This is your brain:
This is your brain on drugs:
Any questions?
If I could be counter-anecdotal, I’ve been fortunate to have been able to travel all over the world, and the only evidence of anti-American sentiment I have seen was a worker in New Zealand who, when drunk, would rant about the McDonalds corporation and the creeping American culture that he thought threatened the world. It was pretty funny and I never knew if he was serious or not.
I was in China when we blew up their embassy in that “targeting failure” or whatever they called it. I’ve been to France and Russia both before and after 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq. No one has ever blamed me for the foreign policy of my government.
I don’t go around apologizing for my country, but I don’t go around beating my chest and chanting “USA USA”. I figure I’m a regular guy, I treat other people like they’re regular guys, and they treat me the same right back. I think anti-American sentiments are like four leaf clovers. Sure, they exist, but it’s hard to find them unless you look pretty hard.
Anti-America sentiment though, is common, and getting more so.
As far as I’m concerned, the fact that two of the 9/11 hijackers were from UAE should nix the deal. I see this as more of an accountability issue then a security one. I will admit that I’m not thrilled about the security aspects though.
Get back to me when some Brits fly planes into our buildings.
Something definitely stinks about this deal.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/21/rumsfeld-not-consulted/
…
You know, all of Bush’s excuses–and the echoey sound of all his boringly predictable, slavishly slobbery cultists’ cries of “President Bush is doing the right thing”–sound good on the unexamined surface, but the bottom line, for me, is that there are behind the scene details that will be that much more accessible to the people for whom they should remain the most inaccessible.
Let’s join Not a Well Woman in singing …
Fuck that fucking shit, Emir-fucker
You’re a Dubai Sanddune Diner Emir-fucker …
Maybe we could start a campfire, sing a few songs.
My first impression was that you said “brains” rather than “brands” …
TBJ
On the basis of that logic, Timothy McVey and Ted Kozinski (among many others) should disqualify the US from managing its own ports. The actions of a few do not dictate national or corporate policy of an entire nation.
We should probably hire the Swiss to do it for us. They’d make the ports run like clockwork. shish-bang
Thank you, you’re too kind. Take my wife, please!
Stranger
Wow. That’s retarded.
Just so there’s no confusion, the above was in response to your post.
True Blue Jack
The idea of Rummy saying he only found out about the deal over the weekend only looks bad on the surface.
The reason is very simple, I’m sure: as a kid, I once had a summer job with NYC that sometimes involved attending Board of Estimate meetings, for some reason I don’t remember anymore. First thing I noticed is that, even though all kinds of high city officials were supposed to be members of it, they all almost always sent representatives to the meetings instead of attending in person.
I’m sure much the same thing happened here. This I’m sure was treated as routine, especially given that the UAE is hardly considered any kind of threat, and that DPW is an established and reputable firm.
Period, the end. It’s the way it should have been treated. Everything I see in opposition amounts to hysterics based on “The Arabs are coming! The Arabs are coming!”
The imam of the
Brixton Mosque, which produced airplane shoe bomber Richard Reid, thinks there are 100 or more seriously-potential suicide bombers from there alone, possibly 1000. Good thing we’re getting P&O out of the US port business, then, huh? :wally
Well, they did burn the White House that one time. I don’t trust 'em.
Plus, they speak our language funny. And don’t even get me started on the way they spell. Are there so many u’s out there that they can just use them up willy-nilly? Let’s put an end to this use of the superfluous u. What if someday we are completely out of u’s because some pretentious sons of bitches used them all on words like “colour” and “favour”? We can’t take that chance.
And they did this 4 years ago?
So then on that logic why not let Iraq run them? Zarqawi is simply a bad apple.
If you’re going to claim that the actions of a couple of dissidents should dictate overall policy toward a nation, then you have to apply that logic universally. An isolationist partisan or anti-technology insurgent with US citizenship could just as easily sabotage ports as a foreign national.
Stranger
Well, the issue isn’t black and white, but here’s my thoughts.
I don’t really like the words thinks and possibly in the above statement. We don’t think or say it’s a possibility that 2 of the 9/11 hijackers were from UAE, we know this to be fact. We can speculate where terrorist plotting can take place, but the guys from UAE made good on their intentions. Weren’t arms smuggled through UAE ports to NK and Iran as well?
I totally agree that it can be a slippery slope, as we can find anti US radicals in almost every country.
:rolleyes: The point was that the risk of having a company based in a foreign nation allowed to manage domestic facilities isn’t predicated on the actions of a couple of people who happen to hold citizenship; it should be based on the reliablity of that government, the specific company history, et cetera. Obviously, and for reasons going beyond security risk, we wouldn’t be contracting any Iraq-based corporation to manage US ports.
Stranger
It isn’t a slippery slope in terms of showing government support for terrorism. The Dubai Ports company is run by the UAE government, not by its terrorists. There is exactly as much evidence for the UAE *government * supporting the 9/11 WTC attacks as there is for the British *government * supporting the American Airlines shoe-bomb attack. There is exactly as much evidence for the UAE government tolerating terrorism schools in its territory as there is for the British government doing so as well.
I brought up the Brixton Mosque tongue-in-cheek, sure, but in fact it makes as much sense as your hysteria does. Go ahead and nitpick if you care to, but the fact that you’re reduced to nitpicking means you’re already wrong.