TimeTraveler

I don't think that is a fair statement. Budullewraagh, as far as I know, has never said he does not like America. There is a huge difference between disagreeing and disapproving with what America is doing and not liking America. I agree with alot of what Bud has said concering America's actions, and I have opinions about certain things that may even be, what one might consider, more drastic than his. However, I personally take offense to anyone saying I dislike America because of my opinions. My personal feeling is if you care enough about your country to critisize what it does wrong and acknowledge what it does right there is nothing more you can do to show that you love and support your country. It is when you blindly follow the policies of an administration that may or may not being doing the wrong thing that is when you are not showing enough love, care and compassion for your country. Aardvark, I think you did not mean offense when you said that, but to me that is the ultimate offense when trying to be objective about ones own countries actions and being accused of hating your country. This country was founded on the people controlling and ruling the government, that is democracy. When the government controls the people that is when democracy fails. The US democracy is failing, unless the people decide to step up and take that control back instead of allowing the government to take more control, it will continue to fail. Sorry to stray off topic, I was recently called an America-hater and it was an insult that, for me crossed the line. I only form my opinions about my government out of the love I have for my country and in consideration of the human beings that inhabit the rest of the world. If I didn't care I would blindlessly follow like the masses do. According to Bud's profile he is only 16, I have to give him credit that he cares about the United States of America enough to pay attention. I know when I was 16 I was more interested in watching MTV than I was interested in American politics. I would classify Bud as someone who believes in America. If that is un-American, then everything I have come to understand about America and her principles have all been falsehoods.

At first glance this seems riduculous but I don't like making up my mind unless I know a good deal of information, which I don't. The timeframe in which the NOAA knew before it hit was 1 hr? And what could have been done in one hour? An hour does not seem like enough time to save anyone from what was coming, and how could they have known it would have caused so much catastrophy? I would assume in that hour they were trying to figure out who to warn and how to warn them. An hour is not much time when in the face of such a devestating natural disaster.

My understanding is that these oil reserves in Canada have not been touched mainly because of the cost of energy to extract from them. Also the difficulty of extracting from these fields makes them highly unappealing. Although over time there will be no choice but to extract these fields at that time the cost to do so, plus the cost increases of oil will make the oil returned from these extractions of enourmous value. Meaning even higher prices for the consumer. This applies to these fields plus some in Alaska and some under the Caspian sea. I do not see that as realistic, if you think about how much we depend on oil and gas it is not that easy to just change everything out. Over a long time I see new technology as saving us but not until after alot of damage has been done. I don't mean to sound pessamistic but think of it this way. All of our cars depend on oil and gas, all of our manufacturing facilities are designed to build cars dependant on oil and gas, all of our refueling stations are designed to deliver oil and gas, all of our shipping, exporting, importing our dependant upon oil and gas. Our agriculture is dependant on oil and gas, all of our agriculture pesticides are oil based. All of our plastics are dependant on oil, and so many more of our important resources are dependant on oil and gas. All of these things depend on oil and gas being cheap, if they are not cheap these things would not work. Now imagine what it would take to try and switch out everything we are built upon to replace it with a new technology, that would take a huge amount of resources, time and effort. Its not something that would be able to be completely switched over in a short time, 10 years at the earliest I would think to refit all of these necessities (to our way of life as it is) and that is everything went good, we had the resources to do it and the economy maintained itself for us to do it. Peak oil is going to happen way to soon for a major shift like that, it may even already be happening the thing is we won't really know until after we have peaked. I don't disagree that alot of new innovations will come from this, or that we will be able to adapt with new technologies. This doesn't mean the end of civilization by any means but I think it does mean a big recession and depression in the global economy and especially in the US economy. In the end we will look back and relish on all the adaptations and inginuity of man that got us out of it, but I do not think there will be anyway to stop it from happening, its more of a question of when will we start preparring for it, and how long will it last before we get ourselves out of the hole we have dug. As for the peak, its not a matter of how or why, its a matter of when. And no one knows forsure there is alot of debate. Some think its already happened (including Mathew Simmons, Cheney's former energy advisor, who has had some "in-the-need-to-know" dealings with the intel that is classified to the rest of us) and others think it may start (the latest I have heard anyways) at around 2012ish. I think we should begin to start adapting for what the inevitable is, no more cheap oil, and not enough awareness or time to make the changes in time to stop a depression from happening.

