Bush opens up a can of whoop a$$

[Duffy]

I have satellite and an antenna. CBS is about the only local network that comes in most of the time so that I can see it.

My satellite company wrote to each and every one of my local networks, asking permission (or whatever), to allow them to provide me with satellite network. Every single STUPID network denied me this service. Supposedly, I am getting decent reception a certain percentage of the time. GRRRRRRR HELLOOOOOO??? If I knew how to use my darn video camera, I would tape an hour for each of them. SOMETIMES, the commercials come in decently enough to decipher them, but as soon as the regular program comes back on…Say, the DERBY (horsey!)…It is total static again. I refuse to pay for cable AND satellite in order to get the networks.

How’s that for going off on a tangent. I REALLY would like to watch “West Wing” tonite - HA - that’s my tie into this thread!!

Hey, I wouldn’t mind watching some other news channels besides CNN and FOX!

[Duffy]

bgoosewood, I guess you didn’t notice that I was a Republican. I guess that’s a good thing? There are a few of us on the BB who don’t feel they must…errrr…post like some of the other Republicans. How’s that for diplomatic!!

Even though I’m a voting Republican does NOT mean that I can’t have non-republican beliefs and approaches to life.

[DMK]

Excellent post Louise!

Yes, of course, veterans of war have ALWAYS suffered from the horrors of that war. We know that veterans of the Napoleanic wars and Civil War suffered from it, and affects of all wars since themn are widely documented. Undoubtedly soldiers in the Roman armies suffered from it.

The only thing that is different today is that we (all those “other” people who were NOT exposed to the sacrifices these people made in the name of our freedom) now recognize that such sacrifices come at a profoundly personal price. And there is no shame in that price. And that there is some degree and treatment for that price.

Here’s hoping that someone may never feel like they have to be afraid and ashamed of their pain and fear, when defending our nation was the reason they might suffer such a condition. Here is a thanks to all the people in the last 40 years who recognized that treatment and acceptance was a better option than repression and social exile.

[hobson]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Erin:
That’s why I truly believe that we need to step back and out, defend our own borders and citizens, and let other nations figure out their own policies. "

PT, I agree with that for the most part… I don’t feel like we should tell other countries what to do. But what about situations like Nazi Germany? Not that we got involved in that until we had to, either…
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nazi Germany is a good comparison, in my opinion, to what the current taleban regime is doing to Afghani women. I think to call it a “cultural difference” is to minimize the outrageous murderousness and savagery involved. Incidentally, that kind of extreme discrimination and violence against women has little to do with Islam itself and much to do with a tradition of–dare I say it–dictatorial patriarchy. Most of the Islamic states today remind me a lot of the medieval Christian societies, in fact.

[halfhalt]

you’re right, poverty does prevent people from getting adequate prenatal care - canada is a poorer country than the usa but we have a lower rate because we don’t have private medical insurance. So it puzzles me why the us hangs on to that system, despite the evidence of the harm it does - not to the rich, but to the poor. It’s not because private medical insurance is cheaper, because it’s not…

[Canter]

Good to see another lurker come out of the closet!

Frankly you guys, what is going on in Pakistan is scaring me more than President Bush’s accent.

[Kryswyn]

You have an amazing grasp of world religions. Thanks for posting the history of the Star Spangled Banner and a wonderful sermon. Clearly Christians have God on their side and His permission to make war at this time is clear.

Unfortunately, whether it’s true or not (per your earlier posts on Islam), I’m still afraid the terrorists believe Allah supports them regardless.

Those for whom a diety is not a cornerstone of daily life sometimes feel that without religion the world would be a better place (“Imagine” by John Lennon "Imagine no religion/ It’s easy if you try/ No hell below us/ Above us only sky/ Imagine all the people living for today). While great things have been accomplished by Religion some great wrongs have been done (the Inquisition, the Crusades).

I’m much more comfortable leaving God out of it and saying, You attacked us; we choose not to let you live to do it again; prepare to die.

~Kryswyn~
“Always look on the bright side of life, de doo, de doo de doo de doo”

[rockstar]

Relating to the posts of Page 11 on the thread…

DMK… I loved your summary history of the rock people and land!!!

