Always remember, every moment is a choice between LOVE AND FEAR. ********************************************************
On the TV show America's Top Model, one of the contenders, Danny said: "I'm uber-conservative: I don't like gay people. I don't like Muslims. I don't like abortions. I don't like anything liberal. But, other than that-I really like to get along with people... Read more below in Open Thread #2 about Democrats and moral values.
How on earth does the right-wing get away with defining Democrats as "Unpatriotic Godless Abortionists"? This reminds me of Ann Coulter shouting out to a boy with a soft voice in her audience last week,"Hey gay-boy..." And yet Coulter still went on FOX the other night with Hannity and Colmes and was treated as a respected pundit and "thinker".
Are we living in America in the 21st century? Is this how we have devolved? Bigoted hate-speak swirled off Danny girl's tongue as easily as the Pledge of Allegiance. Bashing liberals has become second nature to right-wingers; sort of like the Islamic Fundamentalists who rock and bow and repeat ungly mantras from the Koran. This Danny girl must have learned to recite "I don't like gays, I don't like liberals... the way she learned the Ten Commandments. BY THE WAY, WAKE UP CHRISTIANS: The Ten Commandments are from the Old Testament; why are you so obessesed with putting these up on government buildings and not Christ's SERMON ON THE MOUNT?
She must hear her parents and A.M. talk-radio (90% of all radio stations are owned by right-wing monopoly!) This is a dangerous sign. It's anti-American, un-Christian elitist brainwashing. For this girl to think it's "a good thing" or it's "Christian" to brag about disliking an entire category of fellow Americans, is the exact mindset of the Hitler Youth. This is an insidious form of brainwashing and what is so disturbing is that this contestant thinks her "speech" will help win her a modeling contract, as if these are good values! For one thing, she will never have a good hair-day; all the hairdressers in the modeling world are gay! I guess it's not very Christian of me to judge her by pointing this out, as all my good Christian Ann Coulter fans point out in their hate-mail.
This blog is a 2005 Koufax Award Double Nominee!! Voting closed yesterday. It is an honor to be nominated. Now it's time to change the world. Thanks to everyone who nominated us, and check out this wonderfully generous website Wampum and all the nominees.
Please visit RANDI RHODES website for HABITAT FOR HUMANITY and donate. She is the host of Air America who is doing amazing things to help rebuild after Katrina. See links to the right. 
I discovered a couple of great websites that deserve wider recognition VOTE FOR THEM TOO at Wampum! :
OPEN THREAD... or here are some ideas:
#1. Senator Joe Biden or John Edwards: which would make a better Democratic candidate for President? If Edwards gets strong and forceful, I think he has the values that middle-America wants. I like him.
#2. Question: Do you think Democrats need to start framing our campaign more towards true moral and Christian values (the ones the right-wing ignores) such as "taking care of the 'least of these' and bringing the dialogue back to poverty, medicare, health insurance, raising minimum wage, veterans benefits, alternative fuels, environment — and reframing the argument to show that these are true Christian values, not the bizarre obsession with abortion and homosexuality.
#1. Cheryl Seal Port Deal 'Pull Out' Is PHONY - Dubai Will STILL Be Owner
"The new entity is supposed to have an American board and American managers, but the ownership was still questionable. Or, as New York's Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer observed, "the devil is in the details." If DP World is in fact merely planning to put its U.S. assets under a U.S.-managed subsidiary with oversight from a U.S.-staffed board, it would be following in a long line of foreign suppliers of defense technology to the U.S.
"This looks like a variant of that," says Clyde Prestowitz of the Economic Strategy Group in Washington. "
http://www.forbes.com/home/logistics/2006/03/09/dubai-ports-divests-cx_daa-0309autofacescan12.html
Compare this to the intentionally vague and misleading AP: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20060309-1223-portssecurity.html
Fortunately, not everyone in Congress is a clueless cluck. Rep. Peter King (NY) wasn't so quick to swallow the bait and said he would reserve any celebrations until he saw the details of the deal. And he's wise to wait - one of the warning signs was Bush brown-noser Bill Frist's too-quick observation: This[alleged pull out of DPW]should make the issue go away."
#2. The woman who got fired from her job for having a "PROGRESSIVE TALK 11.50 AM Radio" bumper sticker on her car. Her boss said, "For all I know you could be Al Quaeda..."
#3. This from NPR and HUFFPO: Sandra Day O'Connor Warns Of "Beginnings" Of Dictatorship... Slams Tom DeLay, Sen. John Cornyn... NPR | March 10, 2006 at 12:00 AM FROM HUFFPO...
NPR's Nina Totenberg aired an amazing story this morning about a talk that just-resigned Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave at Georgetown University. The first woman to serve on the High Court wouldn't allow her actual words to be broadcast, and that's a shame, because -- based on Totenberg's report -- every American needs to hear what she said. The Reagan appointee who became a moderate and an American icon -- Bush v. Gore notwithstanding -- all but named names in thinly veiled attacks on former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and ended with a stunning warning. O'Connor told her Georgetown audience that judges can make presidents, Congress and governors "really really mad," and that if judges don't make people angry, they aren't doing their job. But she said judicial effectiveness is "premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts." While hailing the American system of rights and privileges, she noted that these don't protect the judiciary, that "people do".... more at HuffPo
My hero and good friend JOHN CONLEY, Marine combat vet, wrote this to me this morning: "Bushianity, a new religion"
"A couple of years ago Osama Bin Laden was shown in a news report giving a speech, but the reporting of what he was saying was scant, except in general, home-spun terms. Lydia, I'd bet my life that Bush not only didn't know the content of the speech, but didn't want or care to know!
I'll admit, though, up to that point I was guilty of this same indifference concerning anything any Al Queda sympathizer had to say, let alone Osama Bin Laden. But...his particular day I found myself curious about what this psycho Bin Laden had to say for himself, so I went to my computer and found the English translation of Bin Laden's entire speech.
Yes, he's a murderer and a viscious war criminal, but much of what he said in that speech was very revealing about the true core of hatred these particular Muslims harbor for the West. Dare I say that I had a measure of understanding concerning some of the points made by Osama?
I felt no sympathy for him, for sure, nor any of the other criminal-crazies in that bunch, but some of what he had to say caused me to believe that this chasm between them and us can eventually be bridged with careful, intelligent, reasoned and persistent diplomacy. Are not our men and women fighting this war today and the fresh memories of those injured and fallen not at least worth the attempt?
By now it should be clear to everyone that this perpetual, "bring-it-on" style of diplomacy is going to require more and more U.S. blood and treasure in GW's never ending search for this mythic John Wayne legacy he lusts for.
Allow me to go out on this limb just a little further.....I could actually envision discussions with a Bin Laden-type in an attempt to bring the two sides together, or at least to a point where we have a better understanding of each other. At the least we might expect mutual understanding to lead to a truce of sorts. (Upon the keywording by the FBI and interception of this email I can imagine being wrestled to the ground and arrested as an "enemy combatant".)
Bush and Bin Laden have both sealed their individual legacies as international, murderous bullies, but we can pray that someone wise will emerge from each side with the understanding and Truth that is so plainly revealed in Proverbs 16:7 (KJV) which says: When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Powerful, huh?"
there is more to this piece, I will post it later..." (from John Conley)
God Bless you all...
Lydia
Congratulations Lydia on your nominations. I voted for you in both categories.
ReplyDeleteSay hello to California for us. Your friends in Connecticut!!
Bette & family
Congratulations! Glad to do my part.
ReplyDeleteWorf,
ReplyDeleteYou were truly awesome in your eloquent defense of free speech. (blush)
But don't expect me to cut you any slack you l-word you.
I left my favorite matey, british gary one last luv note on the kilo-thread.
ReplyDeleteBwahaha.
BTW FF, i'd like to hear your opinion on military personel not being able to go to liberal blogs.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteI haven't researched it, but I suspect the prohibition has to do with giving away information which might compromise military positions or strength. If it is truly a prohibition against service folks visiting just "liberal" blogs then I would naturally oppose it.
However, I am disgusted by liberal blogs like democratic underground and dailykos which have little panic buttons or other ways to tattle to the host and censor someone who challenges the official line. I don't really care what happens to blogs like that; turn-about is fair play.
Open-minded Liberal bloggers like Ms. Cornell and Brad don't censor their content because they believe their ideas can withstand challenges from Conservatives.
/P.S. they can't ;-)
"Bushianity, a new religion" ahhh Lydia..., you misspelled it
ReplyDelete"Bushinsanity a new religion"
"(Upon the keywording by the FBI and interception of this email I can imagine being wrestled to the ground and arrested as an "enemy combatant".)"
I thought Bush was monitoring international calls to domestic Americans and vice-versa? Guess I'll wait here for the Marines to call. I hope they like rich tea biscuits and Earl Grey tea.
It's a pity Bush doesn't recognise the first Amendment because we could all have a great discussion of the whole content of Osama's messages. Oh oh, that's done it, now the Marines are definitely on their way. Not that it matters, I've also got some nice Wensleydale cheese and Jacobs cream crackers too.
"By now it should be clear to everyone that this perpetual, "bring-it-on" style of diplomacy is going to require more and more U.S. blood and treasure in GW's never ending search for this mythic John Wayne legacy he lusts for."
I think it would be if 30%ish of Americans would start thinking instead of feeling. But that takes effort. It takes effort to listen, effort to think and even more effort to incorporate facts, increase the complexity and eventually form your own opinions.
It's not just about being emotional rather than rational. I think idleness of mind has a great part to play in this too.
Worf,
ReplyDeleteYes british gary appears to require your protection as he is helplessly incapable of defending himself.
Perhaps he could enlist the assistance of the state or at least his older brother...
BG, hiking in the Austrian Alps sounds like my speed, Worf's the Mountain/Rock climber of this blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat? Oh pardon me. My idle mind was so clouded by emotion that I was incapable of rational thought there for a moment. I'm okay now. That's what happens sometimes to us simple peasants.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was glad to be the big 1000, but Lydia deserves the credit, she's written some great blogs, particulaly lately. having said that though i'm glad she started a new blog, with my dial up connection posting and refreshing was getting a little painful, REALLY SLOWWWWW.
ReplyDeleteFF said,
ReplyDeleteHe suffers from the pathological arrogance of a self-anointed intellectual who considers himself to be an omniscient god.
Pot meet kettle....
As your little emblem shows......
Worf,
ReplyDeleteMost of our American blustering is just teasing. Americans love Europe and our European heritage.
But what is disturbing is watching her slow decay into socialism and slavery, after once fighting so hard to defend freedom. That Britain could produce a george galloway is poignant.
Worfeus BTW...Kirk12 was #1000, I was 999 I know the count when I posted and when he posted.
ReplyDeleteyeah Worf, seems too many Americans bought into the BS that they are the No.1 race, yet they are the last ones to see their similarities to fascism.
ReplyDeleteI have an ideology. I think the world would be better under one flag. One country. One Government. One general Law. One currency. Hundreds of provinces which used to be called countries, each with their own language, mix of religions, history, food, art, philosophies, architecture, local laws, engineering and culture. Two languages written and spoken in each province, their own and a global language. A single world government democratically elected, comprised of presidents and prime ministers democratically elected from each province. One army/navy/air force that is really an international emergency aid force. Then there'd be far less to fight over but one nightmare of a bureaucracy. Wotcha think?
Another thing, Worfeus Washington actually won the battle of Trenton, and Yorktown, but Yorktown was with both the French Navy and ground forces, remember Lafayette, He was the French ground commander Gen. Pershing thanked as he arrived in France in WW1.
ReplyDeleteBritish Gary a noble utopian idea but the Devil will be in the details, and those would be many to sort out the many different customs, religions, ideological differences.
ReplyDeleteWorf, pride and arrogance.
ReplyDeleteMike, hiking or biking?
Imagine there's no heaven,
ReplyDeleteIt's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
-John Lennon
That's sooo beautiful (sob)...
Worf, it's republican hypocrisy. And it's not just republican, Britain's just as guilty too. Blair calls freedom fighters 'terrorists' and warriors 'insurgents'.
ReplyDeleteIt all comes under the umbrella of propaganda to motivate and control the masses. Always the same old rhetoric....we hold the moral high ground........
yes Clif, as you ably demonstrated yesterday. I wonder if it's really attainable with strong enough leaders? Or whether something like this will evolve much later under weaker leaders?
That man had a soul where's yours?
ReplyDeleteWashington had a bronze plaque embedded in the Yorktown battlefield to commemorate the French who, according to our first president, actually held the position and were indispensable in the victory, and Washington also had the battlefield memorial created so it would remain the same as on the day of the battle
ReplyDeleteBut the HUBRIS is that we did the EXACT SAME THING to resist the British.
ReplyDeleteAmericans laid in hiding, killed a few officers and then RAN!
But when the Iraqi people do it, they are cowards.
-Worf
Few would find any moral equivalence between guerilla warfare and intentional murder of non-combatants in cold blood. There is no honor when Sunni insurgents kill their countrymen attending weddings, or when palestinians kill Jewish athletes or Jewish children on busses and in pizza parlors.
Worf, Clif, Mike,
ReplyDeleteI've never been to America. Where would be a good place(s) to visit? I'm into hiking, mountains, opera, rock music (pink floyd/eagles styles, never the manufactured bands), remote peace and tranquility. My wife likes classical music, spectacular scenery and architecture.
I know America's huge so can you recommend a few condensed (best of) locations?
NB. new moniker, I'm fed up typing British Gary.
Iraq is not Israel therefore your mix and spin is diatribe with lacking of relevant factual substance,
ReplyDeletebut 0.1 for the effort....
Sorry no style points...
Gale Norton resigns from Cabinet
ReplyDeletehttp://www.denverpost.com/ci_3589533?source=rss
What? Another victim of Abrarmoff's Karma? Wonder which current power broker will receive the boomerang of karma next?
a fool has just posted a huge thread. Does Lydia monitor/clean up these posts?
ReplyDeleteCan anyone say internet temper tantrum, because we are expierencing anonypuss's recent one
ReplyDeleteBut Jesus also said Let ye without sin cast the first stone, today rocks would be flying because some believe that as soon as the turn their lives over GOD immediately cleanses their souls not upon judgement day as the bible says,
ReplyDeleteanonymous, you have to me the most pathetic loser thats ever come to this site, get a life you coward!
ReplyDeleteBy a lot of people who were guilty as they charged others, men like Livingston, (R) La. who was the first choice to replace Gingrich but he was a Clinton in repugs clothing and had to step aside for both the act itself and the hypocrisy
ReplyDeleteFormer Bush Aide Charged in Felony Theft
ReplyDeleteClaude Allen had recently resigned as White House domestic-policy adviser.
By Rachel Shteir
Updated Friday, March 10, 2006, at 5:44 PM ET
When Claude Allen, President Bush's longtime domestic-policy adviser, resigned suddenly on Feb. 9, it baffled administration critics and fans. The White House claimed that Allen was leaving to spend more time with his family, while the Washington Times speculated that the 45-year-old aide, a noted social conservative, might have quit to protest a new Pentagon policy about military chaplains. Allen himself never publicly explained the reason for his departure.
http://www.slate.com/id/2137895/
A high paying white house job and he has to steal?
