Do you have a useful skill?
Ack. I meant to post this last week and it slipped by me.
Lauren’s starting a wiki called Help Us Help Ourselves, a compilation of how-to articles created by us in the feminist community. If you’ve got a useful skill, and particularly if you have specialized professional knowledge you can share, please consider writing up a contribution. Read more about the project here.
55 Responses to “Do you have a useful skill?”
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Paul Tergeist says:
I don’t think they want guys over there. But I have all sorts of useful skills and a wealth of improbable knowledge. The only thing is that I don’t see women as unwrapped meat, so I am not sure anyone will believe my advice.
But I do have it, I have lived it, I stand by it and, if anyone wants it, the price is right.
Sorry, if your problem concerns a relationship or something not readily identifiable to an engineer, the doctor is out. If however, you have chest pain and a sensation of choking, I have a recommendation.
In truth, I am beginning to actually understand that men view women in a way I had never before considered before Ms.Violet began to educate me. But I still disagree that education will change the status-quo except very superficially. I feel a book coming on but I am not an evolutionary biologist and I cannot deal with fundamentalists anyway, so maybe I can get an interview with OJ instead.
November 21st, 2006 at 3:27 am EST -
Violet says:
Of course guys are welcome. There are plenty of guys in the feminist blogosphere.
You’re always on about self-defense; couldn’t you write up something about how to defend yourself in case of an attack? Just write it in a straightforward way, since it will be going into a wiki for all kinds of people to access.
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Paul Tergeist says:
I am not a feminist, V. I don’t believe most ‘feminists’ are really egalitarians. I think they are mostly women who hate men because they have very good reasons to hate men.
OK, I was sexually abused as a child. By a man. But I grabbed a knife and fought back. the incident was swept under the table and there was never even a police report. I hated the bastard for years. I never forgot and I trained for the day I would go back and take him out. When I returned from VietNam I went back to the old hometown to do just that, but the years hasn’t been kind to him so I walked away.
But Vi…..I never hated him because he was a man. I hated him for what he was inside.
A lot of feminists hate men for being men. Sure…a lot of men are animals. Believe me, I know because of my career. But hating someone because of their gender isn’t feminism.
Here’s an example: “The new guy appointed to head up the family planning program at the Department of Health and Human Services is — get this — a godbag who doesn’t believe in family planning. Or rather, he believes that family planning should consist solely of each man deciding whether or not to plow his wife or let her lie fallow for a year. Contraception, according to said godbag, is “demeaning to women.” Translation: Shut the fuck up, bitches. We men will decide whether you get knocked up or not.”
You think your comment represents feminism? Not to me. This boondoggle sounds to me like a political appointment and, like ALL political appointments, wrong on every level and made only to satisfy the political agenda of appointing religious fundies for the wrong reasons.
But “WE MEN” are ALL responsible, even though those of us with IQs over 120 (1) didn’t vote for the moronic bastard Bush and (2) disagree with EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER DONE AND EVERYONE HE HAS EVER APPOINTED.
I don’t want to be blamed for what anyone else does. I’ll take full responsibility for what I do. Everyone else is on their own.
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Violet says:
Oh, Paul, knock it off. That’s a really, really lame imitation of Antifeminazi.
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richard cherry says:
Pul: ‘A lot of feminists hate men for being men.’ – i think it’s close but different (and yes of course i haven’t been inside a woman’s head or life so it’s all conjecture). i think ‘a lot of feminists’ see the unbelievable, pointless, destructive (evil if you believe in that, maybe) things many men are doing to women and themselves – all the way down to the relatively (NB relatively) trivial things even ‘nice’ men do that disadvantage women and gradually while they know it’s not all men, the gut response becomes the same to all.
the point is how men reclaim the rigt to be treated as non-hostile by women battered by this atmosphere of damage from and by men (including ‘nice’ ones and i don’t exclude myself from the problem).‘But hating someone because of their gender isn’t feminism.’ – and at the risk of speaking for feminists, they know that and point it out.
