Birds and fish dying in their 1000s in America

[5co77ie]

anyone got any idea why there are 1000s of birds dropping out of the sky and 100,000s fish washing up dead in the US at the moment?

more have dropped out of the sky today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343962/More-birds-fall-Kentucky-Louisiana-dead-fish-wash-ashore.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Internet conspiracy theories range from secret US government experiments to UFOs, and there's some great 'apocalypse theories' popping up over in The States:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-animal-apocalypse-20110106,0,5198090.story

[eFestivals]

....and there's some great 'apocalypse theories' popping up over in The States:

well there would be - about 30% of the population of the USA are pre-enlightenment nutters.

You can (seriously) blame the Scots and Irish for that one.

[angelofharlem]

I was thinking maybe some sort of secret weapons testing or HAARP perhaps.

[The Nal]

You can (seriously) blame the Scots and Irish for that one.

[eFestivals]

Oh no question about it. 17th, 18th and 19th century Scots and Irish people! Think we still drank the blood of our dead from skulls then.

Yeah, I wasn't meaning anything current.

I'm currently reading a book that gives all of the background that's brought about the USA's southern rednecks, and the Scots and Irish immigrants to the USA get the majority of the blame (all rationally laid out as to why). It's not something I'd realised previously.

[worm]

Yeah, I wasn't meaning anything current.

I'm currently reading a book that gives all of the background that's brought about the USA's southern rednecks, and the Scots and Irish immigrants to the USA get the majority of the blame (all rationally laid out as to why). It's not something I'd realised previously.

Edited January 6, 2011 by worm

[5co77ie]

It's obvious it's H5N1 passed on by sneezing flying fish

Bet they wish they had never cancelled that 'Flash Forward' series - now they'll never know.

Edited January 6, 2011 by 5co77ie

[The Nal]

Yeah, I wasn't meaning anything current.

I'm currently reading a book that gives all of the background that's brought about the USA's southern rednecks, and the Scots and Irish immigrants to the USA get the majority of the blame (all rationally laid out as to why). It's not something I'd realised previously.

[5co77ie]

I was thinking maybe some sort of secret weapons testing or HAARP perhaps.

[eFestivals]

You can include the Dutch in that big fella. The majority of the urban georgraphy of the deep south was formed from Dutch design, but the biggest tell tale is the language they use. The drawls etc are directly descendended from the dutch dialect. You've got the french colonists too, which have formed distinctly liberal cultures and traditions down there in Louisianna and such like. You've got the slave trade as well of course, the effect of which is deeply profound.

as ever, you know little about what you're saying. German protestant immigrants have had a greater influence on bible belt culture than the Dutch, and "liberal cultures and traditions" are the very opposite of what I'm referring to.

[angelofharlem]

Yup I bet someone's been playing Muse really loudly --

[angelofharlem]

Yup I bet someone's been playing Muse really loudly --

Edited January 6, 2011 by angelofharlem

[eFestivals]

I read about it before yeah, interesting stuff. The Irish love/hate relationship with the black slaves is quite interesting. You’d be surprised at the amount of black Americans that have Irish ancestry - Billie Holiday, Muhammad Ali, Barack Obama, James Earl Jones. 12% of the population apparently. Which is mad for such a small country.

But Irish people mainly started the New York riots in 1875, killing lots of black people. Interesting stuff. What book are you reading? Im after a good book at the moment.

Ahhh, some of what you're referring to is Irish Catholics, which isn't a group I was particularly referring to (Catholics are in the main despised by the fundamentalist Southern Baptists) - tho they are in the mix at points. Mostly tho it's Scots/Irish proddy culture that's brought about today's pre-enlightenment rednecks.

The book is 'America right or wrong' by Anatol Lieven. It describes itself as "an anatomy of American Nationalism".

(I've made reference to this book in some previous posts, quite a while ago. I'm not a very slow reader, it's just that the book is on the dry side - so my reading of it has been broken by many other things I've read. But it's more than interesting enough for me to keep going back to).

[worm]

as ever, you know little about what you're saying. German protestant immigrants have had a greater influence on bible belt culture than the Dutch, and "liberal cultures and traditions" are the very opposite of what I'm referring to.

