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Non-gaming rant...
   ^{[ posted by: R.I.P ]}

So, here I sit... watching my Government who represents big-business, and not the little people slow eat itself and us with it. Here I also sit watching our news media whip the public into a frenzy of "oh woe is me, how could this happen to poor little'ol us."

People, this "war" isn't about you or me. It's about stupid bullsh*t. Ok... you want to understand how someone can hate "us".

Go out to the quite suburb of any large city where WallMart is going to plop down a super-mega-mega-ultra-store in the middle of a piece of open farmland. A bunch of people who live there are going to get really pissed, their going to yell, make threats, write letters, call local representatives. Yeah, everyone's going to shop there when it's built, but even years later there will be people who resent how that building changed their local area.

Now... let's take that same WallMart and drop it in the middle of the Mongolian plains... maybe it even has a McDonalds in it. This folks is what a lot of foreigners consider modern "American colonialism". No we're not taking over their country... we're imposing on their culture. For instance did you realize that in the last ten years since American fast-food culture has penetrated mainland China, there has been a radical increase in both obesity among children and hart disease among adults? Almost catching up with the US in some areas. This makes some Asians really mad... Yeah, most of them will still buy their BigMac because it sure tastes good, but others are going to be pissed that their kids now don't know how to cook a traditional family meal... and who's fault is it? "The Americans". Only the extremist in some of these countries have no problem with crossing the line and taking a life to make a point of their protest!

Just like in the SouthPark Movie, the mom's blindly blame Canada for what is actually their own failures, or how parents blame TV, Pokemon, D&D, etc... for all of the problems with their children... Many foreign countries blame the U.S. in the same way. Kids getting fat on fast food, "damn Americans"... apparent decline in faith in regional religion, or decline in participation in accepted local political structure, "damn Americans" again. Personally I'm sick of people damning us.

While I absolutely despise what terrorists did (and may still be doing) to our country, and I in no way mean to justify their actions, because there is no justification. There are real reasons why a lot of people in the world are pissed at us... not even getting into the whole Israel issue. And I'm also not going to get into the whole fact that we've been living under terrorism for 20+ years already... ie, PETA, Right to Lifers, KKK, Moral "Minority", etc...

I hope and pray that this all works out for the best, but I don't see that as a real possibility at this point in time. I see my way of life being ripped away from me by reactionary knee-jerk politicians... and I see the life of my self and my family put at risk over the popularity/hatred of American culture.

...sigh...

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