Obama has taken a break from his golf to tell us he 'strongly condemns' the actions of the Egyption military, is that slightly more serious than Bidens 'pivotal moment'. It's good to see the coconut is listening......

Coconut? A brownish, round object with kinda curly hair on the outside? Are you making some sort of snarky racist comment? lol

@BO "You mean Africa? South America? Those guys are busy selling off all their natural resources to us. They're getting exploited. We are supplying their income; that's all they care about right now, and you can't blame them."

Uhhhh...they aren't being exploited...they are trading their valuable product for income...How is this "exploitation".

If you make it to the major leagues and they pay you to play baseball, will you be being exploited? Goodlord, man...give up the marxist shit and think about what you are saying...

Yeah, they're being exploited. It doesn't mean that they don't do it willingly. Alaska's being exploited too - they like their wilderness, you know? But 90% of their state's income is through oil, so they have to sell away the wilderness in order to keep the oil companies around. That's exploitation. It's a capitalist strategy, krellin. If there's no other way to make money than to sell away something that you don't want to sell, you're being exploited, even when it's done willingly.

Definition of exploit
1) take advantage of somebody: to take selfish or unfair advantage of a person or situation, usually for personal gain
2) use something for benefit: to use or develop something in order to gain a benefit

And yes, krellin, it looks to me that he is.

bo_sox: I suppose that answers my questions, but now I've got a new one: looking at your answers, do you think the only possible solution (other than a coalition against America, but I don't like a cold war since Holland tends to be around the middle of one, and, well, it's most cold in the middle (as a matter of speaking, naturally) and it's a lose-lose for everyone usually. A full-blown war would obviously be even worse.) is to have enough knowledgable people in the country to elect the right people instead of the con artists? Is this doable? To educate the people enough to make them elect the right people (or at least not con artists messing up the world) out of free will?

Propaganda machines only fail when the people see through it. It'll fall out sooner or later. Notice how heavily they are fighting to get back Edward Snowden and how harshly they attacked Bradley Manning? When people expose their lies, they lie more to cover it up because they're afraid to lose the power they've so carefully and cautiously gained over the years.

The only thing corrupting America and all of the other like nations in the world is fear, steephie. Fear of having the power taken away is a corrupting force to our government, and fear of excessive use of such technically arranged power is a corrupting force to our people. Neither can function under fear, and right now, both sides are living in fear. Ultimately, the people, at least in this country, have more power than the government, so the people's fears will eventually win out. Can't say when.

"Propaganda machines only fail when the people see through it. It'll fall out sooner or later."

REALLY? American voter approval rating of Congress is what? 30%? 20%? Floats in that range. We don't believe a word our representatives say any more -- i.e. their proganda machine is broken...and yet they all get re-elected en-masse, for the most part. Same goes for Obama - most people, even supporters, admit that most of what he says is a lie and a spin job, and yet they support him anyway.

It isn't the propganda machine that is effective...it's just that Americans are too generally uninformed (I'm being polite...their just stupid...) and they are too lazy to inform themselves about and vote for alternatives....thus we get what we got because we are sheeple, corraled around out of a sheer unwillingness to NOT be corraled...

Exploit...to gain benefit from. SO, the US is *being exploited by* all these various parties, who have resources that they can't / don't want to bother using on their own, so they sell it to us for a profit and thereby house themselves and eat, etc.

I'm being exploited!!!

And...seriously bo-ster...get out a map, look at Alaska, compare it by size to all the other states. Then get out a *really* fine point pen and mark off the areas that are given over to oil. You morons (Yes, I said it!!!) that think that all of Alaska wildlife and natural beauty is being destroyed by oil rigs...who try to put forth this asinine notion that if I drive through Alaska all I'll see are oil rig...need to get a fucking clue, seriously.

Yes, the people of Alaska *willingly* and almost universally want oil drilling in their state, because they like the revenue, and, being intelligent, rational people, they know it is not destroying the land/wildlife *at all*. In fact, the caribou, etc seem to *thrive* by nice, warm pipelines that give them a little warmth to huddle by, and protects them from the wind. You really need to get a clue, and stop buying in to every piece of hysterical environmentalist piece of crap literature you see.

Bo...if you are so concerned about our use of oil...let's generalize it and say "wasting energy"....then why do you waste do much energy with your computer on so you can troll WebDip? Such hypocricy...but ohhhhh so typical of wackjob environmentalists...Do unto others....but leave MY comfort and hobbies alone!!!

Re: Nigee's coconut comment.

I think he was being racist in a very *different* way. After all, Pres B.O. was born in Hawaii (or so the White House says to the "Birthers" who believe otherwise) and Hawaii is known for coconuts and bananas, right? So Nigee was being anti-Pacific Islander/Kānaka Maoli. Nigee is *definitely* racist.

It seems to be the trend...

@bo - To exploit may be to use, but that is not a bad term. To be exploited is to be used. Getting a fair trade is not being exploited. If both side feel they are getting a great deal, then neither side is being exploited.

Alaskans exploit their natural resources. The epole who but those resouces aren't exploiting Alaskans. It's a huge difference. So unplug from your liberal teachers and actually learn what the term exploited means. Slaves were exploited. Native Americans were exploited. Prior to the development of unions, the blue collar worker in the early industrial age was exploited. But any South Americans being exploited are being exploited by their own people who then sell the goods and make a profit. We don't exploit them, their own governments do. Same with Africans and it is the big reason South African originating diamonds are illegal to buy and sell - the miners were being exploited.