To add on to your history and to get involved in what you, Hobson, Midge and Pacificsolo were all going through concerning our past role in Afghanistan…

Did anyone watch the Discovery channel/BBC special called “Behind the Terror”? I thought the information it provided on the area and its history was fantastic.

What was most interesting, I found, was its discusssion of our role in Afghanistan’s war of Soviet resistance. We went in there and, as DMK wrote, defended the “rock people” from the evil communists. We armed the Afghanis and turned them into a well trained and brutally effective army. And then, once communism was fought off, we just left. That was it. A former congressman summed it up best when he said in the special, “It [leaving Afghanistan] was one of the worst mistakes we made.” You can’t fight someone’s battle and then hightail it when the fighting is done… there is so much more to follow! I wish I could understand how we thought it was prudent to leave a country that was completely in disrepair. We have certainly paid the price now I guess. (BTW… I am cognizant of the fact that we didn’t/havn’t left Afghanistan completely alone… I am fully aware that many billions in foreign aid has been sent… but they needed more than money to get on track).

One problem I am quite worried about is how we are going to have Pakistan and the anti- taliban northern alliance on our side at the same time. The northern alliance hates the pakistani government for being non-sympathtic to its resistance movement and providing aid in all forms (particularly military intelligence) to the Taliban regime. It’s hard to imagine both sides suddenly uniting as one anti-taliban force under the coalition we’re building.

And another thing I am very concerned over…

Ok, so rooting out all terrorists is just great. I’m all for it… get em’!!! HOWEVER, that won’t be solving the problem. What angered these people to begin with (the threat of the West) is still there. We can go on blaming everything on the terrorists… but that won’t change what caused them to resort to such violence to begin with… and what’s to prevent future terrorists from reeking more havoc if we don’t get fix what’s making them so very mad?

I’ve got a bad bug problem in my new apartment… it goes with the territory of being in an old aprtment building in the middle of downtown DC. The exterminator came today and sprayed all over. So, I won’t be seeing a roach for a while. But I have no doubt that they’ll be back. As long as there is food around and unseen pipes and crevices for them to lurk.

-rockstar

[This message was edited by rockstar on Sep. 25, 2001 at 10:25 PM.]

[Louise]

IlonaE - may I remind you that this generation that is upcoming includes lots of young people like Becca, ErinB, Jump the Moon, Kellybird and Musical Jumper, just to name a few.

I wouldn’t be so quick to condemn a whole generation, especially one that contains such bright and compassionate people as these.

[DMK]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hobson:

by the way, DMK, can I blame you for the way my auto insurance company is jerking us around trying to avoid paying a settlement for Mr Hobson’s loss of his spleen and very expensive bicycle to an uninsured driver?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Probably!!! I have accepted blame for any number of insurance foibles and follies over the years from my family - no reason I couldn’t extend it to my BB family too!!

True Story: Way back when I was far too committed to my job, I was driving in to work on Sunday to see if there was about anything I could do to rearrange benefits/loads/whatever, to avoid raising insurance rates for a fairly large sector of business we acquired. Let’s just say it was way underpriced and losing a lot of money. Well this particularly annoying policeman felt compelled to give me a speeding ticket (some people are so picky that way).

It just so happened that particular municipality was included in the pool I was evaluating. Let’s just say, when begging, whining and crying didn’t get me out of a ticket I opted for blackmail… “If you give me this ticket I will be so distraught, I will have NO choice but to raise your insurance rates!” I guess if he had taken me seriously he would have arrested me!

[Inverness]

finally an idea we can all get behind…

Killing bin Laden will only create a martyr. Holding him prisoner will
inspire his comrades to take hostages to demand his release.
Therefore, a suggestion: we do neither.
Let the Special Forces, Seals or whatever covertly capture him, fly him to
an undisclosed hospital and have surgeons quickly perform a complete sex
change operation. Then we return HER to Afghanistan to live as a woman
under the Taliban.

