"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=2E81). 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, 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.68).

The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade
(CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

U=2ES. 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=2ES. 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



- - -

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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