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[quote="clocker bob"] Rushing around putting muzzles on teachers will only lead people to ask, "What are you hiding?"
quote]

Nice. Keep it up. Maybe then more folks'll smell the ever worsening stink and start asking some hard questions.

By the way, Clocker Bob, this thread has actually been a real eye opener for me. Salut.

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Yeah, I've checked out most of the linked material and now I can barely stop thinking about it. I'm angry. This has to come out into the mainstream. I'm a limey living in an tiny, cowered backwater of a country (Cyprus) so I don't see how I can do dick about it. Any suggestions?

American foreign policy affects everyone. I heard that one of the U.S.'s secret prisons is on this island somewhere (in the Turkish occupied area, I would imagine).

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clocker bob wrote: You are condemning yourself to questioning *everything*, forever.

Uh, check! Oh man, this thing is huge. It's hard to digest.

When I wondered what I could be doing, I was (probably naively) thinking along the lines of writing to members of political parties here who often make politely negative allusions to issues involving the U.S. , but that seems pretty futile. Cyprus is so small and constantly feels threatened by Turkey (another middle eastern friend of the U.S.) I don't think any polititions would stick their necks out to broach this subject.

I've encountered a lot of (often annoyingly knee-jerk, but basically understandable) anti-American sentiment here among the general populous. Myself, I'm very much into American culture or at least the art, music, movies, literature and sciences - the creative stuff. It's a tragedy how fucked over by your government you are and how the vast majority of Americans appear to be in such an occluded state.

Anyway, thanks for your reply. Keep up the good work.

MVS

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clocker bob wrote: It's like a tape worm.

Ha! I don’t have too much to add, I think you pretty much sum it up. I’m new to this point of view. I’m basically finding my legs here.

clocker bob wrote:We are so susceptible in America to appeals to xenophobia and to subtle or crass diminution of our foreign 'enemies' as these one dimensional 'creatures' who embody some sinister mindset, it's just incredible that Bush can make statements about Islamists that 'they hate our freedoms' and Americans buy it, it overpowers their common sense that should tell them that they hate our lust for empire and our suicidal favoritism for Israel.

Yeah, it’s easy to turn people into ‘gooks’. I’m embarrassed to admit that I actually bought that line in the immediate aftershock of 9/11 and I remember feeling enraged and a little idiotically gung ho. The next day following that event a Cypriot friend of mine said something about America being evil and they deserved it etc. and I couldn’t stop myself from overreacting and screaming at the guy. While the loss of innocent life was monstrous, with hindsight, sure, the generating factors behind this sort of sentiment are painfully obvious.

Mose Varty-Seppanen wrote:I'm very much into American culture or at least the art, music, movies, literature and sciences - the creative stuff.

On a trivial note, for what it’s worth, I’ll add another slightly inane sounding statement to the one above, that (in my admittedly limited contact with American people,) I haven’t met an American I actually disliked so far. A friend and I visited New York and the Connecticut area several years ago and found almost everyone we dealt with to be friendly. In NYC one morning, I was checking an out art gallery. A couple who had been there the same time as me later in the evening found themselves on the opposite platform to me in a subway station across town and they smiled and waved. Another time, a couple of obvious junkies hanging out by a phone booth I was using cracked a joke in a way that implied a benevolent vibe. Etc, etc…

It’s not unusual for people to completely blank you on the streets of London (my hometown) if you ask them for the time or directions. No total stranger has ever given me a friendly wave in London. It could be the fact that my face in repose makes me look like the miserable fucker I probably am. The girl I was traveling with and I actually felt safer in NYC. Of course, being a visitor I guess we had no clue about the overall picture, but still… anyway, Jeez I’m rambling.

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