Hi, I'm XXXX. I'm not a self-loathing American. I'm just an American that loathes everything American.
You are spilling over the edge into the land of coo-coo-dom, and no-one in that anti-American enclave you call home is going to call you back to reality.
911 as an inside job is just silly. I hope you are just being a provocateur, because if you believe it, you're just being stupid. END OF DEBATE
Adam Curtis' little BBC fluff piece is another matter. It's not fact, it is opinion, and as opinion, it is not objectively either true or false. But I'm sure you know opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. I read an interview with Curtis here:
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/powerofnightmares/interview.html
You will note that he does not believe that the neocons staged 911. In fact, he seems to be back-peddling from the insulting demeanor of his piece. He stands by his OPINION that the threat of a structured organization called Al Queda has been exagerated (he may even be right on this point), but he seems to recognize the exact same dangers -- just not that they are a single organization taking orders from OBL. SO FUCKING WHAT. The WTC bombing I was not imaginary, the USS Cole bombing was not imaginary, the African embassy bombing was not imaginary. 911 was not a figment of my imagination. The Taliban is not imaginary. The bombs in Bali, Madrid and London were not imaginary. The dead are not imaginary. The clash of civilizations between the West and traditional Islam is not imaginary. So, Bush and Blair use Al Queda as convenient shorthand for the loose cooperation between Muslims bent on the destruction of the West. SO FUCKING WHAT. They are Muslims, they are cooperating, and they ARE bend on the destruction of the West. The differences are semantics and mere opinions. The differences are not substantive in my mind.
It is clear that you do hate that which is American, and as an American, you must loath that American part of you. In fact, you suppress it to the point of now claiming you are Austrian (as if that were some higher form of civilization!) You are a self-loathing American.
My kid Vince loves McDonald's happy meals, and I'm happy to make him happy once or twice a week. For $3.60 you get four chicken McNuggets®, fries, an Orange HiC, AND A TOY (a few months ago he got a plastic Aslan the lion with a button to move his mouth as if he were talking!!!) What a deal.
I love Starbuck's carmel Frappuccino® and I splurge and get myself one once every other week or so.
I don't go to Blockbuster, because we buy our DVD's. Vince (the 3 year old) probably has a collection of 50 DVD's. Nic (the 10 month old) has probably 20 DVD's.
Why are these chains viewed as evil? When I travel to a new city, I do not know where to get a good frozen coffee drink. I can wander into some random joint and hope for the best, or I can go into a Starbuck's and get that Frappuccino® which I know is good regardless of what city I am in. No one makes me go there, or McDonalds, or Wal-Mart. I go there because I know what I'll get. That does not mean I will not go to the smaller places (like restaurants, etc.) when I have local knowledge. The disdain for chains is silly elitism. DO NOT GO THERE. Drive by the McDonalds and take your chances with McCormick's -- their hamburgers may very well be better, but do they give your kid a toy with the happy meal?
My kids will safely ride in SUV's to their exclusive private school, because America has permitted my wife and I to make alot of money and I can afford to get my kids out of the shitty public schools.
I drive a 400hp sports sedan that gets 11mpg, because its cool and I don't care about the extra cost of gas. When they make a hybrid or electric car that rocks, I'll buy it.
My kids sleep in their own bedrooms in a 3,000 square foot LA hillside home overlooking the city lights. (I bought it in 98 for 550K, now worth 1.5m)
My kids see their grandmother every day, because I bought her a townhouse nearby and she cares for them while Rory and I work. (I bought in 2002 for 285k, now worth 500k)
My kids will go to the best colleges in the world -- so long as they can keep up with the asians.
My kids will not go to school with the great grand children of Nazis.
My kids are not merely a decade and a short train ride separated from the scene of ethnic cleansing.
My kids are fully insured, because I can afford it. (Thanks to Bush's HSA, I pay $260 per month for a policy that covers everything for the whole family except the first $5,000. However, I can deposit $5,000+ a year in pre tax dollars in a privately owed Health Savings Account that will grow tax free. If we get sick or hurt, it is used to pay the deductible. If we stay healthy, we get to keep it for next year or the year after that, etc. What a deal!)
