Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (3605 mails)

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@xxxxxxxx>]

Doug McGarrett wrote:
> If you follow US news at all (many foreigners do, to their credit)
> you are aware that the politicions who make up the present administration
> are pretty much in the pockets of the semi-monopoly corporations, like,
> for example, Disney, and most of the record companies and Big Hollywood.

On Sat, 2006-06-03 at 07:46 -0400, Mike McMullin wrote:
> Just 2 comments first American politics is not the subject of this
> list, second the last three administrations in Washington can quite
> correctly be accused of the above.

Please, please!  Geez, feed the trolls why don't you?

Understand the US TV media represents what about _only_ 20% of Americans
think.  That's because the US TV media caters to Americans who watch
more than 8 hours of TV a day -- which is what advertisers have been
increasingly going after.  The US TV media gets less and less viewership
by the day, so it is catering more and more to those who do not work and
watch TV all day -- because that's what advertisers pay for.

80% of Americans turn off a _majority_ of its own TV media these days.
Understand that, and please do _not_ watch our network TV media!  If I
was a foreign national and watched the US TV media, I would have a
_very_warped_ sense of what the "average American" is!  US TV media is
actually getting worse by the day, largely because they (and they
_admit_ this) they are "dumbing it down" for its increasing viewership
and its lack of intelligence.

PBS (our partially-publicly funded news -- loosely like the BBC) just
did an extended segment this past week on what American network TV news
programs are doing with their formats -- because the viewership has
changed.  Those 20% of Americans want a "friend," they don't want facts
-- and they have had to cater to the lower intelligence of the
viewership these days.

With that said ... (and yes, now I'm going to troll) ..

As far the indirect suggestions that we are an evil, greedy,
capitialistic pig of a country and people -- we heard it back in the
early 19th and 20th centuries too.  Like it or not, with the death of
the Soviet Union, the US still has its policy -- just like it did with
Teddy, just like with Monroe -- in the centuries before.  And yes, it
pissed off many nations then too.  So this isn't anything new -- we're
evil, greedy and capitalistic pigs who drain the world.

Frankly, and many of my colleagues agree with me, we _stopped_ listening
to the "demonizations" of Americans after the tsunami a few years back.
While everyone was pledging funds in a set of massive PR stints -- we
were actually there, delivering tens of millions of dollars in food,
supplies, etc... (and I believe only the Australians-New Zealand
military joined us later).  And while almost everyone has _forgotten_
about the tsunami (let alone _defaulted_ on many of those pledges), the
US Department of Defense (DoD) is spending _hundreds_ of _millions of
dollars implementing a 2 million node "tsunami warning net."  People
never look at the US DoD budget to see where the money is actually
spent.  It's not all men and machines -- in fact, a _majority_ is for
_peaceful_ purposes.

People envy the US for its wealthy and prosperity.
A lot of that comes from its capitalism and lack of over-taxation.
Let alone the massive diversity we have of all people, from all nations.
As I always say, "We are full of the crap from all other countries."
We don't always know what works, but we know what doesn't.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith        Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith@xxxxxxxx  http://thebs413.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------------------
Illegal Immigration = "Representation Without Taxation"



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