NUTS

Whitey's demise

Tell me Bruce, just how diverse is Iran? I hope you can quit hating white people. Your life will be fuller.

Don't worry Bammy....

....we'll be be getting off our fat asses in November, and you're going to be really bummed out.

Thanks Bahmani!

That was a good read.

LoL jan, the US is still the largest economy in the world,

It used to produce 50% of goods in the world back in late 40's, now it only produces close to 25 % of the entire world's production.

However you dice it we're still dealing with a giant.

Of course,  the US is not " the sole reason why Saddam and the Taliban held power in their respective countries," as you correctly point out, but it did have a long standing policy of opposing the soviets, and when ever, and where ever it thought it had to stop their moves it supported Saddams, and Talibans, to do so, and it's still paying the price for it.

On the positive side: it's probably one of the most dynamic societies in the world, not only in terms of social mobility, and how far you could move ahead, but also in terms of  cultural diversity, and tolerance, or it used to be.

Actually this part to a large extent depends on us, ( the current first generation, second genration immigrants here).

-------------------------------------------------

For a good read on the origins of "The New World," read :

Erich Auerbach " Mimesis," the chapter on Rabelais's Gargantua.

Cheers,

-hoshang

good article bahmani. 

good article bahmani.  glen beck and sarah palin have proven to be a treasure chest for comedians and social commentators much the same way gwb was in his presidency.  it's ironic how these dimwit tea-partiers are being manipulated by super-rich (murdoch and koch bros) and are pointing their fingers at the super-poor for their ills. most of the tea-baggers don't even realize that rich people have a much lower tax rate than they do.

lover of liberty: you didn't know that tim osman was in cahoots with the u.s.  before the lynch mob went after him?  wow, where have you been?  just google it and you'll get millions of hits and documents on this subject.  here's one: //whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/binladen_cia.html?q=binladen_cia.html

AO

You are right they built it, On a river of blood. It didn't have to be that way and it doesn't have to be this way!!!

When the racist white America speaks, i tell them, correct me if I am wrong! Wasn't it you who brought the blacks to America. They didn't want to come. You dragged them and what is it that you did to them? Lynching, raping, torture, slavery and etc and now you are bitching?

Bahmani is correct...

Bahmani is correct...only when someone construes a limited role in supporting a regime change, or supporting that regime once it is in power, as being the exact equivalent of putting a different regime in power.

Regarding Saddam and Iraq, while I would admit that the US played a supporting role in the Ba'ath Party's 1968 coup and Saddam's rise to power in Iraq, I would argue that Bahmani's assertion that "the US put Saddam in power" is a clear overstatement of the role the US actually played in Saddam's rise to power in Iraq.

And regarding the Taliban and Afghanistan, I would argue that the US played an even less significant supporting role in the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan than the US played when she supported Saddam's rise to power in Iraq.  If anything, Saudi Arabia played a far greater supporting role towards the Taliban's rise to power than the US played...even though that Saudi support, too, was limited.

And, quite contrary to following one's ideals, such as this author's apparent convictions, nations have no choice at times BUT to have to deal with WHATEVER regime might be in power in another nation.  ALL nations, whether they be the US, Iraq, or even Iran, suffer from this dilemma whereby they, in effect, must abandon at times their lofty idealogy that they should not deal with such tyrannical regimes...if they want to advance their national interests.  

But, I guess it is far easier for some people to gloss over the details of history for both Iraq and Afghanistan and to falsely paint a picture that the US is this all-powerful entity that is the sole reason why Saddam and the Taliban held power in their respective countries.

And here is

Dickipedia's take on Glenn Beck:

 //www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Glenn_Beck

Morning Zookeeper

Take a look at what Glen used to do just few years ago, it shows you anything is possible in this country lol.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJkxBLgd5Hs

Glen, Sarah & other parasites

Dear Bahmani:

I just have one word for you....BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Beck is tapping into a market, that all

Enjoyed reading your post and have to agree with most of it.

Glen Beck and his type have tapped into a great new market, The Angry White American. They are like pop stars and their audience is mostly screaming middle aged white (rather than teenage) Americans.

My brother in law is a member of this new market. He lived in Iran, is generally pretty open minded and is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. yet as soon as you sit down for a cup of tea with him these days, he will give you an earful about everything wrong with America today. He blames Obama (and the socialists) for how this country is going down the pan because of the budged deficit, with foreigners coming here country, and how we should just carpet bomb Muslim extremists’ terrorists in the Middle East.

Then he goes on to tell me how great America and Americans were back then ( I assume he means in the 70s when he lived in Iran). How he and his buddies lived with special privileges, just because they were American. “We were above the law” he tells me and immune from prosecution for any crime that may have been committed and we were paid danger money for living there. “The American Passport was the document that proved you were above every one else in the world” he tells us. And the funny part is we accepted that too and believed that the Americans were better than us.

The reason why my brother in law is unhappy with the state of affairs is that he is feeling insecure. He is upside down on his home mortgage (because he re-mortgaged his house and blew the money on stupid things), his retirement “nest egg” is not worth anything, his credit card debt is giving him an ulcer and his Mexican landscaper has a better truck than him. When 30 years ago he was the acme of knowledge just because he was American, today all the other Iranian members of the family (who were educated here I might add) know more about things than he does. They also happen to earn/have more money than him too.