The last regime took everything I have, sorry.

Yeah and what the heck is that stuff they call cheese in Kraft Macoroni and cheese? I've always wondered what kind of chemical process it takes to make that stuff lol.

Here are the two reporters who discovered this cover-up (The cover-up alleges that the Monsanto company falsified documents to the FDA stating they knew this product could have led to bacterial infections, such as staph) About the reporters: http://www.foxbghsuit.com/bgh3.htm And another one about the case: http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Akre-Wilson-Fox-TV2apr98.htm Here is a link to a story from a guy who spent ten years trying to get this product off the market: http://www.wnho.net/death_of_bovine.htm As for the cows, yeah I don't know much about cows, bladder, mastitis. /shrug At any rate the cows looked like they were in serious pain.

Thanks guys and gals for the great responses. Sandi I am so sorry to hear about your losses. From my understanding Posilec has been removed as a product (I think voluntarily) sometime within the last 10 or so months. I need to do alot more research. But what the procuct did was it was injected into a cow and caused the cow to produce more milk, well the first huge concern came when the cows started getting massive bladder infections after being injected. I seen some footage it looked pretty horrible, some of the cows utters were the size of basketballs and they could not walk. Another thing apparently known about the product was in contained 52 minute traces of antibiotics, and when cows would produce the milk those traces of antibiotic were found in the milk. People who drink that milk or eat/drink anything made from that milk would be recieving those minute traces of antibiotics which could have lowered peoples natural immune system to fight certain things (among them Staph). Now staph is something that many many people have, it lives on peoples skin, but it is usually not able to cause infection because the body produces enough natural antibiotics to keep it at bay, however staph has the ability to mutate and resist antibiotics especially when it is exposed to them in small quantities. So from my understanding, persons that drink these milk products become more at risk because the antibiotics in the milk allow the bacteria to be exposed to small traces of the antibiotics and they mutate, possibly to the point of them resisting your bodies own natural antibiotics and also most known antibiotics that could be used to fight staff. Staph usually can only overpower an immune system if it is weak, in most cases newborn babies, the very elderly, people coming out of surgery, people with diabetes, kidney disease and a few other cases where the immune system gets very weak. I'm 25, and before this pretty healthy. I have had no major medical condidtions that should have allowed my immune system to get weak enough to fight off staph. Here is where I begin to wonder. Not only myself but many people I spent time with this last summer have all contracted staph infection. My wife, my wifes best friend, one of my friends, my wifes bestfriends newborn baby, my wifes bestfriends mother and sister, my wifes bestfriends husband, and a friend who visted us from california. Staph is not usually contagious, like I said most people already have it on their skin, but why/how would so many people rather healthy people contract staph in the same area at close to the same time. Most of these people were able to get it taken care of with simple antibiotics and are fine now, I was actually the second person to get the infection of all these people. My friend that contracted it had to go through the IV treatment and $30,000 later he was able to get rid of it (He had insurance from his University) I am the only one still left with it, and I cannot afford the IV antibiotic treatment, I have one more antibiotic option before the IV treatment is the only thing left that may work. I have already taken 5 or 6 different antibiotics and none have had any effect at all. My next option is a $1200 perscription, that I doubt I can afford but I might be able to get help from my freinds and family with that, and if that does not work the IV treatment will be the only western treatment left so I could very well be trying the treatment ideas that Phi for All proposed (Thanks by the way!). Sandi, I don't know if monsanto would be able to be credited in your case but it is worth looking into. This company has been responsible for some pretty horrible acts. Awhile back an investigative report by a Fox news in Tampa team had a story to expose them and this drug for its possibility to cause staph infection, monsanto found out about it and threatened Fox news it would pull all advertising if the story was released. Their advertising to Fox news was something like $34 million a year. Obviously a story to fox news is not worth 34 million a year in advertising. But the reporters were brave, when fox news asked them to drop the story they refused, when fox news threatened to fire them, they threatened to sue. They settled on re-writting the story, in cooperation with the Monsanto corp. but after 80 some odd re-writes and 8 months neither side was able to come to agreement on the story, these reporters were fired for no cause. They wrote a letter to the head of fox news who fired back making an admitation to them being fired over the story. They went to court with fox news, three years later they won 425,000. Fox news appealed, and the appeal was backed by certain main companies of high interest, the appeal was successful and the case was lost. The story has never been aired. But on a documentary I watched entitled the Corporation I learned about all this. Which got me thinking maybe my staph could have come from drinking milk! I drink alot of milk. If you get a chance to watch the documentary called the corporation do it. It is well worth it, its amazing to know that corporations are considered people in a court of law and are granted the same if not more rights than me or you would be, but it explains how corporations if they are people are purely psycopath and have no moral distinction between right and wrong. Its a great film, and you will see this company Monsanto is probably the evilest corporation on the planet. Michael Moore says in the film, ya know its funny, due to corporate greed I am paid to sit here and help destroy the same people who are paying me to make this film. It's like they are so greedy that if they make money they will pay you to tie the noose around there neck and hang them. Its so true! Don't worry though if your not a Michael Moore fan, he is only in about 1 minute of the movie. Anyways take care guys, look forward to hearing anymore info!

