Lawrence DeBivort wrote: > Your previous ill-informed comments on the federal spending caps suggest > that you do NOT read "official statistics, reports, etc." and instead rely > on secondary and tertiary materials that make up for their ignorance with > sensationalism.
Actually, my comments referred to the US debt, not the spending caps, and to the warnings of bankruptcy (not being able to pay one's bills) by US Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill -- both _are_ official. Your "correction" referred to the arbitrariness of the height of debt, and when presented with O'Neill's literal quote about the US gov't running out of money to pay its bills, you dodged that it was "only" the US _gov't_ (but not the country) that is going bankrupt -- as if large parts of the US economy and private households wouldn't be pretty near bankruptcy too. You even went on to declare that the solution to gov't bankruptcy consists of "us[ing] moneys that are in surplus in one account to cover the needs of another account". Well, I wonder how someone with a debt of $6 trillion still can have a surplus in other accounts? And if so, what's the point -- does it add money? Ahhh, I see -- sounds like Enron/WorldCom/Xerox/Harken/etc. accounting practices! And indeed, that's what the president (and the various Enron guys in his administration) has been involved in in his own career (and yes, Arthur Andersen was the accountant) -- no wonder the bankruptcy comes ever closer... > > If so many Americans are so critical, then why do they have such a system? > > The American 'system' is actually a complex of systems. Okay, so let me rephrase the question: If so many Americans are so critical, then why do they have such a complex of systems? (or rather a system of complexes?) > I will not explain > this here, but suggest that if you want to know more, you read such books as > Karen Armstrong's THE SEARCH FOR GOD, David Halberstam's THE BEST AND THE > BRIGHTEST, and EMPIRE EXPRESS. It is indeed symptomatic that you recommend a book on Vietnam that is co-authored by nobody other than John McCain. And the long-winded and chaotic book on the construction of US railroads can hardly be considered a genuine eye-opener either. Sounds more like a waste of time. I prefer books like historian William Blum's "Rogue State USA". > Of course, there are many more outstanding > studies and I would be happy to recommend them to you if you were to be > interested -- and I am sure other list members will be happy to be as > helpful. I do hope other list members have better books to suggest. > > > I will pass on correcting the factual mistakes you make in your posting ... > But if you want a hint: you can start with your statement that 'the Supreme > Court appointing the US President.' Is it true or not that the Supreme Court (partly appointed by Bush senior) decided that the candidate with _less_ votes (even in Florida) becomes president ? But you'll probably dodge by nitpicking over formal details. > > If I would feel Schadenfreude, I would just > > keep the alternative for myself, silently watching with glee how Keith > > misinforms the audience. > > Your protect rings hollow: you routinely criticize without understanding, > and reject information that counters your point of view. I reject misleading "information" and cop-outs like "spending caps"... > Nor do you present 'other ways'. Of course I do, in just about every posting on this list. > Nor would you advance ad hominum arguments, as you just did. You should look up the meaning (and spelling) of "ad hominem argument" before wrongly alleging it to me. In fact I criticized Keith's words, not his personal background. > Keith and I agree on some things, and disagree on others; but always I get > the sense that he is searching for understanding, and to share this > understanding and the ideas and knowledge of others. It is well possible that Keith is searching for understanding, but unfortunately he's searching in the wrong places (economic newspapers and dogmatic books like "IQ and the wealth of nations") -- places that present corporate spins in order to confuse potential resisters. Worse, Keith refuses to accept corrections even in cases where it would improve his own life (e.g. my tips on anti-cancer diet), and instead he keeps parroting the latest spins from the economic newspapers. Of course he is fully entitled to do that, but then I feel free to sometimes jump in and debunk the PR and/or to present "other ways"... > > Currently the largest problems of Switzerland are due to Americanization. > > Do not assume that there aren't people on this list who know better, Chris. Hear, hear! Will the real experts on Switzerland please stand up? But how can _you_ assess whether they know better, when you didn't even know that Switzerland was not involved in the Geneva-Savoie war? Maybe you fall for disinformation from people like British subject M.M. whose time served in a Swiss jail made him somewhat biased. (Dunno if he's still on this list.) Let your "experts" come out of their closets -- I look forward to hearing their claims. > > Perhaps America would be criticized less if it could get rid of its > > obsession of forcing its own system (and the resulting problems) upon > > everyone else (with rather egoistic motives). > > I am sure it would be. And there are many people who are working to make > it so. I'm eagerly waiting for some positive results of that work. Things have been going in the opposite direction for decades now, so it seems there aren't enough people working on this over there. On the contrary, especially after 9/11, it seems that most of them are bullied into obedience and fear (or even flag-waving). Chris
