May I post something I read today? (James Joyce, "The Dead", in "Dubliners"):
"A new generation is growing up in our midst, a generation actuated by new ideas and new principles. It is serious and enthusiastic for these new ideas and its enthusiasm, even when it is misdirected, is, I believe, in the main sincere."
"But we are living in a sceptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hypereducated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humour which belonged to an older day. Listening tonight to the names of all those great singers of the past it seemed to me, I must confess, that we were living in a less spacious age. Those days might, without exaggeration, be called spacious days: and if they are gone beyond recall let us hope, at least, that in gatherings such as this we shall still speak of them with pride and affection, still cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead and gone great ones whose fame the world will not willingly let die."
"Hear, hear!" said Mr. Browne loudly.
"But yet," continued Gabriel, his voice falling into a softer inflection, "there are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here tonight. Our path through life is strewn with many such sad memories: and were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living. We have all of us living duties and living affections which claim, and rightly claim, our strenuous endeavours."
"Therefore, I will not linger on the past. I will not let any gloomy moralising intrude upon us here tonight. Here we are gathered together for a brief moment from the bustle and rush of our everyday routine. We are met here as friends, in the spirit of good-fellowship, as colleagues, also to a certain extent, in the true spirit of camaraderie, and as the guests of--what shall I call them? --the Three Graces of the Dublin musical world."
I swear I thought about you, guys, reading this today on my shiny Transmilenio bus...
I even imagined Principessa, our host, as one of the Three Graces for a moment.
I bet you can use a little of old James's words (hey, not the part about the "spacious days", this epoch is as mine as yours, I'm not that old to become nostalgic about the "good old days"!
)
If somebody wants to read "The Dead", you can find it at
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/dblnr11h.htm. It's the last tale and it's short and moving.
About USA budget, no matter what percentages Giancarlo throws around, the military budget of USA is a monstrosity without any rational justification.
I'm finding f1.redbaron style more comfortable: look around and trust other people judgement, I know him a little and I'm sure
he and I have no interest in proselitizing anyone here.
I can give links on technical threads, being sure they are useful, not as a "proof that I'm right", but to facilitate learning.
f1.redbaron doesn't use links as weapons in an argument! He uses them to illustrate, to teach, to guide, to make succint comments. Here, I don't know.
Anyway, following redbaron lead,
I believe this military budget is as much as the next 10 countries together. I wonder if Americans (and specially republicans) normally penny-wise are becoming fools. I trust them also, so I know they will do something, some day, about it.
Unfortunately, Giancarlo is right about something: the so called "liberals", named like that in a pejorative way, are out of focus. FYI, liberal means "for freedom". This is clear in spanish, not in english.
Anyway, liberals, instead of worrying on
increasing the social spending, for me the only spending by the Government that has any justification, they are worried about the rights of lesbians and focusing on abortion (I'm not implying gays have no rights, nor arguing for pro-life or pro-choice, just wondering when another Martin Luther King, not for the blacks, but for the poors and the squeezed middle class, will be born). When will someone propose full coverage for all diseases for anyone? Isn't that worthy of some fight, even if only with arguments? I'm sure anyone, rich and poor, would pay more taxes for THAT.
I lived in Maryland for a couple of years and I wondered how people so rich could live in such appalling environment. Rich people hardened by fear of their fellow citizens, poor people full of anger. Not even here, where conditions are so hard we live like that. Our rich, no matter how ignorant, no matter how cruel, never ever blame the poverty of the poor on anyone but themselves. Must be the Catholic abhorrence of money (remember the camel and the needle?).
I clearly remember once when I was called a "sucker" by a mexican-american friend because I gave a quarter (25 cents) to an old homeless lady (they are not called poor, but homeless, notice the subtle way to blame them about their own poverty). She said that I was encouraging beggars to exist! The woman was like 65... I can understand not giving money to young people, but to an old woman? Meanwhile, my friend was sipping a horrible beverage called a frapuccino or something like that, that costs perhaps a dollar a pound (of coffee). She had paid 5 dollars for that horrible excuse for coffe and was saying I was an imbecile because I gave money to someone clearly in need... sigh. What do you think, Giancarlo? It's better to give money to churchs so rich that have magnificent temples and pastors that live in 500 thousand dollars houses? What did Christ, Buddha and Mohamed say about charity? Did they put strict limits on it? What's the percentage of your soul that is devoted to make of this a better world? Is 59% too much?
We're sooo smart thechnically, but even humble ants don't allow anyone of them to die of hunger. Are we really unable of securing life for everyone from crib to tomb? Is this despicable? I'm sure some day this will become a rule of living: don't worry about how to live, better worry about the meaning of your life, mankind is wise enough to produce its basic needs. From that day on, capitalism will be justified and the rich will be able to sleep in peace.
Meanwhile, Hillary, Obama and Gore worry about stem-research (not that it's not worthy of
some thought) and most of the population (seen from here, where we are really poor) work their collective *sses earning effectively less and less. The poor excuse they have for taxes, the american social security, is a joke: when I lived there I had to save money to fix a cavity! C'mon, not even the colombians are so poor. We are smarter than that. No wonder the laborists there have no chance: the middle class gives their vote willfully to representatives of the rich people! I wonder when a laborist party will find a constituency there.
Another random comment: I think that all the efforts Ray did, all the bravery and all the fear he had to swallow while doing things most of us are unable to do, can be blamed on failures of the Department of State, not on lack of armor for Humvees.
I'm taking my hat off to Ray and his comrades, even if I come from a family of warriors, even if my family (from my subjective point of view) fought for very different principles (and lost): justice, poor people, socialism, less for the powerful people and more for the "individuals" Giancarlo seems so worried about. Hey Ray, you weren't defending your money: you were spending the health, the insurance you need in times of sickness, your pension, there in Iraq, not throwing a dictator.
The world is full of dictators, they won't fall with bullets. They thrive on bullets, precisely. If you can't see that, then you will blame the "Iraqui civil war" on lack of F-16, not on lack of justice, education, health, a house, water, electricity and freedom. You really needed a General like Marshall, the guy of the Marshall plan, not like Schwarzkopf, let me tell you. Where are the american Roosevelts today? Have all became Rumsfelds? A General must have, not only a battle plan, but a noble mind, like yours, Ray. All soldiers know that from the bottom of their heart.
If 1% pays 40% of the taxes is because they make most of the money. I wonder
when a politician is going to worry about the intolerable financial duress most americans endure: most of them are in heavy debt, pushed by ads and propaganda, spending the few dollars they have left (if indirectly) on bullets and bank interest. Not even Louis XIV had the same kind of services an american billionaire has and not even him had under his thumb, so subjugated, so many people.
Oh, man, I like this thread. I only hope Tomba never reads it, or I'm afraid he is going to stop it. I'm saying things I don't dare to say in Colombia because I wouldn't last 10 minutes alive. Here, in Bogotá, I'm limited to act. Freedom of speech and Internet are a marriage made in heaven. If only some of you could smile more frequently, and, as Dave put it, "don't blow a gasket over it", this would be even more productive than what it already has been. Come on, miqi, you're one of the cool guys here: relax a little, make a couple of jokes, you're not alone! Neither you, Ray, we understand the efforts you made and they could be comendable, if focused on the good. Hats off to Manchild, also, that took so much time to illustrate us on the Yugoslavian and Israeli history fine points, that explains so much of the Palestinian conflict, if not all, I'm afraid.
Hey, sincerely, thanks you all, specially those that have the courage and time to read all my incoherences (macdenife comes to my mind).
