Let's say gassing the Kurds, for one. Money donated to terrorists and their families another. The torture of political opponents, for a third. The invasion of Kuwait. His failure to comply with UN sanctions.
that isn't the first time you have said something to me that looks like a veiled threat.
I haven't decided yet if you are really stupid or if you are playing games. I think it must be the former because game players usually aren't as consistent as you are. There was no threat. We were talking about you joining the Iraqi army. My guess life expectancy in the Iraqi army is going to go way down real soon.
if the U.N. wants to find some materials that can be used for bio-terror, they may want to stop looking in the deserts of Iraq and go take a look around the University of Texas.
== Shut The Hell Up And Keep Your Whiny Religious BS Out Of My Sex Life Day == President Bush pleased twitchy puling sexless badly dressed desperately repressed anti-abortion activists Tuesday by declaring a National Sanctity of Human Life Day and pledging his administration's commitment to "build a culture that respects life," except for, you know, animals and the environment and foreigners and anyone who's not really really white and rich and who doesn't know his dad or who has bonked Jenna in a drunken frat haze, as Cheney and Rummy stood nearby, snickering and rubbing their hands together and conjuring dark oozing demons from deep in their own bowels while ordering 100,000 more troops into the Gulf to prepare to massacre an estimated 500,000 to 900,000 Iraqis, as estimated by the U.N., the sanctity of whose life, of course, don't matter in the slightest. The announcement was immediately followed by an announcement by every sentient sexually attuned self-defined being on the planet that tomorrow and in fact every day thereafter will officially be known as "Spank an Uptight Anti-Choice Groupthink Dinkmonkey Whilst Embracing And Sucking The Toes of Your Own Funky Gorgeous Ability to Think For Yourself Day," which, all agreed, will look absolutely terrific on a greeting card.
Can you believe that people actually applaud this nonsense?
It's an interesting question, and you'll probably be surprised at the answer. The oddest source of the left's money comes from the rich. The really rich. The Washington Times recently reported that the richest 1 percent of Americans give disproportionately more to Democrats than to Republicans. Republicans, on the other hand, get more money from the richest fifth of income earners.
Has anyone been following the Senate committee situation? They finally decided on funding. The way the decided it, to me, is an example of what is wrong with our government. They decided to fund the committees on a 60-49 split. The Republicans get 60% of the funds and Democrats get 49%. Now I have been out of school for awhile but I am pretty sure that math is flawed and does not add up.
One of the more talked-about bill introductions Thursday was a proposal to eliminate Minnesota's law against marriages between first cousins.
The bill is sponsored by DFL Reps. Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis and Cy Thao of St. Paul. They say recent scientific studies conclude that children of first cousins are at no greater risk of genetic defects than others. Thao, one of two Hmong legislators, said such unions are not uncommon in that culture. Kahn said the law also is a problem for Somali immigrants.
Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, joked that the bill would appear to conflict with Gov. Tim Pawlenty's oft-stated promise "not to turn us into another Arkansas."
Why should a WWII vet that walked away from the war healthy, that went on to lead a normal life like the rest of society, expect anything today, except to milk the system?
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that draftees added "no value, no advantage, really, to the United States Armed Services over any sustained period of time."
If not for draftees, all of Germany would be speaking German right now.
Normally I would agree with you. But I know the military well enough to know that these guys got hosed. The contract of enlistment is way too one-sided. I entered the service in 1990 and was discharged two years early in 1996 when they decided to lower the weight standard. Instead of "grandfathering" me to the requirements I agreed to in the first place, they changed the rules after the fact. Many promises were made that got changed. The problem is that when you sign up, you don't get the option to "back out" when they change your contract. Lawyers call it "breech of contract" in the real world, in the military they call it "convenience of the government". No matter what you call it, it doesn't matter. You can't sue the government while enlisted, so the only course of action is to bend over, grab your ankles, and take it without lubrication.
He turned his back on ALL of us with the decision to turn away ANYONE who served, but wasn't disabled by their service, IF they happen to make more than $35k per year, beginning TODAY. Sounds fair to me. I mean the rich should pay their fair share!
Another cold, brown morning. Seems like it's been this way for months on end, This uncommon winter is starting to become common year after year. It's robbed us up here in Minnesota of the joyful opportunity of dealing with the weather. We should be shoveling snow out of the way and pushing out our neighbors. In good years, one could look to the heavens and taunt the Good Lord. He would visit us several times a year with several inches of snow.
"Is that all you got," a guy could silently yell at the Heavens as he shoveled. "Well, it ain't breaking me, I'm not even sweating down here, yet."
Now it's just cold and brown.
