misrepresented by the "liberal media". They have made this into such a sound byte that people forget that the media in the US is owned by huge mega-corporations who all have a vested interest in keeping Bush in office so that the last half-century's worth of social, economic and environmental reforms can be done away with, to make big business even more profitable. This is the main reason I no longer trust US media. I learn more about what's really happening in the US by listening to the BBC.

I remember seeing Joeseph Newman years ago as Johnny Carson's guest on the Tonight show. He explained how he had discovered perpetual motion by combining a gyroscope with an electromagnet. He claimed it produced an EM field so strong it could be used to power a motor that could generate more electricity than it used to keep itself going. His unit was small and could generate power enough for individual homes and run everything on DC so light bulbs and appliances would last forever. His system was supposedly affordable and safe. I was so disappointed when he turned out to be a fraud.

1. Gain knowledge. Learn everything you can so you have at least some protection from lies.2. Be aware of systems that seem to do one thing but really do another. We think the media in the US is here to inform us. They really are here to bring advertisers to us. Just like Xerox is not in the copier business, they are in the toner & service contract business. 3. Get wise to the fact that in the US the two-party system is being used against us. Take a look at the political compass website featured in another thread in this politics area of the forum. Democrats and Republicans are all grouped up in the same corner (except Kucinich & Sharpton). They all cater to big business, with the understanding that what's good for the mega-corporations just HAS to be good for the people. I'll let others add to this list, but I will say that MoveOn.org has a wonderful book called "50 Ways to Love Your Country" that will help.

Hey, wait a minute! I get it now. YOU'RE HIS BOSS, AREN'T YOU!?!? You & Kitty were sent from the year 2095 to rewrite HIS history! I figured it out! Just a second, my doorbell is ringing....

Why do we have this penchant for wanting to believe a guy like this could be for real, but our butt puckers when we listen to his predictions? I'm with YT2095, don't give him the time of day or Nostradamus will rise from the dead.

From the little I have read about some of his predictions, or rather what he claims is true 30 years from now, he has a real grasp of logical occurance. He predicts the office of President of the United States will be split into five people representing different regions and areas of responsibility. I can tell you now, if Bush is re-elected and allows big business to rape this country for another four years, this is exactly the kind of reform that might be called for (they took the power out of the governor's office in the state of Texas after the office had been abused and misused. By the time GB Jr was governor, he didn't even have a say in his own state budget. Being the governor of Texas was a figurehead position). Since the last election in the US was so close, perhaps this would have been an easy call for this so-called time-traveler to make. I can't believe even now after plunging this country into the worst debt its ever seen & destroying economic & environmental reforms it has taken years to build, the American public still seems to be split down the middle about who to vote for.

If Bush is re-elected, I'll bet anything he tries to end our membership in the UN and make them leave our sacred soil. Can we count on Australia to liberate us then?

To me, American media is very untrustworthy because they are so obviously trying to build viewership for their corporate sponsors. Do you think they would report negatively on a certain company if that company bought millions of dollars worth of air time or full page ads in the newspapers? And they know if they prey on our fears they will keep us glued to the television or reading the papers. "Is our drinking water safe? Tune in at 10pm!" Michael Moore did a beautiful job of warning Americans about this in Bowling for Columbine. And recently I read about a study on the three major national networks that talked about how Peter Jennings of ABC was influencing voters by nodding his head and smiling more often when he was talking about Republican candidates. Also, I am sick of hearing them stir up support for the war in Iraq by talking on and on about the poor contractors who were killed and burned in Fallujah recently. They make them sound like plumbers and engineers when in fact they were mercenaries and soldiers of fortune making $120,000 a year on contract to Haliburton and other subsidiaries. Whether or not they are told to report things this way I can't say. The affect it has on the public just happens to support the present administration in a way that makes my flesh crawl. For those of you in countries other than the United States, please do me a favor. Get the United Nations to declare George W. Bush a danger to world peace. I will personally guarantee you he has weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. When the UN's foreign forces start landing on our shores to liberate the oppressed populace and take over our national resources in order to safeguard them, I am positive the American people will see our country and our media in a new light.