RE: What is the meaning of life?

To bring meaning into it.

I don’t mean it as a catch-phrase, but if we stop asking this question, stop struggling with the implications, then we become adrift. It’s interesting that humans want to assign some meaning to life, a plant does not, an insect does not. Perhaps it is how humans cope with mortality.

I took some classes in Iaijutsu, and the question posed to me was, what if you were to die in ten minutes, how do you prepare yourself? What if you had a day, a week, 50 years? You must find what gives meaning to YOUR life, pursue that you need, enjoy that you have. Hopefully you’ll also take care to bring meaning to those around you.

RE: BOND… a big smash!

Did you feel it was a bit. . . over the top? I’ve not seen it myself, but the trailer we get in the US is rather discouraging, with ice cube buildings and bad guys on surfboards (surfboards?). I hope it didn’t get the Batman Forever treatment.

Just to prove Americans have a sense of humor also

http://graphics.theonion.com/pics_3809/gulf_war_2.jpg

http://www.theonion.com/onion3809/gulf_war_2.html

RE: For Americans

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 18-11-02 AT 07:54 PM (GMT)]Actually I meant the NSA is often equivalent to Sec State, more so than Defence.

The National Security Advisor is frequently in conflict with other relevant cabinet offices. Not only that, the NSA may disagree with the recommendations of the intelligence services and thus be in conflict with them as well. The best example is Henry Kissinger, who as NSA, compeletly overshadowed the cabinet secretaries and even made Presidential level decisions when President Nixon wasn’t available. A recent example would be when the CIA director told Congress the CIA never catagorized Iraq as a terrorist threat even though Bush said intelligence sources tell him it is.

As Mongu stated, US cabinet secretaries are nominated by the President, but they still need to be approved by the Senate. Which means the President may have a favorite advisor whose political beliefs are not appreciated by the opposition party and could never be Sec State/Defense. The NSA is someone on the White House payroll, but not subject to Congressional reviews. The NSA is also easier to replace without political concequences. None-the-less, the NSA is the person whose preception of the world is most compatible with the President and is someone with a long personal friendship. Therefore, though the NSA has no offical authority, s/he usually have the ears of the President.

RE: For Americans

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 18-11-02 AT 01:54 AM (GMT)]George W. Bush: President (He is both head of State and head of Government. Like your King and President combined)

Richard (hmmm can’t type D*ck) Cheney: Vice President (Historically a nearly powerless position, though this is begining to change)

Colin Powell: Secretary of State (Like a Foreign Minister)

Donald Rumsfeld: Secretary of Defense

Condoleezza Rice: National Security Advisor (Advisor to the President on national security issues. The position has little offical power, but in practice wields similar influence as Secretary of Defense.)

RE: For those of you condemning the assasination

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 16-11-02 AT 05:29 AM (GMT)]Nah, you won’t be attacked by me. We Democrats are reasonable people.

I don’t want to make it sound like America’s problem is bigger than anyone elses. But the terrorism we face is simply deadlier than those in the past. In the worse days of The Troubles I’d bet no Englishman thought the IRA was going to nuke London. We are not facing a political movement with leaders that want to negotiate terms. They just want to kill us in large numbers so as to rally political support in their homelands.

<

Assassination in Jordan, explosion aboard an oil tanker, attack on US troops in Kuwait and the Bali bombings certainly do nothing to suggest the world is a safer place do they?

The world is certainly not a safer place today. But neither was it before the War on Terror. We had our bases bombed in Saudi Arabia, Embassies in Africa, a ship in Yemen (by the same group we terminated recently) – all before we fought back. Do you feel the world would be safer if we let terrorists get away? I would agree that the US should work much harder at resolving the root causes of extremism. But that is a Herculean task for the decades ahead. And I think hunting down those that want to kill us is a worthy goal in the meanwhile.

<

Now, six guys in a car are dead and if they are terrorists I suppose it’s all for the best. But are you sure they were terrorists?

Pretty sure, the results were confirmed by Yemeni authorities. All told it was a model operation with no collateral damage. May all future ops be as clean.

<

And how do you justify such action while condemning Israel for doing the same?

To be completely honest the US is no longer in a position to criticize Israel, and you will see this less and less.

<

And why do you feel so comfortable pursuing the war against terror outside America when you have still not tracked down those responsible for the anthrax attacks?

I’m not happy the anthrax case is unresolved. But does this mean we should put everything else on hold until it is? I think we should do everything we can against threats on all fronts.

Americans have never came to terms with assasinations prior to Sept11. Now we see it as an imperfect solution to an imperfect world. I can certainly understand Europeans feel uneasy with how ugly the world is getting, Americans don’t like it either, we also don’t feel we have a lot of choices in the matter. Of course, if you have suggestions how we can make the world a safer place I’d be happy to hear it. That after all, is what this war is all about.

For those of you condemning the assasination

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 15-11-02 AT 11:32 PM (GMT)]There is clearly a disconnect between the US and the rest of the world on this issue. As an American I can tell you there is real fear in this country that something like Sept11 can happen again very shortly, as Warren Buffet said, even a nuclear event is a matter of certainty.

Picture in your country, a terrorist attack with weapons of mass-destruction. If you could go back in time a few years, wouldn’t you do whatever it took to prevent it? We Americans don’t have to imagine this attack, we felt that awful feeling in our stomachs on Sept11 that most non-Americans may never understand. So we are doing whatever we can to stop those that threaten us. These actions may seem crazy or selfish, but I assure you its very rational.

I don’t agree with a great deal of US foreign policy. We are responsible in some ways for the problems of the Middle East. But we are beyond that now, it’s a matter of survival not a morality debate. As a Democrat I think Bush is making some serious mistakes addressing the symptoms rather than the disease, yet I do support the Yemen action. The days of criminalizing terrorism is over. We now have a military problem.

RE: The Maybach!

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 14-11-02 AT 00:26 AM (GMT)]Cultural dissonance I suppose, here in America, it’s very cool to be the newly rich. It means self-made man. Old money is not held in the same esteem, for it represents daddy’s money. The latter is to be envied, the former admired. The only thing worse than old money is pretending to be old money.

Hehehe Mickey Mouse. You ruined it, ruined the whole thing. :7