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(stupid chain email going around) by Herbert E. Meyer Are you nuts, Europe? Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I’m wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds. One of Britain’s largest newspapers ran a headline asking “How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?”, and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word – bizarre -- to explain the election’s outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that “Bush belongs at a war tribunal – not in the White House.” And on a London radio talk show last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who voted for him as “stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian fundamentalists.” Of course, you are entitled to whatever views about us that you care to hold. (And lucky for you we Americans aren’t like so many of the Muslims on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you’re likely to get six bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest.) But before you write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested, Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso – and who inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined, host 25 or 30 of the world’s finest universities and five or six of the world’s best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting competitions, have built the world’s most vibrant economy, are the world’s only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed on the moon and sent our robots to Mars – may I suggest you stop frothing at the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant? (continued)... |
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We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture, which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments, not suggestions. We believe that individuals are more important than groups, that families are more important than governments, that children should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that marriage should take place only between a man and a woman. We believe that rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot be set aside when it becomes inconvenient. We believe in economic liberty, and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their businesses – and thus create jobs – with a minimum of government interference. We recognize that other people see things differently, and we are tolerant of their views. But we believe that our country is worth defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we will go after them with everything we’ve got. If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn’t. For these are precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe – you -- from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the modern world. They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of Western civilization and – not coincidentally – ignited the greatest outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world has ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach, Issac Newton and Descartes. (cont) |
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It is your abandonment of these beliefs that has created the gap between Europe and the United States. You have ceased to be a Judeo-Christian culture, and have become instead a secular culture. And a secular culture quickly goes from being “un-religious” to anti-religious. Indeed, your hostility to the basic concepts of Judaism and Christianity has literally been written into your new European Union constitution, despite the Pope’s heroic efforts to the contrary. Your rate of marriage is at an all-time low, and the number of abortions in Europe is at an all-time high. Indeed, your birth rates are so far below replacement levels that in 30 years or so there will be 70 million fewer Europeans alive than are alive today. Europe is literally dying. And of the children you do manage to produce, all too few will be raised in stable, two-parent households. Your economy is stagnant because your government regulators make it just about impossible for your entrepreneurs to succeed – except by fleeing to the United States, where we welcome them and celebrate their success. And your armed forces are a joke. With the notable exception of Great Britain, you no longer have the military strength to defend yourselves. Alas, you no longer have the will to defend yourselves. (cont) |
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What worries me even more than all this is your willful blindness. You refuse to see that it is you, not we Americans, who have abandoned Western Civilization. It’s worrisome because, to tell you the truth, we need each other. Western Civilization today is under siege, from radical Islam on the outside and from our own selfish hedonism within. It’s going to take all of our effort, our talent, our creativity and, above all, our will to pull through. So take a good, hard look at yourselves and see what your own future will be if you don’t change course. And please, stop sneering at America long enough to understand it. After all, Western Civilization was your gift to us, and you ought to be proud of what we Americans have made of it. Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. His DVD on The Siege of Western Civilization is a nationwide best-seller. |
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Lincoln was welsh |
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we're just lovable old fools here |
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Oh everytime he mentions "We" hes talking about "stupid fundamentalist christians who vote for Bush" because obviously hes not talking about "We" as in - the other half of America who didn't vote for Bush. |
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Part of me wants ot read that. |
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i managed the 1st paragraph. which is 1 paragraph more than if i had been sent the email. |
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“How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?” as an american, i ask the same question every day. i don't give a fuck about his statistics because i don't live europe. why doesn't he check the facts about his own country? this guy is an idiot. europeans have every right to question what america does, and plenty of americans agree with their assessment. |
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"five or six of the world’s best symphonies" American symphonies do not know the meaning of the word dynamics... hey lets play every instrument as loud and full on as possible. Whereas the best of European is subtle, delicate and compassionate. Rant over, I will read on now... |
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Haha, he said "Issac Newton" :) |
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Thomas Jefferson was also welsh |
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so much text, so little motivation |
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i'm half welsh, but don't tell anyone |
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it's funny/sad to me that so very often people assign the attribute of stupidity to things they don't agree with or don't understand. since america didn't elect the candidate we wanted them to obviously they are idiots. that seems like an easy way out. it's not as simple as that. at least, i don't think it is. |
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i <3 teh eur0p3zor!! |
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but the problem is that this is an administration that has destroyed the basic rights of americans. how can anyone agree with that? that doesn't sound partisan to me - that transends right/left. no president should ever get away with the things he has. america has voted for someone who, in every single way, acts against the best interests of the people. something is really wrong. |
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you're absolutely right. bush is stupid AND i don't know why he was elected. |
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my theory is that during a period of uncertainty, people would vote for stability in the form of keeping the status quo. |
