Homer_Rice Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 [quote name='bengalrick' post='261868' date='May 2 2006, 08:36 AM']coy, being evil would be to know for a fact that the WOT is a smokescreen, yet still supporting it... i think this is bullshit, and you have to have a low opinion of america and the presidency (and the checks and balances behind it) to have this opinion about anyone that supports the war on terror... i think that after we were bombed on 9.11, you would have to be a pussy to not fight back against the organization that did this to us... come w/ proof before you call me evil [/quote] Evil is a privation, br. Evil is not a "thing" with positive ontological characteristics, it is a "lacking." So, to some extent, we are all evil, or better said, we entertain evil ideas at various times and on various topics. As I have suggested in the past, it would serve you well to spend some serious time coming to grips with low intensity warfare in the post WWII period. Getting familiar with some of the concepts would be a useful check on some of the outright propaganda that we are fed through the gov and media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 [quote name='Homer_Rice' post='262113' date='May 2 2006, 03:53 PM']Evil is a privation, br. Evil is not a "thing" with positive ontological characteristics, it is a "lacking." So, to some extent, we are all evil, or better said, we entertain evil ideas at various times and on various topics. As I have suggested in the past, it would serve you well to spend some serious time coming to grips with low intensity warfare in the post WWII period. Getting familiar with some of the concepts would be a useful check on some of the outright propaganda that we are fed through the gov and media.[/quote] A history of propaganda website dating back to WW1. [url="http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-posters/0-cat-index-posters.htm"]http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-poster...dex-posters.htm[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Henrys Dealer Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 [quote name='Bunghole' post='261755' date='May 2 2006, 12:34 AM']I am willing to bet that a 29% profit margin when all factors is considered is pretty common amongst large corporations that have simliar sets of circumstances where they control the extraction, transport and manufacturing of a product. However one also has to consider that the way America is currently set up, gasoline is a product that you, me and the economy simply cannot go without because it will grind to a halt. <<Shrugs>>[/quote] Hello, It would depend if you meant 29% gross profit margin or net profit margin. 29% net margin is very high, and very rare in a lot of industries. The very large oil companies routinely hover between 10-14% annual net profit margin. Which for companies of their size and scale, and associated with the costs to produce their output, and the risk beta's their stocks possess, is still considered damn impressive. Hence, a lot of criticism for their current situation comes from this. If you look at Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold company, even with the incredible surge in gold prices, their net profit margin is at about 15-16%. Historically their net profit margins are in the low single digits, and they could be considered as similar industries in terms of development costs. The only large companies that can routinely get away with somewhere in the region of 30%+ profit margins are guys like microsoft, and others in tech. Some of the banks are beginning to amass pretty high net profit margins overall, and I don't understand why they don't get anywhere as much flack. For example, Bank of America swung to $18 billion in net profit last year at a fairly ridiculous 30.1% net profit margin. And the majority of their earnings came from retail banking charges. Not investment banking or trading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer_Rice Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 [quote name='Jamie_B' post='262122' date='May 2 2006, 04:00 PM']A history of propaganda website dating back to WW1. [url="http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-posters/0-cat-index-posters.htm"]http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-poster...dex-posters.htm[/url][/quote] I'm referring to the sort of in-depth study you can't get on the web, Jamie. Neat posters, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bengalrick Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 [quote name='Chris Henrys Dealer' post='262142' date='May 2 2006, 04:23 PM']Hello, It would depend if you meant 29% gross profit margin or net profit margin. 29% net margin is very high, and very rare in a lot of industries. The very large oil companies routinely hover between 10-14% annual net profit margin. Which for companies of their size and scale, and associated with the costs to produce their output, and the risk beta's their stocks possess, is still considered damn impressive. Hence, a lot of criticism for their current situation comes from this. If you look at Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold company, even with the incredible surge in gold prices, their net profit margin is at about 15-16%. Historically their net profit margins are in the low single digits, and they could be considered as similar industries in terms of development costs. [b]The only large companies that can routinely get away with somewhere in the region of 30%+ profit margins are guys like microsoft, and others in tech. Some of the banks are beginning to amass pretty high net profit margins overall, and I don't understand why they don't get anywhere as much flack. For example, Bank of America swung to $18 billion in net profit last year at a fairly ridiculous 30.1% net profit margin. And the majority of their earnings came from retail banking charges. Not investment banking or trading.