alde,
I thought you knew better than to attend your own pitting.
Skip it.
Ryle,
As I said already many times, I don’t mean “all” when I talke about Americans. And while tuping this word, I did it letter by letter looking everytime again at my keyboard (on which no roman characters are visible, not on this one in any case) and then to the screen for control and a few times again.
It is one of the most difficult for me to write correctly. Don’t ask me why, it simply is. So therefore I use US’ers and I explained this already a few times.
(People should try to accept the limitations of others instead of constantly try to "repair " them by trying to have things done the way they like others to do them.)
And I don’t see USers as hate-filled anti-Muslim obsessed. I don’t know how you come to the idea I would. Maybe it is your experience with other posters, I wouldn’t know.
But I think people around here forget to take in mind that I’m a child of two cultures, living in one and travellling and staying a lot of time spread over the year in the other one.
Even with my European half I can tell you that there is a very great difference between the mentality and culture there, and what I encounter in the USA. And the difference with my education in my late father’s country is not explainable in a few words.
As you may be shocked by some of my posts and my writing style, I am still shocked by what and how people write on boards like this and how they react sometimes. And I post already for a few years on US based message boards. It keeps surprizing me.
Salaam. A
SimonX, I came only in after they had their feast and celebrations done:)
Salaam. A
BF, Yes that comment of Castro was indeed priceless… But in case you find it priceless because you think Cuba is a “banana republic,”… then I htink you are a bit wrong in your perception.
Salaam. A
Ow… ow… My unforgivable mistake.
I ow you indeed an very sincere apology.
I would be grateful if you would be so kind to accept it…
And sending you a virtual bouquet of white orchids to pay a bit off my guilt. (how does one post pictures on this website?).
Now you see what happens when one has that much mudslinging to face that letters get all twisted and names get unclear.
As for your last remark: You are not the only person on this globe who gets a headache from me.
I have always a stockpile of aspirine ready. Just tell m where to drop them.
Salaam. A
Folks, I know that you’re trying in good faith to explain to Alde just why he upsets you so, but can’t you see it’s pointless? The guy enjoys all the turmoil, vituperation, and most of all the attention; the more the better. He loves, truly loves confrontation, and his mind is, probably permanently, closed.
Please, for the sake of the hamsters, give it up.
Aldebaran, your apology for apparently confusing me with someone else is accepted. I frequently do a double take on this board myself; the username is from a favorite literary character of mine, but is similar to my first name in real life (and I am named for my great-grandmother Eva), and I frequently get confused when people on the SDMB refer to Eve. However, you have not apologized for your steadfast refusal to stop insulting entire categories of people who haven’t done anything wrong, nor have I seen any evidence that you are even paying attention to perfectly valid points that I and many other posters have raised.
I just hope you will take it as a lesson on the importance of differentiating individuals from each other. In the meantime, as for your complaint that we are all ganging up on you: allow me to introduce you to a common American proverb; “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” You will make your points much more effectively if you make them diplomatically. Getting people pissed off at you is not the best way to bring them around to your point of view. That’s why the word “diplomacy” has so many shades of meaning, not all of which apply solely to international relations.
P.S. In the U.S., white flowers usually symbolize death, so perhaps they are not such a good choice for an apology.
'And on. You’re in Belgium, right? Since when do Belgian keyboards differ from US/European ones in any significant way? Apart from the AZERTY/QWERTY thing, that is.
And you can’t post pictures here. Links, yes. Pictures, no. The hamsters are tired enough as it is.
Indeed. When was the last time Cuba had general elections? And what are their major political parties again?
I doubt that you are correct.
From your earliest posts, when you made broad (mis)characterizations about “Americans” while demonstrating a serious ignorance about the great variety of beliefs, opinions, political choices, and education that “Americans” have, followed by several declarations on your part that you have no need to study the U.S. because you already “know” what it is like, I have simply dismissed your comments and generally ignored your posts. When you have posted on Middle Eastern issues, you have occasionally made points that seemed plausible while making other claims that seemed absurd. Based on your deliberate choice to express opinions regarding Americans that are clearly ignorant in nature, it appears to me that your comments regarding the Middle East are most likely shaped by the same attitude of prejudgement unsupported by genuine knowledge. Given that scenario, I do not choose to waste my time engaging you in discussion or debate. I suspect that a large number of “the educated, open minded people, who are indeed present on this website” have made decisions similar to mine and are simply ignoring you rather than waste their time typing posts that you will misread and to which you will respond in ignorance.
Is this style or substance? Who cares? Unlike some other people who frequently post in error, it is unlikely that you are persuading anyone that your errors are correct, so there is no need to rebut your false charges and it is a waste of time to post agreements to your rare posts that accidentally appear insightful.
**
I don’t think you quite understand how the english language works in that case.
If I say, “americans are dolts” or, “your average american is an idiot”.
It’s the equivalent of saying, “muslims are terrorists” or, “your average muslim is a radical fundamentalist”.
