Moonlight Graham

Pretty brain-dead thing to say.

I have to say, I sure didn't expect the opening post of this thread by AW to be negative towards a Canadian poster being critical of US government. Canadian Criticism Derangement Syndrome!

But you aren't a politician. Funny how politicians' opinions seem to be "evolving" all the time. He's a politician, therefore I don't give him the benefit of the doubt.

There's other free stuff online out there, in hordes. The Globe & Mail doesn't provide me with enough original content at high enough quality (hello, corporate news media) to make me even think of considering paying for their articles.

This.

Thanks for adding that. Yes, it is a good thing, first and foremost. I should have added that to my OP. It may be a political move, but the POTUS supporting gay marriage is historic. I do applaud Obama for doing it, but it should have been done sooner IMO. Better late than never!

Yes i'm sooo obsessed! In all issues! Please elaborate for me.

Should be a thread on this I think. CNN I highly suspect Obama personally supported gay marriage all along, but publicly supported only civil unions until now because of the political risks. The man is a liberal who governs as a moderate. His tune has only changed because polls have progressively supported gay marriage more and more, and Biden somewhat tipped his hand and forced him to comment sooner than hoped. Obama is a typical politician, a man with weak convictions willing to lie for political points rather than stand up for what he believes in. That defines a follower, not a leader. To hell with gays & their rights if it doesn't further yourself, eh Obama?

Why would they disagree? Why not have a major third-party candidates? Why be afraid of them? Why not have 3rd and 4th and 5th party candidates? What's wrong with choice? The real choice is made in the primaries, but most don't involve themselves in that voting process.

What is "geopolitical vandalism"? I think US/western relations with Saudi Arabia are an incredible phenomenon given they're a powerful authoritarian, Islamic regime. I think we're lucky relations are so good in many ways. Saudi internal politics & human rights don't mesh with ours and are quite frankly disgusting, but I don't see how that would change if we isolated them like Iran or South Korea. Saudi Arabia could be like Iran for the west but potentially an even greater problem. Isolating S.A. and refusing to deal with them would do little, modern history has shown that. Where has that worked? Iran, Cuba, S.Korea, Iraq, USSR etc.? It just further antagonizes the relationship and makes them more of a problem and more "rogue". Cooperation and integration seems to work much better, and it's easier to influence changes in a country IMO if you have a good relationship since they're more willing to listen and have more to lose if relations go south. Global security would hit the dirt if the US decided to condemn and isolate countries like Saudi Arabia and China instead of cooperating via common interests with them.

Bin Laden was exiled from Saudi Arabia in 1994 & stripped of citizenship. They were enemies.

I'm offended!

Now I just really want one of these shirts. But mine will say "Life is wasted without chocolate" or something silly of the sort.

Drones are a fantastic tool in the government's view. They put no human personnel on their side at risk or even in the warzone, so citizens complain less about "bringing the troops home" and there's less casualties and resulting fallout from the side of the "good guys". The best thing that could happen to western militaries is if combat was fought with unmanned machines. Robots on the ground, unmanned tanks/planes etc. No friendly casualties would mean less political flak from home. Would also make for a cool sci-fi movie lol.

First off, brave guy, a hero for sure. This just isn't a "whole world" issue though. The controversy of horrible US soldier actions make much bigger headlines in the US media also, compared to heroic stories. I bet a lot to do with it is that news media so often reports the negative stories because they are more controversial and elicit reaction/debate. The news is usually bad news, you don't often hear about the heroic/good stories even when removed from the context of the military. You do have a point, but it's also the nature beast in many ways. That's just what the recruitment brochure says.

So what do you propose NATO/US do militarily in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere? Al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan, so that's where they went.

I think you give way too much credit to Condi. A class act? You do remember the administration she was a part of, right? She was full on-board that train of poop, lying and propagandizing with the rest of them.

I don't, I'm just starting my opinion on an internet forum. Agreed. Since when? On TV/media you can see all the time a preachy person saying ie: "if you don't believe in God you're going to hell". Meanwhile, most all racist (or at least all that is white supremest/anti-semetic) speech has been banned/censored. I can start a thread on these forums stating "If you don't believe in God you're going to hell" or "Protestants are better than Catholics" and likely get away with it. I probably can't start a thread saying "Black people are inferior to white people" without major flak if not suspension. It's just our societal norms.

Not sure if they do this already, but they should at least have to wear clearly legible ID numbers on their uniforms so they can be identified (if they are wearing riot gear that covers their face).

Yes, it would be more pronounced & effective in communicating the message. Life is wasted without JESUS. Life is WASTED without Jesus.

People have every right to be offended, sure. The dilemma is whose rights should triumph? People having the right not to be offended vs this kid having the right to wear that shirt? It's a tricky line to draw.

How is the shirt a "hate-filled" message? I don't see any hate being communicated. Racist slogans would be far worse than this, and IMO a lot of swear words too. "Paris Hilton is a *c-word*" (insert real potty word), I think most would find that far more offensive than something about Jesus. Well, they better figure out where to draw the line, because it's a really fine one. Does that mean a kid can't have a picture of Jesus or Mary in their locker? Can they wear a cross around their necks? Probably yes, it seems like this is an issue of this kids' shirt "preaching" to other kids and judging them through a religious lens, which is a bit vague in this case anyways. Just in my opinion, the shirt wouldn't bother me, nor would a "Life is wasted without Allah" shirt etc.

Dick Cheney sucks.

What crap. It's a freaking t-shirt. The text for the word "Jesus" is very small. People are offended by the dumbest little things these days. Talk about "1st world" problems. GROW SOME SKIN!!! Just because people complain of being offended, why is it that their complains seemingly so often are taken seriously? Principal should have said "yo, relax, get over it". We're raising generations of sissies.

In the fall, instead of raking up my leaves I run them over with the ride-on lawnmower so they get mulched up and into the lawn. Seems to work good, and saves me lots of time raking & hauling leaves!