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richard cherry says:
Vi – i’m afraid the international standard for ‘a really, really lame imitation of Antifeminazi’ starts at 12 pages without a grain of sense.
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Lya Kahlo says:
“I think they are mostly women who hate men because they have very good reasons to hate men.”
I am a feminist who doesn’t hate men. I ave an excellent father, excellent brothers, an excellent boyfriend. Most of my close firends are male.
So does that mean by your definition I can’t be a feminist or I actually do hate men?
Now, I know you said “mostly” so you can use the “I didn’t say ALL of you” escape hatch. But allow me to add here of all the feminists I have contact with (I am member of several large orgs) I have yet to meet one that does.
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Violet says:
The Antifeminazi person is now trying to post comments calling me a ‘babymauler.’ Because he’s a baby? What a nut.
He’s from Stand Your Ground, the fave website of MRAs and FRAs (Mens Rights Activists and Fathers Rights Activists).
Please ignore Paul’s comment. He’s just being a troll and imitating Antifeminazi. This is a feminist blog and we don’t rehash nonsense like “feminists hate men” here.
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Lya Kahlo says:
I was gonna say – I’ve been reading this blog for a long time and never saw that before.
Is it just me or does Men’s Rights Activist sound like just a pretty Orwellian euphemism for Misogynist? I have yet to have contact with a single MRA that didn’t ultimately reveal himself to be a hater. Use of “most rape reports are false” or “women want special rights” or “men have lost their rightful place at the head of the family” logical fallacies being key indicators.
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Infidel says:
Paul what useful skills could you have brought to bear upon Hawaii’s most recent guest?Hmmmm??
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Infidel says:
Paul,
I venture to say you bore it well, nobody got shot. So restraint is a skill too. -
Pony says:
So Violet tells us about a feminist site where we can share knowledge. Paul offers he’s gotta lotta, quite a bit of which is how wrong we are and how widdo Pauw has been huwt, too. Ad nauseum me me me me. Several posts from Paul doing that, then posts from feminist saying she does not hate men, and wow, another thread about what a man needs wants and is gonna get or he’ll pout until he does. I have a feeling the next step will be Paul escalating into more violent language, and then we’ll have a illustrative side bar for Stan’s latest article.
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Paul Tergeist says:
Paul what useful skills could you have brought to bear upon Hawaii’s most recent guest?Hmmmm??
InfidelHe was on another island several hundred miles away. He doesn’t dare come to this one.
VIOLET! HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A TROLL!!!!! And….erm….how did you know? I thought it was pretty good. Not subtle enough then? :-(
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Dlunch says:
Mr. Tergeist,
I think you will find if you really bothered to read the other post that you quoted, that Violet was paraphrasing what she attributed to the mind of this one particular man she was posting about.Translation: Shut the fuck up, bitches. “We men will decide whether you get knocked up or not.”
If you are not a troll, maybe you should read what is written, men not listening to what women have to say is one of the characteristics of the patriarchal world we live and why feminist have to defend themselves against ideas they never supported and things they have not said, and why the topic of post are changed by people with hurt feelings because they know a really good man, they really really do.
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Paul Tergeist says:
“men not listening to what women have to say is one of the characteristics of the patriarchal world we live… ”
-DlunchWhat?
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Dlunch says:
Two can play at that game. I have been sensibly ignoring you in the past, too bad I had a momentary lapse of reason. Must have been the time difference.
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richard cherry says:
Lya (and others who must agree) sorry – ‘mostly women who hate men’ wrong wrong wrong Mr Cherry! Let me try to be precise – I think there are people who describe themselves as feminists and say they hate men; I don’t think they make up ‘most feminists’. I don’t think saying you hate men (or indeed hating men) needs disqualify a person as a feminist (but it certainly doesn’t help them work with men) But I do think the onus remains on men to prove ourselves worth working with. As usual it’s hard to work out how – belling the cat again.
Also sorry that my comment caused a feminist to have to trot out the tired ‘I don’t hate men’ thing, when lots of men wrongly feel that man-hating is aprerequisite for being feminist.
