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Orvillethird

Listed below are comments made by Orvillethird between Saturday, 18th July 2009 and Saturday, 17th October 2009.

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Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize 04:52am on 17 Oct 2009 I'd personally have preferred Balthasar Garzon getting the Nobel. He tried to bring war criminals to justice- and got his hands tied.
I need to see the film, though, from your reviews, you gave a fair portrayal.
Finally, the REM song wasn't about religion (despite the video). In the Southern USA, to "lose one's religion" means the equivalent of being at the end of your tether or something similar. (My grandmother on my dad's side used it- and she's not an REM fan...)
From Wall Street to Main Street to Skid Row 04:46am on 17 Oct 2009 Why should ANYONE get paid bonuses when the company is losing money? (Or, alternatively, only making money because the Government is giving them money...)
In addition, many approve of cutting the salaries of lower-wage workers to reduce costs and increase profits- why not do the same for those higher up?

As for tax increases to reduce the deficit causing the economy to collapse, I say, why? If we paid our bills (and began paying back the deficit, the federal government would be paying investors back with money to create jobs.

As for what we can cut, we don't have a USSR to fight, so we can get our troops out of Europe. Maybe only have eight aircraft carriers instead of 14. Maybe cut our nuclear arsenal and get rid of those old ICBMs. (None of those will help against Al Quaida... and those carriers make nice big targets for Iranian cruise missiles and subs...)

Finally, we need to publicize the fact that the corporations have taken more money from the government than ACORN ever has, have been COMVICTED of more crimes than ACORN, and, according to the bill passed to defund ACORN, are no longer eligible for ANY government money. (If the government obeyed its own laws...)
A prize deserved? 00:24am on 11 Oct 2009 Well, Mr. Obama is continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He claims to be in favor of ending nuclear arms, but refuses to cancel any foreign aid to the only UN Member States that have NOT signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Pakistan, India and Israel- all of whom actually HAVE nukes.
Apparently Mr. Bolton is right and wrong at the same time in his comments. We don't get it. Alas, neither does the Nobel Committee.

For a few commentators on this, check out Glenn Greenwald:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/09/obama/index.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/10/prize_reaction/index.html
A Nobel Prize winner who considers Obama's win "sad":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8299205.stm
And comments from a Libertarian (I disagree with the earlier poster's slander of Libertarians as being pro-war):
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/09/bizarro-peace-prize-awarded-to-obama/

Finally, if they really wanted to rebuke Bush, they could have picked someone who tried to stop him, like Hans Blix, Nikita Smidovich and Scott Ritter. Or, better still they could have picked someone who tried to bring him to justice, like Balthasar Garzon. All fought against war. All paid the price for it. All were totally passed over.
The boundaries of Brand Obama 10:50pm on 02 Oct 2009 Speaking of ACORN- the recent bill that passed to defund ACORN would also technically bar a number of corporations that have filed false reports with the government from getting government money. This includes corporations like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics... and the list goes on. Will the BBC cover this?
Has the Iranian fist unclenched? 10:40pm on 02 Oct 2009 #10- Touche. I trust the BBC. I trust NPR a bit less. However, an incident with the "liberal" MSNBC shows the role of the media in provoking things. In a debate between Glenn Greenwald (anti-war) and Arianna Huffington (Anti-Iran), an MSNBC reporter criticized Greenwald for saying that the media supported the demonization of Iran. Meanwhile, an MSNBC "bug" at the bottom of the screen showed an iranian missile launch, and the words "Iran: Defiant and Dangerous".

#95- Marcus, despite our numerous disagreements, I do think we both agree on the need for the US to get out of its entangling alliances. Unfortunately, you view the US as entangled with Europe, as opposed to my view of the US entangling Europe...

#100- Two points. China got a bit of its ICBM technology from Tsien Hsue-shen, who helped found the group that eventually led to JPL (Said group had a number of misfits and geniuses, including the founder of Kinetic Art, and a disciple of Aleister Crowley-- but that's another story...)who was imprisoned for five years by the US on the false assumption that he was a spy. He got traded to China for US aviators shot down in Korea, and never went back.
As for Al-Quaida's attempts to gain nuclear arms, go look up tha A. Q. Khan network, and the BBC investigative reports done on that by Greg Palast. (Incidentally, Bush looked the other way when said nuclear technology was being sold...but so did Clinton...)
On William Safire 01:48am on 02 Oct 2009 Alas, I regret never getting to write Mr. Safire about his political dictionaries. (I had a few ideas for things he may have wanted to include, but sadly, I never got to write him in time.) He will be missed. His partisan accomplishments were overshadowed by his lingustic accomplishments.

"Time that is intolerant
Of the brave and innocent
And indifferent in a week
To a beautiful physique
Worships language and forgives
Everyone by whom it lives.
Pardons, cowardice, conceit,
Lays its honors at their feet."
W. H. Auden "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
Has the Iranian fist unclenched? 01:34am on 02 Oct 2009 Oddly enough, most media outlets have ignored the remarks that the US and the West KNEW about this facility- so any claims of it being new are lies.
Most media outlets have also ignored Ayatollah Khameni's fatwa against nuclear weapons as well.
And nobody's even mentioning the old ad in which US Nuclear Utilities PRAISED the Shah for trying to build nuclear reactors in Iran.

BTW, welcome, Mark. Hope you won't echo the Washington establishment...
About Fergus On Flu 11:08pm on 20 Jul 2009 Mr. Walsh,
Thanks to you (and the BBC) for this excellent blog. I'm definitely going to add this to the BBC blogs I visit.
Two questions. First, will you be covering the H1N1 outbreak and its effects outside the UK?
Second (and this is somewhat of a plug), I'm taking part in a pandemic flu awareness/simulation game run by the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies. There are several people from the UK who are taking part in this game as well. Find out more at http://www.coralcrossthegame.org .
Jinn and justice 04:52am on 18 Jul 2009 I think that they have a bit too much faith in the court system (unless said judges are also exorcists or the Islamic equivalent thereof).
And they aren't the first to do something like this. A man sued Satan in a US court- it was dismissed on a technicality. (Although the case has been cited numerous times...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_ex_rel._Gerald_Mayo_v._Satan_and_His_Staff
http://kevinunderhill.typepad.com/Documents/Mayo_v_Satan.pdf
The End of Fortress Journalism 04:41am on 18 Jul 2009 One comment on fortress journalism- The comparison to knights is apt. Here in America, Walter Cronkite, a giant of journalism just died. He worked for CBS, but his work was praised by numerous other media outlets.

Nowadays, the media doesn't have as much of a unifying force. It's less the jousting of knights than the clash of armies. The task is to bring in the new tactics of the new age of war, and combine it with the chivalry of the old...

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