News & Analysis
Are the Tribes of Europe Ready to Explode?
The Greek tragedy: no money, no hope ... Despairing middle classes could be the biggest threat to Greece's future, writes Paul Mason in Athens ... Dmitris Andreou made the last sale out of his small estate agents business in June. His wife Mary, makes her living preparing high-school students for English exams. But her living has dried up. Their savings are exhausted, their disposable income has dropped by about 50 per cent in two years, and they are angry. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Once the Greeks – and the PIGS generally – get used to austerity, the Eurozone will rebound.
Free-Market Analysis: This story is interesting because it is written by a mainstream journalist and actually tells the truth about Greece – that Greece, or its citizens, are ready to explode. One can extrapolate from Greece to the rest of the EU, or at least its Southern half. Push "austerity" a little further, as a solution to the "sovereign debt" crisis and all Europe may begin to detonate.
It is not just the Southern PIGS which are reeling. It is Northern Europe, too. The Northerners, especially Germany, do not want to pay for Southern profligacy. And Southern Europeans are well aware the fault does not lie with them, especially, but with elite political and financial interests.
It was not the average Greek or Spaniard who borrowed the money that has put the South in debt. The analyses of the European situation make it sound as if each individual was guilty. Not true. The Anglosphere banks arranged the lines of credit that are throttling the PIGS now.
The politicians and private interests accepted the money and buried it in Swiss bank accounts; today, everyone else has to pay. And Mary and Dmitris are well aware of who profited from the explosion of leverage in the 2000s, and who has been tasked with the clean-up.
It is even worse. What is unsaid in the article, despite its bluntness, is that the leverage was calculated to do exactly what it has done. The political and financial classes were in a sense tasked with creating what is now called the "sovereign" debt crisis and they did so deliberately.
This is never mentioned in analyses of the situation. We only read glib vignettes about austerity and predictable IMF solutions having to do with higher taxes, reduced public benefits, a shrinking public sector and lower compensation all around, for those who still have jobs or businesses anyway.
While we often cover the unraveling EU and euro as if it is a kind of force of economic nature, we've also been careful on many occasions to point out that what occurred in Europe was instigated by financial powers at the highest level. And for years, Eurocrats have been talking about how a financial crisis was bound to occur, and that it would be used as a pretext to build a political union out of an economic one.
Just the other day, we reported on an article in the UK Telegraph that presented the latest meme – that the "guilty men" of Europe and Britain – the ones that had backed the EU project most enthusiastically – were going to walk away from the mess without ramifications.
Our problem with the article was that it didn't go far enough. There is an Anglosphere elite and it has coldly and forcefully built the EU from the ground up. These great central banking families that want one-world government are behind the current mess, but as is always the case, those who are really in charge will not be written about, or not by the mainstream media.
We did find, in roaming the Internet, this interesting article by one of our favorite mainstream reporters, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, written way back in 2000. He makes it clear that Washington and its spy agencies were behind the EU project.
Neither the CIA nor other US intel agencies – at the very top – report to Washington. They actually likely report to London's "City," and to the great banking families and their political, military, religious and monetary enablers. That's why we've written on numerous occasions that blaming the EU on Germany or the "Nazis" is just so much misdirection. Here's an excerpt from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's UK Telegraph article, circa September 2000:
Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs ... DECLASSIFIED ... American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into a European state.
One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA. The documents were found by Joshua Paul, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington. They include files released by the US National Archives. Washington's main tool for shaping the European agenda was the American Committee for a United Europe, created in 1948.
The chairman was Donovan, ostensibly a private lawyer by then. The vice-chairman was Allen Dulles, the CIA director in the Fifties. The board included Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA's first director, and a roster of ex-OSS figures and officials who moved in and out of the CIA. The documents show that ACUE financed the European Movement, the most important federalist organisation in the post-war years.
