so, no one can press for ceasefire

[datasuspect]

until it is established that hezbollah has no more missiles?

i think this is what the replicants in the media are trying to tell me: "if we stop now, there might still remain missiles in the hands of the "terrorists."

do they honestly think hezbollah will NEVER have an effective violent means to express their rage/protect themselves/whatever?

the US and israel will ALWAYS have an effective means to express their particular violence . . .

[CuteNFuzzy]

1. your consent must be manufactured

without your support none of this is going on right now ("your" collectively means the voting US population)

[datasuspect]

4. i think they bypass the popular will

they have many of us well trained. maybe "conditioned" is a better word. keep enough people in enough shiny electronic gadgets (ever see an adult perpetually fingerfuck a cell phone like a monkey playing with a shiny box? - who says evolution doesn't have explanatory power as a theory!) and the governments and power players know they can pretty much do what they want.

naturally this is oversimplifying: you have to groom people to accept authoritarianism--school is marvellous for this. when you switch the focus of education from expanding one's mind, from inculcating reason in a young mind, from learning about things like proportionality, rationality, ratiocination: switch the impetus from these more noble pursuits to job (or gag "career") training, you start to see where the problem comes from.

we live in a world where the young are not valued as or trained to become better citizens, they are valued as and trained to become better candidates for corporate employment.

the corollary to this is instilling the belief at an early age in the supremacy of advertising as a communications tool. training children to become account holders. to become flotsam in the debt stream.

these are good ways to ensure compliance.

people, i am convinced, have virtually little power for any reflection, criticism, or rational analysis. these formerly vaunted qualities now more or less make you suspect.

i keep telling myself it isn't as bad as all of this, but then when i see the same printed newstory start from AP wire in the morning, work its way through the cable news mangling system throughout the day, and then finally make it to the network evening news--it ain't the same story. sure, they are talking somewhat about the same thing, but facts are different and MINOR stuff like that.

[madeline_con]

2. Israel would thumb their noses at it, anyway, like 100+ U.N.

resolutions they completely ignore.

I think the U.S. won't say anything because they know they'd be wasting their breath.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. watch out! you'll be accused of supporting the TERRORISTS!

is this the best thing that could happen for the pugs, or what?

I just hope it's tearing them apart like it is here

[madeline_con]

10. Aren't the acknowledgements interesting?

this ... with no text. I noticed certain posters get a lot of them. :eyes:

[Behind the Aegis]

9. ...

:eyes:

It's a 100 now?

[malaise]

3. Or obtain more

missiles? Poodle is under serious pressure at home.
The Prime Minister's visit takes place as 42 leading figures in politics, diplomacy, academia and the media put their names to a declaration urging Mr Blair to tell the President that Britain "can no longer support the American position on the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle-East". Their declaration, printed on the front page of today's Independent, calls on the Prime Minister to "make urgent representations to Israel to end its disproportionate and counter-productive response to Hizbollah's aggression".

[magellan]

5. Even Blair bows to public pressure

A shame we can't teach Binky the chimp to do the same.

[malaise]

7. Blair has ignored

public pressure just like Bush.

[magellan]

8. Well he appears to be caving NOW

Unless this is another neocon game being played behind the curtains.

"Yo, Blair, you can make a public statement asking for a ceasefire now. Heh heh."