Actually we could argue that it would be repressive even for those Muslims who fight to bring it about and they just don't realize it. After Islam gains power and forces the west into submission, ironically, even Some Jihadists might be put to death for not being Islamic enough.
They might have a good idea, what it would mean, but unless their behavior is perfectly Islamic, the new state might start punishing them, not that I would feel much sympathy for them.
I'm not excusing GWB for this mess. Not at all! Still, the problem has been a long time in the making.
Mark, I can tell you that the majority of Americans are furious about this bailout bill! We realize that it's the wrong move. Yet, our damned politicians are determined to force it upon us. You can bet every bit of money you have that members of Congress will hire the attorneys so as to avoid any tax impact upon themselves.
One of my biggest concerns is that Moslem buyers will take all kinds of advantages during this time of turmoil with the American financial system and indeed all over the West as America's troubles will be reflected throughout the world economy. I am extremely concerned that shari'a finance will gain even more of a stranglehold on us as banks and other financial institutions turn in that direction to shore up the system.
"They might have a good idea, what it would mean, but unless their behavior is perfectly Islamic, the new state might start punishing them, not that I would feel much sympathy for them." - Damien
Quite right! Many a Muslim in Saudi Arabia, for instance, falls foul of the system. Many of them drink for a start, and if they are caught, we all know what happens to them.
Not all Muslims can live up to the unreasonable and rigid demands of such an exacting belief system.
I can tell you that the majority of Americans are furious about this bailout bill! We realize that it's the wrong move. Yet, our damned politicians are determined to force it upon us.
Bush & Co come over as snake oil salesmen! I can well imagine that the majority of Americans must be chomping at the bit over this. I would be, too, were I to be an American.
To think that the poor taxpayer will have to cough up so much to bail out people who have almost destroyed the capitalist system with their excesses defies belief.
You can bet every bit of money you have that members of Congress will hire the attorneys so as to avoid any tax impact upon themselves.
Oh sure! they'll come out of it all relatively unscathed. It's only the poor people who will have to bear the brunt of it all.
One of my biggest concerns is that Moslem buyers will take all kinds of advantages during this time of turmoil with the American financial system and indeed all over the West as America's troubles will be reflected throughout the world economy.
You can bet your bottom dollar that they will. Western capitalism has become so vulnerable. And that is what OBL wanted, don't forget. Now the shari'ah financiers can jump in with so much of their petrodollars and buy up this and shari'ah-finance that.
I am extremely concerned that shari'a finance will gain even more of a stranglehold on us as banks and other financial institutions turn in that direction to shore up the system.
My prediction, in three years from now America will be fine.
You can't stop the progress of ideas, and because we have free speech, we trade in ideas, and because we trade in ideas, we innovate, and because we innovate, there will always be money flowing into America.
Money chases ideas. Ideas do not chase money. Money can not exist without ideas. The only thing that grows money is ideas.
Mark sez - To think that the poor taxpayer will have to cough up so much to bail out people who have almost destroyed the capitalist system with their excesses defies belief. ------- The taxpayer can't cough up anything else but his lung. You have to have disposable income to pay more taxes. People are tapped out. They have no money for the toys they want much less the taxes they don't want. The gov't can only shear the sheep so close and after that it's blood from a turnip. Taxes cannot go up unless the gov't wants us to live worse than a 3rd world country. At some point the people will have nothing and have nothing to lose, which is a very dangerous situation. ------- Pastorius - My prediction, in three years from now America will be fine. ------- If McCain is Prez we'll be marginal. If Obama is Prez we'll be screwed. No socialist country prospers.
Your right no socialist country prospers, but we will still have check and balances even with Barack in the white house, so we won't go full blown socialist where everything is controlled by the state. we could still vote in a republican congress, so we could survive his socialism. Obama's economic policies maybe bad, but I'm even more worried about his foreign policy.
