Political discussions and other rants about useless things like culture
- Thread starter Matse
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Evangelical Christians are largely poorer rural Americans, among the least educated in the country. There are, of course, evangelical urban Americans, mostly but not exclusively in the south.
You have to understand, one of the paradoxes of American education is that while our universities are overwhelmingly, in quality and number, the best in the world, I'd say most developed countries have better overall pre-college education than the United States. Our K to 12 public education, overall, is a calamity. A lot of rural Americans, for reasons of a complicated ideological distrust of "government," also home school their children.
The result? While there's always a few crazies out there, clusters of crazy are generally the result of lack of education (re: the Middle East). The less literate and educated a society, the easier it is to say stuff like Jesus rode a raptor into heaven.
You have to understand, one of the paradoxes of American education is that while our universities are overwhelmingly, in quality and number, the best in the world, I'd say most developed countries have better overall pre-college education than the United States. Our K to 12 public education, overall, is a calamity. A lot of rural Americans, for reasons of a complicated ideological distrust of "government," also home school their children.
The result? While there's always a few crazies out there, clusters of crazy are generally the result of lack of education (re: the Middle East). The less literate and educated a society, the easier it is to say stuff like Jesus rode a raptor into heaven.
Hey Danny, I thought you'd be interested in this:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/amazon_under_threat/97.php
http://www.avaaz.org/en/amazon_under_threat/97.php
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Oh I'd forgotten about this! There obviously hasn't been any international coverage on the issue because "Dilma Wilma" (my nickname
) just became president, so all the hype goes around that. Thanks for posting, I just did the same on my FB. (And please, don't call me "Danny"; we barely know each other .)
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The whole situation in Egypt is pretty interesting actually. I liked how the revolution in Tunisia succeeded so quickly but Egypt seems to be a bit harder. As far as I'm concerned Tunisia is heading in the right direction now. The temporary government is almost free of people who also had a high function during Ben Ali's regime and some good promises have been made. The temporary PM promised that the families of the casualties of the revolution will get some sort of refund and all previously banned political parties have been unbanned.
The situation in Egypt is different though. First of all, the ruling dictator. Ben Ali seemed to know when it was time to leave, but I think Mubarak has lost his sense of reality. When you see these ongoing protests getting larger and larger and the army doing nothing even though the crowd is defying the curfew, you know there is no turning back. If Mubarak continues to hold on to his power he might just end up like Ceaucescu (Romania, 1989). If he leaves now, he might just have a chance to live the rest of his life in relative peace (and wealth). I'm afraid he won't though, and with a protest being organised with possibly a million people showing up and the police getting out onto the streets, things might just get out of hand tomorrow.
I've been following the situation on Al Jazeera (which has live coverage and comments of the "revolution") and Twitter. It is even suggested (said to be confirmed by media as well) that the looting was instigated by Mubarak to discredit the protestors, and that he released prisoners to create chaos. I must honestly say that Al Jazeera is doing an excellent job on covering the events in Egypt, with many live images, immediate updates when something happens and many guest speakers who are more "into the situation."
I hope that just like what happened here, the "Arabic Spring" will spread to other Arabic countries that are still under dictatorship. Libya and Algeria are possible "victims", but hopefully the regimes of Saudi Arabia and ultimately Iran will also fall (this will probably take a while though, if it happens at all). Speaking of Iran: reports came in a few days ago that a Dutch citizen was hung in Iran because of opposition and drug abuse. The drug abuse is highly doubtful though, they might have just made that up to create an excuse. The Dutch foreign minister immediately decided to freeze all contacts with Iran. A rightful decision, in my opinion. Iran didn't agree, but I'd say fuck them. So far, my two cents on the current events in the Arabic world.
The situation in Egypt is different though. First of all, the ruling dictator. Ben Ali seemed to know when it was time to leave, but I think Mubarak has lost his sense of reality. When you see these ongoing protests getting larger and larger and the army doing nothing even though the crowd is defying the curfew, you know there is no turning back. If Mubarak continues to hold on to his power he might just end up like Ceaucescu (Romania, 1989). If he leaves now, he might just have a chance to live the rest of his life in relative peace (and wealth). I'm afraid he won't though, and with a protest being organised with possibly a million people showing up and the police getting out onto the streets, things might just get out of hand tomorrow.
I've been following the situation on Al Jazeera (which has live coverage and comments of the "revolution") and Twitter. It is even suggested (said to be confirmed by media as well) that the looting was instigated by Mubarak to discredit the protestors, and that he released prisoners to create chaos. I must honestly say that Al Jazeera is doing an excellent job on covering the events in Egypt, with many live images, immediate updates when something happens and many guest speakers who are more "into the situation."
I hope that just like what happened here, the "Arabic Spring" will spread to other Arabic countries that are still under dictatorship. Libya and Algeria are possible "victims", but hopefully the regimes of Saudi Arabia and ultimately Iran will also fall (this will probably take a while though, if it happens at all). Speaking of Iran: reports came in a few days ago that a Dutch citizen was hung in Iran because of opposition and drug abuse. The drug abuse is highly doubtful though, they might have just made that up to create an excuse. The Dutch foreign minister immediately decided to freeze all contacts with Iran. A rightful decision, in my opinion. Iran didn't agree, but I'd say fuck them. So far, my two cents on the current events in the Arabic world.
Zach.Zhang
Member
stizzleomnibus
Decisively Human
That is an interesting and rather insightful graphic. This one will also blow your fucking mind:
http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bush-obama-morphing.jpg
http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bush-obama-morphing.jpg
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Brilliant pic, says a lot. I've always found the Japanese government so amusing (and frequently complain about it with my friends hee hee). It's amazingly unstable, and that's one of the reason why Japanese society is collapsing.
Haha that one's really funny. The point? Same shit, different colour hahaha
. (Nobel "Piss" Price Mein Arsch.)Oh. My. God. That woman is just...well....I haven't got words for it, just read for yourselves:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...know_true_motives_of_protesters_in_egypt.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...know_true_motives_of_protesters_in_egypt.html
Anybody happened to have seen Saif El Islam Gadaffi's speech? I couldn't help but laugh, he's such an idiot...
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I was watching it live on Al Jazeera yesterday, but here's a link to at least the first part of it on yt:
It basically comes down to the fact that he denies that the claims of the protestors are rightful, that they will have a civil war if they go on like this and he claims that many social services will no longer be available when that happens. Al Jazeera spoke with a American-Libyan woman who said that many of those "services" (e.g. education, health care) aren't there in the first place. Furthermore, Gadaffi denounces the protestors as "terrorists" and is now using the airforce. The west finally seems to have awoken though. UN secretary Ban-Ki Moon allegedly spoke to Gadaffi today, demanding that the violence is stopped at once. Some Libyan officials have also stepped down (a.o. Libyan ambassadors in China and India and minister of justice) as well as Swedish employees of the Libyan embassy in Stockholm, who are speaking of a "genocide".
It basically comes down to the fact that he denies that the claims of the protestors are rightful, that they will have a civil war if they go on like this and he claims that many social services will no longer be available when that happens. Al Jazeera spoke with a American-Libyan woman who said that many of those "services" (e.g. education, health care) aren't there in the first place. Furthermore, Gadaffi denounces the protestors as "terrorists" and is now using the airforce. The west finally seems to have awoken though. UN secretary Ban-Ki Moon allegedly spoke to Gadaffi today, demanding that the violence is stopped at once. Some Libyan officials have also stepped down (a.o. Libyan ambassadors in China and India and minister of justice) as well as Swedish employees of the Libyan embassy in Stockholm, who are speaking of a "genocide".
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