Went for a swim yesterday at the Blaisdell YMCA during noon hour. Sat in the sauna and overheard a couple guys talking outside. Some Mexicans had moved into one of the guy's buildings. Good people, he said. But he doesn't like the Somalis. They're smug and don't appreciate the opportunities offered in America.
"And I'll say it to their face," he said.
Then he launched into a comical imitation of one of the leaders in the Somali community and both of them laughed.
I didn't want to leave the sauna. It was dark and cozy, like winter was supposed to be,
I know one of the two guys. He's a bartender at a place I used to stop in for a beer occasionally.\03
If all that isn't enough to bring a guy down, then City Pages will finish the job.
Looked at it before I went to sleep last night. Self important and mighty pleased with themselves is the tone of the cynics who are regular contributors. Stories on books I don't read and music I never want to hear. A sex columnist whose readers ask questions that seem more demented every time I see it. Page, after page, after page of personals ads.
Toward the front was a column by Steve Perry who doesn't seem to ever fail at filling out the bleak infield of city pages writers. His weekly column brought back the sting of the last election, and thoughts about Minnesota I'd been dwelling on since the last then. Under the headline "Suddenly Wisconsin," Perry writes:
"But you can't measrue what's happening here in dollars and cents. It marks the passing of an era and an ethos of the state -- in the idea of what it means to live here. Shaped in myth and partly in fact by a long tradition of northern European radicalism and prairie populism, Minnesota for generations has stayed largely ahead of the pack in social spending of various kinds. The government and the citizenry wore this fact proudly; business perenially carped about it and perenially reaped the benefits it brought. Unfortunateily the Scandinavian social welfare ethic that shaped the Minnesota way has not stood up well to the intrusions of the larger world. The social generosity at the heart of it was reserved for 'people like us." and the less the subjects of our largess looked like us, the less stomach we retained for it."
Finally:
"A generation's worth of new faces -- in-country migrations of black and brown from other, more depressed Midwestern cities, and the influx of multihued refugees from the world over -- has hardened the Twin Cities and the state in ways we'll be years coming to grips with."
If all that isn't enough to bring a guy down, then City Pages will finish the job.
Looked at it before I went to sleep last night. Self important and mighty pleased with themselves is the tone of the cynics who are regular contributors. Stories on books I don't read and music I never want to hear. A sex columnist whose readers ask questions that seem more demented every time I see it. Page, after page, after page of personals ads.
In case you didn't notice, the hardening of America has been going on since Nixon was exposed, and before. Compared to FL, Minnesota is bright, happy and contented.
Sounds like revisionist history, fold. The world has been a hard place through out history.
Question: You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife comes around the corner and is running at you while screaming obscenities. In your hand is a Glock .40 and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?
Liberal Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that is inspiring him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me or would he just be content to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for a few days to try to come to a conclusion.
Conservative Answer:
BANG!
Texan's Answer:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click... (sounds of clip being ejected and fresh clip installed)
Wife: "Sweetheart, he looks like he's still moving, what do you kids think?"
fold wrote: In case you didn't notice, the hardening of America has been going on since Nixon was exposed, and before. Compared to FL, Minnesota is bright, happy and contented.
I responded with: Sounds like revisionist history, fold. The world has been a hard place through out history.
fold wrote in response to my comment: NO!!! Really? I see you are still getting headlines from the "DUH" magazine web site...?
You are the one that made the original dumb statement, fold. I just pointed it out. Now off to the corner with you and don't forget your pointy hat.
I'm a lefty. But lately, instead of inspiring me, the left keeps making me feel awful about the world.
My latest lefty-awful moment happened on Martin Luther King Day last week, as I turned on an MPR call-in show. The subject was the peace movement, and host Katherine Lanpher's guest was New York-based professor of sociology and commentator Todd Gitlin.
An older listener had called in to say he had lived through World War II, had seen what happened when you appeased a megalomaniac, and was starting to get uncomfortable about the reflexive opposition to war with Iraq. He was comparing Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler, of course, and mentioned that he remembered Neville Chamberlain's visit to Berlin. Greatest Generation be damned, however; after a minute or so Lanpher told Grandpa to get to his point, argued with him when he asked for more time, then cut him off and turned the mike over to Gitlin.
"The caller can't possibly remember Neville Chamberlain going to Berlin," said the eagle-eyed professor, "because Chamberlain went to Munich. And the rest of his statement is about that accurate."
