Moonlight Graham

I find it interesting that a Bush and Cheney supporter is now suddenly so interested in the rule of law.

Well said.

The whole situation is bullcrap. These murderers are guilty. Why was the case thrown out?... Washington Post So the case was thrown out because when these Blackwater mercs gave their info to the State Department, it was under the condition that what they said, ie: THE TRUTH, couldn't be used against them in court. As also mentioned, foreign contractors had immunity from Iraqi law at the time, therefore the Iraq gov't can't charge them so it was up to the U.S. to prosecute them. How convenient that these 5 murderers get off free as a bird. Shocking!

Why don't you hold Bush up to the same criticisms as you do Obama? Because you deal in ideology and partisanship, not reality. Interesting about the briefing. We'll see what happens of this. I wonder if he did know anything. Newsweek says the briefing didn't include anything about Yemen specifically, but who knows. From the article:

Bought a new laptop and they all come with Windows 7 now of course. The new Taskbar is GARBAGE. It's horrific. The quick-launch doesn't work at all like Vista or XP or previous versions of Windows. If you launch a program from quick-launch on the Taskbar, it will only work once. Ie: if you want to open Windows Explorer from the Quicklaunch bar, and then try to open a 2nd Explorer window it won't work. You have to go to your desktop or hit the Start button and manually open Explorer again. So the quick-launch function is basically useless now, however i found a way to make it work like Vista/XP etc., though its really annoying!!

Maybe a good strategy for our gov't to retain more troops would be to AVOID JOINING AND ESCALATING STUPID, UNWINNABLE WARS. Just a thought.

You're right. wow how'd i miss that one.

You'd like to kill all drug dealers in the world?

I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but what 'SOMEONE' says isn't completely out of the question. The fact the bomber comes from Yemen is just weird to me. A few weeks ago, in Obama's big primetime address about the US's plans for Afghanistan, he mentions Yemen and Somalia. That's the first time i've personally ever heard Yemen and al-Qaeda mentioned together. I realize there's been a bit of talk this year in news about it & the U.S. has had some operations there via the Yemeni gov't, but this speech certainly put the al-Qaeda/Yemen link in the public & MSM sphere. Then a few weeks later a terror attack is foiled involving a guy with Yemeni al-Qaeda links. The timing is weird. Now there is certainly an excuse for the U.S. to ramp up operations in Yemen, and with Iraq "winding down", is an invasion completely out of the question? Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and a likely eventual military operation against Iran against its nuke program. Add very strong ties to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. seems to be spreading itself across the whole region. There very likely isn't any conspiracy, but considering the world in which we live in, is it completely out of the question? Would you be completely shocked if it were true?

The war(s) was never a factor? Are you kidding me?

He was also mentally ill. Dumb.

great thanks for that mental image.

I didn't mean it as a conclusion. I meant them as 2 important ingredients to the overall problem. I certainly do not know even 5% of the answers regarding development or over-population.

Thank you for bumping the thread. However, i think the problem in our society is just as you showed in a way (not to pick on you). Most people only tend to really think about the disadvantaged during the holiday season. You struggle with this every year? I think people should struggle with this every day, and it should be a problem near the top of our agenda politically and socially. It's good to hear how you try to educate your children. I hope i can do as good a job when/if i ever have kids. Your husband is a lucky man to have immigrated to a wealthy nation, and all of us who are the among small minority in the world to live in wealthy countries (like Canada and the US) are also extremely lucky. The average refugee spends 17 years in a refugee camp before they are able to find a new country/place to call home. That's why i refer to your husband (and all of us) as lucky. I have dedicated the last year of my life studying the issue of development as well as working among those in my local community who are among the most disadvantaged. The early conclusion i have come to is that poverty and development is an INCREDIBLY complex issue. The West has tried since WWII to help many countries with aid, and have many times failed and even made the situation worse (ie: you give a poor rural community in Africa some food aid, but this in turn hurts all the farmers and the overall economy in the area since most of the economy is agrarian and the food aid brings down the demand of local food sales and hence the prices and income to the local farmers drops). That's just one small example. Development is just such a difficult issue to address. We have made a lot of gains overall during the past 60 years, but the problem still persists in a massive way. The development community still has much to learn also. From modernization theory, to dependency theory, to neo-liberalization, our approach to development and poverty in the world certainly has had its flaws, but also has helped many at the same time. The problem seems to be basically; even if we had all the money and the means to help, how do Western countries aid developing countries without causing more problems for them economically, socially, culturally, and politically? Also importantly, should we even help them at all if they do not want our help? And if they do want assistance, how do we provide them aid in a way in which they are able to determine their evolution for themselves at the grassroots level, and not just having the West impart our economical/political/cultural systems upon them (which would cause even more problems)? Anyways, happy holidays to everyone! I've had a great year debating with you all.

Lictor my friend. Do you know that the West throws away enough food to feed the entire world? Overpopulation. Is it a problem? Yes, of course. Especially in Africa where breeding is rampant. But the important question is "why"? Why is there overpopulation in developing countries? In the West, our population is going down. The 1960's brought a women's revolution. Our society now has access to birth control, therefore family sizes have dropped dramatically. In developing countries, most of the population doesn't have access to proper healthcare, let alone birth control. Women are forced to have sex by their husbands or other men, and children are born. Is it the man's fault that there is overpopulation? In some ways yes, but since most men (and women) in the most overly-populated countries are uneducated they don't even realize that they heck the outcome of their actions cause on a macro scale socially and economically. The way to fix the dreadful problems in developing countries is extremely complex. But to solve the problem of overpopulation, education and access to basic healthcare and birth-control is vital.

I agree with you. It is a horrible theft. But on the other hand, to put things in perspective, it's just a damn sign. A sign. Considering what went on inside those gates, neo-nazis or whoever stealing the sign isn't a that big of a deal. Nobody was killed. Better to take a sign than another life. The sign being gone won't make people forget.

I always found Lou Dobbs' show to be boring as heck. Glad he's gone. Can't believe i'm only hearing of this now.

No, i think the main point is that there are many idiots in this world. And it's by no means limited to Americans since i run into them most every day.

Yes.

Iran is going to develop a nuclear weapon unless physically stopped. That's very apparent. I encourage negotiations and diplomacy because miracles happen and we have to try, but ya...

In comparison to the Liberals since Chretien came to power, the CPC are pretty honest, i'll give them that.

If these people really believe this than they are idiots. Its really that simple. But hey, 30% of Americans approved of Bush towards the end of his 2nd term, so there's no lack of idiots and blind partisans walking around.

CGI won't matter in the success of the film too much. I think story and characters will determine if its a dud or not (at least critically, not box-office wise). Visually the movie is stunning from what i've seen, and Cameron is quite good at avoiding dud films compared to other top directors. The man makes good flicks, so im optimistic. edit: just looked up Avatar on rottentomatoes.com. The critics love it, it gets a 90% rating so far with 41 critic reviews. Wow. Now i want to see this flick!! http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avatar/

Shatner was funnier. Palin was too obvious that she was reading the teleprompter. Hmm thought she'd be better at the teleprompter thing by now She's still hot though.