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[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] In a message dated 07/16/2003 6:57:48 PM Central Daylight Time, rubytoo@xemaps.com writes: > To be fair I don't think their accuracy of their transaltions have ever > MEMRI has oft been critiqued. I think the primary concern is their selective nature, or decontextualizing the information. I would imagine that if you chose to look selectively at US newspapers, you could find some rather interesting and rather outrageous things. I am often amazed at the content which makes it into small town Texas newspapers which I occasionally read. Then again we can read things like Ann Coulters call to invade the Arab countries, kill their leaders, and christianize them in the much larger newspapers. The Arab world newspapers have the same sorts of radical statements in them, all we have to do is look, or have MEMRI do it for us. So what, all cultures have their ups and downs. Bias is a funny thing, we see it in others, but less easily in ourselves. It is all too easy to demonize the other person/motive, but we apply a much kinder standard to ourselves and those with which we agree. I have said before, painfully, George the Lesser (Shrub 2) believes he is doing the right thing. I am sure in his tiny little brain he has himself convinced that the Iraqi people needed "liberating via the BOMB." I happen to disagree with him as do most of you. This does not change the reality that he is a rational actor who believes in what he is doing, so do we villify him or do we actively disagree with the premises and work to disprove the premises rather than berate the man? Having said this, I don't read MEMRI as they generally piss me off. However I understand the more relaxed among us like Colin, probably can read even the far rights ranting and simply catalogue the information for further use and comparison (when I grow up I hope to be able to as well). It puts me in the mood to murder. Roger Stroope Northern Arizona University Flagstaff USA During the war crimes trials at Nuremberg, psychologist Gustave Gilbert visited Nazi Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering in his prison cell. "We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction," Gilbert wrote in his journal, Nuremberg Diary. "Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? ... That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship ... That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk