#20: The Last, Last Word.

THREAD POSTED: November 21st, 2004
The last, last word is my compensation for maintaining this site.
Check thread #19 for the final posts of the other members.

BOB: Well, it’s been fun.
I’d like to thank each and every person who participated in the Blog. Everyone brought something to the table. (Some days, some people brought too much to the table.) Anyhow, thanks for playing.
Now…on to the awards: (Drum roll, please)

MOST PROFOUND:
KYLE: “The war in Iraq has NOTHING to do with 9/11”
ABRAMOVICH: “Its pretty sad that Kerry is the best democrat you have to go against Bush.”
NUGENT: “[religion] is a crutch for weak minded people and is probably the number one hangup for human progress.”
PETE: “The problem is that people that don't understand conservatism think that it's all about greed.”
CHUCK: “if your raw belief in survival of the fittest was so true, then why is Bush president?”
ZELIN: “Many people are quick to attack the liberal agenda without even understanding what it stands for”
BEN: “i guess a majority of americans are morons”
SAMMY: “Hey, think about it, without abortion Coffee and Morgan would have children right now.”

STUPIDEST:
All of the REPs that were unable to admit that Saddam didn’t have WMDs.
All of the DEMs that tried to justify Kerry’s Iraq votes.

LOW POINTS:
(3) Sammy’s drunk submissions.
(2) The word ‘IMMINENT.’
(1) When Jay ‘outed’ me to his non-Blog friends. I love you man, but that one still pisses me off.
JAY: “i have forwarded [your] remark to everyone on my contact list and you should see the reactions. apparently you're the devil.”

HIGH POINT:
Ben’s Electoral College overview. Thanks again, Ben.
Thread #12 “Where have all the Cowboys Gone?”

SCARIEST NUGENT QUOTES:
(5) “I’m not sure what the big problem with the Iraq war is anyhow. Is it a human rights issue, or is it that we’re pissing off France?”
(4) “You’re upset about the 1000th American death?”
(3) “Greed in all forms, and the ensuing competition, have marked the upward surge of mankind for the past 7 million years”
(2) Note: Nugent uses the term ‘war machine’ as a positive: “This has created a very indecisive system. And what is stemming from this, is a roadmap to victory for our enemies. All they need to do is survive and the strength of our liberal movements will halt the war machine.”
(1) “Liberalism is this countries greatest enemy and will eventually be its undoing.”

FAVORITE CHUCK RANTINGS:
(7) Chuck’s first F-bomb: “Jay…I am really pissed at your fucking ridiculous email, trying to make me look bad.”
(6) “Also, I wish Jay would not be allowed to claim he might not vote for Bush. It insults everyone of us.”
(5) “I have just snapped....i kept my composure for a long time, but i cant take it anymore.....BUSH IS NOT MAKING US SAFER!”
(4) “lets forget about Jay, and move on.”
(3) “NOTHING COMPARES TO BUSH'S FAILURE!”
(2) “holy shit, jay didn’t demand more answers to stupid questions!”
(1) “IRAQ IS A FUCKING DISASTER!”

MOST ANNOYING JAY MOMENT:
When Jay refused to believe that I (and Patty and Maney) don’t remember talking about Afganistan:
JAY: “bob, are you going to sit there and insult me and yourself by totally lying? you don't remember sitting at a booth at arnies w/ patty and i adamantly protesting the war in afghanistan? you and patty were saying how the civilian casualties outweighed the benefits of the war. i'm sure maney will remember.”

FAVORITE BIG VOCAB:
PETE: “Domestic concerns should always be secondary to dealing with those wish to kill everyone in the domicile.”

BEST ANALOGY:
In regards to a statement that only 1/3 of Iraqis celebrate U.S. casualties and therefore U.S. presence is welcomed by the majority of Iraqis:
BOB: “Jay, you have 'dated' alot of women...yes?
Imagine for a moment, If 1/3 of these women said that they'd like to see you die.....would you say: "But 2/3 of the girls that I 'dated' DONT want to see me die! So that just proves that the overwhelming majority are glad that they 'dated' me!”

