[Lingster]

Just a word of caution as I see it being written all the time. Please avoid such generalizations about Muslims. We 're talking about particular Muslims that happen to be extremists. There 's no need to put everyone in the same pot.

"Islamist" is a term used in the U.S. to denote am aggressive practice of Islam.  Other terms sometimes used are "Jihadist", "Jihadi" or "Radical Muslim".

[Lingster]

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is distributed by Al-Qaeda for training purposes.  Al-Qaeda higher-ups have quoted from it generously in their audio and video tape releases.  You can believe that Loose Change 2 which is supported by Charlie Sheen (who is expected to narrate) and Rosie O'Donnell will be used as propaganda by the likes of Al-Qaeda, Hizbollah, etc.

[Lingster]

Look, there are a lot of Americans who don't like America.  Because the U.S. is so big, they tend to relocate internally instead of moving to another country.  I mean, if a Frenchman doesn't like France, he moves to Britain or Germany or Greece.  If a Hoosier is unhappy in Indiana, though, he's more likely to move to New York or California or Iowa.  In which case we're still stuck with the bastard.  (Also, we've got Canadians streaming across the border like rats off a sinking ship, all of whom have been raised from birth to believe they are morally and intellectually superior to the crass ignoramuses in the U.S.)

So there's a whole contingent of Americans who wish ill upon America.  Sometimes they are not-so-bright would-be intellectuals who have drunk deep of cranks and phonies like Chomsky and Edward Said.  Others are former government officials who suffer a deep-seated rage or sense of betrayal, such as Jimmy Carter or Ramsey Clark.  There are also many self-absorbed people who have persecution fantasies – perhaps their local radio stations don't play the music they want to hear, or somebody else got the promotion they wanted, so they see it as an indictment of the United States as a whole.  Finally, there are people who aren't very bright or well-educated, but want to seem as if they are, so they spit out contentious anti-American conspiracy theories to make themselves seem well-read.  Numerous celebrities including Rosie O'Donnell, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, and Susan Sarandon are in that category.  (Rosie also fits into the self-absorbed group with phantom grievances.)

I have no patience for these people.  They do what they do out of malice for the United States, which makes it traitorous.  And when, as Egad mentions, they actually abet Islamist crazies in one form or another, I think they should be made to pay for it.

[Lingster]

Rich also used to hold court at DtV.

[Lingster]

It's OK.  It can go in multiple places.

[Lingster]

In the U.S. slander and libel (let's group them as 'defamation') are almost impossible to litigate or prosecute, especially when the 'wronged' party is a public personality. 

Otherwise, it would be George W. Bush who could sue Rosie O'Donnell for defamation, since she's accused him of treasonous behavior and gross misconduct in office with no basis in fact.  And as I have argued, making such allegations during time of war with the apparent intent of damaging the warmaking ability of the United States is itself treason.

So I say prosecute and then hang the cunt.

[Lingster]

However, drugs would be cheaper for everyone if the American drug companies were not so dependent on making a profit and were geared around the public interest.

And who would decide that public interest?  I trust the market a lot more than any elected official.  And btw, you talk a big game for someone whose primary source of pharmaceutical innovation is the free market of a different country than your own.

As far as military spending goes, is the number 4% one you made up? where did you find it?

Four percent is what China spends, which seemed analogous.  Without the U.S. covering for it, Canada would actually have to spend an unusually large amount of money on defense – probably more than 4%, because of its enormous land mass and coastline.  The 15% of GDP spent on health care that I used is simply what the U.S. spends with a free market.

[Lingster]

Well, the U.S. is a big country.  We are self-absorbed because there's enough going on here to keep our attention occupied.  Also, most Americans never visit the Eastern Hemisphere, and until recently could visit Canada and Mexico without passports. 

So since we're not that interested in Europe, we're always a little stunned that Europe is so interested in us.  Many Americans don't understand why you Europeans find us so fascinating.  Also, a lot of us find it amusing that you spend so much time paying attention to the U.S. and still get so much wrong.

It's true the U.S. interfered in Greek politics during the Cold War (most contentiously from the mid-60s through the mid-70s), to keep Greece from going over to the Soviet camp.  But we certainly didn't invent your problems.  Your problems are centuries old and arguably would have been far more aggravated if Greece had gone over to the Soviet side.  (And, by the way, the only reason there was a risk of Greece going over to the Soviets was because of long-term Soviet interference in Greece.)

Regardless, the United States was correct to obstruct communism, within its right of self-defense to obstruct communism, and within its NATO treaty obligations to prevent Greece from falling to Soviet domination.  (Greece joined NATO voluntarily.)

People often look for a bogeyman to blame for the injustices of the world, and the United States is large enough and powerful enough to credibly fill this role.  But when people are asked to identify concrete wrongs committed by the U.S., the examples are usually pretty weak.  For example, you Greeks feel anger toward us because we have not acted on your behalf over Cyprus, because Atlanta got the Olympics in 1996 instead of Athens, and over similar issues that are trivial to us and not the product of any grand foreign policy conspiracies.

Other times people will blame the U.S. for the actions of anti-communist dictators who came to power during the Cold War.  And as an American I'm willing to accept that accusation, if the accuser also recognizes that the hundreds or sometimes even thousands (i.e. Pinochet in Chile may have killed 3,000 leftists) killed by those dictators pales besides the numbers often killed when the U.S. did not sufficiently resist communist takeovers, (i.e. Cambodia with 1.5 million dead under the Khmer Rouge, China and Russia with tens of millions dead each).  The U.S. was simply picking the least awful option.

Pinochet killed fewer than Castro, and built a democratic state to which he eventually surrendered control, and yet Europeans abducted him to be tried in Spain even as they continue to celebrate and support Fidel. 

[Lingster]

Yes, what she did is between those two things.  As they're both crimes, I don't think the distinction is particularly important.

I can make it clearer: she is committing sedition for traitorous purposes, which I think is treason. 

And I would not describe O'Donnell's attacks as criticism – she is making a false allegation of mass murder against the government.  If a substantial portion of the population actually came to believe such a charge, it could destroy the United States.

[Lingster]

Here's a guy with a set of balls: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/calling_michael_moores_socialist_bluff/

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