[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Gerontion', 'i')f I were to skip down the street every time I heard another yank GI had had his legs blown off in Baghdad shouting "Told ya so..told ya so....told ya so...", would this establishes me as a political genius who had seen through the miasma of lies surrounding American foreign policy…or would it just make me look like a bit of a cock?

[Gerontion]

^ Do me a favour. Don't you just love the internet? Everyone's a hard-boiled hero who - all alone in the world - speaks of truths with granite-like certainty and us mere mortals can only cower in their shadows. You've been reading too many comics pal.

[OilIsMastery]

And people wonder why the Founding Fathers of the United States wrote the Second Amendment.

Gun control works.



Especially in Burma.

[bodigami]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PolestaR', 'J')ack you must have come to the same conclusion I did on 'educating' people about the truth of humanity, it's pointless. People see their values as bottomless pits of truth, even though if you asked them how they got them they couldn't give you a clear reason without using the words "good', "right" or "just" (or even sillier religious reasons).

So I've come to the conclusion you do it for entertainment, and it is funny and I would like you to continue. We should create some kind of drinking game where every time a few hundred people die in some kind of human initiated way we have a drink. Bottoms up.

[Benzin]

History is nothing more than a bloody march through time.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', '
')Humanity is suicidal and stupid, but I don't find it funny. Happyness, compassion, tranquility, serenity,... I don't find them silly. I do find it ironic that someone that celebrates human suffering isn't depressed enough as to commit suicide.

[Zardoz]

Nothing restores order and quiets things down like brutal repression:

Burmese play tense waiting game

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')I'm really scared," said one woman when she was sure no-one else could hear.

"I don't want to be the next one to get a knock on the door from the soldiers in the middle of the night," another man said.

They have good reason to be concerned. Thousands of monks and others who led the marches of the past few weeks have now been arrested - and these arrests are still continuing.

Most are picked up under cover of nightfall and corralled into large, heavily-guarded buildings on the outskirts of the city, such as the Government Technical Centre and the National Library.

[Ayame]

The monks would stand a better fighting chance if they armed themselves with AK-47's and had hidden combat training camps in the jungle. A few rocket propelled grenades wouldn't go amiss either. Of course they would probably be breaking all their religious rules concerning non-violence...

[PolestaR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'H')umanity is suicidal and stupid, but I don't find it funny. Happyness, compassion, tranquility, serenity,... I don't find them silly. I do find it ironic that someone that celebrates human suffering isn't depressed enough as to commit suicide.

[roccman]

Again - it appears oil is driving death...

Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma’s natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma’s Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.

Chevron’s role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: “Sanctions haven’t worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma’s regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It’s really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers.”

The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal’s exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.

[peaker_2005]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('roccman', 'A')gain - it appears oil is driving death...

[Zardoz]

They're good at what they do. If you're going to run a totalitarian dictatorship, might as well do it right:

Myanmar troops launch nighttime roundups to intimidate activists

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')fter crushing the democracy uprising with guns, Myanmar's junta stepped up its campaign to intimidate citizens Wednesday, sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for retribution.

"We have photographs! We are going to make arrests!" soldiers yelled from loudspeakers on military vehicles that patrolled the streets in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.

[virgincrude]

Moderator Jack and Polestar used to be defined as sociopaths. But now that there are so many sociopaths running the US and in power everywhere you look, it's just become the norm.

PO has become the excuse they use to justify their lack of compassion/empathy and their innate inability to truly care for anybody other than themselves. Both are enjoying the opportunity the internet provides to flaunt their differences, granting them a degree of power, and the freedom to cackle and gloat over the misfortunes of others with out consequences.

They're just men with social personality disorders. Nothing matters to them except their own personal wellbeing, and to this end, all means are valid.

[PolestaR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('virgincrude', 'M')oderator Jack and Polestar used to be defined as sociopaths. But now that there are so many sociopaths running the US and in power everywhere you look, it's just become the norm.

[Zardoz]

Hardball:

Myanmar opposition leader tortured to death

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') Myanmar opposition leader who was arrested during last month's mass protests against the junta died due to torture during interrogation, an activist group said on Wednesday.

In Washington, the United States threatened new sanctions against Myanmar after media reports of the death of Win Shwe.