[SLW]

I was not attacking the young poster. My comment was directed to Iverness who has since thoughtfully replied.

SLW

[SLW]

Do you think holding in war stories is a “guy” thing? I ask this because two women whom I worked with back in Virginia that were German, and had survived WW2, come quickly to mind.

One was a young girl whose home was bombed in Colonge. She shared with me how her family survived living in the basement until help could arrive. She also shared how unimportant material things became in her life. Yet she was the first to hug, share a saucy joke and enjoy a good laugh.

Another woman and her family, she a child of 14 at the time, were captured by the SS and sent into a camp. Horrible things happened there to her and her family. She eventually escaped and hid in rural barns and towns on her own. I can’t imagine having the wits about me at age 14 to be able to do that!

They were very forthcoming, yet did not complain, about how their lives were altered during the war. In the end, each married an American serviceman and became American citizens.

SLW

[gwen]

ONLY A GLASS OF WATER???

Barb

[Pixie_Dust]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hobson:
Well, bgoosewood, that would only work if the oil companies do not currently hold the patents for hemp-oil fuel technology, as they do with clean fuel-cell patents, which they will not make available to industry.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

DAG
I knew there was something I was missing!
BIG OIL

[Midge]

Jane’s is a fabulous source of military info. I remember when I first heard of them, I thought it was a ‘her’. I was thrilled that some staunch Brit lady was a military genius.

Last name, Last name!!!

[SLW]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by hobson:
“The reality is that the F-15 pilot who drops a bomb load on those who are clearly implicated as enemies, is also a ‘minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil’”

Yikes. Surely I’m not the only person who sees something sick and twisted about that statement.>

What part “clearly implicated as enemies” is unclear to you, seriously? From all the stories I have read since the attack on America I understand that most Afganistans would be thrilled to have Bin Laden/Talisban done away with.

SLW

[M_O_Connor]

<<this particular deviant group of Islamic activists really hate us not for anything but for our religions. And, it is not us as Americans but us as non-Islamics who not only refuse their beliefs but contradict them all. They believe it is fair to kill a man because his beard is too short. Any man with a clean shaven face is a satan.

This group has nothing to do with anything else. The other Islamic people condemn them as well.>>

Snowbird, I beg to differ–at the head of the beast are those who have a political agenda but have been unable to achieve it politically and are thus willing to resort to savage means; they are simply using rampant fundamentalism and fundamentalists as weapons against the West, to whom they are politically opposed for many reasons, only some of which are religious. If you read the profiles of the hijackers, not many of these seemed to be devoted to Islam–on the contrary, they were well educated contemporary individuals who had signed on to a political cause. Not a long beard among them. The fact of the terrorists finding shelter behind the cloak of extreme religion is one of convenience, not doctrine–never has been. It is the overlapping agendas of each group that have enabled the symbiosis to function, in contrast to the disunity of their common enemies.

The big question now is whether the terrorist’s/fundamentalist’s enemies ( that would be us in the “West” and members of our diverse and still-forming coalition–many of whom have not much in common with each other) can develop and maintain their own set of overlapping agendas long enough to shut the terrorists/fundamentalists down for good. Which will basically mean solving the world’s problems along with militarily defeating the terrorists…

[This message was edited by M. O’Connor on Sep. 26, 2001 at 11:41 AM.]

[hobson]

I would suppose, vineyridge, that we (the US and affiliated media outlets) are trying to avoid being tough on the Saudis because we consider them allies from way back and we need their cooperation at the moment? Never mind that the Saudi government is an oppressive dictatorship - the US is having to tiptoe around an awkward deal-making game with some other unsavory characters in order to cobble together an international coalition against the terrorists.

[Magnolia]

My mom had to read Walden for the book club which is composed of people who live in her golf course community…

DMK, what a funny story about the police officer. way to stick it to them!

My favorite “trashy” book is Valley of the Dolls. The movie rocks! I also recently enjoyed the “tell-all” about the horse insurance murderers, and I like the All Creatures Great and Small series (which isn’t very trashy at all…, although it takes place in England, where they have all those tabloids).

Ride it Like You Stole It…