God it’s a hard area for a man to comment on (poor lil me) – I’ll shut up. -
Lya Kahlo says:
“and wow, another thread about what a man needs wants and is gonna get or he’ll pout until he does.”
Ugh. That’s exactly right.
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henderson says:
Here’s a useful skill.
Cicely is goign to love this one.
How to stop speeders
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Infidel says:
Having an explicit “how to” set of instructions doesn’t actually give you the skills does it? Some skills need to be learned. Some skills you just have.
Of the skills, expense reductions regarding repair of household items stands out for me. I have gone to the appliance parts place and gotten three dollar parts, put in some effort, and bingo- saved on replacing a dryer, or having to have a service guy come out.
I imagine myself doing the same to forgo the $800.00 car repair. Home improvement projects. HomeDepot, Menards. You run into diminishing returns on investment where specialty tools are involved or risky undertakings with sensitive or fragile parts or components.
I’d like to find someone skilled in the art of knowing just what skills would be worth gleaning from a general pool before I dipped in- they would probably have to know me to make that determination. -
Paul Tergeist says:
Two can play at that game.
-DlunchNot if you don’t play. :-( Fortunately, Pony and Lya Kahlo want to participate. They are from the new school which categorizes men as a separate species; humorless and competing for the same food supply.
Fidel, it depends upon your goals. Everything is worth knowing and every skill is worth having.
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Infidel says:
I wonder what a complete “…for Dummies” collection would look like. The 256 crayola crayon collection. The “all 256,000″ Pokemon collection. I’m sure it would be “Tom Lehrer nervous breakdown in the library of congress-(alledged)time” for me in seeing it. I CAN NEVER READ THEM ALL AHHRRRG!
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Infidel says:
oh shit!
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Paul Tergeist says:
oh shit!
-InfidelWOW There are entries for religion, but NONE FOR FEMINISM! How are men ever going to understand it if there isn’t a FEMINISM FOR DUMMIES book?
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Infidel says:
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCD.....ITICS.html
If you could call that feminism. There are entire books on wicken and burning thousands of women as witches wreaks of patriarchy especially done in the name of Christ.
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henderson says:
The Dummies series is very helpful for all sorts of things. I have no idea what you guys are talking about ie. feminism, wicka and religion. but as for helpfulness when it comes to doing things, Infidels’ link is a great help on all kinds of things form starting a little buisiness of your own, to legal advice to quitting a bad habit. But as with everything, the will must be there as well.
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henderson says:
Are you folks communists???? Is that true???
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Paul Tergeist says:
Oy, Vi!
It’s time to revisit those horrid Lacrosse rapists.
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Violet says:
Henderson: I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party.
How did communism get into this discussion?
I think this thread needs John White. (Is that his name Richard — remember the wibbler?)
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henderson says:
I was just asking. Don’t know who John White is. Can’t wait to find out. I have never been a member of the party but my Grandpa was- even back in the day when it was dangerous to do so. Just wondering. and that guy was saying all that stuff about it. So I thought i’d ask. I don’t understand this thread and where it went to: wickas and feminism for dummies. And Paul getting “the business”.
I thought the original idea was a nice one. Very useful. Just the sort of thing I like. Useful, practical, to the point advice for people interested in making their lives a little better or less stressful or more peaceful.I was only kiddding about that link. Just seemed the thread had kinda wandered anyway. Either that or it hadn’t wandered and it was all just going right over my head.
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Violet says:
and that guy was saying all that stuff about it.
That’s the part I missed. Where did someone talk about communism?
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Paul Tergeist says:
I’m sure it’s not politically correct, either to mourn JFK or say Happy Thanksgiving, but I wish he had died of natural causes and I hope all of you have a wonderful day. Except you communists.
