galois17

There is no logical connection between the two following statements:

   - x buys american products  
   - x considers US the best political system in the world

"[US political system] which is regarded as the best example of democracy, globally"

err, what? As a foreigner living in the US for the last 5 years I will tell you this: The US political system is regarded as the best example of democracy, by they Americans only. Period.

Having lived and traveled in Europe for the most part of my 30 years of my adult life I have heard no person having this perception of the American political system. In fact, I would say that it is closer to the truth to claim that the American political system is regarded as corrupted, like most of other political systems globally.

I really don't want to hijack the thread but I am kind of tired of this perception that some Americans have of themselves and their country that is ("regarded as") the best democracy in the world.

The american democracy is a representative democracy powered mainly by two private funded right-wing Christian parties.

Not to mention that this political system cannot provide to it's citizens and tax payers the right to public education and public health care.

Anyways, yes in my opinion, it would not be a surprise at all if CIA spied on Congress or if the President (or better the USA CEO) could not do anything about it.

I don't see much value autoassignining args. I do see being useful at times to auto-assign kwargs.

  class Base(object):
      def __init__(self, *args, **kws):
          self.__dict__.update(kws)

  class Foo(Base):
      def__init__("foo", age=30):
          self.name = "foo"
          super(Foo, self).__init__("foo", age=30)

or you can do the same using a decorator for the init.

  def update(init_meth):
      def wrapped(self, *args, **kws):
          init_meth(self, *args, **kws)
          self.__dict__.update(kws)
      return wrapped

  class Foo(object):
      @update
      def__init__("foo", age=30):
          self.name = "foo"

USA and its allies are occupying two countries and they are fighting the local resistance. The occupied countries never threatened the offensive forces. Does it reminde you of anything similar that happened 70 years ago? And btw when was the last time that USA was in a war as a defensive force? When did the American soldiers defend their homes and their American soil?

Accountability is definitely an issue but the major issue is the attitude of acting like the biggest bully in high school doing whatever the heck you want just because you happen to be bigger than the other kids. Actually its even worse because at least the high school bully doesn't go around telling off other "bullies" for their behavior

"Chomsky is one of the greatest intellectuals of our time"

This is undoubtedly true. He is one of the most cited authors of all time.

It is unfortunate that the american media does not give him the attention he deserves. In fact, in Europe Noam Chomsky and his opinions are very highly regarded and his writings are taught in schools. I am Greek (living in the U.S for the last 5 years) and I was first introduced to Noam Chomsky during a writing class in my (public) high school.

I guess the fact that he is an anarchist and very often criticizes the U.S government and foreign policy does not make him popular within the U.S.

Btw, some of us, no matter what country we are from, need to understand that when someone criticizes our country's government and its actions, it does not mean automatically that they are criticizing us. I honestly find it very naive when someone defends their government's policies just because they feel somehow they have to do so.

I have no problem getting downvoted. To clarify though, I expressed my opinion disagreeing with mtogo's comment. I did not tell him/imply what/how he should comment. In any case, I did't know that opinion-based comments are discouraged in an opinion-based comment thread. I guess I am missing something here...

I don't see any problem with someone expressing verbally that they like something instead of just up voting. Though, I do see a problem when someone tells people how to express themselves.