That one really made me think - What type of government best serves the people who are perhaps too stupid to choose? Do we get what we pay for? When only about 1/5 of the eligible electorate votes for the President, when very few know who is responsible for taking away about 1/3 of their income, well, in essence we get what we pay for and, in this case, perhaps even less.
I'm seeing many of the conspiracy "theorists" (for lack of a better word) talk about the old nuggets of trilateral, neocons, skull and bones, and then the bigots who think there are "zionists" in power everywhere. I've toyed with theories in the past, having researched the JFK assassination from the perspective of government assistance or involvement. I know when I first spoke to people about what I read, they also looked at me like I was nutty to think that perhaps those "close to power" had something to do with the murder.
I believe today's world, for better or worse, is different from the world of the 60's and that this type of conspiracy would not survive and, in fact, would never be attempted.
With investigation being facilitated by tech and with theorists running from SI paranoid delusionists to college professors, working along with or tangentially with the media, there would be too many trails to allow a conspiracy like the one upon which this thread is based. For my left leaning friends, Bill couldn't even hide his DNA the one time he allowed the tryst to culminate.
As for who really runs the country, I believe there is some truth to the "powers behind the powers" theory but that today it is really a matter of placing money and contacts behind the right party or family. I don't think that these powers can really run the world today, even assuming, arguendo, that they did 40 years ago. Don't you think John Kerry with his wife's billions and his huge ego would be the one to shed his "skull and bones" and expose this conspiracy just as he turned against the Vietnam War?
Dusting off some Hobbes, and on further reflection, I can still argue that
1)this form of government, both in theory and in practice, is doing a better job for the people than anywhere else today (ok - again small islands and little doofy municipalities excepted perhaps). Now that's not to say that I couldn't improve upon this one. We all have our dreams of "what I would do" if President. The reality is that we don't get there and it is much easier to be critical and to think that there are conspiracies against us and our thinking. Some of us go to such extreme that we post on SI.
2) The world is better off without Saddam in power. I wouldn't have gone through the machinations about WMD, etc., and the like which is making the administration look more than a bit foolish. From the average man to the studied academic realizes that Saddam was a tyrant who murdered perhaps millions and could do more with the right weaponry. We have the power and the will to remove these murderers and we should do it. Similarly, we should try to save Liberians and others who are ruled by money-grubbing, power thirsty tyrants. We need to do a better job of getting the world involved but also need to realize that most nations are run by people with perhaps bigger egos (e.g. France) and desires, or more corrupt (e.g. Russia) than we are. It would be nice for our leaders to realize that their egos can kill or make them look foolish just as they are pointing out the same in others. (Easy to tell others but hard to do the right thing.)
3)No way in the world did the US (or any ally) do 9/11. I do believe that the intelligence "industry" and the money thrown at it is so enormous that the evidence and leads expand to fill the resources to the point that it becomes something like the Peter Principle. This explains how with huge sums spent on guarding the President, some nut was able to stow away on his plane a couple of days ago.
We had leads that 9/11 was going to happen, as we probably have 1000 leads every day. It is probably impossible to guess which leads are real and which are bogus.
They should come out and say this and not just pussy foot around making excuses. No reputable person who has seen the data and has heard the testimony, including Presidential candidates who would use this information, have come close to saying that the US (and in particular) Bush was behind 9/11.
One can point to blogs and their equivalent as much as one wishes but the common sense prevails. Osama did it and he wasn't acting as a US agent. Yes, he had prior connections, but in the sleazy world of international relations, connections get severed over night. |
