Comments on: Worst. Decade. Ever.

By: nicko-machOan ethics

nicko-machOan ethics — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:10:49 +0000

dude didn’t dance. stood in the living room examining book collection contemplatively. wife danced though….

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:17:21 +0000

Hey, nicko-machOan ethics: I think I remember a party like that one, about 10 years ago tonight! (Weirdly, I remember dancing not WITH Nick at that party, but in proximity to Nick, in a big circle, like a ring shout. Am I totally hallucinating?)

By: nicko-machOan ethics

nicko-machOan ethics — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:14:49 +0000

Thank you for this posting, H-Ann. Disclsoure: I also knew Nick in the 1990s and know for a fact that he does NOT like to dance (I’m referring to his comment about Obama dancing on Ellen). That’s cool I guess even if a really rocking dance party is going on and we’re partying like it’s 1999….

By: Paul S.

Paul S. — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:09:49 +0000

To be clear, I wasn’t saying that the US government does not have responsibility for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was saying that neither would have happened without the September 11 attacks. Even if some individuals supported war before this, I’m pretty sure that there would not have been large-scale support for either war in the “circles of power” or among the public at large.

As for the idea that anything the US did was an actual “provocation” for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I believe that the main motive was supposedly anger about “infidel” US troops being stationed in Saudi Arabia – at the request of the Saudi government. I don’t believe that in any even slightly reasonable view of reality that this could be considered sufficient “provocation” for attacks of that kind.

By: Rad Readr

Rad Readr — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:19:51 +0000

Nick Gillespie at Reason started wearing a leather jacket this decade and there must be some people who think he’s funny or he wouldn’t make that Daily-Show-wannabe video. So it wasn’t such a bad decade for his public persona. Still, I’m surprised because Libertarians in the 90s (the ones I knew) used to talk about how things were always getting better. (capitalist advancement, new technology). To which the answer is, so much depends…it still depends upon a red wheel barrow.

By: A Girl’s Life « AROOO

A Girl’s Life « AROOO — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:25:19 +0000

[...] Girl’s Life 2009 December 30 by The Fabulously Mean Mutineer Kitty Glendower Historian informs her reading of a PBS special airing tonight, A Girl’s Life about contemporary adolescent [...]

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:08:01 +0000

Paul–I think there’s a more than reasonable debate about the role of the U.S. in provoking the 9/11 attacks (e.g. the Blowback hypothesis), but leaving that aside: there was nothing natural or inevitable about the way the U.S. government reacted to 9/11/01. People in government made choices and decisions, and the citizens made choices in the voting booth in 2002 and 2004 that supported the Bush strategy of more & more warfare, imprisonment, and torture. In 2006 and 2008, the people voted to repudiate some of those policies, but so far, the Obama administration’s national security & foreign policies look disturbingly similar to Bush’s.

$hit happens, to be sure. But we always have several options and decisions to make. Perhaps Hurricaine Katrina is a better touchstone for this decade. A traumatic weather event happened–and what’s been the response? Is New Orleans any safer or more secured–or has the core of the city just been whitened and made safe for tourism and large corporations cashing in? It looks to me more like the latter–and that’s the fault of both of the “legacy parties” (Republicans and Dems.)

By: perpetua

perpetua — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:06:55 +0000

@ Paul – I think the claim you make about what might have or might not have been the “fault” of the US gov’t is debatable. And in any event, the aftereffects of 9/11 are absolutely the responsibility of the US gov’t, especially and obviously the war in Iraq.

I’m on board with Historiann about the worst decade. I was abroad when the war in Iraq started and I felt like I came home to a completely different – and unrecognizable – country. I’m not sure I’ve recovered from that yet.

By: Feminist Avatar

Feminist Avatar — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:02:46 +0000

In terms of the UK, I think the noughties were better than the 90s for most people. The level of wealth growth, beginning in the late 90s and continuing until the last couple of years, has been phenomenal. Home-ownership is up substantially- and while this has been a problem since the credit crunch, it has usually property capitalists (multiple home owners) who have suffered and people who need to sell NOW, rather than Joe Bloggs on the street (interest rates are LOW! Good for home owners.) More people than ever are in or have been in higher and further education- my family is a case in point- we went from no degrees to multiple across several generations, due to children and parents returning to education together in the last decade. Luxury industries, such as cheap airlines, holidays abroad, eating out in restaurants or takeaways, is now a normal part of an average person’s life. The levels on which we measure poverty now are substantially different than a decade ago. When the credit crunch hit, people tightened their belts but for many that meant getting rid of luxuries, not living in poverty. Politically, we were getting a bit conservative for my liking (even with New Labour in power (left wing party)), but the credit crunch has actually shaken this up a bit, although which way we’ll swing now is another question.

The big problem at the moment is high unemployment, exsperated by a number of business going under, and so few available jobs at any level (skilled, specialist, unskilled- nothing!). But that has only been a problem for the last year or so, so really it will be the next decade that looks to be crap, if things don’t pick up!

By: Paul S.

Paul S. — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:58:25 +0000

To be fair, a lot of the uglier developments in the USA of the last decade stem back to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which were not the fault of the US government.