The quiet death of Malachi Ritscher

Post by **psi29a** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:39 pm

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archiv ... scher.html

Before burning himself to death, Malachi Ritscher wrote in a suicide note that his fellow Americans had become "more concerned with sports on television and ring-tones on cellphones than the future of the world".

He didn't realise how prophetic his words would turn out to be. His self-immolation on Chicago's Kennedy expressway was intended as a high-profile anti-war protest that could not be ignored. He set up a sign saying "Thou shalt not kill" and he explained on his website: "If I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world."

Post by **ShinigamiGuts** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:14 pm

Wonder if this video will be posted on youtube.

Post by **Libaax** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:21 pm

Poor guy to waste his life for jerks that dont care.....

Post by **Malvado** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:10 pm

Libaax wrote:Poor guy to waste his life for jerks that dont care.....

exactly he should move to some other country. I don't want people like him on MY SOIL!!

Post by **ShinigamiGuts** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:41 pm

Malvado wrote:
Libaax wrote:Poor guy to waste his life for jerks that dont care.....
exactly he should move to some other country. I don't want people like him on MY SOIL!!

Well he is just ash now

Post by **Malvado** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:13 pm

ShinigamiGuts wrote:
Malvado wrote:
Libaax wrote:Poor guy to waste his life for jerks that dont care.....
exactly he should move to some other country. I don't want people like him on MY SOIL!!
Well he is just ash now

Correct, maybe we can use him for fossil fuel in several million years. ahahaha

Post by **ShinigamiGuts** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:31 am

Malvado wrote:
ShinigamiGuts wrote:
Malvado wrote: exactly he should move to some other country. I don't want people like him on MY SOIL!!
Well he is just ash now
Correct, maybe we can use him for fossil fuel in several million years. ahahaha

Neg, He'll just make your car or whatever is being driven in a million years just catch on fire like he did.
That is if we haven't taken each other out with nukes yet. =D

Post by **MonkWren** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:00 am

ShinigamiGuts wrote:
Malvado wrote:
ShinigamiGuts wrote: Well he is just ash now
Correct, maybe we can use him for fossil fuel in several million years. ahahaha
Neg, He'll just make your car or whatever is being driven in a million years just catch on fire like he did.
That is if we haven't taken each other out with nukes yet. =D

So really, he's just gonna blow up some cockroach's car in 2million years? Awesome. Quite the political statement.

/sarcasm

Post by **Buzkashi** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:13 am

Burned himself alive as an anti war statement? Original... but affective. . .I guess.

Post by **Malvado** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:36 am

Buzkashi wrote:Burned himself alive as an anti war statement? Original... but affective. . .I guess.

Nah the monks did it for the Vietnam War. They were much better at it too.

Post by **Buzkashi** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:01 am

Thats what I was referring too.

Post by **Malvado** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:48 am

Buzkashi wrote:Thats what I was referring too.

oh ok......i like this chart. I don't know why.

Post by **ShinigamiGuts** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:07 am

D=, we're that much in debt?
We should re-take over japan or make bill gates pay off some loans.
Been saying for a while, China will be a super power soon.

Post by **MrFelony** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:49 am

the US has worse spending habits than a college student with a shopping addiction

Post by **EnglishJim** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:15 am

I can't believe a country like Yemen is in the black and we're not. Most people have never even heard of Yemen.

Still, I'd have never guessed that the U.S. would be bottom and by that much...Is that chart fake?

Post by **MonkWren** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:04 pm

EnglishJim wrote:I can't believe a country like Yemen is in the black and we're not. Most people have never even heard of Yemen.

Still, I'd have never guessed that the U.S. would be bottom and by that much...Is that chart fake?

Really? The US has had the largest debt of any country in the world for a long time now. Hell, it's tempting to move to Canada just to avoid the inevitable collapse. Our interest is in the billions. Even if we cut out all military spending and put it towards paying of our national debt, it would take years before we hit the black again.

Post by **MrFelony** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:02 pm

weren't we in black when clinton was in office??? BUSH SPENT THAT MUCH IN 6 FUCKING YEARS!?!

Post by **psi29a** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:48 pm

The US is a debtor nation (A nation that owes more to other nations than it is owed). Below is a pie chart of who actually pays for the debt the US is running up:

Here is a bar graph over time showing the US debt:

The national debt increases an average of $120 million dollars a day; it would cost us $20,000 per person to pay it off right now.

Notice how starting in 1983 (Reagen) we have an tremendous increase of debt over the time span and into the Bush Sr years. Then during Clinton's administration, it slowed down and leveled off. Then Bush jr. got into office, and it just FLEW up faster than the Reagen years. Fiscal responsibility my ass!

Post by **EnglishJim** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:40 am

MonkWren wrote:
EnglishJim wrote:I can't believe a country like Yemen is in the black and we're not. Most people have never even heard of Yemen.

Still, I'd have never guessed that the U.S. would be bottom and by that much...Is that chart fake?
Really? The US has had the largest debt of any country in the world for a long time now. Hell, it's tempting to move to Canada just to avoid the inevitable collapse. Our interest is in the billions. Even if we cut out all military spending and put it towards paying of our national debt, it would take years before we hit the black again.

