Septembri, "septembri", is the seventh month (out of ten) in the Roman calendar - a fact, Thomas Mann knew as well as any other educated person - Thomas Mann's character is named Settembrini, btw.
McG, One of the reasons why I respect you is your ability to defend what is right - even at the risk of talking against your own side. With all the philosophical difference we might have, you bring out the best of debate - a willingness to see both sides.
cicerone imposter wrote:McG, One of the reasons why I respect you is your ability to defend what is right - even at the risk of talking against your own side. With all the philosophical difference we might have, you bring out the best of debate - a willingness to see both sides.
Agreed - and thanks, McG! :wink:
Mr. McGentrix. I like your posts. You are witty and informative. Please understand that I do not believe in Karma.
What I do know( having traveled in Europe many times) is that 99.9% of the people in Europe will never understand the US mind or the reasons why we vote the way we do.
I do not mind if some Frenchman strives to assure me that the French Culture has achieved the highest pinnacle of sophistication the world has ever seen. but to listen to someone who does not, indeed, cannot, understand the workings of our political system and the entire range of nuances involved is just something I have great difficulty with.
We see the Mountie, who by the mere FACT of living in a country( Canada) whose dollar is 35% of less value than the dollar in the United States, MUST, in my mind, have a subliminal prejudice against anything from the USA.
No, I am sorry, Mr. McGentrix. I would not deign to comment on elections in Berlin. I do not have the background to do so intelligently nor, it is highly likely, could I learn enough to do so.
Cheers- McGentrix
Like many on these posts, Mr. Hinteler, you assiduously avoid commenting on any material which you can't handle.
No commentary on Mrs. Mann's comment to the novelist Phillip Jackson with regard that he could never fully understand reading the works of her husband. Thomas Mann, since he did not read German?
I thought not!!!
septembri,
The ability to discuss politics should not be a nationalistic endeavor. we in America have the opportunity to share our type of governance with all the world. To think that someone from another country could not have the intelligence, education, or experience to be able to cognitively discuss US politics seems, to me, to come off as arrogance. Walter, Blatham, etc, Have very important opinions to share and their ability to see the US from afar is extremely important if we are to take ourselves seriously. Without their voices, we would not be the great nation that we are.
While I may never, ever agree with their world views (Did I say never?), their opinions and discussions are valuable and neccessary. I would rather have them be American voters than someone like Fred Phelps.
Quote: Please understand that I do not believe in Karma.
I think I speak for all of us here in strongly urging you to reconsider your postion.
God is mysterious, and you run a serious risk in disgarding the above possiblity. Now it may be that God is as Dante envisioned, in which case you are looking at a future where demons with very bad breath will read to you your own posts over and over and over. Bad enough. But if that other tradition turns out to be what's going on, then you are looking at ten to twenty in the mangey carcasses of various creatures that bay at the fullsome moon, but with never a reply.
No, I do not believe in Karma, inasmuch as I do not believe in reincarnation.
Karma, I have read, is East Indian Philosophy, the Hindu conviction that this life is one but a chain of lives and that it is determined by man's actions in a previous life.
My belief system rejects that idea.
However, I have read Dante assiduously and find nothing like the overly fevered imagination of Blatham who places demons reading my own posts over and over to me.
I am very much afraid, Blatham, that there is no corresponding circle in Dante's Inferno.,
However, you should be aware that if Dante's conception with regard to sin and damnation is indeed the correct one, instead of the Hindu Karma, you may be very well consigned to the Eighth Circle- Ninth pouch- in which the falsifiers of all sorts are condemmed to spend all eternity.
Mr. McGentrix- Please.
You misunderstand. I am not opposed to reading comments made by those who are not American citizens. I am opposed to being told that those comments are true in all cases.
Of course we can learn from others. I am sure that you understand that their is a hierarchy of knowledge.
A few years ago, I took a turn as a Principal of a school in a Midwestern City. We had, as was the policy of the school district, a school council composed of parents, community persons and teachers.
During our meetings, the parents did indeed give us some usable feedback and ideas, however, it was clear to the professionals that they did not have the knowlege essential to writing curriculum properly and, more important, teaching it so that it would be learned.
I do not know who Walter and Blatham are. I do not know whether they are PH.D's in Political Science or just hacks. I do know,. however, that it is extremely unlikely that they know as much about US politics as I do.
You may be aware, McGentrix, that Tip O'Neill said that all politics is local. I am sure you know what he meant by that.
The experiences, schooling, and lifestyles of the people I know, are, I am sure, qualitatively and, perhaps quantitatively different than those of Blatham and Walter.
Instead of being supercilious scolds, McGentrix, I put it to you that they might learn something if, instead of stopping up their ears( as they always seem to do since they do not respond to empirical evidence given) they would ask for clairification.
My son, who is a genius, tells me that one problem that he encounters is that he assumes that everyone knows as much as he does. He says he usually discovers that their gaps in knowledge are huge so that they really don't understand what he is trying to communicate.
I would love to sit next to some of the foreigners in a classroom. I would love to see just what they are made of.
As far as I can discover on these posts, they are very iinsecure and argumentative as well as extremely insulting to my political leaders.
I have already pointed out that I really don't think that a person who does not know how to read and spell English can contribute a great deal to the understanding of political problems GROUNDED in American life.
And, as for Blatham, my retort to him is simple.
If you are so smart( in Canada) why aren't you rich?