BG, worf's right, if your into hiking and sking, the western US is where to go, Salt Lake City Utah or Denver or Boulder Colorad0, Calafornia has lots of great sights to see also, Yosemite and the Giant Redwoods, but if I had to pick one I would probably hit Glacier National Park in Montana for a few days, then head into the Canadian Rockies and check Out Banff National Park, that will probably be my next big vacation.
ReplyDeletethanks, Salt lake city, anywhere else? I'll get some info from a travel agent.
ReplyDeletelol. "I am only sharing this Mormon philosophy because of its' pertainence to Iraq and our FORCING of the Iraqi people to live by our form of government."
thats a superb analogy Worf.
Ironic that republican mormons don't recognise which side of this dualistic nature they have chosen.
I enjoy the beauty of mythologies and that is in my opinion, what every religion is, mythology.
I find dualistic comparisons too black-and-white for my taste. I know I often post dualistic comments but I don't have the time to write all my thoughts in full - as Clif mentioned yesterday, thoughts are at the speed of light (actually the speed of an electrical impulse, not the same).
"Cause remember, inside every Iraqi, is an American, trying to get out."
Iraqi's wouldn't see it that way, that post smacks of arrogance. But I see what you mean.
Iraqi people are no different to any other humans, they want comfort, peace, their own culture, jobs, security and their own way of life. The poor people of the middle east have been ruled and dominated by despots military/religious/political/monarchic for far too long. Where do they turn next? It seems every time they try another avenue they end up even worse. Their current religious leaders rule because their (non-oil) countries failed economically.
George said "just wondering why they never did a tcfc spin off ? "
ReplyDeleteLydia could probably answer this better than me, but in my opinion Ted Knight killed the show when they turned it into the Ted knight show, The ratings had to drop when they went to this format, I was a big fan of the show and I stopped watching, I was never a big Sitcom guy, I only watched about 4 sitcoms and TCFC was one of my favorite, I could never understand the motives for basically writing Lydia and Deb out of the show, but they lost me when they did that, and i'm sure they lost alot of other fans as well. Arrogance???? I guess, maybe jealousy????.
BG, read my 5:24 PM post
ReplyDeleteBG, Another place that is incredible is the Adirondack Mountains in New York, I've spend a bunch of time hiking and camping there. The whole place was placed into a preserve by the state constitution at the turn of the 19th century and is still untouched even now. It is about the size of Rhode Island, located between Lake Ontario and Vermont, most people who do not live in or visit NY regularly don't know much about it.
ReplyDeletecheers Mike
ReplyDeleteWorf, I was also wondering if the spammer is someone who posts here too. It's taking a long time for my coal-powered PC to download again now.
Last time I was in the Adirondack Mountains was during the Nixon impeachment, I was a couple years old at the time and my parents listened to the Nixon impeachment the whole ride home, if I didnt hate Nixon before that, I sure despised him after hearing about him for 7 hours.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of ironic, I was following a car today covered with bush stickers and it had a license plate that read 812-DEM, I cracked up.....
ReplyDeletethanks Clif. I'll pop into a travel agent and get info on all of these places. Then my wife will make the decision.....
ReplyDeleteMike I was hatched and reared in upstate NY and went to college on the lake(looked out the dorm window and watched the lake storms at night, nothing like a lighting bolt hitting water) for 6 1/2 years I went to the mountains for a bit of solace from time to time....
ReplyDeletesorry for the misunderstanding Worf, I've never seen the film. I know it's a war film which is why. I don't need to see graphic bloodshed on film any more than I do on a frontline.
ReplyDeleteYou laugh at my coal-powered PC but it's not easy keeping it stoked. I've got coaldust in the keyboard. Sometimes it interferes with what I'm typing,mvfmj,kebrhvljugwfedmjh I love reagan fjbhewrhqkj,hqfgk
I grew up and spent most of my life in Buffalo NY Clif, and I agree there is nothing like watching a big storm roll in off the lake, even from home I used to enjoy craking a beer and sitting out on my patio watching the August Lake Effect thunder and lighning storms.
ReplyDeleteCowards come in all flavors. Just need to zap that anonypuss crap. He jist ain't got no internet manners; proly raised on a sheep farm or sumpin.
ReplyDeleteAlso wish Brad would zap the ad spam on his blog. It doesn't make me feel very special to comment next to a viagra ad.
Worf what city, my whole family comes from Corning-Elmira, but we moved outside Baldwinsville-Fulton area when I was eight, grew up around dairy farms..
ReplyDeleteBG, theres really some nice hiking and rock climbing where I live, but like the Adirondack's its just not as scenic as the Northern Rockies
ReplyDeleteI got no ads here, but I use Mozilla and open the comments in their own tab...
ReplyDeleteSPAMMER -- Yes I just deleted one of his posts, am getting his IP address.
ReplyDeleteBritish Gary - ONE WORLD, many provinces, sharing resources -- is what I think would be the perfect answer!! I have thought this for a long time.
what's new york like? Is it a nice place?
ReplyDeleteBG depends where you are I lived 250 miles from New York City, I was actually closer to Canada then the city.
ReplyDeleteMy dad had a dairy farm when I was really young but my mother didn't want the farm, so when he got a job in Syracuse we moved and ended up with 3 acres and grew a big garden, I still grow a smaller one where I live now.
ReplyDeletehi Lydia, I think you have a great blog here, it's really open and there are some mature people who participate. Thanks for providing me an opportunity to learn American culture.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about the one world utopia the more I like it. I can't help feeling with macroeconomics and globalisation this is where mankind will ultimately end. Not as I imagine it though, because those responsible are going to have a nightmare as Clif mentioned. Currently even a small part like the EU cannot integrate. I still think one day mankind will overcome and this utopia will prevail.
I reason because of human nature, the only time in human existence when fighting will stop is when there's nothing to fight over.
I know there's a dark flip-coin side to this, i.e. all fighting will stop if we all kill ourselves first but that's not a thought I want to entertain.
hey Worf, it would have to be an entirely new flag. What would you design?
ReplyDeleteDon't worry GB they found water on one of Saturn's moons, and the Mars global surveyer is in orbit so there might be other forms of life even in this star system if not elsewhere, trust me God did not put all his eggs in this basket, even if the christian right wants to believe it so...
ReplyDeleteClif said "there might be other forms of life"
ReplyDeleteI wonder if GWB qualifies as an "other " form of life, he sure behaves like he's from another planet LOL :D
Worf said "You will entertain that thought when you watch your copy of ON THE BEACH arrives"
ReplyDeleteallright Worf, i'm going to take your advise and watch On The Beach and farenheit 911 this weekend.
George said "actually the show Ted Night's died cause he did !! not that he may have deserved that but lots of shows I guess have political or other problems"
ReplyDeleteGeorge, I didnt mean that literally, the show might have ended literally becase Ted died, but I think the writing was on the wall, like I said if I was a loyal fan and I stopped watching, i'm sure the ratings were falling, I think this was evidenced by it changing time slots, (cant remembered what it changed to) dont get me wrong I liked Ted, I just think he ruined the show when he changed the format, it had great chemistry and a great cast before, and without Lydia and Deb, it just wasnt the same IMHO.
Worf, I mean a flag not for nationalistic purposes, but as a symbol of planetary unity. A no-going-back symbol.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to take ages for my video to arrive. I received an e-mail confirming a delivery date of 3rd May. International shipping and customs were the reasons cited. Perhaps republicans think my video is a terrorist threat, you never know, you might get another warning if you're lucky.
At least I'll have time to read my book by then. That will arrive within the next few days as it's national delivery.
I was looking forward to 'on the beach' but I'm not so sure now. Am I going to need a box of Prozac before I watch it?
On these notes gents, I am off to the land of nod as it's 2.36am and I look forward to catching up with you all soon.
Thank you guys. Actually Deb and I are good friends and we did a short film together last year (that I wrote.) I am selling it as a pilot, then a feature. Ted was hilarious in real life, but very difficult at times. Lots of stories coming out in a book soon; not dirt, just really funny stuff. I got very gun-shy after the show and had to fall hard in order to develop a soul.
ReplyDeleteMost humans have to Lydia, we are wired that way. If things are going good we "expect" that it always will be so and do not see others less fortunate than us unless we are sort of forced to. But a soul is worth more than the whole monetary wealth of the fed combined, because if you have one it can not be stolen and grows as you give it to others.
ReplyDeleteOh -- Jim bullock, Deb and I want to do a reunion of Too Close for Comfort based on Mad Magazine's version. So 20 years later, we all move in together again: Monroe is a bag-lady...just kidding. It was Jim's idea. I just went up for a pilot sort of like Melrose Place meets Desperate Housewives. Will be doing standup at the Riviera in Las Vegas in June.
ReplyDeleteclif -- you are SO right! In fact, our soul's growth (and geting rid of excessive ego) is the only way we can save the world.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless his family and all the other hostages and sufferers. we should pray everyday for all of them.
ReplyDeleteClif said "Most humans have to Lydia, we are wired that way. If things are going good we "expect" that it always will be so and do not see others less fortunate than us unless we are sort of forced to. But a soul is worth more than the whole monetary wealth of the fed combined, because if you have one it can not be stolen and grows as you give it to others"
ReplyDeleteLydia said "Oh -- Jim bullock, Deb and I want to do a reunion of Too Close for Comfort based on Mad Magazine's version. So 20 years later, we all move in together again: Monroe is a bag-lady...just kidding. It was Jim's idea. I just went up for a pilot sort of like Melrose Place meets Desperate Housewives. Will be doing standup at the Riviera in Las Vegas in June."
ReplyDeleteLydia I for one would love to see a TCFC reunion, i'm a sucker for prequils and reunions.
Also if you dont mind me asking, which of your books is coming out first, and about when do you expect it out?
It is a shame, Iraq is one big tragedy all because of the greed and arrogance of a few rotten apples.
ReplyDeleteThe blog tonight reminds me of a book I read a long time ago called;
ReplyDeleteWinners & Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins from the Vietnam War: by Gloria Emerson
It is a book about the victims of the vietnam war from all sides, it is very inciteful and both Nixon in his time and Bush today would noy agree wiyj much it has to say.
This is the authors introduction,
ReplyDeleteJames Greenfield, the foreign editor of The New York Times, assigned me to Vietnam in 1970. I had long wanted to go back there to write about the Vietnamese, been refused by other editors, and at last was able to do it. I had been to Vietnam, to the south only, in 1956, wanting to know how to be a journalist. For fifteen years it was a country that haunted and held me. It still does; I do not expect to recover. During the nineteen-sixties I lived in France, where I had Vietnamese friends of different political persuasions who taught me so much. As a foreign correspondent for the Times, I saw something of armies and weapons in 1968 during the civil war in Nigeria and again in Northern Ireland in 1969. It was not so unusual to be a woman war correspondent in Vietnam; the great Martha Gellhorn was there before me and so was the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci. During my two years there, Kate Webb of United Press International and Elizabeth Pond of the Christian Science Monitor were both captured and released.
In the writing of this book, and now even when it is over, I have thought often of Nguyen Ngoc Luong, a Vietnamese born in Hanoi who went to Saigon before 1956. I miss him very much. He was an interpreter, guide, friend. There were cruel days for us both, but none more dreadful than the day in 1970 when Luong had to probe, then translate, what the villagers of My Lai told us about the massacre. With us was the former GI Ron Ridenhour, whose letters to officials and legislators in Washington, D.C., eventually led to the investigation of the slaughter. He had come back that year, wanting to be a journalist. Now Vietnam is united, and on the March 16 anniversary this spring of the deaths of more than five hundred people there, the names have been put on the graves and honor done to them.
Ron Ridenhour had never walked on that ground, never seen those faces. He had flown over the site after the killings. I interviewed him at length for this book, on how his life had changed, but it is he who someday will write his own story. No one must tell it for him.
For the very same reason, I have omitted long interviews with two Vietnam veterans, both black. They are Gussie L. Davis, Jr., who is in prison, and Thomas Aiken, who was badly wounded when the 1st Air Cavalry was sent to Khe Sanh to relieve the Marines. Because of his wounds, his fear of blindness in the injured eye and his immense agitation, Mr. Aiken could not behave as the Army required. He was punished with a bad discharge. It disqualified him from any benefits, including free medical treatment at a New York V.A. hospital. He was unemployed and also declared ineligible for any assistance. He did lose the eye: it was taken out in a Queens hospital for no fee. Thanks to David Addlestone of the Military Lawyers Defense Committee in Washington, D.C., and the efforts of a few others, Mr. Aiken's discharge was changed and the benefits are now his. I think he would rather have his eye. Both these men have shown me what I might never have seen, or really believed, or fully understood.
I went to Cambodia to cover the war there, but there is no mention of it in these pages because an account of the war in that once lovely country is being written by a man who knows it better than anyone. If, years from now, Americans are willing to read any books about the war being so quickly forgotten, let them be The Village of Ben Suc and The Military Half by Jonathan Schell. They teli everything. In March 1974 a silly book review - at least it made a few of us laugh over its naiveté - in the Times by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt began: "Quick - before your mind fogs up at the prospect of yet another report on Vietnam..." But Mr. Lehmann-Haupt can be ignored. Let the books be written so when all of us are dead a long record will exist, at least in a few libraries.
Nearly all the interviews I did were taped for accuracy. I wanted to hear the perceptions of people. If some have made mistakes about the history in their own lives, so be it. Some people rambled; sometimes I have let them.
I am grateful to Robert Fink of Washington, D.C., for his help and no less so to Dawn Stewart and Adrienne Dolgin. Patrick Flood drove me thousands of miles to do interviews and never complained about it all taking so long. Once in Gould, Arkansas, when I was interviewing blacks and whites, the suspicions of some of the local whites were more than apparent. It made him a little nervous and he said he did not want to spend the night there. I told him he had the heart of a mouse. "Well, they'll ask you to sit down and rest while they take me off somewhere and break my legs," Mr. Flood, aged twenty-one, said. I had no answer.
Gloria Emerson
New York City
September, 1976
The book made me see the vietnam war in a whole new perspective...
look at the insanity coming out of the Neo Cons, their answer for spreading peace, democracy and safety is war and killing, Bush today claimed he supports the first amendment and welcomes dissenting opinions, he said people have the right to disagree with him, yet anyone who does is branded unpatrioted or in league with the terrorists, traitors or sympathizers with the enemy. people who speak out are silenced or discredited.
ReplyDeletehow can anyone believe anything Bush or his administration says, their credibility is zero, trust must be earned and this man has earned our distrust by his lies corruption and flagrant breaking of the law. he's turning the entire world against us, the repercussions of his actions may be felt for decades to come.
Kirk no person can steal your soul, so no person can steal our collective soul we must surrender it. There are many who won't surrender it, so the right shrills to attempt to cover our plain spoken truth. It takes time but truth will triumph. The shrill of the right and neo-cons will get more pitched and vindictive because they can see the loss of respect and acceptance they crave but do not understand why they can't achieve. They foisted a half truth as patriotic duty and used fear to wall off dissent. However the other half of the spin the falsehoods they attempted to hide come out. Since they won't acknowledge they own the falsehoods they spin away futilely day after day as they sink into the abyss of denial and deceit to prop up their big lie.
