DISQUS

jr · 1 year ago

BicycleMark's citizenreporter.org is a must bookmark

John Aravosis · 1 year ago

Yikes, thanks, I forgot to link to him!

cowboyneok · 1 year ago

Dig the photo, John!

cowboyneok · 1 year ago

"the photo" should read "your photo"

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

You raised an interesting point about Europeans not minding having their phone calls tapped.

Kind of reminded me of the whole libertarian argument that more government social programs leads to more government control.

Of course, under Bush, we're getting greater government control without the greater government benefits, so I guess one doesn't necessarily lead to the other.

Still, I thought it was interesting...

amsterdamize · 1 year ago

Great podcast, John, and not just because my friend Mark was on :-).
I want to add my 2cents to the discussion, regarding the war(s) and public sentiments.
In a nutshell, the Dutch and the Dutch gov didn't want to go into Iraq (public pressure and common sense actually meant something). Lots of pressure from the US followed, obviously. It was sold to the public that, instead, the Dutch would help 'rebuild' Afghanistan with more troops, a humanitarian mission. Right. That blew up in their face, as they couldn't even control the relatively calm south of Afghanistan, which was not surprising considering the amount of troops and the vastness of the country.
Now, what's now been becoming clearer and clearer is that the Dutch government was blackmailed. And that was quiet easy: the US threatened were it would hurt the most: the wallet and a politically vulnerable subject: The Joint Strike Fighter project. Easy duzzit, the Dutch rolled over, selling the 'maintaining the Trans-Atlantic and historic relationship with the US' line. That, and the Dutch wanted one of their own to head NATO, play among the big boys. Anyhoo, Dutch soldiers started dying (no way!), to cover their asses, the Defense Department started printing 'support our troops' stickers (I'm not kidding) and other propaganda shit has been hitting the airwaves and newspapers ever since. It's disgusting. Call the Dutch pragmatic, call them calvinists (true), but they are weasels. Crying wolf a little too late.

Last week this appeared in the Washington Post. I was not surprised, to say the least.

Disclaimer: I am Dutch.

ither · 1 year ago

"Weasels" is being kind. Basically, they're 'Germans' without a sense of humor.

amsterdamize · 1 year ago

"Weasels" was meant politically. Not getting into humor and sorts. It would be like saying: Americans don't have any sense of irony. Now that's a bit much, isn't it?

ither · 1 year ago

Quite. The Dutch specialize in self-serving stereopenie -- 'gelul in de ruimte'. As for American humor, sarcasm, satire, and wacky surrealism, yes. Irony, hardly ever.