The complete lack of critical thought in American life

You know what I can’t believe? That people can be suckered into believing any kind of BS just by slapping together an email and hitting send. You know who’s responsible for the current state of our country? For

• Our massive deficit (60+ trillion compared to 13 trillion gdp)
• Our stupid, pointless, self-destructive war
• The redistribution of untold wealth from the poor to the rich
• Systemic government corruption
• An election system that requires many millions of dollars to get elected
• Our decades of ignoring the looming energy crisis
• Our moronic neglect of our own environment
• And let’s not forget the erosion of our most basic rights

The same rights you were all brought up to believe represent the highest ideals a country could aspire to, the rights great men & women died to preserve. And you shit on their memory but allowing ‘patriot’ acts to make it ok to spy on Americans without a court order, to hold prisoners without a trial or lawyer, and let’s not forget the pride and joy of the Bush wars, torture! All of these problems can be laid at the feet of you, the American public. It’s your damn fault.

You can’t be bothered to think for yourself. You get your news from whatever’s on TV and accept it as Truth, in spite of non-stop examples of manipulation, lies, and spin. You have access to the single most democratizing force in the world, the Internet, but do you use google news to read articles on the same topic from (up to) hundreds of other sources? Do you take 30 seconds to look up ridiculous claims you get in email, or do you just think to yourself ‘damn that Clinton” and hit forward?

Let me pause from my rant to spend 30 seconds destroying this piece of garbage email.

Claim 1: Oliver North, admitted traitor and one of the men directly responsible for selling arms to Iran (which I’m sure you all agree was a brilliant idea), telling Al Gore that we should kill Bin Laden. A quick Google of ‘video al gore north bin laden’ gives me this:

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/north.asp

“The terrorist North mentioned in his testimony was not Osama bin Laden, however. To the extent that bin Laden was known to the western world in 1987, it was not as a "terrorist" but as one of the U.S.-backed "freedom fighters" participating in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden's hatred of the U.S. and conversion to "terrorist" status is not believed to have come about until the Gulf War of 1990-91, when he was outspokenly critical of Saudi Arabian dependence upon the U.S. military and denounced U.S. support of a "corrupt, materialist, and irreligious" Saudi monarchy. (The Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 for his funding of militant fundamentalist Islamic groups.)

Oliver North did not testify about or mention the name Osama bin Laden during the Iran-Contra hearings. He claimed that threats against his life had been made by terrorist Abu Nidal,”

Next claim: Clinton insisted Mohamed Atta be released from prison so he could lead 9/11. Another stupid lie. One glance at Atta’s wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Atta

“Initially, Mohamed Atta's identity was confused with that of a native Jordanian, Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta, who bombed a bus in 1986 on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing one and severely injuring three. Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was subsequently deported from Venezuela to the United States, extradited to Israel, tried and sentenced to life in prison. The Israeli Supreme Court later overturned his extradition and set him free;”

It sure is easy to tell truth from lies with the slightest bit of effort. And how many of you bothered? Who will bother to think for themselves the next time some crazy claim is made without evidence?

Some friendly email tips:

1. If the content is true, it will have a link to a verifiable source. If there is no link, either look it up or delete it.
2. For all other questions, see rule #1.

This country stands on a precipice. Extraordinary action must be taken right now just to preserve our economy. We must invest huge sums of money in other forms of energy or face the destruction of our way of life. We have to force our government to stop spending $500B a year more than it makes in taxes, and we have to demand the criminals responsible for the housing swindle be prosecuted. Our leaders are replaying the great depression step by step, only this time we have massive inflation and a national debt equivalent to someone making $100,000 a year owing half a million in debt. We have allowed our leaders to put us in the position where we NEED foreign governments to buy 2 BILLION dollars a DAY in our debt just so we can pay the light bill. I’d say that’s a much bigger national security issue than some dirt farmers squatting around a fire in the middle east.

Millions of people are starving to death from the price of food’s meteoric inflation (and fuel somewhat, which makes everything more expensive). Our Fed directly contributed to this by giving investment banks an extra $250B in slosh to go spend on what is always the last bull market before a global collapse, commodities. Just like any bubble, tons of speculative cash piles in on corn, wheat, rice, etc and drives up the price, making money for the speculators and starving out the poor. And our government has the balls to lie to us and say inflation is low. 2% inflation? A barrel of oil was $60 a year ago.

The combination of stupid or speculative home buyers, dishonest mortgage brokers giving loans to anyone and then packaging them up and selling them off to unsuspecting investors (like your retirement fund), a complete lack of policing by our government, and the collusion of ratings agencies who rated these garbage loans AAA are all responsible for the current housing crisis. I’ve not seen a single indictment on any of them, and all our reps talk about is how to stop house prices from declining. Even though it’s impossible for the price of an asset to grow faster than the incomes of the people buying it over a long period of time, and even though it’s a bubble that no one can stop from bursting. The only way the government can make things worse is to try to bail everyone out and just pile it on our already staggering debt, which is exactly what they’re doing.

Our currency is being destroyed. Investors are (by the day) less interested in buying T bills. Thanks to compound interest, even a slight rise in the cost of government debt has a huge effect on how much we owe. China & India have actual economic growth, and we can’t force investors to buy our debt when they can make more money investing elsewhere. It is no longer a time when you can afford to be ignorant of our economic situation.

In a few years, when your house is worth another 10-20% less than it is right now, when you’re unable to declare bankruptcy or renegotiate your mortgage thanks to Bush’s bankruptcy ‘reform’, as the country sinks further into the worst recession any of you have lived through, think back to this time. And slap yourself silly for being to goddamn lazy to do anything about it when you had the chance.

I don’t care what your politics are, this is a moral and economic issue. We must demand our government stop selling off tomorrow for an easier today. We must harass our representatives daily because that’s what gets results.

Here is the original email without the pictures, complete with huge font:

Do you Remember 1987 ?

Thought you might be interested in this forgotten bit of information.......
It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.

There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but wha t he said was stunning!

He was being drilled by a senator; 'Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?'

Ollie replied, 'Yes, I did, Sir.'

The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, 'Isn't that just a little excessive?'

'No, sir,' continued Ollie.

'No? And why not?' the senator asked.

'Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir.'

'Threatened? By whom?' the senator questioned.

'By a terrorist, sir' Ollie answered.

'Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?'

'His name is Osama bin Laden, sir' Ollie replied.

At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?' the senator asked.

'Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive tha t I know of', Ollie answered.

'And what do you recommend we do about him?' asked the senator.

'Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth.'

The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.


By the way, that senator was Al Gore!

Also:

Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called 'political prisoners.'

However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands, The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, 'insisted' that all prisoners be released.

Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked us by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center .. This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.
It was censored in the US from all later reports.

If you agree that the American public should be made aware of this fact, pass this on.

Do Not Break - it is 6 years strong


This is why I always say I love YOU....