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richard cherry says:
Vi – he was John Smith (ironically the name of the leader of the labour party who died before his time and resulted in the election of one Anthony Charles Linton Blair – and look where that got us). He was an even better wibbler than antifeminazi – and he had the decency to make up a whole new load of crap each time he posted rather than mass-post; respect to him. And isn’t it about time feminists reclaimed the word feminazi – the new f word -?
and I AM a communist – not perfect description of my weltanschaung but best i can find (socialist has become an even more devalued term) tho humanist should be in there -
henderson says:
In one of those long deals that Antifeminazi wrote. He was saying that feminists were communists. And that all this stuff started from the Communist Party way back when. Or that’s what I thought he was saying.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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simply wondered says:
Vi – posted a response to your question but it hasn’t turned up – probably lost in my fog of incompetence, so here goes again: john smith (ironic that john smith was the leader of the labour party whose death ushered in the reign of anthony charles linton blair – and we know where that got us) was the guy who made infidel look sane, but i had to respect him for at least making up a whole new load of shite every time he posted, unlike our friend with the photocopier. he struck me as being not a communist in the same way that an elephant is not a potato.
i ama communist – well that’s about as near as i can get to pinning a name on what i believe (socialism seems even more devalued a term) with a dose of humanism to leaven. i always wanted to be the person who arrived in the states and had to fill in that form and in the box where it asks you if you promise not to work to overthrow the united states (or some such)he put ‘sole purpose of visit’. sure it’s a myth, but cool nevertheless.
let’s see if this comment gets through… -
Violet says:
In one of those long deals that Antifeminazi wrote. He was saying that feminists were communists. And that all this stuff started from the Communist Party way back when. Or that’s what I thought he was saying.
I must have deleted that one without reading it. The first dozen or so spams he posted didn’t mention communism; the themes were (if I remember correctly) “feminists are parasites” and “feminists should be sent to gulags.” Oh and “feminists are babykillers.” After that brilliant overture I just started deleting everything he posted without bothering to read. I guess that means I’m a communist parasite babykiller.
Richard, your comment was in the moderation queue, but I’ve set it free now. Sorry.
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richard cherry says:
amazed you can actually moderate all these comments, vi.
litvineinko is now dead, so presumably someone owes paul a beer
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Violet says:
amazed you can actually moderate all these comments, vi.
Not all of them; I just have moderation filters set to catch certain words favored by spammers and lunatics. (Now that’s a setup if I ever saw one; awaiting punchline…)
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richard cherry says:
oh clever clever clever! is there no end to your technowizardry?
what was it in my post that made the machine want it despammed? – maybe just a reference to infidel sets alarm bells going… -
Paul Tergeist says:
That moron antifeminazi is stuffing my inbox with senseless rants about communism. We hates him, doesn’t we, Precious? We hates communism too. We thinks everyone should share equally.
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Paul Tergeist says:
litvineinko is now dead, so presumably someone owes paul a beer
-RC21 days of agony as a warning to the others. Thanks for the beer. May I have some fugu sushi with that?
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richard cherry says:
they think it was now done in the tea house – damn i spent ages on those sushi jokes…
and the doctors had a few guesses at what it was before he died – now they can do an autopsy and see what it actually was. -
Paul Tergeist says:
they think it was now done in the tea house
-RCColonel Mustard did it in the kitchen with a teabag. The autopsy will be inconclusive except for a stray isotope here and there.
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Paul Tergeist says:
Do you have a useful skill?
VioletOf all my skillsets, I suppose homicide investigation is the the one I should offer. Or firearms training. Something to endear me to liberals who think they are safe in their homes and the world is rose petals and butterflies. I recommend the book “Dial 911 and die’.
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Lya Kahlo says:
” Fortunately, Pony and Lya Kahlo want to participate. They are from the new school which categorizes men as a separate species; humorless and competing for the same food supply. ”
I see. Make a simple mistake and get called a man-hater again. Nothing asinine about that.
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Paul Tergeist says:
I see. Make a simple mistake and get called a man-hater again. Nothing asinine about that.
-Lya KahloYou are in luck! The pope is going to approve condoms. Not for contraception of course, but in case your husband wants sex (which you owe him), but he doesn’t want to catch HIV.
Condoms will still not be approved to prevent priests from passing AIDS to altar boys.
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richard cherry says:
Paul – 46 – my non sequitur alarm is going off; can you explain?
