XPost: alt.politics.socialism, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.media   
   From: efreem2@alumni.umbc.edu   
      
   If you're a senior, by the time you pay for your gas and medication,   
   you can't afford to go anywhere.   
      
   *.*   
      
   Duck decoys, fishing rods, boots . . . outdoor gear of all kinds   
   was piled high in the garage.   
   One day I found my wife staring at the mess.   
      
   "I hope I die first,   
   so I don't have to get rid of all this," she sighed.   
      
   "Look on the bright side," I suggested. "If I go first,   
   you can put an ad in the paper.   
   When all the men come by to check out the stuff,   
   you can pick out a replacement for me."   
      
   Still staring at the pile, she said,   
   "Nah. He wouldn't be my type."   
      
   *.*   
      
   Oneliners   
      
   A laugh is a smile that bursts   
      
   It's not what you wear; it's how you take it off.   
      
   Sin wouldn't be so attractive, if the wages were paid immediately.   
      
   I have a serious weight problem. I hate to wait.   
      
   I'm too smart for egotism.   
      
   Sometimes I just can't prevent clean thoughts from entering my mind.   
      
   Two people shorten a road.   
      
   People don't waste time. They just spend it on things they don't need.   
      
   *.*   
      
   There would be fewer arguments if more of us tried to determine   
   what is right instead of who is right.   
      
      
   I wish I had a twin, so I could know   
   what I'd look like without plastic surgery.   
      
      
   Now there's a list of the ten most neurotic people,   
   it's called the best stressed list.   
      
      
   Among the things you can give and still keep are   
   your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.   
      
      
   The weak can never forgive.   
   Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong   
      
      
   Some guy hit my fender, and I told him,   
   "Be fruitful and multiply." . . . but not in those words.   
      
   *.*   
      
   Halloween is when people try to frighten you   
   into giving them goodies.   
   In some ways it's a lot like government.   
      
      
   The secret to enjoying a good wine is:   
   1 - Open the bottle to allow it to breathe.   
   2 - When it doesn't breathe, give it mouth-to-mouth.   
      
      
   If your hatred for geometry is acute,   
   don't be obtuse;   
   try looking at it from a different angle.   
      
   Issue of the Times;   
   Update on the Empire by Laurence M. Vance   
      
   If it is true, as Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) said, "War is God's way of   
   teaching Americans geography," then empire must be God's way of making   
   Americans masters of the subject since the United States now has troops in   
   159 different regions of the world.   
      
   We know this is true, not because some opponent of U.S. imperialism says   
   so,   
   but because the Department of Defense publishes a quarterly report called   
   the "Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by   
   Country." Although these reports used to be issued by the Defense   
   Department   
   's Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (DIOR), they are now   
   prepared by the Statistical Information Analysis Division of the Defense   
   Manpower Data Center. The latest report is dated September 30, 2006.   
      
   I first reported on this in an article published on March 16, 2004, and   
   called "The U.S. Global Empire." There I documented that the U.S. had   
   troops   
   in 135 countries, plus 14 territories that were not sovereign countries -   
   some controlled by the United States and some controlled by other   
   countries.   
   I then showed on October 4, 2004, in "Guarding the Empire," that the U.S.   
   empire had increased to 150 different regions of the world. The last time   
   I   
   reported on the extent of the empire, December 5, 2005, in "Today Iraq,   
   Tomorrow the World," it had grown to encompass 155 different regions of   
   the   
   world. Today it pains me to report that the U.S. empire has now extended   
   its   
   tentacles to 159 regions of the world: 144 countries and 15 territories.   
      
   To the original list of 135 countries I gave in "The U.S. Global Empire"   
   can   
   now be added:   
      
   Angola   
   Rwanda   
   Armenia   
   Slovakia   
   Gabon   
   Somalia   
   Guyana   
   Sudan   
   Moldova   
   Uzbekistan   
      
   North Korea can be removed from the list. Yes, the "Active Duty Military   
   Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country" document that I   
   originally used in 2004 said that there were four U.S. Marines stationed   
   in   
   the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.   
      
   Since there are 192 countries in the world besides the United States, this   
   means that the U.S. military has troops in over 70 percent of the world's   
   countries. And this doesn't include territories that are not sovereign   
   countries.   
      
   The 15 territories in which the United States now has troops are:   
      
   American Samoa   
   Micronesia   
   Diego Garcia   
   Northern Mariana Islands   
   Gibraltar   
   Palau   
   Guam   
   Puerto Rico   
   Greenland   
   St. Helena   
   Hong Kong   
   Virgin Islands   
   Kosovo   
   Wake Island   
   Marshall Islands   
      
   The Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, and the Northern Mariana Islands   
   make up the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. American Samoa, Guam,   
   the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Wake   
   Island are all territories of the United States. Here we might ask, not   
   why   
   does the United States have troops in these areas, but why does the United   
   States have control of these territories to begin with?   
      
   Although Donald Rumsfeld once claimed that the United States is not   
   imperialistic and doesn't seek empires, what else are you going to call   
   this   
   global presence in 159 regions of the world? Do all these countries want   
   U.S. troops on their soil? Is there really any reason why the United   
   States   
   still has 64,319 troops in Germany, 33,453 troops in Japan, and 10,449   
   troops in Italy - sixty years after World War II? And what are we doing   
   with   
   1,521 troops in Spain, 414 troops in Honduras, and 347 troops in   
   Australia?   
   And why do we have 31 soldiers in Cote D'Ivoire? Cote D'What? Cote   
   D'Where?   
   How many Americans can locate Cote D'Ivoire on a map or have ever heard of   
   it? How many even care? (For the record, Cote D'Ivoire is next to Burkina   
   Faso.)   
      
   Scholarly advocates of American imperialism, like CFR Senior Fellow Max   
   Boot, reject the term imperialism, but hold, like Boot, that the United   
   States "should definitely embrace the practice." Boot subscribes to what   
   can   
   be called twenty-first-century gunboat diplomacy. He believes that the   
   United States should impose the rule of law, property rights, and free   
   speech on Iraq "at gunpoint if need be." Since "Iran and other neighboring   
   states won't hesitate to impose their despotic views on Iraq; we shouldn't   
   hesitate to impose our democratic views."   
      
   Less sophisticated apologists for U.S. interventionism and imperialism,   
   along with the usual assortment of chickenhawks, armchair warriors, Bush   
   lovers, Christian warmongers, Republican Party loyalists, and other   
   "conservatives" who defend the military and the warfare state, attempt to   
   dismiss U.S. global hegemony over the majority of the planet by claiming   
   that many of the U.S. troops stationed abroad are just embassy guards.   
   Since   
   I have already showed in "Guarding the Empire" that it definitely is not   
   the   
   Marine guards at U.S. embassies overseas that account for the U.S. troop   
   presence in so many countries, I will not address that point again here.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)