[/b][/quote] now thats messed up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BlackJesus Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 [center][img]http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060503/bagley.gif[/img] [/center] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coy Bacon Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 [quote name='Paul' post='261728' date='May 1 2006, 11:43 PM']For all the Liberals out there . It has been 28 years since a refinery has been built in America, and our demand for energy as well as the world demand has risen. Drilling in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been killed many many times along with the Gulf of Mexico, however is there any outrage over france, cuba, and china drilling in the Flordia straights Fuck no. Lets not forget the price of tax on tax and the bitching about record profits is weak, Uncle Sam has taken $ 17,000,000,000 in three months from them.[/quote] The head or former head of Exxon, Tillotson, or whatever his name is, talked about how the oil industry has consistently been expanding refinery capacity. American refinery capacity has grown faster than American demand for gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coy Bacon Posted May 6, 2006 Report Share Posted May 6, 2006 [quote name='bengalrick' post='261868' date='May 2 2006, 08:36 AM']coy, being evil would be to know for a fact that the WOT is a smokescreen, yet still supporting it... i think this is bullshit, and you have to have a low opinion of america and the presidency (and the checks and balances behind it) to have this opinion about anyone that supports the war on terror... [b]i think that after we were bombed on 9.11, you would have to be a pussy to not fight back against the organization that did this to us...[/b] [b]come w/ proof before you call me evil [/b][/quote] I've been away from this for a while, so I'm not sure what you're talking about, but it sounds like a response to something that I might have actually said. You can also be evil by making sure that you avoid knowing that the WOT is a smokescreen so you can still support it. And if you think my position is bullshit, just imagine what I think about yours. Have you ever considered that America and the presidency are earning themselves low esteem by cleaving to lies and bullshit about America's role in history as well as its role in current event? Are you willingly ignorant of the fact that the checks and balances supposedly applied to the presidency, if they were ever truly effective, are being cir***vented and dismantled? As for the bolded portion, I have to chuckle about how that sentiment reflects upon your support of the WOT. I'll grant you that it is possible - I think it improbable, but it is quite possible - that my strong suspicions, based on the eveidence that we do have, are wrong and the official 9/11 story is 100% correct. The problem is that we don't really KNOW, and obvious efforts have been made to ensure that we run off on a mad tear against whomever the finger is pointing at rather than finding out. If your eagerness for revenge makes you willing to ignore and paper over that fact, then I make no apology about calling you "evil." If your identification with the finger-pointer and lack of identification with the pointee makes you ignore your own self-interest and run off on a hubristic surfeit of murderous revenge - possibly or even likely misplaced revenge, then I make no apology about calling you "evil." When you claim to know who did something to you and you obviously have no reason to know one way or the other, but because you, in your mind, must be right simply because you wish to spare yourself the discomfort of a little cognitive dissonance, I reserve the right, after a certain amount of your blind insistence, to call you "evil." If it makes you mad, pat your ass and get glad. Look at that bolded portion and take your own medicine, Doctor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coy Bacon Posted May 7, 2006 Report Share Posted May 7, 2006 [quote name='bengalrick' post='261868' date='May 2 2006, 08:36 AM']coy, being evil would be to know for a fact that the WOT is a smokescreen, yet still supporting it... i think this is bullshit, and you have to have a low opinion of america and the presidency (and the checks and balances behind it) to have this opinion about anyone that supports the war on terror... i think that after we were bombed on 9.11, you would have to be a pussy to not fight back against the organization that did this to us... come w/ proof before you call me evil [/quote] Americans - Many Evil And Stupid People By Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD 5-2-6 Before I could continue to the substance of this piece, it is imperative to define and justify the selection of the title for this commentary. The most appropriate thing to do is to search for the meaning of these words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language, which defines evil as morally reprehensible, sinful, and wicked]. I will attempt to define one of the words in the definition of evil, wicked. The Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language defines wicked as morally very bad. It is also necessary to define the word moral. The Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language defines moral as, of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior. 