I'm not bragging, just explaining that I'm not some mindless cheerleader for the American way. America works for my family and I. We love it, because it has been good to us. Others (who feel their career has been stolen and the middle class squeezed out) might feel differently, but we love America. It's not perfect, it may be getting worse, but we're not running. We're stay here, making it the best place it can be for my family. That means the best place in the world.
FINALLY....
When my boys play football. It we be a collision sport and the ball with have two points.
When your kid plays football, the fucking ball with be round and if there is any contact, your kid will fall to the ground and wither in pain to draw a yellow card on the opponent.
My kids are going to be American, and they are going to be awesome.
On May 23, 2006, at 2:56 PM, xxxx wrote:
Tom,
Thanks for your reply. And I truly understand your love for America and how you grew up believing in football, apple pie, Chevrolet, etc. It's funny, when Huey and I discussed this at length upon his arrival, the first thing he brought up was... Popular Mechanics. Seems both of you have had subsriptions for years?
Um, Tom, mainstream media "only" deals with what? C'mon, nobody can really convince TOM FERLAUTO that three brilliantly designed super structures all fell (at Newton's speed of gravity) on the same day, due to fires, all in their own footprints, with two of them burning for 96 minutes and less?
At which point in your life did you start believing the laws of nature can be fucked with?
No such similar structures had ever crumbled like that, from fire, in HISTORY, yet three of them did so on the same day within hours of each other. This is FACT - it's what happened. Haven't you seen Larry Silverstein, on "PBS", no less, ADMITTING he authorized WTC7 to be pulled?
Are you being ignorant of this on purpose?
I won't bore you with the overwhelming amount of questions the 9/11 Commission report left us with. Instead, I will provide a BBC episode of a series called, "The Power of Nightmares". It does not deal at all with 9/11, but it certainly reveals the dog-faced lies of the Bush administration. And then 9/11 becomes obvious...
Now, this is the BBC, Tom. I know you can get certain programming from them over there but, this may never see the light of day in your good ole USA. FYI, it even impressed Huey...
download
It's only 30 minutes long. And you know what? There isn't any site you can send me to de-bunk it. It's a wonder a bastion of investigative journalism like 60 Minutes never did the piece. But they are mainstream american media - what can you expect?
Mr. Ferlauto, I've been in europe 5 years now. WITHOUT the deluge of "America, fuck yeah!", every day. Until you have been "de-programmed" (5 years out of the USA) you have really no idea how it is to live your life without thinking, "America, fuck yeah!" every day of your existence. (Vacations sure as hell don't count)
I am most definitely NOT a "self-loathing American". If anything, I feel austrian more each year. I do know this:
My child or children have alot less chance of being shot than your two exquisite boys.
My child will never go thru a metal detector to enter school.
My child will never have police anywhere near their school.
My child can leave Vienna and in 10 minutes not see a MCDONALD's, STARBUCKS, BLOCKBUSTER, etc. anywhere.
My child can visit their grandparent's an hour away in a village without a single gas station, 7-11, ANYTHING.
My child will live in a city where the biggest crime is theft. Murder, rape and gun violence is minimal at best.
YES, the theft is definitely due to immigration. And I'm well aware of the Austrian history. It was the Poles who saved our ass from the 2nd (mind you) Ottoman invasion in 1683. And because they were routed so badly, many of their coffee making stuffs were left behind. THIS is why Austria became such a coffee/cafe centrum - only because of that failed invasion.
Meanwhile, we are neutral, dude. Weak........and neutral. Nobody fucks with us. Yet, since the latest large growth into the E.U., Austria has prospered the most out of any other EU country. My streets are damn clean, I can walk the streets any hour feeling safe, and...
I can drink a beer on the subway. (and have done so)
I can drink a bottle of wine anywhere on a picnic.
My kid can drink legally at 16 - and learn how to.
I can take a piss anywhere I damn please.
My child will be bi-lingual at the very least; 3 or more languages is not out of the question.
My child will have 100% insurance coverage - free - because we pay taxes to work. (you like that one?)
My child will know what it's like to be NEUTRAL, to be able to look at things from two sides of the coin.
And that is something most americans cannot comprehend. Like you, Tom. America can only do right in your mind, yet even you have done wrong, at some time or another. It's no conspiracy, is it?
DR