It’s FUN!
Not being a foaming at the mouth socialist who thinks the war in Iraq is the worst thing ever and the Democratic Party is the beacon of all that is great int he world means pretty much any opinion I voice will earn me the moniker of “idiot” from the teeming morons. Last I checked I had pretty firmly established I don’t care much what the den of degenerates that constitute the population of this forum think of me, if I did I would have stopped posting a long time ago.
Some of our ostensible “allies” actually don’t have our best interests at heart. Shit, none of them do, they have their best interests at heart. For most of them, that means they need us to fail as a great power. The rhetoric and the overall political land scape of the world hasn’t really caught up to this reality, but the interests of America and Europe are not going in the same direction. There was a time when they were (during most of the Cold War) that time is past, Europe is now just another enemy. Our best hope is to do what we can to help the few remaining countries that haven’t bought into the pipe dream of trying to make themselves a super power (which excludes most of the EU, China, and India) so that those countries will continue to help us.
Popular opinion across most of Europe is more on the side of Islamic extremists than it is Americans. It is baffling how so many Europeans will cheer on suicide bombers who kill American (or on a side issue–Israeli) soldiers while they complain about how their own countries are being overrun by Muslim immigrants.
Yup, Canada and France were “right” in that if we hadn’t invaded Iraq France could have continued to make millions off of its dealings with Saddam Hussein’s regime. France’s only problem with us going into Iraq is we didn’t get their permission first, their leadership had no great moral opposition to it. How could they (as for Canada, who cares? Last I checked their military actually ran out of bullets at one point a few years ago–and I believe they lost an island in the arctic to the freaking Danish for awhile)? Look at all the dirty shit France does on a daily basis, it’s practically trying to corner the market when it comes to selling stuff to Islamic fundamentalist States like Iran.
If the U.S. had allowed our foreign policy decisions to be vetoed by an organization as pathetic as the United Nations, a great power we would not have been. It doesn’t matter if the decision to go into Iraq was right or not (I think it was a decent decision, overall, but that’s a side issue and my feelings on the decision itself are complex), the decision to go or not to go has to be our decision. It can’t be a decision that we get “approved” by the U.N. We can never allow a body like the U.N. veto power over our actions. That is what France really wanted, it wanted us to kowtow to the UN because it is a common theme that leaders in European states believe that they can actually hold their own with the United States by the manipulation of international NGOs. France or Russia easily could have let our resolutions concerning Iraq pass, it wouldn’t have hurt them at all. As would be typical for our UN allies they wouldn’t have to send any troops, what they did not want to do was give the green light because they wanted to show that they could give the red light.
Well, that failed. They didn’t give us permission and we went anyway, and it showed that we were still way too great a power to kowtow to the likes of a gutted Russia or an weak-willed France.
You are right, that was lazy of me. Luckily, Giraffe and John Mace expressed exactly what I would have written if I hadn’t been so lazy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Martin Hyde! The man so dumb he’s entirely immune to irony!
Don’t crowd too close, folks! You don’t want to get any of his drool on you! That stuff will strip the chrome off a trailer hitch.
Huh. For the longest time I thought Martin Hyde was just another idiot. Then for the last couple of months, maybe a year, he pulled himself together. He was able to make logical arguments, listen to what other people said, and started acting like a normal human being. And now all the sudden he’s back to his old hysterical self.
What’s up with that?
Embarrassed?
Really Ninja Chick?
Perhaps these guys can help restore your pride in your country.
Agnello, Joseph
Ahern, Brian
Allen, Eric
Allen, Richard
Amato, James
Anaya Jr., Calixto
Angelini Sr., Joseph
Angelini Jr., Joseph
Apostol Jr., Faustino
Arce, David
Arena, Louis
Asaro, Carl
Atlas, Gregg
Atwood, Gerald
Barnes, Matthew
Baptiste, Gerald
Barbara, Gerard
Barry, Arthur
Bates, Steven
Bedigian, Carl
Belson, Stephen
Bergin, John
Beyer, Paul
Biefeld, Peter
Bilcher, Brian
Bini, Carl
Blackwell, Christopher
Bocchino, Michael
Bonomo, Frank
Box, Gary
Boyle, Michael
Bracken, Kevin
Brennan, Michael
Brennan, Peter
Brethel, Daniel
Brown, Patrick
Brunton, Vincent
Burke Jr., William
Brunn, Andrew
Bucca, Ronald
Buck, Greg
Burns, Donald
Burnside, John
Butler, Thomas
Byrne, Patrick
Cain, George
Calabro, Salvatore
Callahan, Frank
Cammarata, Michael
Cannizzaro, Brian
Cardinale, David
Carey, Dennis
Carlo, Michael
Carroll, Michael
Carroll, Peter
Casoria, Thomas
Cawley, Michael
Cherry, Vernon
Chiofalo, Nicholas
Chipura, John
Clarke, Michael
Coakley, Steven
Coleman, Tarel
Collins, John
Cordicce, Robert
Correa, Ruben
Corrigan, James J.
Coyle, James
Crawford, Robert
Crisci, John
Cross, Dennis A.
Cullen III, Thomas
Curatolo, Robert
D’Atri, Edward
Dauria, Michael
Davidson, Scott
Day, Edward
DeAngelis, Thomas
Delvalle, Manuel
Demeo, Martin
Derubbio, David
Desperito, Andrew
Devlin, Dennis
Dewan, Gerard
Dipasquale, George
Donnelly, Kevin
Dowdell, Kevin
Downey, Ray
Duffy, Gerald
Eagan Jr., Martin
Elferis, Michael
Esposito, Francis
Esposito, Michael
Evans, Robert
Fanning, Jack
Farino, Thomas
Farrell, Terrance
Farrelly, Joseph
Feehan, William
Fehling, Lee
Feinberg, Alan
Fiore, Frank
Fiore, Michael
Fischner, John
Fletcher, Andre
Florio, John
Fodor, Michael
Foley, Thomas
Fontana, David
Foti, Robert
Fredricks, Andrew
Freund, Peter
Gambino Jr., Thomas
Ganci Jr., Peter
Garbarini, Charles
Gardner, Thomas
Garner, Thomas
Garvey, Matthew
Gary, Bruce
Geidel, Gary
Geraghty, Edward
Germain, Denis
Giberson, James
Gies, Ronnie
Gill, Paul
Giammona, Vincent
Ginley, John
Giordano, Jeffery
Giordano, John
Glascoe, Keith
Gray, James
Grzelak, Joe
Guadalupe, Jose
Guja, Geoffrey
Gullickson, Joseph
Halderman, David
Halloran, Vincent
Hamilton, Robert
Hanley, Sean
Hannafin, Thomas
Hannon, Dana
Harlin, Daniel
Harrell, Harvey
Harrell, Stephen
Haskell Jr.,Thomas
Haskell, Timothy
Halloran, Vincent
Hatton, Terry
Haub, Michael
Hayes, Phillip
Healey, Mike
Heffernan, John
Henderson, Ronnie
Henry, Joseph
Henry, William
Hetzel, Thomas
Hickey, Brian
Higgins, Tim
Hohmann, John
Holohan, Thomas
Hunter, Joseph
Hynes, Walter
Ielpi, Jonathan
Ill Jr., Fredrick
Johnston, William
Jordan, Andrew
Joseph, Karl
Jovic, Anthony
Juarbe Jr., Angel
Judge, Mychal
Kane, Vincent
Kasper, Charles
Keating, Paul
Kelly, Thomas
Kelly, Tom
Kelly Jr., Richie
Kennedy, Thomas
Kerwin, Ronald T.
Kiefer, Michael
King Jr., Robert
Krukowski, William
Kopytko, Scott
Kumpel, Kenneth
Kuveikis, Thomas
Laforge, David
Lake, William
Lane, Robert
Langone, Peter
Larsen, Scott
Leavey, Joseph G.
Leavy, Neil
Libretti, Daniel
Lillo, Carlos
Linnane, Robert
Lynch, Michael
Lynch, Mike
Lyons, Michael
Lyons, Patrick
Maffeo, Joseph
Mahoney, William
Maloney, Joseph
Marino, Kenneth
Margiotta, Charles
Marchbanks Jr.,Joseph
Marshell, John
Martin, Peter
Martini, Paul
Mascali, Joseph
Maynard, Keithroy
Mcaleese, Brian
Mcavoy, John
McCann, Thomas
McGinn, William
McGovern, William
Mchugh, Dennis
McMahon, Robert
McPadden, Robert
McShane, Terence
McSweeney, Timothy
McWilliams, Martin
Meisenheimer, Raymond
Mendez, Charles
Mercado, Steve
Miller, Douglas
Miller Jr., Henry
Minara, Robert
Mitchell, Paul
Mingione, Thomas
Modafferi, Louis
Mojica, Dennis
Mojica, Manuel
Molinaro, Carl
Montesi, Michael
Moody, Thomas
Morello, Vincent
Moran, John
Mozzillo, Christopher
Muldowney Jr.,Richard
Mullan, Michael
Mulligan, Dennis
Murphy, Raymond
Nagle, Bob
Napolitano, John
Nelson, Peter
Nevins, Gerard
O’Berg, Dennis
Oblschlager, Douglas
O’Callaghan, Daniel
Ogren, Joseph
Oitice, Samuel
O’Keefe, Patrick
O’Keefe, William
Olsen, Eric
Olsen, Jeffery
Olsen, Steven
O’Rourke, Kevin
Palazzo, Jeffery
Palmer, Orio J.
Palombo, Frank
Pansini, Paul
Paolillo, John
Pappageorge, James
Parro, Robert
Pearsall, Durrell
Perry, Glenn
Petti, Philip
Pfeiffer, Kevin
Pickford, Christopher
Phelan, Kenneth
Powell, Shawn
Princiotta, Vincent
Prior, Kevin
Prunty, Richard
Quappe, Lincoln
Quilty, Michael
Orourke, Kevin
Otten, Michael
Quinn, Ricardo
Ragaglia, Leonard
Ragusa, Michael
Rall, Edward
Rand, Adam
Regan, Donald
Regan, Robert
Regenhard, Christian
Richard, Vernon
Riches, James
Rivelli Jr., Joseph
Reilly, Kevin
Roberts, Michael
Roberts, Mike
Rocco Jr., Anthony
Rodriquez, Anthony
Rogan, Matthew
Rossomando, Nicholas
Rubach, Paul
Russell, Stephen
Russo, Michael T.
Ryan, Matthew L.
Sabella, Thomas
Santora, Christopher
Santore, John
Saucedo, Gregory
Scauso, Dennis
Schardt, John
Scheffold, Fred
Schoales, Thomas
Schrang, Gerard
Sikorsky, Gregory
Siller, Stephen
Smagala Jr., Stanely
Smith, Kevin
Smith Jr., Leon
Spear Jr., Robert
Spor, Joseph
Stack, Lawrence
Stackpole, Timothy
Stajk, Gregory
Stark, Jeffery
Suarez, Benjamin
Suhr, Daniel
Sullivan, Christopher
Sweeney, Brian
Tallon, Sean
Tarasiewicz, Allen
Tegtmeirer, Paul
Tierney, John
Tipping II, John
Tirado Jr., Hector
VanHine, Richard
Vaskis, Francis
Vega, Peter
Veling, Lawrence
Vigiano II, John
Villanueva, Sergio
Virgilio, Lawrence
Wallace, Robert
Walz, Jeffery
Warchola, Michael
Waters, Patrick
Watson, Kenneth
Weinberg, Michael
Weiss, David
Welty, Timothy
Whelan, Eugene
White, Edward
Whitford, Mark
Weinberg, Michael
Wilkinson, Glenn
Williamson, John
Wren, William
Wooley, David
York, Raymond
There’s 343 of 'em in case you don’t feel like counting. Tip of the damned iceberg.
I’m not “shitting myself” over Nava. She’s welcome to her opinion no matter how repugnant I consider it. Facts are though, I was affected, as were thousands of my brothers and sisters across the country, and I will be godDAMNED if I’m going to sit quietly and let the idea that anything about this day was FUN go without comment. She’s made her apologies, that’s her business. this is mine.
I’m proud to be an American, no matter who the “leader” is. America isn’t Bush, nor was it Clinton, America is you, me, and everyone who’s on our side. Call me a jingoist is you must, but there’s a reason so many people are trying so hard to get in and stay and so few people trying to get out, and that reason is worth defending in my estimation.
I hope this one goes through.
I want to apologize for flying off the handle to Nava’s 100km post. I misread it.
This thread has gotten me thinking about 9/11 and our cultural response to it. I think one reason it stirs such strong emotions (besides the obvious) is that it was used to lead us into a morass of horrible mistakes that we will feel the consequences of for decades, if not longer. I am no knee jerk patriot and have always felt that our response to 9/11 was the worst kind of jingoism. That said, I can understand other’s not seeing it quite that way and even those who still grieve due to a personal loss of a loved one or just the loss of their innocence as individuals re their invulnerability. I stand by my other posts, though-I would never think of mocking the Tube bombings or the ones that Spain suffered. This thread has gone on too long and I bow out now.