Samenokami said: The taxpayer can't cough up anything else but his lung. You have to have disposable income to pay more taxes. People are tapped out. They have no money for the toys they want much less the taxes they don't want. The gov't can only shear the sheep so close and after that it's blood from a turnip. Taxes cannot go up unless the gov't wants us to live worse than a 3rd world country. At some point the people will have nothing and have nothing to lose, which is a very dangerous situation.
It's that bad in the States right now, eh? That is a very dangerous situation! Indeed it is.
Having nothing to lose really is a very dangerous situation. Such conditions can lead to you know what...
damien: ...but we will still have check and balances even with Barack in the white house... ------ Not if the Dems win a veto proof majority in the House and Senate. The way the Reps are screwing up the campaign and not hammering Obama's weak spots, it looks like Dems may sweep some Reps out the door.
Mark: It's that bad in the States right now, eh? ------- The bill is coming due on all the stuff people bought on credit. Credit has to be serviced. That was OK when gas, groceries and electricity were reasonable. Significant portions (most or all) of average work-a-day Americans' previously disposable income now goes to necessities. The situation is not dire yet but if we don't get a turn-around fairly soon the US is in big trouble. 70% of the GDP is consumer spending. That used to be a combo of cash and mostly credit. Now is it mostly cash and Americans are not savers for the most part.
Even if the Democrats control both houses and Obama is in the white house, we may be able to stop some of their socialist policies from passing if enough pressure is put on them. Also even if Obama wins a second term, he might not have a Democratic majority thought his presidency. A republican congress could be voted in. Plus there is the supreme court, which although it doesn't have a perfect record, might interfere with their plans and its unlikely that Obama will be able to replace every single member of the court during his presidency.
Where would Germany be today without the aid of America after the Second World War?
Don't tell me you are finally twigging. I am trying to hammer that message home for some five years now and nobody was ever particularly interested. After all, it's SO much more fun to bash the Froggoes, isn't it? Hell, I have even been called a "self-hating German" for my pains.
Don't tell me you are finally twigging. I am trying to hammer that message home for some five years now and nobody was ever particularly interested. After all, it's SO much more fun to bash the Froggoes, isn't it? Hell, I have even been called a "self-hating German" for my pains.
I hope that this is the start of a trend.
In this case, I have always been on your side! Unbeknownst to me, of course.
Well Mark, are you really telling me I have found the one American who is not more keen on Panzer Aces and Vorsprung durch Technik than on the dirty realities of politics?
There is no doubt that the USA is going through tough times; indeed, its very foundations are being rocked – financial and economic. Indeed, it could be argued that capitalism, the US’s raison d’être is being challenged profoundly. The current president, George W Bush, has only added to America’s problems. He has been a disaster for America. It is time for him to retire. And retire he will – shortly.
The recent débâcle with the USA’s most prestigious financial institutions either going to the wall, or having to be all but nationalized has only added to America’s woes.
It is a national disgrace that this profligate president has brought the once proud nation almost to its knees. America’s national debt is at an all time high: more than three trillion dollars, and still counting. Since 2001, a spurious war on terrorism has been fought, mostly in vain, since terrorism is not the ailment; rather it is a symptom of a far greater malady, namely Islam itself. It is rather like a medical consultant trying to treat the symptoms of cancer without excising the underlying cause: the tumour itself!
The US economy, totally deregulated as it has been since the era of Reagan, has succumbed to the worst of man’s faults and weaknesses: Greed. The people working on Wall Street, as in the City of London, have been paying themselves bonuses in Monopoly figures: Millions here, and tens of millions there. The result is there for all to see: The economic system has all but collapsed; and the American taxpayer is now being asked to pick up the tab.
It’s a disgrace. Nothing short of a national disgrace. There is simply no reason why the American taxpayer should bail out the bankers and financiers of Wall Street, with all their greediness and excesses. They certainly should not be expected to pay for the bonuses of these greedy and unprincipled people. They should be allowed to perish, as should the institutions they worked for.
The bail-out is flawed to its very core. When people in America are going hungry, and when more than forty million people there cannot afford healthcare, there is something very flawed in a bail-out plan which cossets the very people who have caused the near collapse of the capitalist system.