To whom it may concern, I am seeking to obtain information about the possibility of a lawsuit of myself vs. the Monsanto corporation. The Monsanto corporation is the corporation that introduced a product called Posilac. Posilac is a genetically engineered supplement given to diary cows to increase their milk production. Their claim on this product is this: “ POSILAC® bovine somatotropin has become one of the leading dairy animal health products in the United States and many other countries. Supplementing dairy cows with bovine somatotropin safely enhances milk production and serves as an important tool to help dairy producers improve the efficiency of their operations.” However this is not true, and they know this is not true. Here are some excerpts, quoted parts are allegedly from an FDA document, from a story I found at this link: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3665 OBSERVATION 1 "There is a failure to thoroughly review the failure of a batch or any of its components to meet any of its specifications whether or not the batch has been thoroughly distributed." "Specifically, the corrective actions implemented after the investigation of nine sterility failures reported since 2001 (3 for 2001, 3 for 2002, and 3 for 2003) for Posilac injection or for the lyophilized active ingredient (Sometribove zinc) have not been effective in preventing reoccurrence. In five instances (2 for 2001, 1 for 2002, and 2 for 2003) the organism was identified as Propionibacterium acnes; Staphylococcus species have been identified in three instances and in one instance (in 2002) Bacillus pumilus was found. Propionibacterium was found in environmental samples of the manufacturing areas. Batches manufactured around the same period of time and under the same conditions of the affected lots have been released to the market." OBSERVATION 2 "Equipment for adequate control over micro-organisms is not provided when appropriate for the manufacture, processing, packing or holding of a drug product." It has been well reported that a new emerging species of bacteria has developed, immune to antibiotic treatment. Staphylococcus aureus plagues many American hospitals in this new outbreak. Could the etiology of the mother of all deadly staph infections be traced to a new genetically engineered version of staph, a superbug inadvertently produced by Monsanto and then introduced into the food supply? In 1989, such staphyloccus infections were unknown to hospitals. By 2002, nearly two-thirds of all hospital infections could be attributed to antibiotic-resistant staphlococcus infections. What does this have to do with me? I have MRSA. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems. - (Source: http://www.cdc.gov) I have been through 5 or 6 different antibiotics so far and nothing has been able to cure it. I have had this infection for more than 7 months. I won’t get into details about it because some parts might disgust you but I will say it has not been fun. I do not know if the dairy I use or have used in the last year can be tied back to this product, I need an expert who knows about the location of diary and where it goes to see if this genetically engineered product has been at stores I purchase from. I am seeking a lawsuit on a basis of principle and not to get rich. It is morally wrong to knowingly exploit a situation to make money when you know it is causing harm to humanity. Staph infection is a serious issue. I do not know if I will live through it, I do not have insurance, nor can I afford to continue much more treatment options. I have 2 children and a wife and every time I look in their eyes I am worried I might be here in a year from now. Staph infection is no joke, here are some statistics: “Staph infections can lead to pus-filled boils, pneumonia, kidney infection, heart damage or even septicemia, a deadly blood-borne immune system reaction that is the 10th- leading cause of death in the United States. Overall, 10 percent of staph infections are fatal, according to a CDC study of New York City hospitals. If the staph traveled to the patient's lungs and caused pneumonia, however, 25 percent died.” From the POSILAC testimonials: "I use POSILAC because it makes me money." Fred Gore Zephyrhills, Florida If you have any advice, information or any comments that may help me please let me know. If you wish to email me you can at JshAber@adelphia.net

