Deborah Terreson wrote:
> In article  , Joe
>   wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 12:47:54 -0500, "Deborah Terreson"
> >  wrote:
> >
> > [From: Turin's Tirade's=AE]
> >>In article 
, "Turin"
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
> >>>
> >>> Face it.  America's heyday is over...
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
> >>> partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not
> >>> of her plagues.
> >>>
> >>> "For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God
> >>> hath remembered her iniquities.  Reward her even
> >>> as she rewarded you, and double unto her double
> >>> according to her works: in the cup which she
> >>> hath filled fill to her double.
> >>>
> >>> "How much she hath glorified herself, and lived
> >>> deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give
> >>> her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen,
> >>> and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day,
> >>> death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall
> >>> be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the
> >>> Lord God who judgeth her."
> >>>
> >>> (~Revelation 18:4-8 --- prophecy of Babylon's final destruction)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8191.htm
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> America No. 1?
> >>>
> >>> America by the numbers
> >>>
> >>> by Michael Ventura
> >>>
> >>> 02/03/05 "ICH"  - - No concept lies more firmly
embedded in our
> >>> national character than the notion that the USA is
"No. 1," "the
> >>> greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous
> >>> advertisements for the brand name "America Is No.
1." Any office
seeker
> >>> saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact,
anyone
> >>> saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an
"empire,"
> >>> ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An
> >>> empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in
order
> >>> to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1.
Well...this
> >>> is the country you really live in:
> >>>
> >>> The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York
Times,
> >>> Dec. 12, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical
> >>> literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth.
Seventeen
> >>> percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The
Week,
> >>> Jan. 7, 2005).
> >>>
> >>> "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found
that Americans
with
> >>> less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all
of
> >>> the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly
documented book
The
> >>> European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly
Eclipsing
> >>> the American Dream, p.78).
> >>>
> >>> Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that
American
> >>> businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT,
Dec. 12,
> >>> 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
> >>>
> >>> "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number
of science and
> >>> engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D)
> >>> expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European
Dream, p.70).
> >>>
> >>> "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the
largest
> >>> producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
> >>>
> >>> Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science
Foundation.
> >>> The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT,
Dec.
> >>> 21, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent
last
> >>> year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first
time
> >>> in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last
year
> >>> Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent,
Indians
> >>> 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're
not
> >>> the place to be anymore.
> >>>
> >>> The World Health Organization "ranked the countries
of the world
in
> >>> terms of overall health performance, and the U.S.
[was]...37th."
In the
> >>> fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the
United
> >>> States spends more per capita for health care than any other
nation in
> >>> the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots,
lots
> >>> less.
> >>>
> >>> "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two
developed countries
in the
> >>> world that do not provide health care for all their citizens"
(The
> >>> European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa
a
> >>> "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company
we're keeping.
> >>>
> >>> Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary
American
> >>> deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on
9/11.)
> >>> (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
> >>>
> >>> "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to
last, among
the
> >>> developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The
European Dream,
> >>> p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look
"developed" to you?
Yet it's
> >>> the only "developed" country to score lower in
childhood poverty.
> >>>
> >>> Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all
U=2ES.
> >>> households--"continue to struggle, and not always
successfully,
to feed
> >>> themselves." Families that "had members who
actually went hungry
at
> >>> some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT,
Nov. 22, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba
scores
> >>> higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
> >>>
> >>> Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America
than
> >>> in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
> >>>
> >>> The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is
murder
> >>> (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was
dead
> >>> last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in
the
> >>> 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate
grew
> >>> only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The
European
> >>> Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any
other
> >>> industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
> >>>
> >>> "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the
Global Fortune 500
> >>> rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The
European
> >>> Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best
companies,
> >>> conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The
European
> >>> Dream, p.69).
> >>>
> >>> "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the
world today
are
> >>> European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF
is the
> >>> world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In
> >>> engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are
> >>> European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American
> >>> engineering and construction company is included among the
world's top
> >>> nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestl=E9 and
Unilever,
> >>> two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the
world.
> >>> In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European
companies...are
> >>> first and second, and European companies make up five of the top
ten.
> >>> Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream,
p=2E68).
> >>>
> >>> The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last
decade
> >>> (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
> >>>
> >>> U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan.
14,
> >>> 2005).
> >>>
> >>> Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of
unemployment
> >>> insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers
are
> >>> jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
> >>>
> >>> Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our
government
> >>> debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep
mortgage
> >>> rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and
> >>> little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom"
(NYT, Dec.
> >>> 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China,
because
> >>> they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
> >>>
> >>> Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S.
as the
> >>> world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's
> >>> largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and
tobacco.
> >>> Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef
producer.
> >>> (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear
> >>> record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus
(NYT,
> >>> Dec. 12, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported
(NYT,
> >>> Dec. 12, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of
eligible
> >>> voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004).
That's more
> >>> than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show
for
> >>> their election, no country in the world will think that election
> >>> legitimate.
> >>>
> >>> One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half
of all
> >>> U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10,
2004).
> >>>
> >>> "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on
movies,
> >>> videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream,
p=2E28).
> >>>
> >>> "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that
using violence
to get
> >>> what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
> >>>
> >>> Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes
justified,
> >>> according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
> >>>
> >>> "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the
last
> >>> year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21,
2004).
> >>>
> >>> "The International Association of Chiefs of Police
said that cuts
by
> >>> the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies
have
> >>> left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA
Today, Nov. 17,
2004).
> >>>
> >>> No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10
> >>> anymore. Not even close.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry,
consumer spending,
debt,
> >>> and delusion.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle.
> >>> www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp
> >
> >
> > Most of the statistic's above courtesy of that bastion of truth,
The
> > New York Times.
>
> I'd imagine that the Austin, TEXAS paper probably checked the stats -
given
> the Times track record in accuracy.

They might have, but I wouldn't rely on it.  Newspapers are notorious
for simply taking and running with what another paper prints.  The NYT,
for all its flaws, is still identified as the newspaper of record in
the industry.

>
> >>
> >>Oh yeahhhhh...
> >>
> >>It's gonna be fun watching the FoxNews weenies squeal like pigs in
a poke
> >>when the shit hits it.
> >
> > Turn that tube off, once in awhile, Deb.   Recently, you've posted
> > comments on a list of sit-coms, including 'Sex and The City', and
> > reality shows e.g., 'queer eye for the straight guy' etc., and yet
> > watch those and many other programs.  Aren't you the one who says
she
> > doesn't watch Television?  Then, how can you review FoxNews?  Or,
is
> > it just that CNN is simply more suited to your ideology?
>
> Ermm. Nope. I like the Wall STreet Journal, The Atlantic and the
scrappy
> little New Hampshire Gazette. Fox news DOES have a website, you know,
AND a
> local affiliate in Boston that broadcasts some of the cable news
stuff.
>
> I posted a reply to G.A.'s reference to baseball players (?) going on
the
> Queer Eye show. He was making note of that he'd seen an advertisement
for
> the players' presence on the program. That's more than I knew of it.
I've
> never seen an episode of Sex and the City - isn't that on HBO or
something
> like that? Don't have premium channels, only basic.
>
> >>Here's another one Turin. Last Tuesday, the WSJ ran two really
interesting
> >>articles - one about how China has made inroads in EVERY country in
Africa
> >>in the last 5 years. They are building infrastructure across the
continent.
> >>They are rebuilding the Nigerian rail system, have paved 80% of the
state
> >>highways in Rwanda, are working in over a dozen countries
rebuilding
> >>electrical grids and telephone services, are running the largest
copper mine
> >>in Zambia. And are increasing their influence while America is
barely
> >>hanging on, and in many cases, losing influence.
> >>
> >
> > That is a stretch.  China, the 'altruistic nation'.
>
> I wasn't saying it was.
> >
> > China, who persecutes, imprison's, and torture's young AND old for
the
> > practice of Falun Gong.
> >
> > China's occupation and stranglehold on Tibet.
>
> :(

Agreed.

>
> > China, continually rattling swords at Taiwan.
> >
> > China, whose industrial pollution is so bad, especially mercury, it
> > effects us here in the U.S.
> >
> > China, who is building the largest dam in the world to control the
> > flow of the Mekong River, which will effect the flow of water and
> > major dependency on it downriver in Laos, Thailand, Myanmar,
Cambodia,
> > Vietnam.  These countries benefit from recurring flooding (despite

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