'Evil' is a word that applies to many individual actions as well as collective actions. The individual action might be an act with dreadful consequences or a collective action such as mob anger or national support for some horrific undertaking on the part of one's government. The application of this word alone does not suffice to explain the behavior of the majority of the people in America, hence, another word need to exist to enrich the meaning of the word, evil. Before I continue, it is also necessary to define the word, 'stupid.' Again, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language, stupid is defined as lacking intelligence or reason. To understand the meaning of this word fully, we have to also understand the meaning of the words, intelligence and reason. The Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language defines [u][b]intelligence [/b][/u] as the [u][b]ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations.[/b][/u] Once again, Merriam-Webster dictionary of the English language defines reason as the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways. Now it is necessary to put these words together and apply them to the people of this country, or I should say to the majority of the people of this country. The easiest way to go about this is to take a sample though crude but nonetheless a sample of the people and analyze where they fit in this dichotomy of evil and stupid. Since I have received a massive amount of emails from more than 600 hundred people in this country, I would think it serves as a reasonable sample. I am sure it has a margin of error but we are not talking about pure scientific methodology. Perhaps it is acceptable since people contacted me rather than the other way around. This could reduce the margin of error since one source - www.rense.com - served as the reservoir where these respondents applied and came across my article and photos - Death Made in America [url="http://www.rense.com/general70/deathmde.htm"]http://www.rense.com/general70/deathmde.htm[/url] . Now, since I have established some parameters in this discussion, it is time to apply the terminology to the people here. Lets do another thing, I have to describe the content of the article-Death Made in America-in order to weigh the substance of the respondents' emails. The substance included photographs of deformed babies caused by uranium munitions used by the US armed forces. Additional content included accounts of the atrocities committed by the US forces in Afghanistan. Now the responses I received included abusive language to my family, my religion, my country and I. All this because I chose to expose the genocide for which the people of this country are equally complicit. Photographs The photos are of deformed babies caused by the US depleted uranium munitions. These munitions are also used in Iraq and similar cases of deformities have emerged there. In fact, similar deformities emerged in the offspring of US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, the callous conduct of the US government in regards to nuclear weapons and reactors made many conditions permanent here in the US. Anyway, even though the photos are truly horrific, this did not stop overwhelming majority of people sending emails and made fun of them and said that those children deserved it. Moreover, large number of respondents suggested that the entire country of Afghanistan should have been incinerated, how typical of American intelligence. When I explained to them that this was genocide and presented all the relevant evidences, they simply went on the offensive and kept name-calling followed by threats. Now let me analyze this conduct within the dichotomy of evil and stupidity. The heartless behavior of the people of this country appalled and shocked me. When the attacks on September 11, 2001 occurred, most Americans were screaming, "why us, we are civilians." Although I believe the Muslims had nothing to do with that, but for the sake of argument if they did, I wonder why are these people who make fun of Afghan deformities are even surprised they were targeted? Anyone experiencing the behavior of these heartless and ignorant people would not be surprised. [b]It is ok to kill Muslims and turn their babies deformed and their land uninhabitable, but the minute something happens in the good US of A, it becomes a crime. How so? [/b] Perhaps it is best that you taste the effects of your own medicine? [b]When I presented all the evidences, the respondents would become even more enraged. This is the mark of stupidity. Since the word 'stupid' is defined as lacking intelligence or reason, it applies perfectly to many people of this country. They either do not have intelligence or most likely do not use their brains and common sense and reason. Hence, the only thing they are good at is to call names and wave the blood=soaked piece - the flag - at others' face. [/b] I believe the adjective defining the people of this country should be evil-stupid since it entails wickedness coupled by stupidity and ignorance. Accounts Of The US Atrocities The second aspect of the paper was the account of crimes committed by the US soldiers in Afghanistan. I gave account of mass rape, individual rape, gang rape of woman, men, old men and children by the US soldiers. Again, the emails I received were evil and stupid. The [b]respondents discounted the crimes as insignificant and said it was ok for their soldiers to have done that. With the exception of a few decent people, the remaining of the emails told the true nature of the people of this country, namely how truly evil they are.