Difficult journey to Ghana Europe snow now here very intermittent connection speedtest 3kbps (sic) when working. Almost impossible post. Ghana Telecom privatised to Vodafone much worse. Try post tomorrow.
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Also, a “Looser” is someone who believes the Loose Change movie.
Sounds like Blackwater is in Haiti already:
Jeremy Scahill: ‘Getting reports from #Haiti that #Blackwater is “protecting” at least one major US media outlet’s people.’
Re: Web browsers –
I recommend that no one uses IE (except for Windows Update). IE is notoriously insecure and the most targeted browser around, avoid like the plague.
Personally I use FireFox with a number of plugins. Adblock+ is essential for me, with such a slow internet connection, there’s no way I’m waiting for ads to download. Also, malware is often served up by dodgy ad companies. I also recommend NoScript for additional protection from malware. However it does take a bit more work to browse the web when using NoScript I think it is worth the effort for peace of mind. WOT is another good plugin for security. If privacy is a concern I recommend using the following plugins: BetterPrivacy, CS Lite, Ghostery and RequestPolicy. There are also a few other plugins I use, but they are based on personal preferences, not for security.
If you can’t get FireFox working, I would recommend Chrome. My biggest problem with Chrome is that Adblock only hides the ads, it does not prevent them from downloading like it does in FireFox.
Re: The Hurt Locker –
Seen it. I also had heard really good things about it before viewing it. However I didn’t think it was anything particularly special. I would say it was of similar quality to the British miniseries with James Nesbit last year. To be honest I don’t remember a great deal about the Hurt Locker.
This week I’m probably going to watch ‘The Messenger’ with Woody Harrelson, if anyone is interested I can post a short opinion.
I don’t recall having seen a decent war flick made recently. After watching ‘The Wire’ (easily the best TV made anywhere, ever. But you have to watch at least 3 or 4 episodes before you get the appeal), I had really high expectations for Generation Kill. After watching it, I was very disappointed. It wasn’t terrible, but compared to The Wire, it was very simplistic.
dreoilin:
I also think Blackwater (or at least some other merc company) is already in Haiti. I was watching the BBC last night (I can watch western TV once a week!) and one of the reporters was doing a piece to camera from the tarmac of Haiti’s airport. In the background a white guy in black t-shirt, pants and sunglasses and carrying a machine gun kept walking through the shot. It was obvious from his clothes that he didn’t belong to the military of any state.
CheebaCow: thanks for the info and advice on browsers. Yesterday’s story about IE has finally convinced me to ditch it. My past experience with Firefox was unsatisfactory so I’m going to give Safari a whirl.
Morning! Just catching up. Think it would be a shame if asoba got sidelined or attacked because he doesn’t believe the US government exploded the twin towers. I don’t believe they did either (thanks for the Building 7 explanation; seems quite reasonable). My mum on the other hand does, after watching a film on Channel 4. So what?
MJ,
I don’t know how long since you tried Firefox, maybe the latest version won’t have any problem.
I’ve installed Firefox 3.etc and 3.5.etc on XP_sp2 and sp3, and on Vista, many times, and never had any problems, so I expect this is a conflict with other software, or an issue with your particular installation of Windows. The Mozilla Knowledge Base is very good and you may find a solution there.
I’m moving over to Linux for ethical reasons. The more I experience Microsoft’s approach, the more I object to it.
Angrysoba,
I’ve found and made a copy of your e-mail address, thank you. You frazzeled me out last night. There was a nice little chat going on here, people were getting to know each other. You came in, and all you wanted to do was argue, in the same direction that you constantly argue. I really don’t know why you come here. I’ll e-mail you when I’m feeling stronger – it seems that I’ll have need of strength to converse with you.
Technicolour,
the trouble I’m having with Angrysoba is that he doesn’t seem open minded. More like he’s already decided what is true (not just about 911), and he’s determined to argue constantly to prove it. And he cheats, in a subtile way, so that you can’t definatively show it to be cheating. But the cumulative effect upon me is fatigue. Most people here I find uplifting. Angrysoba gets me down.
