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.S.
> 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, Nestlé 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.68).
>
> 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.28).
>
> "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

Oh yeahhhhh...

It's gonna be fun watching the FoxNews weenies squeal like pigs in a poke
when the shit hits it.

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.

Here's a full paragraph from the article:

 "China has simply exploded into Africa, as in 'Katie-bar-the-door stuff.'"
says Walter Kantsteiner, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for
African affairs. Adds Rep. Ed Royce, a Californian Republican and vice
chairman of a House subcommittee that deals with Africa: "China's increasing
engagement in Africa is a concern and we need to focus on it before Beijing
becomes fully established."

Here's the rub: China has no qualms about doing business with countries like
Nigeria, or other brutal, corrupt dictatorships. It is dropping 300 million
in Zimbabwe to rebuild it's electrical grid, Mugabe's UN sanctions be
damned. Also, since most of the businesses going in are state owned, they
turn a modest 3% profit, if at all, while Western businesses so used to
short term, high profits for the stakeholders, won't even consider an effort
unless at least a 15% profit margin is sustainable.

The Chinese are setting up their long term access to resources, while
America is jerking off, all full of itself and arrogantly cocksure that we
alone have the plan that will win.

The other article was about the Silicon Valley engineers who are
increasingly faced with the inability to get their own kids to choose
technical careers.

Some paragraphs from this article:

  But some of the nation's tech elite - including many immigrants who
benefitted greatly from engineering careers - are finding even their own
children shun engineering. One oft cited reason: concern that dad and his
contemporaries will ship such jobs overseas.

  Venture capitalist Promod Haque, for example, is in an ironic bind when it
comes to advising his own kids. Like many other Silicon Valley financiers,
Mr. Haque has recently begun funding tech startups in India and urging U.S.
tech entrepreneurs to outsource from the start by forming companies that
split operations between the U.S. and India. Mr. Haque chuckles about a
recent dinner conversation with his college-age daughter, who he hoped would
go into engineering, just like he did. "She said, 'Dad, I'm not going to
take any more computer science-classes,'" he recalls. "I asked her why. She
looked at me straight and said, 'I don't want to go to India to get a job.'"

I love it. What goes around, comes around..

This country is SO fucked: Kruschev WAS right, when he pounded his shoe on
the podium of the UN: The West (America) IS so decadent, it IS selling the
communists (and everyone else) the rope they're going to hang us with.

Deb.
>
>
>
> - - -
>
> This has been another enlightening moment, with:
>
> Turin
>
>
> I have such sites to show you...
> ------------------------
> http://members.fortunecity.com/turinturambar/
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Men_First/
> ------------------------
>
> "He who changeth, altereth, misconstrueth, argueth with, deleteth, or
> maketh a lie about these words or causeth them to not be known shall
> burn in hell forever and ever...."
>
> -----
>



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