[MD] Gun smoke in the shape of a fake letter and not a mushroom cloud

[Ian Glendinning]

Thanks Kahled, fixing a broken "system" is all I'm about, ....

... and SOMism is a major defective part of the broken system, hence
the particular relevance to this MoQ discussion forum.

If we can keep our eye on that ball, even when we enter the "hot &
heavy" subject areas, we can make progress, I'm sure of it. We can
have hot and heavy political debates on any media forum - there are
zillions of them and zillions of media hours already - what
distinguishes MoQ.Discuss from the general herd is that we have an
important key to soving the problem. We know SOMism is the problem.

If when we enter the hot and heavy subject areas, we simply have hot
and heavy arguments - we are simply part of the status quo - and I
tend to drop out of the discussions. It's not where I wanna go, but
I'm far from neutral on these subjects.

Ian

On 8/8/08, Khaled Alkotob <khaledsa at juno.com> wrote:
>  Ian
>
> I see where you are going with this, which echoes something I brought up
> here before: Would you rather have a "just and fair" monarchy, or a
> democracy that is broken.
>
> the issue came up when the discussion was hot and heavy about invading
> other countries and exporting our red white and blue democracy to them.
> My arguments was that if the people are happy and love their ruler ( king
> or otherwise) who are we to say that they must change.
>
> Just watch a few minutes of CSPAN between a US congress in session and
> the British parliament in session. The British parliament discussion get
> straight to the point and counter point, the us congress discussion goes
> something like this
>
> Sen A:" I would like to thank the gentleman form South Carolina for
> yielding his time, Mr. speaker, I would like to ask for 5 more minutes"
> Speaker: " Five more minutes are given to senator A. No wait the
> gentleman from North Dakota will also yield his 5 minutes to senator A"
> Senator A: " I would like to than the gentleman form North Dakota
> and.....................................
>
> and so it goes. Sit there with a stop watch and time these people. Listen
> to them count the votes, listen to them pander to the public.
>
> Any way, back to the meat of the matter. Our system is broken, and only
> those who can Afford to run, will run. Lobbyist and financiers are more
> than glad to oblige. That said, The US system, is for the most part built
> on checks and balances and the truth, for the most part, does come out in
> the end.
>
> Once they are in DC, they morphe into something that their constituents
> don't recognize anymore.
>
> The word Elite is in a way taken out of context here. You can say that
> the Green Berets are an Elite troop. They have been better trained,
> equipped, have a better intellect than an average army personal and
> that's why they are used in special ops
>
> To call a politician an elitist, is wrong, from an etymology point of
> view. They may have been elected, but that does not mean they are
> leaders, problem solvers, or fit to be president.
>
> Yes you are right, we got idiots that we can't shake off
>
> Just yesterday they voted to keep adding ethanol to Gasoline
>
> It takes 5 Gallons of Diesel fuel and other carbon based energy to
> produced 4 gallons of Ethanol.
>
> Democracy at work.
>
> Also you have to blame the public, for falling asleep at the wheel. Ever
> Watch Jay Walking with Jay Leno??? Yeah these are your fellow citizens
>
> Khaled
> [Ian]
> > Hi Khaled,
> >
> > It wasn't me this time but I keep slipping the word "elitist" into
> > the
> > conversation (with a "cough" or scare quotes), because it is a
> > difficult subject to discuss without getting all emotional - and
> > people "mocking truths" to avoid real arguments, which is the
> > actual
> > subject here.
> >
> > There is a difficult question I keep raising (and then being mocked
> > and accused of muddying waters when I do), which is "who decides" ?
> > (beyond the few individual voting opportunities in an electoral
> > system).
> >
> > So people have more decision-making power (to influence all our
> > lives)
> > than others. We care who those people are, what they base their
> > decisions on and how much power they have. But we can't pretend the
> > situation doesn't exist.
> > Ian
> >
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