I don't make it my business to know American politics, I have to put up with the stupidity of my own government. If you ever lived in the UK, you would know what true taxation feels like, we're taxed beyond death, but all that's off-topic.

Not to defend Bush here, but can't that huge increase be partly attributed to 9/11 and the current war (and restoration) in Iraq?

Post by **psi29a** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:39 pm

EnglishJim wrote:Not to defend Bush here, but can't that huge increase be partly attributed to 9/11 and the current war (and restoration) in Iraq?

And the missle defense shield, and the the great american/mexican wall. The daily expenditure in Iraq is $127~ Million a day.

However, ponder this. Since the Korean War, what years has the USA not fought in a conflict? I dare you to name a few.

Post by **EnglishJim** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:26 pm

You got me there, but this particular war is quite different. The majority of the conflict has taken place on foreign land, but the threat from inside the country is all too apparent. Also, there isn't an obvious target, so building fortress America is top priority. If the debt isn't coming from that, then where else? Only war can create a $3 trillion increase in 6 years.

Post by **ShinigamiGuts** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:09 pm

psi29a wrote:
EnglishJim wrote:Not to defend Bush here, but can't that huge increase be partly attributed to 9/11 and the current war (and restoration) in Iraq?
And the missle defense shield, and the the great american/mexican wall. The daily expenditure in Iraq is $127~ Million a day.

However, ponder this. Since the Korean War, what years has the USA not fought in a conflict? I dare you to name a few.

Well there was the drug war, headed by Reagan and the CIA, but got corrupt and helped contras ship cocaine into America. Pretty much it. America did love to give weapons away in other peoples wars though.
Iran-Iraq, Russia-Iraq to name a few.

Post by **MonkWren** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 1:19 am

psi29a wrote:
EnglishJim wrote:Not to defend Bush here, but can't that huge increase be partly attributed to 9/11 and the current war (and restoration) in Iraq?
And the missle defense shield, and the the great american/mexican wall. The daily expenditure in Iraq is $127~ Million a day.

However, ponder this. Since the Korean War, what years has the USA not fought in a conflict? I dare you to name a few.

Rwanda. Darfur. The Six Day War. The War of Attrition. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The Yom Kippur War. The Soviet War in Afghanistan. The Falklands. The First Intifada. The Yugoslav Wars. The First Chechen War. The Iran-Iraq War. The Second Chechen War. The Israel-Labanon Conflict. The Bangledesh War of 1971. Burundi 1972. Combodia. East Timor. All genocides or wars that the US has not participated in.

And the huge increase can not be attributed solely to 9/11 and the War in Iraq. Indeed, since the War in Iraq was entirely unnecessary (especially as a result of 9/11), I see no need to count it as an unforeseen cost (which is really what you're referring to). Another extremely large part of the debt comes from the $1 trillion tax cut that Bush enacted early on in his reign (something many people have already forgotten, despite the fact that it was one of his primary platforms when running in 2000).

The fact of the matter is, Bush and Congress badly bungled the budget, no matter how you look at it. The debt was piling up even before 9/11, and while the terrorist attack didn't help, it didn't exactly change the course of the US budget, just made it worse. And the Clinton years, although good as far as the budget was concerned, were no-where near enough to offset over 50 years of red ink.

Post by **psi29a** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:04 am

MonkWren wrote:
psi29a wrote:
EnglishJim wrote:Not to defend Bush here, but can't that huge increase be partly attributed to 9/11 and the current war (and restoration) in Iraq?
And the missle defense shield, and the the great american/mexican wall. The daily expenditure in Iraq is $127~ Million a day.

However, ponder this. Since the Korean War, what years has the USA not fought in a conflict? I dare you to name a few.
Rwanda. Darfur. The Six Day War. The War of Attrition. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The Yom Kippur War. The Soviet War in Afghanistan. The Falklands. The First Intifada. The Yugoslav Wars. The First Chechen War. The Iran-Iraq War. The Second Chechen War. The Israel-Labanon Conflict. The Bangledesh War of 1971. Burundi 1972. Combodia. East Timor. All genocides or wars that the US has not participated in.

I'm not sure who you are addressing here, as your argument doesn't address what I touched on. I was pointing out that since the Korean War, the USA hasn't paused for very long before getting itself involved militarily someplace in the world.

As one former director of the CIA put it, "When war becomes profitable, you will see more of them."

Some debt is good, however letting China buy up our debt is a economic national security matter. They could choose at any point in time to want it's money back, US would default and the Chinese could float the yen. Mind you, they would hurt too, but the US would hurt more.

Post by **MonkWren** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:22 am

psi29a wrote:I'm not sure who you are addressing here, as your argument doesn't address what I touched on. I was pointing out that since the Korean War, the USA hasn't paused for very long before getting itself involved militarily someplace in the world.

As one former director of the CIA put it, "When war becomes profitable, you will see more of them."

My point was that the US has not been involved in most of the Wars and military conflicts that have occurred since the Korean War. I simply pointed out conflicts the US wasn't involved in, rather than years. I will admit that the US does tend to make a fair profit when it is involved in a war indirectly (such as by selling arms); however, war itself is rather costly, not only in terms of capital, but also in terms of the social costs. A few select individuals can, theoretically, make a large profit from war, of course, although this rarely happens in practice. I'll get my girlfriend to explain it in detail some time (she's an Econ minor).