Glen, Rush and other “conservative Media personalities” have realized there is a sizable group out there who are feeling like my brother in law and they are playing them like a fiddle and making money hand over fist in the process due to increased ratings.

The immigrants you speak of

The immigrants you speak of as one are actually two types you don't differentiate,one for your positive points and one for your negativity.

One group which loves the country,will work for peanuts,live in crowded apartments and risk their lives,just to come to America.This group does not apply to your pattern of thinking except for your exploitation.

The other group is quite the opposite,a spoiled bunch that doesn't care about the country,in fact just whines about it and is only in the country for their own selfish reasons,similiar to a leech.They hide in their little parts of the city's.

But really the emphasis on who will be the 'majority' is really not as strong as your think of a point when you consider 'establishment'.

I hear you, Bahmani

Here's another good article that gets into the Beck/Sarah Palin disaster that America is walking into .

Escape to a river called Denial

Get a clue and understand what I'm saying. I don't agree that it should be so easy to walk into the US and merely pick up where you left off in your own 3rd world country. That's just the fact of today's America. Last I checked, most Europeans would rather move to South America, to retire, and the Irish prefer a nice rare Irish--highland-raised steak to go with their potatoes.

But thanks to apathetic (and bitter) voters and traditionalist Americans like you, who think their job as participants in America is done, who seem to be too busy to participate in this Grand Experiment called America, you've now gotten precisely what you pay for. Certainly America's "best generation" isn't this one.

At least Beck and Palin are trying to preserve what remnants of America there is to preserve or in the case of Beck and Palin, pickle it.

Immigrants who don't have to speak English to take a driver's test, street signs, subway instructions, billboards, and radio and TV blaring every single foreign language, and a melting pot set so low that not even spit will dissolve in it, never mind boil into a wonderful stew as intended.

This then, leaves it up to the immigrants to decide how they are going to interact with America, and if the path of least resistance holds true, why bother to learn English or any of the many American traditions you hold so dear, yet stunningly are loathe to teach, or even practice anymore?

If "Traditional Americans" want the America they fondly recall from their Buick-driving dads, they are going to have to get off their lazy obese asses, roll up their sleeves, and maintain, primp, and prop it up.

Because, if you think you don't have to do it, then certainly we as immigrants who don't know what America means to begin-with (thanks to your silent apathy = Laziness), really don't see any point to it either.

And to answer your question, the one who buys the lamb owns the lamb farmer. At least if the capitalist marketplace forces you have instituted and worship is still actually in charge of things. So the very same immigrants (you spit on) who are earning more than the national average, and who like lamb, will own the lamb.

So you can either invest in lamb. Or re-invest in America. You can't hold back the tide. But you can certainly surf it.

LoL & AO , Bahmani is correct,

Saddam's own chief-deputy right after the last American invasion said : "Everything we have done since '67( when they came into power through a coup) was O.K.ed by Americans."

Story of the Frankenstein we call Taliban today is too well known to need more reminder. If you still have doubts on how much "the West" initiated, augmented and still  loves their Talibs, just wait till they start negotiations with them in the very near future. ( Incidentally any "Western" compromise with Talibs would not only be very bad new for Afghani women, it'll be equally bad news for all Iranians, Iraqis, Turks,..)

Last but not least, do not uderestimate the Latin contributions to the US: geography, history, arts & culture, cuisine,... These "Browns" owned the land before May Flower, they might as well take it back!

On what basis?

And the Brown World wants and deserves to have as much as America has. And it is increasingly coming here to get it.

Why?  The Europeans who migrated to America built this country. How is an Indian guy from New Delhi deserve to have a piece of this country as much as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, whose ancestors go back three centuries, and who were part of the effort to make this country what it is today? 

And your statement about Saddam and the Taliban being put in power by the U.S. is patently illiterate and revisionist.  Saddam and his Ba'ath party came to power with the help of the old USSR, despite the U.S. And as far as the Taliban, the U.S. supported and supplied weapons to the Afghan Mujahedeen in the 1980's.  A few of those elements --only a few--later became members of the Taliban.  The majority of the Mujahedeen were opposed to the Taliban and fought a bloody civil war with them.  The Taliban was a creation of the Pakistani secret service with funding from Saudi Arabia.   

Bahmani,

bahmani: "If the US had not put Saddam and the Taliban in power to begin with..."

Really?

So then, how exactly did the US "put Saddam and the Taliban in power to begin with?"

Or, do you simply prefer to distort reality, and your own essay, with your apparent illusions?

US demographics for mid to late 21st century will be majority

non-white, dominated by Latinos.

It's really great that cousine Glenn is bringing  back "God"here to these abonded shores. Bless his Mormon soul, only if he could spell "Islamo-phobia," I might have more confidence in him! while he's trying to spell, he might as well ask any Iranian what happens when "God," is brought back to a society!!!

It's note worthy how Tea party is actually the one taking advantage of Palin, Beck, Republican party,... to bolster its own ranks. Truly alarming. Did any one say "Mass Psychology of Fascism?"

And just who owns the lamb's?

When you learn how to assimiliate instead of writing from the anger of your failure of it,you can have all the crown roast's you want.