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Paul Tergeist says:
Your alarm is accurate.
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Paul Tergeist says:
I refer to my post #43. Polonium 206 and 207 supposedly have no known uses, but somebody thought of one.
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richard cherry says:
and now they found low levels of radioactivity in the sushi joint. they are just guessing! was it a priest trying to silence a choirboy who got an innocent KGB colonel in the wrong church at the worng time?
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Paul Tergeist says:
Sorry folks, I was wrong. I expected Polonium 206 because that is what I would have used if I were stupid enough to play Russian roulette with the devil. By the time radiation poisoning is suspected the evidence, with a 9 day half-life is almost gone, but killing with it is problematic at best.
But if one cannot get directly at one’s intended victim the next best, and the most widely available isotope is PO210 and it, also, has very few known scientific uses, although there ARE some, and very valid ones.
I personally prefer tritium gas for things I use around the house. It is easy to obtain, as is radium. But Polonium is different in that only about 100 grams are manufactured in the world every year and 210 is a rapidly decaying isotope. The reason it is used is that it generates heat, and a lot of it.
I am rather surprised that the Russian Government would have used PO210 for an assassination. In fact, I don’t believe it. A 138 day half-life is simply not acceptable. The victim will die and the evidence will still be intact and traceable. If one doesn’t care about leaving evidence, there are *many* better methods of assassination available that I am personally aware of and many better, cheaper, and more widely available methods for irradiation if death by irradiation is the aim. For instance, every smoke detector in your home has at least ten times the ‘exempt’ amount you can buy online without a license, and one could easily get enough cheap or surplus smoke detectors to kill someone….if they didn’t kill themselves first.
So my initial investigation would be to find out where the polonium came from (simple enough to do because of trace impurities). I will guess Russia as a starting point, but I do not cleave to that hypothesis.
Then I would find out how Litvinenko got dosed with it. A beginning hypothesis is that he was trading in illegal quantities of radioactive material and somehow ingested or inhaled a tiny bit from an improperly sealed container. It is possible that he was murdered, but the killer would have had to be very careful not to kill himself in the process. PO is not absorbed through the skin, but you probably cannot pour it into a drink at a table without getting a good airborne dose yourself.
Furthermore, I absolutely cannot believe that Litvinenko, because he dealt in radioactive material, did not have the most current radio-detection equipment available in his home and even on his person, but he didn’t. So something may have happened to make him take the smuggled product into his own custody and he inadvertantly dosed himself.
We are not talking about a lot. The current standard of measure is sieverts (Sv). I am from the old school and use Roentgens (rem) of which one is equivalent to 100 Sv.
Without getting complicated, The equivalent dose to a tissue is found by multiplying the absorbed dose, in grays, by a dimensionless “quality factor” Q, dependent upon radiation type, and by another dimensionless factor N, dependent on all other pertinent factors. N depends upon the part of the body irradiated, the time and volume over which the dose was spread, even the species of the subject. Together, Q and N constitute the radiation weighting factor, rW. For an organism composed of multiple tissue types a weighted sum or integral is often used. In terms of SI base units:
1 Sv = 1 J/kg = 1 m2·s–2
Although the sievert has the same dimensions as the gray (i.e. joules per kilogram), it measures a different thing. To avoid any risk of confusion between the absorbed dose and the equivalent dose, one must use the corresponding special units, namely the gray instead of the joule per kilogram for absorbed dose and the sievert instead of the joule per kilogram for the dose equivalent. For a given amount of radiation (measured in the absorbed dose called grays), the biological effect (measured in sieverts) can vary considerably as a result of the radiation weighting factor rW.
A typical dosage from the natural background is on the equivalent of 2.4 mSv/year. The LD20 is about 2Sv.
How much PO 210 are we talking about? Barely enough to see. I shall begin by presuming the Russian Security servises innocent, because I do not believe them completely inept.
Vi, if you don’t want this on your blog, delete it.
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richard cherry says:
that’s just stupid – you want us to believe someone slipped a smoke detector in his sushi?