In 1958, for example, it provided 53.5 per cent of the movement's funds. The European Youth Campaign, an arm of the European Movement, was wholly funded and controlled by Washington. The Belgian director, Baron Boel, received monthly payments into a special account. When the head of the European Movement, Polish-born Joseph Retinger, bridled at this degree of American control and tried to raise money in Europe, he was quickly reprimanded ...
These days Evans-Pritchard sticks more or less to the larger UK Telegraph "party line," which has to do with the unraveling of the EU rather than who was behind the thing to begin with. But understanding the reality of the EU's formation is important, too. It was set up as a building block of world government and it was likely designed to fail in order to create the impetus for a political union.
The article about Greece – with which we began our analysis (see above) – shows clearly how the elite centralizing strategy is being implemented. But there has been a miscalculation. The Internet was not considered within these plans, which go back decades, perhaps even a century or longer.
Pre-Internet, what's happening in the EU would have been buried under mainstream media misdirection. People might not have understood the larger forces at work. But the EU unraveling along with much else has played out under the merciless glare of the alternative press, and the European tribes are aware of the manipulations that are taking place.
It is realization of these manipulations that informs the article, which is a surprisingly good piece of reporting. It is written by Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight's Economics Editor, who is broadcasting regularly from Greece, and it seems to have concentrated his mind, at least for a while, on what's actually happening.
The article is derived from an interview with a middle class Greek couple that is falling into poverty along with, it seems, the entire Greek middle class. They are furious. "We would like to see the politicians executed," says the woman, Maria, "not smiling."
This article also confirms our past analyses. So much nonsense has been written about Greece and Europe and appears in the mainstream media every day. The generalizations are vast and depersonalize the problem but what's happening in Europe is affecting individuals.
We've written that once the "new normal" became fully evident, once it was clear that the good times of the 20th Century were not going to return, the tribes of Europe – who are far more violent than they have seemed to be, post World War II – would not put up with it. We predicted that "Europe" – the EU – might not survive (neither the currency, nor the union).
The problems are happening to people, individual people, and it is these people, ultimately, who will formulate a response, not "Greece," not politicians, not "working groups" – not even the IMF or ECB. Here's some more from Mason's article:
"Some days we only buy the basics and a few days lately we were not able to buy even those. We have to count our cents to decide between buying bread, milk or butter," says Mary. "Some days are better, but some are difficult. We don't buy clothes any more. People don't go out. There is simply no money around out there."
But what's happening in living rooms like theirs presents the bigger danger to the future of Greece. People are switching off: from politics, from the mass media, from social life. "We would like to see the politicians executed," says Maria, not smiling as she delivers the joke. "Most people are saying this: politicians deserve capital punishment – at the Greek equivalent of Traitors' Gate. It would be a nice time for politicians to be heroes, to stand up and defend the people. But they're not."
"We can't watch the television news any more," says Dmitris, shaking his head. "If you watch it, with the constant uncertainty, it can make your psychology very low. It's like a nightmare we can't wake up from. Perhaps it's fortunate that we've had to cancel our cable TV subscription. I don't trust the media any more: I get all my news from the internet."
Mason writes that that the helplessness that Mary and Dmitris evince can easily turn to rage, giving rise to violence. "As a result Greek politicians have started to worry about something called 'anomie' – a pervasive listlessness, low-level social conflict and the erosion of bonds between the country's citizens and the state."
Mason, to his credit, makes the linkage between that helplessness and what may be yet to come. "Over the past six months," he writes, "I've stood in the middle of Athenian crowds so furious that they will withstand tear gas and endure near-lethal stampedes to make their point ...
"What's been obvious, each time, is the ordinariness of the people involved – bank clerks, interior designers, even a concert pianist once, their faces painted with alkaline liquid against the sting of the gas. But it is this seething anger of those who have never been on a demo that is really frightening – because we have no model for what happens if the middle class of a developed country simply switches off from politics and gives up hope. Not since the 1930s, anyway."