I disagree with this statement. Here is why. Resources don't need to run out to impact us. It is when they peak that will cause catastrophy to begin. Peak oil has either already begun, is about to begin or will begin sometime in the next 10 years. When oil peaks demands will not be able to be met with supply. Prices will increase and people will not be able to afford to get from place to place in their cars, in essence the economy will begin to wither. Things can and will be done to help it but there is absolutly nothing that can be done to stop it in time, unless we completely re-evaluate our way of life and make some very serious changes. Not tomorrow but now. New technologies will not help, for one most new technologies being developed use more oil than what we use now, for example Hydrogen technology. From my understanding, hydrogen is not really an energy source, but rather a container for energy. It takes alot of energy to use hydrogen as energy. Natural gas is problematic too. Just last year the north eastern region of the US barely missed catastrophy during the winter months as natural gas was basically running on empty, if the winter had been a little colder or a little longer the supply for the area and that year would have ran out and the northeaster region would not have been able to support the natural gas needs of the people in that region. I am no expert, and I do not know much but I suggest checking out a documentary called The End of Suburbia, its full of experts including the US governments former energy analysis expert Mathew Simmons. I did not understand everything they were saying, as I said I am no expert, but I did understand one thing clearly, there is a major crisis on the horizon and we are not doing anything about it and it will drastically change the lives of human beings especially major energy consumers like the US. Sorry for not being more thurough in this post it is very hurried, I will check back and add some more thoughts later. Take care.

Two good documentaries about this topic: The end of Suburbia and Advertising and the End of the World The problem is alot worse than most think. According to people who know more than me, at our current growth rate humanity will be unable to sustain itself by about 2070. At which time we will be basically sent back to the stone age, that is if we don't go extinct fighting over resources before then.

Okay America's image overseas. Good topic, I will go with that. In this world it is impossible for people to not be stereotypical, we might try not to be but we are (generally speaking). I think America's actions as of late are giving the world a negative stereotypical veiw of who and what we are. If you think about it after Sept. 11th the world was with America, mass candlelight vigils around the world took place to mourn the loss of those that died that day, not just because there were people of all nationalities that died in America that day but because they felt for our loss. Now only a few years later protests take place all over the world against the US's actions. Why the change of heart? Well I think its because of Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The WOT has nothing to do with Iraq. And the Bush administration has been spitting out threats to nations, relishing the idea that you are either with us or against us. And I think the a majority of the problem is just that, the Bush administrations constant reminder you are with us or against us. But hey, all Americans don't feel that way. If your not with us thats fine, half of America isn't with this war in Iraq either. Alot of us are for fighting terrorism, not for invading nations and toppling regimes. Especially on speculated evidence or basically "guesses" instead of actual factual intelligence.

Sorry to stray off topic Pangloss. Went from talking about Saudi to Ideologies. I do that alot, it's not intentional though.

Im not calling things I don't like anti-American, I'm calling groups, parties, or organizations that hate America and American ideals enough to declare war on America Anti-American (Al Qaeda for example) We can't be sure we are not breeding more groups similar AQ in the middle east. The ideals from AQ stemmed from about 40+ years ago, its impossible to predict what impact we may be having on people 40 years from now. "So what if they do?" Well it could potentially put people in more danger from terrorists. And I completely agree that we can't use force or threat of force and then complain about what happens when democracies form. We should not be threatning the use of force or forcing democracy. We should not even be in the middle east. It is not our land it does not belong to us. If acts of Genocide take place we should step in, to protect the innocents. But we should not be bullying our ways onto people period. Its all about corporate greed, they need to expand to other nations to expand their profits. I say they need a leash and their profits should have restrictions. I veiw corporations as more powerful than governments, and when they are driven purely by greed that really scares me to what the future will bring.