By the way, if it’s that difficult to type “americans” (which is not some rare word) then how are you able to type the rest of the words you do? Americans is an extremely common word compared to most.
Ok, so if muslims is harder to type than terrorists, would that be cool too?
You should try being more sensitive. Maybe you don’t understand our culture, but it’s impolite to call people something that they don’t call themselves.
Simply reflect upon your posts, it’s my experience reading your threads, and NO, I am not “twisting your words” or “making things up” here.
You overestimate how much people care.
Oh so you regurlarly visit the USA? Where have you visited? For how long? Frequently? Ever? You do know that the US is a pretty large country, and is extremely diverse, don’t you?
Nobody is “shocked” by your writing style, but personally I know I’m “frustrated” that you act like an asshole. Generalizing my country and telling me how I act, what I believe, and what I think. Yes, you have said this, by saying “american” you are refering to the entire group of americans.
It’s surprising, and the “reactions” are not as serious as you think. People tend to over exaggerate a little on the internet, I’m sure with your cultural experience you would be quite familiar with this, would you not?
The pretentiousness of this is simply astounding, but I guess since it doesn’t mean the same thing to you, you will completely ignore any comments on it.
Salami. R.
I’ll count myself as one of the few who has no problem with Alde’s use of “USers”. Hey, the guy is not a native English speaker. His postings are rambling rants of dense, emotionally charge prose, but are generally understandable. I don’t find the word “USers”, in and of itself, to be insulting or offensive.
As for the rest of the contents of his posts… well, let’s just say he’s his own worst enemy.
Doesn’t he live in Europe? I’ll accept ‘USer’, if he accepts ‘EUnik’.
“EU’nik”. 
Please allow me to point out that the EU has no bal…
…kans.
Coldfire,
The keyboards I use are most of the time designed for Arabic. It depends on where I am and wich PC/laptop I use.
My residence is in the country where I was born which is not Belgium.
My mother was Belgian, I did a great part of my studies there, (and as you certainly have noticed, I use very often the univ’s server to enter the internet) I have family of my mother’s side there and in other EU countries and I’m regularly in Belgium or Europe in general.
And now I’ll leave this topic for what it is.
If you have further remarks in your function as moderator of this board, my email is available. Thank you.
Salaam. A
Do you think a refusal to comply with such a lengthy chore really means something? How very quaint.
My goodness. Setting aside the fact that this is so off topic, must I respond in a thread with such an undignified title.
Coldfire in particular is being a bit greedy. He’s not content with one “cite” but wants a whole “string” of them. Very well, here’s a string as long as your ----.
TheGuardianisaworthless,lying,deceitful,rag.
For the Independent, I cite Robert Fisk, who was embedded with Saddam and whose name has now become a verb. The two papers are one of a kind.
When all is said and done, providing citations in these circumstances is a waste of time because it will have no effect on your embedded belief systems.
For people like you who read those papers and nod in agreement when reading assertions and opinions spouted by the likes of Robert Fisk, or listen in worshipful awe as John Pilger delivers his Chomskyisms in a documentary, no citations are ever welcomed if they come into conflict with your belief systems. Your responses were the visceral and emotional reactions of true believers.
The standard response of true believers like yourselves is to spit out their dummies and hurl invective at anyone who dares to disturb their mental equilibrium by suggesting that the news sources in which you have placed so much of their childlike faith often indulge in telling deliberate lies.
Yes, hundreds of embedded reporters were compromised by having to conform to a set of rules. This was not kept a secret from anyone.
In contrast, none of the media stationed in pre war Iraq ever represented themselves as being other than completely independent of the Hussein thugocracy and reporting the news truthfully and fearlessly.
Here’s another Link about CNN for you.
That is why I considered the media stationed in pre war Iraq to be unworthy of anyone’s trust then and now.
However, I would never wish to deny you the pleasure of trusting any news source you want.
Keep the faith and remain happy.
Coldfire and Gary K,
I just remembered, one of you is from 'mer’ca and the other from Yurp and you might misinterpret the term “dummies” as referring to your good selves or, perhaps, that I have accused you of still playing with dolls.
Nothing off the kind, I’m not into anile insults.
For your benefit, a dummy is an inexpensive milk and calorie free plastic nipple you can use to soothe yourselves.
Warm hugs.
Yeesh. Your “string” consists of different links to a website detailing one particular incident. So much for the “routinely” factor, then. Moreover, the site is called guardianlies.com. You do realise this hardly comes across as independent, unbiased evidence?
Is this all you can do?
Coldfire: Didn’t you get a kick out of that bit about the computer keyboards being designed for Arabic? So what’s Aldie doing…accidentally hitting the right keys to make a string of words that approximate English? More likely than not, he’s using that nifty little function called “keyboard selection” that’s available.
How about that bit above about your function as moderator? Man, that’s priceless too!
BTW, didn’t you mention earlier you’d help Aldebaran out with one particular thing?