Gitlin has himself written about the alienating ways of the peace movement, so it was disappointing to see him assume the stance that minds are changed through argument and ridicule. After a point-by-point refuting of the comparison between Saddam and Hitler -- steadfastly avoiding any acknowledgment the caller might just be a fellow member of the human race, responding to his very real and affecting experience in life -- our thoughtful radio expert submitted his rhetorical coup de grace: "The analogy crumbles," he said. "It's made of proverbial sand."
I felt bad for the caller -- how shabbily the two had treated him on their little morning show here in the waning years of his life. I also began to wonder where the left gets its harshness -- a know-it-all style of dark grievance-dom that has increasingly come to define the peace movement. It was on my mind because I had seen this belief system in full bloom two nights earlier, as I watched a replay of the day's big Washington, D.C., antiwar demonstration.
At the march, speaker upon speaker proclaimed the supposed true motivation behind the current U.S. build-up: The rush to war is about oil. The rush to war is about U.S. global aggression. The rush to war is about Bush Jr. finishing the work of Bush Sr. The rush to war, according to the very name of the organizing body behind Saturday's protest march -- International ANSWER, or Act Now to Stop War and End Racism -- is about race.
The soup of causes, theories and pronouncements made my head spin. It also made me wary of my spokespersons. Much has been made of late of the unlikely bed-partners at these marches -- how the merely conscientious must sit through the orations of the terminally consternated. How the presence of former Milosevic-defender and attorney general Ramsey Clark shouting for impeachment might just alienate the less-cynical pastors, housewives and earnest teenagers who had boarded buses to Washington.
I just wish that every gathering of my lefties didn't have to become such a tedious exercise in cause-linking, chant-bullhorning and supposed truth-telling. I have the fantasy of a progressive cause with no Youth and Student Coordinator, no West Coast Representative, no brother from the movement in the country to the south and no presumption that words like Solidarity, Network, Action and Uprising are always to be treated as gospel, the code words that say we are all the same.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. didn't play this game. Look at his face, full of dignity and calm while being pushed into the police station counter like a petty thief. Far from being consumed with rhetorical swordsmanship, crowd counts and secret agendas, he seemed to gain confidence in standing up against the simple, obvious truth -- the whack jobs that the Southern whites had become. He may have come out against the Vietnam War, he may have embraced a peripheral cause or two, but I can't imagine he would have strayed from the optimism of his dream to support the grab-bag of activism and sour outlooks of the scoundrels who would try to use the moment to sign us up for less defensible causes. (Long live the Palestinian people? Isn't theirs the cause that bombed a Sbarro?)
And I can't see him doing something so ineffectual or insecure as pointing out a mistake about an event that happened 70 years ago, not when there was a potential friend to be made.
-- Paul Scott is a writer who lives in Rochester, Minn.
Look, I get as annoyed at some these street protesters as anyone. I think they're often naive and silly. But if they need to vent their emotions, it's not going to hurt anything. And it's not going to change the course of what's going to happen. I think the die is cast.
Nothing's wrong with wanting peace. And I would never deny their right to speak for it. But I also have the right to take issue with their tactics, lies or motives. It doesn't mean I want war or am anti-peace. The trouble I see with the peace movement of today was pointed out by the editorial. It's about 20 different causes and their hypocrisy is obvioius sometimes. There are some opposed to taking action for pure motives, and I respect that, unfortunately for them their self appointed spokes people aren't doing them any favors.
You don't think Saddam and his actions over the years aren't evil? Don't you know what he has been doing?
what's the matter?
it was a simple question.
what are we calling him evil for?
Let's say gassing the Kurds, for one. Money donated to terrorists and their families another. The torture of political opponents, for a third. The invasion of Kuwait. His failure to comply with UN sanctions.
The guy used to be on our payroll.
done when hired by the CIA to do so.
see above.
How many sanctions and treaties have we broken? how many has Isreal ignored with our support?
the USA just lost some Bubonic plague in Texas at a "bio-terror" lab.
now, we want them to prove that they have no WOMD or bio-terror weapons, right?
You are really ignorant if you think Saddam can be trusted. You are stupid if you think the US actions are comparable to Saddam's.
you are really ignorant if you think the current administration can be trusted.
The fact is, he was on the CIA payroll. If anything, we are worse.
you are really ignorant if you think the current administration can be trusted.
They can be trusted infinitely more than the last administration.
The fact is, he was on the CIA payroll. If anything, we are worse.
I suggest you go to Iraq and join their army then. Or maybe you can offer your services to Al Queada right here in Ohio.
you helped pay for it.
I have no desire to kill anyone
I have no desire to kill anyone
Don't worry chances are you wouldn't. You might get killed, though.
that isn't the first time you have said something to me that looks like a veiled threat.
what's up with that?