Yet, for all the flaws of the capitalist system, we have nothing better with which to replace it. It is an imperfect system to be sure; but it’s the very best system man has ever been able to come up with. We must nurture it; and we must certainly be careful that we do not lose it.
America is no paradise on earth; America’s sidewalks are not paved with gold. America is as flawed as anywhere else on earth. Yet America has given the world something which the rest of the world has been unable to give people. It has given them hope and freedom – the hope to aspire to a better life; and the freedom to live without fear. How many other countries can say the same?
America has been a beacon of freedom for a couple of centuries. People have for centuries flocked there in their droves, in search of a better life. As a result, America has become a hub of creativity, for nothing fosters creativity more than freedom of thought and freedom of expression.
Yet, we are living through very difficult times. So many, worldwide, are gloating in the difficulties that America is now experiencing. When the US was attacked on September 11, 2001, few could have imagined the success that OBL would have had by flying planes into the Twin Towers in New York. Indeed, OBL couldn’t have dreamed of a better outcome from this attack. He wanted to bring the USA to its knees; and to its knees it has just about brought it.
But if anyone out there is happy about this, then his happiness is totally misplaced; and for one simple reason: If America is no longer to be the world’s superpower, then the world will fall into darkness.
Why? Because the US has guaranteed freedom not only for itself, but also for much of the rest of the world. Which other country in the world could do this? Russia certainly couldn’t. In Russia, one goes against the political system at one’s own peril. Ask the once richest man of Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky! He’ll tell you the price he has had to pay for perceived criticism of the system, and for political activity in a country which understands neither democracy nor freedom.
In a silly article asking who else would be up to replacing America’s hegemony, SpiegelOnline International posed the question who could take over from America’s pole position. The answer is no-one! Which other country could guarantee us all such freedoms? Which other country would be so generous with its resources? Which other country would come to aid all in time of need?
Where would Germany be today without the aid of America after the Second World War? And where would Britain be today without America’s help in that very same war? Indeed, how free would Europe be today without the the help of the generous, oh so generous Americans?
America, and the rest of the West, is under threat from the Islamic world; indeed, our great Judeo-Christian civilization could go under because of the threat of Islam. Islam is not only knocking at our door, it is already within, and is out to destroy everything we in the West stand for: Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, or the freedom to choose none, freedom of sexual expression, and freedom in so may other ways, too. Yet only the few are listening! Only the few are taking these threats to our liberties seriously.
For most people, these threats are but abstract, distant possibilities; yet they are not. They are anything but. They are very real. Muslims are here in the West; and many of them – though certainly not all – are out to destroy everything Western. They must NEVER be allowed to achieve their goals. We must this resist attack with every fibre of our beings. We must OVERCOME!
If we do not, the West will be taken into a New Dark Age. The way of life that will ensue will be one which will be quite unlike the way of life we have come to know, understand, appreciate, and love. It will be a repressive way of life – repressive for women, repressive for infidels, repressive for Christians, repressive for Jews, repressive for homosexuals, repressive, indeed, for all except Muslims.
If we are to fight this darkness, it is imperative that the United States be kept strong, and buoyed up. The United States needs to be strong militarily, financially, and economically, for without a strong United States, there is little hope for a free world. Little hope for liberty. If the light goes out Stateside, the light goes out for us all!
25 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formGreat post :)
Friday, October 03, 2008 3:13:00 am
Mark Alexander,
Actually we could argue that it would be repressive even for those Muslims who fight to bring it about and they just don't realize it. After Islam gains power and forces the west into submission, ironically, even Some Jihadists might be put to death for not being Islamic enough.
Friday, October 03, 2008 3:21:00 am
Thanks, Anonymous. Your comment is much appreciated.
Friday, October 03, 2008 3:58:00 am
Maybe, Damien. But I do think most of those people realize full well what the Islamization of a country means.
Friday, October 03, 2008 3:59:00 am
Mark,
They might have a good idea, what it would mean, but unless their behavior is perfectly Islamic, the new state might start punishing them, not that I would feel much sympathy for them.
