Bummer
Friday, December 31, 2004
Boston.com Global analysts dispute perceived US generosity
More of the truth slips out from between the cracks the net news. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect illustration of how distorted or incomplete information alters our perception of what is true and what is not.
A little more comparative math for the unconvinced:
Us, Stingy?
It's All Relative
By DAVE LINDORFF
Cost of one F-22 Raptor tactical fighter jet -- $225 million
Cost of the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq--$228 million/day
Amount spent by Kerry and Bush campaigns -- $400 million
U.S. aid to Yushenko camp in recent Ukrainian conflict -- $30+ million
Estimated cost of Bush's Second Inauguration and Ball -- $ 40+ million
Amount of U.S. tax cuts under Bush -- $1 trillion
Cost of the U.S. Iraq War in 2004 -- $147 billion
U.S. reconstruction aid budgeted for Iraq (though never spent!) -- $18 billion
Amount the U.S. initially in aid to Indian Ocean tsunami victims -- $ 10 million
Amount U.S. offered in tsunami aid after being chastised by UN official -- $35 million
Seeing as it's New Year's Eve and there is much to do to prepare for the festivities, I'll let you, the reader decide if it's worth delving into the stinginess behind the crowing.
Let's hope that 2005 is a more compassionate, more honest year.
A little more comparative math for the unconvinced:
Us, Stingy?
It's All Relative
By DAVE LINDORFF
Cost of one F-22 Raptor tactical fighter jet -- $225 million
Cost of the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq--$228 million/day
Amount spent by Kerry and Bush campaigns -- $400 million
U.S. aid to Yushenko camp in recent Ukrainian conflict -- $30+ million
Estimated cost of Bush's Second Inauguration and Ball -- $ 40+ million
Amount of U.S. tax cuts under Bush -- $1 trillion
Cost of the U.S. Iraq War in 2004 -- $147 billion
U.S. reconstruction aid budgeted for Iraq (though never spent!) -- $18 billion
Amount the U.S. initially in aid to Indian Ocean tsunami victims -- $ 10 million
Amount U.S. offered in tsunami aid after being chastised by UN official -- $35 million
Seeing as it's New Year's Eve and there is much to do to prepare for the festivities, I'll let you, the reader decide if it's worth delving into the stinginess behind the crowing.
Let's hope that 2005 is a more compassionate, more honest year.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Dubya stingy?
Truth, absolute truth, relative truth or a smattering of truth?
Dubya claims America not stingy, pointing out that magnanimous America spent $2.4 billion on food, cash and disaster relief last year. Oh so true.
What he failed to mention was that America spent $13.6 billion on Hurricane disaster relief, most of which went to his Bro's fiefdom of Florida. Also true but unmentioned.
Don't get me going on how much America spent to kill 100,000 Iraqis since the first Gulf War. Don't get me going on the $7.4 million per HOUR the current inhumanities in Iraq is costing US taxpayers. At that rate, if Amerika would stop the war for 5 hours, they could pay their stingy $35 million in promised Tsunami relief without driving the country further into debt.
The truth of the matter is that Amerika IS stingy when it comes to humanitarian relief. When you consider Canada with 10% of the population has anted up $40 million (CDN) it's all to obvious that dubious defense of his stinginess is a little short on reality. But then again Amerika has become like that.
Dubya claims America not stingy, pointing out that magnanimous America spent $2.4 billion on food, cash and disaster relief last year. Oh so true.
What he failed to mention was that America spent $13.6 billion on Hurricane disaster relief, most of which went to his Bro's fiefdom of Florida. Also true but unmentioned.
Don't get me going on how much America spent to kill 100,000 Iraqis since the first Gulf War. Don't get me going on the $7.4 million per HOUR the current inhumanities in Iraq is costing US taxpayers. At that rate, if Amerika would stop the war for 5 hours, they could pay their stingy $35 million in promised Tsunami relief without driving the country further into debt.
The truth of the matter is that Amerika IS stingy when it comes to humanitarian relief. When you consider Canada with 10% of the population has anted up $40 million (CDN) it's all to obvious that dubious defense of his stinginess is a little short on reality. But then again Amerika has become like that.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Let's get this Blog on the road
World Truth Exchange seems a pretty heady title for a blog. It has a nice ring to it though. Sounds solid, something akin to the new York Stock Exchange only trading in a different commodity than corporate stocks and bonds.
What I hope this blog will become is a forum where people come to share the truth of their feelings and beliefs concerning the plight humanity faces at the hands of those who would bend, fold, spindle and otherwise mutilate the truth to ends that do not support the greatest good for all human beings.
I have discovered over the years that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Indeed, all truth is relative to the person observing events as they unfold, and that everything one holds to be true can change with glacial slowness or in less than the blink of an eye.
An example of glacially paced change would be the acceptance of women as being equal to, and in some ways superior to men. This truth is more accepted as being absolute in some parts of the world more than in others, yet continues to move forward as a universal belief. In the blink of an eye I can see what nonsense belief in the tooth fairy is.
Ask any of my friends. Ask my wife. Truth and honesty are very high values for me. All the more so as I believe that it is only through truth, honesty and compassion will we as a species will survive for very much longer.
What I am looking for are others who share the belief that only the truth shall set us free. I state freely that I have no truth to dispense, other than my observations of the human condition and how the lack of truth and fundamental human justice only serve to cast us in the roll of either oppressor or oppressed.
What I hope this blog will become is a forum where people come to share the truth of their feelings and beliefs concerning the plight humanity faces at the hands of those who would bend, fold, spindle and otherwise mutilate the truth to ends that do not support the greatest good for all human beings.
I have discovered over the years that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Indeed, all truth is relative to the person observing events as they unfold, and that everything one holds to be true can change with glacial slowness or in less than the blink of an eye.
An example of glacially paced change would be the acceptance of women as being equal to, and in some ways superior to men. This truth is more accepted as being absolute in some parts of the world more than in others, yet continues to move forward as a universal belief. In the blink of an eye I can see what nonsense belief in the tooth fairy is.
Ask any of my friends. Ask my wife. Truth and honesty are very high values for me. All the more so as I believe that it is only through truth, honesty and compassion will we as a species will survive for very much longer.
What I am looking for are others who share the belief that only the truth shall set us free. I state freely that I have no truth to dispense, other than my observations of the human condition and how the lack of truth and fundamental human justice only serve to cast us in the roll of either oppressor or oppressed.
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