Moonlight Graham

To comment on the OP: Yes it's of course a disgrace to see the soldiers do this. But I agree, we don't know what these soldiers go through, combat can make soldiers do crazy things, but it's still inexcusable and they should be punished if proved guilty as should whoever directly commands them.

True. But also, maybe a handful of Taliban throwing acid in the faces of Afghan school girls is not representative of all Taliban/Afghan insurgents? We usually think it is though, so that sort of shows that one of these incidents can make Arabs generalize about US soldiers, and how damaging these incidents, no matter how isolated, can be to US military rep across the globe.

Good for him. He said of Iranians in is acceptance speech: "they are a very peace-loving people" (it's hard to make out in that vid)

I agree. If Romney gets the nomination, which looks all but certain barring catastrophe, it will be a very close election. Both are closer to the center and both are decent candidates, and so swing-voters will have an interesting time deciding.

LOL, Newt attacking Mitt for being multilingual and speaking French, and with the silly French elevator music in the background! As if it's a bad thing to have the brain power to speak a foreign language? Didn't Founding Fathers like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson speak French and much enjoy spending lots of time in France? John Adams, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR also spoke French. Oh mon dieu!!

What about what pisses off moderate Muslims?

And not necessarily for the current CPC party (so as to not make this thread too partisan), just with a party of your choosing (or making) or whatever you wish. So what would you do with your newly found power? What reforms, legislation, foreign policy etc. would you try to push through? I'll post mine later.

I'm not really surprised the Harper gov supports married gays getting divorced.

Exactly, thank you. One person who understands what I'm saying instead of pretending not to. Exactly. Edit: I'm not posting in this thread anymore. It's done. If people don't argee or understand what I'm saying, that's fine.

One dictionary says "deserve". I posted 7 others, the 1st 7 that came up on google, that didn't, so I win. I also posted this definition of "asking for it/trouble" (the exact words I said!: "the US & the West were asking for trouble...and they got it. That doesn't mean they deserved it, it means they were asking for it") from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus: It's also impossible for anyone with working eyeballs to assume that I think they "deserved it" since i specifically said different times, and in my "argument in brief", that they didn't deserve it. Jesus. I'll repeat my argument for the 50th time: "At the same time, the US & the West were asking for trouble...and they got it. In other words, they had it coming. That doesn't mean they deserved it, it means they were asking for it". The US as in the state of the United States of America, not the US as in Daniel Pearl or any other civilian. The US government/state is in some part culpable for terrorist attacks against US citizens because the US (state) has done a wonderful job to provoke them. Was Japan "asking for it" when they bombed Pearl Habour? Hellz yes.

Sorry, no dice on this one. You must have had to dig hard for that one. I googled 'ask for it definition' & here's all the results I found on the 1st page, then I googled 'asking for it definition' and posted I believe all results on the 1st page also. All are consistent with my meaning. and my favorite...

I thought of that for sure, but then there must be a ton of others who wish to edit it to include some criticisms etc. We'll see what it looks like in Oct. lol. His accomplishments are still what they are. ie: You can't edit around being cum laude at Harvard law & business.

Well played, AW! So I will have to slightly revise my argument, which was:

Last week I read Romney's entire bio on wikipedia. I must say, in all honesty, the man is very impressive. He has succeeded in just about every major thing he as tried to accomplish in his life, minus his Mormon mission trip in France and his 2008 presidential bid (but even then he did quite well). Everyone should go read is bio if they don't know much about him, Turned around many companies in the business world, took Massachusetts from deficit to surplus as Governor, while implementing near-universal health care for about the same cost they spent on health care before (aka not having to raise taxes). I like the fact that he focused heavily on stats/data and hard analysis in both is business and gubernatorial career to achieve success. The only things that scare me are his Mormon beliefs (you have to be at least a little odd to believe that stuff), and the fact that what he would do with foreign policy are a complete mystery since he has no previous record to show on it (ie: wasn't a congressman) and he has been known to lie in his campaigns based on what he thinks voters want to hear therefore it's hard to believe anything he really says about how he will handle ie: Iran. But when it comes to handling the economy I think Mitt is head-and-shoulders above Obama in terms of qualifications, and unless he makes some huge gaffes he has a very good chance of beating Obama in 2012. The fact that his GOP opponents are weakly attacking him on his business successes shows he doesn't have many holes.

I never did such a thing. Re-read the thread, and the last 2 pages specifically. "Had it coming" is different than "deserved it".

I listed most of the big ones. I forgot unions and a few others. It doesn't matter where the money comes from, only that it hijacks democracy and should be much more regulated. It's a bipartisan issue in that both major parties, with a few exceptions, support the status quo because they are controlled by it.

US and allies invaded Iraq to the west, and Afghanistan to the east. If I were a leader of Iran I would most certainly think I needed nuclear weapons. Who exactly is acting in the most provocative and bellicose manner? If there is war between US/Israel and Iran, who do you think will fire the opening rounds?

I'm fuming. Let's invade the United States of America.

Why don't they just ban illegal guns? No illegal guns, no problems!

LOL @ time served.

Ok, but what if they really are unpatriotic? Like, if I say "Hey, that guy who burned the Canadian flag and peed on the Parliament Buildings last night is really unpatriotic". Does that make me unpatriotic?

Oliver can kiss my hair everything too.

Agreed, and so is Clement. Nothing like a good online brawl!! Btw I'm the Prince of PWNAGE!!!!

Campaign finance and regulation of lobbying/interest groups - This issue has massive control over every other issue, thus is of the greatest import IMO. Powerful interest/lobby groups have increasingly hijacked democracy in many western liberal democratic countries in the last several decades, & in the US it's a huge problem. When the power of money (or the fear of losing it) has as much or arguably more control over US policy as the votes of the public, both in the White House and in Congress, then what kind of democracy is left? The US resembles more of a plutocracy. Who controls Washington? Big oil, the defense industry (see: military-industrial complex), big banks/Wall Street, big pharma, big agriculture, AIPAC/Israel Lobby etc....or the people? 1 person 1 vote, not 1 dollar 1 vote. A lot of the money needs to be taken out of politics, both in the US and Canada, but IMO it's definitely a bigger problem in the US. It's long been to the point where if a presidential candidate doesn't play along with the game, they almost certainly won't be nominated by the 2 major parties which are controlled by this game, & if they by miracle are...good luck on winning a general election with that much money & power against you. I bundle all of this under one issue, but it's complex with many sub-issues involved. It will never be changed much unless there's a populist demand for it by voters.

It's insane and ridiculously scary that some of these wackos are even given the slightest consideration to be a candidate to lead the world.