Friday, October 03, 2008 4:03:00 am
This video about the financial crisis keeps disappearing, but I think that I've got a working version at the moment.
I'm not excusing GWB for this mess. Not at all! Still, the problem has been a long time in the making.
Mark,
I can tell you that the majority of Americans are furious about this bailout bill! We realize that it's the wrong move. Yet, our damned politicians are determined to force it upon us. You can bet every bit of money you have that members of Congress will hire the attorneys so as to avoid any tax impact upon themselves.
One of my biggest concerns is that Moslem buyers will take all kinds of advantages during this time of turmoil with the American financial system and indeed all over the West as America's troubles will be reflected throughout the world economy. I am extremely concerned that shari'a finance will gain even more of a stranglehold on us as banks and other financial institutions turn in that direction to shore up the system.
Friday, October 03, 2008 4:34:00 am
"They might have a good idea, what it would mean, but unless their behavior is perfectly Islamic, the new state might start punishing them, not that I would feel much sympathy for them." - Damien
Quite right! Many a Muslim in Saudi Arabia, for instance, falls foul of the system. Many of them drink for a start, and if they are caught, we all know what happens to them.
Not all Muslims can live up to the unreasonable and rigid demands of such an exacting belief system.
Friday, October 03, 2008 12:32:00 pm
Always:
I can tell you that the majority of Americans are furious about this bailout bill! We realize that it's the wrong move. Yet, our damned politicians are determined to force it upon us.
Bush & Co come over as snake oil salesmen! I can well imagine that the majority of Americans must be chomping at the bit over this. I would be, too, were I to be an American.
To think that the poor taxpayer will have to cough up so much to bail out people who have almost destroyed the capitalist system with their excesses defies belief.
You can bet every bit of money you have that members of Congress will hire the attorneys so as to avoid any tax impact upon themselves.
Oh sure! they'll come out of it all relatively unscathed. It's only the poor people who will have to bear the brunt of it all.
One of my biggest concerns is that Moslem buyers will take all kinds of advantages during this time of turmoil with the American financial system and indeed all over the West as America's troubles will be reflected throughout the world economy.
You can bet your bottom dollar that they will. Western capitalism has become so vulnerable. And that is what OBL wanted, don't forget. Now the shari'ah financiers can jump in with so much of their petrodollars and buy up this and shari'ah-finance that.
I am extremely concerned that shari'a finance will gain even more of a stranglehold on us as banks and other financial institutions turn in that direction to shore up the system.
The way things are looking, it will!
Friday, October 03, 2008 12:40:00 pm
My prediction, in three years from now America will be fine.
You can't stop the progress of ideas, and because we have free speech, we trade in ideas, and because we trade in ideas, we innovate, and because we innovate, there will always be money flowing into America.
Money chases ideas. Ideas do not chase money. Money can not exist without ideas. The only thing that grows money is ideas.
Friday, October 03, 2008 4:45:00 pm
Yes, Pastorius, unless you happen to have oil wells in the garden! :-)
Friday, October 03, 2008 5:12:00 pm
Well, I do live very near the La Brea Tar Pits.
Friday, October 03, 2008 5:44:00 pm
That's your excuse, eh? :-)
Friday, October 03, 2008 6:38:00 pm
Well Mark, I wasn't so much born as I did just crawl up out of the slime.
LOL
Friday, October 03, 2008 7:40:00 pm
Mark sez -
To think that the poor taxpayer will have to cough up so much to bail out people who have almost destroyed the capitalist system with their excesses defies belief.
-------
The taxpayer can't cough up anything else but his lung. You have to have disposable income to pay more taxes. People are tapped out. They have no money for the toys they want much less the taxes they don't want. The gov't can only shear the sheep so close and after that it's blood from a turnip. Taxes cannot go up unless the gov't wants us to live worse than a 3rd world country. At some point the people will have nothing and have nothing to lose, which is a very dangerous situation.
-------
Pastorius -
My prediction, in three years from now America will be fine.