It's not something I want to take a chance with.
that isn't the first time you have said something to me that looks like a veiled threat.
I haven't decided yet if you are really stupid or if you are playing games. I think it must be the former because game players usually aren't as consistent as you are. There was no threat. We were talking about you joining the Iraqi army. My guess life expectancy in the Iraqi army is going to go way down real soon.
no we weren't.
you were.
I have no desire to join any army.
if the U.N. wants to find some materials that can be used for bio-terror, they may want to stop looking in the deserts of Iraq and go take a look around the University of Texas.
More liberal bile:
Can you believe that people actually applaud this nonsense?
Yes
Unfortunately, fold, there are those that take that stuff seriously. I thought you would have been one of those. Are you?
the new liberal mantra: I myself have an axis of hatred: Dubya, Dubya, and Dubya.
Good. I don't like crowds.
It's an interesting question, and you'll probably be surprised at the answer. The oddest source of the left's money comes from the rich. The really rich. The Washington Times recently reported that the richest 1 percent of Americans give disproportionately more to Democrats than to Republicans. Republicans, on the other hand, get more money from the richest fifth of income earners.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75653,00.html
Has anyone been following the Senate committee situation? They finally decided on funding. The way the decided it, to me, is an example of what is wrong with our government. They decided to fund the committees on a 60-49 split. The Republicans get 60% of the funds and Democrats get 49%. Now I have been out of school for awhile but I am pretty sure that math is flawed and does not add up.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3597346.html
Billions in debt and we're wasting time worrying about making cousins marrying eachother legal. On the next Springer.
Whatever its worth: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75879,00.html
Why should a WWII vet that walked away from the war healthy, that went on to lead a normal life like the rest of society, expect anything today, except to milk the system?
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that draftees added "no value, no advantage, really, to the United States Armed Services over any sustained period of time."
If not for draftees, all of Germany would be speaking German right now.
this is just a warm up before they get rid of SS
We'll all probably get a little tax cut though.
And some will get a pretty big one. They won't get means tested like Category 8 vets.
WWWD
WWWD?
Who cares. It's a whole new ballgame.
"Who cares."
Me and a couple others
"It's a whole new ballgame. "
Don't I know it.
Double post on '864
THX:
Normally I would agree with you. But I know the military well enough to know that these guys got hosed. The contract of enlistment is way too one-sided. I entered the service in 1990 and was discharged two years early in 1996 when they decided to lower the weight standard. Instead of "grandfathering" me to the requirements I agreed to in the first place, they changed the rules after the fact. Many promises were made that got changed. The problem is that when you sign up, you don't get the option to "back out" when they change your contract. Lawyers call it "breech of contract" in the real world, in the military they call it "convenience of the government". No matter what you call it, it doesn't matter. You can't sue the government while enlisted, so the only course of action is to bend over, grab your ankles, and take it without lubrication.
He turned his back on ALL of us with the decision to turn away ANYONE who served, but wasn't disabled by their service, IF they happen to make more than $35k per year, beginning TODAY. Sounds fair to me. I mean the rich should pay their fair share!
I agree Bill & CSC. It's lame. I believe that it will get changed though. Call it instinct but it will.
Rick,
WWWD ? You don't want to go there.
Awright.
I'll stay in my place.
That's not what I meant Rick.
Another cold, brown morning. Seems like it's been this way for months on end, This uncommon winter is starting to become common year after year. It's robbed us up here in Minnesota of the joyful opportunity of dealing with the weather. We should be shoveling snow out of the way and pushing out our neighbors. In good years, one could look to the heavens and taunt the Good Lord. He would visit us several times a year with several inches of snow.
"Is that all you got," a guy could silently yell at the Heavens as he shoveled. "Well, it ain't breaking me, I'm not even sweating down here, yet."
Now it's just cold and brown.
Went for a swim yesterday at the Blaisdell YMCA during noon hour. Sat in the sauna and overheard a couple guys talking outside. Some Mexicans had moved into one of the guy's buildings. Good people, he said. But he doesn't like the Somalis. They're smug and don't appreciate the opportunities offered in America.
"And I'll say it to their face," he said.
Then he launched into a comical imitation of one of the leaders in the Somali community and both of them laughed.
I didn't want to leave the sauna. It was dark and cozy, like winter was supposed to be,
I know one of the two guys. He's a bartender at a place I used to stop in for a beer occasionally.\03
"See you later, Rick," he said as I walked by.
I waved without looking back.
If all that isn't enough to bring a guy down, then City Pages will finish the job.