ReplyDeleteI'm out of here going to take a long nap, later....
ReplyDeleteLydia said "Just tell let 'em think they won - meanwhile, it'll be the same company, different name on the door.
ReplyDeleteworf said "We knew it. Mike and I both suspected this last night. Great reporting Lydia."
Yeah Worf we did think something didnt smell right and we were right. The good thing about this, if there is a good thing is that average joes are waking up and starting to see through these snake oil salesmen and see that they were deceived, I was driving to work this morning and the radio personalities on the local radio station were saying that this was a sham deal and that Bush co/Dubai set up a dummy or shell corporation to deceive people, people were even calling in saying this, and this wasnt on a political radio show, it was a rock and roll station.
see if Bush and co set up a dummy holding company to deceive people and the truth comes out beyond a shadow of a doubt it will make Bush and the Neo Cons look worse and destroy any shreds of credibility they might have left with their own party, like I said this morning I sense something different, these guys are getting desperate and desperate people do desperate things and make mistakes. Clif said the same things in one of his earlier posts also. these guys have played the pied piper leading us down a dark road to disaster for too long, people are finally waking up and shining the light of truth on the dark path these guys are leading us down and suddenly their siren song is not as effective as it once was so like Clif said they shrill louder, but people are waking up from their long nightmare filled slumber and realizing that light drives the darkness away.
its slowly starting but long overdue.
But the Pentagon now collects domestic intelligence that goes beyond legitimate concerns about terrorism or protecting U.S. military installations, say critics."
ReplyDeleteThis kind of stuff should be illegal, i'm so sick of these guys abusing their power, they are trying to turn our country into Russia or Germany of 60 years ago.
BTW, my family lives around the corner pretrty much from Lake worth, i'll be visiting that area in a few weeks.
Wow - what great stuff you guys are writing.
ReplyDeleteMike -- I will tell you all about the books soon, can't tell the titles now.
There are many who won't surrender it, so the right shrills to attempt to cover our plain spoken truth. It takes time but truth will triumph. The shrill of the right and neo-cons will get more pitched and vindictive because they can see the loss of respect and acceptance they crave but do not understand why they can't achieve.
ReplyDelete-Clif
I think you neo-libs are on the right track. So let me encourage you to codify your platform in time for the next election:
1) Continue to demonize all Christians as “ChristoFascists” at every opportunity, but attempt to assure them that really you are talking only about the fanatical “Religious Right”. Use blogs and talk radio to get your message out…don’t hold back.
2) Promise to abandon all support of Israel and allow the Paleos to push the Israelis into the sea.
3) Promise to pull out of Iraq immediately, and snuff out all hope of a democratic future for Iraqis and other Middle Eastern people suffering under bloody tyrants like saddam hussein and Iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad.
4) Embrace michael moore and frequently repeat his message that “there is no terrorist threat”—that this is just a silly Republican fiction to grab power.
5) Force middle America to accept gay matrimony through the court system.
6) Promise to keep abortion “safe but rare” but make it clear to your base that this really means that you oppose any attempt to curtain partial-birth abortion, and favor any abortion procedure for any reason at any time. Oppose all judicial nominees who have ever mentioned the word "abortion".
7) Promise to keep America safe from gun violence by pushing for “common-sense” gun control measures; assure them that you really don’t favor confiscating all firearms in private hands. Use barbara boxer as your spokesperson.
8) Talk about how you have undeniable “proof” of malfeasance in the electoral system but fail to actually produce any reliable proof. Keep whining about how the election system is rigged, but be certain to stop whining after you win Congressional seats in the mid term elections.
9) Tell Americans how their economic system is broken and embrace the European model of more unions, more regulations, more taxation, and less economic freedom. Tell shareholders, employees, business people about how all corporations are evil.
10) Assure Americans that they are not overtaxed and promise that you favor raising taxes only on the “rich” but avoid defining what you mean by “rich”.
11) Oppose any suggestion of liti
(cont.)
ReplyDelete11) Oppose any suggestion of litigation reform and ignore all the victims who have been bankrupted by frivolous lawsuits and usurious lawyer fees.
12) Oppose enforcement of the death penalty for murderers and encourage survivors of murdered loved ones to stop calling for justice and just grow up.
13) Explain to black people that Republicans are racists because they allow black people to live in hurricane zones.
14) Explain to old people how Republicans want to starve them to death because they favor allowing young people to control a small portion of their retirement contributions to social security.
15) Explain to young people how Republicans definitely intend to bring back the military draft; introduce draft legislation yourselves just to erase any doubt.
16) Nominate hillary for President. Assure businessmen that she actually loves business and would never nationalize their particular industry unless really, really necessary for the common good. Try to convince everyone that she is really a “moderate”—not a rabid socialist.
West Palm Beach/Boca Raton
ReplyDeleteWow - what great stuff you guys are writing.
ReplyDelete-Lydia Cornell
Thanks. Glad I could help.
I think FF was the anonymous guy, BTW FF where did that post come from, because I think its safe to say most of us here would not support most of those positions some maybe but not most.
ReplyDeleteOf course did you bother to consider the fact that you are in a CHRISTIAN BLOG? Just thought I might point that out to you. I wouldn't want you to make yourself look any dumber by not pointing that out.
ReplyDelete-Worfeus
Oops. Gee do I feel like such a clone. I didn't realize that you and Clif had become born-again Evangelical holy rollers. Mea culpa dude.
You KNOW I have said many, many times, that I would NEVER support Hilary Clinton for President.
ReplyDelete-Worfeus
You're right; I was just being silly. Certainly no democrats would ever favor hillary for Prez.
FF,that was great,they had no come back at all.You must have access to the liberal talking points.Talk about hitting the nail on the head.
ReplyDeleteLydia IS a Christian, and a public one. She set the blog up to spread TRUE Christian ideals, something noticably lacking in your party.
ReplyDeleteLyida is a Christian. And its HER blog.
-Worf
True, but I've noticed that the majority of comments are from atheists. Why do you suppose? And do you deny that Christians are routinely demonized here? Also Ms. Cornell is an unorthodox Christian in that she believes that "God is Love" literally -- a man-made fiction. This is probably similar to your own beliefs.
Anonypuss you are embarassing yourself. Stop lurking, sprout a pair of balls and try using a nick.
ReplyDeleteThanks Worf -- Another good point I left off:
ReplyDelete17) Be certain to talk endlessly about obscure Washington personalities that will cause folks living in the heartland to find their eyes permanently glazed over, but only after they have been bored to tears. Use pundits on blogs and Air (head) Amerikka to spread the word.
Why is a nic so important? I can see these people for what they are.Back bench bomb throwers without a valid idea,cant elect anyone,dont connect with the majority,filled with anger and scorn towards anyone who does'nt agree with thier views.The party of inclusion my ass.
ReplyDeleteTo FF
ReplyDelete1) not all Christians, just the Neo Con wacko's.
2)never said anything about Israel, I dont blindly support anyone, if what they are doing is right, then they will have my support.
3)Yes I want a pull out ASAP, but unlike the Neo Cons we need to devise an exit strategy and plan to keep the peace and insure these people a better future than they have now, BTW what about North Korea and all the African countries with dictators is it our job to invade them and install democracy. Also The Neo Cons lied to us that is the reason we are really there they said Saddam had WMD, we didnt go there to liberate the Iraqi people, thats spin to justify it after the fact
4)I'll embrace Michael Moore if what he says has merit, if it doesnt I wont. I do belive the terrorists are a threat, I just dont believe the spin that the war in Iraq is the same as the war on terror.
5)Middle America doesnt have to accept gay matrimony if they are not gay, but they do need to accept that other people have a right to live their life the way they see fit as long as it does not harm others, and two gays getting married does not harm anyone.
6)I think people's views of abortion differ widely, but outlawing abortion completely would be a huge mistake.
7)actually FF I am for the right to bear arms, provided they are handled responsibly and kept away from children.
8)What proof would you expect to find if the Infra Red data ports were hacked into??, theres no paper trail so what proof would you expect, also if you are for integrity of the process why are you so agsainst making changes to insure the integrity particularly since you are so sure nothing illegal happened.
9) When have I ever embraced the European economic system or said I want more regulation or taxation, I want everyone to pay their fair share of taxes and I want taxes high enough to cover the deficit so interest rates dont soar, but I am more for fiscal responsibility like Ruben and Clinton advocated than tax and spend. As for regulations I am against heavy regulation, although we do need some to prevent corporate malfeasance.BTW, I cringe when ever I hear talk about taxing the oil companies profits because like you I know this will cause them to reign in capital spending and future development projects and stop the market from functioning properly thus not allowing supply to catch up with demand. I do however think CEO pay is excessive in relation to worker pay and the companies themselves should embrace capitalism and align the workers interest with the shareholders and executives, but I dont think our government should regulate this.
10) I think the rich should pay more proportionately than the poor and if I came up with a plan I would indeed define rich.
11)I am against frivolous litigation.
Anonypuss, what are you afraid of? These are only words in a virtual environment. No one can really hurt you. No one wants to claim a coward. Are you a spineless coward?
ReplyDeleteFF said "True, but I've noticed that the majority of comments are from atheists. Why do you suppose? And do you deny that Christians are routinely demonized here?"
ReplyDeleteFreedom Fan what makes you say the majority of comments are from atheists, i'd like to see you prove that one, because I know it is blatently not true, I only know of one atheist here. And what regular Christians are routinely demonized here i'd like to know.
BTW FF you listed #11 twice and you expect us to trust you guys with the vote counting LOL :D
ReplyDeleteWorf, crooks are ubiquitous. If you find one lock em up and throw away the key. Presidents say wonderful crap about people they barely know all the time. At best you can show poor judgement on the part of Bush in selecting untrustworthy personnel. The Clinton administration certainly was rife with crooks, many of whom did beaucoup jail time.
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you middle America seriously doesn't care about what Air America talks about all day. It is just really, really boring especially on the radio.
Geez, I should charge you folks a consulting fee.
Mike, I respect most of your beliefs. They sound good...on paper at least. Bottom line is that you folks favor more and more government and fewer choices. Further you fail to see your actions in those terms.
ReplyDeleteI dont know FF, right now it looks like conservatives favor bigger government, this war is enormously expensive factor in the spy program etc and that sounds like big gov to me.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mike, the Republicans can't seem to spend money fast enough, but it is still not fast enough for Democrats.
ReplyDeleteUltimately the burden of the huge deficit will fall to posterity to pay.
I believe we need a third party to shake this up again.
FF said "Ultimately the burden of the huge deficit will fall to posterity to pay.
ReplyDeleteI believe we need a third party to shake this up again"
FF, that was a great post, a third party with deep enough pockets to get heard and wage a solid campaign and keep the other partys honest and define issues the two main partys dont want to deal with is EXACTLY what we need.
Worf said "Well unless his family is currently housed at LORTON, then your president was LYING AGAIN."
ReplyDeletepretty sad isnt it worf, we used to expect honesty and integrity from our president, we've come to the point where him lying doesnt even faze us anymore. pretty much the only time Bush isnt lying is when his mouth isnt moving.
Worf said...
ReplyDeleteLydia said:
”DPW is only turning operations over to an American holding company. They are STILL the guys "behind the curtain." This smells very much like a back rooms deal worked out by Bush and his pals in Dubai/UAE. Just tell let 'em think they won - meanwhile, it'll be the same company, different name on the door.”
Worf said:
”We knew it. Mike and I both suspected this last night. Great reporting Lydia.”
Now I say: Yeah, even I got that impression from what I posted in the wee hours of the morning from the MSNBC links. I was thinking to myself, ‘how can people miss what is stated here between the lines? It’s obvious how they are working their way into the ports one way or another.’
Rene
Well now that it's midnight - naturally I meant the wee hours of yesterday morning. ;D
ReplyDeleteRene
I admit being extremely disappointed in Bush. This UAE port deal did it for me. Like the guy is on another planet. Unbelievable
ReplyDeleteI think Republicans will now try to distance themselves from him. But if they abandon Conservative principles, I will distance myself from them.
But I reject 99% of what Democrats say because it's politics; both sides do it. Most of you folks sound like the right-wing nuts who claimed Clinton murdered Vince Foster and was involved in mysterious drug deals in Mena, Arkansas.
I remember how the left successfully demonized Dan Quail, right from day one. They did the same to Newt Gingrich. These are two guys I respect a great deal; they didn't deserve what was done to them with the complete cooperation of the liberal press.
Then that attempt by AlGore to smear Bush as a racist, because of the dragging death of James Byrd, was some of the most despicable politics I have ever witnessed. Now y'all pull the same crap over Katrina, where the fed's response was deliberately delayed by the governor. Some of these people may be incompetent but they don't deserve the rabid demonization.
Worf, perhaps you can begin to grasp my apathy over all the hype and ridiculous charges. Been there done that.
Again, if you found a crook, put em in jail. I am not interested in the guilt by association smear jobs. End of story.
Ciao
Hi Lydia:
ReplyDeleteI asked my buddy,Marc, who was in the Marines about your friend's nephew - I asked if he thought the Marines would take him if they knew he has been taking
anti-depressants...Marc said they would not because there could be a higher risk of potential problems and the Marines wouldn't want to take that chance. He also said, if the young man is joining the army -then it may be a different story and they would probably take him because they're not as strict when it comes to those types of things.
In my opinion - it shouldn't matter what branch of service someone is going into - if he is taking anti-depressants because of depression then he shouldn't be forced to join the military which has a high risk of making his depression worse.
Naturally, that puts us back to square one and seeking out legal advice, to try to spare him from going to prison too.
Rene
I keep meaning to mention I have ordered a copy of "Devil Games" a couple of days ago. It ought to be an intersting read. I can hardly wait for it to get here.
ReplyDeleteRene
Well Everyone - it is that time again. Good night. Not even tape would keep my eyes open at this point. At times I get to the point where I seriously wonder if I'm typing legibly or if its all giberish because I keep nodding off. Catch you all later today.
ReplyDeleteRene
Freedom Fan said.
ReplyDeleteOops. Gee do I feel like such a clone. I didn't realize that you and Clif had become born-again Evangelical holy rollers. Mea culpa dude.
The born-again Evangelical holy rollers do not hold a lock on the ideas that Jesus Christ expressed. In fact the Christian Right violates a considerable portion of the message that Christ preached so your remark shows your narrow minded approach to the religious tolerance Jesus preached and the true compassion that he wanted us to follow, not the lip service shown today for the cameras and public face of the leaders of the Christian Right, while they make deals like Ralph Reed taking millions behind everyone's back to manipulate the christian vote for their benefit. Or Pat Robertson claimimg GOD punishes people he disagrees with. Suggesting the government should attempt to MURDER a leader of a foreign nation against the law, but more importantly against the 10 COMMANDMENTS, something he preaches should be followed. My big problem with the Christian right is their inconsistent approach to the message of Christ, they rant for everyone else to follow it but reserve the right to violate it when it is politically or financially expedient to do so.
President Bush's domestic policy advisor, Claude A. Allen, has resigned to spend more time with his family, the White House said.
ReplyDeleteAllen had been working for the administration since Bush's first year in office first as the No. 2 official at the Health and Human Services Department, and for the last year as domestic policy advisor in the White House.
