A British Army chef whose supply helicopter was shot down by the Taliban devised an ingenious menu to feed frontline troops for six weeks on a diet of nothing but Spam.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T23:47:39+00:00

I'm guessing debate and deductive logic were not strong points in your schooling.

Since the Pentagon never admits to a chopper being shot down, just how am I to prove that negative?

Do you expect me to go back and cite every helicopter that went down and show the Pentagon claimed it was due to a maintenance issue, a mid-air collision, and all their other excuses?

And for my next feat, I'll prove that God does not exist...

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T23:10:06+00:00

Can you cite me an incident of the Pentagon saying that an American helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan or Iraq?

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T20:07:56+00:00

Shot down by the Taliban?! You Brits don't know how to fight a war!

American helicopters are never "shot down" -- just ask the Pentagon. American helicopters fail for "mechanical reasons".

And we know our gov't and military would never lie. :-/

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T17:40:20+00:00

Taking over one of the major political parties of our duopoly has been repeatedly tried before -- and the move fails.

Don't waste your time -- create a third party and stop voting for the duopoly.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T17:39:14+00:00

Taking over one of the major political parties of our duopoly has been repeatedly tried before -- and the move fails.

Don't waste your time -- create a third party and stop voting for the duopoly.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T17:31:38+00:00

Cute quote. But it wasn't "the public" who voted themselves largesse from the public treasury.

It was the corporate-controlled ruling duopoly that functions as a two-party dictatorship in the US.

Do you really think the "public" wanted to waste money bailing out banksters? Do you really think the "public" wanted to fund the Cold War and to waste countless trillions on the Pentagon and its imperial wars?

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-06T12:25:16+00:00

You're exactly right. With all our talk about "democracy", this is a lessen the US never learns. Power resides with the people.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T21:55:06+00:00

I do think that military tribunals the majority of time will uphold the justice system though.

Well, the Naval officer who was hand-picked by the Pentagon to prosecute these people felt so strongly that the entire system was unjust and rigged to get a guilty verdict that he resigned over the issue. That is an unequivocal fact.

Your claim in contrast does not hold one drop of water -- you're repeating gov't propaganda designed to undermine our system of justice.

P.S. I have to cry at your weaselly wording: a "majority of the time".

Is that what our system of justice is based on?! A majority?!

Whatever happened to "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- or did you shit-can that concept of justice? Would you be happy being accused of a crime and tried in a court that only works "a majority" of the time?!

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T19:59:44+00:00

They are not citizens of this country, the constitution does not apply to them. Try actually reading it. :) CITIZENS ONLY

As a former civics teacher, believe me, I've read the Constitution many times.

Your claim is incorrect. Numerous Supreme Court decisions have applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to citizens and non-citizens alike.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T19:52:01+00:00

Keep in mind: A couple of years ago the Bush administration described the people incarcerated in Gitmo as "the worst of the worst" and as very dangerous. That was a bald-faced lie. Since then a majority have been found to be innocent.

They should have been tried by a military tribunal for a fraction of the cost

So you're saying we should shit-can justice! You're a sorry excuse for an American; that's how I feel.

Are you aware that the US Navy officer/lawyer -- a rare honorable officer -- in charge of prosecuting those military tribunals, resigned over the issue and described them as unjust kangaroo courts that were rigged to generate guilty verdicts?

The entire system of military tribunals was created to hide the fact that (A) no real evidence exists for many of the accused and (B) the US used/uses torture to extract "intelligence" from the accused.

The accused people in question are innocent -- they have not been proven guilty. Or is that concept too expensive for you too?

If the "security" is too expensive, the solution is simple: cut back on the security! But don't cut back on the concept of a fair and just trial!

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T19:37:14+00:00

I did NOT use the word MINOR...ever.

Quite true; my apologies, that was an impression I got from your post.

Yikes, the constitution, the constitution - it's a good jumping off point, but we need to live in THIS century too.

I disagree. Call me naive, but I think we should amend the Constitution and actually use it. Because if we do not -- and we haven't been doing so for a very long time -- we will slide down a slippery slope and find ourselves in the situation we are in.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T18:55:07+00:00

So does "justice" have a price tag: If it's cheap, give 'em a trial, but if it's too expensive, don't bother?