[/b] [b]The stupidity exhibited by these respondents was also evident from their comments. They portrayed American soldiers as kind and decent people; however, they tend to forget that these soldiers were the ones that committed all the rapes of women, young boys and men at Abu-Ghraib prison. The Abu-Ghraib incident is simply a tip of the iceberg. The American soldiers are known for kidnapping women in Vietnam and raping them. The American soldiers are known to have used chocolate bars to lure desperate and hungry European women for oral sex during WWII. Even after these desperate women performed oral sex, the soldiers would refuse to give them the chocolate bars they promised. So, American soldiers are known for abusing desperate and internally displaced refugees in the aftermath of WWII to Vietnam to Iraq and now in Afghanistan. [/b] Again, the word evil-stupid fits perfectly describing many of the people of this country. Their terrible behavior further supports that they are both evil and stupid. Therefore, the world evil-stupid is a perfect description of these cattle, these people-want-to-be, in this country. One note - [b]I do, however, appreciate the kindness of a few of good people who have contacted me. They are the rare exception. [/b] Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD www.afghandufund.org mdmiraki@ameritech.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThurmanMunster Posted May 7, 2006 Report Share Posted May 7, 2006 idk what the deal is or who's fault it is or how to fix it, but these need to be fixed because us college students are getting the shaft big time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steggyD Posted May 7, 2006 Report Share Posted May 7, 2006 Coy Bacon, I have to say that article is completely ignorant in his case. Stupid Americans asking for all Afghans to be killed? Yeah, so? Tell me there aren't people in any country asking for all people to be killed somewhere else? What the fuck is his point? And you post it like you agree with him? Most people in this country are just trying to get by in daily life and don't really think this way. So what if he gets a few emails telling him these things. There are some Afghans who want all Americans incinerated. There are some French men that want all Germans incinerated. His article is just plain useless. And then trying to lessen the view of American military by some bad apples? And for you to highlight it? Fuck that. That's plain ignorant also. To blame a whole country on people who do wrong? WTF? Yeah, some American men raped some women. Well, guess what. Some African men raped some women too. What's his point? What's yours? I'm sorry, but that was just the worst written piece of anything I've ever seen. Oh yeah, and some guy named Mohammed wants to call us other people stupid, when his people kill and threaten to kill over some comics... Yeah, I can play his game too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coy Bacon Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 [quote name='steggyD' post='264866' date='May 7 2006, 03:06 AM']Coy Bacon, I have to say that article is completely ignorant in his case. Stupid Americans asking for all Afghans to be killed? Yeah, so? Tell me there aren't people in any country asking for all people to be killed somewhere else? What the fuck is his point? And you post it like you agree with him? Most people in this country are just trying to get by in daily life and don't really think this way. So what if he gets a few emails telling him these things. There are some Afghans who want all Americans incinerated. There are some French men that want all Germans incinerated. His article is just plain useless. And then trying to lessen the view of American military by some bad apples? And for you to highlight it? Fuck that. That's plain ignorant also. To blame a whole country on people who do wrong? WTF? Yeah, some American men raped some women. Well, guess what. Some African men raped some women too. What's his point? What's yours? I'm sorry, but that was just the worst written piece of anything I've ever seen. Oh yeah, and some guy named Mohammed wants to call us other people stupid, when his people kill and threaten to kill over some comics... Yeah, I can play his game too.[/quote] In this case, he's talking about the mail he got in response to something he wrote. I just posted it. I thought he was a bit over the top, but to a point I do agree with him. Your response is pretty common when the sins of Americans are pointed out --- "Other people do it too!!!!!!! Don't paint us all with the same brush as the bad apples!!!!!!!" But I don't hear much of that when it comes to the sins of others. Under the [b]assumption[/b] that a bunch of Saudis committed a set of heinous acts in the U.S., Americans have supported a headlong rush to attack two countries other than Saudi Arabia with almost complete disregard to the same standards of investigation, judgement and temperance that they would insist be extended towards the U.S. Naturally the writer isn't going to inspire any soul-searching among a hostile audience, being as emotionally charged as he is by the brute insensitivity of the respondents to which he refers, but I think he's largely right, if a bit inarticulate. He just doesn't have the power of a presumption of legitimacy in this society. George Bush has that power among "Good Americans," so he has gotten away with stuff a whole hell of a lot less lucid than what this guy writes - that's fucking pathetic. I knew when I posted the piece that it wasn't really very well written, but I found it interesting, and thought it might stimulate some debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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