Claude Alexander Allen, age 45, of the 7200 block of Cliff Pine Drive in Gaithersburg, was charged with theft scheme over $500 and theft over $500. He was released on his own recognizance.
Oh he must have been a low paid bureaucrat who was just trying to make ends meet....
NOT
High Allen had the highest salary of any employee in the White House, tied with Karl Rove, Andrew Card, and Stephen Hadley, among others. He was earning $161,000 a year.
The man was making way over what most American struggle to get by on........ "Claude Allen has been a valuable member of my Administration since 2001, helping to improve the health and welfare of all Americans.
He is a dedicated public servant and a tireless advocate for those in need. I look forward to his continued service in this new role as my domestic policy advisor," stated President Bush.
Yea Mr. Bush when he wasn't ripping off some of those same Americans as a part time criminal....
There was a time when the American film industry was little more than an instrument for spewing jingoist propaganda. Fascists like John Wayne and Henry Fonda poisoned millions of young minds with their pro-American cowboy filth. But since the 1960’s, Hollywood has become our moral compass. More than just performing monkeys, actors have become the better angels of our nature, leading us along the path of social progress in ways that people with less perfect hair never could. Schindler’s List taught us about the horrors of death camps years before Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. Eddie Murphy’s wonderful performance in Coming to America brought the civil rights movement out of the Alabama swamps and into the American mainstream. Jane Fonda’s brilliant work in Barbarella dared us to question the pointless futility of the Vietnam War. Through the medium of film, Hollywood has been a force for positive change in America - an evil nation with a bloody past, but a promising future if it would simply follow the loving guidance of the Beautiful People. I’m sure Martin, Coretta, Rosa, and the rest of the cast of The Jeffersons would agree.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what George Clooney tried to tell us when he accepted Heath Ledger’s Oscar the other night, and you could hear the anguish in his voice even as he reminded us of how wonderful he is. America owes so much to our actors and actresses. They fill our sand bags. They serve food at our homeless shelters. They march in our abortion parades. They get drunk, crash their cars, and do informative public service announcements so that we won’t have to. They even fly all the way to Africa to adopt children for a lack of any suitable orphans here at home. Actors give us everything, yet ask for so little in return - save for our unconditional love and political obedience.
If they would simply open their hearts and minds, the useless idiots in Middle America could learn a thing or two from the useful ones in Hollywood.
Very odd. In the worst natural disaster in American history the Bush administration’s response was assigned to a shoplifting religious extremist and a crony from the arabian horseshow association while the head of homeland security flew off to give a speech. The president and John McCain laughed and ate cake. This is Republican governance….
ReplyDeleteAccording to Scott McClellan's August 31st press conference, in the early days of Katrina, the White House Katrina task force was being run by Claude Allen.
First male prostitutes in the white house press room and now shoplifters in the president's inner circle. The vice president shoots an old man in the face. To say nothing of the indicted and soon to be indicted perjurers and corrupt GOP congressmen and Senators.
These are the people who are asking the nation to trust them with unfettered executive power because they are protecting the country. OK.
a few paragraphs from Paul Krugman's delectable "I told you so" column from today
ReplyDeleteNever mind; better late than never. We should welcome the recent epiphanies by conservative commentators who have finally realized that the Bush administration isn't trustworthy. But we should guard against a conventional wisdom that seems to be taking hold in some quarters, which says there's something praiseworthy about having initially been taken in by Mr. Bush's deceptions, even though the administration's mendacity was obvious from the beginning.
According to this view, if you're a former Bush supporter who now says, as Mr. Bartlett did at the Cato event, that "the administration lies about budget numbers," you're a brave truth-teller. But if you've been saying that since the early days of the Bush administration, you were unpleasantly shrill.
Similarly, if you're a former worshipful admirer of George W. Bush who now says, as Mr. Sullivan did at Cato, that "the people in this administration have no principles," you're taking a courageous stand. If you said the same thing back when Mr. Bush had an 80 percent approval rating, you were blinded by Bush-hatred.
And if you're a former hawk who now concedes that the administration exaggerated the threat from Iraq, you're to be applauded for your open-mindedness. But if you warned three years ago that the administration was hyping the case for war, you were a conspiracy theorist.
The truth is that everything the new wave of Bush critics has to say was obvious long ago to any commentator who was willing to look at the facts
Sounds like he has your # FF
The next post is about one of the prisoners of Abu Graibe, one who was seen in the photos. It is long but cutting anything out is wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe story puts a humans face on the horrors that happened there. He puts names to the people we saw in the photos. He is a witness to what the Administration did in the name of spreading democracy.
He takes the story from the argument we have here in the US of conflicting political and legal arguments about American foreign policy, and violations of the law; to a story of what happened to one man and what that man witnessed happening to others.
Funny he ends it with forgiveness, isn't that a "christian" ideal? But the faith of Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet so he accepts the teachings of Jesus better than many Christians here who scream for blood , death and pain when ever they feel slighted, whether by calling for capital punishment, shrilling for killing the Muslims and converting them to Christianity, "Shock and Awe" campaigns.
Forgiveness is a central tenant of the christian experience as expressed in the line out of The Lords Prayer;
"forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me",
At least Mr. Ali Shalal Qaissi, can live up to that ideal even after all that he saw and experienced.
Symbol of Abu Ghraib Seeks to Spare Others His Nightmare
ReplyDeleteAMMAN, Jordan, March 8 — Almost two years later, Ali Shalal Qaissi's wounds are still raw.
There is the mangled hand, an old injury that became infected by the shackles chafing his skin. There is the slight limp, made worse by days tied in uncomfortable positions. And most of all, there are the nightmares of his nearly six-month ordeal at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.
Mr. Qaissi, 43, was prisoner 151716 of Cellblock 1A. The picture of him standing hooded atop a cardboard box, attached to electrical wires with his arms stretched wide in an eerily prophetic pose, became the indelible symbol of the torture at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. [The American military said Thursday that it would abandon the prison and turn it over to the Iraqi government.]
"I never wanted to be famous, especially not in this way," he said, as he sat in a squalid office rented by his friends here in Amman. That said, he is now a prisoner advocate who clearly understands the power of the image: it appears on his business card.
At first glance, there is little to connect Mr. Qaissi with the infamous picture of a hooded man except his left hand, which he says was disfigured when an antique rifle exploded in his hands at a wedding several years ago. A disfigured hand also seems visible in the infamous picture, and features prominently in Mr. Qaissi's outlook on life. In Abu Ghraib, the hand, with two swollen fingers, one of them partly blown off, and a deep gash in the palm, earned him the nickname Clawman, he said.
A spokesman for the American military in Iraq declined to comment, saying it would violate the Geneva Conventions to disclose the identity of prisoners in any of the Abu Ghraib photographs, just as it would to discuss the reasons behind Mr. Qaissi's detention.
But prison records from the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq after the invasion, made available to reporters by Amnesty International, show that Mr. Qaissi was in American custody at the time. Beyond that, researchers with both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say they have interviewed Mr. Qaissi and, along with lawyers suing military contractors in a class-action suit over the abuse, believe that he is the man in the photograph.
Under the government of Saddam Hussein, Mr. Qaissi was a mukhtar, in effect a neighborhood mayor, a role typically given to members of the ruling Baath Party and closely tied to its nebulous security services. After the fall of the government, he managed a parking lot belonging to a mosque in Baghdad.
He was arrested in October 2003, he said, because he loudly complained to the military, human rights organizations and the news media about soldiers' dumping garbage on a local soccer field. But some of his comments suggest that he is at least sympathetic toward insurgents who fight American soldiers.
"Resistance is an international right," he said.
Weeks after complaining about the garbage, he said, he was surrounded by Humvees, hooded, tied up and carted to a nearby base before being transferred to Abu Ghraib. Then the questioning began.
"They blamed me for attacking U.S. forces," he said, "but I said I was handicapped; how could I fire a rifle?" he said, pointing to his hand. "Then he asked me, 'Where is Osama bin Laden?' And I answered, 'Afghanistan.' "
How did he know? "Because I heard it on TV," he replied.
He said it soon became evident that the goal was to coax him to divulge names of people who might be connected to attacks on American forces. His hand, then bandaged, was often the focus of threats and inducements, he said, with interrogators offering to fix it or to squash it at different times. After successive interrogations, he said he was finally given a firm warning: "If you don't speak, next time, we'll send you to a place where even dogs don't live."
Finally, he said, he was taken to a truck, placed face down, restrained and taken to a special section of the prison where he heard shouts and screams. He was forced to strip off all his clothes, then tied with his hands up high. A guard began writing on his chest and forehead, what someone later read to him as, "Colin Powell."
In all, there were about 100 cells in the cellblock, he said, with prisoners of all ages, from teenagers to old men. Interrogators were often dressed in civilian clothing, their identities strictly shielded.
The prisoners were sleep deprived, he said, and the punishments they faced ranged from bizarre to lewd: an elderly man was forced to wear a bra and pose; a youth was told to hit the other adults; and groups of men were organized in piles. There was the dreaded "music party," he said, in which prisoners were placed before loudspeakers. Mr. Qaissi also said he had been urinated on by a guard. Then there were the pictures.
"Every soldier seemed to have a camera," he said. "They used to bring us pictures and threaten to deliver them to our families"
Today, those photographs, turned into montages and slideshows on Mr. Qaissi's computer, are stark reminders of his experiences in the cellblock. As he scanned through the pictures, each one still instilling shock as it popped on the screen, he would occasionally stop, his voice breaking as he recounted the story behind each photograph.
In one, a young man shudders in fear as a dog menaces him.
"That's Talib," he said. "He was a young Yemeni, a student of the Beaux-Arts School in Baghdad, and was really shaken."
In another, Pfc. Lynndie R. England, who was convicted last September of conspiracy and maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners, poses in front of a line of naked men, a cigarette in her mouth. "That's Jalil, Khalil and Abu Khattab," he said. "They're all brothers, and they're from my neighborhood."
Then there is the picture of Mr. Qaissi himself, standing atop a cardboard box, taken 15 days into his detention. He said he had only recently been given a blanket after remaining naked for days, and had fashioned the blanket into a kind of poncho.
The guards took him to a heavy box filled with military meal packs, he said, and hooded him. He was told to stand atop the box as electric wires were attached to either hand. Then, he claims, they shocked him five times, enough for him to bite his tongue.
Specialist Sabrina Harman was convicted last May for her role in abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but she was accused of threatening to electrocute a hooded inmate on a box if he stepped off it, not of shocking him while he was atop it.
After almost six months in Abu Ghraib, Mr. Qaissi said, he was loaded onto a truck, this time without any shackles, but still hooded. As the truck sped out of the prison, another man removed the hood and announced that they had been freed.
With a thick shock of gray hair and melancholy eyes, Mr. Qaissi is today a self-styled activist for prisoners' rights in Iraq. Shortly after being released from Abu Ghraib in 2004, he started the Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons with several other men immortalized in the Abu Ghraib pictures.
Financed partly by Arab nongovernmental organizations and private donations, the group's aim is to publicize the cases of prisoners still in custody, and to support prisoners and their families with donations of clothing and food.
Mr. Qaissi has traveled the Arab world with his computer slideshows and presentations, delivering a message that prisoner abuse by Americans and their Iraqi allies continues. He says that as the public face of his movement, he risks retribution from Shiite militias that have entered the Iraqi police forces and have been implicated in prisoner abuse. But that has not stopped him.
Last week, he said, he lectured at the American University in Beirut, on Monday he drove to Damascus to talk to students and officials, and in a few weeks he heads to Libya for more of the same.
Despite the cruelty he witnessed, Mr. Qaissi said he harbored no animosity toward America or Americans. "I forgive the people who did these things to us," he said. "But I want their help in preventing these sorts of atrocities from continuing."
"Don't Ask Don't Tell Claims Seven More Victims"
ReplyDeleteThe progressive Washington State legislature recently granted gay, lesbian, and transgendered citizens the same legal protections against discrimination in housing and the workplace that less sexually open-minded people have. Thanks to a few Democrat leaders willing to stand up against the hate-fueled bigotry of Christian conservatives, thousands of destitute homosexuals can now sashay out of their luxury Seattle condos and find gainful employment.
Sadly, the new law doesn't extend to the U.S. military, an institution reviled for it's human rights abuses both home and abroad.
Seven members of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division were threatened with court martials this week for succombing to the most powerful force of nature known to man: LOVE. Indeed, it was a love so rare and unconditional that they chose to document it in a series of amateur videos, so that future generations of gay paratroopers could be inspired by the deep spiritual bond these men shared in an era when gender absolutists ruled the military with an iron fist. Deemed "pornographic" by the homophobic right-wing media, the films were nonetheless nominated for a combined total of seventeen Academy Awards, including a Best Picture Oscar for Shaving Ryan's Privates and Best Cinematography for Bi-Curious George. The Pentagon was unimpressed, however, and self-righteously threw the book at these pioneering young men who dared to be different.
All seven of the soldiers will face dishonorable discharges for sodomy, ending their military careers forever. On the bright side, additional charges of "pandering" will be filed, almost guaranteeing them jobs as Arkansas State Troopers.
February 24, 2006 in Gay/Les/Bi/Trans/Herm | Permalink | Comments (64) | TrackBack (0)
Bush Sells Port Security to Highest Bidder
Bush’s insane decision to surrender our ports to Al Qaeda shatters once and for all the myth that RepubliKKKans are strong on national defense. Our military, economy, environmental policies, and even our criminal justice system would benefit greatly from the fine leadership of the International Community, but our precious shipping centers are just too important to place in the hands of corrupt nation-states. Under the approving eye of the United Arab Emirates, a rogue cargo vessel loaded with nativity scenes or school vouchers could be purposely crashed into any of our vibrant seaports, killing millions of panhandlers and gay prostitutes while Bush calmly finishes the back nine at Pebble Beach.
Americans expect and deserve better from those we trust to protect us. Senator and future President Hillary Clinton knows this well, and has been a vocal opponent of Bush’s lax security at our ports for years. In the coming days, she will be introducing bold new legislation that will require all U.S. shipping centers to be managed either by Americans, or by those wonderful Chinese Communists who ran our nuclear laboratories so splendidly in the 1990’s. In addition, stringent regulations will be put in place to protect our harbors from terrorist attacks. Using intelligence obtained without resorting to torture, eavesdropping, or asking personal questions, suspicious vessels will be stopped before they even enter our ports. A Blue Ribbon Commission of Hollywood celebrities, weeping 9/11 widows, and Joe Biden will be quickly formed to determine if the ship means us harm, exactly what we did to provoke it, and how many tight close-ups of Joe Biden it will take to make things right. If the vessel is determined to be a threat, the commission will then present their evidence to the United Nations Security Council for final approval, then go about obtaining the necessary warrants to board the ship. Each member of the crew will be randomly searched without regards to race, gender, or sexual orientation, and in the full presence of representatives from both the ACLU and Amnesty International. Any nicotine products, offensive cartoons, or weapons purchased through the gun show loophole will confiscated and melted down to create a memorial to honor the thousands of brave men and women who have died from botched back alley abortions since South Dakota revoked a Woman's Right to Choose.
