Phi for All

Here's an interesting AP News Story about Iran. When you read it, note how it seems to be designed to spread fear about Iran and their capabilities. We're already opening the doors to invasion there, and I suspect this was part of the plan a long time ago. I'd be interested to see how (or if) the BBC reported on this. The "shining objects" reminded me of a funny story, and I apologize for no linkage as this was told to me second-hand by a friend who belonged to an RC plane club. Several years ago, the US military coveted the unmanned mini spy-planes the Israelis had developed to keep tabs on their neighbors, so they gave Lockheed over US$1M to research them. Lockheed came back after several months and said they could set up a program for a multi-million dollar price tag, but they would need time because the US$1M ran out before they could come up with a workable prototype. Someone in defense gave the same problem to an RC club and they came up with three spy-plane prototypes for US$75,000.

Here's the problem with that, Demo. We, the people, only find out about the greedy reasons after the fact. We throw our support behind Congress, which allows the President to go in "to help" those oppressed folks, and save us from the terrorists who threaten us. Then we find out, again after the fact, that the enemy wasn't really as much of a threat as the President made them out to be. But oh well, we're still helping those people, right? Now we see that many of the folks who weren't terrorists before resent us being in their country. Now they are "insurgents" who are telling us to go home. They may have wanted Saddam deposed, but now they see how much of their country is on fire and they are cranky. So I guess the people didn't want our help as much as the President told us they did. And all we're left with are the greedy reasons.

In Demosthenes defense though, he seems to genuinely want to know why I feel the way I do about the war in the face of popular "evidence", rather than just try to snipe from some intractable position he's wedded to. He doesn't have to change his mind about it, but he's listening to another POV and that's what counts.

You shouldn't have named this split "War on Iraq Soap-boxing" then. You should have named it "War on Iraq: Brilliant New Insights".

I think GW Sr pounded their WMD program flat. What little they had left was certainly not a threat to us. I think it was easy to make them the bad guys because they had played that role before. Many foreign leaders are seen as tyrants when viewed from an American public perspective. We tend to judge other countries pretty harshly when we've seeminly got it so good. I think the ties to terrorism were completely trumped up because, like many Islamic Middle Eastern countries, Iraq was sympathetic to Hamas and the PLO, and gave them money in their fight against Israel. The US isn't exactly spotless when it comes to things like that. The IRA has had US support, and let's not forget that while we were helping Iraq fight Iran in the 80s, the Reagan administration secretly sold Iran missiles, hoping for the release of American hostages (violating Congressional orders). And we used the money Iran gave us to help overthrow an elected government in Nicaragua that was not sympathetic to US interests (also violating Congressional orders). Saddam Hussein was treating his people the same way during the 80s when we helped him fight Iran (even though we later screwed him). As I've said before, if you want to talk human rights violations, there are worse dictators to overthrow. I think the Bush administration used the timing on 9/11, the obvious enmity between Iraq and the US, AND all the money to be gained, political favors to be repaid (I guess I forgot to mention earlier that the Carlyle Group owns 70% of Lockheed Martin), and charged into Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no exit strategy because I don't believe Bush intends to exit. There is so much money to be made when we are at war.

Thanks, YT! I was going to do it when I made Mod but thought it would be an abuse of power if I did it too soon. Speaking of sticky: A man decided to paint the toilet while his wife was away. His wife came home sooner than he expected, used the toilet, and got the seat stuck to her rear. She was understandably distraught about this and asked her husband to drive her to the doctor. She put a large overcoat on before they went. When they got to the doctor's office, the man lifted his wife's coat to show him their predicament. The man asked, "Doctor, have you ever seen anything like this before?" "Well, yes," the doctor replied, "but never framed."

I'm sending a letter to Wright-Patterson AFB asking for $1M to fund a study into the zero-point energy field. George Lucas already wrote my conclusion back in 1976: "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant when compared to the power of The Force." Your article reminds me of a story many years ago about a woman in Boulder, CO, who got a government grant to study the process of plastic decay over time in an organic environment. She got something like US$75K/year and all she did was bury some Tupperware in her back yard, dig it up and report that it was still intact, no sign of decay. I forget how many years she got to do this.

Seeing as how many of the stories about Saddam's WMDs and ties to 9/11, the very reasons to invade Iraq (seeing as how there are other tyrants in the world who are committing worse atrocities), have been proven false, why do you think we invaded? Our intelligence communities are not as dumb as everyone seems to think, handing out misinformation to the White House and the JCS with great regularity. And I'm not one to say it was only out of greed. I just think the greed happened to coincide with a great many other opportunities to have an unrestricted base of operations inside the Middle East. The invasion of Afghanistan just happened to coincide with protecting Unocal and their investments in the $12 trillion trans-Afghanistan pipeline. Not catching Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan just happened to open the door to the invasion of Iraq. And I'm sure in the near future something will just happen that will coincide with an invasion of Iran. Meanwhile, arms merchants like Lockheed Martin rake in huge profits during times of war. LM is also one of the top lobbyists in Washington, trying to push us into "stronger defense", a euphamism that tugs at our patriotism while lining their pockets. Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, is a former Lockheed board member. Undersecretary of the Air Force Peter Teets is a former Lockheed President and COO, one of 8 members of the Bush administration who is a former associate or major investor in Lockheed. When he was Governor of Texas, President Bush was a great friend of Lockheed. He tried to give them a contract to run the Texas welfare system until even the voters in Texas screamed foul. Can you honestly say that the Carlyle Group wouldn't offer GWjr a nice advisory position like they did Daddy when he's no longer employed? And that that position would be because of all the "coinciding" Jr was able to arrange?

