A Flood of Callousness

What are the Islamic oil kingdoms of the Middle East contributing to aid for Pakistan?

@Dodgerblue: Very good question, to which I do not know the answer but will now attempt to investigate.

@Dodgerblue: This says the Saudis have given $105 million, more than the US, and this report of a few days ago details other Arab countries’ donations.

@SanFranLefty: This may be one of an increasing number of climate change-related “natural” disasters as rainfall patterns change and intensify. Although China is catching up, or may have caught up, in current terms, the country with the largest historical contribution to greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is — us!!

@Dodgerblue: Oh silly, global warming is all a big hoax and it’s just a theory! You know, like gravity, plate tectonics, and evolution!

@SanFranLefty: I’m waiting to see whether the Obama Admin will do anything about it other than talk. So far, no. While the Chinese are gearing up to eat our lunch in solar and wind energy.

The conservatives we suffer want to make the U.S. a Christian national security state. We also have the Islamic Republic of _______, the Jewish State, and various other theocracies. Not that these people don’t need help – they do. And they deserve it. But isn’t some adult going to stand up at some point and say: “Hey – ceding your nation to an invisible man in the sky might not be the best idea.” Again I point out – it is a shame that we have a religious test for pubic office – candidates have to profess a belief in the invisible Sky God. And this is folly – the more time we spend fighting religious wars, the less time we have to clean up the mess we’ve made.

@blogenfreude: I think the average US ‘Merikan would vote for a Muslim for president over an agnostic non-believer.

The whole hoo-haw over whether or not Obama is a Mooslem and the ongoing “He’s not a Muslim” response reminds me of the old Seinfeld episode about people thinking someone is gay… “I’m not _____, not that there’s anything wrong with it…”

@SanFranLefty: You might as well ask whether the average US ’Merikan would prefer a murderer or a child molester.

@SanFranLefty: I’ve read that the Obama family has a Passover seder every year. That’s pretty suspicious right there. Semitic tribes, etc.

I haven’t looked at the list of charities, but I’d put my money on ICRC (water and sanitation), MSF (same – plus crayzee cute Franch – or Dutch! – guys/gals) and that refugee thingie the UN has. The ‘Murrican Red Cross is a 50/50 proposition, seeings how the Pakistani Red Crescent is probably trying to be the go-to conduit for ca$h. I could tell you off-line who to avoid.

Oh and Care packages? That’s CARE. USAID contracts stuff out…

I’m at a DazeIn outside the beltway, watching a screenful of Kardashians…this is a bad thing.

The way this country of ours shoots itself in the foot sometimes.

If one cares at all about international extremism and terorrism (as U.S. Americans looking for a fight seemingly do), one has to look at Pakistan as a big, huge question mark — particluarly as to the old “hearts and minds” deal. So if (a) Black Eagle and (b) the GOP frontline were Johnnies-on-the-spot and forked over a sizable chunk of The Munnie for supplies and such, it might have gone a long way to have Pakistanis say, “you know what, those Americans are not a bad bunch of folks.”

But, no. There are zoning issues to work out back here — we’re just getting hammered with the paperwork these days.

Incidentally: these Pakistanis seem to have come down with a serious case of poor. New Orleanians would be forgiven for walking out of this movie early.

@chicago bureau:
Exactly. A little compassion can go a long way, but well…

@chicago bureau: Unfortunately the Pakis aren’t known for any good jazz or zydeco music, not to mention tasty food to keep the rest of the world interested in their fate. They are anonymous brown adults and children dying, and like you pointed out, the US of Ay is blowing our last fucking chance to win some hearts and minds. Instead, the Saudis and their crazy extremist madrassas are coming to town with gallons of water and bags of rice.

TJ: “I take Obama at his word that he’s a Christian” sez Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

/head meet wall, over, and over, and over…

hey god? it’s me, baked. FUCK YOU. you don’t exist except in our fairy tales and you’re doing a great job of fucking up the entire world.
…now if we all had the same fairy tale, or none at all, imagine what a wonderful world it could be.
cue: louis armstrong/john lennon

/banging weeping head, move over lefty

I don’t think we can ever win hearts and minds there whatever we do or don’t do. I wonder will India step in?

@baked: I could so worship Apollo (for obvious reasons) and Pallas Athena. Or the Norse one who got ambushed and died then was resurrected. I like the Norse ones best though they might be a bit heavy on the furniture, clanking about and such as. Or even the maples on the hill above the house. I could worship wood. An American god of the forests: Brad? No. He’s the god of surf. Woody? Duh.

@Benedick:
my puppy IN THE CRATE (!) is starting to whine, will be back to discuss possible gods with you and did something happen to illya? the god of my tweens? i’m scanning stinque, and have been on news blackout. the wet paki’s are ripping me up.

@baked: my puppy IN THE CRATE. I’m so proud of you. See what happens when you listen?

@Benedick:
the rat has her…i would like to announce she had her first PERFECT day yesterday–not ONE accident!!!

appollo, athena, we know how that turned out for the greeks, don’t we?
and i don’t want to hear about anything resurrecting from the dead besides vampires and zombies, ok? here’s a fresh idea…why don’t we worship people. it hasn’t been done, i’d like to give that a whirl. i thought about dogs, but they don’t look so good in red ties, and cats didn’t do much for the egyptians.
how awesome would it be if all the paki’s cried out, ” i am not an ANIMAL!” (pop quiz..name the movie)
so yeah, people. lets worship HUMAN LIFE.
(and i’m not talking about feti here…that ain’t human til the mommy says so)

@baked: We already worship people. Isn’t that what celebrity is all about? I’m not sure that Britney is any better than Catherine of Sienna.

@Benedick:
hmm, good point mum. imagine a world w/out celebrity worship. a world where every child is teated with love and respect. you know what happens when you embrace and live these values? you get gunned down in front of your building.
going to the garden now to regain composure enough to go to the phone store and refrain from shoving it down some imoran’s throat.

“if there really is a god, he’s a total fuck-up”
—-George Carlin

@chicago bureau: There is an Army War College case study I read of special forces neutralizing Islamic insurgent influence in villages in the Philippine southern islands during the 1990s by asking villagers what they cared about and when hearing what they wanted most was potable water and doctors for the babies set about delivering all of that. Locals began rejecting the islamocrazies as useless allahfascists. The program itself was the precipitate of scholarship with provenance dating back to the 1960s. One of the unsung tragedies of the military confrontation with the islamocrazies is how prepared the military was for it and how their research and experience told them military responses were beside the point and how completely wasted that insight was on the Cheney cult which was hungry to cash in on 9/11.