[eFestivals]

You said and I quote:

''All of the background that's brought about the USA's southern rednecks''

The bible belt culture is not 'all of the background' of the USA'a southern redneck. And liberal culture and traditions are fundamental aspects of the 'USA's southern redneck'. Both of which were heavily influenced by the Dutch and the French.

You may want to be a bit more specific in what you say in future, Boss.

Someone who knew the first thing on the subject wouldn't have made the huge error that you have. There's f**k all that's liberal about rednecks you fool.

[worm]

Someone who knew the first thing on the subject wouldn't have made the huge error that you have. There's f**k all that's liberal about rednecks you fool.

[5co77ie]

well it's spreading now loads of birds in sweden have died:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/06/bird-pocalypse-now-up-to-100-dead-jackdaws-found-in-sweden/

what ties both America and Sweden together?

Wikileaks! Julian Assange is behind this bird terrorism!

[eFestivals]

So New Orleans is puritan is it? There are no festivals indicative of Afro-American spirituality and the consumption of alcohol is outlawed?

Get a grip.

Who said "puritan"? Not me. I said redneck, and there's nothing liberal about rednecks.

At no point did I say every inhabitant of the south is a redneck. But if you want to know what proportion is, the answer across all the southern states is 66%+.

[worm]

There's nothing liberal about rednecks.

[eFestivals]

The facts suggest that there is. Some of the cultures set up by red necks openly incorporate liberal ideals into their own. A prime example of which is New Orleans.

And the red necks from New Orleans and Tennessee have incorporated liberal ideals in their cultures, such as those taken from France and Holland and the Afro-American communities.

what part of rednecks not being liberal are you failing to grasp?

A redneck is not simply a southerner. A redneck believes that the bible is literal; a redneck is racist; a redneck is anti-modernity; a redneck is anti-gay; a redneck is anti the 'east coast elite'. A redneck believes there is a conspiracy to destroy all they believe in. And what they believe in is the righteousness of their beliefs, and that others of differing views are wicked agents of satan.

[ampersand]

It's obvious it's H5N1 passed on by sneezing flying fish

Bet they wish they had never cancelled that 'Flash Forward' series - now they'll never know.

[worm]

what part of rednecks not being liberal are you failing to grasp?

A redneck is not simply a southerner. A redneck believes that the bible is literal; a redneck is racist; a redneck is anti-modernity; a redneck is anti-gay; a redneck is anti the 'east coast elite'. A redneck believes there is a conspiracy to destroy all they believe in. And what they believe in is the righteousness of their beliefs, and that others of differing views are wicked agents of satan.

Edited January 6, 2011 by worm

[5co77ie]

they cancelled it? thank christ i gave up after about episode 6 then.

[eFestivals]

The above is an extreme and outrageous stereotype based upon a minority of people usually uneducated and detached from the rest of their cohorts. It has no relation at all to the original red necks, which was a derogatory term used for the working class white European settlers in the southern states of America, as their necks went red in as they were working in the native sun. The cultures that emerged on the back of the aforementioned settlers can be considered redneck and many have evolved to incorporate diverse, cross cultural and liberal cultures.

if you had the first idea what you were talking about you wouldn't be posting such ignorant rubbish.

There is nothing liberal about racism, homophobia or pre-enlightenment beliefs. These are the dominant values of fundamentalist Southern Baptists, which make up a significant proportion of the southern states, and dominate them both socially and politically.

The stereotype you have evoked is not indicative of anything working class or European.

that's because there's little that's 'European' about them - unless you wish to class pre-enlightenment European values as being what you're meaning as 'European'. There is a greater similarity between pre-1914 European beliefs and today's rednecks than there is between today's European values and today's rednecks.

The dominant culture of those states is one formed by the people who wished to escape European modernity, and wished to continue to adhere to those pre-enlightenment values. Those values are re-enforced, somewhat ironically, by the effect of modern American capitalism.

You should be reading books that draw similarities between cross cultural extremism, not someone trying to implicate particular nations for breeding a unique blend of it.

Stating the true of things is no implication of anything, it's truth.

The redneck values I've stated exist, and dominant southern culture.

Edited January 6, 2011 by eFestivals

[worm]

if you had the first idea what you were talking about you wouldn't be posting such ignorant rubbish. .

Edited January 6, 2011 by worm