The Real News this Weekend

[roz]

I got so annoyed with all the 24 hour coverage of the hurricane. While it's sad to see the destruction, I really didn't need to see hours and hours of reporters broadcasting that they were about to be blown away by the wind.

It blows my mind that the real disaster of the weekend was overshadowed by this drama. What happened in Russia is just an extension of terrorism. It is the work of the Islamic extremists. Ladies, this is very close to home and we should be following this. After all, who has been targeting us? By the way, the reason Russia is fighting to hold onto Chechnya is because that's where the oil fields of Russia are. Without Chechnya, Russia has no oil.

Here are some articles that I put here for analysis and understanding. don't endorse the editorializing in some of them--but the historical perspective is important:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/3632462.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/in...l?pagewanted=2

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040906_123.html

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Chechnya.asp

[fly-girl]

Roz,

I couldn't agree with you more. I was trying to find information this past weekend about the tragedy in Russia and was very irritated that all the news coverage was about the hurricane. The media is such a huge influence these days and I think it would be an understatement to say that a lot more could have been done to inform us about this situation. Thumbs down to the media on this one.

[Kristie]

not to mention the situation that's going down in Africa now a days....50,000 killed so far! yet all we hear about are bush & kerry going back and forth.. how mundanely boring is that?! sure isn't going to make me wanna vote for either one!

the best way to hear news around the world : BBC!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/default.stm

[skibum515]

BBC is also how i get most of my news. I read the detroit free press for local stuff but I like to know what else is going on without all the BS and partisanship (is that a word?) that seems to stem from American news sources [img]/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[roz]

What I find so interesting is the bias of the media. I just want them to report the facts and let me figure it out. Do a search of the NY Post and contrast and compare the NY Times article. You'd think you were talking about different universes!

In the meantime, it still is really important that we understand that there is a group of people who hate us. They are raising babies to hate us. They are raising babies to want to die for the right to kill us.

Burying our heads in the sand will not help. They have a fascination with aviation. Our loved ones and many innocent victims are at stake. We need to be aware and awake!

[Kristie]

yeah, but they've always hated us.. it hasn't just been in the past 4 years that this has been happening or that we've known about it... it's been happening in spurts and incidents for a very long time now. and now, it just seems to be making everyone and their mother paranoid...in my opinion.. we're turning into a nation of bedwetters.. we can't go on with our lives because something - anything - might (just might) happen when we walk out the door of our houses....walking around scared with a false sense of security is not going to help the situation.

our DH's have always been in the line of duty... they've known that from the first time they ever hop'd in the right seat and flew their first solo in a 172... we (as wives) have known that ever since we met them... if you haven't prepared for that, then it's time to open your eyes and prepare for the worst because it could be anything at anytime, not just an "act of terror" . The incident with Al Haynes wasn't based on an "act of terror".. but if it occured today, that would be the first consideration because we (as a nation) don't take responsibility or accountability for our actions any longer. we'd rather blame someone else than blame the real problem. Am I making any sense? maybe not...but anyways...

just because we're more knowledgable about "the hate" now doesn't really change anything, it just makes us more aware (like television made us more knowledgeable about disabilities)....but that doesn't mean we have to sit idylly by scared out of our britches on a daily basis... code orange, code yellow...cry wolf...etc...at some point crying wolf and taking away a plastic spoon isn't going to affect anyone because we've gone overboard in wanting that feeling of protection....

it's pretty much guaranteed that if something like 9/11 were to happen again, it wouldn't happen the same way.. they might use women or children.. might be guys dressed in business suits.. might be a completely different ethnicity and/or race.. might EVEN be a different extremist group (we have a ton in this country alone)...there won't be one sky marshall, they'll be 126 of them or more or less... each person will fight to the death if they have to and you can feel it in the crowd around you as you board the plane - there's no MESSIN around in planes anymore, people are dead serious when they say they'll take someone down on a plane without a thoughts notice - and that's just hte pax, not even the crew and i think our terrorists know not to make that move again and i'm betting that they won't...in any event, i'm ready for whatever comes at me.. i'll face it head on just like I did with 9/11 (my DH was supposed to fly out of boston 3 hrs later to DC - that scared the bejeebers out of me! and then was stuck in BOS for 6 days in the hotel across from where the hijackers stayed at, he got to see the FBI storm the hotel across the street) and i'm not gonna back down and change my life for nothing and nobody. running scared doesn't do anybody any good (figure your gonna go at some point, might as well enjoy yourself till then) and with the way things are now with the TSA, I feel NO safer than I did pre 9/11...in fact, i feel less safe because the TSA just keep looking for the wrong things, they get caught with stealing, they accidently let guns thru security blah blah blah...

I agree that it's important to understand their hate.. but i also think it's important to not raise our babies to be afraid of that.. but to raise them to be aware and to develop critical thinking BASED on that...were we afraid before we ever really understood the hate? no.. and why? because we weren't aware of it...so the question is - how should we raise our kids knowing what we know today? it seems to me that a lot of kids in today's society are wimps.. they don't do any critical thinking or research for themselves... the answer is found for them by someone else or told to them by someone else (never wondering if that's the right answer) and there's no discipline anywhere.. the parents can't discipline because ohhh they might get sued and the kids taken away.. the teachers can't discipline because they're not the parents (and it's not their job to discipline)... so where does the problem solving, the critical thinking, the understanding of how the world turns and the discipline come from - it has to come from the parents, there is no one else.

I'm not sure I agree with the fascination with aviation.. it's just that they found a method that "works".. the proof is out there, their last operation worked.. so now that they know what they can use, they might try to perfect other methods using the same methodology. but again, i say that since each person that boards an airplane on any given day, any given flight KNOWS what happened on 9/11... it won't happen again, because the pax will make it so....but just incase, again, i say, prepare.. prepare for the worst but don't live in fear of it, enjoy life as it is and if that day ever occurs again (which we all hope ta gawd that it doesn't happen again) we keep living, defying their morbid intentions.

and I'm with you Roz.. just report the facts and let ME decide as an individual - don't tell me what to think...that's the other problem with our nation - we're told what we should and should not think and in my mind, that's just asking for bad karma!

well, anyways.. that's my 0.02 cents for whatever it's worth.. I feel better with getting all that out because it's such a shame to see people so darn scared to live and be happy, to remember and not be afraid of moving on... that's just not why we're here...

[skibum515]

^^ what she said!

I'd also like to add that I feel distinctly less safe in this world since the iraq war because that has thrown the doors wide open to a whole new range of terrorists/potential terrorists. I feel like we (as a country) have made many more enemies because Iraq is the second holiest place in Islam. If that doesn't say to (many) Muslims "war on islam" i don't know what does. Also, beyond just that, think about all the civilians that were killed in our "shock and awe" campaign. Their relatives now are out to avenge their deaths (as would/should be expected). Some of them are probably the resistance fighters in Iraq, others may have joined up with one of several different terrorist groups. In anycase, there are a lot more people in this world who hate us now because of our foriegn policy towards them.

[Kristie]

good points emily!!! very good points! :greeny: