I may be beating a dead horse here, but I'm just curious; why are we responsible for the violence and unrest plaguing Iraq right now? Flashback to 2003: Saddam Hussein is ousted by the US-led forces fighting the Iraqi army. The statue falls, and there is dancing and celebrating in the streets. US and British troops are kissed and hugged and hailed by the Iraqi people as liberators. Right about here is where things started to head south. These supposedly peaceful, devout Muslims who, agai...

As I've related before, I work with the public. I manage a restaurant in the evenings, but in the mornings, two or three days a week, I work at a dollar store. I had an Hispanic gentleman come up to my register today. He plunked down his three items. I said "Hi..how you doin'?" Nothing. Not even eye contact. I rang him up, gave him his total, took his money (which he counted quite well for himself, thank you), and handed him his bag. "Have a good one," I said. Again, nothing.....then, he ...

Tsunami Survivors Mob U.S. Aid Copters By DENIS D. GRAY ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (AP) - Desperate, homeless villagers on the tsunami-ravaged island of Sumatra mobbed American helicopters carrying aid Saturday as the U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War, ferrying food and other emergency relief to survivors across the disaster zone. From dawn until sunset on New Year's Day, 12 Seahawk helicopters shuttled supplies and advance teams fr...

The following article is based freely on a reply I made to someone on a post: Every so often, I see on here some comment by a foreign national or by a self-loathing, America-last, apologist US-born liberal, dumping on Americans for our supposed "arrogance". How we're arrogant doesn't always come up, but it seems we just are. Well, as I've said several times before.....why shouldn't we be? After all, we've saved the world three times in the last hundred years alone. From 1917 to 1991, ...

This really happened....I swear on the memories of both my parents and on the life of my son that I did not make any of this up. I don't remember EXACT wording, of course, but the general gist will be clear. I recently started a new job, and was killing my break time with some fellow non-smoking co-workers gathered by the Pepsi machine. Two of them were blacks, and I mentioned that my wife and I were new to the area. One of the blacks asked me how we liked it; I replied that we liked it ver...

I was at Wal-mart today, sulkily following behind my wife on one of her quests to find the Holy Sale. As we made our way around the store, I noted a display of Halloween makeup on the main aisle. As I looked through the packs of various types of makeup (Frankenstein monster, vampire, zombie, witch, rock star...etc), I further noted that on each package was a picture of a made-up model, showing what the makeup would look like when you finished with it. Now, from personal experience, I can...

What, exactly, would be so wrong if we DID succeed in bringing democracy to Iraq, and perhaps then, by example, the entire Middle East? Why do you lefties seem to so fiercely deny that that's what we're up to, and if it is, that we're terribly in the wrong to do so? I'd like some clarification on this point. What's so wrong with wanting to give people their own voice, their own choices, self-determination? Especially after so many years under a brutal dictator whom we supported. If it is...

~~"and just as a matter of fact the US did not precipitate the fall of the USSR and its allies"~~ ---zergimmi “Unless you want to count the massive military and cruise missile buildup Reagan pulled off in Europe in the 80s that bankrupted the USSR. That caused it and the rest of its subsidiary nations to fall just like the dominoes we were so afraid of for so long in Asia, and allowed the people to overthrow their governments.” The above quote and reply pairing were taken from couchman’...

Let's say, just for shits and giggles, that, given the proper passage of time (after all, anything good is worth waiting for....instant gratification is a nice thing to desire, but it doesn't happen often), say....20 years or so, democracy has blossomed like a beautiful rose in the desert nation of Iraq. Let's say that the people have, in that time, come together and made nice, building a strong, unified country in the middle of theocratic and military dictatorships. Let's say that their eco...

A warning: He claims he was tortured for information while held in Saudi. Can we please move beyond the positives and negatives of torture debate this time? Thanks. Man Charged in Alleged Plot to Kill Bush By MATTHEW BARAKAT ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A former Virginia high school valedictorian who had been detained in Saudi Arabia as a suspected terrorist was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and with supporting the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed O...

You know what has been on my mind lately? Saddam was in power in Iraq for what? 30-some years? In that time, he tortured and murdered innocent people in droves, and lived like a czar in palaces furnished and decorated in obscene luxury and opulence while many of his people scratched and starved. He hoarded awesome sums of money, much of which he walled up in his palaces, and he and his family lived in hedonistic decadence to rival Caligula. In all this time, did the insurgents come to the a...

Can someone tell me why it is that the Democrats who spent the 1990s moaning about the sad state of social security and hoping against hope that someone would come along and do something to fix it, now say nothing is wrong with it and that it doesn't need any re-rigging? All is well, apparently, despite those decade-old predictions of insolvency by the end of the 21st century, which the current administration holds to, as well. How did things that were so bad get so good all of a sudden? Cl...

Thanks to recent articles by terpfan1980(on "Politics") and Gideon MacLeish (on "Religion"), we've been informed of Michael Newdow's latest assault on the Pledge of Allegience, a new offensive which would seem to involve others that he has somehow convinced to follow his lead. I've been posting comments on both threads, and must say that some of the arguments put forth by the resistance I've seen are fairly compelling. The debate has been kind of fun, if a little frustrating. However, ...

Why do we have to be the ones to lead the fight on AIDS in Africa? Yes, it's a tragedy of truly terrible proportions, but for crying out loud....for years, years ....we've been giving them help, and giving them condoms, and telling them how to use them. We tell them to make sure they use them, or else they could get AIDS. Still, the disease spreads like wildfire. If they haven't gotten the message after all this time...sorry, but cut'em loose. It's a money hole, and it's money we could...

I see nothing wrong with Believers, working in and for a government based on free choice, invoking the aid of a deity in day-to-day dealings. What's so wrong with asking Divine guidance for help in our affairs of state? Some of you are so afaid of us becoming theocracy; that's crap and you know it. This nation existed for 186 years before the church-state debate really got going in the early 1960s. In fact, we resisted putting a Catholic in the Oval Office, because Papal influence was so...