None of this was accidental. How could it be? The EU was not an accident. Central banking is not happenstance. The "crisis" that now affects the EU was long anticipated and was intended to build a closer political union. What was NOT anticipated, however, was the spread of electronic communication and the eventual rise of what we now call the Internet Reformation.
Conclusion: The knowledge of the manipulations by the elite and their enablers are bound to have ramifications beyond what has yet been seen. This is the crux issue of what is occurring. The manipulations that raised the EU, and have now brought it down, were supposed to be secret. But what happens if everyone knows?
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Posted by Bischoff on 09/28/11 04:01 PM
I don't know what you call the "Socialist view" of land ownership? Maybe you can explain it to me.
I subscribe to the Anglo-Saxon practice of using land and the philosophy of John Locke as to ownership of "wealth" created by the application of "labor" and "capital" on or to "land".
The philosophy of John Locke with the regard to the use of land is emboddied in the Constitution of every State in the Union.
Following Locke's philosophy, the founders wanted land to be "used", not to be "owned". They wanted land to be "used" for productive purposes, not to be "owned" and inventoried for future gain.
How can "land" gain in value... ??? It can only gain in value by activities and improvements of the community around it. Since the founders believed in community created land value, they signed on to the Anglo-Saxon "folkland laws" by which the shires (our counties) valued the land and let the local communities collect a rent based on the value.
"Virgin land" is a creation by god for use by all mankind. Humans had no hand in creating the Earth. Therefore, under Locke's philosophy, there cannot be private ownership of "unimproved land".
The 3,500 counties within the separate states, through their elected County Assessors, value land to which a "fee simple" titles has been issued. The County Assessors furnish the valuation to local tax jurisdictions, which use them to calculate the mil rate to levy taxes based on the budget arrived with public input. (Only California changed their Constitution regarding valuation of lands with Prop 13 in 1979.)
As to "renting" land from the State, there is popular misconception. The sovereign State holds "allodial title" to land. However, allodial title only means that the lands within a certain physical border cannot be "taxed" by any outside "sovereign". As to the residents within the physical border, it is the State through their subdivisions (the counties) which administers the "use" of the land.
Since not everone can use the same plot of land, the land is administered via a "fee for use" based on valuation. Call it a "rent", call it a "tax" or call it a "fee". It doesn't matter. What you cannot do under the State Constitutions is to "buy" land.
There is no one in this country anywhere who has "allodial title" to land, except the sovereign States and the Federal Government. All other titles refer to the exclusive use of land in perpetuity, which is a "fee simple" title.
You said that your taxes pay for specific services, and therefore they should have nothing to do with "your land". The taxes you paid were monies earned by labor and capital. I stand full square behind the Constitution which prohibits taxes on "wealth". (Private property or "wealth" created by the application of "labor" and "capital" on or to "land"). You evidently do not support the Constitution in that regard.
I agree with the founders that the States should levy taxes. Without spelling out on how to tax, the founders pointed the states into a specific direction by requiring under Artcle IV the kind of constitutions the states were to follow. This direction was clearly in that of "land value taxation".
What is land value taxation... ???
Let's say a public transit system is one of the services for which you and your fellow taxpayers pay. Would you agree that the value of this public transit system is mostly felt in the downtown area where people want to shop and congregate?
Would you then also agree that the value of downtown locations realize an increase in value brought on by the tax money spent on the public transit system?
When there is an increase in location value, the rents go up. Businesses which rent space in downtown buildings pass on the increase in rent to their customers. Yet, the customers who pay the higher prices for the goods purchased in the downtown shops are the very taxpayers who increased the commercial property values downtown by constructing the public transit system.
Who gains... ??? Only the "owner" of the "commercial real estate" (bare land under the buildings), because it is the bare land (location) which improved in value, nothing else. What did the "owner" of the bare land do to increase its value? Nothing, except to pay his little portion of the tax everyone else paid. He gets that tax money back many times over in the increased amount of rent he collects.