It's all about priorities, folks. Making our ports safe again will be an expensive task and will require thousands of union jobs, but true patriots would willingly sacrifice Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of Americans to give our Democrat leaders the tools they need to defend us against religious fanatics bent on our destruction.
Thankfully, the Boy Scouts don’t have WMD's or cargo ships to carry them just yet, but as a nation we must be prepared for when they eventually do.
Kirk said "I go back to my Titanic analogy. Worf and many others were on the first lifeboat off. I probably got on somewhere in the middle. And now FF has got on one as well. FF has recently scathed me because of my choice of how I protest our involvement in Iraq, and I certainly don't mind him doing so. I hope we get to a point where this whole middle east deal gets put behind us, though I don't see it happening as long as we need the oil.....
ReplyDeleteA good analogy Kirk, I hope we can put this behind us sooner rather than later also. I said in the previous blog that we need to work with Canada to develop the Canadian Tar sands as well as work to develop other forms of alternate energy like solar and wind, trouble is we need our government to jump start the ininiative with tax breaks and other incentives and this administration is in bed with the Saudi's, the UAE and the oil industry and that will never happen while they are in power.
Kirk some of usrefused to get on the titanic in the first place....
ReplyDeleteGUILT BY ASSOCIATION is LAW.
ReplyDeleteBut guys like you are the reason TYRANTS rise to power in our own land.
-Worf
"Personal guilt" is a basic standard of our criminal law. It means a person can't be held responsible for the criminal activity of another unless there is an active conspiracy between them. It means we don't subscribe to guilt by association.
...our constitutional principles make it essential that the government demonstrate individual culpability before sending someone to prison...
A standard of justice - St. Petersburg Times
[Guilt by Association is] a type of logical fallacy which asserts that qualities of one are inherently qualities of another, merely by association... Association fallacies are a special case of red herring, and are often based in an appeal to emotion.
Guilt by association...is the logical fallacy of claiming that something must be false because of the people or organizations who support it. Some examples are:
Some charities have been fraudulant. Therefore, charities must be frauds.
...
Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian. Vegetarianism must be evil.
-Wikipedia
None of what you claimed about "Guilt by Association" was true.
You state that failure to embrace this principle is the "reason TYRANTS rise to power" when in fact the reverse is true. Tyrants love using this principle to instill terror in a populace.
"Guilt by Association" is the principle used in France a while back to behead a few thousand innocent folks. Pol Pot was also fond of using this principle in the killing fields of Cambodia in which over a million innocent folks perished.
"Guilt by Association" is definitely not a cornerstone of American justice; it is a logical fallacy which flies in the face of the basic legal principle of every person being "innocent until proven guilty".
As your comments illustrate, it is so easy to prove that most of what y'all claim is false, that it just becomes tiresome.
So when you make a charge that is more difficult to prove, I don't feel a compelling need to run research it. The burden of proof is always on the accuser.
Liberals lack credibility because they repeatedly demonstrate that they are uninterested in truth and accuracy.
They cry "wolf" too often. They believe in any bogus conspiracy theory if it suits their political purposes. They tout the "election fraud" scam and the certainty the Republicans will bring back the draft, etc. ad nauseum.
As Clif illustrates with his admiration for yellow journalist paul krugman, he believes anything his fellow liberals state, yet he holds nothing but scorn for reliable, respected sources like the Wall Street Journal.
krugman is one of the least accurate most demonstrably partisan hacks on the planet, yet to Clif, apparently he is a god. Clif's hypocrisy is palpable.
Worf, perhaps now you will begin to understand why I take everything Liberals say with a grain of salt. Now I am waiting for you to vociferously deny these obvious facts, further eroding your credibility.
FF, while I agree with you in theory that things are not so black and white that people are guilty MERELY by association I think I have to agree more with the spirit of what Worf said than the letter of what he said. There is SO MUCH corruption coming out that administration that I would say "where there's smoke there's fire" BUT even if there was no deliberate corruption on Bush's part in what worf stated, BUSH has lied, exhibitted poor judgement and negligence time after time and thats giving him the benefit of the doubt because I believe there is a great deal of corruption in his administration.
ReplyDeleteAs Clif illustrates with his admiration for yellow journalist paul krugman,
ReplyDeleteNot admiration but he has a valid point, that you did not refute............
he believes anything his fellow liberals state,
False generalisation again, you can not know what I believe just what you think I say here, so WRONG again............
yet he holds nothing but scorn for reliable, respected sources like the Wall Street Journal.
Not scorn but simply a request that you can acknowledge that they have a political bent and publish to promote that bent.........
krugman is one of the least accurate most demonstrably partisan hacks on the planet,
According to whom, not your personal biased opinion but an independent non biased source.............
yet to Clif, apparently he is a god.
Not GOD, I posted ONE prat of an opinion article he wrote and you explode with the vile spiteful attacks........
Clif's hypocrisy is palpable.
That statement is with out merit, end of story...........
But Krugman still pegged you exactly.....
and that might be the real reason for your venom filled diatribe...................
I can't see why you keep trying given your transparency in defending a collapsing Administration when the slime oozes out daily...... .........
good post Clif.
ReplyDelete"Guilt by Association" is definitely not a cornerstone of American justice; it is a logical fallacy which flies in the face of the basic legal principle of every person being "innocent until proven guilty".
ReplyDeleteYou have never been stopped by the police while exhibiting any non accepted forms of race, religion, dress, or political opinion.
Your Liberal rants stand in direct opposition to these statements, you scream about liberals with almost no facts or links to back up your rants, sort of like my daughter when she was 4 or 5.
Kirk said "Someone who says he wants clean water and clean air while gutting the EPA......hypocrite.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who says "when you have a wire tap you have to have a judge approve it" while wiretapping without that consent.....hypocrite.
Do I need to go on? "
no, that was a pretty good start
You state that failure to embrace this principle is the "reason TYRANTS rise to power" when in fact the reverse is true. Tyrants love using this principle to instill terror in a populace.
ReplyDeleteTrue, example the Bush-cheney drive to war in 2002 2003 where anyone who questioned their facts or motives were giving aid and confort to the enemy, and after the war started anyone who questioned them were disloyal and hurting the moral of the troops........
As many fo the rats to jump ship show, Will, Fukyama, Kristol, Gaffney, Sullivan, as pointed out by the press daily now, three years and thousands of deaths late.
BTW FF, if your still here, i'd like you to support the statement you made last night that the majority of people on this site are Atheists, because I know of only one, and unless you count differently or define majority differently than the rest of us, i'd like to hear you support your position on that claim.
ReplyDeleteClif said "True, example the Bush-cheney drive to war in 2002 2003 where anyone who questioned their facts or motives were giving aid and confort to the enemy, and after the war started anyone who questioned them were disloyal and hurting the moral of the troops........"
ReplyDeleteClif that rhetoric aggravates me every time I hear it, I would have though we evolved from the McCarthey era witch hunts where the opposition where labeled communists, traitors, and unpatriotic.
krugman is one of the least accurate most demonstrably partisan hacks on the planet,
ReplyDeleteAccording to whom, not your personal biased opinion but an independent non biased source.
-Clif
Did you even bother to click the linky, Clif?
I consider the source reliable because they also state that certain Republican pundits are also highly partisan.
It isn't rocket science to quickly discern whether someone is providing balanced information, or pushing a parochial agenda.
/damn, y'all type fast...behive city.
Working on it....
ReplyDeleteHere is the ranking list you spout about, and any list that makes both Micheal Malkin and Ann Coulter less partisan than the 7 top Democratic columnists is simply slanted right and even though they quote Eric Alderman they fail to honestly follow his advise.
ReplyDelete2006 Most Partisan Columnists
Democratic
1 Joe Conason 84
2 Paul Krugman 74
3 Molly Ivins 73
4 Frank Rich 66
5 Bob Herbert 62
6 Michael Kinsley 53
7 Maureen Dowd 52
8 E. J. Dionne Jr. 46
9 David S. Broder 18
10 Richard Cohen 4
Republican
1 Mark Steyn 54
2 Michelle Malkin 52
3 Ann Coulter 44
4 Jonah Goldberg 36
5 Peggy Noonan 20
6 Victor Davis Hanson 18
7 Thomas Sowell 18
8 Charles Krauthammer 18
9 George F. Will 6
10 David Brooks 1
And their list of columns checked are 13 democratic and 7 republican so they have more democratic sites in the slant to weigh the left down more in the statistics
BTW FF, if your still here, i'd like you to support the statement you made last night that the majority of people on this site are Atheists, because I know of only one...
ReplyDelete-Mike
K. There's Worf and british gary that's two. Clif clearly despises Christians.
Is it fair to assume you are an atheist if you assume I am a Christian? Maybe not. Okay I retract my charge pending further information.
I dont think Clif or Worf are atheists or that they despise Christians, the Neo Con Wacko's not withstanding.
ReplyDeleteFunny the methods checked are names not FACTS as is shown here...
ReplyDeleteSince evaluating partisan references is completely subjective, the results depend on who is doing the evaluating, and there's plenty of room for disagreement on how to do it. Lying in Ponds tries to be consistent, but some types of references are more difficult to judge. The most difficult columns are often those which focus on the political process, rather than issues and ideology. It helps that those type of columns (e.g. David Broder, E. J. Dionne) are usually not very partisan.
It is more about how the columnists name a particular individual, whether they say George Bush instead of the shrub in chief, not if the column is actually true or false, basically a diversion from fact checking.
Sorry not relevant to a statement on facts nice try but not relevant,
please insert another quarter to play again.....
FF said.
ReplyDeleteClif clearly despises Christians.
Incomplete statement, I do not have a lot of respect for christian hypocrites yes.
Otherwise you know nothing about my real beliefs even if you keep claiming clairvoyance with your posts....
Let's be crystal: It's okay to have opposed the invasion of Iraq. I did as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's not okay to exhibit glee with each new piece of negative information from Iraq, and desperately hope your country is humiliated in war, just so you can have the adolescent, narcissistic satisfaction that you were right.
It's not okay to demand immediate pull out of American troops a couple of days before the first Iraqi election, hoping that you will cause the Iraqis to stay home and not vote. It's not okay to want the Iraqis to suffer and see your own country damaged for partisan advantage like ted kennedy clearly does.
It's not okay to go over and emotionally encourage our enemies to kill us faster like george galloway does.
Even a liberal should be able to see the difference between honest opposition from patriots and subversion by traitors.
This war will not be won or lost on the battlefield. It will be won or lost at home. Which side are you on?
Clif clearly despises Christians.
ReplyDeleteIncomplete statement, I do not have a lot of respect for christian hypocrites yes.
Otherwise you know nothing about my real beliefs even if you keep claiming clairvoyance with your posts
-Clif
Well, I am certainly convinced I'm wrong now. Don't you want to call everyone a ChristoFascist again?
Good move switch the discussion when you are losing, better than your attack the messanger move above......
ReplyDeleteI only call those Christofascist those who show that tendency, just like I call muslims who show the sdame tendency in their religion Islamofascista but youn miss that don't ya son?
ReplyDeleteSince evaluating partisan references is completely subjective, the results depend on who is doing the evaluating, and there's plenty of room for disagreement...
ReplyDelete-Clif
If a source is candid about the weakness in their own methodology, that would appear to make them more credible, not less. Certainly it is unrealistic for anyone to claim to be perfect.
Obviously you do not see the problem with people who claim to be christian
ReplyDeleteCalling for the deaths of others
Denigrating a fallen soldiers funeral
Promoting the invasion of a country on half truths and causing the deaths of thousands
Denying the poor and oppressed the physical christian message while decrying them cerbaly for failing to make the marks set by those who are well off
failing to activly live the message just proclaim it, but not actit
Disregard for the separation of the functions of the church and the state, like codifying a supposed christian rule into national or state law
etc, I could go on but soon I am going with my daughter to walk with her while she sells her girl scout cookies....
You have never been stopped by the police while exhibiting any non accepted forms of race, religion, dress, or political opinion.
ReplyDelete-Clif
Actually I was stopped for the only reason that I was in an out-of-state car and lost looking at a map. I have also spent time in the slammer for trespassing. I was also never convicted of any crime, just arrested. Also I will match anyone here for quantity of traffic tickets collected (I'm kinda impatient and hot-tempered...contrary to my blog persona).
But you're right, because I am white, I can't whine about racism. I hafta leave that ploy to jesse jackson and the bleeding heart neo-libs.
That quote is directly from their page and shows one weakness of their method.
ReplyDeleteThe real weakness is the criteria they start with; how someone is described not the truth or falsehood of what the column says.
At one time partican was also less than true, so whether they say President Bush or Jeff Gannon's love partner is not as relevant as much as what they say he did or didn't do and if the claim about his actions are verifiable from reliable sources not just Scotty McClellan. The columns should be rooted in facts but the site methods only relies on the words used to describe the person not the truth or falsehood of the actions attributed to the person.
But you're right, because I am white, I can't whine about racism. I hafta leave that ploy to jesse jackson and the bleeding heart neo-libs.
ReplyDeleteSo you do not have first hand knowledge of guilt by association,
Having ridden a bike for over 25 years I have, some cops can't see bikers as anything but drug selling scum.
I've been there a few times but talking to some minorities they say going some places they gewt it daily, and they told me my expierences were mild to some things they expierenced.
Also I will match anyone here for quantity of traffic tickets collected (I'm kinda impatient and hot-tempered...contrary to my blog persona).
ReplyDeleteWhether you know it or not, you scream it here....
Obviously you do not see the problem with people who claim to be christian
ReplyDeleteCalling for the deaths of others
Denigrating a fallen soldiers funeral
-Clif
Idiots and bastards come in all flavors. But if you persist in equating the teachings of Christ with the teachings of muhammad, then you are either ignorant of the New Testament and the quran or being willfully deceptive for partisan purposes. Do you really think that doofus pat robertson wants to take over the governments of the world? Have you ever heard of islamic sharia?
But if you think demonizing all Christians will help hillary, hey more power. Maybe you could appear on the randi roades show and the two of you could titillate each other with stories about how wicked Christians are.
But if you think demonizing all Christians will help hillary, hey more power. Maybe you could appear on the randi roades show and the two of you could titillate each other with stories about how wicked Christians are.
ReplyDeletePersonally I do not want Billary either one of them to run again.
That quote is directly from their page and shows one weakness of their method.
ReplyDeleteThe real weakness is the criteria they start with; how someone is described not the truth or falsehood of what the column says.
-Clif
Judging someone's partisanship by the number of times they use loaded words is sound methodology. For example, there is a distinct difference between the words "baby" and "fetus" also between "flower" and "weed".
You're clearly floundering. I gratiously accept your concession.
Ciao
Idiots and bastards come in all flavors. But if you persist in equating the teachings of Christ with the teachings of muhammad, then you are either ignorant of the New Testament and the quran or being willfully deceptive for partisan purposes.
ReplyDeleteI do notequate the teachings but the tactics of the followers in attempting to get their particular interptertation to be dominate in the culture they live in....
Do you really think that doofus pat robertson wants to take over the governments of the world?
No just this one where I ande my two daughters live so that is why I argue against what I see coming from more than a small minority and accepted by a majority of the christian right.
Have you ever heard of islamic sharia?