Looked at it before I went to sleep last night. Self important and mighty pleased with themselves is the tone of the cynics who are regular contributors. Stories on books I don't read and music I never want to hear. A sex columnist whose readers ask questions that seem more demented every time I see it. Page, after page, after page of personals ads.
Toward the front was a column by Steve Perry who doesn't seem to ever fail at filling out the bleak infield of city pages writers. His weekly column brought back the sting of the last election, and thoughts about Minnesota I'd been dwelling on since the last then. Under the headline "Suddenly Wisconsin," Perry writes:
"But you can't measrue what's happening here in dollars and cents. It marks the passing of an era and an ethos of the state -- in the idea of what it means to live here. Shaped in myth and partly in fact by a long tradition of northern European radicalism and prairie populism, Minnesota for generations has stayed largely ahead of the pack in social spending of various kinds. The government and the citizenry wore this fact proudly; business perenially carped about it and perenially reaped the benefits it brought. Unfortunateily the Scandinavian social welfare ethic that shaped the Minnesota way has not stood up well to the intrusions of the larger world. The social generosity at the heart of it was reserved for 'people like us." and the less the subjects of our largess looked like us, the less stomach we retained for it."
Finally:
"A generation's worth of new faces -- in-country migrations of black and brown from other, more depressed Midwestern cities, and the influx of multihued refugees from the world over -- has hardened the Twin Cities and the state in ways we'll be years coming to grips with."
If all that isn't enough to bring a guy down, then City Pages will finish the job.
Looked at it before I went to sleep last night. Self important and mighty pleased with themselves is the tone of the cynics who are regular contributors. Stories on books I don't read and music I never want to hear. A sex columnist whose readers ask questions that seem more demented every time I see it. Page, after page, after page of personals ads.
Maybe you are just growing up, Rick.
In case you didn't notice, the hardening of America has been going on since Nixon was exposed, and before. Compared to FL, Minnesota is bright, happy and contented.
Sounds like revisionist history, fold. The world has been a hard place through out history.
Question: You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife comes around the corner and is running at you while screaming obscenities. In your hand is a Glock .40 and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?
Liberal Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that is inspiring him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids? Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me or would he just be content to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for a few days to try to come to a conclusion.
Conservative Answer:
BANG!
Texan's Answer:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click... (sounds of clip being ejected and fresh clip installed)
Wife: "Sweetheart, he looks like he's still moving, what do you kids think?"
Son: "Mom's right Dad, I saw it too..."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Daughter: "Nice grouping Daddy!
fold wrote: In case you didn't notice, the hardening of America has been going on since Nixon was exposed, and before. Compared to FL, Minnesota is bright, happy and contented.
I responded with: Sounds like revisionist history, fold. The world has been a hard place through out history.
fold wrote in response to my comment: NO!!! Really? I see you are still getting headlines from the "DUH" magazine web site...?
You are the one that made the original dumb statement, fold. I just pointed it out. Now off to the corner with you and don't forget your pointy hat.
comment on Bush: If I'm not mistaken, I believe Dumbya just prayed at the podium.
liberal response: Oh, butt-fuck me Jesus.
Irrational but true!
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/3618934.html
I'm not sure what liberal qualification he brings to the table.
"I also began to wonder where the left gets its harshness."
If he's still talking about talk radio, I think I got a pretty good idea where it was learned.
"-A know-it-all style of dark grievance-dom that has increasingly come to define the peace movement."
Dittos
In Minnesota we come by our harshness honestly. We lost our joyful fighting spirit not far from the airport in Evelith.
Do you need a memebership card or is there a secret handshake ?
Well he was talking about MPR, ah yes MPR & NPR, that bastion of the right.
It was palpable well before that day. It also applies to people from the left that aren't from here that had little idea who he was.
"Do you need a memebership card or is there a secret handshake ? "
No, but it's pretty easy for someone to say "I'm a liberal" and proceed to cut them down. It gives him credability. He could be as right wing as you.
So you're saying it's a conspiracy ? ;)
Just kiddin.
Look, I get as annoyed at some these street protesters as anyone. I think they're often naive and silly. But if they need to vent their emotions, it's not going to hurt anything. And it's not going to change the course of what's going to happen. I think the die is cast.
What's wrong with wanting peace?
Nothing's wrong with wanting peace. And I would never deny their right to speak for it. But I also have the right to take issue with their tactics, lies or motives. It doesn't mean I want war or am anti-peace. The trouble I see with the peace movement of today was pointed out by the editorial. It's about 20 different causes and their hypocrisy is obvioius sometimes. There are some opposed to taking action for pure motives, and I respect that, unfortunately for them their self appointed spokes people aren't doing them any favors.
you mean like the Skull and Crossbone club?