Would you agree with me that it would be much wiser to "tax away" the increased value which your tax money created, and to use the proceeds to pay for the public transit system? That way you wouldn't have to pay twice, once in the form of taxes and then in the form of higher prices for goods. You would just have to pay once for the improvements, leaving the prices of goods uneffected.
It was this system that the founders wanted for the States to implement. They wanted the States to follow Locke's and Ricardo's philosophy of using land. Are you saying that Locke and Ricardo were Socialists... ???
Let me know what the Socialist view of land ownership is. Thanks.
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Posted by Rod Farmer on 09/28/11 10:19 AM
Am I to understand, Mr. Bischoff, that you hold a Socialist view of land ownership? That my property is only rented from the state?
I pay taxes now, but that is for services rendered, based on set values, not public approval. The "public" becomes the civil servant, tempted by the land developer.
Where I live we get an accounting.
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Posted by twokings on 09/27/11 01:23 PM
@stas: In case you didn't know, PIGS = Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain
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Posted by John Danforth on 09/26/11 11:08 PM
Death by mob rule and Sharia law are superior to property rights and equalizers? No thanks.
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Posted by RF on 09/26/11 10:55 PM
I would like to think so , but humans have proved themselves otherwise ,time and time again thruout history,without the money they so depend on what will they do?
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Posted by Bischoff on 09/26/11 10:50 PM
You are perfectly correct. Timing is everything. The situation, both politically and economically has no come to the point where a decision is forced. Nevertheless, leadership is important. When circumstances are such that change comes about inevitably, this changed must still be channeled by competent leadership into the right direction.
In my humble opinion, the only person who has the leadership ability and the proven guts to be undeterred to accomplish what I propose, which is essentially what the tea party believes, is Sarah Palin.
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Posted by Kriss Robin on 09/26/11 10:36 PM
Hi Bischoff, this is "How", which sounds in theory an excellent and at the same time in Constitutional manner.
The timing of this has to be correct, to soon and "the message" would not have hit home to the general populace, to late and the present situation may have a hold that is very difficult to reverse. The likes of Lincoln or Kennedy stood up for these principles, if not completely, in part and they had an early exit to the game, never to return.
So again I ask, WHO? Who Has the balls to Stand for Principle? From what I hear there are a lot of "people" talking of doing this, but still the "dark" power of "evil" seems to reign.
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Posted by Bischoff on 09/26/11 09:52 PM
I am glad you asked.
The first step would be to propose the repeal of the 17th Amendment. An amendment to the U.S. Constitution must first be proposed, before it can be ratified. Sofar, every amendment to the Constitution has first been proposed by the U.S. Congress. The other avenue to propose an amendment is for the States to make application to the U.S. Congress to call a convention of state delegates to propose and/or ratify an amendment.
The founders meant for the application by the states to be complied with by the Congress to keep the amendment procedure under the umbrella of the existing Constitution. The Congress has sofar not responded to applications from the states. Therefore, greater political pressure on the Congress to react to the application from the States must be excorted.
The Congress on its own will never propose the repeal of the 17th Amendment. That is the great tragedy into which this country was plunged with the ratification of the 17th Amendment. The individual, separate States created the federal government, and now the federal government tells the states to "go to hell" when the states want to reverse their 17th Amendment ratification. Nevertheless, in the end an amendment will be proposed bring about the repeal the 17th Amendment.
The repeal of the 17th Amendment will return the voice of State governments to the table of power in Washington, DC. The states will then invariably dismantle the Fed central banking system. This would be done by the new Senate removing the "legal tender" protection afforded the Federal Reserve Note from the 1982 Coinage Act. This action allows states to again charter banks to issue "redeemable currency" under the Real Bills Doctrine and the gold standard.
If the states wanted their banks to create a national currency, the Congress could use the original Federal Reserve Act of 1913 minus any amendments and revisions made to it and passed after 1920, but specifically repeal the entire 1935 Banking Act which created the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and established the Federal Reserve as a central bank.