-------
If McCain is Prez we'll be marginal. If Obama is Prez we'll be screwed. No socialist country prospers.
Friday, October 03, 2008 8:31:00 pm
SamenoKami,
Your right no socialist country prospers, but we will still have check and balances even with Barack in the white house, so we won't go full blown socialist where everything is controlled by the state. we could still vote in a republican congress, so we could survive his socialism. Obama's economic policies maybe bad, but I'm even more worried about his foreign policy.
Friday, October 03, 2008 8:47:00 pm
Samenokami said: The taxpayer can't cough up anything else but his lung. You have to have disposable income to pay more taxes. People are tapped out. They have no money for the toys they want much less the taxes they don't want. The gov't can only shear the sheep so close and after that it's blood from a turnip. Taxes cannot go up unless the gov't wants us to live worse than a 3rd world country. At some point the people will have nothing and have nothing to lose, which is a very dangerous situation.
It's that bad in the States right now, eh? That is a very dangerous situation! Indeed it is.
Having nothing to lose really is a very dangerous situation. Such conditions can lead to you know what...
Friday, October 03, 2008 11:57:00 pm
damien: ...but we will still have check and balances even with Barack in the white house...
------
Not if the Dems win a veto proof majority in the House and Senate. The way the Reps are screwing up the campaign and not hammering Obama's weak spots, it looks like Dems may sweep some Reps out the door.
Mark: It's that bad in the States right now, eh?
-------
The bill is coming due on all the stuff people bought on credit. Credit has to be serviced. That was OK when gas, groceries and electricity were reasonable. Significant portions (most or all) of average work-a-day Americans' previously disposable income now goes to necessities. The situation is not dire yet but if we don't get a turn-around fairly soon the US is in big trouble. 70% of the GDP is consumer spending. That used to be a combo of cash and mostly credit. Now is it mostly cash and Americans are not savers for the most part.
Saturday, October 04, 2008 1:32:00 am
SamenoKami,
Even if the Democrats control both houses and Obama is in the white house, we may be able to stop some of their socialist policies from passing if enough pressure is put on them. Also even if Obama wins a second term, he might not have a Democratic majority thought his presidency. A republican congress could be voted in. Plus there is the supreme court, which although it doesn't have a perfect record, might interfere with their plans and its unlikely that Obama will be able to replace every single member of the court during his presidency.
Saturday, October 04, 2008 2:06:00 am
SamenoKami,
Also I have a feeling that the democrats won't win a veto proof majority, but even they did, I'm not sure they could hold onto it for long.
Saturday, October 04, 2008 2:07:00 am
Where would Germany be today without the aid of America after the Second World War?
Don't tell me you are finally twigging. I am trying to hammer that message home for some five years now and nobody was ever particularly interested. After all, it's SO much more fun to bash the Froggoes, isn't it? Hell, I have even been called a "self-hating German" for my pains.
I hope that this is the start of a trend.
Sunday, October 05, 2008 9:29:00 am
The Editrix:
Don't tell me you are finally twigging. I am trying to hammer that message home for some five years now and nobody was ever particularly interested. After all, it's SO much more fun to bash the Froggoes, isn't it? Hell, I have even been called a "self-hating German" for my pains.
I hope that this is the start of a trend.
In this case, I have always been on your side! Unbeknownst to me, of course.
Sunday, October 05, 2008 6:56:00 pm
Well Mark, are you really telling me I have found the one American who is not more keen on Panzer Aces and Vorsprung durch Technik than on the dirty realities of politics?
Monday, October 06, 2008 2:37:00 am
Ooops... I had a look at your profile, seems you aren't American, after all. Go figure! Should you be an American residing in the UK, disregard this.
Monday, October 06, 2008 2:39:00 am
The Editrix:
I am not an American residing in the UK; but a Brit residing in his homeland. :-)
Monday, October 06, 2008 5:13:00 pm
Alright! I thought so. Go figure then. ;-)
Monday, October 06, 2008 7:35:00 pm