This is NOT a P & R thread on threats of and advance on Iraq.

PLEASE - DO NOT post arguments here as one can currently find PLENTY of thread in P & R for that.

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In this thread, I would like to know:

If we do advance on Iraq, what DAILY changes do you anticipate in your life, and how do you plan to adjust?

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(Forwarded to me by one of my mentors)

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

-Julius Caesar

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Depending on your current city of residence, you may have to consider increased security, bioterrorism, an increase in Federal agents, more Iraqis living in your area, learning to live in a war economy, etc.

Feel free to post anything you like as long as it's personal to yourself and your situation and gives us insight into how you are planning to weather the advance that is presently being threatened.

[ February 12, 2003, 04:06 AM: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]

Beware the phony quote. How do I know?

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/caesar.htm

I'm thinking about moving to New Zealand. Anybody care to join me?

New Zealand's pretty, but it's also pretty close to the U.S.'s best buddy in the Pacific region, Australia, and very close to several potential terrorist hotspots like Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Phillipines, etc., so I'm not so sure about that if you're trying to get away from the madness. Maybe Canada, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Vermont...oops, that's still the U.S.

[ February 12, 2003, 10:20 AM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

The increased daily fear of getting on America's largest subway system.

They have increased the air patrolling around here a lot. For some reason, everyone is buying duct tape too. I have plenty of duct tape, so i guess I'm OK.

Grin and bear it...just as I do the current regime in Washington.

The quote does seem spurious simply because few dictators would be so self-effacing as to dis' themselves so eloquently, but I'm surprised the rebuttal you link doesn't appear to give an original scholarly source.

[ February 15, 2003, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

Feel free to listen. I got this from a DC-area scanning BBS:

>>
the dc cap [combat air patrol] feed is now 24/7 and it can be found at http://www.shoutcast.com . Search for "scan mil/air".
<<

This URL worked for me:
http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=scan...lt=25&x=24&y=13

Anything you can hear on a scanner is most definitely not confidential. Did you know "racehorse" is a verb? Use your imagination.

Stingers have been deployed too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Feb12.html

Duct tape and cover....

Ummm...New Zealand is well over 1000 miles from Australia, and at least 4000 from those other places. Unless you're planning on moving to Easter Island or Antarctica, it's about as far as you can get from anyplace else.

To answer the question posed, absolutely none. I will go to work, work out after work, and relax at home after I work out. I will change my travel plans only if something happens and then I will only change them, not cancel them. I won't hoard groceries and I won't engage in marathon "gab fests" (cf. "bull sessions") on the telephone with my family, friends and colleagues to "see how they're coping;" everyone I count in that category can be counted on to be quite copacetic, thank you.

In short, I will continue to live the life I'm privileged to in this country and I will do so without guilt or smugness, but with appreciation for being a citizen of the nation that "advanced" to meet the challenge from which others retreated.

Um, that's grin and "bear" it...I guess we all (Freud included here) would like to bare the current regime in Washington, but the question is, who's got an afternoon to arrange a group flight to Spokane?

[ February 15, 2003, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]

I alerted her with an email...thanks!

[ February 15, 2003, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]

She had checked it out on one of her "corroboration" sites, and didn't find the Caesar quote there.

Now she has a second site!

Passing along her thanks.

Hey, did anyone else see Maureen Dowd's column today about Tom Ridge? Pretty interesting. One interesting sidelight she notes in it is that the main duct tape manufacturer (that is, the company sells half of the duct tape out there) is a major supporter of...the current administration!

gmginsfo's response to blurebirds question about changes in lifestyle due to an invasion of Iraq:

Basically that would be my response.


Bluebird's editorial assistance:

Thanks, I changed that.

fantomas on Ridge's duct-tape aviso:

Interesting coincidence but doesn't somebody in the administration have a financial interest in a lot of things manufactured in this country.

When the adminsitration is going out of its way to make everything look like an immediate threat from Iraq, it would be playing the same game to try to make everything they do seem inspired by financial self-interest.

Rather than total malevolence some of their behavior may be just plain old-fashioned incompetence.