The new Senate would soon enough also get around to propose an amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment. The U.S. Constitution intended to leave taxation to the individual states. The Constitution protects private/personal property which is the earning of labor and capital.
Furthermore, Article IV of the Constitution requires the same type of governmental structure used by the original 13 states in their constitutions to also be accepted and apply to subsequent states joining the federal Union. This governmental structure is based on Anglo-Saxon law and practices, and it provides for a land valuation system and gives power to local jurisdiction as regards taxation.
Once the new Senate and the House discusses and decides how to fund the federal government through direct contributions from the states, they can then examine the resumption of the issuance of the "Greenback" as a Bill of Credit by the U.S. Treasury. This allows the Income Tax to be dismantled by repealing the 16th Amendment.
The effects of all this is that there will be a national currency redeemable into gold which will allow savers to set the interest rate, and give them the ability again to save for their old age. The FOMC and the Social Security Act would thereby become obsolete. Local economies under the land value taxation system would flourish, because all taxation rests on community created land value and not on wealth created by labor and capital.
As for the federal government, by issuing the "Greenback" as a Bill of Credit, the U.S Treasury would create a currency with which to pay federal employees.
If the "Greenback" is accepted on par with the redeemable currency, the people are "voting" thereby that they are satisfied with federal government services. If the "Greenback" falls below par, the federal government can decide, as it has in the past, to either redeem some of the "Greenbacks" for gold, or it can reduce the number of federal employees.
Power is returned to the states through the elimination of the Income tax, and by returning a full voice to the states in the U.S. Congress.
Individual citizens within the states will be empowered politically by having greater influence in selecting U.S. Senators, and economically by having the Income tax removed from their shoulders.
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Posted by sparky on 09/26/11 09:20 PM
Europe is certainly convulsing. However, there may well be a short to medium term fix that has yet to be mentioned previously in the "Bell". If the steam is not let out of this caulderon soon it will blow and "Euroland" will soon be no more. However,see the attached link.
www.leap2020.eu/English_r25.html
I would not recommend these guys except for one reason. That reason is that they have been very accurate at calling this whole thing since they came into existence in 2006. At the end of the day they require the attention of your readers since they have a long and accurate track record.
In short, they anticipate what we may see as unthinkable. They are actually anticipating that the "Solution" will be to force the banks to take their long deserved hair cut (You must admit that would definitely diffuse much of this angst... Click to view link least for a while).
However, in the "When athens seeks to hide London and Washington" publication they allude to the idea that what will cause the real issues are NOT the economic, but the political issues the anticipate to arise in mid decade (2014-2016). Lastly, as demonstrative of their accuracy I was reading in GEAB 50 (December 2010!!) they were anticipating MUCH of what we are presently now seeing.
Reply from The Daily Bell
OK, thanks for the link. Time will tell ...
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Posted by RR on 09/26/11 08:46 PM
"But what happens if everyone knows?" Chaos and order out of chaos.
They think NWO is an obliesk and unstable and eventually bound to fall, but they are planning to build a pyramid after its fall. See the news about the washington memorial these days, seems like it is a cryptic message. I beleive they are even today planning for the scenario after the NWO and fall of the obliesk. Something is going to happen on or by 5/1/13.
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 09/26/11 07:40 PM
I did not suggest to "take" ANYTHING. But how do you actually FIGHT the PE the not stupid way?
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Posted by rossbcan on 09/26/11 06:56 PM
"though, is that there a more than two options for human action"
when agressed against, options are: flight OR fight. Elites are rapidly eliminating flight.
The above assumes survival is important. If not, there is another stupid option: peacefully "take it" and have them escalate aggression until basic survival is threatened. Then, die. Not a very good option. And, we have been collectively choosing it for far too long.
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 09/26/11 06:50 PM
That may very well be the case. What I was trying to get across, though, is that there a more than two options for human action regarding non-aggressive, civilized freedom restoration.
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Posted by rossbcan on 09/26/11 06:48 PM
"the simplicity of tribal cultures"
are the result of tit for tat conflict, for millennium which has evolved (people / societies learn from consequences) to the simple essence of matters, a social contract of "you hurt me, and I or my supporters defend, no profit, perhaps demise for you"
western "culture" assumes intellectual superiority and, in many ways of scientific achievement, it is. In fact, it is the power of scientific achievement that allows the west to to project power and impose their will, as they to, with an arrogance that begs smiting. However, the "intellectual" opinions of the west, in the area of nature of mankind and social organization is intentionally kept in the dark ages, by arbitrary power performing "unnatural selection" of which "knowledge" is "approved".
The "best" (not selected nor allowed by power) "social contract", according to western knowledge is:
"I will forgo the initiation of force or fraud (harm) against you, should you do the same. Failure to comply means that I will defend myself and both of our lives (time and energy) will be consumed in conflict until you cease aggression and make reparations."
... very similar to "tribal" and small clans, derived here:
Click to view link
... so, the "ignorant wogs" are, perhaps not so ignorant after all and, they may well teach us a lesson we will not easily forget...
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Posted by Pete 8 on 09/26/11 06:33 PM
Thanks again DB for the fountains of insight.
When a message is honest and succinct, it makes such an accessibly, distributably pure form of edutainment for the wider audience of earth users to digest what Duty of Care is operated over the Herd.
Click to view link
All the while the clock ticks, the growing vacuum of reason creates conditions for perpendicular propagation and uptake of competing beneficial methodologies.
The truth is not as hard to hear when presented clearly and dispassionately, and even of the donkey wanted it's fart back, could it accept such a return with the elephant in the room sitting on it?
New Game: Rock Paper Scissor Water!
Have a Great Game day All :)
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Posted by RF on 09/26/11 06:29 PM
in some way Western civilization fears the simplicity of tribal cultures,more than anything- they have been busy trying to erradicate them since landing on this continent 500 years ago- having nearly succeeded here, altering the East civilizations is thier primary goal- of that they have been busy for the last 100 ( the Crusades were really unsucessful ) with British rule-the current conversion at hand ,is about selling them technology they've never needed before-the "freedom" to become westernized ie excessive, enterprising and sucessful by Western standards..
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 09/26/11 06:19 PM
There are obviously more options than in a synthetical binary dogma, don't you think?
Visualise which one the PE fears most.
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Posted by RF on 09/26/11 06:10 PM
no map-- just decent human behavior-- apart from the days when we all carried weapons ready to kill at the drop of a hat( not too long ago), we are currently supposed to be in a civilized era- where technology connects us all, everyone has more than they need.. Western Civilization prides itself in greed as sucessful, gluttony as enterpriseing, excess is the norm, - ... The tribal nations of the Eastern cultures still live as they did centuries ago- or so we would think- ,thier laws haven't changed much, death by mob rule is still a common event, Sharia law still hasn't left yet... ..thier way of daily prayer is much more true to the wisdom of whom ever you believe created the world-thier devotion is commendable.. with all that belief it's hard to understand why we consider them "uncivilized"..
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Posted by rossbcan on 09/26/11 05:48 PM
The world is already "majority civilized", with a "minority uncivilized"
The task is to convince the "majority civilized" that a "very harsh", uncompromising defense and reparation extraction from the "minority uncivilized" is not only "civilized", but, in addition, absolutely and crucially necessary for civilization (the rules by which we peacefully cooperate for MUTUAL self-interest AND survival).
It appears we need to (and, will) go back to "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" before it was replaced by a meme that is clearly "not working".
Turning the other cheek is not very practical when, cheeks and everything else is at risk.
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Posted by Genie on 09/26/11 05:42 PM
"None of this was accidental. What happens if everyone knows?"
That's my question about everything that's happening. Even Israel. There are no secrets anymore.
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