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POPSReligion is not the primary motivation of suicide bombers
Whether through sloppy thinking, laziness, or outright racism, Imperial powers love to dismiss local resistance to foreign domination as either "drug-crazed" or "religious fanatics", sometimes both. Because then you don't have to take a close look at their motivations and ask "Why are they pissed off enough to do something like this? Why specifically are they targeting us ? What would I have to be put through to feel like a suicide bombing was a reasonable thing to do? "Oh wait, they're just a bunch of religious nutbags? Great, now we can unleash death an destruction on them and their society knowing that they're unreasoning fanatics, and not people with a legitimate beef. "Nice to know we're still the good guys who never start a fight but always finish it. We're kind of attached to that myth, and it would cause a lot of national distress and heartache if we had to question the reality of that. "Good thing they're just religious crazies."
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POPSIt Came from Wasilla More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders —“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly.
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POPS"The Israel Lobby" by Mearsheimer & Walt Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical. Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing that given to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976, and is the largest recipient in total since World War Two, to the tune of well over $140 billion (in 2004 dollars). Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli. This largesse is especially striking since Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per-capita income roughly equal to that of South Korea or Spain.
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POPSJohn Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hitman How the corporations get their dirty work done. Corruption, murder, overthrowing governments, and screwing over poor countries for profit. This is how empire is conducted in the modern age. It's corporatocracy. If target politicians can't be bought/corrupted (Perkins' job), in come the assassins ("Jackals"). If they fail, Rome always has it's legions to call on... From the movie Zeitgeist: Addendum .
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POPSAmerica's Racist/Cotton Belt Yup That settles it. This half-breed New Yorker living in California is NEVER, EVER traveling to the former Confederate states for any reason. Anything they got can be shipped to California. Or I can just do without. See also: Three Brits & their film crew almost get beaten to death in Alabama for offending redneck sensibilities while filming a TV show.
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POPSMcCain & Palin are turning on each other Palin's "gone rogue". She won't listen to her advisers, is going off script, and blaming the campaign for not letting her be herself. The McCain people in response are saying that she's subverting McCain, trying to set herself up as the next leader of the party. Circular firing squad, anyone?
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