911 is an incredibly important and emotional topic. Your verdict on 911 defines your whole vision of modern history and global affairs. Expect people to be emotional, unreasonable and dogmatic. There’s a huge amount at stake.
Dreoilin and CheebaCow,
thanks for the Haiti info. More bad news for Haitians if mercenaries have arrived.
CheebaCow,
how come “[you] can watch western TV once a week!”? And why “CheebaCow”?
Clark, if I upset you then I’m sorry about that. It wasn’t my intention. You’ve been very hospitable here.
The idea that a government would attack its own people in a false-flag operation to gin up a war of choice is pretty incredible. Look up “Operation Northwoods”.
In case anyone doesn’t realise it, glenn is being ironic.
Angrysoba,
I’ll think better of you if you display more compassion and empathy. And considerably less certainty that you’ve already worked out everything that goes on in the world.
I know that this goes for others, but you are arguing from the same viewpoint as the MSM, so you have overwhelming back-up.
Alternative viewpoints generally get derided. Then some of them turn out to be true. You seem to ignore this.
And you exaggerate your opponents’ positions before arguing against them. Repeatedly. This is a very subtle and powerful technique.
The MSM and the Powers That Be shouldn’t really need another ‘Knight in Shining Armour’.
“For the record, Ritter was using a general chat room – as people often do – when a girl said she was in trouble in MacDonalds, being pursued by a couple of men.”
Glenn, are you really that stupid? That’s just not how it happened. And what was it this time? Did his webcam *accidentally* turn on for a scene of him spanking one out while being watched by someone he thought was a teenage girl?
It would be quite hilarious if the video of this encounter ever gets leaked. How would you twist the facts then, Glenn?
Angrysoba,
I suggest a personal experiment for you. Take your formidable logical powers, and point them in the opposite direction for a predetermined time; a month, say. It will take considerable self discipline to achieve this. I’m not asking you to publish the results. Just see where that takes you.
I’d also be interested to know why you use ‘Angry’ in your screen name. What are you so angry about?
Clark, I am all for investigative journalism and independent news sources but I am not going to give them a pass if they are spreading outright lies.
I don’t know which positions you think I am exaggerating in order to discredit, maybe I am being a tad hyperbolic at times, but sometimes things are clearly being inferred by some posters without being expressed directly.
It is tough and it seems to lead to a lot of angst if it involves probing at a major plank in someone’s worldview as no doubt we could accuse each other of being too beholden to our own established views and not open-minded enough.
Hold on, my mother got her point of view that the US government blew up the twin towers *from* the mainstream media.
I know about the Northwoods document. I even went so far as to check its existence with the US National Archives. It exists. Again, it does not prove anything about 9/11.
But my verdict on 9/11, MJ, has nothing to with anything. I worry about the idea that it should. Plenty of dedicated peace activists are not convinced by the truthers’ assertions. Why should it be a divisive issue, again?
“I’d also be interested to know why you use ‘Angry’ in your screen name. What are you so angry about?”
I’m not really. It was just a name I picked more or less at random when asked to register for a teaching forum about three or four years ago.
“I suggest a personal experiment for you. Take your formidable logical powers, and point them in the opposite direction for a predetermined time; a month, say. It will take considerable self discipline to achieve this. I’m not asking you to publish the results. Just see where that takes you. ”
Well, if you’re prepared to do the same…
Angrysoba,
I have the opposite problem from you. I’m so open minded I have to be careful that my brain doesn’t fall out!
More seriously, the change from Jehovah’s Witless to atheist (via various diverse destinations) is pretty radical. I often wonder just what it is I believe, and why.
“But my verdict on 9/11, MJ, has nothing to with anything”
Surely it informs your basic view of the “War on Terror”? If you basically accept the official account, then it is most likely that you see the WOT as a genuine response to 911. If you don’t accept the official account, you are more likely to see the WOT as the real objective (ie a pretext for imperialism in the mid east) and 911 as the tool to trigger it and give it a veneer of legitimacy.
I’m going to the pub now. When I get back I might change my handle to “goodnaturedtipsy”.
Clark:
I’m currently living on a Thai island and I haven’t connected my house to cable/satellite TV/internet. My girlfriend lives in the main town, so when I visit her on the weekends I can indulge and watch the BBC and other western channels.
As for CheebaCow, in Thai the word is used for senior monks. I also like the word because it has a definite double meaning for english speakers. CheebaCow also has a story behind it for me and my better half, but I won’t bore people here with the details.
RE: 911 being terrorism or false flag –
From a purely political perspective I’m kinda mystified when people get so worked up about which it was. If it was terrorism, its obviously blow-back from US policy in the middle east. If its false flag, then it was obvious justification for continuing and even increasing the existing policy in the middle east. In other words, if its blow-back the US should alter its imperialist policies, and if its false flag we shouldn’t allow it to be an excuse to continue the existing policies in an even more aggressive manner.
As glenn pointed out above with Operation Northwoods (also see Operation Gladio), the idea of a false flag isn’t exactly new. In my opinion 911 wasn’t particularly revolutionary in what happened (regardless of who did it) or how the US govt reacted to it. The only really new thing was just how much the US population shit themselves and how they allowed it to justify anything.
BTW I don’t have a real opinion as to who did 911. I feel that those arguing it was false flag ignore many aspects of the case, however I also think this is equally true for those arguing it was terrorism. So whenever I read about it, I don’t see intellectual honesty, just people using facts to suit their agenda. This gets boring very quickly.
Words fail me. What idiot would see the WOT as a ‘genuine response to 9/11’ – apart from the poor suckers who watch Fox News & try and believe in flying pigs and their government? As for ‘giving it a veneer of legitimacy’: well, they rather fucking failed on that one.
The millions over the world who marched; the relatives of the dead who begged for peace: they didn’t have to believe in the ‘truth movement’. Which is lucky since the ‘journalism’ around it has been appalling.
It may have started in the spirit of genuine enquiry but the 9/11 movement now seems to be a convenient way to splinter a heartfelt and very human response to atrocity, if you ask me.
sorry, that was me. Nice post, cheebacow, you put it much better. think I need to go to the pub too, MJ. Slainte!
MJ,
personally, I’m not as black – and – white about 911 as that. I was on the 2003 Peace March, and I hadn’t looked into 911 at all then.
It’s become a huge debating issue, and a distraction. There are lots of other, verified, false flag operations that most people have never heard of.
But I think it can reveal something to those who begin to doubt the official account about their own unconscious – er, ‘racism’ isn’t quite the right word.
The horror that results from questioning 911 orthodoxy is that ‘americans’ (or whoever) could do something like that TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE. They can do far worse to ‘outsiders’ and it doesn’t have the same emotional effect.
Sorry, I’m grappling to communicate a concept that I’ve only partly formulated myself, here.
Like, if any ‘americans’ were involved in that, then they weren’t showing an appropriate degree of in-group empathy, and there’s an instinctive horror to that.
Technicolour,
“What idiot would see the WOT as a ‘genuine response to 9/11’ – apart from the poor suckers who watch Fox News & try and believe in flying pigs and their government?”
Yes, well there are LOTS of them, sometimes even a voting majority, and far more frequently enough to swing an otherwise divided vote.
Crappy tabloids sell LOTS of copies.
Well formulated Clark. It’s interesting, having had a quick look at the Northwoods document again (haven’t since 2003), that it seems quite careful to insist on only killing innocent Cubans.
CheebaCow,
yes, very nice post; thanks. That’s pretty much my position on 911, too.
Further to my 2:22 post, what doesn’t seem to occur to the horrified is that ‘The Elite’ (ie those in positions of covert power) may not see ordinary citizens as part of their in-group.
That would be contrary to The American Dream, wouldn’t it?