MOST DILUSIONAL:
(1) Anyone who Included Iraq in the Coalition.
(2) Defending Bush with survival of the fittest logic.

MOST IDEALISTIC:
CHUCK: “Rich democrats are not hipocrites, they are role models. They are not selfish.”
About the 380 tons of missing weapons:
SAMMY: “[Iraq] was using these explosives for civilian projects, mining, and to destroy old weapons factories. If anything, these explosives were a good thing, helping disarm old factories that one day could make WMD's.”

LOWEST BLOW:
JAY: “Bob wants death”

BEST COME BACKS:
JAY: “We managed to destroy or contain well over 99% of the highly explosive material."
KYLE: “The problem is that Iraq lacked well over 99% of any weapons of mass destruction and Bush has not admitted that he is wasting our time and resources in a country that had well under 1% to do with 9/11.”
-----
ABRAMOVICH: “In Kerry's senior yearbook at Yale he is listed as a "Young Republican."”
CHUCK: “In Bush's college career he was a cocaine abuser, alcholic, and when sober.......a fucking cheerleader!”

MOST IGNORANT:
PETE: “[European countries (especially Scandinavian ones)] are for the most part sorely lacking in diversity, creativity, productivity, and intellectual discourse that we enjoy in this country.”
ABRAMOVICH: “That dumb bitch Theresa Heinz has killed any hopes of her husband being elected.”
NUGENT: “Now unfortunately there are enough movie stars, college students and gays to make up a Democratic party.”

BEST CLARRIFICATION:
CHUCK: “Bob has a vision of what makes us safer. It seems to involve never tolerating preemptive attacks. And if there is death needed to eliminate the bush doctrine, then so be it. Another vision is that preemption is needed to make us safer. And if there is death needed to eliminate a possible threat, then so be it.
So Jay (and others) can quit acting like Bob is Dr. Death. You both have the same goal: A Safer World, and America. You just have different views of how its accomplished. I agree w/ Bob. And I assume Bob agrees, that hopefully the Bush Doctrine can be eliminated w/out more death. Just as I am sure Jay wishes we could have eliminated Sadaam w/out any death.”

BIGGEST HYPOCRACY:
NUGENT: “For every social program you enact,...you spoil people to the point that they can not stand to see the slightest suffering.” + "I believe that programs to help people in the position of my mom and brother are necessary."

FAVORITE BACK-AND-FORTH:
DAN: “These criminals are some of the people who reap the benefits of my tax dollars the through welfare they may collect and blow on drugs, as well as paying for the court systems they end up in. Poor choices, huh? How about letting these people make the same "poor" choice THREE times before imprisioning them. Sounds like something worth fighting for!!!”
CHUCK: “[DAN] YOU HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AT LEAST 2 TIMES.....BUT YOU WANT TO GIVE THE LIFE IN PRISON for 3 strikes people!”
DAN: “I have been arrested ONE time!”
[Then I mentioned: That thing Dan did when I had to bail him out on vacation]
DAN: “I stand corrected...I've been arrested twice.”

ARE YOU KIDDING?
PETE: “It is insignificant whether or not WMDs were found inside Iraq.”
JAY: "[Saddam] had the potential for bringing all of the Middle East petroleum reserves under his control."

BEST PLAYED SARCASM:
KYLE: “I give Republicans credit for getting all those working poor people to vote for them by putting the ten commandments in city hall and keeping evolution and birth control out of the classroom.”

FUNNIEST:
MANEY: “I am bi curious”
CHUCK: “Dan…you are good at cutting and pasting (do you use right click, or ctrl-C?)”
JAY: "by that time [Saddam] could have hidden WMDs up his mammas cutchie!"
SAMMY: “Chuck never has been at the white House or camp david, and never smoked weed their.”
ZELIN: “You think there is something wrong with putting it in the pooper?”
MANEY: “[BOB] I don't think u realize that [NUGENT] is no longer human. He is freaking huge! He could rip your arms off and then beat you with them.”
BOB: “[Bush] is about as much of a survivor as Paris Hilton!”
JAY: “The more boners the marrier”
About illegal downloading:
SAMMY: “Personally I support almost all of the bands I have downloaded, and about half of the porn.”
About the Kerry and Bush records:
CHUCK: “Here is the biggest contrast I have: WHILE KERRY WAS VOTING IN THE SENATE, BUSH WAS A DRUG ABUSING ALCOHOLIC!”

