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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9460)	4/21/2004 7:00:36 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20773

Actually, I found an article that suggested that the net, far from being therapy, actually makes people more belligerent :-( That was unwelcome news, since I hoped some good came out of all the bile. I know the diplomacy process disgusted you, I was just curious what you would do, if, say, you were the president of the US, for example. Me, I'd take back a lot of the money going to Israel for defense, and start making sure a lot more countries got development aid they could really use (not the crazy world bank, "let us run you into debt with stupid projects", garbage). I'd like to see a real ground swell of investment in Africa- even if it's things like microloans to help teeny tiny entrepreneurs- sort of an SBA for Africa. I'd like to see more money spent at home on higher ed- and I'd like to see some real effort go in to supporting our industries- not subsidies for freaking sugar growers, but tax incentives for the technologies of the future- so there are some white collar jobs left in the US for my kids. I'd like to see incentives given to companies that stay in the US (I like that Kerry says he will do that). I think we should have a huge push to make sure our population is bilingual in some other language. I remember listening to a forum on Cspan 2- where 3 covert operations guys were talking about how there was almost no one available for certain theatres for operative work because no candidates who spoke the languages were available. That's simply unacceptable. On top of that, it's bad business. Americans need to be able to speak the languages of the world, to do business world wide- nothing closes the deal like being able to joke with the other guy or gal in his or her own language. We need long range plans for our shortsighted nation. I guess the first thing we need is a set of giant corrective lenses, to cure the myopia of our population.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9460)	4/22/2004 5:12:17 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 20773

Re: Part of the reason I left my diplomatic career was a general disgust with the process; it is 99.9% babysitting Third World Screwups (both benign incompetents and malicious SIBs) and arguing trivia with our allies. Huh?! Was the bailing out of post-WWII Europe tantamount to "babysitting Third World Screwups"?? I read a UBS (Union de Banque Suisse) report that estimated the Marshall Plan at a total $100 billion.... And then, what of Russia? Going nowhere despite huge oil reserves, educated elites,... Does that G-8 member produce anything worthy? World-class automobiles? Cell phones perhaps? House appliances? Movies? Textiles? Foodstuffs? Oh, of course --idiot that I am! Russia churns out amazing AK-47s! Soyuz rockets! Jumbo helicopters! And a thriving, worldwide Mafyia....