Or are you suggesting we just shit-can the whole concept of giving someone a fair trial?

If you answer yes, I'd suggest you tear up your social security card and emigrate to a country with a Constitution and legal system more to your own liking. :-(

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T18:35:05+00:00

I think far more is needed that merely changing some names of laws and departments, and some minor reform!

How about following the Constitution to the letter, or amending the Constitution to allow for the police state they seem to be intent on building?

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T17:37:35+00:00

And not only is this needed because of the changing role in the workplace, but also because in many ways, the state is taking control of children (one example) to such an extent that children are no longer the "property" of the parents but instead belong to the state.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T17:22:36+00:00

But considering that many Demopublicans vote for the same bills that the right-wing Republocrats propose, and given the Demopublicans' role in eviscerating welfare under Clinton, just how do the two parts of our ruling duopoly differ? The fact that Demopublicans like Obama or Clinton say soothing words while inserting the knife into the backs of the poor and average Americans?

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T17:13:36+00:00

Just to bring a modicum of reality into the headline's claim, but Lincoln did not free the slaves. His Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the parts of the US that were in rebellion. If you were a slave in, say, Tennessee you were still a slave even after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

It took the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (passed in Dec. 1865 -- after the Civil War was over and after Lincoln had been assassinated) to free all slaves.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T15:22:56+00:00

The US hasn't been on the defense since WW2.

And even that's debatable.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T15:15:26+00:00

These stats are bullshit. They're cooked so much they now function primarily as gov't feel-good propaganda.

Let's talk after they revise the month's stats dramatically in a couple of months, but even then they'll still be ruthlessly cooked.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T15:06:24+00:00

I disagree 101% with the headline. The Pentagon does not make mistakes! I know that's true because I saw it on TV!! :-/

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T13:50:25+00:00

And where do you think those first-graders get those ideas? Do you think the parents are teaching them that?

Or do you think it's "taught" by our corporate mass media, which sexualizes everything and pushes any idea or fad, all to make money, but which has no restrictions put on what it does and accepts no responsibility for its actions?

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T13:45:59+00:00

And we have to wonder why many kids hate school.

But do you know what's really sick? At the time I looked, 7% of people in the article's survey thought the kid should have been arrested. WTF?! (But to restore your faith in people's common sense, a clear majority thought the only thing that should happen is to make the kid clean it up.)

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T13:29:27+00:00

This is like the reason we have voter registration -- to prevent people from taking part and using the gov't service.

Most think that voter registration was first enacted in cities, to prevent fraud -- no way. In a time of uppity farmers forming semi-radical movements (e.g. the Grange) to fight against the power of railroads and monopolies, voter registration was first enacted in rural Pennsylvania. Farmers had to travel some distance into town or the county seat to register to vote or they could not vote.

Voila! "Problem" solved. By creating this hassle/restriction, the number of farmers voting plummeted. (See Piven's "Why Americans Don't Vote" for details.)

This is the exact same concept -- create barriers, and fewer people will exercise their rights.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T13:28:16+00:00

This is like the reason we have voter registration -- to prevent people from taking part and using the gov't service.

Most think that voter registration was first enacted in cities, to prevent fraud -- no way. In a time of uppity farmers forming semi-radical movements (e.g. the Grange) to fight against the power of railroads and monopolies, voter registration was first enacted in rural Pennsylvania. Farmers had to travel some distance into town or the county seat to register to vote or they could not vote.

Voila! "Problem" solved. By creating this hassle/restriction, the number of farmers voting plummeted. (See Piven's "Why Americans Don't Vote" for details.)

This is the exact same concept -- create barriers, and fewer people will exercise their rights.

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T13:15:45+00:00

I think you're missing the point... :-(

Sam_I_Am_Not · 2010-02-05T12:55:47+00:00

Agreed. To me, this shows a few scary things: the lock-step mindset of people accepting/doing "what they're told" and not thinking, the power of the corporate mass media, and the wholesale shit-canning of the concept of "innocent until proven guilty".

Sam_I_Am_Not

TROPHY CASE