Yes I served in the Middle East during Desert Strom and as a company commander I had to take classes on Islamic law and customs, but just as most christians do not live according to Christ but their particular most Muslims do the same under their approach to Islam
Freedom Fan said...
ReplyDeleteThat quote is directly from their page and shows one weakness of their method.
The real weakness is the criteria they start with; how someone is described not the truth or falsehood of what the column says.
-Clif
Judging someones partisanship by the number of times they use loaded words is sound methodology. For example, there is a distinct difference between the words "baby" and "fetus" also between "flower" and "weed".
You're clearly floundering. I graciously accept your concession.
Ciao
Partisanship is not just the words but the truth or falsehood of the statement.
Floundering not hardly, just calling a partisan site what it is, giving Ann Coulter a lower ranking than most Democrats shows their true colors and you never refuted that as well as the fact they do not check truth but simply the loaded words to fill their little quasi mathematical attempt to have a methodology to prop up their spin......
The facts not the words are important and that is your weakness you live by the words not facts, thus you sound arrogant and illogical at the same time.
But Ciao
Clif said "I can answer that easily. I am in favor of putting all of our military( when necessary) economic, and political power into winning the war on terror. And as such, I see the battle of Iraq as a terrible mistake in to trying to win this war.
ReplyDeleteI don't "exhibit glee" when troops die or our forces fail.... I get pissed off at the leaders who set them up to fail in the first place."
excellent post Clif, my sentiments exactly.
Mike where did you get that post?
ReplyDeleteSorry, that was actually Kirk's 10:39AM post.
ReplyDeleteMike here is a quote from a NYT article about the c Chinese governments debate about allowing private property thta shows some of the problems that the Chinese leadership faces;
ReplyDeleteThe tensions reflect rising concern that breakneck growth averaging nearly 10 percent annually over 20 years has left China richer but also dirtier and, by the standards of the one-party state, politically volatile.
Corruption, pollution, land seizures and arbitrary fees and taxes are among the leading causes of a surge in social unrest. Riots have become a fixture of rural life in China — more than 200 "mass incidents of unrest" occurred each day in 2004, police statistics show — undermining the party's insistence on social stability.
Many Western and some Chinese experts have argued that these problems stem from China's authoritarian political system, and that they will not easily go away until people have a greater say in how they are governed. But the Communist Party and many left-leaning scholars reject that view. They say the ills are caused by capitalist excesses and rising inequality, which they say requires that the government reassert itself in economic affairs.
One measurement of inequality, the gap between the average incomes of urban and rural residents, has risen to about 3.3 to 1, according to the United Nations Development Program, higher than similar measures in the United States and one of the highest in the world. A study by the Communist Party's Central Research Office estimates that the ratio could rise to 4 to 1 by 2020 if current trends continue, a level some Chinese economists say could incite much wider social turmoil
They are not the monolith some claim and they have huge problems of their own...
Kirk12 said "I can answer that easily. I am in favor of putting all of our military( when necessary) economic, and political power into winning the war on terror. And as such, I see the battle of Iraq as a terrible mistake in to trying to win this war.
ReplyDeleteI don't "exhibit glee" when troops die or our forces fail.... I get pissed off at the leaders who set them up to fail in the first place."
Kirk and Mike I wholeheartedly concur and wish that actually was my post, it is a very good place to start to win the war we need to win and not the optional one Bush started in 2003 for the neo-cons
I get no more Glee about our troops suffering and deaths anymore today than I did on the battlefield in 1991, I just can see the futility of those in Washington who refuse to accept their abject failure and the paths it ultimately will lead to, which are detrimental to the actual war on terror.
Worf, our fake and phony bible boy of the site, who, originally went to great lengths to impress Lydia with his Jesus rhetoric, has chosen to place yet another personal attack upon moi..... "manic depressive." What an idiot! :D
ReplyDeleteAnd, as he clearly does not believe in ignoring or peace, then I will follow his influence.
I suggest bible boy is a deeply, deeply neurotic, door bustin, never been married, childless individual who physically shakes due to his out out of control red hot anger :D
If he did have a wife, I would feel sorry for her if she failed to cook dinner for him on time after a hard day of blogging :D
Bible boy, who seems to enjoy impedeing my progress in "TRUELY" getting to know my opponent's or, in making a new friend, only chose to attack my person after BG's last post to me. Why? I will let any reasonably intelligent person ponder this? :D
Lydia's pet stalker, who is powerfully obssessed, refuses to take even one day off from blogging, thus fearful of losing her affection.
And Lydia! Before you come on and say " Johnny, poor Worf did not deserve this attack" then I must question your morals.
Where were you when Worf was GRINDING BIG K (a nice family man BTW) into the ground on a daily basis for his enormous SIN of being naive about guns and knives? Or his labelling me a drug user because I failed to see his point of view..... which, in fact, sparked our last, ugly, heated debate. What about:
" Ryan, come over to lydiacornell.com and stir things up."
No Lydia, you wont point out:
"These are not the qualities of a man who wants peace?????????"
Additionally Lydia, you claim people must shed their ego in order to achieve your utopia. However, I could not help but notice your pics are of the subject most important to you......YOURSELF.
Not beatutiful mountains, lakes, or singing birds.
The pics, are only of you associating with other celebrities, politicians, and joyrides on expensive fancy boats, which suggest's you are trying to impress lil folk with your greatness.
Sorry, I would enjoy pics of you standing in knee deep water helping out a Katrina victim or handing out presents to the poor, underprivledged children at Christmas time. This would inspire me, to increase my efforts, to help others.
I will always respect the princess who walked the minefields.
Actually, you rarely show any interest in asking common folk questions about themselves... except, of course, when it may help your sales. I refuse to become one of your 16 hour a day puppet's.
I do, however, salute your belief in allowing everyone to speak his/her mind; this is most important.
I understand the red pill hurts and people will vehemently attempt to disguise the real truth.
Also, I did not lay a personal attack against our British friend. I merely pointed out that we should be very cautious of the new guy who BLASTS his way in here with long posts, strong words, and vehement advice that we should limit free speech. And bible boy wishes to manufacture that Im the bad guy??? Hmmmmm....
P.S. Hey bible boy! Why does God prefer to exterminate his mistakes rather than choose "HOPE" and put forth effort into his creations?
P.S.S. I like me...I really do!! Always have!!
I am a longtime fan and a huge fan of your writing. I haven't seen anything yet that I disagree with.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in the voting, I will do my part.
Take heed, all you Christian conservative wackos who think you have a direct line to the big guy upstairs, for God has finally abandoned you and joined the winning team!
ReplyDeleteFed up with your lies, your war mongering, your profiteering at the expense of the poor - not to mention your antiquated views concerning abortion, gay sex, and the euthanization of the sick and elderly - God has cancelled his contract with Pat Robertson and is now speaking exclusively through Democrat politicians. In an impassioned speech at yesterday’s Martin Luther King Day ceremonies in New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin described how the good Lord descended from the heavens and told him that Hurricane Katrina was not sent by Bush as previously believed, but rather by the Creator himself as punishment for the Shrub’s illegal and immoral war in Iraq. God then went on to condemn Bush’s domestic spying program, his refusal to ratify Kyoto, and his tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of Americans.
When Nagin asked how to make things right again, God cocked His giant pimp hat and replied that New Orleans had become a "Zone of Zero Funkativity" and needs be “mo’ choco-licious”. He directed Nagin to “unite the Thumpsaurus Peoples into One Nation of Electric Spank”, under “the Law of Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication”. He then zapped Nagin with his cosmic Bop Gun, hopped into His Mothership, and returned to the Planet Funkadelica.
Nagin’s magical Paul of Tarsus moment wasn’t the only divine intervention experienced by Democrat leaders yesterday. While slamming the GOP-controlled “Plantation of Representatives” at a Harlem church yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton suddenly broke into a deep baritone rendition of “Old Man River”. A sign from above, perhaps, that she’s ready to become our first Black female president. President Al Gore babbled incoherently for three hours before it was realized that he was actually in a state of grace and speaking in tongues.
Democrats have always been very close to God during election years, but it comes as a complete surprise to all of us that He actually exists. I always assumed that He was just a fictional boogeyman the cons made up to lay a guilt trip on everybody and ruin our good time. But as long as He remains nonjudgmental and doesn’t try to force his morals on anyone, he’s more than welcome in the Big Tent.
more drivel anonyloser!!!
ReplyDeleteDitto on everyone else's congratulations. In all my surfing I have never found this blog until today. Wow, what a find! Good Luck to everyone who was nominated. In this case it is a big deal to be nominated and there sure are a lot of deserving sites out there.
ReplyDeleteI am a longtime fan and a huge fan of your writing. I haven't seen anything yet that I disagree with.
ReplyDelete-larry
Larry, thank you, thank you very much. You are much too kind. Luv ya; mean it. xxooo
pissed off patricia
ReplyDeleteThanks for your interest, but this blog is actually Ms. Cornell's harem of lovesick liberal guys. So since you are a woman you couldn't possibly...wait...okay...never mind. Welcome.
/I love chicks who talk dirty; soo sexy.
Johnny Moo Moo -- No one is perfect, we are all flawed, and I don't condone attacks on anyone. If you felt attacked by Worfeus I'm sorry. I don't know why you guys are at each other's throats. But the idea of having biblical knowledge or faith in the goodness of the universe (God = good or love) has nothing to do with religion.
ReplyDeleteAnd furthermore, lashing out at me and others is "retaliation". Just because I post photos of people I know and love in this industry -- doesn't make me any less loving. You are judging us if we're supposed to be holy people.
You're right about the pictures, I should post more about Katrina and poverty in the world. Sorry about that. I was honoring Aaron Spelling because he is very ill right now, and I worked on 10 of his shows.
I was honoring my photographer friend Margery Epstiein who took the picture of Warren Beatty at congresswoman Lynne Woolsey's fundraiser.
And the boat picture from Monte Carlo just came to me via email: it reminds me of what a loser and drinker I used to be.
Thank you Larry and Pissed Off Patricia,
ReplyDeleteKeep coming back!
(And don't mind Freedom Fan; he's our resident right-winger. But we still love him.)
Hey Lyd,
ReplyDeleteI voted for you in 2 categories
thanks for posting the Hurricane Katrina donation site. we should all go down there and help rebuild homes. That is GOD IN ACTION!
Johnny Moo²
ReplyDeleteDude, you're way outta line on several levels.
First we bloggers don't really even know each other for the most part; yer lookin for love in all the wrong places. Look in the real world for friends, not the virtual world.
Second, Ms. Cornell is an actress, a comedienne, and a writer. This means her product is herself. This is her blog; she should be promoting herself. There is nothing inconsistent about her business promotion and her religious beliefs. Deal.
Finally, if someone insults you, it is just a game. Teasing is just entertainment; an art form. You are not physically harmed, are you? Simply insult them back. No one has the right not to be offended; this was my main beef with british gary.
Open-minded, rowdy blogs like Ms. Cornell's allow us to learn the truth and sharpen our debating skills. If you win a debate then your ideas may be strengthened; if you lose, maybe your ideas require revision.
/However I recommend winning.
Thank you Freedom Fan. You are a real gentleman.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Moo Moo, I am looking forward to the day soon when I finish my guilt over not finishing this book fast enough (deadline is causing great distress and am procrastinating by blogging) but then I would love to ask you questions about yourself and everyone here. I honestly haven't had time to read the personal info on anyone yet, and I still want to re-read FF's in a prior blog. Right now my two preteen boys are begging for attention, and I keep sneaking away to write at all hours, while trying not to have a melt-down. My stepson was abandoned by his mom and he comes in our bed every morning at 4 a.m. so not a lot of sleep.
more later,
Love,
Lyd
Open-minded, rowdy blogs like Ms. Cornell's allow us to learn the truth and sharpen our debating skills. If you win a debate then your ideas may be strengthened; if you lose, maybe your ideas require revision.
ReplyDelete/However I recommend winning.
3:45 PM
FF you misspelled whining in your last sentence.
Sorry but I couldn't resist....LOL
Johnny said " Additionally Lydia, you claim people must shed their ego in order to achieve your utopia. However, I could not help but notice your pics are of the subject most important to you......YOURSELF.
ReplyDeleteNot beatutiful mountains, lakes, or singing birds.
The pics, are only of you associating with other celebrities, politicians, and joyrides on expensive fancy boats, which suggest's you are trying to impress lil folk with your greatness.
Sorry, I would enjoy pics of you standing in knee deep water helping out a Katrina victim or handing out presents to the poor, underprivledged children at Christmas time. This would inspire me, to increase my efforts, to help others.
I will always respect the princess who walked the minefields.
Actually, you rarely show any interest in asking common folk questions about themselves... except, of course, when it may help your sales. I refuse to become one of your 16 hour a day puppet's."
Johnny, I think your a little out of line on this one bud, first of all anyone that would have a photographer snapping pictures of them while they are in knee deep water helping Katrina victims most likely has an ego and an agenda, people who do good things dont need to seek publicity and broadcast it, they know it in their hearts. BTW, those pictures werent an eyesore johnny, I enjoyed them.
As for Lydia showing interest, she has a family, is working on three books, a comedy act and a tv/movie project, how much time do you think she has to interact with bloggers/fans Johnny, its obvious how passionate she is about the issues she talks about, she's not making any money off of blogging, she might gain a little PR or sell a DVD or autographed picture here or there, but that not her intent, she genuinely cares about whats going on and is the farthest thing from a phony i've ever seen, and I dont think its right to make her feel guilty about her hard work. I'm sure she enjoys blogging with us, but she has a million things going on right now and I think you need to respect that.
Johnny, when we had our altercation last month I said to you if i dont realize i'm doing anything wrong I cant change what i'm doing, well i'm returning the favor to you, your coming across as bitter and negative and from where I sit it does look like you are attacking people personally. we dont have to agree with gary, I didnt either, but he's from a different culture we cant expect him to see things the same as us, I dont know how you can say your pro free speech the so viciously attack a guy trying to voiuce his opinion, if you think someone is wrong then debate them and try and convince them you are right but attacking them personally is wrong. we should be happy we are attracting people from all over the world to this blog, not trying to drive them off if they dont agree with us, i'm really surprised Lydia didnt get angry with you about this, because I think she would be proud that she was attracting people from all over the world to her blog.
as for you and Worf, i'm not getting in the middle, but I will say this, he did make a comment to you Johnny, but I think it was really more about making BG feel welcome here than taking a shot at you, you really attacked him personally as a person, not what he said, I really enjoy talking with you Johnny, and think your a good guy, but you are always paranoid of peoples motives, and you do attack people personally at times, particularly new people or people interacting with Lydia, relax buddy, everyone doesnt have bad intentions or hidden agenda's just the Neo Cons. LOL :D
Lydia said "And furthermore, lashing out at me and others is "retaliation". Just because I post photos of people I know and love in this industry -- doesn't make me any less loving. You are judging us if we're supposed to be holy people.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the pictures, I should post more about Katrina and poverty in the world. Sorry about that. I was honoring Aaron Spelling because he is very ill right now, and I worked on 10 of his shows.
I was honoring my photographer friend Margery Epstiein who took the picture of Warren Beatty at congresswoman Lynne Woolsey's fundraiser.
And the boat picture from Monte Carlo just came to me via email: it reminds me of what a loser and drinker I used to be.
