RE: Greetings from Belgium

Got a few beers two weeks back in Leuven (after Beauvechain airshow), i really like the place. Glad i wasn’t the driver…

RE: Scooter and Cyrrus

>“France and Syria indeed are about the same”
>
>In my book they are. Both would like to see Iraq and Sadam
>Hussein left alone to do whatever evil it choses…both
>would love to see the PLO/Hamas/Hizbollah bomb Israel out of
>existance….and both are now nothing more than bitter
>”has-beens” on the international scene. To me, I see no
>difference whatsoever. 😉

Cyrus, i find your attitude extremely repulsive. Thought you’d like to hear that from an ungratefully opressed islamic extremist communist European like me.

Just make up your mind, will you. Do you want the US to withdraw itself to the land of milk and honey God created for the Ubereuropeans which were wise enough to move there, or do you want to reshape the world into the UberUS with an additional 209 states so we can have “One world under God?”

If you want the US to be on itself, then why bother with Iraq? Why bother with Israel? Why bother with the likes who disagree with certain parts of US foreign policy?

RE: Suggest me a name

Since it’s a red cat… Barbarossa?

I always prefer grey cats since you can name those after battleships (Tirpitz, Nimitz, Tico, Akagi) or black cats and name them after African leaders: Mobutu, Lumumba, Kabila (a really sweet cat!), Selassi…

But it’s red so i guess a leftist name would be appropriate – if you want something like that of course. Bucharin? Molotov?

RE: Iraq : who’s in?

>Anyway, Bush said he is willing to cooperate with the UN.

Which should be interpreted as: Bush is ready to accept the UN cooperating with hìm. This doesn’t mean diddly squat, if the UN doesn’t approve Bush is willing to go unilaterally. Not the international voices worry Bush cum suis, but the national (and especially Republican) nay-sayers. Which includes people with massive credentials on foreign affairs like Henry Kissinger.

>If France is in, basically the whole EU will join the
>coalition, including Germany, which is more important than
>any other European ally because of the bases.

German bases won’t be used for combat operations, but for transport (Ramstein, possibly the USAF will lease some ramp space at Frankfurt as they officially left Rhein-Main, and the cargoramp at Spang should have been expanded as well). I don’t think the US needs any approval for flying in a bunch of extra C-17s over Kaiserslautern, as long as they don’t do it before 1300hrs local time on Sunday (which means you can still get drunk on a saturday night during a weekend of planespotting).

RE: Rabie, chose history

>I’m really not a hippy, Arthur. 🙁 Really not.

Boo hoo… 😀 I know you’re not a hippie. The only real leftist here on these forums is me of course, for eventually we will all arise and march forward to a bright future under the Red Banner of Socialism 😉 . Provided i get to be dictator for life, that is. Until i reach that stage, i try to vote for the common good in stead of my personal benefit. And i do believe a government has a big responsibility over it’s citizens so… i’m a lefto.

>And I don’t think the show would be that great idea. Unless
>you add some security like in Jerry Springer who prevent me
>from smashing chairs on a particular person’s head. (and
>vice versa) :7 }>

Who said the chair-smashing should be prevented? No, seriously, i was thinking about putting the two of you separate cages with only small objects to throw at each other.

>I still think the extra courses in journalims will help,
>though my principal concern are my lessons history. Did you
>learn history perhaps? I know some guys working for Reuters
>and the Economist (friends of my brother), but they only
>select the very best.

A course in journalism could do fine, but it depends on what that course actually is. Journalism is a lot more than writing in a certain style, but unfortunately courses only do that (and rightfully so, still plenty of journos which can’t write a decent article). A course in mass-media would be far more interesting for most people. It would provide with a more realistic view on how media work, and especially how it responds to the public and vice versa.

The basic thing you have to keep in mind is the simplified Arthur Formula (invented by me of course, and often stated to be far too cynical but i haven’t seen it refuted yet):

Nv = QD/Dª *vf

Nv is the news value
C is the quantity of (presumed) deaths
D is the geographical distance of the public to the location of the news event.
a is the factor of public awereness: the more ignorant or oblivious the public, the less interested they are in far-away events.
vf is a variable consisting of amount of violence, visuality, and a few other factors.