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ehj2 says:
who — or which superpower — “benefits” if the world is reminded in a grim and widely publicized way of the presence and danger of uncontrolled (and potentially uncontrollable) weapons grade radioactive materials?
more precisely, which superpower potentially “benefits” in its current grim effort to assert internationally that the proliferation of scary weapons “requires” that it lie to its own people, seize and manipulate the agencies of governance and the information and propaganda that flows through and from them, curtail rule of law, ignore international treaties, and engage in futile and unplanned wars of preemption and regime change that actually inflame the energies of terrorism in the world?
Yet note the rather strange response in the U.S. When an unstable teenager threatened on the internet several months ago to blow up some locations that didn’t exist, the threat level was elevated and the entire nation was placed on alert. When an actual radiological event occurs, demonstrating the utter inadequacy (and basic idiocy) of our pseudo-preparations and flimsy protections — there is silence and waiting.
If the Right Wing Echo Chamber is silent — and it is right now — then it hasn’t been given its “message” to repeat endlessly (mindlessly) and in every format. A target to “blame” and motivate the masses “against” hasn’t been chosen.
The world is in a precarious position, and the issue of Russia — and where it will devote its considerable power — is now forefront. If this is declared an intelligence “hit” by Russian actors (regardless of whether it is), then Putin is at a minimum embarrassed (potentially weakened) and reminded that he is vulnerable to even more aggressive measures if he continues his efforts to align Russian interests with a rapidly modernizing Iran and the other powers in the middle east. If this is declared a terrorist hit by separatist elements in the Russian sphere even potentially supported by Iran or other players, then again, Russian efforts to align with Iran as a countervailing power to U.S. hegemonic moves is weakened. Either way, Right Wing goals in support of military options against Iran are emboldened and strengthened.
The phrase used by President Bush is “You’re either with us or with the terrorists.” The subtext is — You’re not allowed to sit on the sidelines, vote against us in the U.N., continue to conclude huge weapons transfers to Iran, or make energy deals.
To a cynic, it could look like Putin is being given an opportunity to decide which narrative will be exploited in America and promulgated by the Right Wing Echo Chamber.
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Paul Tergeist says:
that’s just stupid – you want us to believe someone slipped a smoke detector in his sushi?
-RCIt would have taken about 1,500 of them. I’d hate to be his proctologist.
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who — or which superpower — “benefits” if the world is reminded in a grim and widely publicized way of the presence and danger of uncontrolled (and potentially uncontrollable) weapons grade radioactive materials?
-ehj2The IS only one superpower still extant, but that would be too obvious. You need to look at the REAL political dynamics at work here. I think it is a trilateral plot of Darfur, Sudan and Magnesia.
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ehj2 says:
Any meaningful definition of the word “power” and the term “superpower” must include some sense of implied utility. By way of example, a more powerful battery can do more work.
Yet one of the potential “lessons” of the past five years (that should have been learned in Viet Nam) is the incredible disutility of superpower status. The very term invites one to believe in a narrative of efficacy that isn’t true.
To note: a well-trained and well-armed and highly motivated $500 billion/year military with an unequaled global communication network and utter air dominance has lost an undeclared war in a third-world country to teenagers in pajamas with $50 rifles.
Don’t try to inform me that $500 billion doesn’t buy what it used to. $500 trillion wouldn’t have been enough to win.
Moving on — unless the United States is willing to engage in industrially devasting preemptive wars with China and India in the near future, the current assessment is that the world’s superpower club — i.e., those with significant real world influence (economic, social, cultural, military) that spans the globe — will soon be led by China and India.
In a world of rapidly declining resources, this and the imperative of “self interest” might make some “realists” nervous enough to consider what we might think “the unthinkable.”
What do you think they think about in their think tanks? Just reading what they openly publish should give you pause.
The CIA used to have to communicate with Congress before it did certain “things” in other countries. Many of those kinds of activities have been moved by the Bush/Cheny/Rumsfeld management team to DoD, where they don’t have to be reported or ever acknowledged. Until Congress gets a hold of the U.S. military again, this should give you pause.
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