The Logic Off Topic list

>And earlier this year, George W walked away
>from the Kyoto protocol on Greenhouse Emissions. What do you read from
>that?

The Japanese also walked away from it. I heard that things were skewed in 
favor of India and China especially, and Europe in a more minor way. Bush 
said he wanted a fairer treaty.

>A nation that built much of its wealth and proseperity on the back of a
>largely unwilling, indentured labour force.  

That is complete bullshit. You need to learn about the things you talk 
about. At its worst, about 10 states had slaves in southern rural states. 
Do you recall that we fought a Civil War 1861-1965 on that issue. And for 
136  years there has not been a single slave. And the US was not 
considered a world power until WWI 1918, and not a superpower until 1945.


>The US walked away from
>the Racism conference in South Africa recently. Why is that?

I think that was wrong, but its because we support Israel so much.


>A nation that for  a large part of the last century  has had its snout in the
>the middle easts 'gold pot' and directly or otherwise has created instability

What do we get for supporting Israel? We spend aobut $7,000,000,000 a 
year on Israel and Egypt to keep the peace. We have various oil embargos 
against us. And we have terrorist attacks - The TWA hijackings in the 
70's, the Lebannon Marine barracks suicde bomb that killed 250 Americans, 
the USS Cole attack that killed 16 Americans, the African embassy attacks 
that killed 200+ (10-15 Americans), the first WTC attack (killed 5), the 
Kobar towers attack in Saudi that killed 16, ...., and last but not least 
the NYC/Pentagon attacks that killed 6000+

We pay a lot of money and lives for what in return? It sure as fuck must 
be valuable for us to pay that many billions of dollars and thousands of 
lives for it.!!!!!!!!!!!!

>a problem with the US's 'puppet' King in Saudi Arabia who is generally
>disliked  by a large part of the population. The Islamic world, particularly

So now you are blaming us for the government in Saudi? King Fahd was 
ruling Saudi before oil was discovered. His various sons have been the 
following kings. Maybe you should take your complaints to the Saudi royal 
family, not the US which has not control over the government there. 

It has been pointed out that Saudi and other Arab countries allow 
anti-American frenzy to take the heat off themselves.

>
>A nation that touts itself  as the worlds  only 'superpower' and is planning
>a missile defense system that will make things stay that way, unfortunately
>forcing many other 'wannabe' superpowers' to be somewhat more  paranoid
>and react accordingly...

Do you know that China regularly and recently threatens war with the 
United States including shooting atomic bomb carrying missiles at Los 
Angeles and other cities? This comes not from crackpots from high ranking 
members of their gov. Do you know that North Korea shot a test missle 
over Japan? The US is willihng to shield our friends, Europe and 
Australia, however your comments make me wonder which side you are on.


>Exportation on a tremendous scale of largely vaccuous entertainment and
>'lifestyle choices' , which promote values many who are not similarly
>inclined see as selfish, unquestioning, frequently violent and irresponsible.

Thats the market economy pal. You don't like, don't buy it, don't go to 
the theatre to see it. Thats entirely in your court. You have the money 
and the power to buy what you want.


>In simple terms, there are some basic motivations behind these examples:
>greed, profit and  exploitation,  often cleverly disguised as 'freedom and
>opportunity'. The US isn't the only nation doing this, but it does so on a
>typically grander scale and thus stands tallest. Until this changes,  (if it
>ever does) there will be a problem, and at some time some where, the US
>will be seen as the 'Great Satan' you refer to.

The European powers colonized the world, and are the source of much of 
the current problemns in the middle east. Arabs say Saddam was justified 
to take Kuwait because the border was arbitrarily drawn some decades ago. 
Middle Easterners hate Britain in particular.

And Russia and China are great countries with the amount of death they 
have caused? So the US is so bad, after all the good we have done in the 
world.???

>If nothing else can come of this, perhaps it is an opportunity for
>Americans (and us all) to be less 'indulgently wealthy' and more 'ethically
>wealthy', learn about world events and insist on being informed about them
>by the largely self obsessed media. Learn history and geography, be less
>loud and more humble...

You need to learn a great deal yourself, friend.