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Giant Douche vs Turd Sandwich |
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"And lucky for you we Americans aren’t like so many of the Muslims on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you’re likely to get six bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest." oh wow, I can't believe he mentions this! he clearly doesn't know Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh was a pretty controversial person, who would simply stuff to piss people off, to get a reaction. he has said some really AWFUL things to people. he called islamic people "geiteneukers", which literally translates as "goatfuckers", for example. this is no reason to be killed ofcourse, but the killer was just one (1) person - most islamic people immediately distanced themselves from his actions. "Indeed, your hostility to the basic concepts of Judaism and Christianity has literally been written into your new European Union constitution, despite the Pope’s heroic efforts to the contrary." yes, the same Pope who made heroic efforts to spread more HIV through the world. |
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well, there are educated republicans in this country. i doubt that all of them would agree with you that bush has acted against the best interests of the people in every single way, nor that he's destroyed our basic rights. i personally don't agree with most of his decisions. but, i don't think they are so cut and dried that it is impossible to fathom how someone would agree with them. i can't justify to myself puttin blind faith in any religion. but, that doesn't mean i think everyone who does is a bumbling idiot. |
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to say that the patriot act hasn't cost us our freedoms is not understanding anything about the patriot act. it's there in black and white - no privacy, no right to attourney, held indefinitely in prison, etc. and please - i said nothing about religion, let's not go there. |
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qrter, i don't care who he hated or provoked, nobody deserves to be murdered for what they say. |
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i was merely using religion as a comparison point for disagreeing with someone without being condecending. and, yes, i do agree that the patriot act removes certain rights under certain situations. i don't personally like the patriot act at all. but, saying that we no longer have ANY right to privacy, ANY right to attourney, and that ANYONE could be held in prison indefinitely is a bit of an overexageration. |
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which you'll notice if you re-read my post is exactly what I said, but I'm saying that guy in his e-mail is leaving out a LOT of context. it simply isn't as black-and-white as he puts it. |
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you're right, only innocent muslims were attacked by covert Jump-Out Squads while they were walking down the street, thrown into a van and held for questioning. i feel much safer... oh wait, there was that fellow in the michael moore movie who said in public he disagreed with the president and was harrassed by the fbi? and protests have to be contained within a dangerous fenced-in area similar to a prison yard designated as the Free-Speech Zone? and what about Guantanamo Bay? come on, this affects you. it affects me. it can be applied to ANY dissenter. they have a police state. it's totally unconstitutional. it's wrong. |
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ok, i wasn't totally clear on it. that was an incident which really disturbed me personally, so i couldn't be quiet about it. |
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give me an example of any society at any time anywhere on earth in which totally wacky injustices have not occured. i don't think you're understanding the entirety of what i'm saying. i'd like to clarify that i didn't vote for bush, i didn't want to vote for bush. i was deeply upset when he was re-elected, and i think that he is leading the nation in a very dangerous direction. i just don't think it is as black and white as people are making it out to be. |
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get a job |
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there are none. |
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touché |
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i'm not saying huge, monster problems didn't exist before bush. but i think that in the past four years, things have gotten very, very awful for us. just because injustices have always existed doesn't mean there aren't different levels of them or that we shouldn't struggle against them. and you're 100% right - it's not black and white. there's a ton of different issues and it's very complex. but just as people i know tell me that it's more important that gays shouldn't be married than sending kids to kill other kids so that halliburton's stocks will go up slightly, i have to tell them, "that's stupid." i'm totally willing to go into it more than that and debate, but i really don't care anymore about their feelings. |
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yeah and oyu guys also skip over some of the more important things going on (aside from iraq) in which, well, to people not living in the U.S., what do they give a shit about it for? and they show that by never bringing them up cause they know nothing about them |
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i suspect i know more than you about the US |
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My god what a blinkered report, having lived in both America and Europe I can say without any hesitation that Americans are the most pig ignorant bunch of half wits I have ever had dealings with. The so called Christian Americans who whole heartedly support the occupation of Iraq should read Exodus - Chapter 20 (the ten commandments, including "Thou shalt not kill"). |
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this is so redicoulous, i'd laugh if there weren't so many people suffering from this shit. |
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Heh heh. Indeed. For example, you'd be able to find it on a map. |
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give me an example of any society at any time anywhere on earth in which totally wacky injustices have not occured. i don't think you're understanding the entirety of what i'm saying. Theres many european countrys who is better then worse. You understand what i mean its not about who has done wrong one time its about who have made it many times |
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Hhmm Herbert E. Meyer, sounds like he's got German blood in his family. Hence the total lack of humour. |
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americans have a problem dealing with our own sordid history! |
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well we only have 4 more years of Bush, what harm can he do in 4 years... erm... *scared* |
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You know guys... maybe this guy has a point. The US has some GREAT universities, and orchestras, and a DELIGHTFUL military... I love George! |
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and jack nicholson is quite a good actor |
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and they have wine, innit |
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and posh resturants like mcdonalds and burger king |
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America remember Africa .england brake america in art every time |
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"We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life." haha stupid yanks. they're all going to hell anyway, who cares, |
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Now we know why ChildrenTalking hasn't had time to post humorous links or one line "this is the fo' shizzle" type reviews, he's spamming the entire world. |
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