You can also add factors for specific types of media of course: inkreporters like me care far less about images than TV, for example.

>But you can always apply, and if not,
>there are many other jobs for somebody who learned history,
>like working for the office of foreign affairs, the EU, NATO
>or in a private company.

What about being a teacher? Vastly underrated job.

RE: Rabie, chose history

Good you’re staying – i’m equally happy with you remaining here as i am with PII returning. I really like those Hippie vs Redneck-fights between you. When will the two of you be having your own TV-show? A nice mixture of Wayne’s World and Newsnight does sound like a nice addition to the junk TV is offering us!

And good luck studying modern history. And don’t worry too much – after a while, you’ll be reading the Palmer&Colton bible for fun! I still read it occasionally, just for the heck of remembering the Modern World started with the Black Plague 😀 Nice you also want to add some journalism, although i warn you the combination does tend to make people cynical (i already was cynical, so now i’m pitch-black sarcastic).

RE: 11 September “celebrations”

… a media >circus adnauseum… huge lines of people who were “there” >talking about how they felt and what they saw etc etc.

Hear what you’re saying, Garry. At the newspaper i work with, we had a full 6 pages hindsight-stories (and a few analyses) which are hardly more up-to-date now as they were two months ago, or will probably be by the end of November. And fear the following days on TV, because i’m afraid that everyone only vaguely related to the 9/11 attacks get’s his/her chance to bore you to death with all the kind of personal stuff you won’t be waiting for.

Unfortunately, the general public loves to hear the small-scale, personal, boring, ‘what-if-he-still-lived’ (he would have died in a drink&drive-accident by now) crap. Yuck. Hate it.

But hey, it’s a living… 😛

RE: Just …

>I fully understand that many people have a
>right to hate my nation.

If you can see that, than perhaps you can also see why people actually exploit that right? Perhaps a good step in the direction of understanding, rather than communication through explosives.

Anyway…
On 9/11 i was at work, doing some low-priority job and still sobbing for becoming single again two weeks earlier. At a certain stage, phones began ringing here in the editorial office of the newspaper where i work, and suddenly things started happening fast. By then only one aircraft had flown into one of the towers, and that´s all what was known. Rumours were buzzing, somebody called to the other side of the room “What´s actually going on with them skyscrapers in New York? Is a giant ape standing on one of them?”

In the mean time, i began opening up all possible newswires and other sources of info, and started typing like hell (i´m an internet editor). By the time i had a small article on the first plane -i still considered it a very weird accident- on-line, the second one flew in. Ah, that doesn´t look like an accident. That seems more like a deliberate action. From then, it all got completely frantic. Thankfully two colleagues arrived very, very soon but still it was one continuous wave of incoming rumours (Flight 93 shot down! More aircraft missing!),news, scavenging for pictures…

Only when i got home (actually i was kicked out by the chief editor, he wanted people to be awake the next few days as well) i got the chance to be shocked. Only then did i realise that thousands of people died, that the US finally was confronted by the fact that many people across the world don´t like the US bombing around unpunished, and the sheer magnitude of the attacks. Later still i came to realise the heroism involved – both from the people of the NYPD and NYFD but equally so on the terrorist´s side: i consider hijacking an aircraft and then fly it into a building on a similar level of heroism as the VT-8 raid during the Battle of Midway, for example. Disregarding the goals achieved, of course.

I have to admit that the responses of the US government in the aftermath of the attacks kind of relieved me. Probably because i had little respect for most of the Bush administration, i was afraid that the US would retaliate in some kind of berserk and totally unfounded manner (more or less in the similar rage as Phantom II feels) and would quickly reform itself into a fascistoid security-paranoid and arabophobic state. Although i don´t support the US actions, i have to admit that i expected it to be far worse. (And now i have this off my chest, i will continue my rantings on US foreign policy as ever before of course 😀 )