Other than reading (non-Kanji) and the polite conversational linguistics one picks up, no. Actually, it was a reference to westerners, who are foreign to most Asian customs.

The Asian concept of "face" dictates that you pointing out others flaws not only humiliates them it humiliates you and causes you to lose face. You're right Coral, for an Asian to smile and act unoffended when a gaijin acts like a jerk points out their nobility and tact, and let's them laugh at your barbarity without seeming childish.

One more time, and that's it. I think having the words "under God" taught to school kids in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the separation of Church and State. Period. Argue rights and constitutionality and majority rules with someone else.

Since we are discussing a potential SCOTUS decision, I think everyone thought, "Duh, syntax, of course they have the final say, golly, we were just discussing it here in a thread called "How far should the US take separation of Church and State?" We sure didn't mean the decision should be left up to us.

Are we only discussing this Rage Against the Mechians show? If not, this is where it breaks down for me. With all the fear generated by the "robots turning against their masters" genre of fiction, why would we ever be able to go down that road? Market conditions will never favor a completely humanoid robot because of this paranoia. The only reason we would need robots that looked exactly like us would be to perform tasks that only humans used to do, using existing human tools and technology. Would we ever be capable of accepting a robot who stole our job when we scream because a foreigner did? Why wouldn't a technology that could develope humanoid robots bypass the need to make them look like us? Why have a humanoid hand to hold a screwdriver when the hand could be a screwdriver?

Why didn't you ask that in the beginning, syntax252? We could have saved ourselves thirteen pages of your ObfuscaFest. Those who can, do. Those who can't, debate it on Internet forums.

Passionate subject matter. Hey, you made a generalized statement about how religious references coudn't EVER be a threat to kids. It was wrong, admit it. Red herrings again. I for one never said it was harmful or infringed on anyone's rights. I said it was a violation of the separation of Church and State because school is State and Sunday school is Church. The words should not have been added in 1954. The Pledge of Allegiance is strong enough without them. I can easily see why some people don't agree to pledging to God, which is implied in a pledge to a country under God. It's no more complicated than that, please don't add your claptrap. And you can skip the whole voluntary angle. It's taught to 6-year-olds who don't have much of a grasp on that concept. No, I do not. Are you now implying that Christians have a right to promote their religion in public schools because they are in the majority?

Check out this thread. It was started 7 months ago, and I'm not saying we can't bring up controversial topics every once in a while, especially with new members joining all the time, but take a read and see if there are any new angles that haven't been discussed. Your opinions are always appreciated, but wouldn't it be great to discuss some new insight on a tired old topic?

Before the leprechaun, he used to love to poke fun at her when she was being dumb about something. He used to feel superior when she would stumble over a big word or misunderstand a story on the news. He would explain a joke and then spend the next half hour snickering over her stupidity. But now, all she has to do is give him that look.... That look that says, "You saw him, too, fool. You saw the little green hat, the pipe stuck in his mouth, the little walking stick he carried. And we weren't drinking that night either, our checks hadn't come and there wasn't a drop in the house, so nothing you can say can make me believe it was my imagination. I washed your drawers the next day, I know you saw him too." Now he didn't feel superior at all....

Oh, I'm sure they love you. I'm sure they get a big laugh out of your stereotyping them. That's always so much fun.

Phi for All (AKA Laman Gottsprach): Dabbler in science and philosophy, mid-40's, married with one child. I have found the secret to unlocking the energy of the universe by combining spiritual mysticism with modern theoretical physics. In an attempt to recreate an experiment where I was able to harness enough energy to power my own home using an element known to exist but never found on earth, I inadvertantly caused a tremendous hurricane to wipe out a good deal of the earth's population. I'm afraid of what I've done. I'm afraid someone might find out it was me. I'm afraid the world might need my secret to survive.

Kiss me, I'm Irish! Well, a little bit.... Here's an idea for the story: she has told one of her girlfriends in town, and over the years, it has leaked out to more and more of the women, unbeknownst to her. He, of course, has done the same thing with the same results. The entire town has an opinion about the leprechaun, but won't talk about it to the original couple. Then it comes out at a town meeting or something, and the couple's lifelong secret is revealed to be common knowledge....

As a fellow American, I find this attitude deplorable. If the US expects to be the big superpower bully and not consider what the rest of the world thinks, we'll probably find ourselves in more wars with little or no support (sorry UK, you know what I mean). fake is right about one thing. At the present time, half the country feels justified in lashing out at anyone who doesn't seem to support us. The other half is wondering where the future is when the rest of the world considers us to be greedy warmongerers. We all love our country, none of us thinks we're making ALL the right choices, but some have embraced Bush as a sort of tough-talking, hard-walking John Wayne-type who might be able to keep us on top when the alligators get too deep. The rest of us are pretty sure he, his daddy and his friends who sell alligator-repellant helped throw us in the swamp in the first place. I love my country, but I'd rather see a world where armed aggression doesn't represent so much of the GNP. Resources like people's lives need to take precedence over the oil to run their cars. I love cultural diversity and I don't want a single world government. I want to live here and visit other cultures without fear. I want to see science used to increase knowledge, not exploited to increase aggression.

This is completely unnecessary. Jim Jones, please read. No objections. Keep it in church. Sorry, I'm not always thinking of you. I'm thinking of my six-year-old daughter. Is it too much to ask that separation of Church and State be just that? Cadmus made an excellent point earlier. When the words were added in 1954, what real justification was there to mix Church and State? Weren't there outcries then? If the kids have the right to change it any way they want to when they say or don't say it, then why is it taught to them in first grade with the religious phrasing?

/persecution

Don't you mean ho, ho you better watch out?