Jingoism is a term describing chauvinistic patriotism, especially with regard to a hawkish political stance.

During the 19th century in the United States, this attitude was called 'spread-eagleism'.

America's patriotic belligerence was intensified by the sinking of the USS 'Maine' which led to the Spanish-American War. "Jingoism" did not enter the U.S. vernacular until the twentieth century.

One of those frequently accused of Jingoism was Theodore Roosevelt, who answered in a October 8, 1895 interview in the New York Times:

There is much talk about 'jingoism.' If by 'jingoism' they mean a policy in pursuance of which Americans will with resolution and common sense insist upon our rights being respected by foreign powers, then we are "jingoes.'

And now...There's George 'Jingo' Bush...   more »

Not that I'm against decadence. It's the last throw of Empire. The decline and fall into individual gratification. Let's recognize it and celebrate. Sex, drugs and not giving a fuck. Why compete when it's more pleasurable to indulge yourself? [Ed Strong]

One of the most frequent criticisms which Muslims make against the West is that it is decadent. Is there any truth in this allegation? One British Member of Parliament certainly thinks so.

The Conservative MP John Hayes went public earlier this month to say that Muslims were correct to despise Britain’s decadent culture of gay rights, heavy drinking, immodesty and exhibitionist television programmes.

“They are right to despair of the moral decline and the ugly brutishness characteristic of much of urban Britain,” he writes in the conservative magazine, The Spectator.

“We want everything and we want it now, so we spend and borrow, cheat and hurt. The vulnerable are the chief victims of this decadence. Children suffer when families break down.   more »

About 90 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies broke up what they said was a rave party on public and private property in the Diamond Fork area of Spanish Fork canyon, an hour outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday (5:30 Sunday UTC).

According to the county, the Sheriff's Office had been investigating similar parties since the beginning of the season.

In a press release from the Sheriff's Office in Utah County, the department claims that previous allegations of sexual abuse at other raves, as well as various firearm and theft violations, were reason for the investigation. The release continues to state that the proper permit was not obtained before the party started.

Armed with assault rifles and tear gas, the police used dogs to sweep the crowd for narcotics. At least one helicopter was used in the operation. The scale of the police response was apparently due to the ineffectiveness of a smaller force used in the previous "Sequence Five" rave.   more »

The Saudi regime needs US backing precisely because of the growing danger that a domestic opposition with a broad social base will emerge, rather than a cabal of disaffected princes.

Writing in 2001, the respected writer Dilip Hiro described how in the case of an armed uprising against the Saudi royal family, “the presence of US military officials at key Saudi defence facilities, often in civilian clothes... is regarded as indispensable in order to ensure swift coordination and secure communications in such an emergency”.

Meanwhile, the US still needs Saudi oil, particularly while the reconstruction of the Iraqi oil industry — and its exploitation in US interests — is hampered by the insurgency.

Even setting aside the disaster in Iraq, for the US government the collapse of the Saudi regime would be a catastrophe on the scale of the fall of the Shah in the Iranian revolution of 1979.   more »

The west's prohibition approach to drugs is as entrenched as it is idiotic. Davies and Birt are pissing in the wind. So, by the way, am I. But I've nothing else to do this afternoon, so let's fritter away my time.

It would be nice if everyone were happy and good. If everyone were a productive member of society, reliably rising to greet the morning, bursting into song and eager for the day ahead.

If we all took such joy in the miracle of sheer being that it would never enter our heads to try to fuzzy up a single blade of grass.

But government can't manifest this healthy look-life-square-in-the-eye by fiat. Frankly, most of us need to take the edge off once in a while - or put it on. Get a buzz from a cup of coffee or a few drags of a fag.

Put our feet up with a glass of cabernet or sink into the sofa with a cognac before bed. Plenty of folks in my boomer generation still suck on the odd spliff in the privacy of their living rooms, and the sky doesn't fall when they do.   more »

The West being a purely materialistic society has two objectives. It wants to control the energy resources of the world and remain as an unchallenged power that subjugates the rest of the world.

George W. Bush’s cries of “unleashing the forces of freedom all over the world” and “establishment of a new world order” in his Liberty Speech shortly after his re-election as the President of U.S. are nothing but the indicators towards the same end.

This is what the West has been working on to achieve over the years.

The United State’s interference in the affairs of the different countries in the recent past and helping to bring pro-West regimes to power in many countries are examples that everyone is familiar with.

So is everyone familiar with the way the West achieved the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The Soviet Union breakup gave rise to a number of infant nation states that happen to have importance from a strategic and energy asset viewpoint for the West.   more »

Pat Robertson's call for American agents to assassinate President Hugo Chavez is a "terrorist" statement that should be investigated by U.S. authorities, Venezuela said yesterday.

Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was the most recent example of controversial remarks made by the televangelist and founder of the Christian Coalition.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said of Chavez in Monday's broadcast of "The 700 Club."

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strongarm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Robertson once declared that feminism "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."   more »

There has been a media circus fed by a huge Israeli-government public-relations effort to drum up sympathy for the "painful" relocation of Jewish settlers from Gaza. But who are these settlers, and why were they brought there in the first place?

Is Israel really leaving Gaza, or merely switching to occupying it from outside, rather than inside? Will Gaza become a large open-air prison, with its population held hostage as Israel controls its air space, natural resources, and access?

Few journalists dare ask these questions. The answers can be troubling. This tactical maneuver may not weaken but actually strengthen the Zionist project.

The Zionist project is not about 8,500 settlers who have been living among 1.3 million Palestinians (mostly refugees) in a tiny desert strip called Gaza.   more »