REGRETS:
(1) Calling Abramovich an idiot. It was post-election aggression.
(2) My dissection on the Republican Party…I let Nugent get under my skin.

LESSONS LEARNED:
Pick your fights.
Sometimes less is more.

CONCESSIONS:
It’s sad, but true:
JAY: “When you guys make your arguments stating how the war in iraq is going to shit, i think that's what you want. you and all the democrats want to see bush fail so it hurts his campaign around election time.”

WELL SAID:
SAMMY: “Bush will win the election, and I just don't know why”

REMEMBER:
Don’t forget to check back after Jan 30th to see whose Iraqi Election predictions were closest. (thread 4)

MY CLOSING THOUGHT:
Imagine you go to visit Jeff or Bailey in L.A. for a week.
There, you go out drinking in some posh Santa Monica club with a bunch of rich, valley girls who drive the new hummer and have never worked a day in their lives. You tell them you are from Ohio. They ask, if you have running water and electricity on your farm. (And they're not joking.)
Like it or not, this is the way much of the rest of the world views you and I.

I talk to Brazilian student all the time that have studied in the U.S. They all have stories about Americans asking them if they ride elephants to school and if they have running water, electricity and ‘buildings.’

Care to test your ‘worldliness?’
-----What is the Capital of Canada?
-----Where exactly is Puerto Rico? (We own it!)
-----Who is the President of Mexico?
-----Name one country in Central America.
(…And these guys are our closest neighbors!)

Please, don’t get defensive! We are all in this boat together, DEMs and REPs alike.
I don’t know about you guys, but I managed to surf through high school, and rock the SATs without being able to find Brazil on a globe. And college wasn’t much better. It isn’t just Geography either. I am talking about World History, U.S. History, Political Science, Foreign Language etc.

We all have this deep-rooted sensation that everything outside our borders is somehow primitive and/or inferior. When I say, “I am living with a Brazilian family,” what do you picture? Honestly! (Probably not the Sharper Images catalog. Maybe some kind of mud-hut?) But most of my students here live in houses just like ours (excluding Jay) and wear clothes just like ours (excluding Sammartano).

Anti-Americanism appears to most Americans to be nothing more than jealousy or evil (or both). They don’t associate it with our foreign policy mistakes, but our economic success and moral righteousness. The more people hate us, the prouder we get! And the more defensive we get. “No more French fries in my house!”

So why do they hate us so much?
Well, I can only tell you what I have experienced in my last year and a half living in South America. The majority of the people I have met through the language school (German, Cuban, French, Mexican, Paraguayan, Brazilian) are just plain disappointed in us.
This is how many Brazilians see it: 120 million Americans are voting to decide the fate of the world…and they can’t find Brazil on a map! They don’t realize how their policies affect South America and could care less.
Brazilians watch our television channels and see us standing on our soapbox, preaching about spreading Freedom and Democracy; disguising our interventions in Central and South America and the Middle East as humanitarian efforts rather than efforts to protect and further our own interests.
They watch our movies and listen to our music and they see all Latin Americans portrayed as impoverished Spanish-speaking Mexicans or Aboriginal vine-swingers.

I am almost out of words, so I will try to come to a point here;
We have a problem that is bigger than Osama, bigger than the War on Terrorism.
I see these (not entirely, but in large part) as symptoms of two much deeper problems:
(1) Our education system needs a complete overhaul.
(2) We need an attitude adjustment.
Until the average American has a better understanding about the outside world, about the way our businesses operate overseas, about the effects of our own foreign policy, we will never be safe from the likes of terrorists.
Peace Out,
Hewitt

PS And don't forget (especially, the future lawyers in the group):
“Those who never retract their opinions, love themselves more than they love truth.”