But Alaskans reap in *huge* rewards for their oil, and not just the big wigs. Everyone does. Do you realize that a resident of Alaska makes money just for living there off of oil sales? Even if all they do is run a general store or work for the utility companies or are a gas station attendent or a waitress at a diner. They *all* rake in cash from the oil sales. They are most certainly *not* exploited.

Ahhhh...but Draug, keep in mind our recent education by our great Liberal thinkers like Thucy....GUILT by ASSOCIATION is all the rage, don't you know? Your culpable because you live and breath, my friend, and dare turn on the electricity and drive your car.

You dirty rat bastard...

@krellin ... approval ratings be damned, they don't change a thing because they don't feel like they have to yet. And yes, I agree completely, Americans are way too lazy. We click the "like" button on Facebook and think we're protesting. (See: Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, etc.)

Not gonna talk to you about oil. Not worth it. Just like the other thread. I've seen the tar sands and the oil fields in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and I know a family that was forced to move out of Pennsylvania because nearby fracking was polluting their drinking water to the point that their son got sick. Just yesterday my ex-girlfriend sent me an article about a virus in the Gulf that is clearly attached to the 2010 spill that has morphed into some form of a flesh-eating virus. BP has denied its existence.

@Draug ... Nigee's comment was racist. That's all there is to it ;)

Yes, Alaskans exploit their natural resources. They have no choice - they exploited their fisheries in the 1960s and now they are forced to protect them so they can't sell salmon like they used to. Tourism is down 20% in the state in the last two years - can't imagine why. You think I've just completely overlooked that? Of course not. Two consenting sides to a trade, though, does not automatically make it a fair trade. Two consenting sides is just a trade. Look up "trade" if that doesn't make sense. Fair means that both sides get equal short- and long-term benefits in both economy and environment. Exploitative trade is a trade in which one side benefits and the other side is coerced out of shortsighted desperation - again, a very, very common capitalist strategy.

Alaska is the second-most expensive state to live in in the country overall, behind only Hawai'i. Every little bit they get back goes right back into the bills. To live there at all probably means you are either wealthy to some degree or you have family that lived there for multiple generations before you.

There's more to the world than economic rewards. That's why I don't call myself libertarian (see, it's on another thread now); they don't seem to understand that there's more to life than $$$.

Both - then live by your word brother, and stop using excess energy - turn the PC off....or shut the fuck up about how bad the energy industry is. (So tired of do-gooder hypocrisy...)

It was nice knowing you, Bo

Krellin, sometimes talking to you makes me want to turn back the clock 3.5 million years.

Go - just live a consistent life and I won't bother you. If the energy industry if killing people and destroying the planet, then aren't YOU morally obligated, armed with your knowledge, to minimize your energy use wherever possible?

Answer that question Bo..

I am. Your legal system and, you know, amber alerts, won't let me run off into the wilderness, krellin. Too bad, huh?

Bo...no vitally important information was in that last post. you are wasting electricity and killing the planet. For the sake of your soul, man, just turn the computer off and walk away...

Fucking whining like a little bitch about oil fields, but he doesn't even have the self-control to turn off his computer for 15 minutes and save electricty. Give me a fucking break...

"That's why I don't call myself libertarian (see, it's on another thread now); they don't seem to understand that there's more to life than $$$. "

Shut your mouth! I don't want to hear such foolish talk! You thinkt here is something more than money? You may not be able to take the money with you, but you also don't take those good feelings of "I treated others so well and contributed so much to the planet" with you either and I'd rather have the money than the good feelings. We have a moral obligation to our fellow man living with us, but I feel no obligation to the future beyond the simplest effort of not intentionally "blowing it all up", to borrow from Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes.

I can help *far* more people with excess wealth than I can with good feelings.

Two most obvious ways:
1. Contribute to good charitable causes (with low expense thresholds)
2. Invest in companies that create jobs, or start a company and create jobs

(Oh...wait...creating jobs is evil....you have to *exploit* people when you create a job and offer then filthy lucre for their labor so you can get rich! Damned fuckign job creators...)

Human history is longer than 10,000 years.

If you know human history beyond the last 10,000 years, you know the relevance of that point.

Um, no, recorded human history is not longer than 10,000 years. In fact, recorded human history is only a bit over 5,000 years with the earliest being Sumerian Cuneiform script - around the time of the Bronze Age, 3300 BC with Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back to about 3200 BC and actual written history starting around 3000 BC.

Human history = the time of human existence, not the time that humans wrote to tell you what happened.

Well then, define human? Homo Sapiens? Homo Erectus? When did we become humans? To me, intelligence defines humanity and some form of writing and language defines intelligence, so cave drawings and grunting by Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal don't count. If you run off all of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (modern man), then we have a 200,000 year history, give or take. But we don't know much of what that history is beyond the last 5,000 years or so. Even archeologists can't tell us much other than our physical/skeletal appearance hasn't changed much.

Humans = homo genus.

Human history = about 500,000 years

Regardless of the span of human history -- Bo is deflecting and afraid to confront his hypocrisy.

Bo...no vitally important information was in that last post of yours. You are wasting electricity and **killing the planet**. For the sake of your soul, man, just turn the computer off and walk away...

Actually, the homo genus is 2.5 million years old starting with homo hablis.