2:53 PM"
Lydia, dont for guilty about the pictures or about not spending enough time in here, just about everyone has said they like the pictures, (myself included), dont feel guilty about your wild youth either, I could literally write a book about all the wild and crazy things I did in my youth, we grow as people from those types of things, I have no real regrets, a few things I would change or do different but no regrets. I think its part of being young, plus it makes for lots of interesting stories to tell our friends, kids or friends kids.
FF said "Johnny Moo²
ReplyDeleteDude, you're way outta line on several levels.
First we bloggers don't really even know each other for the most part; yer lookin for love in all the wrong places. Look in the real world for friends, not the virtual world.
Second, Ms. Cornell is an actress, a comedienne, and a writer. This means her product is herself. This is her blog; she should be promoting herself. There is nothing inconsistent about her business promotion and her religious beliefs. Deal.
Finally, if someone insults you, it is just a game. Teasing is just entertainment; an art form. You are not physically harmed, are you? Simply insult them back. No one has the right not to be offended; this was my main beef with british gary.
Open-minded, rowdy blogs like Ms. Cornell's allow us to learn the truth and sharpen our debating skills. If you win a debate then your ideas may be strengthened; if you lose, maybe your ideas require revision.
FF, your starting to scare me, i'm actually finding things I agree with you on.
well talk to you guys tomorrow, I usually go out Saturdays and am not around, If my ears are ringing tonight, i'll know its you Johnny. :D
True story:
ReplyDeleteThree Arkansas surgeons were playing golf together and discussing surgeries they had performed.
One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Arkansas. In my favorite case, a concert pianist lost seven fingers in an accident, I reattached them, and 8 months later he performed a private concert for the Queen of England.
The second surgeon said. "That's nothing. A young man lost an arm and both legs in an accident, I reattached them, and 2 years later he won a gold medal in track and field events in the Olympics."
The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs. Several years ago a woman was high on cocaine and marijuana and she rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the woman's blonde hair and the horse's ass. I was able to put them together and now she's a senator from New York.
Well, if the Dems put up Billary, and you put up Frost, then I guess I'm voting for Nader in 08.
ReplyDeleteWho you gonna vote for FF?
-Worfeus
Our next Prez
Soda? Jack Daniels here.
ReplyDelete/pay no attention to this Ms. Cornell. Anyway I don't drink...just taste...er I only drink socially and when I'm by myself.
That's just wrong.
ReplyDeleteAt British radical Islamic hate site Ummah.new, islamists plan to murder the writers who signed the recent manifesto against Islamic totalitarianism:
ReplyDeleteExcellent- makes killing the kuffar all that bit easier.....
12 signatures
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq
Jezak'illah Ukthi, now we have drawn out a hit list of a 'Who's Who' guide to slam into. Take you time but make sure their gone soon- oh and don't hold out for a fatwah it isn't really required here.
Has anyone got that Christian kaffir 'Ibn Warraq's' real name yet?
-commenter abu hirairah on British Islamic hate site Ummah.net
But I'm not too worried, after all these innocent folks on the hit list have brave pacifists like British gary to protect them.
Moo Moo said:
ReplyDelete" Additionally Lydia, you claim people must shed their ego in order to achieve your utopia. However, I could not help but notice your pics are of the subject most important to you......YOURSELF.
Not beatutiful mountains, lakes, or singing birds.
The pics, are only of you associating with other celebrities, politicians, and joyrides on expensive fancy boats, which suggest's you are trying to impress lil folk with your greatness.
Sorry, I would enjoy pics of you standing in knee deep water helping out a Katrina victim or handing out presents to the poor, underprivledged children at Christmas time. This would inspire me, to increase my efforts, to help others.
I will always respect the princess who walked the minefields.
Actually, you rarely show any interest in asking common folk questions about themselves... except, of course, when it may help your sales. I refuse to become one of your 16 hour a day puppet's."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Oh man, Moo Moo - did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or what?
It's one thing that you think its funny to attempt to discredit me, BUT HOW DARE YOU SAY INSULTING THINGS TO LYDIA!!! Considering your crack on her sales - did you forget that she clearly states the following on her web page:???
"Proceeds from sales go to several children’s charities: Feed the Children, Give Kids a Break, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, UNICEF and Bel Air Presbyterian Church Missions."
I don't understand you Moo Moo - what's going on with you?
Sometimes you come across as a decent person and then you turn right around and attack people on here. That makes you come across as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type.
As for your comment about "enjoy pics of you standing in knee deep water helping out a Katrina victim”
Let’s not forget Bush taking the opportunity to have a publicity shot shaking hands with one of the victims but how many days after the fact did he finally show up there! Yet he turned around and still left them without enough help. He took New Orleans’s funding away to fix their levy to add it to the billions he has already spent on the war in Iraq and then doesn't help in time after the levy breaks!
I'd rather be thankful that Lydia helps out the organizations that she does and the way she does. Meaning she doesn’t go on boasting about how she helps people. This isn't something new to her either. I remember when Lydia, and many other celebrities, and thousands of us "lil folk" (as you’ve so called us) including myself joined in ‘Hands Across America’ as well her appearances on game shows to help raise money for charities back in the 80's. She has been helping various charities for a long time!
Moo Moo - you shouldn't need inspiration from Lydia or any other celebrity in order to help others - you should just help who you can when you can regardless of what celebrities are doing in their lives.
I know you’ve mentioned before that you’re an atheist, but remember those of us who are Christians know and follow Matthew 6:1-4 “1: Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2) So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3) But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4) so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
I quoted the above from the “Children’s Bible” New Revised Standard Version.
I cannot believe you're sooo upset with Lydia who is an extremely busy person for not asking stuff about us - yet you yourself did not ask anything about me before going on and on in several of your posts insulting the heck out of me by not only calling me a "fake Christian" but then going on implying things as if you think I'm a bad person or a stocker toward Lydia when I've done nothing but post supportive thoughts and comments toward her and her views that I whole heartedly agree with and asked a few questions that were off topic. Big deal.
I caught up real quick with your comments when I came back on after not being online for a while due to my hectic schedule and I was utterly shocked when I read your attacks. Yes, you do come across as insulting at times not only to me but to others on here as well. That is why I shared about myself to fill you in on what things I've done in my life in regards to helping people and children. You indirectly wanted to know so I answered.
In any case, I've just stated the above to use myself as an example because of the things you have written trying to discredit me in previous posts. I don’t understand what you expect to gain out of attempting to discredit any of us considering none of us are really anything to you. I thought our purpose for being here is to share or discuss views/opinions on spiritual things and politics and maybe learn something for those of us who are not 100% politically or military savvy…not simply sit here and think of ways to take serious jabs at people.
I’m not talking about the way Worf and FF go back and forth at times either. You can tell they have sarcastic senses of humor at times that is actually funny – but you Moo Moo - maybe you think you’re being funny too BUT have you ever read what you write in the “Leave your comment” box before you actually post it? How can you not realize you come across as moody if not bipolar??? <-I’m not accusing you – I simply stated it's the way “you come across."
To be fair – I can see where someone like YOU would think I came across as a stocker because of my “offer of protection” toward Lydia and her family after the whole Ann Coulter incident BUT I even told her basically when I wrote that - that it was not my intention to come across as sounding weird and that it just upset me that Ann was so vicious and stupid to do that. How could Ann not realize some creep would show up at Lydia’s home - pounding on her door and how could Ann not realize the other creeps would call Lydia's home? You even agreed with me on that – stating you gave me benefit of the doubt because we shared the common belief, “Ann Coulter is scum.”
And who cares if I want to go see Lydia’s show this summer. I have a friend who is performing at another hotel in June too so I’m going to be there anyway - big Whoop! It’s not like I'd be the only person there. I'm sure she will have plenty of other fans there too. Furthermore, another tid bit you didn’t know about me (because I left it off of my resume to you) I’m not 100% unfamiliar with being around celebrities – I’ve worked on several movies in the past. I’ve even shared a freagin’ heat lamp with Keanu Reeves while on location, worked with Tim Burton, and I’ve even gone to the same doctors that some celebrities do (I like going to the best) and had appointments the same time they did and guess what - they’re still here! <-Don’t even bother asking me who they were because I’m not breaking their confidentiality).
I can understand your concern if it were really genuine considering you don’t know me, but I’m the least of anyone’s worries.
GIVE ME A BREAK! PAH-LEASE!
So, with that said why on Earth would you think of me as a stocker - You’d have to be a complete moron to seriously think that of me in any way! You didn’t have to say it point blank in your previous posts but we all know that’s what your little innuendos were leading to. Please, I’m not stupid.
Sorry to sound like a jerk and I'm not accusing you - I'm just asking...are you sure you're not bipolar? I'm just asking because of your negative accusations toward some of us here and now your negativity toward Lydia. I don't mean to reiterate but...YOUR POSTS ARE quite the roller coaster of moods.
If you really aren’t bipolar and don’t need any lithium that Worf mentioned perhaps something in your private life has you stressing out and if so maybe you should go visit those “beautiful mountains, lakes, or singing birds” that you mentioned so you can unwind, relax for a while and revitalize your positive side. :D Doesn’t that sound great?
I know you don’t believe - but I’m going to add you to my prayers anyway.
Rene :D
Thanks so much for the visit and the comment last night. I'm most grateful for the link. You're so sweet to do that.
ReplyDeleteWhy I Am a Democrat
ReplyDeleteI sometimes hear the question, "Why are you a Democrat?" and frankly, I have to laugh. Laugh and laugh, because perhaps this person may tire of my laughing, and he will eventually wander off. Sometimes I ponder seriously when I hear this question, because I'll look around and around and there's nobody there asking the question. Why am I a Democrat?
I am a Democrat because I believe everyone deserves a chance. And if necessary, a second chance. And if, by the eighth or ninth chance, this guy needs another chance, I mean, come on. This guy is due.
I am a Democrat because I believe in helping those in need. All of us, you and I, have an obligation to those less fortunate. You go first, okay? I'm a little short this week.
I am a Democrat because I believe in the equality of all people, regardless of their race. That is why I think we should give free medical degrees to minorities because, well, duh. Like any of those types are going to make it through medical school.
I am a Democrat because I fervently believe in tolerance. Tolerance is critical in our diverse society, and if you have a problem with that, mister, then I will inform the authorities and I bet that after a few hours in their "special room" you too will agree that tolerance is critical.
I am a Democrat because I believe that we should take our noses out of other people's bedrooms. I say we move the noses to their banks and storage sheds and scout troops, and so forth.
I am a Democrat because I hold sacred freedom of the press, as well as freedom of the TV and freedom of the movie. Where I draw the line is freedom of the talk radio, and don't even get me started about that damn Internet business.
I am a Democrat because I recognize that education is important. Very, very, extremely very important. We must increase spending on education and enact important education reforms, such as eliminating standardized tests. Because we can never hope to measure this beautiful, elusive, important thing we call education.
I am a Democrat because I believe in the separation of church and state. We must stop the religious extremists who want school-sanctioned prayers. Now, you tell me - with all that chanting and praying and incense-burning going on, how can our kids concentrate on the big condom-and-banana midterm?
I am a Democrat because I believe in the rights of women, be they lawyers or housewives or skanky interns. For too long women have been the victims of discrimination, and we must target programs to help these women, and also the various people who have descended from women.
I am a Democrat because I believe in women's right to choose. I mean, not a church school or a tax shelter, or something like that, obviously. Let's be reasonable.
I am a Democrat because I believe in the rule of law. Or, at least, lawyers. Because hey, according to my attorney, I could have been on the Number 7 bus when it crashed yesterday. As far as you know.
I am a Democrat because I believe a healthy economy depends on good jobs at good wages. So fork 'em over, you fat bastard boss man.
I am a Democrat because I believe the government should step in to create good jobs when that fat bastard boss man moves my good job to Mexico. Hey, I know! Maybe we can take all the money that boss man spends on non-job-creating stuff, like solid gold yachts and mink spats, and use that money to create jobs.
I am a Democrat because I fear the power of giant unrestrained monopolies, such as Microsoft, Nike, Parker Brothers, Univac and the Erie Canal Company. The government must wage an unrelenting, all-out war to crush these scary monopolies to a pulp before they get too powerful.
I am a Democrat because I believe in a strong military. Strong, yes, but caring and thoughtful too, and ready to face new challenges. A military that enjoys long strolls on the beach, cuddling in front of a warm fire, unafraid to show its vulnerable side. Must be NS/DDF.
I am a Democrat because I believe there is too much violence in society, especially in our schools. To avoid another Columbine tragedy, we should have mellow "rap" sessions with at-risk teens, such as the Goths. The violence will only end after the teen Goths see that we adults really care, and are "hip" to their groovy teen Goth scene.
I am a Democrat because I believe in campaign finance reform. Sadly, our politics are dominated by advertisements, paid for by the contributions of giant corporations. All too often, these drown out legitimate grassroots opinions, like the kind heard on TimeWarner-AOL-CNN, TimesCorp, or Disney-ABC.
I am a Democrat because I believe in public support of the arts. By "the arts," I of course mean those things made by, or excreted by, an artist of some sort. It is especially important that art be provocative and take controversial stances, like opposing Jesse Helms, and so on.
I am a Democrat because I believe in the environment and conservation. For instance, we must raise the price of gasoline, like they do in Europe, to increase conservation. If we don't, there will soon be a big gas shortage, and this will mean higher gasoline prices for you and me.
I am a Democrat because I detest greed. Especially the sickening greed of those who struck it rich in the 1980s, and greedily refuse to give me any of their stuff.
I am a Democrat because I... hey look! A new episode of Survivor! Geez, I hope they don't vote off Jenna, she's my favorite.
Tom Fox kept a blog while he was in Iraq, it definitely is worth reading.
ReplyDeletehttp://waitinginthelight.blogspot.com/2005/11/there-are-no-words.html
Forgot the attribution. My bad. It was funny, but I don't claim authorship. Iowahawk is very funny though.
ReplyDeleteTouché, Kirk. That was equally amusing.
ReplyDeleteTall Texan said...
ReplyDeleteTouché, Kirk. That was equally amusing
And much closer to the truth.....
BTW TT here is a better look at the differences;
ReplyDeleteFREE MARKETS?
Dean Baker's An End to Self-Defeating Rhetoric should be mandatory reading for all progressives.
What's the difference between conservatives and progressives? Conservatives support free markets, whereas progressives support government solutions to social problems, right? Wrong. Conservatives like the government every bit as much as progressives do, they just don't advertise this fact. In actuality, conservatives want the government to shape markets in ways that provide profits to corporations and high incomes to rich people, instead of using it to ensure a decent standard of living for everyone.
For example, with regard to airwaves and patents, conservatives expect the government to grant them exclusive rights and arrest competitors. Even in the recent battles over Social Security, conservatives have not been pushing a market solution -- rather they advocate a policy of government-mandated saving, which would put citizens' savings under the control of the financial industry. In all of these instances, conservatives are not pushing for a market solution. Their desired policies require large-scale government intervention in the market. Conservatives conceal this fact in their rhetoric, implying that they simply want the market to be left alone.
And yes Dean Baker wrote this.....
More from Mr. Baker;
ReplyDeleteOn "free trade":
But there is no inherent connection between the ends pursued in these trade agreements and anything that can be called "free trade." The major thrust of most of these agreements has been to standardize the laws governing investment in order to facilitate U.S. investment in developing nations. The obvious and intended effect of this foreign investment is to place U.S. workers in direct competition with the lowest-paid labor anywhere in the world.
A "free trade" agreement could just as easily be written to standardize education and licensing standards for professionals. Such an agreement would then put U.S. doctors, lawyers, and accountants in direct competition with the lowest paid professionals throughout the world. Instead of investing to build factories in Mexico or China, hospital chains might pay to support medical education in these countries, with the graduates coming to work in the United States. Since U.S. professionals are paid far higher salaries than professionals even in OECD nations (doctors in the United States earn more than twice the average for doctors in other OECD nations), free-trade pacts of this sort would have the potential for enormous economic gains for the United States, as well as developing nations.
However, trade agreements have done little or nothing to increase the ability of foreign professionals to sell their services in the United States. This is because doctors, lawyers and other professionals have powerful lobbying groups that can prevent this sort of competition.
One could also mention the unfree nature of trucking goods between the U.S. and Mexico under NAFTA. The U.S. trucking industry lobby has restricted the access of Mexican trucks to the U.S. via the "safety" bogeyman. While the rhetoric is free, the reality certainly isn't.
And Mr. Baker even pops the social security Free Market approach advocated by conservatives:
ReplyDeleteOn privatizing social security:
Instead, conservatives are advocating a system of government-mandated savings, where the government forces individuals to invest in some types of funds for their retirement. While this can be done through a centralized system, where the funds would be collected by the government, most proponents of individual accounts envision a system of decentralized accounts, where the government will effectively be requiring workers to place a fixed percentage of their wages on deposit with the financial industry. It is also worth noting that almost every serious proponent of this system also advocates extensive government regulation of these accounts, restricting them to relatively low risk investments. The accounts therefore require a government role even in control of the money.
This system would hand the financial industry tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars in administrative fees each year. It has absolutely nothing to do with a free market. If progressives let the right pretend that it is proposing a market solution for Social Security, they have given away the debate. Both conservatives and progressives are proposing systems in which the government ensures that workers are guaranteed a minimum level of retirement income. The real question is which system does it more effectively.
Thus you are for MORE BIG government but one that benefits the rich as usual, not one that lifts the poor and truely educates all for the beterment of all. Sounds like what we have right now under Bush ...DOESN"T IT?
And TT,
ReplyDeleteThere is NO “liberal agenda” but the shared interest of liberals who want to see things get better for everyone. You, your parents, and the guy who bags groceries down at the corner market. Liberals want to see you with enough money to buy groceries, pay off your house, and put at least one fuel-efficient vehicle in your garage.
It’s not an agenda. It’s people hoping for the best for other people.
It’s about hoping that your Uncle John, who’s been farming the same plot of land for the last 40 years, doesn’t lose his farm because he falls off his tractor and breaks his leg and can’t pay his doctor bill. It’s about hoping that you have some options when your town’s biggest employer goes belly-up because it can’t compete with that textile factory in China.
It’s about making sure you get paid enough that you don’t have to take two or three jobs just to make ends meet. So you can spend more time with your family…so you can play catch with your kids, or take them fishing on weekends, or take them to the local swimming hole or municipal pool to teach them how to swim.
It’s not an agenda to want the best for people. It’s just humanity. It’s about being a good neighbor, even if that neighbor lives half a country away.
Ask a liberal what empathy is…it’s about understanding where someone else is coming from. And most of us try very hard, even if we don’t agree.
Being a liberal isn’t about making fun of God, or your beliefs about him. Most liberals take the Sermon on the Mount to heart. They try to live the teachings of Jesus, even if some aren’t sure he’s really the Son of God. Thomas Jefferson called him the World’s Greatest Moral Philosopher. You’ll find very few liberals who’d disagree with that.
It’s because of liberals that your ten year old get to go to school rather than being forced to work in factories for spare change. It’s because of liberals that you can trust your workplace to be safe and free of unexpected dangers. It is because of liberals that, should you be injured at work, you can expect fair medical treatment and compensation for your lost work, and have money coming in if you’re laid off. It’s also because of liberals that you have reasonably clean water to drink and bathe in, and that the local swimming hole isn’t completely polluted.
That’s what we do. We try to look out for everybody. Even the people who hate us. We don’t have an agenda. We don’t take marching orders from anyone. We do what we do because we believe in people. We believe in you.
All we ask is that you begin to believe in us. That is why we on the progressive side seem so chaotic to all the conservatives because we do not march lockstep as we are told by the daily talking points memo, but think for ourselves....
"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." -- Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC
ReplyDeleteGiven that quote and the list below who do you think Father O"Brien would be proud of?
Democrats
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam. Lost both legs and one arm attempting to pick up a grenade dropped by another soldier.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve,1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldier’s Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy. Graduate of Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII.
Republicans
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Five deferments. “I had other priorities in the ’60s other than military service,” Cheney told a reporter in 1989.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. “Bad knee.” The man who attacked Max Cleland’s patriotism.
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year Air National Guard tour of duty; asked for and received an assignment to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
* “B-1” Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. “Knee problem,” although continued playing in the NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.
Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a ‘pilonidal cyst.’)
* Bill O’Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
* Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He only shoots at things that don’t shoot back.)
Yea, he might not really think the current crop, of republican leadership and pundrity, has done all they could have either....
Tall Texan on "Why I Am A Democrat"
ReplyDeleteBrilliant dude. Author? I thought you musta been from Awstin at first. Pardon my redundancy:
I think the neo-libs are on the right track. So let me encourage em to codify their platform in time for the next election:
1) Continue to demonize all Christians as “ChristoFascists” at every opportunity, but attempt to assure them that really you are talking only about the fanatical “Religious Right”. Use blogs and talk radio to get your message out…don’t hold back.
2) Promise to abandon all support of Israel and allow the Paleos to push the Israelis into the sea.
3) Promise to pull out of Iraq immediately, and snuff out all hope of a democratic future for Iraqis and other Middle Eastern people suffering under bloody tyrants like saddam hussein and Iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad.
4) Embrace michael moore and frequently repeat his message that “there is no terrorist threat”—that this is just a silly Republican fiction to grab power.
5) Force middle America to accept gay matrimony through the court system.
6) Promise to keep abortion “safe but rare” but make it clear to your base that this really means that you oppose any attempt to curtain partial-birth abortion, and favor any abortion procedure for any reason at any time. Oppose all judicial nominees who have ever mentioned the word "abortion".
7) Promise to keep America safe from gun violence by pushing for “common-sense” gun control measures; assure them that you really don’t favor confiscating all firearms in private hands. Use barbara boxer as your spokesperson.
8) Talk about how you have undeniable “proof” of malfeasance in the electoral system but fail to actually produce any reliable proof. Keep whining about how the election system is rigged, but be certain to stop whining after you win Congressional seats in the mid term elections.
9) Tell Americans how their economic system is broken and embrace the European model of more unions, more regulations, more taxation, and less economic freedom. Tell shareholders, employees, business people about how all corporations are evil.
10) Assure Americans that they are not overtaxed and promise that you favor raising taxes only on the “rich” but avoid defining what you mean by “rich”.
11) Oppose any suggestion of litigation reform and ignore all the victims who have been bankrupted by frivolous lawsuits and usurious lawyer fees.
12) Oppose enforcement of the death penalty for murderers and encourage survivors of murdered loved ones to stop calling for justice and just grow up.
13) Explain to black people that Republicans are racists because they allow black people to live in hurricane zones.
14) Explain to old people how Republicans want to starve them to death because they favor allowing young people to control a small portion of their retirement contributions to social security.
15) Explain to young people how Republicans definitely intend to bring back the military draft; introduce draft legislation yourselves just to erase any doubt.
16) Nominate hillary for President. Assure businessmen that she actually loves business and would never nationalize their particular industry unless really, really necessary for the common good. Try to convince everyone that she is really a “moderate”—not a rabid socialist.
17) Be certain to talk endlessly about obscure Washington personalities who have bounced checks and committed similar egregious fraudulent acts. Folks in the heartland just lap this stuff up, although they may seem at first to have their eyes permanently glazed over. Use pundits on blogs and the wildly poplular Air (head) Amerikka to spread the word.
-Freedom Fan
Clif,
ReplyDelete"Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC"
Um...don't you believe in separation of church and state? Ow all these "in God we trust" thangs in my pocket are excruciating.
"Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC"
ReplyDeleteUSMC stands for United States Marine Corps, in case you can't remember the is a Maribne Corps chaplin.
Or do you need that explained too?
BTW FF I used the chaplinacy services during Desert Storm, especially when a major I had served under in the states was killed. He had become a friend, and was killed rushing to an explosives accident involving some soldiers in the division he was supporting.
ReplyDeleteHe embodied the principles ofChristianity just like Tom Fox did each in their own ways....
Tom Fox had a blog he kept while he was in Iraq it is interesting reading;
ReplyDeletehttp://waitinginthelight.blogspot.com/2005/11/there-are-no-words.html
We need a lot more christian like Mr. Fox and a lot less all talk and little action ones......
Clif,
ReplyDeleteI respect military chaplins, and everyone who has served in the military with a few exceptions like tim mcveigh.
But apparently you find no hypocrisy in supporting military chaplins and joining the neo-libs in calmoring about the mythical Constitutional principle of "separation of church and state".
You must be able to "compartmentalize" your beliefs by context like slick willie can.
No the military chaplaincy is there to offer religious services not require them, if you can't see the difference I really can't help you. I would however suggest a sophomore civics class is a good place to start....
ReplyDeleteWorf,
ReplyDeleteYou are rabidly passionate about tearing down the current administration.
But what are you for? You're against the Republicans but you are not for the Democrats. What life principles do you believe in? What result do you hope to achieve?
Do you think that what political leaders do has a major impact on your daily life?
Who do you think is primarily responsible for your happiness and success?
Your whole life is focused on negative things. Bush will be gone in a couple years; what will become the focus of your life then? Do you think focusing exclusively on negative things is healthy for you personally?
Freedom Fan here is the first amendment;
ReplyDeleteCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
It is the making of a law establishing any particular faith as the "correct" religion that I resist in any form.
The military is following the constitution by;
not prohibiting the free exercise thereof,
by providing Chaplins for the troops especially when they are deployed.
See it is not that hard to figure out is it?
No the military chaplaincy is there to offer religious services not require them, if you can't see the difference I really can't help you. I would however suggest a sophomore civics class is a good place to start...
ReplyDelete-Clif
Yes oh wise one, perhaps you "can help me see" how this does not violate the "wall" separating church and state.
The military chaplins are paid by the state; atheists pay taxes into the chaplins' salaries, so how is that "voluntary"?
Please help me understand how this is sooo different from demanding that "voluntary" displays of Christmas decorations on public property be removed.
Please help me understand how this is sooo different from "voluntary" prayers at high school football games.
Please help me understand how this is sooo different from "voluntarily" saying the "under God" in the pledge of allegiance.
Please help me understand how this is sooo different from demanding that the tiny cross on the ancient mission in the California state seal be removed.
Perhaps you discovered the answer to these little questions in your "sophomore civics class", so please enlighten us yokels, o omniscient ACLU lawyer wannabe.
Clif,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your cut-and-paste of the first amendment. I doubt any of us had ever seen it before. Please explain how it is vital that we remove the tiny cross from the California state seal because otherwise the state would be "establishing a religion". Which religion would that be?
...There is NO “liberal agenda” but the shared interest of liberals who want to see things get better for everyone. You, your parents, and the guy who bags groceries down at the corner market. Liberals want to see you with enough money to buy groceries, pay off your house, and put at least one fuel-efficient vehicle in your garage.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not an agenda. It’s people hoping for the best for other people...
-Clif
Okay, I'm convinced. I am as a child who grew up and is no longer cared for by his parents, so I need a surrogate parent--Uncle Sam. I am a powerless human helpless without government to spend my money and make my decisions for me.
My motto: Better living through more, ever more, and just a little more...government.
But c'mon this is just my motto not my agenda.
Have I and I repeat I ever advocated any of the things you posted?
ReplyDeleteAnd if your answer is no, then go to those who do and complain because I am not that person.
Good Worf,
ReplyDeleteAnd as an atheist, naturally you are being forced to worship a religion established by the state because of that tiny cross on one of the first buildings in California--a mission.
California was settled largely by missionaries, but we can't let anyone know that, because that would be a violation of their Constitutional rights.
So we must airbrush the cross so no one is offended. Christians may be offended but oh well.
FF I reside in Kentucky so what the state of California is doing is outside my political ability to do anything about it. And that is up to the voters but that changing of the state seal does not violate the coinstitutional principle so I have no problem with it.
ReplyDeleteWould love to continue but I have a rug rat road trip this afternoon. So I have to depart, so enjoy the day....
ReplyDeleteHey, only 36 people BLOWN TO BITS today in Iraq. Only 3 CAR BOMBS, and ONLY 100 people BLOODIED AND CLEAVED.
ReplyDeleteMan those lucky Iraqis, so lucky that HOLY FREEDOM WARRIORS like the Republican War Machine was their to give em DEMOCRACY.
-Worfeus
I'm happy for you; lots of bad news today from Iraq to emote about...feed the beast.
We're so evil that we can't stop these folks from killing each other. Things were so much better under that humanitarian saddam. People were never killed, or tortured, or raped.
Now all those poor Iraqis are being allowed to enjoy freedom--just abominable. America is such a tyrant and imperialist and nazi war machine...and...
I say we pull out immediately and put everyone's buddy, saddam back into power so Iraq can once again be happy, prosperous and best of friends with their neighbors around the world.
War is never the answer. Except maybe WWII which was such an orderly, kind, friendly sort of war which didn't have near as many casualties or civilian deaths as we find in Iraq.
Ciao
/Anyone find my other birkenstock?
Worf said "Lets see, whos regime is more dangerous? Whose regime has already fought us in a war.
ReplyDeleteWhose regime has a 2 MILLION MAN army?
Whose regime has the actual CAPABILITY TO ACTUALLY HIT SOMETHING BELONGING TO THE US WITH A NUCLEAR MISSLE???
IRAN, or NORTH KOREA?
Hmmm....
Great point Worf, Condi Rice gets up on The Bully Pit and Declares that ( Iran with nuclear capabilities is the single biggest threat to the USA). thats funny, because I remeber a couple of years ago North Korea publicly announcing not only that they have nuclear capabilities but that they can strike the western USA with their nuclear weapons, but yet DR's Rice and Cheney Claim a Country with mere Nuclear ambitions is "OUR SINGLE BIGGEST THREAT" these clowns have zero credibility in my book.
BTW Worf, now do you see what me and Clif are saying that this is all about oil and the Petro Dollar, North Korea not only declares they have nuclear weapons but threats that they can hit our Country and the administration ignores them and pretends they are not a threat while trying to sell us that Iran who doesnt possess nuclear weapons at this time but has LOTS OF OIL is our single biggest threat, and coincidently the demonizing and push to deal with Iran is coming at the exact same time Iran is pushing to denominate its oil sales in EUROS, kind of makes you say HMMMMMMMM???