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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Curtis who wrote (1125)	1/24/2002 7:15:13 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 5185

John, thanks for the post!

To: John Curtis who wrote (1125)	1/24/2002 7:19:10 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 5185

To complain is to be unAmerican The president wants to make the US safer for the Republican party Matthew Engel Wednesday January 23, 2002 The Guardian My fellow non-Americans (and also any Americans who might happen to be listening)... That start in itself makes this state-of-the-union column more inclusive than President Bush's own state of the union address will be when he stands in front of the massed ranks of Congress next Tuesday to make his most important speech since the post-September 11 epic. He will be addressing the American people. Anyone else who happens to be listening will be an eavesdropper. To a large extent, that's how it always is in this country, most especially in an even-numbered year, whether or not the election directly involves the president himself. And it's particularly true with this president. The past few months have changed things, but not in the way outsiders like to think. The world has not become more interdependent. Instead, as seen from the Oval Office, it has become divided into three: the United States; countries willing to do the US's bidding; and nuisances/enemies. It's not a good idea to be a nuisance/enemy. But the essential fact is that the union - as presidents like to say on these occasions - is strong. Very strong. September 11 has bound the country together in a remarkable fashion that has confounded sceptics (including this one) and surprised even the administration. The transport secretary, Norman Mineta, was able to say last week that "patience is the new patriotism" apropos the continuing chaos at the airports; and no one howled him down. Airport check-ins are like the old Soviet bread queues, but without the shared black humour. Complaining is considered unAmerican, even though the security procedures are ludicrous, with solemn searches of elderly ladies' flat heels and kids' baseball caps - while luggage, despite a tightening of the law last week, can still be loaded on to planes with nothing to stop them having enough explosive to blow up Rhode Island. It's not a political issue here, just as the treatment of the detainees in Guantanamo - which so troubles the bleeding-heart pinkos of the Mail on Sunday - is not an issue. If they weren't bad guys, they wouldn't be there. End of subject. guardian.co.uk