posted
Oh Boris, Boris, Boris I take it he's talking about the British including the Liverpudlians? We should put him on a pedestal. And leave him there.
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
posted
Oh, come on, he's one of the few decent parliamentarians we've got left. Although a joint press conference with him and Bush would probably be the comedy show of the century.
He does make some good points however; it's a good job he's slightly more coherent in print than in speech!
I do think that the attitude that minorities will take offence at any and all aspects of British culture is a very silly and really quite damaging one though. Unfortunately it's rooted in Blair and NewLab's general dislike of history.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: "Why does America import its suicide bombers, while we produce our own?"
I'll just drop one name: Timothy McVeigh.
Except he didn't commit suicide.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Neither did the Islamic extremists who bombed the WTC in '93.
So, the tally: not all domestic terrorists blow themselves up, not all foreign terrorists do, and just upping the flag-weaving dosage and conducting loyalty tests doesn't actually make them Go Away.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
No, but it will help with integration and reducing any sense of 'alienation' which is consistantly blamed for the production of those willing to carry out terrorist attacks.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Wait, what? I'm sorry, I seem to be in the wrong place. Can you show me the way back out of the Bizarro Universe?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
The only solution to this "alienation" is to make sure that everyone in the West has a magnetic ribbon on their car and wears some sort of plastic bracelet. That'll show them!
We in the US certainly have our fair share of whackos, anti-government militias. the KKK, right-to-life bombers and of course, unaffiliated pyschos, but untill 9/11 we never faced foreign organizations commiting terrorist acts on our home soil.
Britons have a long history of repeling and enduring whatever the world throws at them in their own country and so this is now the same kind of shock as it would have been over here.
I agree with the writer of that linked article that anyone sympathysing with the IRA is an idiot and donating to them supports terrorism.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Here's the thing about the flag-waving. I'm a white, male, straight, middle-class suburbanite whose most recent foreign ancestor immigrated here over a hundred years ago, and whose most distant was here in colonial times. That's about as "American" as you can get. And the flag-waving makes me feel alienated.
And considering that the people waving the biggest flags are also the most likely to suggest something along the lines of sending all the ragheads back to Iraq, nuking it to glass, then nuking the glass, how do you suppose they feel about it?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Well, there's the FOXNews crowd of SUV drivin, France hatein', Liberal-bashin', flag-wavein' fuckheads and then there's the lemmings that think (somehow) that a sticker on their car means jack shit to someone stationed in Iraq. Or mabye they just see everyone else has one and they need to follow the crowd... Unfortunately, the minority of "nuke em all" and "I wish France got bombed" bozos are the vocal ones.
Are there such "conservative" voices in Britan? I imagine there probably is a wave of such opinions after any terror-attack.
I've seen a lot of stickers that proclaim "Jesus is peace" lately. That one's so laughably bad I cant even be bothered to let it upset me.
I'd like to see muslim leaders get more vocal in calling for tolerance- the lack of condemnation is bad, but the total silence as the deathtolls mount is often seen as consent.
Sometimes it is...unfortunately, it's another example of a slim minority making the masses look really bad.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
I'm not talking about the extreme 'everyone should have a flag, a flag badge, a flag sticker and go around chanting UK,UK,UK' view and I don't really think that's necessarily what's being advocated. But rather a more general pride in being British and in allowing people to identify themselves as such without fear of being accused of intolerance. Promotion of common values, whatever they may be, provides a core of societal cohesion, which is necessary. And moderate degrees of national pride and the symbolism that entails is a useful and successful method of achieving that.
It even works accross racial/religious boundaries; look at Queen Vicoria's Jubilee in 1897. That even got the New York Times proclaiming that the US was just part of 'Greater Britain'!
quote: Are there such "conservative" voices in Britan? I imagine there probably is a wave of such opinions after any terror-attack.
Not so much. I mean you do get a few BNP nutcases but no one really pays all that much attention to them outside of northern places beginning with B. Certainly no mainstream politician would advocate nuclear attacks for instance. the worst you're likely to get is a sort of high imperial disdain for the natives.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
If you want an issue, you can make anything an issue.
In the U.S., if you are of an ethnic background it is considered GOOD to take pride in your race. However, if you are white it is considered racist. That is rather two-faced.
Why can't people be proud of who they are without having to denigrated others?
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged
posted
Isn't it a bit ironic to complain about how white people are singled out, but then to use the term "ethnic" to mean "anything but white"?
And I've wondered what sense it makes for anyone to be proud of their racial make-up. It makes about as much sense as being proud to have green eyes, or proud to be 6'1" tall.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
Well, the last time I used the word "Caucasian" I got bashed. Despite the nomenclature, the point remains valid. I was not saying that white people are singled out, I was pointing out that two groups of people from differening ethnic ancestory can have the same perspective of themselves and yet one is declared racist. Isn't THAT a form of bigotry in itself?
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged
posted
I'm proud to be 6'1" tall. One day, I'll visit Japan and be a God I tells ya! A GOD!
The racial pride thing is pretty silly though- to be so proud of the one thing you have absolutely no control over. in Alabama, they've decided (in two predominately black schools) to make African Studies a requirement of graduation. That's pretty dumb- imagine if "Irish history" were forced down people's throats just because of the ethnic percentage of a school.
I think a course on tolerance would probably be a good thing in high school. The Republicans would never allow it though- it could be used to further the dreaded Gay Agenda. (insert scary music here)
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
Printer-friendly view of this topic
