Jim,

I have enjoyed your fractals for many years now.  Maybe I have not read the text associated with them (other than the fractal cat stories -- I, too, am a cat person) but I am totally disheartened by your and Jack of TraDeZ words here.  This has usually been a group that was, I thought, driven by the search for hidden beauty in chaos.  What goes after this is not fractal related but, perhaps, is chaos related.

It appears that you and Jack, while two key members of this Fractint group, may not be so driven toward the search for hidden beauty.  I am truly saddened.

Without your getting into a deep descent into nastiness how can you believe this is the beginning or hastening of the decline of this country?  This last 8 years has been truly horrifying for the USA and our reputation around the world.  This last regime has bankrupted this nation, not just financially (Billions and Billions of dollars monthly going to what end other than killing people needlessly -- US, Iraqi, Afghani people) but in trust within this country and around the world.  Bush has truly created chaos for us and the rest of the world.  This is not chaos in the beautiful Fractint sort but the brutal, bloody, death affirming, hatred searching type. 

Bush has created this.  Granted, this came out of an even greater horror of 911 but what he has done in response is truly terrible and in many ways worse.  Our world is not safer, kinder, or more beautiful but is filled with fear, loss, death and ugliness beyond what I have seen in my 60+ years.  The 911 event was caused by some fundamentalist Islamic thugs.  Our initial response into Afghanistan was justified but the unnecessary escalation into Iraq was not.  We (the USA via Bush), a supposedly enlightened nation, created this and we are only beginning to pay for it.

I am sure this, and other responses, will trigger a flamogram type response (maybe this is exactly what you want!), but, in all good conscience, how can you not have some hope that we might have a chance to get ourselves out of the quagmire or cesspool that has defined the Bush presidency?  Do you want the continuation of the evil hostilities we have seen?

Russ Nelson
A long time lurker and lover of Fractals -- since Fractint v3.0
Apologies to Tim Wegner and the rest of the group for not being Fractint related...


Jim Muth wrote: 
At 03:51 PM 1/19/09 -0700, Jack of TraDeZ wrote:
  
On 2009-01-15 15:54, JimMuth wrote:
    
 **************Inauguration '09: Get complete 
coverage from the nation's capital.
(http://www.aol.com?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000027)
      
It's the beginning of the end  for the country 
I love(d) and grew up in. Thanx but no thanx. 
I'd rather not watch.
    

I agree entirely.  I plan on totally missing the 
so-called 'big' event.

IMO, the new president is not the beginning of the 
end, though he might hasten the decline.  This 
once-great country began its decline years ago.  
And if anyone on the Fractint list thinks I actually 
wrote the above advertisement for AOL, they should 
turn in their fractals and resign from the list in 
disgrace.

And if anyone wants to see some real debating on the 
list, get me started on liberal politics or 
conventional religion.  Hmmm.... Maybe this is what 
we need to get a little life back into the list.

Jim Muth



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