Dammit! I thought the title of this blog was a quotation from Disraeli. I googled it and found a bunch of references to the West Wing. I went to Bartlett's and searched and had no luck. I'm sure one of my erudite readers will find the source and enlighten me.
My sister and her husband have moved on to Westville, South Carolina, where they will be attending a family reunion. They will leave their pickup truck there and fly back to California. They have sold their house, so they will be transporting another car east in June and will stop by then. They will be living at my brother-in-law's mother's home in Westville until they can find or build a house in Asheville, North Carolina. So, if it weren't for Toren Smith and Bill Quick, it wouldn't bother me too much if the big one hit and dropped California in the ocean. Good riddance to Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Diane Feinstein.
As you can tell, now that my sister has left, I can now get on my computer for an extended period, and I'm fixin' to revert back to my grouchy old self.
Matthew and I have been trading comments about the war and other topics. I realize he is French and, is therefore suffering from an inferiority complex because France ceased to be a world power after the Vichy gummint welcomed the Germans into France. Ever since, from Charles De Gaulle to Jerque Sheetrock, they have been trying to become a world power with no success. Now, it seems they have picked the losing side in the war with Iraq, and are now demanding to have a say in the reconstruction. Too bad. Y'all lose. Fuck off!
In his last comment, Matthew was actually polite so I won't call him an idiot. I will try to explain to him exactly why he is wrong.
He said The question still remains, is America the best candidate for setting up a successful democracy in Iraq? Does America even have what could be considered a successful democracy?
Nope. America does not have a democracy. America has a constitutional republic. Our founders planned it that way. A democracy is two wolves and a chicken voting for what is for dinner. Democracy is mob rule. We do hope we can set up some form of representational gummint.
He then puts out some voting statistics about why America is unqualified to set up a gummint in Iraq.
Here's a comparison to voter turnout elsewhere in the world:
Italy : 92.5
New Zealand: 86.2
Uzbekistan: 86.2
Netherlands: 84.8
Australia: 84.4
Portugal: 82.4
Germany: 80.6
Spain: 77.0
United Kingdom: 74.9
Turkey: 73.5
Venezuela: 72.2
India: 60.7
Syria: 58.0
Russia: 55.0
United States: 48.3
Thailand: 47.4
Zambia: 40.5
I agree that our voter turnout is low, but what does that have to do with us setting up a gummint in Iraq? One of the reasons we have low voter turnout is, unlike most of the western industrialized nations, our election day is not a holiday.
Now it's on to hunger. Matthew stated that 33 million people in the United States (over 10% of the population!) suffered from hunger and, by golly, he had the statistics to back it up. Since he accused me of pulling statistics out of my ass, I asked him what methodology was used to come up with those figures. He was nice enough to give me the link to his source.
What is food security?
Food security for a household means access by all members at all times (emphasis mine) to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).
OK. That's food security. Let's look at two questions on the survey.
In the last 12 months, did you ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn't enough money for food?
When I was in the Navy, in 1965, and I was married, I could answer yes to this question. Did that mean I would have been one of the 33 million?
In the last 12 months, did any of the children ever skip a meal because there wasn't enough money for food?
Look closely. This is one day out of 365. Anyone reading this want to say they have fallen into this category and yet, were surprised to find that the Department of Agriculture thought that they were starving?
Notice that every question specifies the time period (last 12 months) and specifies lack of resources as the reason for the behavior.
Ooops! Ran out of money. Looks like it's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until payday.
I want to thank Matthew for providing the link to the survey and I suggest that my readers go out and look at it and the methodology used to determine our 'hunger crisis'.
Yep. We got people dropping like flies due to starvation in this country. And, still, we have people who are doing everything in their power to get in to the United States. I guess all those people must be fucking idiots.
By the way Matthew, what did you think of the Iraqi people tearing down the statue of Saddam Hussein?
I bet they were glad that we liberated them. And guess what they did to the German embassy and the French cultural center?
So Matthew, do you want your crow baked, grilled or fried?
Posted by denny at April 11, 2003 08:36 PM Category: French Bashing Category: Fun With Trolls