Do most countries in the world really “need us to fail as a great power”? They don’t mind knocking us down a peg from time to time, as America-bashing (within a limited range of what constitutes “American”) tends to play well with the masses, but I think you’re overstating things. I’m sure that most governments in the world would acknowledge that a stable, economically confident, militarily strong (but not reckless) United States is better for them than most alternatives.
And isn’t it a bit funny that you denigrate other countries for a “pipe dream” of becoming a super-power, when you dream so desperately for the United States to maintain that status?
My thoughts exactly. I never understood why Mr. Hyde had such a bad reputation on these boards, on a number of instances he came off as downright reasonable and I bothered to read his posts more that I would for the average poster. After this rather stunning little apoplectic implosion, I won’t be making the effort anymore.
Where’s the line between following it in detail and being a rubbernecker? I don’t know where it is. I’d bet lots of us would put it in different places.
We don’t tend to watch things or read things we don’t want to watch or read (apart from work). So, if we’re sitting there watching endless reports on some tragedy, don’t we have to enjoy it in some way or other? No one is forcing us to watch anything, so we’re choosing to watch endless loops of airplanes crashing into buildings or white Broncos cruising up the freeway.
I think we have to enjoy that or we wouldn’t do it.
I’m not big on watching most of those current events/tragedy shows, but make it political and I’m all over it. I love politics. I love elections. They are fun. 2000 was fun. 2004 was fun. Not the outcome I wanted. An outcome that horrified me. But it was still fun.
Well, I thought so too, and to some extent still do, but I’m from one of those pissant little countries that are beneath the contempt of our American overlords, so it isn’t going to get me very far with him. 
TM, when will you take my repeated advice and realize you don’t HAVE to think of yourself as being “from” any “country” at all? That way Martin Hyde won’t make you feel bad 
I suggest you don’t wrap yourself so tight in that flag, you don’t want to pull an Isadora Duncan.
Well, if nothing else, Martin has provided a salutary lesson: If you make an ill-advised comment about America, and get dragged to the Pit, just send him a link to the thread, because the odds are good that he’ll make your indiscretion look tame and inoffensive in very short order.
Or imagine this posted somewhere on the boards:
I grew up in the shadows of a fundamentalist madrassa. Seeing that Abu Ghraib prisoner with the carrot sticking out of his ass ouchie, seeing those Iraqis stacked naked like a bunch of hairy co-ed cheerleaders … was actually kind of fun.
Now I know you are just kidding. That wasn’t really a carrot-I didn’t mean carrot, anyway-and he was just holding it between his thighs. It was fun! It’s not like his corporate HQ called and told him to stick a carrot in his ass. I don’t know how you could think I’d say that he should have a carrot up his ass, I didn’t mean asses when I said “his ass”. But if it makes you happy to think that me saying that he should have a carrot shoved up his ass meant he should have an ass with a carrot in it, that just shows that you don’t understand. That’s funny!
My reply got consumed in the board outage, so I will try again.
You have me confused with some other poster. I would have voted for McCain or Bradley in 2000, instead I got offered Bush the Lesser (also a draft dodger) and Al Gore the one without a personality. I foolishly voted for Nader, not that it mattered much, because I live in NJ and not Florida. I will probably vote for Rudy if I get the chance. So I am not a knee-jerk liberal, I am a moderate Republican that continually finds your posts repugnant. I hope you proclaim yourself a libertarian so I don’t need to be ashamed of sharing a political party with you.
Bush is a very bad president. Cheney is extremely crooked and corrupt. If you can still defend them, I think you have the problem, not the rest of the board that seemingly agrees with the bulk of America and of course most of the world.
Jim (Funny the Right Winger thinks I am a discusting lefty and the real lefties think I am a crazy righty, I must be doing something correct )
I am always slow with these, this was a joke?
Yeah, I got the idea, I am the odd one on these things. I don’t get any recreation or titillation from disasters or Celebrity train wrecks.
I guess I learned something today. I am not sure I like what I learned, but so be it.
Jim
BTW: **Giraffe ** and Miller, thank you for your posts. I appreciate their depth and intelligence.
Whoa, easy killer. We don’t want him either!
In fact Libertarians have overwhelmingly objected to the conduct of the Bush administration in invading Iraq and their intrusions upon the civil liberties of citizens and non-citizens alike in the pursuit of the Global War on Terror… blah blah blah.