Joko A to Z… err.. make that D.
A: Afghanistan.
In recent years, this conflict took second place to Iraq in the American consciousness for a couple of reasons, both of which related to it‘s sister war, Iraq. First, as it was allegedly an appropriate response to 9/11, it felt justified in the American body politic. We lose 4000 Americans in a single attack? We gotta go invade SOMEBODY!!
I learned today, 11 years after 9/11, that the Taliban, in the aftermath of September 11th 2001, fully cogniscient and admitting of their sponsorship and jurisdiction over one Osama bin Laden, offered to arrest and turn over that Arabic terrorist (mind you, the Taliban is Pushtan, not Arabic, and that these allegiances of ethnicity far overwhelm any religious ties that might occur in that both peoples are Moslem). The GWB administration said thanks but no thanks, we’d rather invade you. It was but mere weeks after 9/11 that we began our Afghani war, and in our patriotic furvor, no one thought to question that millennial old maxim, do not engage in a ground war in central Asia.
We could have avoided war in Afghanistan in the first place had we had the maturity to respect the sovereignty of another nation in the first place. I’ll agree that the Taliban, particularly in their treatment of women, are not good guys, but we as an Americans, despite our military ability, do not have the right to impose our morality on the rest of the world.
Saying that we are right, for cultural reasons, to bomb other countries is called Imperialism, a philosophy that was discredited some 60 years ago.
If we’re not going to intervene in Rwanda, Sudan or Syria where the government has slaughtered their own wholesale, any nation building arguments about Afghanistan fall flat.
B: Birth Control.
Oh I hope Rick Santorum wins the Republican nomination! Not just because I find Mitt Romney repulsive, but for the simple fact that as a cultural warrior, Santorum is as out of touch with the American public as Mitt is disconnected with Americans economically. Either way, each candidate is so far out of the norm that there is no way they’ll win in November
C: China.
You might have seen some commercials lately originating from the GE corporation touting how their manufacturing in Appliance Park, Tennesee, is revitalizing American Industry. I sell appliances for a living and on occasion, sell ones made by GE. At my particular company, where we carry, but don’t particularly promote that brand (like they do at Home Depot), GE is 4th in sales behind Whirlpool, Samsung and Frigidaire.
About half the appliances on my sales floor are made in the USA. The other half are made in Mexico, Korea, China and Mexico. In the commercials from that GE company, the guy patriotically announces, “when that frigate (sic) ships out the door…”, he’s saying that GE fridges are made in the USA. THEY’RE NOT!
Like I said, my company doesn’t sell a LOT of GE products, but of the GE fridges we do sell, ALL of them are made in Mexico. Okay, so they must make something in Appliance Park, Tennessee, but this claim of revitalizing American manufacturing is WAY overstated.
D: Desisting.
I was going to make this a blog covering my opinions from A to Z, but I realize now that would be way too ambitious, so I’ll desist at D. Perhaps I’ll pick up this theme again in my next blog, because I think I can find something to say for each letter of the alphabet.
Hmmm…this remind me of Joe Blogs A – Z series on My Space.
Good ones J. I hope you make a continuuing series of this.
E. Dang I have no idea. Can’t think of anything that starts with E. Oh, wait. Energy and the 2004 Energy Act.
C. China
Believe it or not! I actually worked at a baby’s clothing store in the year off 2000, while going to a technical school. I personally believe that I was decent at selling baby’s clothes. But, I was a dam good selling machine when it came to selling dolls. I will never forget one of the questions a customer asked about all the baby’s clothes we were selling.
Customer: “Why does every clothes in this store claims to be made in the USA?”
Me: “I don’t know…”
Ugh! I felt so stupid for not being able to answer that question..
I did my research to find that answer. For, I wanted to be able to answer that question and not look dumb. The truth of the matter is a simple misleading advertistment. The clothes is ASSBLEMED in the USA. But, the materials is made in other countries.
In other words, [insert company name here] bought the “all ready cut” fabric, thread, labels, ribbon, buttons, and other parts/matierals from different countries. Once it all comes to their plant. They assemble the clothes and claim it to be made in the USA.
What I find more interesting about clothes. If you take your shirt off and read the labels in it. It may tell you that the fabric is made in another country and still claims to be made in the USA. I forgot what brands actually tell you all that good info.
America makes and produces wine. They usually try to grow their own ingredients and make the wine. Yet, for a particular wine they make. They may import certain grapes or ingredient from another country to make it.
I imagine GE is the same way. Sure, they may have invented this particular part and it may came from another GE company in another country. Or perhaps, they invented this part and pay a certain company in another country to manfacture it. Thus GE will receive the parts from that manfacture company and assembled in the USA. The machine is not 100% made in the USA.
Personally, I am surprise some one did not press charges against many American factories for false advertistment.