I am sure that if Blatham turned his undeniable talents to the Canadian economy he would be able to make it possible for Canadians to travel in the USA without stopping at one of our local banks to borrow money.
I don't mind insights, McGentrix, but insights without the requisite humility are unacceptable to me.
This quote, "If you are so smart( in Canada) why aren't you rich?" wins the "Most Stupid Quote" on A2K award.
Well, Cicerone Imposter, You may be correct.
However, when I encounter a Sudanese citizen telling me that he is fearful of walking the streets of Milwaukee because there is so much crime there, I am properly skeptical.
When Blatham deigns to critique the US Economy, I am also properly skeptical.
Being skeptical is okay; most of us have our own opinion about most subjects under the sun. But making statements that has no basis in fact will tend to be challenged. Keep on rolling; I enjoy most of what you post.
septembri wrote:I have already pointed out that I really don't think that a person who does not know how to read and spell English can contribute a great deal to the understanding of political problems GROUNDED in American life.
I'm glad, you finally came to the conclusion, e.g. President Bush and Governor Schwarzenegger don't contribute a great deal to the understanding of political problems grounded in American life.
Are you saying, Walter Hinteler, that President Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger do not know how to read and spell English?
Please!!!!
Can you supply some evidence that either one of them can't read or spell?
Apparently, you don't know that President Bush is a graduate of Yale University and has an MBA from Harvard University.
Now, I am aware that these two schools can't quite match the Academic brilliance found in the Free University of West Berlin but I assure you that its graduates know how to read and spell.
I hope that you are not poking fun at Arnold's accent. If you know anything at all about language and language proficiencies, you would know that after a certain age( here see Steven Pinker's marvelous work-"The Language Instinct) an accent is wired in.
The best case in point is Henry Kissinger, who is certainly a genius. He has a very thick accent. His brother, however, who came to the US at the same time as Henry, was a few years younger. He had not passed the critical threshold which would make it impossible for him to lose his accent.
septembri wrote:Are you saying, Walter Hinteler, that President Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger do not know how to read and spell English?
Please!!!!
Can you supply some evidence that either one of them can't read or spell?
Apparently, you don't know that President Bush is a graduate of Yale University and has an MBA from Harvard University.
Now, I am aware that these two schools can't quite match the Academic brilliance found in the Free University of West Berlin but I assure you that its graduates know how to read and spell.
I hope that you are not poking fun at Arnold's accent. If you know anything at all about language and language proficiencies, you would know that after a certain age( here see Steven Pinker's marvelous work-"The Language Instinct) an accent is wired in.
The best case in point is Henry Kissinger, who is certainly a genius. He has a very thick accent. His brother, however, who came to the US at the same time as Henry, was a few years younger. He had not passed the critical threshold which would make it impossible for him to lose his accent.
Doesn't this hurt your arguement "
I have already pointed out that I really don't think that a person who does not know how to read and spell English can contribute a great deal to the understanding of political problems GROUNDED in American life. "that foreigners who don't speak English as their primary language can't be good at American politics?
It seems Germany and France are ready to sign on the UN resolution on Iraq.
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France, backed by Germany, had submitted a controversial amendment that would have given Iraq a virtual veto over major U.S. military actions.
The United States rejected this but later amended the text to reflect U.S.-Iraqi military arrangements that call for a special committee to reach agreement on security issues, including "sensitive offensive operations."
They say that if you don't ask you won't know, so I will risk revealing my own lack understanding and ask, what exactly does the following mean?
Quote:The United States rejected this but later amended the text to reflect U.S.-Iraqi military arrangements that call for a special committee to reach agreement on security issues, including "sensitive offensive operations."
Do they have veto power or just the power to meet?
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I
Quote: am convinced( although I am sure that it is a small number) that there are some on the left who are so partisan and so filled with hate for the present Administration in the USA, they are heartened when they hear that ten or fifteen American soldiers were wounded or killed in Iraq.
Any news that can be used to denigrate George W. Bush is welcome to the far left because they are immoral partisans.
This above in the quote is getting very tiresome as well downright offensive and not the least of which is not true and you would have no way of knowing if people on the left or right or right down the center are heartened or not unless they express it or unless you have some kind of magical godly powers that lets you know the hearts and minds of mankind.
One of the reasons that I objected from the start was that the US would have too much say so and control over Iraq without countries like France, Germany and Russia. However, it looks like the administration finally realized that they need those countries despite their rheteroric of phrases like "old world europe." So maybe there is small chance that other countries can straighten out the mess and make sure that the Iraqi's have real control over their own country.
Meanwhile the violence is continuing which is why we do need other countries involved. We pointed that out not because we were glad that people were getting killed but as proof that the US was not securing the country and their big dream was not turning out too good. A lot of the insurgents are Iraqi's too who had not liked the way the administration was handling the reconstructuring or the occupation, they should have a say too in how things turn out.
revel wrote: A lot of the insurgents are Iraqi's too who had not liked the way the administration was handling the reconstructuring or the occupation, they should have a say too in how things turn out.
But Revel, you have to also understand that those Iraqi's are the ones that had the sweetheart jobs under Hussein and now have no power any longer. They want to see Saddam back in power so the Baathists can once again have power to kill anyone, anytime, with no questions. Do you REALLY want people like that involved in the new Iraqi government?
Well, I don't think, McG, you'll find a lot, who want such.
(Perhaps there are some among those, who welcomed the Nazis with open arms after WWII?)