Hey Syntax, same person. I took your advice from PNAC thread and took my debate there to see what kind of response I could get as I wasn't getting much feed back or discussion on that topic here. Do you respond to threads in the political section there? If so whats your user name? Take care.

Now that we have attacked Iraq twice, killed many innocent civilians, threaten Iran and Syria, protect Isreal,and continued to modernize the middle east rapidly, is it possible that these groups won't attract more members or inspire other radical groups in the area who might try to get into power to uprise against the US and modernization? Is modernization so important that we push it on them so fast or don't give them time enough to adapt. Are there other ways to modernize(Such as things that don't stand against traditions), maybe help with localizing agriculture instead of sweat shops. Maybe we should put a leash on our corporations. Sorry I am rambling, anyways the point is; it is hard to predict what these democratic elections in the mid east will bring. I hope it brings good, I really do. But even if it does it won't stop terrorism. And it could prove to make things worse, it could get someone into power who makes Saddam look like a nice guy.

I disagree. It is only impossible because we consider it impossible. Bush is an idiot. Actually, he is more of a puppet. His only quality in politics is public speaking, other than that he is ignorant to the world. His so called administration has goals for humanity to take course for democracy. They believe that if every country is democratic then there will be no fighting. However that is unlikely. For one, economies need war. For two by forcing democracy you breed resistance (As seen in Iraq). The solution would be international law, peace, order and justice. However, I will concede that I do not know a good way to enforce international law. But I do know that forcefully will not work. The leaders of this planet are leaders for a reason. To figure out how we can all live peacefully together and the people of this world have the basic human rights. The leaders of this world fail in this aspect. It is up to the people to recognize this. When they do they can make a difference. What we need is a worldwide revolution because the future of humanity looks very bleak. War, famine, poverty, our environment, natural resource depletion, global warming, ect. These are things humanity as a whole needs to step up and conquer. It can be done, it's just a matter if it will be done. Sorry for straying off topic, Cadmus maybe we can start a new thread to discuss this so we don't Hijack this thread.

Just like with any country there is good and bad. Unfortanantly I do not know much about the good aspects of culture in Saudi Arabia, however I do some of the bad. In post #6 I wanted to find a specific link about some honor killings in Saudi, but I couldn't find it and posted a different link I found, good thing Sayo caught that it was pretty much irrelevent and the part I quoted was about Nigeria not Saudi In Saudi I read that if a women is raped it is her families duty to kill her to preserve her honor. Of course not everyone in Saud follows these 'traditions'. I know that the neo con agenda wants every country to be democratic, I think that is plain silly. Countries need to be free to form their own governments, but there needs to be strict international law the prevents tyranny, genocide, torture, and all other aspects of inhumane treatment. I know there are some such laws in place, but it seems those laws are often broken and nothing is done about it. But back to Saudi, I don't think Saudi is close to democratic. But I don't think the Bush administration will do anything forcefully to Saudi, even though they do support many terrorists, Saudi ties to America and oil are far to great. Doesn't Saudi Arabia own like 7% of the US economy?

Personally I don't care what type of system of governance a country chooses, as long as it gives its people basic freedoms and causes no intentional harm to its people. I have to agree with Cadmus, I do not see basic freedoms and humanitarian rights from Saudi Arabia. I don't know if pushing democracy is the best thing, but humanitarian rights should be sought after by the US and/or UN for Saudi Arabia. Heres another useful link: Saudi violations of womens human rights: Amnesty international report

The extremism goes both ways, on many occassions I have tried to explain to people the mistakes made, (not on this board but another board), and they are just thickheaded, I make a well informed post supported by fact and certain people respond with things like, your not being patriotic, or your being a liberal, ect. ect. In my eyes thats an extremism as well. Not to mention the ultimate extremism, the neo-conservative ideology.