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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (97650)	5/8/2003 2:23:12 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Jacob, You must have too much time on your hands these days. Should have stayed with medicine or perhaps move South where there is sun for 12 months. This last post of yours takes the cake. God complex anyone! mike

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (97650)	5/8/2003 2:24:20 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

In Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, we are hated, as much as the Soviets were in Poland and Hungary. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan we are hated by those who wear jeans, drink Coca-Cola, eat hamburgers, watch Hollywood movies, and plan to send their kids to school in the US. They hate us AND they love us. To suggest that this resembles the feelings of Hungarians and Poles to the Soviet Empire is as mistaken psychologically as it is far-fetched politically.

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (97650)	5/8/2003 5:10:48 PM
From: NightOwl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The strength of the U.S. cannot rest on our military might; that's what the Soviets thought, and they were very wrong. Their empire fell, in spite of all their tanks and planes, when they lost the HeartsAndMinds in their Empire. And we are doing the same thing, using force as a substitute for persuasion. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, we are hated, as much as the Soviets were in Poland and Hungary. And for much the same reasons. We are seen, overwhelmingly, in Europe and Asia and Latin America, as a militarist bully, cynically using the slogans of democracy and freedom (without the content). Oh Jacob, I feel your pain and a mighty pain it is. You got just about the worst case of *Hypocritis Pedestalsus* that I have ever seen. Discounting my own of course. <Hoo> Unfortunately, there isn't much anyone can do about this particular malady. To date, only two remedies have been noted in the literature. The approach most often recommended by the medical community has been the Frontal Lobotomy. It's quick, it's neat, comparatively quite safe, and of course 100% effective according to the FDA. ...But then too the incredibly high standards of medical care we USers insist on also makes it prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, Congress has seen fit to mandate its coverage in the private insurance market, and they also added it to Medicare & Medicaid lists of approved procedures. So if you can't afford it, the government will make the rest of us pay for it if you want it. <g> The only other known alternative is of course aspirin, accompanied by bed rest until you have penetrated the resistance at the half century mark. I haven't been able to get a rational explanation as to why this works. But there is a statistically significant drop in the rates of *Hypocritis Pedestalsus* after age 50. In fact, there's absolutely no clinical evidence that anyone beyond the age of 80 has ever suffered from its effects. <vbg> My own speculation on the peculiar etiology of this illness, is that it simply takes many of us quite a long time to simply accept the fact that humanity and hypocrisy are in fact synonymous. Indeed, once you get past all the superstitious mumbo jumbo, it's actually the sole characteristic that separates homo sapiens from all the other flora and fauna on the planet. <g> On the bright side, it is really quite amazing how much mileage we have gotten out of our nation's seminal hypocrisy. Jefferson's *Declaration* has become perhaps the greatest statement of secular propaganda of all time. ...Of course he lived to be 83, but by age 33 when he wrote it, he was all ready well and truly ensconced in the hallowed political process and thus knew full well that without the blessings of a very wide ocean and the weight of French guns, it was just so much tripe. So, not being an MD, insurance agent or politician, I suggest going for the aspirin and bed rest. Before you know it the big Five O will have arrived and the Myth of our ever having lived in accordance with our ideals will slowly begin to fade. <g> 0\|0